"To go to Paris without plenty of money in one's pocket would be a positive act of weakness, for which I could not forgive myself, especially as I shall be there in the demi-saison, when things are the most beautiful and becoming. Without any great stretch of vanity, I may expect to cut a better figure than the poor sallow bride, or that brown Isabella, and the other two can be thrown to a distance. Lord Allerton must be a fool; but that is nothing to me. I am the more obliged to him, and I cannot doubt that he will gladly unite with me in saving Georgiana from the sad fate which seems to await her. I must give the marquis up; there are some hopes of a gouty man, but rheumatism is a vulgar complaint, and would sink even a ducal coronet—the very lowest people have it. I question if there is a workhouse in Great Britain exempt from it. Neither is there one free from asthma, and yet all the world knows a royal duke suffers from it as much as a coalheaver might do; really these things are incomprehensible, and at times make one inclined to listen to Riccardini's exhortations. However strange, he is no fool, and, as Isabella said, 'he is of the essence of kindness;' when I return from France, I will talk with him seriously."
The day following her journey, Lady Anne was actually unable to get up; nevertheless, when in
