Midnight In Madrid

For Patrick and Kathleen Hildreth

and

Emily, Sarah, and Molly

“Then the bird doesn’t belong to any of you?” Spade asked.

“Belong?” the fat man said jovially. “Well, sir, you might say it belonged to the King of Spain, but…an article of that value that has passed from hand to hand…is clearly the property of whoever can get a hold of it.”

Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon

Every man is as Heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.

Cervantes, Don Quixote