“The crowd was still a crowd, and was surging cheerfully back and forth like a large lake on a choppy day.”
An Unwelcome Miracle
“She very carefully allowed her gaze to slide over the clock on the balcony again, and was dismayed to see that it seemed to be running backward, like Hezekiah’s sun dial.”
A Bit Conflicted
“She was now flirting, and she knew it. But so was he, and it was all still quite impossible, and she was furiously unhappy with her very happy self.”
The Relativity of Time
“By turns, Savannah felt that the day was rushing toward her and then that it was crawling toward her. Sometimes she thought it was receding. Some moments it would never come, and other times it was almost upon her.”
Self-Awareness . . .
“Well, he would be a fool if he weren’t, honey. And he is no fool. How could he not be after you? I thought we put a mirror in your room. Did you break it?”
And Some of the Streets Are Narrow
“She was also delighted to be talking about a subject like music in the church, and not about another subject that might set her emotions to rioting in the streets.”
Or Maybe a Bit Slower
“The woman who did play for the church, Mrs. Addie Bradshaw, was nowhere near as adept as Savannah had been that night, and as far as anyone could tell, had only one speed, which was moderately slow.”
A Common Mistake
“They had no notions beyond the rudiments of roaring the melody—the other lines of music in the hymnal they just assumed to be footings and pylons for the higher notes. Musicians fooled around with things like those. Nobody was supposed to sing them.”
Attributes in Tension
“‘I take your meaning,’ he continued. ‘Or at least I think I do. A gentle and quiet spirit, truly such as Peter describeth—a real Christian. As well as a spitfire and a beautiful hellcat, as per Paul in Titus 2.’”
But Seminary Can’t Cover Everything
“Pastor Thomas walked toward Savannah, but a little uncertainly. There had been nothing in seminary about this kind of thing at all. She was plainly a firecracker, a pippin, a beautiful volcano.”