Page:Lady Anne Granard 2.pdf/239

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LADY ANNE GRANARD.
237

heap of things, and compelling me to sell them during that dreadful cold day, that has brought me into this wretched state. I have you to thank for all my misery; therefore, it is as little as you can do to wait upon me, and seek to alleviate it—in fact, if Charles Penrhyn is not a mean, ungrateful wretch, he will send me a hundred pounds at least, to make me some amends for his wife's share of the mischief."

"Indeed, mamma, Louisa did very little, for she was so busy with her baby; besides, she was extremely delicate, and only able to sit up part of the day in the beginning of the time."

"Delicate, indeed!—what made her delicate but undertaking to feed that great lump of a boy?—to be sure it was consistent with marrying a man who is a city merchant—what better could she expect than to be compelled to such low, I may say, such beastly employment, for all kind of creatures suckle their young. Royal mothers never dream of such a thing. Noble mothers never did, till the Duchess of Devonshire brought it into fashion, on the very same principle that she made bonnets the shape of coal-scuttles the rage. Odd things she could do and would do, because she had the power to do. However, she died soon after I was married, and I never followed her example, and trust no daughter of mine will do it, save those allied to city connections; one can expect nothing better of them, when a woman has once renounced all self-respect, so far as to form a lasting union with a