He made the quick apologetic grimace that seemed to be as near as he ever came to a smile. - Susan Cooper

Jane clutched her mug like a talisman of reality.

But why Latin?" demanded Barney.
"I don't know, the monks just always used it, that's all, it was one of their things. I suppose it's a religious-sounding kind of language.

Only the creatures of the earth take from one another, boy. All creatures, but men more than any. Life they take, and liberty, and all that another man may have—sometimes through greed, sometimes through stupidity, but never by any volition but their own. Beware your own race, Bran Davies—they are the only ones who will ever harm you, in the end.