here, it will only make double postage to pay. I shall not want it now for six weeks, but the twenty sovereigns you have will be handy, and you may bring them when you bring the Count, only take care he does not see you lay them on the table."
"I cannot be certain I shall have twenty sovereigns, mamma, when I have paid every thing, and allowed for my expences home."
"Of course, you may have twenty, or only eighteen; bring what you have."
Parental control had been so decisive in Louisa's case that marriage bonds had not hitherto enfranchised her from the former; she, therefore, at the proper time of light, appeared on the arm of Signor Riccardini, and laid her purse on the lap of her mother (who she knew had at least three hundred pounds in possession), at the risk of being deemed extravagant by her husband.
Count Riccardini did not—to Lady Anne's great satisfaction—allude to her past danger, for, after a few words of warmly uttered congratulation, he adverted to his own solicitude on that subject he deemed of infinite importance and Lady Anne of none at all, because Catholic disabilities were all removed. "At the time of your marriage, it was a shocking thing to be a Papist. You couldn't go into parliament, your children couldn't hold places, and, in fact, there was an awkwardness in the affair; but now, there was so little difference between
