- Miss Grant: Who is this young man anyway?
- Gladys Russell: Archie Baldwin. He's very respectable. His grandfather was an ambassador. His father is a banker, and so is he. His mother's people came over on the "Mayflower."
- Miss Grant: Hmm, if everyone who claimed to be on the "Mayflower" really was, it would have to be the size of a White Star liner.
- Bannister: Today's young live for pleasure. You don't know what hard work is.
- Mrs. Bauer: And we don't know what fun is.
- Oscar Van Rhijn: Oh, I'm dining with Larry Russell.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: Where?
- Oscar Van Rhijn: At his parents' house, of course.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: When you say those words, you stab me in the side.
- Oscar Van Rhijn: Then it's lucky you have the skin of a rhinoceros.
- Marian Brook: Of course we can't meet in a hotel. For coffee or anything else.
- Tom Raikes: You don't seem to me to be a person governed by petty rules.
- Marian Brook: Not governed, I hope. But I must live in the same world as everyone else.
- Charles Fane: You've made your point, Mr. Russell. We've taken you for a fool when it is we who are the fools.
- George Russell: I won't fight you on that one.
- George Russell: I don't suggest that you men committed every crime that I'm avenging here. But to employ a modern phrase, I'm afraid you must face the music.
- Charles Fane: If he keeps going, I'll lose everything I own.
- Aurora Fane: We! We will lose everything we own.
- Peggy Scott: It's from the publisher of "The Christian Advocate."
- Armstrong: Why is he writing you?
- Peggy Scott: He wants to meet to discuss publishing some of my short stories.
- Bridget: What? I've never known anyone who's had something published in the paper.
- Armstrong: Why should you care? You don't read.
- Ada Brook: Of course you're joking, but you make me tremble.
- Cornelius Eckhard: I know better. Miss Ada Brook would never tremble. She'd always fight for any cause she believed in.
- Ada Brook: You may have confused me with my sister.
- Publishing House Secretary: But you never mentioned you were... I'm not sure we can see you today.
- Peggy Scott: But Mr. Carlton's letter said he wanted to meet.
- Publishing House Secretary: What is it you expect of us?
- Peggy Scott: I'd like your editor to publish my short stories. Wasn't that clear?
- Publishing House Secretary: In "The Christian Advocate"? Really?
- Peggy Scott: Is there a rule against publishing the work of people like me?
- Publishing House Secretary: Well, not a rule.
- Peggy Scott: I read your magazine a lot. I like your editorials. And I liked a recent article about the importance of equal rights. I want to test it.
- Bertha Russell: So what is it you want me to do?
- Anne Morris: I want you to ask him to show a little pity. To show mercy.
- Bertha Russell: Forgive me, but this is in payment for what?
- Anne Morris: I don't understand.
- Bertha Russell: You come into my house, you make this strange request, and I'm trying to establish why. Do you feel I owe a debt of gratitude? Have you granted me a favor that merits a return?
- Anne Morris: No...
- Bertha Russell: No. Mrs. Morris, I hesitate to teach the basics, but life is like a bank account. You cannot write a check without first making a deposit.
- Marian Brook: He proposed. I'm quite breathless.
- Peggy Scott: What did you answer?
- Marian Brook: Nothing. Nothing of any purpose.
- Peggy Scott: You didn't tell him no?
- Marian Brook: I didn't tell him anything.
- Peggy Scott: But you didn't tell him no.
- Tom Raikes: And if it's devotion you need to be sure of, then I can say, hand on heart, there is no man living who cares more for you than I. Let me spend what remains to me of life in the sole cause of making you happy.
- Marian Brook: Mr. Raikes, we've only met a handful of times.
- Tom Raikes: You see, for me, I knew at once. When you came to my office for help that time. I could have ask you then, but... now I'll keep on asking until you say no.
- Marian Brook: What if I say yes?
- Tom Raikes: Then I'll stop.
