be rainy when Dr. Y------ said it ought
to be fine, and oppressively hot when he assured her she required a
bracing element; besides, it was evident the medical men mistook her
case, and what chance had she, with Providence and the College of
Physicians against her! Then every one was unkind--nobody believed her
sick, or thought her valuable life in danger, although from four o'clock
in the afternoon to the same hour the next morning she was continually
before their eyes, driving in the park, visiting, dining, and even
dancing, too; in fact, exerting herself in every imaginable shape and
form for the sake of an ungrateful world that had nothing but hollow
civilities to show her, instead of tears for her sufferings. Skimming
my eye rapidly over this, I came at length to the well-known paragraph
which always concluded this exordium, and which I could have repeated by
heart--the purport of it being simply a prophetic menace of what would
be the state, and what the feelings, of various persons unknown, when at
her demise they discovered how unjustly, how ungenerously, how cruelly,
they had once or twice complimented her upon her health and looks,
during her lifetime. The undying remorse of those unfeeling wretches,
among whom it was very plain my father was numbered, was expatiated
upon with much force and Christian charity; for as certain joint-stock
companies contrive in their advertisements to give an apparent stability
to their firm, by quoting some well-known Coutts or Drummond as their
banker, so my poor mother, by simply introducing the word 'Providence'
into all her worldly transactions, thought she was discharging the most
rigid of Christian duties, and securing a happy retreat for herself when
that day should arrive when neither rouge nor false hair would supply
the deficiencies of youth, and death should unlock the jaw the dentist
had furnished.

After this came the column of court gossip, the last pun of the prince,
and a _mot_ of Mr. Canning. 'We hope,' continued she, 'poor Somerset
will go to Madrid as ambassador: to refuse him would be a great cruelty,
as he has been ordered by his medical men to try a southerly climate.'
Hum; ah!--'Lady Jane to replace Miss Barclay with the Landgravine.' Very
stupid all this. But come, here we have it, the writing too changes as
if a different spirit had dictated it.

'_Two o'clock_. I've just returned from the Grevilles, seriously ill
from the effect of the news that has r