Page:Lady Anne Granard 2.pdf/191

Rh, until the molehill of a deal packing-case became the mountain of a waggon-load; after which, Lady Anne's good name sunk in an inverse ratio. "It was quite abominable, that a widow lady, with a large family and a small income, should presume to rival a duchess, especially such a handsome, amiable, cheerful duchess as her Grace of C——, who had a kind word for every body, whether gentle or simple; besides, she had been three years in her milliner's books, and her lodgings last summer were not settled till Christmas—she was "one of them what could pinch their own flesh and blood, so she pleased her own self and provided for her own pleasures. Many people believed that she really broke the heart of Squire Granard, who was as good a man as ever lived; and every body was quite sure that she would compel her daughters to marry any old fogram as chose to take 'em. Her very youngest had been forced to marry a man full twenty years older than herself, poor thing! and the other made a run-away marriage with the man of her heart, pretty creature." Although the railroad did not take people from London to Brighton in two hours, as it proposes to do in a few years, yet coaches do their work pretty well; and two days before the important one arrived, for which Lady Anne Granard had laboured in spirit, and her daughters in person, the news of her occupation and contribution had reached her own neighbourhood; not, indeed, to be discussed in the now solitary