verse

“And my fishing for a perfect turn of phrase! For I suffer from a broken heart, and have spent hours in this very room, writing verse as a balm for my pain.”

“I started using it when I wrote my very first verse. I was only sixteen at the time.”

But there had been no word from Simon since his departure—not a letter, not a scrap of dramatic verse, not even a picture postcard from the beach at Brighton.

“That is because it is written in verse.”

“She’s right, Edward old chap! The diary is written in verse. Miss Lumley is an expert in the poetic-meter department, and I’m a bit of a bard myself. Perhaps we could sort out the mystery together.”