"'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. I had
hoped to find in this charming neighbourhood of yours the customary
proportion of poverty and misery, in which case I should have taken the
house without hesitation. As it is, I must seek elsewhere.'

"My cousin was perplexed, and sad. 'There are plenty of poor people in