This was well understood, and echoed round the table with hearty laughter.
“This would do for you completely, Mr. Burke,” said Mrs. Crewe, “if it could get into a newspaper! Mr. Burke, they would say, has now spoken out; the truth has come to light unguardedly, and his real defection from the cause Of true liberty is acknowledged. I should like to draw up the paragraph!”
“And add,” said Mr. Burke, “the toast was addressed to Miss Burney, in order to pay court to the queen!”
This sport went on till, upon Mr. Elliot’s again mentioning France and the rising Jacobins, Mr. Richard Burke loudly gave a new toast—“Come!” cried he, “here’s confusion to Confusion!”
Mr. Windham, who Was gone into Norfolk for the summer, was frequently mentioned, and always with praise. Mr. Burke, upon Mr. Elliot’s saying something of his being very thin, warmly exclaimed, “He is just as he should be! If I were Windham this minute, I Should not wish to be thinner, nor fatter, nor taller, nor shorter, nor any way, nor in anything, altered.”
Some time after, speaking of former days, you may believe I was struck enough to hear Mr. Burke say to Mrs. Crewe, “I wish you had known Mrs. Delany! She was a pattern of a perfect fine lady, a real fine lady, of other days! Her manners were faultless; her deportment was all elegance, her speech was all sweetness, and her air and address all dignity. I always looked up to her as the model of an accomplished woman of former times.”
Do you think I heard such a testimony to my most revered and beloved departed friend unmoved?
Afterwards, still to Mrs. Crewe, he proceeded to say, she had been married to Mr. Wycherley, the author.[365] There I ventured to interrupt him, and tell him I fancied that must be some great mistake, as I had been well acquainted with her history from her own mouth. He seemed to have heard it from some good authority; but I could by no means accede my belief, as her real life and memoirs had been so long in my hands, written by herself to a certain period, and, for some way, continued by me. This, however, I did not mention.