Morena’s Reviews > The Green Baize Door > Status Update

“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.”

“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.”