How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Act.Scene)
Quote #7
Lady Croom: It is a defect of God's humour that he directs our hearts everywhere but to those who have a right to them. (2.6)
Lady Croom's assertion that sexual attraction is so nonsensical even God can't figure it out sounds kind of similar to her descendant Chloë's thoughts on a similar subject (see below) – we wonder whether the characters who are less serially monogamous think differently.
Quote #8
Septimus: But is Mr Chater deceived?
Lady Croom: He insists on it, and finds the proof of his wife's virtue in his eagerness to defend it. Captain Brice is not deceived but cannot help himself. He would die for her. (2.6)
Again love, sex, or some combination of the two triumphs over reason. Even though Captain Brice knows with his head that Mrs. Chater would drop him like a overheated Hot Pocket if something better came along, he can't help loving her.
Quote #9
Septimus: My lady, I was alone with my thoughts in the gazebo, when Mrs Chater ran me to ground, and I being in such a passion, in an agony of unrelieved desire --
Lady Croom: Oh . . . !
Septimus: -- I thought in my madness that the Chater with her skirts over her head would give me the momentary illusion of the happiness to which I dared not put a face.
Lady Croom: I do not know when I have received a more unusual compliment, Mr Hodge. (2.6)
Septimus sure knows how to sweet-talk the ladies ... or not. He's fortunate that Lady Croom takes his comment in the spirit that it was meant – which suggests that they have a similarly unconventional attitude towards sex.