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The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective quotes

The lines readers remember from The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective, by Catherine Louisa Pirkis.

15 quotes · About the book

Standout lines

She was not tall, she was not short; she was not dark, she was not fair; she was neither handsome nor ugly.

The Black Bag Left on a DoorstepRead from here
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Loveday Brooke, at this period of her career, was a little over thirty years of age, and could be best described in a series of negations.

She was not tall, she was not short; she was not dark, she was not fair; she was neither handsome nor ugly.

Her features were altogether nondescript;

I have noticed that although they may occasionally⁠—even this is rare⁠—treat them with a certain rough sort of kindness, of tenderness they are utterly incapable.

The Redhill SisterhoodRead from here
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“The way in which they handled the children,” answered Loveday promptly. “I have seen female criminals of all kinds handling children, and

I have noticed that although they may occasionally⁠—even this is rare⁠—treat them with a certain rough sort of kindness, of tenderness they are utterly incapable.

Now Sister Monica, I must admit, is not pleasant to look at;

I verily believe that we hard workers, after a time, lose our capacity for holiday-keeping.

The Ghost of Fountain LaneRead from here
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“I suppose you are right,” she answered; “it is a holiday in little more than name.

I verily believe that we hard workers, after a time, lose our capacity for holiday-keeping.

I thought I was pining for a week of perfect laziness and sea-breezes, and so I locked up my desk and fled.

The world, it seems to me, abounds in people who are little more than blank sheets of paper, on which a strong hand may transcribe what it will

The Ghost of Fountain LaneRead from here
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“It immediately occurred to me that the man who could make persons see an embodiment of his thought at will, would have very little difficulty in influencing other equally receptive minds to a breach of the ten commandments.

The world, it seems to me, abounds in people who are little more than blank sheets of paper, on which a strong hand may transcribe what it will

—hysteric subjects, the doctors would call them; hypnotic subjects others would say; really the line that divides the hysteric condition from the hypnotic is a very hazy one.

Don’t you think the converse of the saying is true also, and that ‘believing is seeing?’

The Ghost of Fountain LaneRead from here
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We are all in the habit of asserting that ‘seeing is believing.’

Don’t you think the converse of the saying is true also, and that ‘believing is seeing?’

”

Criminal cases are like fevers; they should be taken in hand within twenty-four hours.

Missing!Read from here
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“After ten days!” interrupted Miss Brooke, “when the house has settled down into routine, and everyone has his story cut and dried, and all sorts of small details have been falsified or smudged over!

Criminal cases are like fevers; they should be taken in hand within twenty-four hours.

”

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Jump to a chapter
  1. The Black Bag Left on a Doorstep
  2. The Murder at Troyte’s Hill
  3. The Redhill Sisterhood
  4. A Princess’s Vengeance
  5. Drawn Daggers
  6. The Ghost of Fountain Lane
  7. Missing!

The Black Bag Left on a Doorstep

She was not tall, she was not short; she was not dark, she was not fair; she was neither handsome nor ugly.

Read from here
Show the passage

Loveday Brooke, at this period of her career, was a little over thirty years of age, and could be best described in a series of negations.

She was not tall, she was not short; she was not dark, she was not fair; she was neither handsome nor ugly.

Her features were altogether nondescript;

The Murder at Troyte’s Hill

“I feel as if I were following the course of a circuitous mind,” she said to herself as the shadows closed around her.

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Craven’s grounds, and eventually, after much zigzagging, ended in close proximity to the stables. As Loveday entered it, she seemed literally to leave daylight behind her.

“I feel as if I were following the course of a circuitous mind,” she said to herself as the shadows closed around her.

“I could not fancy Sir Isaac Newton or Bacon planning or delighting in such a wind-about-alley as this!”

The Redhill Sisterhood

“It has a mournful past and a mournful future written upon it as a hopeless whole,” she said to herself. “It is the face of an Andromeda! ‘Here am I,’ it seems to say, ‘tied to my stake, helpless and hopeless.’ ”

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Why it was this face should so haunt her, she found it hard to say.

“It has a mournful past and a mournful future written upon it as a hopeless whole,” she said to herself. “It is the face of an Andromeda! ‘Here am I,’ it seems to say, ‘tied to my stake, helpless and hopeless.’ ”

The church clocks were sounding the midnight hour as Loveday made her way through the dark streets to her hotel outside the town.

“I am rather doubtful as to my power of helping anyone out of trouble,” said Loveday; “so far as my experience goes, our troubles are as much a part of ourselves as our skins are of our bodies.”

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“I am in great trouble, and I believe you are the only person in the whole world who can help me out of that trouble.”

