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21 " I can barely stand to exist in this place anymore. "
― Victoria Lee , A Lesson in Vengeance
22 " Just so,” Ellis interjects. “As Astell said herself: It were well if we could look into the very Soul of the beloved Person, to discover what resemblance it bears to our own. "
23 " Don’t you ever wish you could go back?” Ellis murmurs, gaze turned up toward the chandeliers; their light glitters off of the lenses of her glasses. My gaze snaps away from the kettle, back to her. “To some other time,” she says, “when things were a little wilder. When the rules were a little less clear. "
24 " I want to argue that plenty of people manage to believe in ghosts and witches without others questioning their sanity. "
25 " I wouldn’t want to get burned at the stake as a witch.”“Oh, but can you blame them? You area witch. I don’t doubt you would have poisoned the village crops, salted their fields, and led their daughters into temptation.”“Just their daughters? "
26 " Oh, but can you blame them? You are a witch. I don’t doubt you would have poisoned the village crops, salted their fields, and led their daughters into temptation.”“Just their daughters? "
27 " For once, the forest is empty of ghosts, the sky is clear and glittering. Nothing evil can touch us like this. We’re dryads cavorting in autumn, wood spirits breathing out starlight. "
28 " I envy her. No one in my family cares about literature at all. My mother views my love of reading with the same vague bafflement with which she viewed my former interest in running— a hobby one might reference in polite conversation, but ultimately unnecessary. "
29 " I don’t know how much there is to say. I’m not a very interesting person, I’m afraid. "
30 " I don’t know how to argue with Ellis about this. It’s like trying to convince someone the grass is green when they insist that anyone could clearly see the grass is blue. "
31 " Dr. Ortega once described psychotic depression as being like a gun: my genetics loaded the chamber with bullets, my mother passed the weapon into my hand, but Alex's death pulled the trigger. "
32 " But I want to find a loose thread on the collar of her shirt and tug. I want to unravel her. "
33 " You’re obsessed with magic because you can’t stand to live with yourself otherwise. "
34 " My world reduces to sensation. The lights are too bright, sounds overloud. People speak to me, and although I hear them and respond, two minutes later I can’t remember what they said or what it meant. "
35 " Don’t you ever wish you could go back?” Ellis murmurs, gaze turned up toward the chandeliers; their light glitters off of the lenses of her glasses. My gaze snaps away from the kettle, back to her. “To some other time,” she says, “when things were a little wilder. When the rules were a little less clear.” It’s the opposite of the usual line. A simpler time. A time when a lady was a lady. “Maybe. I hadn’t really thought about it.” I rub the edge of a tablecloth between my thumb and forefinger but feel only the friction of my age-softened gloves. “I suppose it depends on where I was too. I wouldn’t want to get burned at the stake as a witch.”“Oh, but can you blame them? You are a witch. I don’t doubt you would have poisoned the village crops, salted their fields, and led their daughters into temptation.”“Just their daughters?” Ellis glances back. She’s taken off the pince-nez; the frames dangle from an idle hand. “It takes one to know one. "
36 " When classes start, Godwin will be home to a brand new crop of students: third- and fourth-years with bright eyes and souls they sold to literature. Girls who might prefer Oates to Shelley, Alcott to Allende. Girls who know nothing of blood and smoke, the darker kinds of magic. "
37 " A story told again and again is never the same story as the original. "
38 " You can still feel history in these halls; at any moment you might turn the corner and find yourself face to face with a ghost from the past. "
39 " Ellis Haley "
40 " Dalloway School rises from the Catskill foothills like a crown upon an auburn head. "