'Now, as to your stepmother, you'll find she is not much to look at, though a good deal to listen to.

She is twenty years older than myself, for one thing.' 'You forget that I know her.

She called here once, after we had been, and found her away from home.' 'Of course, of course.

Well, whatever her looks are, she's as excellent a woman as ever breathed.

She has had lately left her as absolute property three thousand five hundred a year, besides the devise of this estate--and, by the way, a large legacy came to her in satisfaction of dower, as it is called.' 'Three thousand five hundred a year!' 'And a large--well, a fair-sized--mansion in town, and a pedigree as long as my walking-stick; though that bears evidence of being rather a raked-up affair--done since the family got rich--people do those things now as they build ruins on maiden estates and cast antiques at Birmingham.' Elfride merely listened and said nothing.
He continued more quietly and impressively.