- Miss Pole: [Ladies are buying textiles] I think I have the complexion for this plaid.
- Mrs. Forrester: People might think you a Scots.
- Miss Pole: Or stripes?
- Mrs. Forrester: Stripes; very diminishing for a robust figure!
- Miss Galindo: Mr. Carter, our work will be done by noon with so many hands assisting! And yet you told Lady Ludlow you were so overwhelmed with correspondence you could not cope without a dedicated clerk.
- Mr. Carter: I needed no help. I simply hope to help another!
- Miss Galindo: [to Mr. Carter] I have the fondest respect for Lady Ludlow. But she will always look at Harry and see a poacher's child. Just as you will always look at me and see a woman.
- Miss Galindo: I know my presence does not please you. I had thought to stick my pen behind my ear and say "zounds" from time to time, but it will not convince you of my worth.
- Mr. Carter: Please forgive me for speaking so plainly, but you are a milliner.
- Miss Galindo: Do you think I long to stitch caps and sew feathers onto bonnets? I found myself obliged to earn my living, and society offered me no other opportunity. And since I find myself commissioned to make the coronets for May Day, I have more pressing things to do than stage this pantomime of assisting you!
- Mr. Carter: I did not ask for you to be installed here!
- Man: [to Jem] Letter.
- Jem Hearne: It's from me mam. 'Aunt Clegg fell prey to dropsy in the second week of Lent. She had hid a will behind the clock. The clock came to me and you are left a token, too. I enclose the legacy.'
- Job Gregson: I had a legacy once. It was a hat.
- Jem Hearne: This is more than a hat. It's a five-pound note!
- [Lady Ludlow has forced Mr. Carter to stop tutoring Harry]
- Mr. Carter: I am sorry, Harry.
- Harry Gregson: For what? Teaching me to read?
- Mr. Carter: I will never be sorry for teaching you to read! I only regret that the world is such that you could be punished for learning.
- Harry Gregson: You can't stop this happening, can you, Mr. Carter?
- Mr. Carter: [Looks away]
- Mary Smith: Martha! You must listen to reason!
- Martha: Reason? Reason just means what someone else has got to say! I can talk reason when I've got a mind to, and I've got a mind to now.
- Mary Smith: Martha, your loyalty does you credit and Miss Matty will be lost without you.
- Martha: You're staying with her!
- Mary Smith: I wouldn't dream of leaving! But I at least can pay my way here, with the allowance I get from my father. The truth of the matter is that Miss Matty is now going to have such a meager sum to live upon, she will not even be able to find the money for your food. Indeed, she will be hard-pressed to find the money for her own.
- Martha: Is it as bad as that?
- Mary Smith: It is every bit as bad as that.
- Lady Ludlow: The plan is for a new and superior residence for Septimus in Italy. He enclosed it with his letter.
- Mr. Carter: The cost of building this will be...
- Lady Ludlow: ...considerable.
- Lady Ludlow: I cannot deny him. I should, I know I should. But I find I must wrestle my reverence for Hanbury with my regard for him. And he is always the victor.
- Lady Ludlow: You cannot know what it is to have a son, Mr. Carter.
- Mr. Carter: Perhaps I cannot know, but I think I can imagine it.
- Man: [to Jem] Letter.
- Jem Hearne: It's from me mam. "Aunt Clegg fell prey to dropsy in the second week of Lent. She had hid a will behind the clock. The clock came to me and you are left a token, too. I enclose the legacy."
- Job Gregson: I had a legacy once. It was a hat.
- Jem Hearne: Thisis more than a hat. It's a five-pound note!