As Mrs. Thrale talked a good deal herself, however, she rose with an impression that there had been no especial lack of brilliancy at the table.
She took Fanny away with her, her determination being that if she should fail to draw this shy young creature out of her shell, she would at any rate convince her that her hostess was deserving of the reputation which she enjoyed for learning, combined with vivacity, so that their companionship could not be otherwise than profitable after all.
CHAPTER XXXV
It was not yet six o’clock and the sun was not due to set for more than another hour. The evening was a lovely one. From the shrubberies around the house came the liquid notes of countless blackbirds and thrushes, and above the trees of the park the cawing of the rooks as they wheeled above their nests and settled upon the branches.
“We shall sit on the terrace for half an hour, if you have a mind to,” said Mrs. Thrale, taking Fanny through the drawing-room into a smaller room that opened upon a long terrace above the beds of the flower-garden. Here were several seats and a small table bearing writing materials.
“Here I do most of my correspondence in the summer,” said Mrs. Thrale. “Sitting at that table in the open air, I have few distractions, unless I choose to accept the birds as such; and here I hope you will begin a new novel, or better still, a comedy that Mr. Sheridan will produce, with Mrs. Abington in her most charming gowns—you must give your namesake a chance of wearing a whole trunkful of gowns.” They seated themselves, and Mrs. Thrale continued:
“Now I have confided in you how I do my simple work, and I wish to hear from you by what means you found time to write your novel. That is the greatest secret of all associated with ‘Evelina’—so your father thinks. Mrs. Burney I always knew as a model housekeeper—a model manager of a family, and how you could contrive to write a single page without her knowledge is what baffles me as well as your father.”
“To tell you all would, I fear, be to confess to a lifetime of duplicity,” said Fanny. “I am sometimes shocked now when I reflect upon my double-dealing.”