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76 embarrassments haunted him, and "the little strong embrace" which often twined around his neck, stung his heart to agony. Whether Lady Anne knew or suspected who it was that drew his steps from the purlieus of fashion he knew not, nor held himself bound to explain. To one friend who remarked the frequency of his absence in the morning at a given hour, she replied, with perfect sang froid, that "most men of fashion had their mysteries, and Mr. Granard had a right to his; all she knew of the matter was, that he did not belong to a coining concern, as in that case the money would come more freely." Lady Anne well knew that all which could come passed through her fingers. Incapable of hearing reproach or bandying invective, her husband had sunk into the indolence of pensive resignation, and, sensible that things had gone too far for effectual retrieve, tried to find a lenitive in the love of his sister, and the often disappointed hope of a son, during whose long minority wonders were to be done in the management of his property. The peace removed the family of Riccardini to Italy, and on his estates being restored, the fortune of his wife was happily applied to removing the dilapidations of time and circumstance. Their eldest child was a daughter, followed at a distance by two sons, with whom it appeared the climate of their father did not agree, as they successively sickened and died, after their arrival in Italy,—a circumstance which