Tree speaks to stone; stone speaks to water

Strange turned to see who spoke. The one thing he was not prepared for was that the first person he should meet should be Sir Walter Pole's butler.

~*~*~*~

"...Believe me, sir, your departure was not unobserved. The honourable Mr Masham was quite certain he had just cuaght sight of your esteemed shoulder, Lady Barclay thought that she had seen a neat grey curl of your venerable wig, and Miss Fiskerton was quite ecstatic to think that her gaze had rested momentarily upon the tip of your scholarly nose!"

~*~*~*~

"...I have this book here." Mr Norrell stood up and fetched it from the shelves. But he did not give it to Strange straightaway.

After a short silence Strange said, "You advise me to read this book?"

"Yes, indeed," said Mr Norrell. He approached Strange cautiously and held the book out for several moments, before suddenly tipping it up and off into Strange's hand with an odd gesture, as though it was not a book at all, but a small bird which clung to him and would on no account go to any one else, so that he was obliged to trick it into leaving his hand.

~*~*~*~

Strange looked up and saw a glint in the man's eye like a tiny candle-flame. He found he could no longer recall whether people had candles in their heads or not. He knew there was a world of difference between these two notions: one was sane and the other was not, but he could not for the life of him remember which was which.

This was a little unsettling.

~*~*~*~

This land is all too shallow
It is painted on the sky
And trembles like the wind-shook rain
When the Raven King goes by

For always and for always
I pray remember me
Upon the moors, beneath the stars
With the King's wild company.

-The Raven King (ballad)

~*~*~*~

I reached out my hand,
England's rivers turned and flowed the other way...
I reached out my hand,
My enemies's blood stopt in their veins...

I reached out my hand; thought and memory flew out of my enemies' heads like a flock of starlings;
My enemies crumpled like empty sacks.
I came to them out of mists and rain;
I came to them in dreams at midnight;
I came to them in a flock of ravens that filled the northen sky at dawn;
When they thought themselves safe
I came to them in a cry that broke the silence of a winter wood...

The rain made a door for me and I went through it;
The stones made a throne for me and I sat upon it;
Three kingdoms were given to me to be mine forever;
England was given to me to be mine forever.
The nameless slave wore a silver crown;
The nameless slave was a king in a strange country...

- The prophecy of The Raven King

~*~*~*~

"Can a magician kill a man by magic?" Lord Wellington asked Strange. Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question.
"I suppose a magician might," he admitted, "but a gentlemen never could."

~*~*~*~

Immediatly he became convinced that all the cupboards in the house were full of pineapples.He was certain that there were other pineapples under his bed and under the table. He was so alarmed by this thought that he felt hot and cold all over and was obliged to sit down on the floor. All the houses and palazzi in the city were full of pineapples and outside in the street peoples people were carrying pineapples, hidden under their clothes. He could smell the pineapples everywhere - a smell both sweet and sharp.

-Chapter 53, page 767 (paperback version with black cover)

~*~*~*~

Arabella's conscience was sorely racked over the two promises she had made...After much deliberation she decided that a promise to a person in their senses ought to be more binding than a promise to someone out of their senses.

~*~*~*~

-Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke