of all
classes of mankind. The "reduced lady or gentleman" had only presented
themselves to Lady Hester's mind by the medium of an occasional
curiously worded advertisement in a morning paper, and were invariably
associated with a subsequent police report, where the object of
charity was sure to be confronted with half a dozen peers or members of
parliament, whose sympathies he had put under contribution, to support a
life of infamy or extravagance. "A begging impostor" rang in her mind
as a phrase whose ingredient words could not be divorced, and she was
thoroughly convinced that imposture and poverty were convertible terms.
The very notion of any one having once been well off, and being now in
embarrassment, was, to her deeming, most satisfactory evidence of past
misconduct and present knavery. Grounsell had beard her hold forth
on this theme more than once, "embroidering the sentiment" with an
occasional sly allusion to himself and his own fortunes, so that he
had often thought over the difficulty of serving the Daltons with Sir
Stafford, by reflecting on the hostility any project would meet with
from "my Lady," and now accident, or something very like it, had done
what all his ingenuity could not succeed in discovering.

The announcement at first rendered him perfectly mute; he heard it
without power to make the slightest observation; and it was only at the
end of a lengthy description from the two sisters, that he exclaimed, in
a kind of half soliloquy, "By Jove, it is so like her, after all!"

"I 'm sure of it," said Nelly; "her manner was kindness and gentleness
itself. You should have seen the tender way she took poor Hansells hand
in her own, and how eagerly she asked us to translate for her the few
stray words he uttered."

"Of course she did. I could swear to it all, now that my eyes are
opened."

"And with what winning grace she spoke!" cried Kate. "How the least
phrase came from her lips with a fascination that still haunts me!"

"Just so, just so!" muttered Grounsell.

"How such traits of benevolence ennoble high station!" said Nelly.

"How easy to credit all that one hears of the charms of intercourse,
where manner like hers prevails on every side!" cried Kate,
enthusiastically.

"How thoughtful in all her kindness!"

"What elegance in every movement!"

"With what inborn courtesy she accepted the little valueless attentions,
which were all we could render her!"

"How beautiful she looked, i