Friday, Oct. 6.—We returned to Windsor without Mrs. Schwellenberg, who stayed in town for her physician's advice. The queen went immediately to Mrs. Delany, and the princess royal came into my room.
“I beg pardon,” she cried, “for what I am going to say: I hope you will excuse my taking such a liberty with you—but, has nobody told you that the queen is always used to have the jewel-box carried into her bedroom?”
“No, ma'am, nobody mentioned it to me. I brought it here because I have other things in it.”
“I thought, when I did not see it in mamma's room,” cried she, “that nobody had told you of that custom, and so I thought I would come to you myself: I hope you will excuse it?”
You may believe how I thanked her, while I promised to take out my own goods and chattels, and have it conveyed to its proper place immediately. I saw that she imagined the queen might be displeased; and though I could never myself imagine that, for an omission of ignorance, I felt the benevolence of her intention, and received it with great gratitude.
“My dear ma'am,” cried she, “I am sure I should be most happy to do anything for you that should be in my power, always; and really Mrs. Schwellenberg ought to have told you this.”
Afterwards I happened to be alone with this charming princess, and her sister Elizabeth, in the queen's dressing-room. She then came up to me and said,
“Now will you excuse me, Miss Burney, if I ask you the truth of something I have heard about you?”
“Certainly, ma'am.”
“It's such an odd thing, I don't know how to mention it; but I have wished to ask you about it this great while. Pray is it really true that, in your illness last year, you coughed so violently that you broke the whalebone of your stays in two?”