It often seems to me that's all detective work is, wiping out your false starts and beginning again." Yes, it is very true, that. And it is just what some people will not do. They conceive a certain theory, and everything has to fit into that theory. If one little fact will not fit it, they throw it aside. But it is always the facts that will not fit in that are significant.

... there are many to whom money has no personal appeal, but who can be tempted by the power it confers.

When the fact doesn't meet the theory then let go the theory.

One knows so little. When one knows more it is too late.

All I needed was a steady table and a typewriter...a marble-topped bedroom washstand table made a good place; the dining-room table between meals was also suitable.

The point is that one's got an instinct to live. One doesn't live because one's reason assents to living. People who, as we say, 'would be better dead' don't want to die! People who apparently have everything to live for just let themselves fade out of life because they haven't got the energy to fight.

Mr. Jesmond made a peculiar noise rather like a hen who has decided to lay an egg and then thought better of it.