The things we do!

But the best man of business, according to Mr. Giles, whom the firm of
Hobson Brothers ever knew, better than her father and uncle, better than
her husband Sir T. Newcome, better than her sons and successors above
mentioned, was the famous Sophia Alethea Hobson, afterwards Newcome--of
whom might be said what Frederick the Great said of his sister, that she
was sexu foemina, vir ingenio--in sex a woman, and in mind a man. Nor was
she, my informant told me, without even manly personal characteristics:
she had a very deep and gruff voice, and in her old age a beard which
many a young man might envy; and as she came into the bank out of her
carriage from Clapham, in her dark green pelisse with fur trimmings, in
her grey beaver hat, beaver gloves, and great gold spectacles, not a
clerk in that house did not tremble before her, and it was said she only
wanted a pipe in her mouth considerably to resemble the late
Field-Marshal Prince Blucher.
Her funeral was one of the most imposing sights ever witnessed in
Clapham.


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