Quotes
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[Mary assisted Dr Harrison in setting Jem Hearne's broken arm]
Miss Deborah Jenkyns : Dr Harrison was full of praise for you. He said you were the equal of a man.
Mary Smith : Did he?
Miss Deborah Jenkyns : And I corrected him. No woman is the equal of a man - she is his superior in every single case.
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[Mary has brought oranges as a present for Matty and Deborah]
Miss Deborah Jenkyns : I would prefer it if I did not enjoy oranges. Consuming them is a most incommodious business.
Miss Matty Jenkyns : There is not such a lot of juice, Deborah dear - only when they are sliced with a knife.
Mary Smith : At home we make a little hole in our oranges and we suck them.
[Deborah looks horrified]
Miss Matty Jenkyns : That is the way I like to take them best, but Deborah says it is vulgar and altogether too redolent of a ritual undertaken by little babies. My sister does not care for the expression
[whispers]
Miss Matty Jenkyns : "suck".
Miss Deborah Jenkyns : [primly] We will repair to our rooms... and consume our fruit in solitude.
[embarrassed, Deborah gets up and leaves the table]
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Miss Deborah Jenkyns : Jem Hearne has had nothing but jelly and egg wine for a week. If the bones are to knit, some solid food is needed.
Mary Smith : Does rice pudding count as solid food?
Miss Deborah Jenkyns : Martha made this - it could be eaten with a fork!
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[a young mother has fallen over in the street and Captain Brown has helped her to her feet]
Miss Deborah Jenkyns : I don't object to his helping her up - it's an act of Christian kindness. But to take her arm and offer to escort her home shows a *revolting* want of decorum.
Mary Smith : [teasing Deborah] Perhaps Captain Brown has been reading too much Dickens.
Miss Deborah Jenkyns : I think it altogether likely. Vulgar sentiment is so contageous.
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Miss Matty Jenkyns : There will be a great deal to occupy your pen. I regret that you missed the incident just last week. A wagon of bricks had cause to drive down King Street and became lodged with a pit cart headed the opposite way.
Mary Smith : Were people hurt?
Miss Matty Jenkyns : No no no no, but there was talk of summoning the constable.
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Miss Deborah Jenkyns : Dr. Harrison was full of praise for you. He said you were the equal of a man.
Mary Smith : Did he?
Miss Deborah Jenkyns : Yes. And I corrected him. No woman is the equal of a man. She is his superior, in every single case.
