Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/306

 in her ladyship's service at a village called Mushmôoshy. This was in the year 1813. How fallible are the most clearsighted persons is the only comment which can be made on such unintentional errors!

For those who were not exempt from the common weaknesses of our nature she was a dangerous person to hold intercourse with. "Live at a distance from my lady," General Loustaunau used to say to Mrs. M. (when she wanted to remove from Mar Elias to Dar Jôon, in order to be near me); "live at a distance, or you will find, to your cost, that her neighbourhood is a hell." But be it said, to her honour, that it was from an unfeigned horror of everything mean, dishonest, or vicious, she so resolutely refused to keep terms with people who suffered themselves to be led into the commission of such acts; and her indignation descended with equal impartiality on friends and foes when they happened to deserve it. Her disposition to utter the truth, whether painful or disagreeable, overruled all other considerations.

Few people conversed with her, or received a letter from her, without being sensible of some expression or innuendo, which they were obliged to treat as a joke at the moment, but which was sure to leave its sting behind. Of upwards of a hundred letters which I have penned for her at her dictation to correspondents of every rank in life, there were few which did not contain some touch of merited sarcasm or reproof;