"That’s all they need. Treat them kindly. They will take kindly to you."
With this quote, Mrs. Hill counters the opinion of Mrs. Smiles, who thinks that Africans were savage and uncivilized until the English colonized the country. In fact, Mrs. Hill tries to treat her servants as equals, which is condemned by her friends. However, she does not fully trust them after another foreign couple has been killed.
"Who could it be? These women. They would never tell anyone who a visitor was, but must always talk of somebody."
This quote illustrates how women are seen in a patriarchal society. Even though most of the women in the stories work hard all day long to provide for their families, men tend to look down on them and consider them inferior beings who spend most of their time with gossiping.
"Those coated with the white clay of the white man’s ways are the worst."
The metaphorical white coat that Wamuhu's father mentions in "A Meeting in the Dark" represents the thinking and customs of the white, i.e. Western, societies. Therefore, the father means that he despises anyone who tries to cover their African heritage.
"Everyone said of them: what a nice family; he, the successful timber merchant; and she, the obedient wife who did her duty to God, husband and family. Wariuki and his wife Miriamu were a shining example of what cooperation between man and wife united in love and devotion could achieve: he tall, correct, even a little stiff, but wealthy; she, small, quiet, unobtrusive, a diminishing shadow beside her giant of a husband."
Wairuki and Miriam are depicted as the ideal Christian family, with the superior husband and the inferior wife represented by the images of a giant and a shadow. The quote also summarizes the expectations that society has of women--with their weak and quiet appearance clearly unable to achieve great things, their only role is to support their husband.
"The world is waiting even like a hungry lion, to swallow you, to devour you. Therefore, beware of the world."
This image in "A Meeting in the Dark" illustrates the notion that world is hostile, and that John should not expect any support from anyone if he wants to be successful on his own.
