psha, Pamela, that is not it:  ’tis all in yourself.  I used to think my mamma, and my brother too, had as awkward servants as ever I saw any where—­except Mrs. Jervis—­Well enough for a bachelor, indeed!—­But, here!—­thou hast not parted with one servant—­Hast thou?”—­“No, Madam.”—­“How!” said the countess; “what excellence is here!—­All of them, pardon me, Mrs. B., your fellow-servants, as one may say, and all of them so respectful, so watchful of your eye; and you, at the same time, so gentle to them, so easy, so cheerful.”

Don’t you think me, my dear, insufferably vain?  But ’tis what they were pleased to say.  ’Twas their goodness to me, and shewed how much they can excel in generous politeness.  So I will proceed.  “Why this,” continued the countess, “must be born dignity—­born discretion—­Education cannot give it:—­if it could, why should not we have it?”

The ladies said many more kind things of me then; and after dinner they mentioned all over again, with additions, before my best friend, who was kindly delighted with the encomiums given me by two ladies of such distinguishing judgment in all other cases.  They told him, how much they admired my family management:  then they would have it that my genius was universal, for the employments and accomplishments of my sex, whether they considered it as employed in penmanship, in needlework, in paying or receiving visits, in music, and I can’t tell how many other qualifications, which they were pleased to attribute to me, over and above the family management:  saying, that I had an understanding which comprehended every thing, and an eye that penetrated into the very bottom of matters in a moment, and never was at a loss for the should be, the why or wherefore, and the how—­these were their comprehensive words; that I did every thing with celerity, clearing all as I went, and left nothing, they observed, to come over again, that could be dispatched at once:  by which means, they said, every hand was clear to undertake a new work, as well as my own head to direct it; and there was no hurry nor confusion:  but every coming hour was fresh and ready, and unincumbered (so they said), for its new employment; and to this they attributed that ease and pleasure with which every thing was performed, and that I could do and cause to be done, so much business without hurry either to myself or servants.

Judge how pleasing this was to my best beloved, who found, in their kind approbation, such a justification of his own conduct as could not fail of being pleasing to him, especially as Lady Davers was one of the kind praisers.  Lord Davers was so highly delighted, that he rose once, begging his brother’s excuse, to salute me, and stood over my chair, with a pleasure in his looks that cannot be expressed, now-and-then lifting up his hands, and his good-natured eye glistening with joy, which a pier-glass gave me the opportunity