If this is the ‘Green Hell’ of the Amazon, then hell is where I belong,” said Maia.

If you want something enough you usually get it. But you have to take what goes with it.

A countess, eh?” Mr. Cameron, into whose ear trumpet the news had duly been shouted, had begun to wheeze with unaccustomed and silent laughter. He knew, now, what to call his new rose, and the joke – obscure, private, pointless – was just the kind he particularly enjoyed.

Would you like me to stop talking? Because I can. I have to concentrate, but it’s possible.

She wanted to make him swear; to have a kind of ceremony – but then she saw his face as he looked out over the Island and saw that he loved it as she did, and she knew for certain they would both be back.

It was too much... the gods would not permit such joy.

When you know what you want you usually get it.

They’re a jolly lot, the lepers,” said Father Liam. “People who’ve suffered don’t have time to grumble.

Smells are odd things. They follow you about when you’re not thinking about them, but when you put your nose to where they ought to be, they aren’t there. The.

Then she washed and dressed very attentively, putting on high-heeled court shoes, silk stockings, a black skirt and crisply ironed white blouse, because she was Viennese and one dressed properly even when one’s world had ended.