The Visitors Quotes

“Milly took the hand held out to her, which was small, warm and chubby, the fingers armoured with rings...This was one of those well-preserved old things whose age it was impossible to guess; her cheeks pink and powdery and her white hair prettily arranged with a bang of fluffy curls in the front. The smile, Milly noticed, did not extend to the eyes, which were round and innocent, in color baby-blue; there was a twinkle in them, certainly, but they remained nevertheless quite frosty. Standing on tiptoe to reach Milly's ear, she whispered:
'I am the Princess Rapovska!”
― Mary McMinnies, The Visitors

“You drowse off and then you wake, you think - what was that, that woke me up? Oh you're quite wide awake - but you haven't heard it yet, that's the point. Why is my heart beating so fast - you say - why are the shadows so hard and strange? They've moved, everything seems to have moved, the garden itself has changed. And you don't hear the bees, or the voices, or the dog barking - it's silent, dreadfully silent, d'you see, because - because you're listening for one thing - the sound that woke you up. And then you hear it. A cock crowing. Such a - what was it, your word, Sophie? Such a chill sound - like steel slipping between your ribs.”
― Mary McMinnies, The Visitors

“...In any case there had been no cause for panic, she beetled up the stairs under her own steam and it was all he could do to keep up with her. It was at the top of the stairs, along the corridor, that the situation became dicey. She'll pass out here, he thought and then I'll have had it. He tried to coax her down towards the kitchen door but her condition appeared to deteriorate as they approached. She ricocheted from wall to wall; sometimes he would manage to get a grip on her, when she would slump, slide out of his grasp and go hurtling off again like a cannonball, until she came slap up against a wall, which would send her off in the opposite direction.”
― Mary McMinnies, The Visitors

“...About Mrs. Simpson there had clung an aura of success. Big and bullying, and lethargic, too, she had been as confident, and as impervious to life's shoves, as a plump tabby cat on top of the garden wall. You could no more imagine her coming to grief than you could imagine that cat going unfed.”
― Mary McMinnies, The Visitors

“Oh, s'nothing - je vous assure - a pleasure to spend a little time with you - un petit plaisir pour vous aussi, n'est-ce pas?' She whipped off her spectacles. 'Wha's come?'

If the words were like bullets, then suddenly turning and meeting the eyes of the princess was like looking down the muzzle from which they had been fired.”
― Mary McMinnies, The Visitors

“A pervasive aura of mouthwash, talcum powder and other virile perfumes hung about his immaculate person, their combined fragrance so delicately impersonal, yet functional, as to hint rather at the embalmer's stock in trade...Certainly as at first encounter with any richly upholstered, well-preserved man, one had the fancy -- instantly to suppress it, of course -- that although his might prove an uncommonly troublesome corpse to lay out, the worms were in for a treat.”
― Mary McMinnies, The Visitors

“The doors of the church on the corner stood open; the church was always crowded but this evening the people overflowed down the steps into the street, kneeling pressed together, women mostly, all in black, black shawls thrown over their heads. In passing she glimpsed the altar, a blaze of candle flame and tinsel against the shadows, mysterious, remote, set apart from the seething black mass of worshippers, magnificent as a medallion on velvet, untouchable behind stout wire mesh; a dream, not for the possessing, and better so, better sighed over, prayed for, dreamed of, better at a distance, to remain a mystery, a legend, in order to be of real and permanent comfort in distress.”
― Mary McMinnies, The Visitors

“The apartment smelt like all Central European apartments, of mothballs, beeswax, sour cabbage, damp woolen underpants, at least one tomcat, geraniums, prayer books and mice.”
― Mary McMinnies, The Visitors

“Leaning back against a log, stretching her arms along it, the excitement flowing right down into her fingertips, she dug her nails into the bark; it was soft and rotten, covered with mould. Sniffing her fingers, all streaked with mould, mould under the nails, she thought she had never smelt anything so delicious. The smell of earth and of the grass and of the trees, all quite pleasant smells but too fresh, too innocent, too vernal; no, there had to be just this rich sweet smell of corruption mixed in to give complete satisfaction, this hint of autumn and decay.”
― Mary McMinnies, The Visitors

“You dance?' murmured a gaunt predatory-looking creature, purposefully bandaging a length of chiffon round her throat. 'Come,' and seized him boldly forthwith. He suffered himself to be led into the labyrinth, from which, enmeshed in her draperies, clasped against her bony chest, their knees clashing together like castanets, there was no immediate escape.”
― Mary McMinnies, The Visitors

“The role of conspirator, Milly recognized with almost a sense of relief, suited Gisela admirably; she fell into it not merely with ease, but as to the manner born. Anyway it was preferable to her previous one, Cinderella, Orphan of the Storm, or whatever it was meant to be, which was clearly a phony. Stuffing the bag under her apron as if it contained contraband, Gisela belted off at the double down the corridor.”
― Mary McMinnies, The Visitors

“She was leaving the room when Milly called her back. Gisela stopped in her tracks, swiveled round and almost seemed to take off, so swiftly did she glide to the side of the bed, where she stood clasping her hands, quivering with eagerness. Larry grinned to himself, thinking, she'll have to snap out of that trick. It's too nerve-wracking at dawn.”
― Mary McMinnies, The Visitors