The Complete Works of Mary Elizabeth Braddon Quotes

“There was sufficient left, however, of the liveliness of a long time ago to give an air of ghastly mirth to the old woman’s manner, which made that manner extremely repulsive. What can be more repulsive than old age, which, shorn of the beauties and graces, is yet not purified from the follies or the vices of departed youth?”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, The Works of M. E. Braddon

“The law, which even in those hard days — popularly known as the good old times, by the way — was supposed to regard an accused person as innocent until his or her guilt was duly established, did not afford the suspected individual much opportunity of proving that innocence. The prisoner’s counsel was not allowed to plead for his client.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, The Works of M. E. Braddon

“He’s sittin’ with his back to the door: if somebody could go behind him sudden with a kitchen poker,” added the innkeeper, looking thoughtfully at Sarah’s stout arm; “but then,” he continued, reflectively, “there’d be the body; and that would be against it. If you come to think of it, the leading inconvenience of a murder is that there’s generally a body. But I suppose it’s only right it should be so; for if it wasn’t for bodies, murders would be uncommon easy.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, The Works of M. E. Braddon

“The past is all forgiven long ago, dear Ringwood,” said his sister earnestly; “it would be ill for brother and sister if the love between them could not outlive old injuries, and be the brighter and the truer for old sorrows.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, The Works of M. E. Braddon

“There was something wrong in that, Master Darrell,” she said reproachfully. “There was a gay wedding a year ago at Compton church, and very grand and very handsome everything was; and sure the bride looked very lovely; but one thing was wrong, and that was the bridegroom.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, The Works of M. E. Braddon

“It may be, that the hour when any event, however startling, however painful, could move her from this cold serenity, had for ever passed away. It may be, that having outlived all the happiness of her life, she had almost outlived the faculty of feeling or of suffering, and must henceforth exist only for the world — a distinguished actress in the great comedy of fashionable life.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, The Works of M. E. Braddon