- Agatha Troy: [Seeing Alleyn with a pineapple] Is that for me?
- Chief Inspector Alleyn: Flowers have a tendency to wilt.
- Agatha Troy: I haven't seen one of these in years. Perhaps I'l use it in a still life.
- Fenella Cairnes: [Dramatically] I'll say no more, but there's badness in this house.
- [as she goes out the door]
- Fenella Cairnes: You'll see.
- Agatha Troy: [Unimpressed by the dramatics] Fenella, you did that very well.
- Millamant Ancred: I gave up the theater for him. It's still in my blood.
- Desdemona Ancred: I always think that when Gladys Cooper went to Hollywood, she left a gap you could fill quite nicely, Mil.
- Desdemona Ancred: [to Alleyn] Sometomes, Chief Inspector, death comes not as an enemy but as a friend.