Page:Lady Anne Granard 3.pdf/49

Rh long illness and eventual loss affected me so much that I was sentenced to England for a residence of two or three years. I may well call it a sentence, for it was certainly banishment from all who loved me; but I objected to it the less because it would embrace the closing of my minority. Amongst our few acquaintance was a Mrs. Cranstoun, the widow of a brave old officer, to whose legal affairs (when in an extremely embarrassed state) Mr. Osmond had gratuitously and successfully attended, for a long time to a good end; and she was willing to be my companion. My kind husband accompanied me to the Cape, but we were then compelled to part, or he would have lost the fortune for which he was toiling, and which could alone atone, even in part, for his marriage. That he had married me was, we still trusted, unknown; but that he was married, could not possibly be so. In order to give no offence, and excite no observation, I proposed to live on the sea-coast, and adopt the name of my friend, who was of an age and appearance likely to pass for my mother-in-law. "On giving due notice of my arrival to the house of which my friend Mr. Barrow was a member, to my great satisfaction that gentleman came to visit me, and, to my surprise, approved of my marriage, saying, 'he did not know what better a poor girl so situated could have done,' adding that my