By learning nurtured, and by taste refined,
For innocence like thine might gladly change
Wit’s keenest edge and fancy’s widest range.
TO RICHARD TRENCH, ESQ.
Bath, Feb., 1817.
C—— is gone to the ball, and I have remained to chat with you undisturbed. ’Tis a melancholy way of chatting, whatever may be said of the pleasure we find in having all the talk to ourselves. I went last night to a melancholy concert, to which I brought no spirits, and where, of course, I found none. A little wonderful girl of ten or twelve, first pleased, then astonished, and then fatigued me, on the pianoforte. I was curious to hear her begin, and longed to hear her end. I went chiefly to please the flock, who wanted a shepherdess, in which capacity I attended. They persuaded, and applanied all difficulties, came for me, and brought me home.
To-day I dined, or rather fed, at Mrs. C——’s, for I went at five and came home at seven. She shows distressing symptoms of change, decay of memory, and alteration of countenance. She has been so long the same, so happy, and so made for the sphere she filled, that I, who have not much power of calling up the future, felt as if she was one of the unchangeable parts of nature, and it is with pain I awake to the truth. The poor dear woman, when she heard Miss Acheson admire the curl in my children’s hair, said very gravely, ‘They did not take that from their grandmother, my dear ma’am, for my hair never had the least curl in it,’ literally thinking they were her own grandchildren. No one undeceived her, nor even looked surprised. I have always observed that any trait of real affection or heart strikes people with a sort of awe—perhaps because it is so uncommon—as, on the other hand, evident selfishness diminishes respect, and sets people at their ease. This gives the key to a degree of influence possessed by some minds, not to be accounted for on any other principle.
Lady B. and Miss C. stayed at Lady ——’s ball till five in the morning on Tuesday, and were playing loo in the evening, fresh and gay, at least dressed and noisy, as if nothing had disturbed their rest the night before.