Van Rijn talks to Coya while she nurses the newly born Nicholas:
"'He has the family looks, I see - never mind which family, Adam's maybe, they are all crumpled red worms at this age.'" (XVIII, p. 248)
We are sons of Adam and daughters of Eve in CS Lewis' The Chronicles Of Narnia.
Speaking about someone else:
"'...he was threatened with bankrupture.'" (ibid.)
A little bit of bankruptcy and a little bit of rupture.
"'If we do not stand together, we will have to stand for anything.'" (ibid.)
"'Ach, my apologetics,' van Rijn said." (p. 249)
There are apologetics but they are not apologies.
"'We got many paradoxes and no paradoctors.'" (p. 250)
And this is not a word from van Rijn but a rare, maybe once in a lifetime, experience. Van Rijn's executive secretary calls that the Grand Duchess has arrived as the Hermetian government in exile:
"'...and - and David Falkayn is with her!'
"Glory exploded in the room." (p. 251)
However the chapter cannot end on such a note. Instead:
"Later came grimness, as they who were there got to wondering." (ibid.)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
More amusingly apt malapropisms from Old Nick! And he and Coya got to "wondering" because they didn't know how or why Lady Sandra and David Falkayn had left Hermes? And how brutally was Strang already misruling Hermes?
Sean
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