“I am rather doubtful as to my power of helping anyone out of trouble,” said Loveday; “so far as my experience goes, our troubles are as much a part of ourselves as our skins are of our bodies.”

“Ah, but not such trouble as mine,” said White eagerly. He broke off for a moment, then, with a sudden rush of words, told her what that trouble was.

I have noticed that although they may occasionally⁠—even this is rare⁠—treat them with a certain rough sort of kindness, of tenderness they are utterly incapable.

Read from here
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“The way in which they handled the children,” answered Loveday promptly. “I have seen female criminals of all kinds handling children, and

I have noticed that although they may occasionally⁠—even this is rare⁠—treat them with a certain rough sort of kindness, of tenderness they are utterly incapable.

Now Sister Monica, I must admit, is not pleasant to look at;

A Princess’s Vengeance

Fair Rosamonds are no longer put out of the way by ‘a cup of cold poison’⁠—golden guineas do the thing far more easily and innocently.

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Loveday went on: “It was the Princess who solved the question how this was to be done.

Fair Rosamonds are no longer put out of the way by ‘a cup of cold poison’⁠—golden guineas do the thing far more easily and innocently.

The Princess expressed her willingness to bestow a thousand pounds on Lucie on the day that she married Lebrun, and to set her up afterwards as a fashionable milliner in Paris. After this munificent offer, everything else became mere matter of detail.

Drawn Daggers

“Sometimes,” answered Miss Brooke calmly, “the explanation that is obvious is the one to be rejected, not accepted.”

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Dyer irritably. “When a young lady loses a valuable article of jewellery and wishes to hush the matter up, the explanation is obvious.”

“Sometimes,” answered Miss Brooke calmly, “the explanation that is obvious is the one to be rejected, not accepted.”

Off and on these two had been, so to speak, “jangling” a good deal that morning.

The Ghost of Fountain Lane

I verily believe that we hard workers, after a time, lose our capacity for holiday-keeping.

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“I suppose you are right,” she answered; “it is a holiday in little more than name.

I verily believe that we hard workers, after a time, lose our capacity for holiday-keeping.

I thought I was pining for a week of perfect laziness and sea-breezes, and so I locked up my desk and fled.

Three parts cunning to one of simplicity is precisely what lady criminals are composed of.

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“Quite so.

Three parts cunning to one of simplicity is precisely what lady criminals are composed of.

And it is, as a rule, that one part of simplicity that betrays them and leads to their detection.”

The world, it seems to me, abounds in people who are little more than blank sheets of paper, on which a strong hand may transcribe what it will

Read from here
Show the passage

“It immediately occurred to me that the man who could make persons see an embodiment of his thought at will, would have very little difficulty in influencing other equally receptive minds to a breach of the ten commandments.

The world, it seems to me, abounds in people who are little more than blank sheets of paper, on which a strong hand may transcribe what it will

—hysteric subjects, the doctors would call them; hypnotic subjects others would say; really the line that divides the hysteric condition from the hypnotic is a very hazy one.

Don’t you think that ghost-seeing is quite as catching as scarlet-fever or measles?

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“

Don’t you think that ghost-seeing is quite as catching as scarlet-fever or measles?

” answered Loveday, with a little smile.

Don’t you think the converse of the saying is true also, and that ‘believing is seeing?’

Read from here
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We are all in the habit of asserting that ‘seeing is believing.’

Don’t you think the converse of the saying is true also, and that ‘believing is seeing?’

”

Missing!

Criminal cases are like fevers; they should be taken in hand within twenty-four hours.

Read from here
Show the passage

“After ten days!” interrupted Miss Brooke, “when the house has settled down into routine, and everyone has his story cut and dried, and all sorts of small details have been falsified or smudged over!

Criminal cases are like fevers; they should be taken in hand within twenty-four hours.

”

Her voice suggested a purr; her eyes, a scratch.

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Mrs. Greenhow was a small, slight woman, with fluffy hair and green-grey eyes.

Her voice suggested a purr; her eyes, a scratch.

“Cat-tribe!” thought Loveday; “the velvet paw and the hidden claw—the exact antithesis, I should say, to one of Miss Golding’s temperament.”

“Cat-tribe!” thought Loveday; “the velvet paw and the hidden claw⁠—the exact antithesis, I should say, to one of Miss Golding’s temperament.”

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Mrs. Greenhow was a small, slight woman, with fluffy hair and green-grey eyes. Her voice suggested a purr; her eyes, a scratch.

“Cat-tribe!” thought Loveday; “the velvet paw and the hidden claw⁠—the exact antithesis, I should say, to one of Miss Golding’s temperament.”

Mr. Golding went back to the one subject he had at heart.

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