Mother — don’t go on like that, it’s use...

Mother — don’t go on like that, it’s useless — we’ve arrived at a crisis, wherever we go — whatever we do we can’t escape from it.
[...]
I’ve noticed things — trivial incriminating little incidents, and I’ve brushed them aside and not thought any more about them because you were my mother — clever and beautiful and successful — and naturally people would slander you because you were so beautiful — and now I know — they were right !

Noel Coward. The Vortex. Ernest Benn Ltd, 1924. pp.95-6.