Monday 5 Mar. No. 15 Milsom Street.
My dearest Miss Weston will not wonder I write so little while my hands are full of engagements, my heart with anxiety, and my head,—as old Cymbeline says,—amazed with too much matter.[5] Harriet will have let you into a great deal of my story, and you will be surprised less at the behaviour of a man who, it seems, had no birth nor education to found good manners upon. The only difficulty is whether we shall tell the lady what we know, or suppress it. I am for the latter, because like Zara she may care little whether he is Osmyn or Alphonzo, for aught I know. But my Master, ever steady to the care of his own honour, says she shall be told that which we have heard, because 'tis our duty to speak as much as hers to listen. Send me some good counsel, and continue to love your
H. L. P.
[5] Cymbeline, IV. iii. 28.
So ends Harriet Lee's romance. No clue is given as to what had been heard to Trotti's prejudice, but it must have been something serious, and as Harriet had met him, as a friend of the family, at Mr. Piozzi's house, the latter felt bound to clear himself of any suspicion of collusion. The Marquis, if not altogether an impostor, was clearly not what he seemed; the curious thing is that the Piozzis had not had their suspicions aroused sooner.
The characters alluded to by Mrs. Piozzi occur in Congreve's Mourning Bride, in which Osmyn, otherwise Alphonzo, son of the King of Valentia, is wrecked on the coast of Africa, where Queen Zara falls in love with him.
The next letter, undated, but bearing the postmark of July '92, alludes to a pecuniary loss Mrs. Weston had sustained, apparently through the fault of her son. Perhaps as the result of this they left the house in Queen Square, and till September the Westons took up their abode at Lewisham.
I would not, dearest Miss Weston, for the World, add to your torments. Comfort your poor Mother, and present her my cordial good wishes and compliments. Tell her that I say one good child out of only two is a good proportion, and I am sure God Almighty will not forsake her if the World does. While I have a house you command an apartment; consider it as your own, and come when it suits you. Cecilia will get her arm again, but 'twas a dreadful accident; that Girl is always saved from the brink of a precipice somehow: nothing could be more painful or more dangerous, she must wear it in a sling for a week at least.... Could not Mr. Vandercorn be useful? he would make a point of serving you, I'm sure; but I fear, I fear the poor £1000 is irretrievably gone. Despair not of Fortune however, she is never long in a mind, and will not be always so cross, I am sure she will not....
Marquis Trotti was here yesterday, to my amazement, who concluded him gone abroad; he brought Zenobio, Merlini, and Buchetti with him, and we had no manner of talk: he looks very well, says he leaves London for Paris next Wednesday,—I will not tell Harriet for fear of keeping her away. Would he had never come! We wanted him not, Heaven knows....
No sooner is one romance ended than another begins, destined, like the last, to give Mrs. Piozzi a good deal of anxiety to equally little purpose. Cecilia's first admirer appears upon the scene, in the person of a Mr. Drummond, and prosecutes his suit with an ardour which for a time carries all before him.
Whatever faults the Marquis may have committed, he did not consider himself in any way cut off from intercourse with the Piozzis, or feel any difficulty about keeping up a correspondence after he left England, which he did just in time to be present at Paris during the September massacres.
Streatham Park, Tues. 17 Jul.
Mr. Piozzi has so many things to call and to hurry him—he can only come on Monday next to fetch his dear Miss Weston and mine. Be ready then kind creature and come away....
I am wholly of your Mother's opinion, that 'tis best be near the spot: and if she is contented with her situation, what need you care to change it?... My vote is for doing nothing, it commonly is you know, if one stirs, 'tis always to hurt oneself, I think, literally and figuratively and all....
No news has been heard of the Federation, but all is supposed to be quiet in France, as an effect of the late coalition between the King and Jacobins. We shall see how matters end; I wonder one has no letter from Marquis Trotti.
Mr. James Drummond has pranced over the Common now with comical effect enough; for he half frighted a quiet old Gentleman of our Village here by stopping him on his ride, and telling his tender tale to most unwilling ears, as no man could like a love story less: and he had no claim to his confidence, for he could not guess who he might be. Mr. Thomas—a man you have heard Mr. Davies call his Oracle—was the person so unwillingly trusted, and while they were together, Drummond called to Miss Lees, who were walking on the lawn, and renewed his acquaintance with them: he likewise halload to Jacob in a gay tone. Such Geniuses are entertaining and comical as Larks, but I like them not about my house, and shall feel uneasy on the 25th lest some frisk may be performed.
The elder daughter of Mrs. Siddons, Sarah Martha, known among her friends as Sally, was just now staying with the Piozzis, as a companion for Cecilia, who was her junior by about two years.