- Samuel Ballard Q.C.: Ah, Judge. This is a great day for Equity Court. We're celebrating. Mrs. Claude Erskine-Brown elevated to the bench...
- Mr. Justice Graves: Yes...
- Samuel Ballard Q.C.: ...and her husband in silk.
- Mr. Justice Graves: [Taken by surprise] Claude Erskine-Brown?
- [With total disdain]
- Mr. Justice Graves: They must be giving away silk gowns with pounds of tea nowadays!
- [last lines]
- Mr. Justice Graves: [referring to Rumpole] Will he never learn?
- Samuel Ballard Q.C.: [With grudging affection] I'm afraid, never!
- [Rumpole has confessed to Hilda that Justice Oliphant has reported Rumpole to a disciplinary tribunal which will probably kick him out]
- Hilda Rumpole: I shall stand by you, Rumpole, no matter what the cost. I shall stand by you through thick and thin.
- Horace Rumpole: [to himself] Oh Hilda! I was afraid of that.
- [Ballard is defending Rumpole at the disciplinary tribunal]
- Samuel Ballard Q.C.: You are known in some quarters as "The Quality of Mercy". Now if there were to be a most humble, contrite apology...
- Mr. Justice Oliphant: Rumpole would rather be disbarred than apologise to me.
- Samuel Ballard Q.C.: But if he would...
- Mr. Justice Oliphant: [gleefully] If he would, it would give him more genuine grief and pain than anything else in the world. I'd enjoy seeing that, I really would.