Page:Lady Anne Granard 3.pdf/109

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LADY ANNE GRANARD.
107

on the present occasion, it must be said, she either resisted indomitably, or yielded reluctantly, to the demands of sickness. The indulgences of habit she would not resign, therefore held by the pleasures of the table; but the comforts of equable heat, which was particularly necessary, she denied herself much too long, and resisted warm clothing most determinately; "the last thing on earth she could bear was, that of being an old woman before her time, unless, indeed, it was giving real sovereigns to the doctors;" a little, leetle inclination to coining on the occasion of giving a fee would arise, for it is certain she never did it without remembering a certain depot of yellow medals in a shop-window, which she considered admirably calculated for rewarding the sons of Esculapius.

When the Count had contrived to exchange a few words with the gentleman for whom Lady Anne had sent, and who was not less a man of integrity than skill, the poor girls eagerly seized upon him, and demanded "what the physician said, and what he recommended."

"He say Lady Anne is much more bad than she will allow, and that she must be prevent doing what will be injurious, so I tell him, 'her will is her law, it always have been and always will be;' then he say, 'her daughters must persuade her, she will yield to one or other of them; perhaps the