- Cynthia Kirkpatrick: In short, Mama, the one man may steal a horse - the other musn't look over the hedge?
- Claire Gibson: Oh, do be quiet child! All proverbs are vulgar, and I do believe that is the vulgarist of them all! I really think you're catching Roger Hamley's coarseness, Cynthia.
- Roger Hamley: How are you, was it a very trying day? I thought about you, more than once.
- Molly Gibson: Thank you, I did try to remember what you said and to think more of all this, but you know it's so difficult.
- Roger Hamley: I know, but you know you'll be happier for it by and by.
- Molly Gibson: No, I shan't, and if I'm to kill myself as it were trying to think and behave as other people want me to I feel I might as well never have lived. And as for the happiness you speak of, well I shall never be happy again!
- Claire Gibson: I'm sure you will acknowledge that an engagement is an engagement.
- Squire Hamley: Did I say an engagement was an elephant ma'am?
- Roger Hamley: But Cynthia's eyes are perfection. I often tried to find something in nature to compare them to...
- Osborne Hamely: No come on, you can't go trying to match her eyes like a draper.
- Mr. Gibson: Mr Coxe, I have a prescription for you.
- Mr. Coxe: Beg pardon sir?
- Mr. Gibson: Three ounces of modesty, two ounces of duty, a pinch of deference taken three times a day in aqua pura. That should cool the passion which I believe runs in your veins.
- Osborne Hamely: You see it's hopeless. How can I tell him I'm married to a French woman who was a nursery maid.
- Lady Harriet Cumnor: In my experience, if you're a good girl and suffer yourself to be led you will find your stepmother the sweetest creature imaginable. I never managed it but you might.