&c.
It was a lost woman who was married to a lost man; and the moral to be inferred from Mrs.Bute's tale was, that the knavery of the pair was irremediable, and that no properly conducted person should ever notice them again.
These were the materials which prudent Mrs.Bute gathered together in Park Lane, the provisions and ammunition as it were with which she fortified the house against the siege which she knew that Rawdon and his wife would lay to Miss Crawley.
But if a fault may be found with her arrangements, it is this, that she was too eager: she managed rather too well; undoubtedly she made Miss Crawley more ill than was necessary; and though the old invalid succumbed to her authority, it was so harassing and severe, that the victim would be inclined to escape at the very first chance which fell in her way.

Managing women, the ornaments of their sex--women who order everything for everybody, and know so much better than any person concerned what is good for their neighbours, don't sometimes speculate upon the possibility of a domestic revolt, or upon other extreme consequences resulting from their overstrained authority.
Thus, for instance, Mrs.Bute, with the best intentions no doubt in the world, and wearing herself to death as she did by foregoing sleep, dinner, fresh air, for the sake of her invalid sister-in-law, carried her conviction of the old lady's illness so far that she almost managed her into her coffin.

She pointed out her sacrifices and their results one day to the constant apothecary, Mr.Clump.
"I am sure, my dear Mr.Clump," she said, "no efforts of mine have been wanting to restore our dear invalid, whom the ingratitude of her nephew has laid on the bed of sickness.

I never shrink from personal discomfort: I never refuse to sacrifice myself." "Your devotion, it must be confessed, is admirable," Mr.Clump says, with a low bow; "but--" "I have scarcely closed my eyes since my arrival: I give up sleep, health, every comfort, to my sense of duty.

When my poor James was in the smallpox, did I allow any hireling to nurse him?
No." "You did what became an excellent mother, my dear Madam--the best of mothers; but--" "As the mother of a family and the wife of an English clergyman, I humbly trust that my principles are good," Mrs.Bute said, with a happy solemnity of conviction; "and, as long as Nature supports me, never, never, Mr.Clump, will I desert the post of duty.