- Patrick Morris: You have to go to Mrs. Russell. Ask her forgiveness. Call, grovel, kiss her feet. Do what you have to do to get her to stop him.
- Anne Morris: Patrick, you can't ask that of me.
- Patrick Morris: I'm not asking you. I'm telling you.
- Marian Brook: But what is the point of shutting out these men and their families when they could probably build an opera house that's 20 times better than the one we have now?
- Mrs. Astor: A group of new people mean to challenge the Academy of Music and create another opera house.
- Aurora Fane: They can't.
- Anne Morris: They think they can. They met at Delmonico's last week and decided that since they weren't allowed boxes at the Academy, they were going to build their own house.
- Aurora Fane: Do we know of whom this group of malcontents consists?
- Anne Morris: The usual. JP Morgan, of course. The Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts. Every opportunist in New York.
- Mrs. Astor: My lips are sealed.
- Aurora Fane: No wonder they couldn't get a box at the Academy.
- Carlton: Your name is fine. It does not suggest anything about your background, so we can keep it. But your race would have to remain concealed.
- Peggy Scott: How would that work?
- Carlton: We'd have you sign a document that you accept our policy, which would prevent you from divulging publicly that you are the writer of any stories we might publish.
- Peggy Scott: My own stories?
- Carlton: Once we buy them, they would be ours. So... you understand what I'm saying?
- Peggy Scott: I think so.
- Carlton: Good.
- Peggy Scott: "The Christian Advocate" is asking me to lie.
- Carlton: It's the best arrangement I can offer. You'd be paid handsomely. More than you could make at any colored publication.
- Peggy Scott: I realize that.
- Carlton: There at least two white men sitting at a bar around the corner drinking away their sorrows because I turned them down. They'd kill to be in your position.
- Peggy Scott: But they'd never be in my position.
- Ada Brook: Oh, look. Miss Russell is going out.
- Marian Brook: With her wretched governess. How can she stand it?
- Agnes Van Rhijn: I will not criticize Mrs. Russell for her only virtue. At least she keeps her daughter under control.
- Marian Brook: Under arrest, more like.
- George Russell: What are you trying to tell me?
- Patrick Morris: There's no need to talk as if I were your chauffeur.
- George Russell: When I've finished, you'll wish you were my chauffeur.
- Anne Morris: Mr. Morris tells me Mr. Russell has insulted him disgracefully.
- Marian Brook: What? Why?
- Anne Morris: Why? Because he is not a gentleman, my dear, as I keep telling you.
- Marian Brook: There may be another side to it.
- Aurora Fane: You are too reasonable to live.
- Gladys Russell: The thing is, I have a favor to ask.
- George Russell: You mean you want something and you haven't asked your mother.
- Gladys Russell: He's quite respectable. A forebear on his mother's side as an officer at the battle of Yorktown.
- Bertha Russell: Indeed.
- Larry Russell: Did your ancestors fight at Yorktown, Mother? Or were they too busy digging potatoes in Kerry?
- George Russell: You will be civil to your mother. Remember, her ancestors are your ancestors too.
- Oscar Van Rhijn: The United Manhattan Trust was founded in 1797 by Arnold van Rhijn, among others. We've been at it ever since.
- Bertha Russell: I see. What a wonderful tradition.
- Larry Russell: So you don't have to waste your time worrying about what you want to do. It's already decided.
- Tom Raikes: What a wonderful surprise.
- Marian Brook: Don't worry, I'm not staying.
- Tom Raikes: Then it's a little less wonderful.
- Arthur Scott: I thought it was time the mountain came to Mohammed.
- Peggy Scott: I've been here awhile.
- Arthur Scott: But not long enough to come and see your father.
- Peggy Scott: I don't want to quarrel.
- Arthur Scott: I won't quarrel if you won't.
- Mrs. Bruce: I may be imagining it, but I think Mr. Watson has a soft spot for you.
