“Muttering a curse, he wiped his face with a towel and wondered why everyone suddenly felt that they had to offer an opinion on his love life, although he was fairly sure he had never asked for anyone's views on the matter.”

“This is what comes of making up conversations with frescoes, he chided himself as he dropped to his knees and bowed his head. Nothing but trouble.”

“That's what I'm talking about!' Grandma Bee said, vindicated. 'He can hunt for food the way his ancestors did! Eating meals from a can is an insult to his noble lineage.”

“I had a feeling that I shouldn't be here listening to this sinful man who had mixed children and didn't care who knew it, but he was fascinating. I had never encountered a being who deliberately perpetrated fraud against himself. But why had he entrusted us with his deepest secret? I asked him why. 'Because you're children and you can unterstand it,' he said.”

“He wanted to dismiss Saint Rosaline's comments out of hand, but this was impossible because he knew that the comments came from the recesses of this own mink. Either that, or he was truly going mad, which at this point seemed like an attractive option.”

“After a moment, she said, "Yes. I think she will be good for you.""You do?" He couldn't keep the surprise out of his voice."Si." She smiled grimly. "She will break your heart and leave you shattered and alone." She paused to think that over, then nodded approvingly to herself. "It will make you a man.”

“He had asked me earlier in the summer to marry him, then he promptly forgot about it. He staked me out, marked as his property, said I was the only girl he would ever love, then he neglected me.”