"Bayley's Blacking. Can one conceive anything so absurd?"
I set her down as desired, and begged her to make my excuse to Julia, who was at her window with Horace Beckford, the handsome nephew of Lord Rivers. He appeared inclined to pay her attention, if one might judge by the soft smile which was playing about his features: but then he was eternally smiling.
I found my very constant and steady admirer, Lord Frederick Bentinck, waiting for me, prepared, as usual, to give me a world of advice. He told me that I was going on in a very bad way, and asked me whither I expected to go?
"Where are you going to?" said I, as he walked into my dressing-room, and seemed to admire himself in my large glass.
"I am going to see the Duchess of York," said Fred Bentinck.
"What of that!" I returned. "Where are your gloves?"
"I never wear them, unless at court; but I have got on a new pair of leather breeches to-day, and I want to see now they fit by your glass."
Brummell at this moment was announced.
"How very apropos you are arrived," I remarked. "Lord Frederick wants your opinion on his new leather breeches."
"Come here, Fred Bentinck!" said Brummell. "But there is only one man on earth who can make leather breeches!"