Page:Lady Anne Granard 2.pdf/257

Rh it seems that my sister should have less sense than her daughters; but, be it remembered, neither of us had parents within our memory: there lies the grand, the irremediable misfortune of our lives. It is a plain case that, let her errors be what they may, she is an admirable mother: where can a sweeter creature than this poor Georgiana be found? So modest, she thinks the secret of her poor little heart is safe in its inmost recesses, yet so sensitive, if ever a sailor or a man-of-war is named, the blood mounts to her brow. "But Anne never had a heart herself, so how should she feel for her daughters? If Granard never won her love, doubtless she was invulnerable; and it is certain he did not; for, if she had really loved a man so admirable both in mind and person, she could not have preferred the gauds of life to him and his love, especially when Heaven had granted her so large and so sweet a family. "No! to me, and me alone, was given the sensitiveness which should have been divided between both, the bitter sweet, and sweet bitter, which has been the charm of my life, yet the ruin of my happiness. "Happiness! what is happiness?—a dream! But to be respectable, to be virtuous, to receive the warm grasp of a good man's hand, to be surrounded by a tenantry who say, 'my lord is an example to every body'—when you speak in the House, to know no man says, 'he talks better than he acts—'I wish I could take his hand freely—these are the things one