"So you made Percy give my furniture to Aunt Sophy. Percy, who has never given away anything in his life except a bad cigar!"
"Marriage has improved him."
"He wasn't married when he came here."
"He was on the brink. I persuaded him that, as Miss Sophy had paid for the things, she ought to have them."
"That argument would simply slide off his back. You said he threatened you, and, from what I know of him, it's fairly certain that he swore at you. Is it likely he would threaten one moment, and give way the next? His young woman may have changed his vile nature—I hope she has—but you can't reform the stripes off a zebra. You found out something about him—you made him confess how he got hold of that money he wrote telling us about, and why he was clearing out of the country. He has defrauded the Yard estate, and Hunter helped him. The next thing we shall hear is that Hunter has gone to study the business habits and professional morals of the Esquimaux. Out with it, Nellie, or I shall suffer from a horrible suspicion that Percy has squared you."
"I have spoken nothing but the truth, and you won't squeeze anything more out of me," she said.
"When a fellow stays in lodgings," said George, "he must either read novels or go mad. I have been reading a quantity of novels, and they convinced me that women are deceitful beings."
"They have to protect themselves against the perfidy of men," cried Nellie.
"Remember poor innocent Adam! He was all right as long as he was engaged to Eve; but what happened when he married her?"
"It's a shame that story was ever invented."