several other persons of consequence, but the thing itself had done no good whatever, save to the dispensary, which was only frequented by paupers and such wretches."
After dining and dressing, Lady Anne met the Brighton world at the duke's: the party was gay, for the money received at the fancy fair had turned out beyond their expectation, the auction having had such a stimulating effect that it had trebled the value of the articles sold. Lord Meersbrook was joked much on his purchases in this way, which he parried by saying he had a particular taste for pencil drawings, and should never think he had paid too much for those he had secured. Lady Gertrude and other young ladies became anxious on this subject, on which Lady Penryhn, from pure malice, having always a dislike to those she termed "the misses," joined the whisperers for the purpose of assuring them that every article knocked down to his lordship came from Lady Anne Granard's stand. "She had seen them all there the day before, and remarked them when she placed each article in the hands of the gentleman who sold them. Lady Anne's daughter, her own sister-in-law, had a very pretty notion of drawing, she knew."
She knew more; for she was well aware that the articles in question were done by Helen and no other of the five sisters, since the talent was only possessed by her and Mary in any remarkable degree: she had her own suspicions, from various trifling circumstances,
