Sorcerer to the Crown

“Your amoral ingenuity in the pursuit of your interest is perfectly shocking,” said Zacharias severely. “Yes, isn’t it?” said Prunella, pleased.”

“But that was the trouble with children, Sir Stephen reflected. They were confoundedly liable to pattern themselves upon one’s conduct, when one would rather they simply did what they were told.”

“Prunella had once thought life in London would be all flirting and balls and dresses, hitting attentive suitors on the shoulder with a fan, and breakfasting late upon bowls of chocolate. She sighed now for her naïveté. Little had she known life in London was in fact all hexes and murder and thaumaturgical politics, and she would always be rising early for some reason or other!”

“Are you going? What shall you wear?""I shall go in what I am standing in," said Mak Genggang. "A witch is always appropriate whatever her attire.”

“A female may be poor or delicate or a spinster, but it does seem ill-advised of Miss Liddiard to combine all three.”

“Why, all the greatest magic comes down to blood," said Mak Genggang. "And who knows blood better than a woman?”

“Since the decision to become a parent is invariably self-interested, it is my belief that a parent's obligation is to the child, and the child's obligation is to itself.”

“Prunella took to the ballrooms of London in the spirit of ruthless calculation of a general entering a battlefield.”

“I should advise you not to stop there, but set fire to his house, too, and sell his children to pirates. That is the only way he will learn”

“[A] life passed amid the feuds and rivalries of a girls' school had left Prunella not wholly unprepared for battle.”

“Zacharias’s study bore the marks of his predecessors, whose taste had run decidedly stoicheiotical. They had had a fondness for skulls with burning lights in their eye sockets, crystal balls in which mysterious shapes came and went, and dark velvet window curtains traced with obscure runes.”

“... it is strange to know you would be cast off by the people who greet you so warmly, if they knew the whole truth about you.”

“He was a typical specimen of the younger son in avid pursuit of mediocrity with which the Theurgist’s teemed:”

“I might go anywhere and do any magic I pleased if I were Peter, not Prunella.”

“Shameless, impudent, meddling females, who presumed to set at naught the Society’s prohibition on women’s magic, and duped the common people with their potions and cantrips!”

“What a mother hen I am become!” he said soberly. “If I were my old self I should not start at every shadow, and be alarmed when you stumble, but one’s anxiety rises in proportion to one’s incapacity to do anything about it.”

“Zacharias, my dear, I do not believe I am misled by partiality when I say you are impossible to miss in this room,” said Lady Wythe.”

“I have always admired your refusal, in the pursuit of your convictions, ever to be constrained by considerations of humanity—much less of ordinary good manners.”

“She flung the door open with a flourish, revealing a scene of utter pandemonium.”

“One might have thought you had never met my aunt Georgiana,” said Rollo, with the steeliness of despair. “She is the one with the false curls and glowing eyes and smoke rising from her jaws. Do not you recollect her?”“She did strike me as possessing unusual force of character,” admitted Damerell.”

“The woman leant forward, her eyes flashing, a smile both triumphant and tender curving her mouth."You are *my* daughter," she said. "Can there be any doubt that you will be brilliant -- audacious -- and free?"The vision disappeared. She had been so vital, so overflowing with life and energy, that her going seemed to leave the room dark.”

“It is a mother's duty to teach her daughters about the uses of blood, particularly a magical daughter.”

“What are acquaintance for, if not to supply the pleasures of gossip?”

“Her bulk seemed to fill the world, blocking out the horizon and casting a shadow over the magicians huddled on the wall. The enchantment appeared to encompass everything upon her person, for as she grew, so did the fronds of seaweed draped over her, and the pretty amber pendant on her breast expanded till it was itself the height and breadth of a grown man."Midsommer!" roared Lord Burrow. "Look to your wife!""He can hardly miss her", remarked Prunella.”

“My dear young lady!” This manner of address would have seemed impertinent in any other gentleman of Mr. Wythe’s youth and handsomeness. But his manner possessed such a splendid unconsciousness of these attributes—he spoke so much like a man who believed himself over the hill, and beyond all flirtations—that Prunella was overtaken by an irresistible fit of the giggles.”

“The damnable thing about Damerell, thought Zacharias, was that he never failed to observe precisely what you would conceal.”

“Affection there had always been between them, whatever their disagreements—and there had been more of these than Zacharias had permitted Sir Stephen to know.”

“The caterpillars were a problem, however. Fat, fuzzy and complacent, they sat upon his vegetables in veritable hordes, ignoring him until he addressed one directly.“Good morning, sir,” he said.The caterpillar paused the busy movement of its jaws to reply:“Pleasant weather, this, eh?”It was an ideal summer’s day. The skies stretched out in endless blue overhead, unmarred by a single wisp of cloud; the fresh scent of greenery and earth rose into the nostrils, imparting a lively pleasure in being alive and outdoors.“You seem troubled, sir, if you don’t mind me saying so,” said the caterpillar.Zacharias experienced a brief internal struggle, but decided upon candour.”

“prolix”

“Do you have any notion who the author is?” Said Zachariah, striving to keep his voice even. “You rejoice in such a number of enemies it would be difficult to trace this delightful confection to any one of them,” said Damerell.”