from The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield

In the hush that followed, Miss Winter seemed to draw all of her external self into her core; under my very eyes she managed to absent herself from herself, and I began to understand how it was that earlier I had failed to see her. I watched the shell of her, marveled at the impossibility of knowing what was going on beneath the surface.

from Jane Eyre (#2), by Charlotte Bronte

"Do you ever laugh, Miss Eyre? Don't trouble yourself to answer -- I see, you laugh rarely; but you can laugh very merrily: believe me, you are not naturally austere, any more than I am naturally vicious. The Lowood constraint still clings to you somewhat; controlling your features, muffling your voice, and restricting your limbs, and you fear in the presence of a man and a brother."

from My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok

"That is where your pictures will hang in the spring," Anna Schaeffer said to me, pointing to the walls.
    I stared at her and felt a shock move through me.
   "I would have done it this year," she said. "But this old man would not let me."
   "He is still a boy this year," Jacob Kahn said. "A boy should not rush to make his soul naked."

from Scent of Water, by Elizabeth Goudge

(my second-favorite passage from a book that's in my top 5 fiction best-reads)

The question came out so sharply and suddenly that I answered with the truth. I told him everything. It was the queerest thing that ever happened to me because I take such infinite trouble always to cover it all up. I hide it like a crime. And yet here I was laying it all out in front of him. I was like a criminal emptying his pockets. I took out everything. He was silent for a long time, rubbing his chin, and then he said, "You're afraid of it?"
   It seemed such a silly question and I spoke sharply I think when I said, "Of course I am, I'm terrified."
   "Why?" he asked. "If you lose your reason you lose it into the hands of God."

                                                                                                                           (c) 1963 by Elizabeth Goudge