Ann: I am afraid you can’t have said nice things, or the conversation would have died out very quickly.
Molyneux: We said that you were unique, good, and yet adored by us all.
Lord William: Molly said that. Whenever anyone describes a conversation, they always repeat their own remarks.
Ann: What did you say, Uncle Bill?
Lord William: I said that as far as you were concerned, winning the war had done us no good at all, that your life was becoming a perfect slum of good works. We all feel that we are between the Scylla of Whitechapel and the Charybdis of the County.
Selina: We must tell Ninian that the County has been rechristened Charybdis. The Lord Lieutenant of Charybdis—what a magnificent title!
Ann: In reality, as you know, I am an altogether self-indulgent woman.
Mrs. Martineau: You are so charming, Ann darling, that you entangle other people’s selfishness—to be self-sacrificing is useless. The essential thing is to receive the egotism of others on deposit.
Ann: I know that you are all shamefully nice to me, and the result is that I spend the whole time with you when I ought to be talking to the vicar or calling on Lady Bootle.