"Best compliments to my dear protectress, Madame Phillipe."
Miss Burney to Dr. Burney (her father).
"Mickleham, February 29, 1793.
"There can be nothing imagined more charming, more fascinating than this colony; between their sufferings and their agrémens they occupy us almost wholly. M. de Narbonne, alas, has no £1000 a year! he got over only £4000 at the beginning, from a most splendid fortune; and, little foreseeing how all has turned out, he has lived, we fear, upon the principal....
"M. d'Arblay is one of the most singularly interesting characters that can ever have been formed. He has a sincerity, a frankness, an ingenuous openness of nature, that I had been unjust enough to think could not belong to a Frenchman. With all this, which is his military portion, he is passionately fond of literature, a most delicate critic in his own language, well versed in both Italian and German, and a very elegant poet. He has just undertaken to become my French master for pronunciation, and he gives me long daily lessons in reading. Pray expect wonderful improvements! In return I hear him in English."
Miss Burney to Mrs. Lock.
"Thursday, Mickleham.
"Madame de Staël has written me two English notes, quite beautiful in ideas, and not very reprehensible in idiom. But English has nothing to do with elegance such as theirs—at least, little and rarely. I am always exposing myself to the wrath of John Bull, when this côterie come into competition. It is inconceivable what a convert M. de Talleyrand has made of me; I think him now one of the first members, and one of the most charming, of this exquisite set."
Dr. Burney to Miss Burney.
"Chelsea College, Tuesday Morning, February 19, 1793.