Clouds of Witness (1972)

Isabel Jeans: Dowager Duchess

Quotes 

• Dowager Dutchess : [to Peter]  Isn't it strange? Of my three children, I always regarded you as the problem one. And now I'm forced to revise my opinion.

• Dowager Dutchess : And as for your sister...

  Lord Peter Wimsey : Now Polly's had a rotten show.

  Dowager Dutchess : I don't care what she's had. But when I discover she's warming her thermometer on her hot water bottle to promote a temperature, and has swallowed the entire contents of a bottle of ipecacuanha so that her symptoms become even more convincing...

  Lord Peter Wimsey : Mother!

  Dowager Dutchess : It's true.

  Lord Peter Wimsey : Are you absolutely certain?

  Dowager Dutchess : My dear boy, she's been throwing the wool over the eyes of all of you! I suppose you call that kind of thing a neurosis or some such nonsense, and coddle it. In my days we called it hysterics and naughtiness, and we knew exactly how to deal with it.