- Dowager Dutchess: [to Peter] Isn't it strange? Of my three children, I always regarded you as the problem one. And now I'm forced to revise my opinion.
- Dowager Dutchess: And as for your sister...
- Lord Peter Wimsey: Now Polly's had a rotten show.
- Dowager Dutchess: I don't care what she's had. But when I discover she's warming her thermometer on her hot water bottle to promote a temperature, and has swallowed the entire contents of a bottle of ipecacuanha so that her symptoms become even more convincing...
- Lord Peter Wimsey: Mother!
- Dowager Dutchess: It's true.
- Lord Peter Wimsey: Are you absolutely certain?
- Dowager Dutchess: My dear boy, she's been throwing the wool over the eyes of all of you! I suppose you call that kind of thing a neurosis or some such nonsense, and coddle it. In my days we called it hysterics and naughtiness, and we knew exactly how to deal with it.