If she spoiled everybody who came near her with kindness and compliments--if she begged pardon of all her servants for troubling them to answer the bell--if she apologized to a shopboy who showed her a piece of silk, or made a curtsey to a street-sweeper with a complimentary remark upon the elegant state of his crossing--and she was almost capable of every one of these follies--the notion that an old acquaintance was miserable was sure to soften her heart; nor would she hear of anybody's being deservedly unhappy. 
If she begged pardon of all her servants for troubling them to answer the bell - and apologized to a shopboy who showed her a piece of silk - the idea that an old acquaintance was miserable was sure to soften her heart.
