“Here a few poor and stunted flowers stood with drooping heads, like a convent of consumptive girls, waiting for a ray of sunlight to dry out their leaves already half-rotten with the damp.”

“She remembered the godswood, drooping branches heavy with moisture, and the sound of her brother’s laughter as he chased her through piles of damp leaves.”

“Even a stunted tree reaches for sunlight.”

“I’m not going to leave you here to bleed my friend dry.”“If that had been my intent, they’d already be dead on the floor.”

“Hugh refused to leave the scene of the action. He seated himself on the top stair in the hall, banged his head against the railing a few times, just by way of uncorking the vials of his wrath, and then subsided into gloomy silence, waiting to declare war if more “first girl babies” were thrust upon a family already surfeited with that unnecessary article.”

“On rich soils only abundant harvests of produce for ordinary consumption grow. On poor soils the most misshapen trees, and flowers of the rarest, the subtlest colours and scents are to be found.”