anxiety on that point hastened her decease: all I recollect of her is, that a pale and pretty lady often stood by my bed-side, weeping, or fed me with sweet cakes; I have also sad memories of a funeral, and of papa appearing distracted.
"What passed between them previous to my mother's death I never have been told, but cannot doubt that my father solemnly promised, that since I was not her heir, he would provide for me to the utmost of his power. He kept his promise only too strictly, in fact, he doated on me but too fondly. After my mother's death, I was taken by him to England, and placed for a time in a boarding-school on the sea-coast, but being delicate, when I was about seven or eight, he hastened with me to Pisa, as being native air, and settled me as a pensioner in a convent, where there were many women of rank, and all things were conducted on the most liberal footing. Here I obtained that knowledge of music which has constituted the solace of my existence, but here also I experienced that want of the heart, the kindness of the good nuns could not supply. I was the only English child, but that was of little importance, since Italian was my native tongue; but every other girl in the place had brothers and sisters at home, or with them; I only was an isolated, unconnected child; I only, with a
