English women, madam! I speak not for you. You are kind; you - you are too
soft, dear Lady Ann, for a persecutor.«
    The counsels of the worldly woman who governed and directed that branch of
the Newcome family of whom it is our business to speak now for a little while,
bore other results than those which the elderly lady desired and foresaw. Who
can foresee everything and always? Not the wisest among us. When His Majesty
Louis XIV. jockeyed his grandson on to the throne of Spain (founding thereby the
present revered dynasty of that country), did he expect to peril his own, and
bring all Europe about his royal ears? Could a late king of France, eager for
the advantageous establishment of one of his darling sons, and anxious to
procure a beautiful Spanish princess, with a crown and kingdom in reversion, for
the simple and obedient youth, ever suppose that the welfare of his whole august
race and reign would be upset by that smart speculation? We take only the most
noble examples to illustrate the conduct of such a noble old personage as her
ladyship of Kew, who brought a prodigious deal of trouble upon some of the
innocent members of her family, whom no doubt she thought to better in life by
her experienced guidance and undoubted worldly wisdom. We may be as deep as
Jesuits, know the world ever so well, lay the best-ordered plans and the
profoundest combinations, and by a certain not unnatural turn of fate we and our
plans and combinations are sent flying before the wind. We may be as wise as
Louis-Philippe, that many-counselled Ulysses whom the respectable world admired
so, and after years of patient scheming and prodigies of skill, after coaxing,
wheedling, doubling, bullying, wisdom, behold yet stronger powers interpose, and
schemes and skill and violence are nought.
    Frank and Ethel, Lady Kew's grandchildren, were both the obedient subjects
of this ancient despot - this imperious old Louis XIV. in a black front and a
cap and ribbon, this scheming old Louis-Philippe in tabinet; but their blood was
good and their tempers high, and for all her bitting and driving, and the
training of her manége, the generous young colts were hard to break. Ethel at
this time was especially stubborn in training, rebellious to the whip, and wild
under harness, and the way in which Lady Kew managed her won the admiration of
her family; for it was a maxim among these folks that no one could manage Ethel
but Lady Kew. Barnes said no one could manage his sister