The D’Arblay Mystery quotes
The lines readers remember from The D’Arblay Mystery, by R. Austin Freeman.
16 quotes · About the book
Standout lines
There are certain days in our lives which, as we recall them, seem to detach themselves from the general sequence as forming the starting-point of a new epoch.
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There are certain days in our lives which, as we recall them, seem to detach themselves from the general sequence as forming the starting-point of a new epoch.
Doubtless, if we examined them critically, we should find them to be but links in a connected chain.
No man is ever disturbed by having to do what he enjoys doing.
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“The doctor,” said he, “is never disturbed by professional business.
No man is ever disturbed by having to do what he enjoys doing.
”
Never go to extract a fish-bone without one in your pocket; and it isn’t a bad thing to keep a dried earwig by you.
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Imaginary fish-bone cured by imaginary extraction. And it made my local reputation. Well, goodbye, old chap. I’ve got a visit to make here. Come in one evening and smoke a pipe with me. You know where to find me. And take my advice to heart.
Never go to extract a fish-bone without one in your pocket; and it isn’t a bad thing to keep a dried earwig by you.
I do. People will persist in thinking they’ve got one in their ears. So long.
We go into a house of mourning, and are almost scandalized by its cheerfulness, forgetting that whereas to us the bereavement is the one salient fact, to the bereaved there is the necessity of taking up afresh the threads of their lives.
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But in their manner and the subjects of their conversation, they were astonishingly ordinary and normal. No stranger, looking at them and listening to their talk, would have dreamed of the tragedy that overshadowed their lives. But so it constantly happens.
We go into a house of mourning, and are almost scandalized by its cheerfulness, forgetting that whereas to us the bereavement is the one salient fact, to the bereaved there is the necessity of taking up afresh the threads of their lives.
Food must be prepared even while the corpse lies under the roof, and the common daily round of duty stands still for no human affliction.
He had always looked so like a dead man that the final transition was hardly noticeable.
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The yellow, shrunken face of the dead man, surmounted by the skull cap which he had always worn, looked so little changed that he might still have been in the drowsy, torpid state in which I had been accustomed to see him.
He had always looked so like a dead man that the final transition was hardly noticeable.
“I suppose,” said Morris, “you would like to have the coffin-lid taken off?”
There is always something a little melancholy in the sight of an empty house which one has known in its occupied state.
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Soon we reached the house and halted for a moment to look through the glazed door into the empty shop. Then Thorndyke inserted the key into the side door and pushed it open.
There is always something a little melancholy in the sight of an empty house which one has known in its occupied state.
Nothing, indeed, could be more cheerless than the Morris household; yet it was with a certain feeling of depression that I looked down the long passage (where Cropper had bumped his head in the dark) and heard the clang of the closing door.
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Jump to a chapter
- I: The Pool in the Wood
- II: A Conference with Dr. Thorndyke
- III: The Doctor’s Revelations
- V: Inspector Follett’s Discovery
- VI: Marion D’Arblay at Home
- VII: Enlarging Thorndyke’s Knowledge
- VIII: Simon Bendelow, Deceased
- IX: A Strange Misadventure
- XIII: A Narrow Escape
- XVI: A Surprise for the Superintendent
- XIX: Thorndyke Disentangles the Threads
I: The Pool in the Wood
There are certain days in our lives which, as we recall them, seem to detach themselves from the general sequence as forming the starting-point of a new epoch.
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There are certain days in our lives which, as we recall them, seem to detach themselves from the general sequence as forming the starting-point of a new epoch.
Doubtless, if we examined them critically, we should find them to be but links in a connected chain.
II: A Conference with Dr. Thorndyke
Friendships spring up into sudden maturity under great emotional stress.
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I turned the problem over again and again as I sat on the top of the tram (where I could keep my wet trousers out of sight), not as a matter of mere curiosity but as one in which I was personally concerned.
Friendships spring up into sudden maturity under great emotional stress.
I had known Marion D’Arblay but an hour or two, but they were hours which neither of us would ever forget; and in that brief space she had become to me a friend who was entitled, as of right, to sympathy and service.
No man is ever disturbed by having to do what he enjoys doing.
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“The doctor,” said he, “is never disturbed by professional business.
No man is ever disturbed by having to do what he enjoys doing.
”
III: The Doctor’s Revelations
His life was not lost; it was stolen—from him and from me.
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that it was the course of Nature, which we cannot rebel against. Now I know, from what the doctor said, that he might have lived on happily for the full span of human life but for the malice of this unknown wretch.
His life was not lost; it was stolen—from him and from me.
”
V: Inspector Follett’s Discovery
Imaginary fish-bone cured by imaginary extraction.
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“ ‘Ha!’ says he. ‘Thank Gawd! What a relief! I can swallow quite well now.’ And so he could. It was a case of suggestion and counter-suggestion.
Imaginary fish-bone cured by imaginary extraction.
