Page:Lady Anne Granard 3.pdf/184

182 Lady Anne will go off in a puff of indignation. I myself would prefer the mail coach." "And you shall have it; only pay me the difference, that I may go out and buy the poor thing a few odds and ends, which no woman can do without. She wants bonnet, shawl, gloves, every thing. For dresses, Helen can help her a little. Isabella and Mary are gone. And Louisa's are too large." "Well, well, there's fifteen sovereigns for you—doubtless I can smuggle the girl into York House, safe enough, and no one the wiser; but only remember the recipe, 'first catch your hare'—go to Lady Anne's before you go to the shops." Away went Mrs. Palmer, stepping across the street, with unwonted agility, her husband watching her the while, with somewhat of a cynical smile, muttering—

"Ay, ay, visit your great neighbour, my good dame, whilst you have her, for depend upon it you are much too unlike each other, to be likely ever to meet on agreeable terms any where save in Welbeck Street." Mrs. Palmer arrived at a happy moment, for a cap had been found, so admirably fitted to fill up the vacuum of thin jaws, and exhibit the contour of a fine forehead, that Lady Anne not only seized upon it as a benefaction, but declared that she would