of laughter were elicited, smart biddings drawn out, from the whispers of a timid miss, to the stentorian voice of a fox-hunting squire, and not a few fracas from parties either contending for a supposed prize, or disclaiming their chance for it, and "I assure you it's none of mine." "I was, by no means, the last bidder," was not less frequently asserted than, "I can assure you it is mine; put it up again, for have it I will, let who will bid against me."
If Lady Anne gathered, in the melèe, a few trifles, which could be put into her reticule, that was all; for the "braw lassie," Lady Jemima, guarded the charity-purse "reight weel," and the result was decidedly the greatest gift to the charity which the fifteen stands had produced, several being very small; the money Lady Penryhn produced was as little as her services were great; she therefore, (guaranteed by a look from her grace) in a kind of mock-hoydenish manner, seized all the purses, emptied them into the auctioneer's hat, and declared that, as every one present had done their best, all were equal benefactors to the charity; at the same time she handed its produce to the chairman of the committee.
Lady Anne considered herself, by this ruse, robbed both of fame and property, and voted the whole affair an execrable bore:—"It had neither helped herself nor her daughters, and it had increased her milliner's bill enormously: to be sure, it had been the means of rendering her on friendly terms with the duchess and
