Page:Lady Anne Granard 3.pdf/266

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264
LADY ANNE GRANARD.

placing four sovereigns in the wife's hand, said—"These are to be put into the saving-bank for Tommy; they are not your's, remember, but his; so take care of them."

She had been lucky at her outset, and she continued to be so, for her few sovereigns for the sick had been well spent; but those were not the only cases demanding pity and help, and it cannot be supposed that many were not venal and craving, that she was not frequently thrown back on her mother's words, and might have been so, on her mother's conduct, had she known it, but she was of an age to laugh at peccadilloes her graver sposo might have viewed with sterner eyes, or with more shrinking disgust; and Mr. Wigram began to be tolerably satisfied with the result of a week's residence at the borough, although many had refused to promise, and a proportion of those who had promised were doubtful; so much was the general sense of the lower orders against Conservatives, that, although many also protested against the Whigs, their opponents, he had great reason to doubt whether they would accept of either. It was well that both parties should put a good face on the affair, in order to prevent a third starting