The fear of the distemper was small in comparison with the pleasure of the thought of seeing her sister and aunt and friend at intervals, now that she was so completely shut up in this lonely house, and that the servants had all fled never to return.
It was just such an eccentric and capricious whim as was eminently characteristic of Lady Scrope.

She had had nothing but her own whims to guide her through life, and she indulged them at her pleasure.

She had taken a fancy to Dinah from the first moment.

She knew all about the family of her young companion, from having listened to Dorcas's chatter when in the mood.

Keenly interested in the spread of the plague, which had driven away all her fashionable friends, she was eager for news about it, and the more ghastly the tales that were told, the more did she seem to revel in them.