"You know,"Gabriel said, "there was a time I thought we could be friends, Will.""There was a time I thought I was a ferret,"Will said, "but that turned out to be the opium haze. Did you know it had that effect? Because I didn't."
"Remember when you tried to convince me to feed a poultry pie to the mallards in the park to see if you could breed a race of cannibal ducks?""They ate it too,"Will reminisced. "Bloodthirsty little beasts. Never trust a duck."
"If no one in the entire world cared about you, did you really exist at all?"
"Are you implying that shreds of my reputation remain intact?"Will demanded with mock horror. "Clearly I have been doing something wrong. Or not something wrong, as the case may be."He banged on the side of the carriage. "Thomas! We must away at once to the nearest brothel. I seek scandal and low companionship."
"It was odd, (Tessa thought), what brought out tenderness in people."
"One must always be careful of books,"said Tessa, "and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us."