And it made my local reputation. Well, goodbye, old chap. I’ve got a visit to make here. Come in one evening and smoke a pipe with me. You know where to find me. And take my advice to heart.
Never go to extract a fish-bone without one in your pocket; and it isn’t a bad thing to keep a dried earwig by you.
Show the passage
Imaginary fish-bone cured by imaginary extraction. And it made my local reputation. Well, goodbye, old chap. I’ve got a visit to make here. Come in one evening and smoke a pipe with me. You know where to find me. And take my advice to heart.
Never go to extract a fish-bone without one in your pocket; and it isn’t a bad thing to keep a dried earwig by you.
I do. People will persist in thinking they’ve got one in their ears. So long.
The C.I.D. are the lions, you know. I’m only a jackal.
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“Certainly.
The C.I.D. are the lions, you know. I’m only a jackal.
”
VI: Marion D’Arblay at Home
We go into a house of mourning, and are almost scandalized by its cheerfulness, forgetting that whereas to us the bereavement is the one salient fact, to the bereaved there is the necessity of taking up afresh the threads of their lives.
Show the passage
But in their manner and the subjects of their conversation, they were astonishingly ordinary and normal. No stranger, looking at them and listening to their talk, would have dreamed of the tragedy that overshadowed their lives. But so it constantly happens.
We go into a house of mourning, and are almost scandalized by its cheerfulness, forgetting that whereas to us the bereavement is the one salient fact, to the bereaved there is the necessity of taking up afresh the threads of their lives.
Food must be prepared even while the corpse lies under the roof, and the common daily round of duty stands still for no human affliction.
VII: Enlarging Thorndyke’s Knowledge
An honest and unconscious collaborator in a crime is apt to be a dangerous witness if questions arise.
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In that case his honesty would be a source of danger to him; for if a really great fraud were perpetrated by means of his work, it would clearly be to the interest of the perpetrator to get rid of him.
An honest and unconscious collaborator in a crime is apt to be a dangerous witness if questions arise.
”
For as money makes money, so knowledge begets knowledge.
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But there are numerous possibilities of error; and we can eliminate them only by following up each suggested clue and seeking verification or disproof. Every new fact that we learn is a multiple gain.
For as money makes money, so knowledge begets knowledge.
”
And what is told to the Press is told to the criminal.
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We must assume that they will make use of their knowledge; but if they don’t, it may be all the better for us. The police are very discreet; but they do sometimes give the Press more information than I should.
And what is told to the Press is told to the criminal.
”
VIII: Simon Bendelow, Deceased
He had always looked so like a dead man that the final transition was hardly noticeable.
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The yellow, shrunken face of the dead man, surmounted by the skull cap which he had always worn, looked so little changed that he might still have been in the drowsy, torpid state in which I had been accustomed to see him.
He had always looked so like a dead man that the final transition was hardly noticeable.
“I suppose,” said Morris, “you would like to have the coffin-lid taken off?”
IX: A Strange Misadventure
Treat yourself with respect and the world will respect you.
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I promised to drop in before long, and he then added: “I gave you one or two tips when I saw you last. Now I’m going to give you another. Never neglect your appearance. It’s a great mistake.
Treat yourself with respect and the world will respect you.
No need to be a dandy. But just keep an eye on your tailor and your laundress—especially your laundress. Clean collars don’t cost much and they pay; and so does a trousers press. People expect a doctor to be well turned out.
XIII: A Narrow Escape
Thorndyke was not a very communicative man, and a perfectly impossible one to pump.
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The first part of this programme I carried out successfully enough, but the second presented more difficulties.
Thorndyke was not a very communicative man, and a perfectly impossible one to pump.
What he chose to tell he told freely; and beyond that, no amount of ingenuity could extract the faintest shadow of a hint.
XVI: A Surprise for the Superintendent
There is always something a little melancholy in the sight of an empty house which one has known in its occupied state.
Show the passage
Soon we reached the house and halted for a moment to look through the glazed door into the empty shop. Then Thorndyke inserted the key into the side door and pushed it open.
There is always something a little melancholy in the sight of an empty house which one has known in its occupied state.
Nothing, indeed, could be more cheerless than the Morris household; yet it was with a certain feeling of depression that I looked down the long passage (where Cropper had bumped his head in the dark) and heard the clang of the closing door.
XIX: Thorndyke Disentangles the Threads
“Women,” said she, “are very intelligent creatures. They are able to distinguish between swans and ganders, whereas the swans themselves are apt to be muddleheaded and self-depreciatory.”
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She smiled a superior smile.
“Women,” said she, “are very intelligent creatures. They are able to distinguish between swans and ganders, whereas the swans themselves are apt to be muddleheaded and self-depreciatory.”
“I agree to the muddleheaded factor,” I rejoined, “and I won’t be unduly ostentatious as to the ganderism. But to return to Thorndyke, it is extraordinarily good of him to allow himself to be burdened with me.”
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