Cousins!" exclaimed her Ladyship, suddenly descending from the lofty ranges of sentiment to the low.

"I hate the very name of them! A person who is near enough to me to be my relation and far enough off from me to be my sweetheart, is a double-faced sort of person that I don't like.
Let's get back to the widow and her sons.

How much do they want ?" "A subscription of five hundred pounds, my Lady, would provide for everything--if it could only be collected." "It _shall_ be collected, Moody! I will pay the subscription out of my own purse." Having asserted herself in those noble terms, she spoilt the effect of her own outburst of generosity by dropping to the sordid view of the subject in her next sentence.

"Five hundred pounds is a good bit of money, though; isn't it, Moody ?" "It is, indeed, my Lady." Rich and generous as he knew his mistress to be, her proposal to pay the whole subscription took the steward by surprise.

Lady Lydiard's quick perception instantly detected what was passing in his mind.
"You don't quite understand my position in this matter," she said.