I can live alone, but it is better to have someone else to concern oneself with; to help and be helped by. There is nothing so strong as a family.

What an extraordinary fuss there has been,' said the Dame de Doubtance raspingly, 'about that irresponsible Irishwoman and her improper child.

My dear Gaultier,' said Lymond. 'It will send the Shadow of God into transports. I suppose I've seen objects more grisly before, but it doesn't spring to mind where.… Twenty-four-carat gold, Jerott....

You've chosen a life of vice, and have been consistent and reliable and thorough and successful in carrying it out.

Lymond considered this with every appearance of seriousness. I see. Thus the baseness of my morals is redeemed by the stature of my manners? You admire consistency?Yes, I do.But prefer consistency in...

Do you swim? Hunt? Wrestle? I see. Can you use a crossbow? Your longest shot? Can you count? Read and write? Ah, the sting of sarcasm-Have we a scholar here? Then produce us a specimen," said Lymond....

To the Frenchmen risking their lives to drive the English from Scotland, such a feud seemed no doubt an ill-timed indulgence. To Buccleuch, any comment from a foreigner was a piece of damnable...

Tais-toi. Your glove. Madame Erskine, procure me a large pin,' said the Queen Dowager of Scotland. 'I have yet to meet a man who can lay hands on a pin when there is need for it.

Faith, thought O'LiamRoe. And not a decent creature among them thought to say that the only rule in it is for a man to have a fine, steady seat for an elephant.

If they place the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left and ask me to give up my mission, I will not give it up until the truth prevails or I myself perish in the attempt.

Among the loose animals, the Keeper's sick camel, a lady of brittle temper, had bobbed her tassels and sunk her yellow teeth three times into unguarded flesh; the dwarf ass brayed itself hoarse and...

Arrested for the second, whether in admiration for Lord d'Aubigny's inventiveness or in a kind of silent snort of hysteria at the prodigies expected of him-a condition, O'LiamRoe recognized, to which...

Tuned to the din, O'LiamRoe and his deerhound heard the footfalls at once. Shaggy brindle next to hispid gold, the two Irish heads turned as Thady Boy Ballagh strolled over the grass.

The six elephants stood, roped each by the foreleg side by side in the vast thirty-foot tent put up several days since for their comfort; their trunks peacefully swaying as the cowardie scuttled back...

The unicorns, led by costumed grooms, were behaving well about their horns, and the painted rhapsodies all round the cart were more than flattering while the pseudo-king, sceptred in ermine, was...

I echo like a mynah, that's why.

Very soon afterward, Tom Erskine found her, and in five minutes, during which her heart in its cold cage took wearily to itself a new, lifelong burden of protective and fond understanding, Christian...

Lymond, released, flung his head back and, viewing his winnings, gave them solemn dispensation to descend for the space of the dance. He asked for and obtained some chalk, and set to marking his and...

Scott, deaf and enchanted in the gallery, and the whole row of pretty heads at his side saw the concerted rush on Lymond: his assailants downed him without malice and eighteen stones of Molly planted...

Are you by any chance …' said Lymond....

You've got one hero too many already. Stand on your own feet, Brother. It's good for the soul.

Mariotta listened to it all, sitting judicially in a whirl of velvet with all the Culter jewels and the emerald necklace for moral support.

I have said the intellect is all that can matter. I haven't said it is easy-or painless … to rid oneself of all that is left.

You called me Alec just now,' Guthrie said. 'If I have dispensation to do the same, let me say it. Francis Crawford, I wish you away from this country; and if I had the hearing of a friend, and not...

Meanwhile, until the snow comes, we had better keep Master Chancellor and his party entertained.'...

Unwanted, unasked, unwelcome as ever, here I am.''Again,' said Lymond.

Age can mellow, they say.''They say wrong,' said Diccon Chancellor. 'I have known Mistress Philippa these two months, and I have aged while she has grown daily less mellow. Why else am I fleeing the...

You've changed the metre,' said Philippa.'I reserve the right,' said Lymond, 'to change the metre. Don't interrupt.

I don't change from minute to minute. I don't change at all.

Some day, I must take my own prolific advice and contrive to drop dead.