“No?” repeated she, “ma foi, that's pity!”[79]
This raised such a laugh, I was forced to move on; yet everybody seemed to be afraid to laugh, too, and studying to be delicate, as if they had been cautioned; which, I have since found, was really the case, and by Sir Joshua himself.
Again, however, she was at my side.
“What game do you like, Miss Burney?” cried she.
“I play at none, ma'am.”
“No? Pardie, I wonder at that! Did you ever know such a toad?”
Again I moved on, and got behind Mr. W. Burke, who, turning round to me, said,—
“This is not very politic in us, Miss Burney, to play at cards, and have you listen to our follies.”
There's for you! I am to pass for a censoress now.
Mrs. Cholmondeley hunted me quite round the card-table, from chair to chair, repeating various speeches of Madame Duval; and when, at last, I got behind a sofa, out of her reach, she called out aloud, “Polly, Polly! only think! Miss has danced with a Lord.”