'Your irregularities are not of yesterday,' she said, kindly making use of a word of double signification still.
'Thank you, my lady.' Conning accepted the word in its blackest meaning.
'I am obliged to you.

If your ladyship is to be believed, my character is not worth much.

But I can make distinctions, my lady.' Something very like an altercation was continued in a sharp, brief undertone; and then Evan, waking up to the affairs of the hour, heard Conning say: 'I shall not ask your ladyship to give me a character.' The Countess answering with pathos: 'It would, indeed, be to give you one.' He was astonished that the Countess should burst into tears when Conning had departed, and yet more so that his effort to console her should bring a bolt of wrath upon himself.
'Now, Evan, now see what you have done for us-do, and rejoice at it.

The very menials insult us.

You heard what that creature said?
She can make distinctions.