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“I won’t be put off,” Marie said firmly. “Before this night is over, I will know how you came by that watch, or I swear to you, I will tell anyone who will listen to me that you murdered your mother.”

“I’ve never been so ashamed in my life—ashamed of my family, and ashamed of myself.”
Charlie’s face twisted with annoyance. “Well, that’s just jolly. Think of it as practice for what’s in store for all of us if he goes to the police.”
“At least one good thing would come from that,” Marie said, matter-of-factly, “I would never have to see you or Papa again.”

“...her dreams were feverish visions of William being led to the gallows, a curse for her on his lips. These horrors clung to the edges of her consciousness even after she woke. Suddenly, everything reminded her of him: a shirt the color of a tie he once wore, a dish that he might once have eaten from, a blanket that would keep him warm in his cold cell. She wanted to scream with the vexation of it."

“The tombs”, he thought, was an apt name for this place. Those who had the misfortune of being held here were indeed buried alive. When the lamps in the corridor dimmed, he knew the day had ended. Wedged against the wall on his narrow cot, he stared into the awful darkness and felt himself already dead and forgotten.”

“But enough of my youthful misdeeds. [M] tells me you’ve come on urgent business. It must be pressing to have brought you so far. What is it we can do for you?”
Marie hesitated. Mr. Lett’s well-mannered gallantry was of a piece with the surroundings: the sofa, the wallpaper, the teacups—everything elegant and clean. Speaking of her family, of their troubles, felt like letting a sounder of swine loose in the room.”

“There isn’t one of us who hasn’t thought about how much better off we'd be once the old girl kicked off.” He tried to sound cheerful, but tears choked his voice. “Well, she finally has, and I’m sorry if I’m not the hypocrite you all are. Go ahead and playact for one another if you must, I have better things to do.”

It's always the morally corrupt characters that are so much fun to read.

“Weeks and then months passed in a haze. Sometimes he missed her so much he felt he would die of it, but then he remembered the tug at the curtain and the coldness of the heart that had moved it. When he conjured up the image of Marie’s face, he began to detect an arrogance, a cruelty in it, he had never noticed before.”

Elisa asks a little 8 year old boy to guard her door with a shotgun. "Cez den budes stat tu pred mojimi dverami na strazi a kazdeho, kto by chcel vojst dnu, zadrziz. Vies ako sa to robi?"
"Och ano! Takto," maly Janko Hrasko vykrocil jednou nohou dopredu a namieril pusku bodakom vpred. "Stoj! Kto tam?"

Father thinking of his daughter "Were she a man, she would make an excellent field marshal."

“Some said the liquor here was cut with sulphuric acid, turpentine, and lime oil. It certainly tasted vile. The contents of his cup scorched a path from his lips clear down to his intestines, but it was damn effective. A sign above the bar read “Drunk for a penny, Dead drunk for two."
Tonight, William thought reaching for the bottle, was a two-penny night.”

"My family has a strict regime. I learned in the army that a subordinate must obey his superior."
"You're right," Garanvolgyi agreed. "However, it's quite difficult to maintain discipline at home, because in the family the women are mostly the commanders and the men are the ordinary soldiers." (p. 58. Translation from Slovak)

After the Viennese governess scolds her charge Elise, and orders her to study French, the rebellious noblewoman retorts "Why cannot I study Hungarian? That I wold gladly study."
In the mid 19th century speaking French was cool, while only rebels and plebs spoke Hungarian.

“I don’t care if yous were on yer way to Hades to sup with the devil himself, I’m wantin’ a word!’ Griggs wagged a filthy finger in her face. His nail was a dark line, as though it had been drawn on in India ink. ”

I hope the insufferable conman isn't a key character.

"In the old days," said M. Belloiseau, "the priests would try and appease the anger of the gods by slaughtering the most beautiful girl in the country on the altar, while our kind cures suppose that the Christian God will be satisfied with a march-past ... You have to admit that's tremendous progress." This is why the villagers pray for water. Love the Belloiseau. He is an old lecher but harmless and funny.

"Is she pretty?"
"Mr. B, " said Pamphile, "her hair is like gold, Her eyes are like the sea; her teeth like pearls; and what she's got in her ragged bodice, I'm sure it's very pretty sight!"
At that moment an angry voice, explosively loud, descended from the window above the carpenter's shop. It was Big Amelie and she cried: "And you, what do you look like you satyr? Is that the kind of mushrooms you go looking for?"

Enjoying the physical descriptions of the key characters and the fact it's not written by someone pandering to modern politics and inane sensibilities.

going to tap out. The whole enemies to lovers trope is based on miscommunication and black and white characterization."

going to tap out. The whole enemies to lovers trope is based on miscommunication and black and white characterization.

SLAYER \m/ Isaiah 34:
He will totally destroy them,
he will give them over to slaughter.
Their slain will be thrown out,
their dead bodies will stink;
the mountains will be soaked with their blood.
All the stars in the sky will be dissolved

convoluted writing, Gary Stu hero witch cringe sidekicks. It's not horrible though, so I'll push on.

When Carters heroine goes from girl boss to a primate:
“She will lay his fearful head on her lap and she will pick out the lice from his pelt and perhaps she will put the lice into her mouth and eat them, as he will bid her, as she would do in a savage marriage ceremony.”