Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/41

 about. When the Marquis was sent to India it was on condition that he did not take with him: for Mr. Pitt said, 'It is all very well if he chooses to go alone, but he shan’t take with him; for—who knows?—she may be, all the time, carrying on intrigues with the French government, and that would not suit my purpose.'

"There might be some apparent levity in my manner, both as regarded affairs of the cabinet and my own; but I always knew what I was doing. When Mr. Pitt was reproached for allowing me such unreserved liberty of action in state matters and in affairs where his friends advised him to question me on the motives of my conduct, he always answered—'I let her do as she pleases; for, if she were resolved to cheat the devil, she could do it.' And so I could, doctor; and that is the reason why thick-headed people, who could never dive into the motives of what I did, have often misinterpreted my conduct, when it has proceeded from the purest intentions. And, in the same way, when some persons said to Lady Suffolk, 'Look at Lady Hester, talking and riding with Bouverie and the Prince’s friends; she must mind what she is about'—Lady Suffolk remarked, 'There is nothing to fear in that quarter; she never will let any body do a bit more that she intends: what she does is with connoissance de cause.‘ And she was right; 2