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'I find that I have learned, without realizing it, to identify tracks. Every so often I see a print that I know is mine, and step on it, to rub it out. This country is scored with such marks: slender traces of human desire. But these trails, like this bitter path, are fragile, winterworn, and when the snow falls again, or when it thaws in spring, all trace of our passing will vanish.'

"Where is Mr. Stewart this evening?" Donald asks, as he accepts a large glass of malt. Fortunately it is of a better quality than the rum at Fort Edgar. Donald wonders fleetingly how it is that—at the back of beyond, when decent food and housekeeping seem beyond them—the inhabitants of Hanover House drink like kings.'

"Well, I am almost sure . . . no, I am sure, that I am in the family way."
There is total silence in the cupboard. For heaven's sake, Line thinks to herself, it's not as if he doesn't know how these things happen.
"How can that be? We were so careful!"
"Well . . . we weren't always careful." He not at all—it could have happened much sooner, she thinks, if he had had his way.

'And the feeling that here was someone I did not have to hide anything from. I didn't have to pretend. I suppose what I'm saying is, I loved him. I know he loved me. I'm just not sure when that stopped being true.'

'And the people here have accepted her with kindness and grace, even if it is mixed with advice. You should pray more, Line; you should put your trust in God; you should infuse your work with faith and that will give your life meaning. You should stop mourning for Janni, because he is with God now, so he is happy. She has tried to do those things, because she owes them her life.'

'There have been rival outfits in the past, but the Company subsumed or quashed them all. But this new alliance, the one known as the North American Company, has the mandarins worried. There are deep pockets behind it, and disregard for the rules (rules laid down by the Company, that is). ...It is likely that bribery and threats are being used—more than probable, in fact, since the Company uses them itself.'

'My husband has gone to bed. Either he isn't worried, or he is indifferent—it is years since I could tell what he was thinking. I suppose that is the nature of marriage, or perhaps it just goes to show that I am not very good at it.'