Lady Anne assented at once; it was just the sort of thing she liked. It might be wondered that Lady Penrhyn did not extend her invitation to the younger part of the family; no one who knew her ladyship would have wondered at it. She did not patronize young ladies—they were always superfluous, sometimes inconvenient; besides, flirting as she did to the last extremity of flirtation, she herself needed a sort of chaperon, and Lady Anne was just the sort of person who was invaluable in the way of sanction. There had never been even the shadow of an insinuation against her perfect correctness, and yet she was d'une discretion parfaite—she never saw or heard any thing more than it was intended she should, she never believed any tale of slander till the very last, "because," as she justly observed, "scandal was so underbred, and destroyed all the use of society;" but when denial became impossible, and les bienséances were outraged, nothing could then exceed her horror and indignation.
But both Lord and Lady Penrhyn are such complete representatives of a class that they deserve longer mention. John Penrhyn began life the younger brother of a younger branch, and passed the first forty years of his life in small, dark chambers in the Temple, twice a year going the circuit which included his native county. There were two, and two only, remarkable circumstances connected with his early career: the first was, that he never exceeded his slender income,
