Perhaps it would be more entertaining to add a few surprising customs of my own invention; but nothing seems to me so agreeable as truth, and I believe nothing so acceptable to you." The most fortunate thing that happened to Lady Mary, and through her to England, during her stay in Adrianople, was being made acquainted with the practice of inoculation, then widely in vogue in Turkey.

Though she had no medical knowledge, she made enquiries as to its effect, and soon became convinced that it was very highly beneficial.

She was the more interested because an attack of small-pox had somewhat dimmed her beauty.

It was to Miss Sarah Chiswell that she unburdened herself of the discovery she had made.
"Those dreadful stories you have heard of the plague have very little foundation in truth.

I own I have much ado to reconcile myself to the sound of a word which has always given me such terrible ideas, though I am convinced there is little more in it than a fever.