that her sister-in-law should die, she neither desired that herself nor her lord should watch her dying bed, nor did she approve of wearing mourning in the London season. Finding that Lady Anne had been well enough to meet the Haleses, at Mr. Palmer's, was therefore a relief, and she most magnanimously (in her own mind) permitted her to live till August.
Could she have seen her under the improved management of the last few days, she could scarcely have doubted that such permission would be acted on, for her improvement was surprising; and her friends and daughters, thankful for the change, only the more deprecated her determination of receiving the party; but, if a word was spoken on the subject, she became so angry that it appeared an absolute cruelty to injure by opposing her; and even her physician thought it better to leave her alone on the subject, saying, "that when the day arrived, her own feelings would point out the necessity of continuing her present course."
Alive to every thing connected with this object of her ambition, the directions she gave, and the questions she asked, were innumerable; yet she did not appear to be the worse, but the better, for her exertion: on learning, indeed, that the Marquis of Wentworthdale had arrived in town, her joy was so excessive as for a few hours to cause an accession of fever, but she fairly starved it down,
