Page:Lady Anne Granard 2.pdf/301

Rh N, Admiral N's wife, whom the two royal brothers were both in love with—I mean the eldest and the fourth successively. That is a good story, and can be spun out. She took a cottage in Clewer Meadows, and the prince (whom she certainly admired) used to visit her, after the castle gates were shut, by letting himself down." "I thought you said she was married, mamma?" "So she was; but her husband was an admiral in the West Indies." "And the prince had never heard of him? I suppose it was what they call a clandestine marriage." "I suppose it was," said Lady Anne, actually colouring for shame, as well as anger, as Georgiana looked innocently into her face, eager to learn the romantic in the story, and not conceiving to what it could tend. "Then I suppose she told the prince she was married, and that drove him to despair, mamma?" "Why, he was not much given to that. Princes seldom are. She was taken away suddenly by the Countess of H, and there was, happily, an end of the matter." "But, after that, his younger brother fell in love with her; her marriage being still a secret, how did she go on with him, mamma?" "No matter. I shall change my plan—I shall write a novel." "But novels take a deal of inventing and