Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/103

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Lady Hester Stanhope.
89

and coming down into their mother's room to dress themselves!

"But to go back to Sir Gore Ouseley: it was at Mr. M.'s supper, when getting up from the card-table, and advancing towards me, he made a diplomatic bow, accompanied with some complimentary speech. That was the old school, very different from the fizgig people now-a days. Just before, the Prince had been standing in the middle of the room, talking to some one I did not know, first pulling up the flap of his coat to show his figure, then seizing the person he spoke to by the waistcoat, then laughing, then pretending to whisper; and this he continued for nearly an hour. 'What can the Prince be talking about?' said some one next to me: 'He does not know himself,' said I. Soon after, the person who had been talking to the Prince approached the sofa, when the mylord, who was sitting next to me, observed, 'We have been looking at the Prince and you; what in the world was he talking about?'—'He don’t know himself,' answered his friend, 'and I’m sure I don’t know.'—'That’s just what Lady Hester said,' rejoined the first speaker. 'I have been wishing to make my bow to Lady Hester all the evening,' said the friend, who then sat down by me."

Lady Hester went on: "What a mean fellow the Prince was, doctor! I believe he never showed a