Heaven forbid that she should say a syllable in dispraise of any member of that excellent family, above all, of my Lady, whom the whole world admires; but if my Lady would only be "a little more free," not quite so cold and distant, Mrs.Rouncewell thinks she would be more affable.
"'Tis almost a pity," Mrs.Rouncewell adds--only "almost" because it borders on impiety to suppose that anything could be better than it is, in such an express dispensation as the Dedlock affairs--"that my Lady has no family.

If she had had a daughter now, a grown young lady, to interest her, I think she would have had the only kind of excellence she wants." "Might not that have made her still more proud, grandmother ?" says Watt, who has been home and come back again, he is such a good grandson.
"More and most, my dear," returns the housekeeper with dignity, "are words it's not my place to use--nor so much as to hear--applied to any drawback on my Lady." "I beg your pardon, grandmother.

But she is proud, is she not ?" "If she is, she has reason to be.

The Dedlock family have always reason to be." "Well," says Watt, "it's to be hoped they line out of their prayer-books a certain passage for the common people about pride and vainglory.

Forgive me, grandmother! Only a joke!" "Sir Leicester and Lady Dedlock, my dear, are not fit subjects for joking." "Sir Leicester is no joke by any means," says Watt, "and I humbly ask his pardon.