“Mother and Father both say we should be proud of achievement. They say it’s an inbred fault of the English to underestimate themselves. Their favourite sin is ‘pride that apes humility.‘”
“I don’t want to seem boastful, but I got it absolutely perfect the first try: tone, pitch, everything. There was no doubt whatsoever that I was destined for a glittering, brilliant career in the theatre.”
″‘But I vote we’re not allowed to vote for ourselves because my father says it’s swanking to blow your own trumpet.’
‘All right, then. I’ll blow your trumpet, if you blow mine.‘”
“She knew she was a comfort, and docile, because she’d heard her mother say so. And the others knew she was, too, by now, because ever since that day Katharine would keep boasting about what a comfort she was, and how docile, until Jane declared she would utter a piercing shriek and fall over dead if she heard another word about it.”
″ ‘I don’t care who marriage-ring it was,’ cries Angelica. ‘Marry the person who picks it up if she’s a woman; you shan’t marry ME. And give me back MY ring. I’ve no patience with people who boast about the things they give away! I know who’ll give me much finer things than you ever gave me, A beggarly ring indeed, not worth five shillings!’ ”