“It [Ashfair House] was an old fashioned house—the sort of house in fact, as Strange expressed it, which a lady in a novel might like to be persecuted in.”

“I’ll accompany you too, fair lady,” said Reven. “I would fain meet your grandmother.”“You would what?” said Elfwyn.“He means he’d like to,” said Jinx. Some of the books in Simon’s house used old-fashioned words like that.”

“I doubt if there are many normal women who can resist looking at houses. I believe, in fact, that when a house is up for sale more than half the people who look over it are not prospective buyers, but merely ladies who cannot resist exploring someone else's house.”

“Despite the fact that she was essentially comatose, she somehow made his whole house feel different just by being there. Before it had been just a house—a very impressive house no doubt, but a house nonetheless. But for some reason, with Taylor there it felt more like a home.”

“She didn't want to be one of those old ladies obsessed with death, hearing it in every tick of the clock and creak of the floorboards, as if it were prowling around the house like a burglar”

“Houses! I hate houses. I like public places. Houses break your heart.”