Wise old bird

     "She might have found out who Murbles was. The advertisement which started the whole business was in his name, you know."

    "In that case, why hasn't she attacked Murbles or you?"

    "Murbles is a wise old bird. In vain are nets spread in his sight. He is seeing no female clients, answering no invitations, and never goes out without an escort."

    "I didn't know he took it so seriously."

    "Oh, yes. Murbles is old enough to have learnt the value of his own skin."

(from Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers)

No Adolphuses

     "By the way," he said to Miss Climpson, "you had better explain me in some way to Mrs. Budge, or she may be a bit inquisitive."

    "But I have," replied Miss Climpson, with an engaging giggle, "when Mrs.  Budge said there was a Mr. Parker to see me, of course I realized at once that she mustn't know who you were, so I said, quite quickly, 'Mr. Parker! Oh, that must be my nephew Adolphus.' You don't mind being Adolphus, do you? It's funny, but that was was the only name that came into my mind at the moment. I can't think why, for I've never known an Adolphus."

(from Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers)

Make it simpler

     "The new Act makes inheritance on intestacy very much simpler," said Mr. Murbles, setting his knife and fork together, placing both elbows on the table and laying the index-finger of his right hand against his left thumb in a gesture of tabulation.

    "I bet it does," interpolated Wimsey. "I know what an Act to make things simpler means. It means that the people who drew it up don't understand it themselves and that every one of its clauses needs a law-suit to disentangle it."

(from Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers)

Just flat lost

    "I think this must be Brushwood Cross," resumed Parker, who had the map on his knee. "If so, and if it's not Covert Corner, which I thought we passed half an hour ago, one of these roads leads directly to Crofton."

    "That would be highly encouraging if we only knew which road we were on."

    "We can always try them in turn, and come back if we find we're going wrong."

    "They bury suicides at cross-roads," replied Wimsey, dangerously.

    "There's a man sitting under that tree," pursued Parker. "We can ask him."

    "He's lost his way too, or he wouldn't be sitting there," retorted the other. "People don't sit about in the rain for fun."

(from Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers) 

Never been poor

     "Teach the young woman not to be so mercenary," retorted Wimsey, with the cheerful brutality of the man who has never in his life been short of money.

(from Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Lord Peter Wimsey was the brother of a Duke.)

Waiters have what it takes

     "What is it, Mrs. Cropper?" said Lord Peter's voice in her ear. "Did you think you recognized somebody?"

    "You're a noticing one, aren't you?" said Mrs. Cropper. "Make a good waiter - you would - not meaning any offense, sir, that a real compliment from one who knows."

(from Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers)

Let it lie where it is

     A curious intent look came into her eyes. Parker could not place it, but Wimsey recognized it instantly. He had seen it last on the face of a great financier as he took up his pen to sign a contract. Wimsey had been called to witness the signature, and had refused. It was a contract that ruined thousands of people. Incidentally, the financier had been murdered soon after, and Wimsey had declined to investigate the matter, with a sentence from Dumas: "Let pass the justice of God."

(from Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers)

Casual about death

     "There are very few houses in which somebody hadn't died sometime or other," said Miss Whittaker. "I really can't see why people should worry about it. I suppose it's just a question of not realizing. We are not sensitive to the past lives of people we don't know. Just as we are much less upset about epidemics and accidents that happen a long way off."

(from Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers)

How to write books

 "After all, it isn't really difficult to write books. Especially if you either write a rotten story in good English or a good story in rotten English, which is as far as most people seem to get nowadays. Don't you agree?"

(from Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers)

Porcupines

    "Of course, there's nothing new under the sun, as Solomon said, but after all, I daresay all those wives and porcupines, as the child said, must have soured his disposition a little, don't you know."

(from Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers) 

Shindy

 In her novel, Unnatural Death, Dorothy L. Sayers uses the word "shindy." That was a new one to me. It means "a noisy disturbance or quarrel."

Lord Peter's personality

     "Do carry on. Have something to drink. It's a poor heart that never rejoices. And begin right at the beginning, if you will, please. I have a very trivial mind. Detail delights me. Ramifications enchant me. Distance no object. No reasonable offer refused."

(from Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers)

Nerves and nose

     "Peter [Lord Peter Wimsey], I am glad to say takes after his mother and me. True, he is all nerves and nose - but that is better than being all brawn and no brains like his father and brother, or a bundle of emotions, like Gerald's boy, Saint-George."

I liked that expression: "All nerves and nose." Being British, that probably would have been true of Lord Peter.

(from Unnatural Death, by Dorothy Sayers)

Not impressed

     Red Dolan had seen them come and go, and when a youngster walked up to his bar, Dolan could almost tell within a few months how long he would last. The would-be tough ones rarely lasted long enough to have to shave more than once a week.

(from Flint, by Louis L'Amour)