Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/250

 and why may not I, looking on men, pronounce on their virtues, qualities, and duration in the same way! This may not be well explained, but a clever person will divine what I mean.”

Such were, in the main, the opinions of Lady Hester on astrology, to which several travellers have alluded, but which, from defective information, they have hitherto misrepresented. It will be seen that there was at least method in her belief. We will now return from this digression.

Our narrative broke off in the middle of a conversation on the evening of January 31, 1838.

Tea was ordered; but so simple a process as getting tea ready was now a painful business. If it did not come immediately, Lady Hester grew so impatient, that it was distressing to see her agitation. She would then ring for a pipe, and perhaps send it back to be fresh filled or changed four or five times in succession, each one being, for some trifling reason, rejected. Alas ! it was not the tea nor the pipes that were in fault; it was Colonel Campbell’s letter that had given a stab to her heart, from which she never recovered; and, in proportion to the apparent calm which she endeavoured to assume, when speaking on that subject, did the feeling of the supposed indignity which she had received prey on her spirits and on her pride.