"'It is true. And yet—! Well! I wish she had been of my own station! What a queen she would have made!' He relapsed into a moody silence which was not broken, until we drew up in Serpentine-avenue."

These lines occur after Holmes tells the King that Adler has married Godfrey Norton and that she loves him. Until this point, the King has described Adler as a deceptive woman who is out to ruin him, but he realizes that he still has feelings for her when he hears that she is in love with someone else. Suddenly, he pictures what it would have been like to have Adler as his queen, and he becomes quite morose, suggesting there is more to relationships than status and more to Adler than meets the eye.

"I know that her word is inviolate. The photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire.”

When Holmes tells the King that he was unable to retrieve the photograph, the King is surprisingly fine with the failure, and in this quote he explains why. Until now, Adler has been described in many ways, and most were not positive. At the start of the story, the King describes Adler as a conniving woman who would stop at nothing to destroy his marriage. With this statement, the King reveals that he actually believes Adler possesses so much integrity that he takes her at her word.