Page:Lady Anne Granard 3.pdf/210

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208
LADY ANNE GRANARD.

the most sentimental Italian would hardly say the wheels smiled upon him, and the seat welcomed his continuations."

"But why should he sell either? He told me that he had ascertained his expences, and formed a plan for his future mode of life; he would live in the immediate neighbourhood of Exeter eight months in the year, two in London, and two with Glentworth. That he liked the first because he could attend the cathedral service; the second, because it permitted him to learn all the news of Europe, and placed him in the society he had a right to enjoy; and the third, because it gave his affections their proper and accustomed food, recalling memories he desired to cherish to the latest hour of existence."

"He is an extraordinary creature," said Lady Anne; "somebody says somewhere, 'He who gives his money never feigns.' I often wish when I am thinking about it that he had not sold his horse, it gives me the fidgets when it crosses my mind."

Lady Anne's words were not addressed to her daughters, so much as herself, but they conveyed clearly to Mrs. Penrhyn's mind the belief that the poor Count's horse had been the sacrifice to her mamma's passion for luxury now abandoned, or finery more indulged in than ever. She felt that it