Читать книгу The Diary and Collected Letters of Madame D'Arblay, Frances Burney - Frances Burney - Страница 42

Bath.—I shall now skip to our arrival at this beautiful city which I really admire more than I did, if possible, when I first saw it. The houses are so elegant, the streets are so beautiful, the prospects so enchanting, I could fill whole pages upon the general beauty of the place and country, but that I have neither time for myself, nor incitement for you, as I know nothing tires so much as description.

Monday.—Lord Mulgrave, Augustus Phipps, Miss Cooper, Dr. Harrington, and Dr. Woodward dined with us.

I like Lord Mulgrave⁸⁷ very much. He has more wit, and a greater readiness of repartee, than any man I have met with this age. During dinner he was all brilliancy, but I drew myself into a little scrape with him, from which I much wanted some of his wit to extricate myself. Mrs. Thrale was speaking of the House of Commons, and lamenting that she had never heard any debates there.

“And now,” said she, “I cannot, for this General Johnson has turned us all out most barbarously.”

“General Johnson?” repeated Lord Mulgrave.

“Ay, or colonel—I don’t know what the man was, but I know he was no man of gallantry.”

“Whatever he was,” said his lordship, “I hope he was a land officer.”

“I hope so too, my lord,” said she.

“No, no, no,” cried Mr. Thrale, “it was Commodore Johnson.”

“That’s bad, indeed,” said Lord Mulgrave, laughing. “I thought, by his manners, he had belonged to the army.”

“True,” said I “they were hardly polished enough for the sea.”

This I said a demi-voix, and meant only for Mrs. Thrale, but Lord Mulgrave heard and drew up upon them, and pointing his finger at me with a threatening air, exclaimed,

“Don’t you speak, Miss Burney? What’s this, indeed?”

They all stared, and to be sure I rouged pretty high.

“Miss Burney,” said Mrs. Thrale, “should be more respectful to be sure, for she has a brother at sea herself.”

“I know it,” said he, “and for all her, we shall see him come back from Kamschatka as polished a beau as any he will find.”

Poor Jem! God send him safe back, polished or rough.

Lord Mulgrave’s brother Edmund is just entered into the army.

“He told me t’other day,” said his lordship, “that he did not like the thoughts of being a parson.”

“‘Very well,’ said I, ‘you are old enough to choose for yourself; what will you be then?’

“‘Why, a soldier,’ says he.

“‘A soldier? will you so? Why, then, the best thing you can do is to embark with your brother Henry immediately, for you won’t know what to do in a regiment by yourself.’ Well, no sooner said than done! Henry was just going to the West Indies in Lord Harrington’s regiment, and Edmund ordered a chaise and drove to Portsmouth after him. The whole was settled in half an hour.”