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226 but she chose to stifle them, being neither inclined to flatter Lady Anne nor foretel good fortune to her daughters, and very much inclined to thaw the frost of that cold politeness which marked the manners of Lord Meersbrook whenever she accosted him, which was more frequently than he desired. Notwithstanding the way in which she had, in what she termed "the delicacy of her feelings," contrived to pour the receipts of the fancy fair into one reservoir, the duke and several other persons complimented Lady Anne very much on the superior beauty and value of her articles, and said "she had been the most efficient friend of the charity;" and whether a whisper that had gone forth respecting her contretemps with the strange man was spread, or it had fortunately been so well managed by the Count as to have escaped observation, and her indisposition of the preceding day was the true cause of their pity and friendly attention, it was, at all events, certain that she did receive more attention, and that of the most kind and flattering nature than often falls to the lot of dowagers, and that her Italian friend paid her the homage of the most accomplished Cicisbeo: yet she enjoyed no triumph, was sensible of no pleasure, even when most satisfied with the belief that the arrest was unknown, and that Lady Penryhn's ruse was defeated—that her pecuniary anxieties were delayed and her position with Riccardini envied—still no sense of self-gratulation followed. The proud swell of the heart, ever courting