Jacqueline Bisset credited as playing...
Isabella
- Mary Bassett: You seem well.
- Isabella: Well enough.
- Mary Bassett: You have your health.
- Isabella: How long can we expect to indulge in these pleasantries?
- Mary Bassett: If you prefer we can dispense with them immediately.
- Isabella: What is it you require?
- Mary Bassett: Require?
- Isabella: Money.
- Mary Bassett: I require nothing.
- Isabella: Your husband is kidnapped, and you without the means to pay the rent.
- Mary Bassett: My husband is dead.
- Isabella: All that talk of wild animals and gypsies, it seemed you had become unhinged. I could not very well have that on my conscience, could I.
- Mary Bassett: This letter, may I see it?
- [Isabella reaches for the letter and Mary notices the children hiding at the door, her suspicions making sense]
- Mary Bassett: These are difficult times, I am not always in my right mind.
- [reading letter]
- Mary Bassett: ... kidnapped by gypsies... live like wild animals...
- [speaking to her mother]
- Mary Bassett: It seems I have overstated my case.
- Solomon Bassett: [he and Pru are watching through a crack in the door] What's she doing?
- Isabella: [opens the door and finds them] As a rule it is advisable not to spy. In some countries they gouge out your eyes.
- Isabella: You are well informed.
- Mrs. Hopkins: Oh dear, and you, Mrs. Caldwell, are most fortunate to have had such a husband!
- Isabella: I find liberty to be a better husband than he was.
- Isabella: Speaking of silk, Mrs. Hopkins, what exactly is the substance of your attire? It's so original.
- Mrs. Hopkins: This, uh, it's flaxen.
- Isabella: Flaxen? Isn't that what the poor eat for breakfast?
- [awkward silence and she looks to Mary]
- Isabella: Is it?
- Mr. Hopkins: Mrs. Hopkins is in mourning.
- Mary Bassett: She lost three sons to scarlet fever five years ago.
- Isabella: I'm sorry.
- Mrs. Hopkins: After that I just can't wear anything too fancy.
- Isabella: Mrs. Hopkins, if I might suggest, why don't you let a little joy back into your life? You have a wonderful son home after five years, you should celebrate, have a party, with flowers and music.
- Isabella: [Tilly enters Isabella's room] Knocking is always good.
- Mathilda Bassett: [Tilly closes the door behind her] I know why my mother doesn't want you here.
- Isabella: Is that right?
- Mathilda Bassett: You're not nice. You made fun of Mrs. Hopkins and you insulted my family. My father was not a vagrant.
- Isabella: Is there some reason you feel compelled to discuss this with me?
- Mathilda Bassett: Because I brought you here. I wrote that letter.
- Isabella: You did?
- Mathilda Bassett: Yes.
- Isabella: [laughing] Well. That explains it. Gypsies. How marvelous.
- Mathilda Bassett: I suppose you'll want to go.
- Isabella: No. I have just found a reason to stay.
- Mathilda Bassett: Many people were improved by my father. Gad says he could reform the worst cynic in the world.
- Isabella: Shall I add cynic to my list of virtues?
- Mathilda Bassett: That's up to you.
- Isabella: How did he die?
- Mathilda Bassett: Working the fields. Mr. Yule found him crushed by a tree.
- Isabella: You must miss him.
- Mathilda Bassett: My father said everything is a lesson from which we ultimately profit.
- Isabella: Still, you have a right to complain.
- Mathilda Bassett: [after catching Isabella reading her writings] You hated it.
- Isabella: I didn't say that.
- Mathilda Bassett: You didn't say anything.
- Isabella: It is quite lively.
- Mathilda Bassett: Lively.
- Isabella: Spirited.
- Mathilda Bassett: You did hate it.
- Isabella: I... like your people.
- Mathilda Bassett: You don't find them dull and ordinary?
- Isabella: There is nothing ordinary about you or your people.
- Mathilda Bassett: What on earth are you doing?
- Gad Hopkins: I had a grand time last night.
- Mathilda Bassett: So did I.
- Gad Hopkins: Come to tea?
- Mathilda Bassett: Have you gone insane?
- Isabella: I hope you don't treat all your suitors this way. Don't blame the poor boy. The idea was completely mine.
- Solomon Bassett: [Watching Isabella's stitching efforts] Not like that.
- Isabella: Not like how?
- Solomon Bassett: Like how you're doing it.
- Isabella: Patience, child. You must allow an old woman to find her way.
- [Solomon snatches it away and does it himself]
- Isabella: Perhaps patience is overrated as a virtue after all.
- Isabella: You're not like me, Mary. You won't fail her if you let go.
- Mary Bassett: I'm more like you than I thought. Going after you like that.
- Isabella: Well I'm glad to know you have some fight in you.
- Solomon Bassett: Why did it bite you?
- Isabella: It appears to have not liked the feathers in my hat. Camels are notoriously fussy.
- Mary Bassett: Ellis always said, life's purpose is greater than our imagination.
- Isabella: I was wrong about him. About everything. Please forgive me.
- Isabella: You could have had anything you wanted: best education, tours of Europe, personal acquaintance with well-bred men and women...
- Mary Bassett: Money is the only thing you could imagine wanting, isn't it?
- Isabella: I feared it would come to this.
- Mary Bassett: You have no idea what it has come to!
- Isabella: Ellis Basset was a vagrant! A vagrant!
- Mary Bassett: He was the finest man I ever met in my life! I pity you and all your well-bred friends!
- Isabella: You never did like parties. They'd always find you hiding somewhere. Under the piano, in the coat closet. Tilly's doing beautifully. You should see her.
- Mary Bassett: You shouldn't have given her the dress.
- Isabella: Poverty was your choice, not hers.
- Mary Bassett: I don't want her regretting what isn't within her means.
- Isabella: She can have whatever she wants.
- Mary Bassett: Not from you.
- Isabella: So you continue to punish me for wanting you a better husband.
- Mary Bassett: Oh, tell the truth! When I left with Ellis you were relieved.
- Isabella: Don't be ridiculous.
- Mary Bassett: Why didn't you stop me then?
- Isabella: You made your choice.
- Mary Bassett: There was no choice! You never wanted me. My whole childhood I saw you fewer times than some people see distant friends.
- Isabella: You embellish.
- Mary Bassett: When you did come I was kept out of sight by my governess who was quick to remind me I must keep my distance or run the risk of shortening your stay.
- Isabella: You had everything as a child. Complete freedom.
- Mary Bassett: Freedom is not what a child needs!
- Isabella: You were no comfort. From the moment you were born I felt your judgment.
- Mary Bassett: Judgment? I was a baby! How could I judge you?
- Isabella: Was I to grovel for your approval?
- Mary Bassett: Oh. So, deprived of approval from me, you will take it from Tilly? I have lost much this past year, I do not wish to lose my daughter as well.
- Isabella: It's not wrong what you did today. Your mother is a person of unflagging piety. It might not be possible to equal her.
- Mathilda Bassett: Maybe we should try.
- Isabella: Why does Thanksgiving matter so much to you?
- Solomon Bassett: Because it's how I'll know we're all right.
- Isabella: Sweetheart, we are *more* than all right.
- Mathilda Bassett: Why are you telling me this?
- Isabella: So you won't make the mistake of excusing me. Telling yourself, as I did, that it could not have been helped.