“I wish that Mr. Garrick would give all his attention to his own affairs and leave us to manage ours in our own way,” said Mrs. Burney.
“What? Why, what had Mr. Garrick to do with our visit to—”
“’Twas Mr. Garrick who continued his fooling of Mr. Kendal, sending him all over the town trying to make matches. He believes that he is under a debt of gratitude to Mr. Garrick and your father for the happiness he enjoys with his bride.”
“And he suggested that a match might be made between someone in St. Martin’s Street and someone in the Poultry? But how does Mr. Kendal come to be acquainted with the Barlowes?”
“His wife was a Johnson before she married her first husband, and the Johnsons are closely connected with the Barlowes.”
“Young Mr. Barlowe was just coming to the family history of the Johnsons when I interrupted him.”
“Was he coming to any other matter that concerned you more closely, think you?”
Fanny laughed again, only much longer this time than before. She had to wipe her eyes before she could answer.
“Dear mamma,” she said, “you would laugh as heartily if you had seen him when he suddenly recollected that in his eagerness to make me acquainted with the glories of the Kensits and the abilities of the Johnsons, he had neglected the object of his excursion to that room with my poor self, until it was too late.”