arms. If, in pursuing this train of thought, poor Georgiana attributed to her mamma more of the powers of the principle of evil than she or any other lady ever possessed, let it be remembered that she had suffered more from the fear of persecution than any of her sisters, and that she was at this period without personal possession of that ring, which she considered to be a talisman that would protect her from all danger.
Long before Georgiana had risen from her knees, Count Riccardini might have been heard in expostulation with the page.
"I tell you she will see me, ask Mam'selle Fanchette if she will not? l am not as another gentleman, I am the relation, the doctare, the frien. Now you go before me and say, 'the Signor Riccardini is come.'"
The button-covered servitor had no doubt but that his sovereign's answer would be in reply, "Then he may go;" but he was mistaken, for Lady Anne had discovered that she looked well in her beautiful lace nightcaps, as most people do when their flesh has fallen away, and they are verging to the lantern jaw; therefore, she received the Count very graciously, and accepted his congratulations on her daughter's marriage in the most cordial manner, but when he adverted to the bad weather, the numerous wrecks, and the supposed loss of the Thetis, she interrupted him with,—
