What on earth possessed Julia to buy that striped monstrosity? The cut makes her look like a house, and the stripes meet very oddly at the seams. And what has happened to Julia's charming modus operandi of smiling like a crocodile while she lies? All I can figure is that Stokes caught her off her guard.
Nicholas's powers are fascinating. I keep wondering: "Why? How?" He pulls the spirits of dead people from their graves, and then he doesn't even need their graves, or even their names: unknown people respond to his command. He turns Cassandra's hand into a skeleton hand, and then, presto! he restores it. He appears in the drawing room, and I don't think he came through the window or the secret panel. I daresay it's silly to try to make sense of it - but I keep wondering anyway. What is he? I label him in my mind as the devil's minion - but this is one powerful minion.
I always enjoy the line about the first edition of the Federalist - or rather, Stokes's response to it. I love books, but I never quite understand the love of first editions. As long as you can read the thing, who cares what edition it is? I guess I don't love books; I just love reading.