- [first lines]
- Basil Hunter: [voice-over] If it were writ upon a page, it could revolve around this day, the day my mother came to believe that being of a certain class entitles you die whenever you damn well please. Don't we wish...
- Basil Hunter: [voice-over narration] In far away lands it's easy to imagine the family maturing gracefully.
- Elizabeth Hunter: I'll let my doctor do it. He isn't a very good doctor, but I can feel by his touch that he is the kind of man that I might have enjoyed as a lover.
- Elizabeth Hunter: Would you be terribly cross with me if I didn't die? Idon't have to if I don't want to. Unless, perhaps, by thunderbolt.
- Dorothy de Lascabanes: Darling, who said anything about dying?
- Elizabeth Hunter: You think I don't know why you and Basil have flown all the way across the Earth? Was it to make sure you'd see me die, or to ask for money if I did not?
- Basil Hunter: [voice-over narration] The opening would have to be meticulously orchestrated: A knight and a princess returning to the foreign shores of their homeland disappear, having achieved everything their mammy having desired and designed for them. How could they not disappoint?
- Basil Hunter: So, can somebody tell me who is the ancient lilac fairy upstairs maquerading as my mother?