- Smithy: Isn't there something morbid in burying one's heart with the dead?
- Paula: That's a strange thing for you to say. Your capacity for loving, your joy in living, is buried in a little space of time you've forgotten.
- Smithy: In some vague way, I still have...
- Paula: ...hope?
- Smithy: Yes, I suppose that's it.
- Paula: Have you, Charles? Do you feel that there... really is someone? That someday you may find her? You may have... come so near her, may even have brushed her on the street... You might even have met her, Charles. Met her and not known her. It might be someone you know, Charles. It might... it might even be me.
- Paula: Oh Smithy, You're ruining my makeup.
- Smithy: [Rainier proposed to Ms. Hanson] You and I are in the same boat, Miss Hanson; we're both ghost-ridden. We are prisoners of our past. What if we were to pool our loneliness, and give each other what little we have to give support, friendship? I'm proposing marriage, Miss Hanson, or should I call it a merger? A Member of Parliament should have a wife, Margaret; so I'm told on all sides. He needs a clever hostess; you have exceptional gifts. Would it interest you to have a wider field for them? You need have no fear that I would make any emotional demands upon you. I have only sincere friendship to offer. I won't ask any more from you.
- Kitty Chilcet: Sometimes, especially when we've been closest, I've had the curious feeling that I remind you of someone else - someone you once knew... someone you loved as you'll never love me. I am nearly the one, Charles. But nearly isn't enough for a lifetime.
- Paula: Smithy, do I always have to take the initiative? You're supposed to kiss me.
- Smithy: Paula, it's - it's a lot of nerve, but - I'm - I've fallen in love with you. I'm asking you to marry me, on a - on a check for two guineas.
- Paula: Smithy, don't ask me, please. I might take you up on it. I'm just that shameless. I've run after you from the very beginning; you know I have. I've never let you out of my sight since I first saw you in that little shop.
- Smithy: I'm - all right. It's my speech. I can't - remember. I'm not like the others. I'm not like them. I'm all right. But I - I can't go back. I - I'll never come out; I'll - I'll be like the others.
- Smithy: I don't even know who I am.
- Paula: Well, I know who you are. You're someone awfully nice.
- Smithy: Miss Hanson.
- Paula: Yes, Mr. Rainier.
- Smithy: Owing to lamentable weakness of character I'm having lunch at the Savoy - with your approval, I understand.
- Paula: I thoroughly approve.
- Smithy: [beaming while registering his son's birth] Writer, in a small way, of course. Writer and parent. Parent in a big way.
- Paula: [in the verge of tears] He'd resent me. He'd accept me. He'd pity me... And he'd resent me.
- Smithy: [Speaking of his newborn son] You can form only a very inadequate picture of him from what I've given you.
- Clerk: I'll have to struggle along.
- Paula: Dear John - thank you for the hope!
- Dr. Jonathan Benet: That is rather nice of me, seeing that it robs me of mine.
- Paula: You are from the asylum, aren't you? Aren't you?
- Smithy: 1920. Three years gone. Three years. France - I remember distinctly. But after that - what after that? Liverpool - what am I doing here? Where have I been? Better go home. Yes - may clear things up. Better go home - .
- Smithy: What has happened?
- Kitty Chilcet: I've been uncertain, almost from the beginning. Now I'm sure. It's no use, is it? I've always known it. Really. I was grasping selfishly at my own happiness. Because you could make me perfectly happy. If I were selfish enough not to care... or stupid enough not to know.
- Smithy: To know what?
- Kitty Chilcet: That I'm not the one. Let's be honest about it. I was letting things drift. But I never really believed in my own luck. Charles, you looked at me just now as if I were a stranger, an intrusive stranger, trying to take the place of someone else.
- Smithy: Someone else?
- Kitty Chilcet: I know it sounds absurd, but let me say it. Sometimes... especially when we've been closest... I've had a curious feeling that I remind you of someone else. Someone you once knew.
- Smithy: Don't leave me, Kitty. I need you. I'm trying to make a life.
- Kitty Chilcet: With someone you love as you'll never love me. I am nearly the one, Charles. So nearly that I shall always be proud of it. But nearly isn't enough for a lifetime. It would be too hard to...
- Kitty Chilcet: I think I'll travel. Mother's going to Luxor, I believe. I'll go with her.
- Smithy: Kitty...
- Kitty Chilcet: It's all right, Charles. I asked for it, and I'll get over it. One does, you know. I shan't go in any tragic mood... but looking to see what fun I can find, and I usually can. You'll probably hear that I've married some nice man.
- Smithy: I don't know what to say.
- Kitty Chilcet: You don't have to say anything. But because I am so nearly the one... and because I love you more than anyone I shall ever marry... will you kiss me goodbye?
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