Page:Lady Anne Granard 3.pdf/295

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LADY ANNE GRANARD.
293

coaches, &c, in an anxious manner, and was heard to say repeatedly, "Two might just as well go as one; the appearance would be better, and it would not make twenty pounds difference.—But," she exclaimed, after a pause, "I will try; I must see poor Rotheles once more." And the dying bent over the dead, the skinny lips pressed the marble forehead, and a few icy tears dropped from the cheek in which some portion of life remained, on that whence it had fled for ever. In thus obtaining her desire, the whole person of Lady Anne rested on the corpse, and Williams, who was keeping watch, and was tall and strong, seeing the nurse at fault, took Lady Anne up carefully in his arms, and re-conveyed her and her innumerable wrappings, with the utmost tenderness, to her couch. When he had seen her take the restorative Helen offered, the faithful valet ventured to say,—

"Pray, take comfort, my lady, pray do. I'm but a servant, and perhaps I oughtn't to speak; but as I do know that my lord have been gathering up thousands on thousands for the young ladies, I can't forbear to tell 'ee."

"Thousands, Williams?" said Lady Anne, her eyes again relighting at the words, though her hands and arms were already marble.