Sabine Baring-Gould

“ It shows you have a right way of looking at things, my lord.’ Since she had heard that Montcontour was a baron, she insisted on ‘my lording’ him, to Asheton’s great amusement. ‘I haven’t seen my Aunt Betsy for an age, but I’ve a notion what she did for the old lady with the Broadway name shortened her days.’
‘M. de Montcontour and I live near Nantes,’ said Asheton, ‘and it will be a privilege, if you will suffer us to offer our services.’
‘Bless us! I shall be most thankful,’ said Mrs Fairbrother. ‘I don’t know how to manage anything. We’ve never had a death in our house, thanks be. ”

“ Mrs Fairbrother, the old lady, indeed, to use one of the gentlemen’s expressions, ran alongside of them and threw out grappling-irons. She had never been out of England before, she was profoundly ignorant of foreign ways, she was mightily afraid of imaginary dangers and difficulties; and she clung to these strangers as likely to assist her to surmount the first obstacles. Mrs Fairbrother was a worthy woman, the wife of a large grocer who had made a considerable fortune by supplying H.M. vessels when put in commission. ”

“ The gentlemen were the Baron de Montcontour, and an English friend, Mr Asheton. M. de Montcontour had been a good deal in England, and spoke English fairly well. He was an easy-going, amiable man, without great energy of mind or body. The Montcontour estates were small. He had a château on the Loire above Nantes, where lived his mother and aunt; his father had saved nothing, the property barely allowed its proprietors to live on it. It was advisable, if not necessary, that the young baron should adopt a profession to supplement his small patrimony. ”