- [Thinking about Harriet Vane]
- Lord Peter Wimsey: She has a sense of humor... and brains... life wouldn't be dull. One would wake up, and there would be a whole day full of jolly things to do. And then we would come home and go to bed... and that would be jolly too.
- Lord Peter Wimsey: I-I-I'm not, um, trying to blackmail you into matrimony. I mean, I would investigate this case for the fun of the thing.
- Harriet Vane: That's very good of you.
- Lord Peter Wimsey: No, no, no, not at all, it's my hobby. I mean investigating things, not proposing to people.
- The Dowager Duchess of Denver: [Referring to Harriet Vane] Curious to write about murder and be accused of murder oneself!
- Harriet Vane: Have I got this right? You are proposing marriage to me?
- Lord Peter Wimsey: I don't positively repel you or anything like that, do I?
- [Peter is visiting Harriet in prison, meeting her for the first time]
- Lord Peter Wimsey: But, um, you're not opposed to matrimony on principle? I mean if offered on terms not already compromised, and by the right person, naturally.
- Harriet Vane: Oh, no.
- Lord Peter Wimsey: Oh, that's good.
- Harriet Vane: Might I ask why?
- Lord Peter Wimsey: Makes it easier for me, you see.
- Harriet Vane: [after a pause] Have I got this right? You are proposing marriage to me?
- Lord Peter Wimsey: Absolutely right.
- Harriet Vane: [laughing] Do you do this all the time, Lord Peter?
- Lord Peter Wimsey: Only when I'm serious.
- Harriet Vane: And you're serious now?
- Lord Peter Wimsey: Oh, I know I've got a silly face, but I can't help that. And I am. Serious, I mean.
- Harriet Vane: Being a writer of detective fiction, I have naturally studied your career with interest.
- Lord Peter Wimsey: Well, that's good, because then you'll understand that I'm not such an ass as I'm appearing at present.
- Chief Inspector Charles Parker: [about Harriet] I don't give much for her chances.
- Lord Peter Wimsey: Where there's life, there's hope!
- Lord Peter Wimsey: [to Freddy about Harriet's trial] She's innocent, my pessimistic chum, and prove it I'm going to.
- Lord Peter Wimsey: [Referring to the Vane Murder Trial] What did you think of the verdict?
- Pond: Ooo, very surprised... surprised indeed! Seemed a clear enough case, but then juries are so unreliable - especially nowadays, my lord with women on them.
- Lord Peter Wimsey: [Seemingly agreeing or understanding] Mmm.
- Pond: We see a good deal of the fair sex in the profession, and very few of them are remarkable for possessing the... uh... legal mind.
- Lord Peter Wimsey: However true that is, still without them, there'd be much less litigation, so it's all good for business.
- Pond: [Chuckles] Very good, my lord. Very good. I am an old-fashioned man. The ladies - when they adorned and inspired - did not take any active part in affairs.
- Chief Inspector Charles Parker: [writing a note] "Boyes - query arsenic." Anything else?
- Lord Peter Wimsey: Yes. Find out if Boyes visited any pub in the neighbourhood of Doughty Street between 9:50 and 10:10 on the night of January 20th, if he met anybody, and what he took to drink.
- Chief Inspector Charles Parker: [keeps writing] "Boyes - query pub."
- Lord Peter Wimsey: And thirdly, find out if any bottle or paper that might have contained arsenic was picked up in that district.
- Chief Inspector Charles Parker: Oh, is that all? Well, perhaps you'd also like me to trace the bus ticket dropped by Mrs. Brown outside Selfridge's in the last Christmas rush?
- Lord Peter Wimsey: Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go see a man about a dog - or I should say, a parson about his son.