"'Here is your opportunity, then,' exclaimed the duke, 'he has just come in. Go for him, little bulldog!'
"Forthwith Lady Hester pounced upon Addington, and, fixing her eyes on his Garter, said:
"'What have you there, my lord?' (You will recollect that Lord Abercorn has had both his legs broken.) 'What have you there?' A bandage? Mr. Addington has done his work well, and I hope that in future you will be able to walk more easily."
"Oh! it is insufferable!"
"Oh! my dear, here is something much better! The other day, Lord Mulgrave, while breakfasting with Mr. Pitt, found beside his plate a broken spoon.
"'How can Mr. Pitt keep such spoons?' he had the bad taste to say to Lady Hester.
"'Have you not yet discovered,' she replied, 'that Mr. Pitt often uses slight and weak instruments to effect his ends?'"
"What a pest she must be, dear creature! Lord Mulgrave! A wonderful statesman!"
And even those who detested her were the first to bow and scrape and join the crowd of admirers who surged in her wake.
"Lady Hester! I distinguished the pearls of your necklace more than five yards away!" "Lady Hester! you are astonishing this evening!" And suchlike banalities. And what heat! All the rouge and all the powder were melting. Lady Hester endeavoured in vain to reach a balcony. Cries, exclamations, confusion. The Duke of Cumberland's voice rose above the orchestra.