The Orchid House Quotes
"When a man falls in love with a woman – deeply, passionately, irrevocably – he will be capable of doing anything to keep her, please her, to make her value him above all others."
"People say that dreams are important and they tell you something, something that you are hiding from yourself."
"I am not mad. Though recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about what madness actually is."
"I’ve come to the conclusion that all we humans can really share is the flesh and bones, the physical matter we were born with."
"No modern family can afford to keep up a place like that. And the last Lord Wharton let it fall into a dreadful state of disrepair."
"The trouble is, all I inherit is a shedload of debts and a shitload of hassle."
"I know he will stay that way for the rest of his life. The nervous energy that even in sleep will not let him rest."
"I can play the piano, quite brilliantly, so I’m told. Just because I can."
"I am ‘off duty’, with no engagements until the middle of next week, but Xavier must leave for a concert in Paris tomorrow."
"Julia, I’m so proud of you. I know now that you’re going to make it. Keep going, darling."
"Understand you’ll have good days and bad, but just keep going."
"It’s an unbelievable bloom. Only a few were ever found around the hills of Chiang Mai in Thailand."
"Botanists have never been able to reproduce it out of its habitat, which makes it very valuable."
"The world may be coming to an end, but in houses such as these, everything goes on as it always has done."
"I’ve spent too long thinking about myself recently and I need to start remembering the feelings of others."
"I know what they’re like in the first place, Grandfather."
"Well, put it this way, the last specimen of Dendrobium nigum sold at auction for almost fifty thousand pounds."
"People are literally booked up weeks in advance."
"I used to find country dances such a bore, myself."
"As a matter of fact, Grandmother, I went with Mummy and Daddy to Wharton Park just after Christmas. I rather liked it."
"But the fact that her grandmother was too old and too tired to chaperone her had turned out to be an absolute blessing."
"Most of them, like her, were making their way through the Season because they had to."
"I can hardly stand its beauty. As Blake so aptly describes, one knows it’s leaving as soon as it arrives."
"I thought in the last few months I’d managed to instil some feminism into you."
"I doubt I’ll see much of him when I’m there."
"I wouldn’t want you in my battalion, old chap."
"I’m going to join the Wrens, if they’ll have me."
"The die was cast when Hitler walked into Czechoslovakia."
"It was one of the few occasions in his life when he wished he had a British-born, stiff-upper-lip sort for a mother."
"The impending war, and what exactly she was going to do with her life if there were one, slipped from her mind as easily as the spiders’ webs on the many roses in the garden dissolved through her fingertips."
"I can hardly believe I must live through another war."
"Eh bien! It is just one more thing that I miss."
"Are you absolutely sure that Harry loves you?"
"I know, beyond a doubt, that last night was not how it should have been."
"He had loved it because he had simply been himself."
"‘Golly! I wish we had weeds at home like this,’ Harry said."
"‘You would say a temple,’ Lidia clarified, stepping out expertly."
"I am glad you like it, Harry. It is good for peace, yes?"
"‘Harry, it is okay … Come.’ She took his hand, led him to the step outside the hut and sat him down on it."
"I think you look more handsome and healthier than when you left! Do you not think so, Olivia?"
"‘And you, old chap.’ Christopher used all his strength to pull his son towards him."
"You must take her now, please. It is for best. If I keep her with me longer, maybe I cannot give her away."
"I know he can’t come here, Miss Lidia. That’s why he sent me."
"She deserve a life, Mister Bill. Even if I live, I cannot take care of her well. Give her what she need."
"He loves you, miss, more than anything. You mean the world to him, really you do."
"Jasmine is future, not me. Please, Mister Bill, find way to tell me my daughter is safe."
"I must trust in you and her father now, for I do not know if my future is here on earth."
"I must say goodbye," he muttered. "How can I bear it? How can I bear it?"
"You must take as much rest as you need. And you jolly well deserve it."
"He loves her so much. You mean the world to him, really you do."
"I will keep Jasmine safe, Miss Lidia, don’t you worry."
"I swear it’s legal. She’s ours Elsie, our child."
"You know how she’s longed for a babe of her own."
"He must have seen then, for Bill always said Jasmine had grown up the image of her mother."
"He didn’t have much of a life, did his Lordship."
"I could name you half a dozen local aristocratic families with skeletons in their cupboards."
"I had killed our petit ange, and left him there in the forest to burn."
"I need you to swear to me that neither you or Kit will mention any of what I’ve told you to Alicia until I’ve had a word with your dad."
"His weakness for alcohol, and the fact he never knew when to stop, had been one of the thorns in their marriage."
"‘Perhaps I’m still adjusting,’ she said simply, unwilling to pursue the conversation."
"‘But we can make it like it was before, can’t we, chérie?’ he beseeched her."
"Please, Julia, let me be with you tonight. Let me show you how I can love you."
"Dad told me three days ago that I was adopted."
"I feel as though I’ve lived for a lifetime since I last saw you. These … experiences change you, Xavier, of course they do."
"‘I don’t blame you.’ She shook her head. ‘It was my choice to take on the role. It helped me survive, bury my own pain.’"
"You and Mum and Dad aren’t even my real family!"
"I think we should have a party, chérie. What do you think?"
"‘I can’t believe Mum didn’t give birth to me,’ she whispered, ‘just some complete stranger.’"
"You are not happy, are you, Julia? Please tell me why."
"I’m sorry, Alicia, I really am. I didn’t realise."
"We loved each other – do love each other – whatever our true blood may be."