The lawyers and the doctors, my dear Molly, go on the same plan,--they
never let us know the hard names they have for everything. If we once
come to do that, we 'll know what's the matter with ourselves and our
affairs, and neither need one nor the other. Mary Anne thinks that
administering means going to show the will to somebody that's to pay the
money; but my private opinion is that it's something about Ministers'
Money, for I remember my poor cousin Jones never would consent to pay
it, nor, indeed, anything else that went to the Established Church.
It was against his conscience, he used to say; and the Government that
coerces a man's conscience is worthy of "Grim Tartary." My notion is,
then, that they 're coming against me for the arrears, as if I had n't
any conscience too!
At all events, Molly, the property is to come to _me_; and the very
thought of it gives me a feeling of independence and pride that is
really overwhelming. K. I.'s temper was, indeed, becoming a sore trial,
and how I was to go on bearing it was more than I could imagine. He may
now return to Ireland and his dear Dodsborough whenever he pleases. Mary
Anne and I are determined to live abroad. Fortunately for us we have
made acquaintance with a very distinguished English lady--a Mrs. Gore
Hampton--who can introduce us everywhere. She is in the very height of
the fashion, and knows all the great people of Europe. She took a sudden
liking--I might call it an affection--for me and Mary Anne, and actually
proposed our all travelling together as one party. There never was luck
like it, Molly! She has a beautiful barouche of her own, with the arms
on it, and a French maid and a courier, and such heaps of luggage, you
wouldn't believe it could be carried. K. I. was afraid of the expense,
and gave, as you may believe, every kind of opposition to the plan. He
said it would "lead us into this," and "lead us into that;" the great
thing he dreaded being led into--as I told him--being good society and
high company.
So far from costing us anything, I believe it will be a considerable
saving; for, as Lord George says, "You can always make a better bargain
at the hotels when you 're a strong party." And he has kindly taken the
whole of this on himself.
He is a wonderful young man, Lord George; and, considering his tip-top
rank and connections, he's never above doing anything to serve, or be
useful to us. He knows K. I. as well, too, as I do myself. "Let _me_
alone," says he, "to manage the governor; _I_ know him. He's always
grumbling about expense and moaning over his poverty; but you may remark
that he does get the money somehow." And the observation is remarkably
just, Molly; for no matter what distress or distraction he's in, he
does contrive to rub through it; and this convinces me that he is only
deceiving us in talking about his want of means, and so forth. Since I
have discovered this, I never fret the way I used about expense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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