Page:Lady Anne Granard 3.pdf/290

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
288
LADY ANNE GRANARD.

well off for a long time. She has a thousand a year secured, and not a single child to keep; and now she will take the sweepings, and make a couple of thousands at least: no great things to leave a castle with, to be sure. I'll tell Mary to claim my picture by Lawrence; neither she nor the heir has a right to it. A good deal of the plate is heirloom, or I would insist on the rights of my daughters."

Though the mind of Lady Anne was thus busy, whilst her afflicted brother was struggling for life, it is certain that she also felt much for his sufferings; and as both Helen and Georgiana were up the whole night, her inquiries were incessant, and she sent many kind messages which had always a soothing effect on his mind, and it was observed that in every petition for mercy which either acute pain, or a proper sense of his approaching fate drew from his lips, he often coupled the name of her he termed his "beloved sister." The following morning he was much easier, and heard, with a faint smile, that his sister was delighted with the progress of the election, and had even proposed to be carried up to his room to read the letters she had received; but he declined a visit which he was sure