The Case of the Counterfeit Eye Quotes

“Perry Mason turned his back to the morning sunlight which streaked in through the windows of his private office and regarded the pile of unanswered mail with a frown.

'I hate this office routine,' he said.

Della Street, his secretary, glanced up at him with eyes that contained a glint of amusement in their cool, steady depths. Her smile was tolerant.

'I presume,' she said, 'having just emerged from one murder case, you'd like another.'

'Not necessarily a murder case,' he told her, 'but a good fight in front of a jury. I like dramatic murder trials, where the prosecution explodes an unexpected bomb under me, and, while I'm whirling through the air, I try to figure how I'm going to light on my feet when I come down... What about this chap with the glass eye?'

'Mr. Peter Brunold,' she said. 'He's waiting for you in the outer office. I told him you'd probably delegate his case to an assistant. He said he'd either see you or no one.'

'What does he look like?'

'He's about forty, with lots of black, curly hair. He has an air of distinction about him and he looks as though he'd suffered. He's the type of man you'd pick for a poet. There's something peculiar in his expression, a soulful, sensitive something. You'll like him, but he's the type that would make business for you, if you ask me-a romantic dreamer who would commit an emotional murder if he felt circumstances required him to do it.'

'You can readily detect the glass eye?' Mason inquired.

'I can't detect it at all,' she said, shaking her head. 'I always thought I could tell an artificial eye as far as I could see one, but I'd never know there was anything wrong with Mr. Brunold's eye.'

'Just what was it he told you about his eye?'

'He said he had a complete set of eyes-one for morning-one for evening-one slightly bloodshot-one...'

Perry Mason smacked his fist against his palm. His eyes glinted.

'Take away that bunch of mail, Della,' he commanded, 'and send in the man with the glass eye. I've fought will contests, tried suits for slander, libel, alienation of affections, and personal injuries, but I'm darned if I've ever had a case involving a glass eye, and this is going to be where I begin. Send him in.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Counterfeit Eye

“he’ll have to cut out all of his gambling associations. He’ll have to tell the court who got this money and what was done with it. He’ll have to quit acting the part of a spoiled kid with an indulgent sister, and learn to stand on his own two feet, and it may make a man of him.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Counterfeit Eye

“He hasn’t got guts enough to go out and do it by hard work. Therefore, he does it with talk and by trying to take short cuts. When things go wrong, he feels sorry for himself and wants someone to listen to his tale of woe. When he has a little spurt of good fortune, he patronizes all of his friends and starts to strut. Then the next time he gets a body blow, he caves in and crawls all over the place, trying to put his head in your lap and sob out his troubles, while you run your fingers through his hair, tell him you’ll protect him and that it will be all right.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Counterfeit Eye

“Talk is cheap. But, it’s the only coin he’s got with which to pay anyone anything. He hypnotizes himself into believing that he’s going to do what he says he’s going to do. But he hasn’t got guts enough to go out and do it. He doesn’t intend to get a job. He intends to get some more money from you in order to play a ‘sure thing.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Counterfeit Eye