Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/355

 When I told her that Mr. Forster had spoken of a work of Sir Jonah Barrington's on Ireland, in which it was said that Mr. Pitt got up the Irish rebellion in order to make the necessity of the Union more palatable to parliament, she observed that, if she met him, she would settle his business for him. "Mr. Pitt liked the Irish," said she. "There were some fools who thought to pay their court by abusing them, and would talk of men's legs like Irish porters, or some such stuff: but I always answered, they would be very much pleased to have their own so, which was much better than having them like a pair of tongs: and I was certain to observe a little smile of approbation in Mr. Pitt's eyes, at what I had said."

In this way her ladyship would run on from topic to topic—with a rapidity and fluency which frequently rendered it difficult to preserve notes of even the heads of her discourse. Her health was slightly improved: she attended a little more closely to my advice, but still would never allow me to see her until her coughing fit was over, which usually lasted for about a