"This is the saddest story I have ever heard. We had known the Ashburnhams for nine seasons of the town of Nauheim with an extreme intimacy—or, rather with an acquaintanceship as loose and easy and yet as close as a good glove's with your hand. My wife and I knew Captain and Mrs Ashburnham as well as it was possible to know anybody, and yet, in another sense, we knew nothing at all about them." Part 1, Chapter 1, pg. 15

"His face [Captain Ashburnham] hitherto had, in wonderful English fashion, expressed nothing whatsoever. Nothing. There was in it neither joy nor despair; neither hope nor fear; neither boredom nor satisfaction. He seemed to perceive no soul in that crowded room; he might have been walking through a jungle. I never came across such a perfect expression before and I never shall again." Part 1, Chapter 1, p. 32

"The measure of...