The Belle of Belgrave Square

Some stories are better the more you read them. You notice things you didn’t the first time. And not only that.” She hesitated. “Books you’ve already read are like old friends. It’s comforting to revisit them.

Stories like the ones we read in novels help us understand the human condition,” he said. “They teach us empathy. In that way, they’re more than an escape from the world. They’re an aid for living in the world. For being better, more compassionate people.

You're beautiful".She returned both hands to the reins. Her horse tossed his head, sending the curb chain of his Pelham bit clinking. "I'm flattered you think so"." But beauty doesn't last"."Your kind will."She gave him a doubtful look. He gazed steadily back at her, as solemn as he'd ever been."I believe, maam, that you have a beautiful soul. That you are a beautiful soul. I don't expect that will alter with age."She stared at him for an instant, seemingly speechless. Her mouth trembled."What a lovely sentiment." He shrugged."It's the truth.

He bowed his head to hers. “Everything I have—everything I am—is yours.

The more deeply he felt something, the less he could articulate it. With Julia, he’d increasingly found himself reduced to grunts and growls.

My dear fellow, this is a war,” Ridgeway said. “It’s the London season.

I've been miserable for more years than I can count... I have suffered, too.... A girl requires more than expensive things. She needs love and acceptance. She needs to know she has value. Being your daughter made me in to a shadow. Much longer, I fear I would have vanished.

Such is the effect of the excitement of novel reading upon the nervous system, that the only way to obtain momentary ease, is to plunge into another as soon as one is finished. —Confessions and Experience of a Novel Reader, 1855

A society musicale was no place for reading. But it never hurt to be prepared.

He wanted her like mad—physically, emotionally. In every way he could have her.

Real life was more complicated than that. And real love was more complex still. It wasn't faint or feeble. It was rich and nuanced and strong. It had to be. Humann beings were fallible. They stumbled and fell. They made mistakes. Love didn't crumble in the face of those errors. It held fast and true. 'An ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken.

Laws are made by men and, therefore, fallible. Justice is something greater. Most of us—the poorest and the weakest—won’t see it on this side of the grave. But sometimes, on rare occasions, someone manages to balance the scales. It can be difficult to reconcile it with the law. That doesn’t negate the rightness of it.

Novels provide an inexpensive escape from the realities of life.

Men always talked at a female rather than to her.