How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
Quote #4
She bit reflectively at the cuticle of her thumb. "He looks very much like my mother – Charles, I mean. I look exactly like my father." She went on biting at her cuticle. "My mother was quite a passionate woman. She was an extrovert. Father was an introvert. They were quite well mated, though, in a superficial way. To be quite candid, Father really needed more of an intellectual companion than Mother was. He was an extremely gifted genius." (53)
Though Esmé's evaluation of her parents' relationship seems cold and scientific, she betrays some carefully hidden emotion, through her nervous nail-biting and her façade of objectivity. Underneath this front, she obviously really loves and misses her parents, especially her father.
Quote #5
Esmé gave me a long, faintly clinical look. "You have a dry sense of humor, haven't you" she said – wistfully. "Father said I have no sense of humor at all. He said I was unequipped to meet life because I have no sense of humor."
Watching her, I lit a cigarette and said I didn't think a sense of humor was of any use in a real pinch.
"Father said it was."
This was a statement of faith, not a contradiction, and I quickly switched horses. I nodded and said her father had probably taken the long view, while I was taking the short (whatever that meant).
"Charles misses him exceedingly," Esmé said, after a moment. "He was an exceedingly lovable man." (58-62)
Esmé's unshakeable faith in her father and her desire to please him hasn't faded with his death – she's obviously still really hung up on this, despite the fact that she insists that it's Charles who misses their father (though he seems largely unaffected).
Quote #6
Charles led the way out, limping tragically, like a man with one leg several inches shorter than the other. He didn't look over at me. Miss Megley went next, then Esmé, who waved at me. I waved back, half getting up from my chair. It was a strangely emotional moment for me. (93)
It's a strangely emotional moment for us, too. We haven't really seen the narrator feel anything up to this point – especially with regards to his supposed loved ones back home – yet, here, he feels a kind of loss (or something) as the children leave. We're not sure exactly what it is, or if it can be classified as a kind of love, or perhaps nostalgia, or both, but we feel it, too.