"I'm sorry, Miss Wyvern. I've been seeing to the unpacking."
" 'I'm sorry, Miss Wyvern. I've been seeing to the unpacking.' God help us."
She mimicked her assistant's voice in the same cruel and cutting way that Daffy had mimicked mine, but in this case, though, the imitation was brilliant. Professional.
I realized at once that a great actress can never be greater than when she's starring in her own life. p. 51
What appealed to me, what really warmed my heart, was the thought of suspending over our ancestral home, even if only for a few seconds, an umbrella of deadly poisonous fire that would fall - then suddenly vanish as if by magic, leaving Buckshaw safe from harm.
I didn't care if it made sense or not. It was the idea of the thing, and I was happy that I'd thought of it. p.151
I thought with a delicious shiver - half pleasure and half fear - that before the night was out I would be scaling those ragged pinnacles for a rendezvous with Saint Nicholas - an experiment whose outcome might well determine the future course of my life.
Would chemistry put paid to Christmas? Or would I, tomorrow morning, find a fat, infuriated elf caught fast and cursing among the chimey pots?
I must admit that part of me was hoping for the legend.
There were times when I felt as if I were standing astride a cold ocean - one foot in the New World and on foot in the Old. As they drifted relentlessly apart, I was in danger of being torn up the middle. p.163
