Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: looking. I do not even know if she had ever seen Lady Ludlow: all I knew of her was that she was a very grand lady, whose grandmother had been half-sister to my mother's great-grandmother; but of her character and circumstances I had heard nothing, and I doubt if my mother was acquainted with them. I looked over my mother's shoulder to read the letter; it began, " Dear Cousin Margaret Dawson," and I think I felt hopeful from the moment I saw those words. She went on to say,—stay, I think I can remember the very words: ' Dear Cousin Margaret Dawson,—I have been ' much grieved to hear of the loss you have sustained in ' the death of so good a husband, and so excellent a ' clergyman as I have always heard that my late cousin ' Richard was esteemed to be.' " There!" said my mother, laying her finger on the passage, " read that aloud to the little ones. Let them hear how their father's good report travelled far and wide, and how well he is spoken of by one whom he never saw. Cousin Richard, how prettily her ladyship writes! Go on, Margaret I" She wiped her eyes as she spoke: and laid her finger on her lips, to still my little sister, Cecily, who, not understanding anythingabout the important letter, was beginning to talk and make a noise. ' You say you are left with nine children. I too ' should have had nine, if mine had all lived. I have ' none left but Rudolph, the present Lord Ludlow. He 'is married, and lives, for the most part, in London. ' But I entertain six young gentlewomen at my house at ' Connington, who are to me as daughters—save that, ' perhaps, I restrict them in certain indulgences in dress ' and diet that might be befitting in young ladies of a 'higher rank, and of more probable wealth. These ' young persons—all of condition, though out of means ' —are my ...