Penelope Featherington Quotes

Lady Whistledown: Suffice it to say, this author is captivated. For in the battle between man and nature, it is quite clear that the battle is, in fact, between man… and himself.

Penelope Featherington: It does not bother you that I do not wish to spend my time exploring the wilds of nature?

Alfred Debling: Heavens, no. If I only ever talked about nature, my dinner party invitations would cease altogether. I do not wish to court someone exactly like myself. I want to be with someone who knows who they are and embraces their own peculiarity, as I do. As I believe you do as well.

Penelope Featherington: The person I was earlier today… I was pretending to be someone I am not. And I do not wish to do that anymore. The person that I am, I’m someone who enjoys society and gossip, even if I do occasionally hide at a soirée. I am someone who enjoys a good book more than exploring the natural world, someone… who does enjoy watching birds, but specifically from the windowsill, I’m… someone who is overexplaining themselves at the moment.

Alfred Debling (smiles): How many yous are there, exactly? And where do you hide them all?

Alfred Debling (about Whistledown): Has she written about you?

Penelope Featherington: She has.

Alfred Debling: And of what did she write?

Penelope Featherington: That I enlisted an eligible male friend to help me find a husband.

Alfred Debling: I say. Well done.

Penelope Featherington: For being a fool?

Alfred Debling: For stepping away from the herd, even though you risked becoming a target. Just like him. (points at deer hunting trophy)

Penelope Featherington: He is dead.

Alfred Debling: True. But at least he got to come to the party.

Penelope Featherington: A rather dull one, if I am honest. Forgive me. I should not have said that.

Alfred Debling: Do not apologize. In fact, I find your frankness immensely refreshing.

Penelope Featherington: I can offer you social contagion in exchange.

Alfred Debling: You must’ve done something truly heinous. I’ve foregone eating the flesh of dead animals, and they barely tolerate me for that great sin.

Alfred Debling: Are you enjoying the party?

Penelope Featherington: Immensely. And yourself?

Alfred Debling: Rather. Besides the fact that I am feeling a little like… well, prey.

Penelope Featherington: So you’ve come to my hiding place. Welcome. Although, typically, only abject failures and social outcasts are allowed.

Alfred Debling: You’ll not take pity on a hunted man?

Penelope Featherington: Unfortunately, I require all pity for myself.

Lady Whistledown: Though other young ladies may scramble for Miss Francesca’s leftovers, they would be wise to remember the higher one flies, the further one has to fall.

Lady Whistledown: Perhaps a return to the shadows is for the best. After all, a small taste of the light can lead to that most dangerous of emotions. Hope. And once hope is lost, a lady may become reckless.