As children are
sometimes brought before magistrates, and their poor little backs and
shoulders laid bare, covered with bruises and lashes which brutal parents
have inflicted, so, I dare say, if there had been any tribunal or judge,
before whom this poor patient lady's heart could have been exposed, it
would have been found scarred all over with numberless ancient wounds,
and bleeding from yesterday's castigation. Old Lady Kew's tongue was a
dreadful thong which made numbers of people wince. She was not altogether
cruel, but she knew the dexterity with which she wielded her lash, and
liked to exercise it. Poor Lady Julia was always at hand, when her mother
was minded to try her powers.
Lady Kew had just made herself comfortable at Brighton, when her little
grandson's illness brought Lady Anne Newcome and her family down to the
sea. Lady Kew was almost scared back to London again, or blown over the
water to Dieppe. She had never had the measles. "Why did not Anne carry
the child to some other place? Julia, you will on no account go and see
that little pestiferous swarm of Newcomes, unless you want to send me out
of the world--which I dare say you do, for I am a dreadful plague to you,
I know, and my death would be a release to you.
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