And she'd discovered she wasn't empty inside. She was magnificent. Even if nobody yet recognized it.
Is it something I said?" Jane asked. And if so, which sentence? There had been so many of them, after all. 
I lie, I forge I blackmail." Edward shrugged. "But cheating at cards? I'd never stoop so low.""Good to know you have some principles.
You matter," she whispered to him. "You are important. And you are the single most magnificent man I have ever had the honor of meeting. 
One could push a pack of truths together to make one despicable falsehood. 
I knew the instant Margaret spoke that she intended to use me as a weapon. What you fail to understand is this: I am her weapon to use. 
He'd fashioned himself into one hard edge. He was all blade and no handle. If she held him close, she'd risk being cut. 
He wanted her to lift her head at this moment. He wanted her to look him in the eyes and realize that he loved her. He wanted her to love him back. 
She received his note not two minutes later. She opened it, her heart pounding. But there were only two words on the paper. Marry me. 
Maybe that's what I have been looking for. When storms and rockslides threaten, I am looking for someone who will hold on to me and not let go. 
He wasn't sure what he was saying, either, but he felt as if he were slipping into some dangerous world - one where answers ceased to be easy. 
It had been so long since anyone had made her feel fluttery. It felt like winter sunshine - something to be savored because it surely wouldn't last. 
Is it a thorny question of ethics? Or is it the sort of ethical question where the right choice is easy, but the unethical answer is too tempting? 
Truth, but truth twisted to sting. 
He'd fallen a little bit in love with her the moment she'd said his name as if it had value. 
Don't feel sorry for me. Most people can't change their past. I change mine every day. 
Then I'll have to succeed three times as hard as they want me to fail. You, of all people, should understand that. 
He held her for a minute, then two, then three, simply holding her and committing to memory what he could not have in life. 
In this world, you're either playing the game or you're a pawn on the board. 
He was 'susceptible' to her. If he wasn't careful, he might end up nursing a full-blown interest. 
That memory was a knife that kept on cutting. 
I hate having second thoughts," he muttered. "Necessary, for second chances," Dalrymple put in. 
Don't say my name like that. Please, Your Grace. If you have any care for me at all - pretend to flirt. But don't actually do it. 
Perhaps God gave one sisters to teach one to love the inexplicable. 
Do Chinese dragons even eat people?" "She lives in the Bay Area," I say severely. "She eats a Westernized diet. 
Miss Fairfield had a gift for taking a beautiful concept and then marring it beyond all recognition. 
If you were a shadowy, anonymous figure, it made sense to pretend everything had gone according to some diabolical plan. Never mind if it hadn't. 
A lady always avoids the truth, when it happens to be gauche. 
Family isn't a matter of history. Or biology," he said softly. "It's a matter of choice. 
One mustn't justify day-to-day morality with extraordinary circumstances. Otherwise, we would all feel free to rape and murder at the drop of a cat. 
You anchor me without holding me down. You frighten me without threatening my future. You're unflinchingly devoted. I love you. 
You can't eat justice. 
Farleigh. I fear that I'd break something irreplaceable." She swallowed. "Sir Mark." He reached out one hand again, almost to her face, 
I would call him an ordinary man, but, well." Another grin.
"Even I am not capable of such delusional self-effacement.
What you did when you were young could kill you. It just might take years to do it. 
It was like coming home to a place that he held dear and finding that the wood had burnt to the ground and the house was in ruins. 
We don't need wealth. We don't need riches. We Lanes just believe harder than everyone else, and good things come to us. 
What part of your duty am I?"He squeezed her hand. "You're the ray of sun at the center of the storm.
Oh, dear." Free looked down, fluttering her eyelashes demurely. "Is my punctuation showing once more? 
He was nothing but a deep abyss of want, and only she could fill him. 
Minnie, I want to abolish the peerage. I write radical pamphlets in secret. I am not going to shriek, 'Oh, no! A scandal!' and run away. 
In fact, if the conversation had been animate, the merciful thing to do would have been to take it out behind the barn and shoot it. 
We can't help being the most interesting people in the room. 
He'd been lying to himself all these months. He WAS in love with her. And he had no idea what to do about it.
Distressed sighs!" Robert protested. "Not once did I stoop to distressed sighs! I might have emitted a manly huff of oppression. 
I assumed I would be better off telling you about this, rather than waiting for the entire thing to blow up in my face. 
I will not be browbeaten, however nicely you do it. I am done with things happening to me. From here on out, I am going to happen to things. 
Friendship was a concept men bandied about to save face when they were rejected. 
Maybe he was cold, but sometimes ice burned. 
When you keep quiet, people fill in their own most intelligent thoughts on your behalf. 
When someone falls," Mark said, "you don't throw her back down in the dirt. You offer her a hand up. It's the Christian thing to do. 
A ninnyhammer," Jane said, "sounds like a magic hammer. One that I can use to smite ninnies. I have a great need for one of those. 
Good thing he's not your boyfriend, though, Tina. He's so skinny, I think a condom would pop right off. 
I fear that one day I will no longer understand desperation, and with that, I will slowly stop listening to what others have to say. 
Using facts to settle disputes. How bold of you. 
She walked away from him with swift, sure strides, as if she knew her destination. As if it had nothing to do with him. 
It's called basic human decency, and I deserve no credit for doing what every man should. 
Best not to dream, dear. If you don't, there's nothing that can be taken from you. 
Don't hide it on my account," he growled. "You have the most damnably beautiful punctuation that I have ever seen. You make a man feel greedy. 
Having you as a friend wasn't second prize. It wasn't something to chafe against. It was an honor. 
Truths designed to mislead are just as bad as lies. 
I'm afraid I might make a fool of myself over him. I'm not even sure he would notice if I did. 