Etiquette prevailed, and she descended; but the eighty-year-old legs of Miss Crewys still climbed the nursery staircase, and she revenged herself for her inferior status by insisting, in defiance of old associations, that her maid should occupy the room next to her own, which her sister had abandoned.
"For my part, I can sleep in one room as well as another, provided it be comfortable and _appropriate_," said Lady Belstone, with dignity.
"There are very pleasant rooms in the Dower House, and our great-aunts managed to live there in comfort, and yet keep an eye on their nephew here, as I have always been told.

I don't know why we should object to doing the same.

You have never tried being mistress of your own house, Georgina, but I can assure you it has its advantages; and I found them out as a married woman." "A married woman has her husband to look after her," said Miss Crewys.
"It is very different for a widow." "You are for ever throwing my widowhood in my teeth, Georgina," said Lady Belstone, plaintively.

"It is not my fault that I am a widow.

I did not murder the admiral." "I don't say you did, Isabella," said Georgina, grimly; "but he only survived his marriage six months." "It is nice to be silent sometimes," said Lady Mary.
"Does that mean that I am to go away ?" said John, "or merely that I am not to speak to you ?" She laughed a little.