Six impossible things before breakfast

“Six impossible things before breakfast” is a playful expression Jimmy Thesiger uses to frame belief in the unlikely. Its two appearances give the phrase a small but telling change of emphasis: first Jimmy resists Bundle’s suspicion; later he urges Bill Eversleigh to be open to what a letter may reveal.

First Use: Skepticism and a Joke

When Bundle rejects Jimmy’s preferred explanation, he asks whether she has been reading too much sensational literature and insists that he is not like the Red Queen: “I can’t believe six impossible things before breakfast.” Bundle answers that breakfast is already over. Jimmy extends the joke, then complains that she will not accept a straightforward hypothesis that fits the facts, preferring to make the problem more difficult. Here, the phrase marks his resistance to what he considers an unnecessarily extraordinary interpretation.

A Reversal in Advice

Later, Bill is dazed after reading a letter and says he cannot believe what it contains. Jimmy answers with the same idea in a more affirmative form: “You must get into the habit of believing six impossible things before breakfast. I do it regularly.” He then asks Bill to explain the letter, briefly going outside and calling for Stevens. The letter’s contents are not stated in this exchange, but Jimmy’s response presents improbable information as something Bill should be willing to consider.

Narrative Function

The expression links two moments in which belief is at issue, while Jimmy’s changing use of it supplies the contrast. In the first, it helps him dismiss Bundle’s more difficult hypothesis; in the second, it becomes a comic encouragement to Bill, whose disbelief follows a startling message. The repeated phrase makes flexibility of belief part of the scene’s humor without establishing that every unlikely claim is true.