Let the fairy-tale begin on a winter's morning, then, with one drop of blood new-fallen on the ivory snow: a drop as bright as a clear-cut ruby, red as the single spot of claret on the lace cuff. (Chapter 1, p. 1)

It was natural for him to want to hurt the man who had been the instrument of his first adult grief; natural, but not right. (Chapter 24. p. 223)

Alec's ideas of "entertaining" were violent. (Chapter 3, p. 20)

Ginnie didn't believe in fortune-telling per se, but she understood the techniques involved: a judicious blend of gossip and personal assessment. (Chapter 22, p. 207)

The romantic ideal, of course, is to die fighting, young and still at one's peak. (Chapter 6, p. 45)

All that the world had counted beautiful could be trained, turned on the lathe of practice to become a dangerous weapon. (Chapter 6, p. 49)

"I wonder if you men have any idea of how...