Lalla puffed contentedly at his pipe. Then he removed it, spat, and looked at the sky. “It's getting black over Bill's mother's. We ought to be making a start.”

She kept low, clutching the rifle she'd taken as though it were a magic talisman, as if it would somehow protect her even though she didn't fire it.

The chief weight of Diamonds, is the Mangelin; it weighs five Grains and three fifths, and the Carat weighs only four grains, and five Mangelins make seven Carats.

Sandra, that's no name for anybody; that was a name for movie stars around 1948. Nobody's used it since. But the fact is, her name really is Sandra. - - - In the mills towns like Torrington and Bristol, the Italians might very well call a girl Sandra for real. Straight. It's just short for Alessandra. Alexandra. So she has numerous choices - she can be Sandy, a clean-cut WASP, or she can be Renaissance Alessandra, or movie-star Sandra, or old-fashioned Edwardian Alexandra, all on the one name.