#alias grace.

“did you open the window to let out the soul?”

“i have your confession here. let me read you what you said in it.”

“i must resist melodrama.”

“what hope of answer or redress?”

“the wages of sin is death.”

“do you like riddles?”

“what did you dream last night?”

“i want to hear anything you may tell me. the small details of life often hide a great significance.”

“what mysteries remain to be revealed in the spirit and body; structured of material and ethereal?”

“i thought my dead friend spoke to me.”

“why are you skulking around like some tamed wolf?”

“i think that is the silliest thing i have ever heard.”

“in that moment, it felt like Death stood behind me, arms wrapped around my body and kissing my neck. i felt horror, but also a strange longing.”

“i tried to pray, but the words could not come.”

“i repent my wickedness with bitter tears.”

“fear is a remarkable aphrodisiac.”

“you’re such a conceited little troll.”

“it is a puzzle i cannot guess.”

“you’re talking back. i am sick of your insolence.”

“i would scarcely eat two bites of breakfast.”

“i made my eyes wide and flat, like an owl’s in torchlight, and i said i have repented in bitter tears, and am now a changed person.”

“it’s a strong word to have attached to you. it has a smell to it, that word - musky and oppressive, like dead flowers in a vase.”

“amnesia itself may be in effect a sort of dreaming in reverse, a drowning of recollection, a plunging under.”

“when i have seen the pure white clouds billowing in the sky after a rain, i used to think that it was as if the angels themselves were hanging out the washing.”

“the road to death is a lonely highway.”

“the moths flutter around you. can you feel the soft touch of their wings; doesn’t it feel like the brushing of silken lips?”

“it’s as if she’s drawing his energy out of him - using his own mental forces to materialize the figures in her story.”

“i wish it was not so damnably hot and humid.”

“among the sentimental and superstitious, it is counted a mark of dishonour not to have heard the deceased speak.”

“don’t you have anything better to do? you’re not paid to stand there and gawp.”

“it is not the question of your guilt or innocence that concerns me.”

“you were certainly in a troubled state of mind.”

“it is dangerous to contradict mad people.”

“i hear a strange noise. it’s as if someone was beating on a wooden drum.”

“there was a great deal of quiet weeping.”

“you have such dark eyes, they burn right into me.”

“have you been travelling very much?”

“the unknown is always more wonderful to me than the known, and more convincing.”

“if people wish to believe a thing, and long for it, is it cheating to help them to their own belief?”

“please don’t make fun of me.”

“i thought you might care to dine with me, as a poor recompense for all the efforts you have made on my behalf.”

“i am in a agony of nerves every day that you are away from me.”

“a good hymn tune or ballad is uplifting to the spirits.”

“underneath my show of happiness, i was very downhearted.”