“Upon my honour, You are mistaken; we talk just as much of it down there as up here.”
“You would much oblige me if you would not talk of it,—neither there nor here.”
“Let me end it, then, by bringing him at once!”
“No, no, leave us both alone: he has his resources and his engagements as much as I have; we both are best as we now are." “But what can he say, ma’am? Consider his confusion and disgrace! It is well known, in the world, the private life that the royal family live at Windsor, and who are the attendants that belong to them; and when Colonel Wellbred quits his waiting—three months’ waiting and is asked how he likes Miss Burney, he must answer he has never seen her! And what, ma’am, has Colonel Wellbred done to merit such a mortification?”
It was impossible not to laugh at such a statement of the case; and again he requested to bring him directly. “One quarter of an hour will content me; I only wish to introduce him—for the sake of his credit in the world; and when once you have met, you need meet no more; no consequences whatever need be drawn to the detriment of your solitude.”
I begged him to desist, and let us both rest.
“But have you, yourself, ma’am, no curiosity—no desire to see Colonel Wellbred?”
“None in the world.”
“If, then, hereafter you admit any other equerry—”
“No, no, I intend to carry the new construction throughout.”