Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/18

 do you think I saw yesterday in a hackney-coach? I wonder where she could be driving alone down those narrow streets?' If I walked with a footman behind me, there are so many women of the town now who flaunt about with a smart footman, that I ran the hazard of being taken for one of them; and, if I went alone, either there would be some good-natured friend who would hint that Lady Hester did not walk out alone for nothing; or else I should be met in the street by some gentleman of my acquaintance, who would say, ‘God bless me, Lady Hester! where are you going alone?—do let me accompany you:' and then it would be said, ‘Did you see Lady Hester crossing Hanover Square with such a one? he looked monstrous foolish: I wonder where they had been.’ So that, from one thing to another, I was obliged to stop at home entirely: and this it was that hurt my health so much, until Lord Temple, at last, remarked it. For he said to me one day, ‘How comes it that a person like you, who used to be always on horseback, never rides out?'—‘Because I have no horse.'—'Oh! if that is all, you shall have one to-morrow.'—'Thank you, my lord; but, if I have a horse, I must have two; and, if I have two, I must have a groom; and, as I do not choose to borrow, if you please, we will say no more about it.’—‘ Oh! but I will send my horses, and come and ride out with you every day.’