Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening Hall, taking care to k — Opening lines

"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried, As he landed his crew with care;"

"I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands."

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

"Mrs Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies eardrops, and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lyndes hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs Rachel Lyndes door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs Rachel Lynde was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed any-thing odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof."

"RIGHT HERE AND NOW, as an old friend used to say, we are in the fluid present, where clear-sightedness never guarantees perfect vision."

"To get there you follow Highway 58, going northeast out of the city, and it is a good highway and new."