“I—I can’t, Anna. I do not want you to despise me.” “I would never despise you,” Anna said. “We are all flawed creatures. As diamonds are flawed, each distinct imperfection makes us unique.” “Perhaps I don’t wish to be unique,” Matthew said. “Perhaps I wish only to be happy and ordinary.” “Matthew, darling, you are the least ordinary person I know—besides myself—and that is part of what makes you happy. You are a peacock, not a duck.”
