“I never knew him at all, ma’am.”
“No? Why, then, how came you to receive the news about his death?”
Was not this agreeable? I was forced to say, “I heard of it only from Mr. Fairly, ma’am." Nothing could exceed the surprise with which she now lifted up her eyes to look at me. “From Mr. Fairly?—Why did he not tell it me?”
O, worse and worse! I was now compelled to answer, “He did not know it when he was here, ma’am; he heard it at Northleach, and, thinking it might be of use to your majesty to have the account immediately, he sent it over express.”
A dead silence so uncomfortable ensued, that I thought it best presently to go on further, though unasked. “Mr. Fairly, ma’am, wrote the news to me, on such small paper, and in such haste, that it is hardly fit to be shown to your majesty; but I have the note upstairs.”
No answer; again all silent; and then Princess Augusta said, “Mamma, Miss Burney says she has the note upstairs.”
“If your majesty pleases to see it”—
She looked up again, much more pleasantly, and said, “I shall be glad to see it,” with a little bow.
Out I went for it, half regretting I had not burned it, to make the producing it impossible. When I brought it to her, she received it with the most gracious smile, and immediately read it aloud, with great complacency, till she came to the end and then, with a lowered and somewhat altered tone, the “very truly and sincerely yours,” which she seemed to look at for a moment with some doubt if it were not a mistake, but in returning it she bowed again, and simply said, “I am very much obliged to Mr. Fairly.”
You will be sure how much I was pleased during this last week to hear that the place of the Master of St. Catherine’s was given by her majesty to Mr. Fairly. It is reckoned the best in her gift, as a sinecure. What is the income I know not: reports differ from 400 to 500 per annum.