“ The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man.

“ I love the girl. Can I not have something gentle too? The winter is outside this time; I have locked away the moon and nothing white shall hurt us. So let me have just this. Her smile in the dark. Our hands, held up against the softening light.

“ I am an angel with an alert
backbone. I am purified from the business
of panic.