Page:Lady Anne Granard 2.pdf/177

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LADY ANNE GRANARD.
175

with pelisses, constituting their claims and their fortunes; a young Turk, retaining the habit of his country, because he had tact enough to discover that the eyes of English houri preferred it; and a Scotch laird, who, at her request, brought his tartans, though compelled to exhibit without his tail.

With such acquisitions as these, the duchess and her friends again took the field, and with every prospect of success, for the Dowager Marchioness of Linlithgow and her three tall daughters (each of whom might be deemed a rival to the Swiss giantess) had arrived, and entered warmly into the plan. Lord and Lady Conisburgh, and their eight beautiful children, with blue eyes, coral lips, and flaxen locks, (the very models of wax dolls) were the charm of the new pier, and would be transferred in a tasteful group, as the background of a stand, and two Otaheite princes, nearly seven feet, swathed in white calico, with naked arms and legs, would stand on each side, holding a laurel crown over the heads of the fair cherubs, with a massive club in their right hands, threatening destruction to all who approached. The two beautiful little Miss Wrens (already celebrated by Miss Mitford) agreed to exhibit their exquisite miniature persons under a canopy of dahlias, on condition that a proper bench should be provided for them to stand upon, and all the properties in which they should deal be commensurate with themselves. For this purpose it was necessary that the stocks of all the contributing