The Extraordinary Education Of Nicholas Benedict Quotes
"It glistened in the mist; the train hissed, and I listened."
"What shall we call this, Mrs. Ferrier—an arrival or a departure?"
"Every member of our small staff has multiple duties, you see. The less bandaging and stitching our nurse is compelled to do, the more she is able to attend to other tasks."
"Misery and joy. Discovery and danger. Mystery and treasure. For now, all were secrets waiting to be revealed."
"That's the spirit. They're ridiculous, all right. The trick is avoiding them, and I can give you a few tips, as far as that goes."
"I understand you’ve lived in several different orphanages, Nicholas. I assume you’re accustomed to chores, therefore, but you must be prepared for an extra share at the Manor. In difficult times, we must all of us pull our own weight and then some."
"Nicholas knew this from experience, unfortunately. At Littleview his condition had tempted even the mildest, most good-natured children to make sport of him, to make a regular game of upsetting him or getting him to laugh."
"Nicholas knew he was alone in the automobile, but he felt sure he’d sensed another presence. Had his sleeping ears detected a shuffling of feet in the grass outside?"
"Nicholas felt his heart flutter, and looked quickly about for a soft place to fall."
"In the entranceway again, Mrs. Brindle seemed at a loss for how to continue with the tour."
"You can't have [children] unsupervised, can you?"
"Every penny must be accounted for. Every person must do double duty. And nothing must be wasted."
"I believe that is clear enough for you. The rules are clear as well: You must be where you are expected to be when you are expected to be there, obey all Manor staff without argument or disrespectful reply, and waste nothing."
"He might be one, but the real trouble was that he never did one."
"Children are to be silent in the library. Those who aren’t silent receive punishments."
"The hour had passed like a dream—a dream of other people, other places."
"Reading so much so quickly was like having great tubs of information poured into his head all at once."
"What would he do if his key didn’t work? What would he do if he got caught?"
"He rose from his cot, taking the blanket with him. If he was discovered wandering outside his room, he intended to claim that he’d been sleepwalking."
"The Manor was quite dark, but Nicholas was able to find his way by memory and moonlight."
"Nicholas, for his part, was entirely skeptical."
"He kept turning pages, his excitement mounting."
"Nicholas thought about what he knew for certain."
"The exact nature of the treasure remained mysterious."
"You wouldn’t know it, Nick, but it’s an awful feeling, being a coward."
"It’s worth losing a little sleep to find a treasure, isn’t it?"
"No more ducking and hiding, always on the lookout for thugs like the Spiders."
"Our icebox will always be crammed full of good things."
"I suppose I used to think about the future sometimes, but now everything has been as cloudy as that sky."
"Rarely have I seen her so delighted! (And, I must confess, rarely have I felt so pleased with myself.)"
"For how else were mysteries solved if not by the careful analysis of facts?"
"I was only examining the bottom of the tub, but I understand your concern."
"Sure, it isn’t your fault, and of course you’re a very serious person to begin with."
"I can’t get over how they look so strange. I mean, they don’t look strange. Everything looks all normal and familiar, but you definitely feel like something is wrong."
"I enjoy muttering ‘sputtering’ and ‘guttering."
"What if we knew more about what the Rothschilds were doing that week, we might have a clue about the treasure."
"If you were an architect or builder, and you were asked to install a secret mechanism in an amateur observatory—and maybe some sort of secret panel leading to a secret room—don’t you think you would pass on that little tidbit to your children, and they to theirs? It’s a great story, after all."
"I’ve always read everything, front to back. The gossip columns are full of interesting details, very particular details, about the comings and goings of important people. I should think any detective worth his salt could find enough information in those pages to solve a dozen mysteries every day, if he cared to."
"If you run around or fight back, I’m going to sock you in the face ten times. If you don’t, I’m only going to sock you in the face five times. You have my word on that, so now you know where we stand."
"The darkness would buy him some time, he thought, and so would locking his door. But not much."
"Nicholas had a few seconds and very few options."
"He was going to have to make a sacrifice. But he was going to make it worth it."
"He’s getting away!" Iggy shouted, quite forgetting to whisper."
"Forget it! He was just trying to distract us!"
"What on earth?" Mr. Pileus cried, turning this way and that with his lamp."
"I don’t have any eggs!" cried the stationmaster, now red in the face."
"Children aren’t numbers! You can’t just add them and subtract them and expect everything to come out right!"
"I want to go back, Mr. Harinton. Back to ’Child’s End."
"If you hadn’t mummified it so well, greasing the parts and wrapping it all up the way you did, I doubt I could have taken it apart."
"You told me that the engineer and his assistant used to have to dismantle it sometimes."
"I know the contract expires today—but not before the mining company has to officially cease its operations."
"Honestly, you’re the only one who needs to know. That’s more than enough for me."
"Construction of this Free and Public Library of Stonetown, designed by the eminent architects Mason & Mason, funded by the Alexandria Foundation."
"There could be no more shying away from truth, he told himself. Never again, no matter what. He must always seek it out."
"For now let me just give you something before I go."
"We don’t need much! Only a little bit more, and I’m sure we can make a go of it! No humiliations! My reputation—"
"I do have a few conditions, however. Things you must agree to first."
"I’m confident we can arrange it so that everyone benefits, and no one is overworked—especially not any of the children."
"I’ll make it up to you soon. I promise. Pretty soon there will be no more hard days for you."
"Isn’t that the way? Those Rothschilds really had us going."
"But as for me, I’m glad it turned out this way. It seems more decent, somehow."
"No, perhaps he fell out of bed during one of his nightmares."
"You don’t think I would just leave you here without investigating first, do you?"
"I have the answers. I’m going to make a perfect score!"