LIFE OF MYTTON. 145 



exemplary pattern of a wife and mother,* " would 

 you like to see her married to Mr. Mytton ? " I 

 very well remember my answer, which was this : " In 

 my opinion, Lady Charlotte, Mr. Mytton has no 

 business with a wife at all ; but should he marry your 

 daughter Caroline, there is a greater prospect of his 

 making a good husband to her than to any other 

 woman in the whole world." Now, not only did 

 my words prove true, but for several years he was a 

 good husband, and had it not been for " the grave 

 of reason " which excess of wine became to him, as 

 indeed it does to most other men, I doubt not he 

 would have continued in the same course. But 

 what an exemplary wife did Miss Caroline Giffard 

 become to him ! How well did .she bear her seclu- 

 sion from society ; what allowance did she make for 

 his libertine life ; how much did it cost her to es- 

 trange her heart from him who had stamped it with 

 its first impression ! "I cannot help loving him, with 

 all his faults,"' said she to me, one evening at Halston, 

 after recounting some of his acts, which only a mad- 

 man would have committed ; and were my life to 

 endure a thousand years, I could never lose my recol- 



• Lady Charlotte Giffard, a daughter of the house of Devon. 



K 



