Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/251

 She reverted to the letter. "The thing to be considered," she said, "is whether I shall write a letter to the Queen, and ask the Duke of Wellington. to give it to her, or whether I shall put it in the newspapers: for I am afraid, if I send it to him, he will not give it to her; or, if he does, they will say nothing about it. I should like to ask for a public inquiry into my debts, and for what I have contracted them. Let them compare the good I have done in the cause of humanity and science with the D——s of K 's debts. When I am better, Ill set all this to rights. I wonder if Lord Palmerston is the man I recollect—a young man just come from College, that was hanging about, waiting to be introduced to Mr. Pitt. Mr. Pitt used to say, 'Ah! very well; we will ask him some day to dinner.' Perhaps it is an old grudge that makes him vent his spite. He is an Irishman, I think."

February 1.—To-day Lady Hester was much the same as on the preceding days: her pulse was low; her lungs were loaded with phlegm; aphthæ had shown themselves on her tongue; her nails were cracked from the contraction of the surrounding integuments; the tips of her fingers were cold; her back. as she sat up in bed, was bent; her bones almost protruded through the skin, from being obliged to lie always on one side. Speaking of her inability to