Quotes from At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell
‘Good evening, Smith,’ said Lovell, rather grandly. ‘’Evening,’ said Smith, speaking without the smallest suggestion of warmth. ‘How are you, Smith?’ Smith looked Lovell up and down as if he considered the enquiry not merely silly, but downright insulting. He did not answer. ‘Is her Ladyship upstairs?’ ‘Where do you think she’d be—in the basement?’ . I am more and more coming to think that Smith is more trouble than he is worth. It’s convenient to have a manservant in the house, but I found this morning we were completely out of gin, and I know at least two inches remained in the bottle left when we went to bed last night.’ ‘Sherry, m’lord?’ It was impossible to tell from Smith’s vacant, irascible stare whether he had never before been asked for sherry since his first employment at Thrubworth; or whether he had himself, quite simply, drunk all the sherry that remained. Erridge’s voice admitted the exceptional nature of the enquiry. He asked a...