Page:Lady Anne Granard 2.pdf/42

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LADY ANNE GRANARD.

substitute. This fault in Glentworth increased the more as his desire to conclude his stay in Marseilles increased, and it affected Isabella very painfully. She had grown fast and was become very thin, at the time when a new claim was made on the strength of her constitution, and her appetite became failing and capricious at the very period when its assistance was required to sustain the waste subtracted. It would, therefore, not unfrequently happen that when she had been for an hour fainting almost for want of food, on its arrival she could scarcely taste it, or, having done so, was obliged to leave the table. Her constant efforts to appear better than she felt, and her actual delight when she received her husband, deceived him as to the extent of the injury under which she was suffering; and, one day, when she had waited too long, and yet felt unable to eat, her husband remarked "that Lady Anne Granard could manage petted children better than he could."

Isabella coloured, but did not speak, or even look up; but Mary, seeing the English servant had left the room, and knowing the French one would not understand her, said, in a low voice, but with something of asperity, perfectly new in her—

"Lady Anne Granard had no petted child to manage, and I am sure you have none, Mr. Glentworth, at present. Were my father alive, he would tell you to be very indulgent towards the one you may expect."