Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/221

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Lady Hester Stanhope.
207

"The king liked me personally. I recollect once, at court, when we were standing, as he passed round the circle, he stopped at Harriet E., my cousin, and said to her something about her dress; and then, coming to me, he remarked how well I dressed myself, and told me to teach H. E. a little. She was so vexed that she cried: but it was her own fault; for, with a good person, good fortune, and fine dresses, she never could get a husband.

"I suppose the Queen is a good-natured German girl. Did you ever see Lord M———? he has got fine eyes; and, if he is fattened out, with a sleek skin and good complexion, he may be a man like Sir Gilbert, and about his age: such men are sometimes still loveable. He used to be a prodigious favourite with some of the handsomest women in London: so that his friends used to say, when he married Lady M., though she was not a bad-looking woman—' Poor fellow! what will he do? you know he can't like her long.' I recollect seeing her and Lady-sitting at a party on the top of the stairs, like two figures in a pocket-book—both little creatures; those that you call delicate.

"Lord M. is a very handsome man. His eyes are beautiful, and he has spent forty years of his life in endeavouring to please the women. I recollect, the last time I saw him, he was behind Sir G. H., as