“I am as you say a "skeleton" and i have been for quite a while”

“I forewarn you, this will be a rather long talk. I am an old man. I do not know how much longer I will live, and so I want to say what I have to say, while I have the strength to say it. ...Having been warned, some of you will wish to get comfortable. Pleasant dreams.”

“You will never be skeleton, when I am in ghost.”

“You seem to have quite a taste for discussing these horrible subjects," she said, rather scornfully; "you ought to have been a detective police officer.""I sometimes think I should have been a good one.""Why?""Because I am patient.”

“To be quite candid — and what I am going to say now is something I have never said before, and I hope that it provokes a salutary chill — I know more than I can express in words, and the little I can express would not have been expressed, had I not known more.”

“--I don’t quite grasp your meaning.--Just as I don’t quite understand what I am saying. But back to the point….”