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LADY CAROLINE LAMB on her mind. In November 1816 she wrote to John Murray, evidently considering she had every right to do so, asking him to let her see Byron's new poems before publication. The conclusion of her note proves that her old sprightliness had not abandoned her:

"Believe me, therefore, sincerely thankful for what I am going to receive—as the young lady said to a duchess when she was desired by her parents to say 'Grace.'"

Murray did not answer, so Lady Caroline wrote again, repeating her request with the adjuration:

"Let me entreat you to remember a maxim I have found very useful to me, that there is nothing in this life worth quarrelling about, and that half the people we are offended with never intended to give us cause."

In August 1818 Lady Morgan, calling one day on Lady Caroline at Melbourne House, was received in her bedroom, and found her lying on a couch, wrapped in fine muslins, full of grace and cordiality. In the bow window of the room there stood fastened to the ground the chair in which Byron had sat to Sanders for the picture painted by Lady Caroline's desire. 21