"Richard had been awed by Jessica, who was beautiful, and often quite funny, and was certainly going somewhere." —Chapter 1, page 11

"They wore black suits, which were slightly greasy, slightly frayed, and even Richard, who counted himself among the sartorially dyslexic, felt there was something odd about the cut of the coats." —Chapter 2, page 32

"There was something deeply tribal about the people, Richard decided." —Chapter 4, page 112

"It was, Richard realized, as if someone had taken a small medieval court and put it, as best they could, in one car of an Underground train." —Chapter 7, page 151

"There are little pockets of old time in London, where things and places stay the same, like bubble in amber." —Chapter 11, page 228

"The marquis de Carabas was not a good man, and he knew himself well enough to be perfectly certain that he was not a brave man." &mdash...