"They were linked by the one thing they had in common—Augusta Harte—but Gus had not yet arrived. So they sat in the companionable awkwardness caused by knowing extremely private things about each other that had never been directly confided, but rather blurted by Gus Harte to her husband in bed or to Melanie over a cup of coffee."
Part One, The Boy Next Door, Now, November 1997, pg. 4

"'I'm very sorry,' the doctor began, the only words that Melanie could not rework into anything but what they signified. She crumpled further, her body folding into itself, until her head was so deeply buried beneath her shaking arms that she could not hear what the man was saying."
Part One, The Boy Next Door, Now, November 1997, pg. 15

"Was it challenge she's felt from someone like Gus, who devoured intricate historical novels as if they were...