- Turner: Then he's wasting his time. I've got bigger plans than a broken-down old valet.
- Mrs. Bruce: That seems rather cruel.
- Turner: Life can be cruel, Mrs. Bruce. But I mean to get the better of it.
- George Russell: There are moments, my dear, when you are quite marvelous.
- Bertha Russell: Hmm. Useless, each without the other.
- Aurora Fane: Why couldn't you see it coming?
- Charles Fane: Because it's always worked before.
- Aurora Fane: Then why isn't it working this time?
- Charles Fane: Russell has more money than God.
- George Russell: I thought you were honorable men. Not too honorable to miss the chance of a fat buck, of course, but not greedy, dirty thieves.
- Patrick Morris: You saw the fun he had destroying your bazaar. Well, now he has the chance to destroy your family.
- George Russell: Where's Gladys?
- Bertha Russell: She went out with Miss Grant. Why?
- George Russell: It isn't right, you know. Miss Grant may be nice, but she's a jailer. And Gladys is a grown woman whether you like it or not. Girls get married at her age.
- Bertha Russell: And live to regret it.
- Marian Brook: It's from Mr. Raikes. He got the job he was here to interview for, so he's living in New York.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: And what is that to you?
- Marian Brook: You can't ask me to cut him dead.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: My dear, should you meet Mr. Raikes in the street, then of course not. But I suggest only that you do not seek him out. He is not fit to be one of your circle. He is not a suitable companion, that is all.
- Marian Brook: All? It seems like a great deal to me. I do not wish to marry Mr. Raikes.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: Then we have no quarrel.
- George Russell: Gladys must make friends, Bertha.
- Bertha Russell: Mr. Baldwin is not what we want.
- George Russell: How do you know?
- Bertha Russell: Because he's not what I want.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: Anyway, Eckhard had no money, which did not endear him to Papa. No money and no prospects.
- Ada Brook: I'm afraid not.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: I wonder what he wants now.
- Marian Brook: He's lonely. He's just arrived in the city, and he hopes to find some old friends.
- Agnes Van Rhijn: So all this time, he's dreamed of seeing Ada again?
- Ada Brook: There's no need to be unkind.
- Marian Brook: Maybe he has dreamed of seeing Aunt Ada. What's wrong with that?
- Peggy Scott: The worst part is, my father was right. Now he'll gloat and insist that I come and work for him.
- Marian Brook: But you have a job.
- Peggy Scott: It doesn't matter. His way and his word trumps anything I say or want to do, at least in his mind.
- Jack Treacher: I thought we might stop for an ice cream, maybe? Or just a cup of coffee?
- Bridget: You heard Mr. Bannister. We're to go straight back. The curfew's at 10:00.
- Jack Treacher: They don't own us, Bridget.
- Peggy Scott: And the job allows me time to write.
- Arthur Scott: I don't know why you're bothering with that. There aren't any colored writers, especially women writers, who can make a living wage.
- Marian Brook: It seems mad to me not to take Mrs. Russell's money when she has so much of it to give.
- Ada Brook: Well...
- Marian Brook: Or Mrs. Chamberlain's, for that matter, whatever her past.
- Ada Brook: You may have a point when it comes to Mrs. Russell but not with Mrs. Chamberlain.
- Marian Brook: No? They say she's very rich, too, and that she has a real interest in charitable causes.
- Ada Brook: It may be so, but there are limits.
- Anne Morris: It seems that Patrick and the other aldermen have miscalculated. They thought the stock would go down. But they have gone up.
- Bertha Russell: You have neatly encapsulated the nature of dealing in stock. You try to guess which way they'll go. If you're right, you make money. And if you get it wrong, you don't.
- Patrick Morris: If you want me to kneel, I'll kneel. If you want me to beg, I am begging now. We've already lost enough to make us poor. But if it goes on for much longer, there are some among us facing ruin. Please! End it.