She considered the price moderate.
"'And now, Mr.Brown,' said she, as they stood by the lodge gate, 'tell me, what class of poor have you got round about ?' "'Poor ?' answered my cousin; 'there are no poor.' "'No poor!' exclaimed the lady.

'No poor people in the village, or anywhere near ?' "'You won't find a poor person within five miles of the estate,' he replied proudly.

'You see, my dear madam, this is a thinly populated and exceedingly prosperous county: this particular district especially so.
There is not a family in it that is not, comparatively speaking, well-to- do.' "'I'm sorry to hear that,' said the lady, in a tone of disappointment.
'The place would have suited me so admirably but for that.' "'But surely, madam,' cried my cousin, to whom a demand for poor persons was an entirely new idea, 'you don't mean to say that you _want_ poor people! Why, we've always considered it one of the chief attractions of the property--nothing to shock the eye or wound the susceptibilities of the most tender-hearted occupant.' "'My dear Mr.Brown,' replied the lady, 'I will be perfectly frank with you.

I am becoming an old woman, and my past life has not, perhaps, been altogether too well spent.

It is my desire to atone for the--er--follies of my youth by an old age of well-doing, and to that end it is essential that I should be surrounded by a certain number of deserving poor.