Bloomsbury USA

he wished to know why there was no more magic done in England.

Perhaps it is the age. It is not an age for magic or scholarship, is it sir? Tradesmen prosper, sailors, politicians, but not magicians. Our time is past.”

Mr Segundus was made uncomfortable by a persistent feeling that there ought to have been other candles in the room, other windows or another fire to account for the light. What windows there were looked out upon a wide expanse of dusky English rain so that Mr Segundus could not make out the view nor guess where in the house they stood.

The first thing a student of magic learns is that there are books about magic and books of magic

a manuscript scribbled down very hurriedly upon the backs of all kinds of bits of paper, most of them old ale-house bills.

Dr Foxcastle had got himself an excellent chair, tall and black and curiously carved – and this chair (which rather resembled a throne), and the sweep of the red velvet curtains behind him and the way in which he sat with his hands clasped over his large round stomach, all combined to give him a deeply magisterial air.

“Do not beat your wife with a stick made from wormwood.”

Many complained of their neighbours and perhaps this is not so surprizing since they had been obliged to stand together for so many hundreds of years.

From the first moment of their being able to speak the kings began quarrelling and scolding each other – for the pedestals were all of a height, and kings – even stone ones – dislike above all things to be made equal to others.

One statue spoke what seemed to be Italian. No one knew why this should be, though Mr Segundus discovered later that it was a copy of a work by Michael Angel.