- Lotty: Did you know Keats?
- Mrs. Fisher: Keats! No I didn't, and I didn't know Shakespeare or Chaucer either.
- Mrs. Fisher: In my day husbands and beds were very seldom mentioned in the same breath. Husbands were taken seriously, as the only true obstacle to sin.
- Mrs. Fisher: All my dead friends don't seem worth reading tonight. They always say the same things. Good things, but always the same.
- Mellersh Wilkins: Lady Caroline, housekeeping for a party that includes my wife - you render me speechless! You do know she's the daughter of Lord Dester, THE Lord Dester?
- Mrs. Fisher: Ah! Well that accounts for it then. The botch-up her father made in his department during the war was a national scandal!
- Mellersh Wilkins: They never could actually prove anything.
- Rose: Caroline's right. The mind slips sideways. How could I invite him? What would we talk about? The truth is... I bore him, and there's no way back. No, if you bore somebody, it's almost impossible to un-bore him.
- Mellersh Wilkins: This is outrageous, Lotty! You accepted an invitation from a friend without consulting me?
- Lotty: I'm consulting you now!
- Mellersh Wilkins: Well you can write her and just tell her you can't go, it's absolutely out of the question!
- Lotty: I can't do that!
- Mellersh Wilkins: Why not?
- Lotty: Because I don't want to!
- Mrs. Fisher: [to Lotty] I hope you're not in the habit of seeing dead people, however distinguished - it's not in the best of taste! I'm sure the last thing I would want to see is my late husband Mr. Fisher crossing the road in front of my house.
- Mrs. Fisher: That's a beautiful dress...
- Caroline: No I've had it a hundred years.
- Mrs. Fisher: ...but you must be very cold in it. Its easy to catch a chill here after dark. You look as if you had nothing on underneath.
- Caroline: I haven't.
- Mellersh Wilkins: I realize how valuable you have been to me. In my profession, a man is always helped by having a clever, attractive wife. Lady Caroline thinks you're attractive. So do I.
- Lotty: Do you think I'm attractive, Mellersh?
- Mellersh Wilkins: Yes I do. One thing puzzles me, though. Why weren't you attractive sooner?
- Mrs Fisher: I'm a perfect sharer of your holiday, Mrs. Arbuthnot. All I wish to do is sit in the shade and remember better days and better men.