Page:Lady Anne Granard 1.pdf/207

202 removed, and two daughters were not a burthen to complain of, especially as both might be considered very pretty and still improving, Helen being twenty, and Georgiana eighteen. They could take it by turns to drive out with her; somebody might now and then give them boxes for the Opera, and they could treat themselves to the Exhibition, or a Panorama; "it would not be difficult to get tolerably cheap, yet smart, dresses for two girls, though five had been overwhelming, and a woman looked well in company with two fair daughters. They were easily rendered picturesque, and the dullest man alive might say something smart about the Rotheles' earldom and the Oxford supporters; happily, Louisa could never appear in the same circle with herself and the girls, either to eclipse them by the brilliance of her beauty, or remind the world of her own degradation by a foolish marriage." As these thoughts passed Lady Anne's mind, of course the power of increased expenditure, of launching out a little, and appearing somewhat more like herself, followed the train, and she began eagerly to look round at what she had lately designated her "circle;" it was certainly not like that "which a stone divides," for, of late years, it had become so contracted, that, if she were at this time to make a feast, alias, give a dinner, there would be a necessity to go forth into the highways and hedges of the haut ton, "to compel them to come in," nothing loath, as people are usually found in society of all descriptions.