Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/93

 for £2,000, with which he returned, and paid his own and Charles's debts.

"Well, it was agreed between Charles, James, and me, that whoever had the first windfall should pay the £2,000. Charles died: James was not rich enough at any time to do it; and it fell to my lot to pay it since I have been in this country. And that was the reason of my selling the Burton Pynsent reversion, which, you know, I did in 1820 or thereabouts; and when Mr. Murray found fault with me for my extravagance, and said he would have no hand in the business, neither he nor anybody else knew then why I sold it.

"When Coutts wrote me word that my brother James had been very good to me in having given me £1,000, he did not know that the civility was not so disinterested as he imagined. James might think he did a great deal for me: but, let me ask you—did I not make a pretty great sacrifice for Lord Mahon and him? I sold a pretty round sum out of the American funds, and James took possession of about five hundred pounds' worth of plate of mine, and of my jewels, and of Tippoo Saib's gold powder-flask, worth £200, and of the cardinal of York's present, which, to some persons who wanted a relic of the Stuarts, was invaluable. Then there was a portfolio, foil of fine engravings of Morghen and others, that the Duke