Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/203

 talk to me of character for? Everybody has a character, and so they have a behind: but they don’t go about showing the one any more than the other. Fools are always crying out, 'That’s my disposition;' but what’s their disposition to other people more than their anything else?

"Let us have no more of that stuff; for, though not a man, I shall no more put up with it than if I were; and I warn you that, if you repeat that word, you stand a chance of having something at your head."

Let not the reader imagine that this was all, or even one half of what her ladyship said on this occasion: it is only a tissue of the most striking sentences. Never had I seen her so irritated as that one expression of mine had made her. She went on in this merciless way for four hours ; and, although I frequently attempted to soothe her by assurances and explanations, she continued in the same strain until evening, when she subsided into a gentler tone. Being now restored to a calmer temper, she seemed desirous to atone by kindness for the wound she had inflicted on my feelings, and wanted, amongst other things, to get ponies for my children to ride. The generosity of her nature was obvious in all this,' and I resolved, whatever language she might make use of in future, never to take the slightest notice of it.