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LADY ANNE GRANARD.
301

Don't be frightened, I am not angry with you. I know perfectly well that the stuff you are talking is the staple of old novels; but now-a-days they must have a great deal besides to make them go down; if those people would come from Italy, they might do one some good."

"Surely Count Riccardini could tell one a great deal more than my sisters, for he could give an account of all the ceremonies and splendour of his church—the nuns, and friars, and penances, and the soft music, the blue skies, the grapes and melons, and feasts of saints, and all the magnificent antiquities; I think, mamma, one might get a great deal out of him."

"I think one might, Georgiana, if I were not such an object."

"Object! you were never so interesting in all your life as you are now. Mrs. Palmer said, only the other day, 'though Lady Anne is very pale and thin, she retains all her wonted elegance of person.'"

"As to the paleness, that can be remedied, and Fanchette does certainly manage the thinness very well; she is a perfect artiste with cotton wool; so you shall write him a note, and ask him to take tea to-morrow evening. When he chooses to be agreeable, there is nothing like him; and certainly for contour and manner he is a wonderful creature. I am sure he might pick and choose amongst the best dowried dowagers in England; and, instead of making any thing of himself, he has actually been all the way to Granard Park