- Agnes Van Rhijn: These people. You shut the door, they come in the window. You shut the window, they come down the chimney. They never give up.
- Marian Brook: But isn't that a good thing?
- Bertha Russell: It's not too much?
- Ward McAllister: My dear Mrs. Russell. Nothing is ever too much for me.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: I allowed myself to act on impulse today... something I never do. To act on impulse is to make oneself a hostage to ridicule.
- Monsieur Baudin: Does Monsieur McAllister have to follow the English fashion? Might he not welcome a change?
- Bertha Russell: Apparently not.
- Monsieur Baudin: You have a menu in mind?
- Church: Fish and chips, suet pudding? Or what about boiled beef and carrots?
- Ada Brook: She says the opera war is really heating up.
- Marian Brook: Why does there have to be a war? Why can't the Academy create more boxes for the new people to rent?
- Agnes Van Rhijn: Because the Academy of Music is one of the last bastions of decency and standards in this city. We will not patronize any jumped-up opera house, however loud and gaudy it may be.
- Gladys Russell: I suppose you bought him off. And if he took it, he wasn't worthy of me. That's what Mother will say.
- George Russell: Don't be too hard on the boy. I made it tough for him to refuse.
- Gladys Russell: I just wish I knew the reason.
- George Russell: Because your mother believes that you have more to come than marriage to a banker in Manhattan.
- Gladys Russell: What's wrong with that?
- George Russell: Nothing. It's not special.
- Gladys Russell: Father, I'm not special. Why can't she see it? I'm ordinary. I'm just an ordinary person who wants an ordinary life.
- George Russell: No, my darling. You are not in the least ordinary. On that point, your mother and I are as one.
- Marian Brook: I'm just thinking about the poor men in the train crash.
- Peggy Scott: Oh, I feel for their wives. Making dinner, expecting their husbands to be home at any moment.
- Marian Brook: Suppose the truth is, you never know what's coming next.
- Peggy Scott: So we should try to get the most out of what's happening now.
- Marian Brook: Sometimes it's hard to be quite sure of what is happening now.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: What would we say if a surgeon suddenly flung down his scalpel and went off to see a fasting lawyer?
- Ada Brook: I'm sure he has a reason.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: Hmm. Benedict Arnold had a reason when he tried to sell West Point to the British.
- Anne Morris: So money is the deciding factor here? Yet again. What a sad and vulgar world we live in.
- Gladys Russell: You're one of the most successful men in the country. With real estate and steel and copper and coal and oil and railroads that are the envy of the world, and you can't stand up to your wife?
- Anne Morris: And because I cannot give as much as Mrs. Russell, I am to be jettisoned while she is enthroned?
- Bertha Russell: How thrilling you make it sound.
- Bertha Russell: Why not tell them the truth, Church? There are some situations where it really can be helpful.
- Clara Barton: And surely no one decent could doubt Miss Brook's motives.
- Aurora Fane: Maybe not. But there are plenty of people in New York who are not decent at all.
- Aurora Fane: I've asked Mrs. Russell to join us.
- Anne Morris: Why? She is the wife of a murderer, who has even more blood on his hands now then when he killed my husband.
- Clara Barton: Mrs. Morris, you have suffered a great deal, and I am sorry for it. But I hope you can recognize that this meeting is not the place to address your society squabble.
- Anne Morris: This isn't a society squabble, since Mrs. Russell is not in society.
- George Russell: Well, if you're asking, I think the fact that five men are dead, and a member of my staff has blood on his hands, is a little more important than whether or not the great Ward McAllister comes here for luncheon.
- Marian Brook: Aren't some fights worth having?
- Peggy Scott: Not if it's going to make me late for my meeting.
- Marian Brook: I don't understand.
- Peggy Scott: You've just discovered injustice. I've lived with it my whole life. If I spent every day fighting with bigots, I'd never get anything done.
- Bannister: No teaspoon is ever laid on an English table. If one is needed, it is supplied at the apposite moment.
- Caroline 'Carrie' Astor: The fact is, I have a very difficult mother.
- Gladys Russell: Well, I know what that's like.
- Caroline 'Carrie' Astor: Your mother could not possibly be as difficult as mine.
- Gladys Russell: No? My mother keeps me under house arrest. I'm allowed no friends. God forbid I should speak to a man.
- Caroline 'Carrie' Astor: Why has she let you come here?
- Gladys Russell: My brother persuaded her. But she'll regret it, and I'll pay.
- Caroline 'Carrie' Astor: Shall I come and visit you? I could bring you a cake with a file in it.
- Marian Brook: I wish I could see what he's done wrong.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: I've told you. He's an adventurer. I suppose he's worming his way into every ballroom in the city?
- Marian Brook: It's true people invite him, but that's because he's pleasant and popular. Everyone likes him.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: Everyone except me. Be warned, my dear. He won't need you much longer if he keeps this up. Any minute now, he'll see his chance and move on to more glittering prizes.
- Ada Brook: Agnes. What a horrid thing to say.
- Marian Brook: You don't know him, Aunt Agnes.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: I know his type. And I am never wrong.
- Marian Brook: You're wrong this time.
- Ada Brook: Agnes has had a run-in with Bannister, and I'd rather keep the evening smooth.
- Marian Brook: I won't bring it up. What's Bannister done?
- Ada Brook: I'm not certain. He seems to have got involved with some sort of religious lawyer who thinks we're wrong to eat luncheon. But I may be a bit muddled.
- Jack Treacher: Mr. Bannister says I'm to wear the gloves when I serve the food, but not when I pour the wine.
- Marian Brook: If you'd seen her there, alone and surrounded like Custer at Little Big Horn, facing the annihilation of everything she believes...
- Agnes Van Rhijn: She has ensnared Mr. McAllister and dragged him to her lair?
- Marian Brook: I think he's just coming to luncheon.