Now here he was: sartorially, facially and interpersonally sharpened; every inch the beatific boffin.

Are you always so cynical?' said Angelica.'No,' said Katherine. 'Sometimes I'm asleep.

His relationship with illness was flirtatious; only a particularly attractive ailment could tempt him into bed.

They responded to sadness only when it expressed itself as sadness, she thought. Sadness expressed as anger or hostility just turned people off.