O!—­And remember, Harriet, that you get somebody to call upon him to sing—­You shall play—­I believe I shall forget, in that only agreeable moment of the day, (for you have a sweet finger, my love,) that I am the principal fool in the play of the evening.

O, Harriet,—­how can I, in the circumstances I am in, write any more about these soft souls, and silly?  Come to me by day-dawn, and leave me not till—­I don’t know when.  Come, and take my part, my dear:  I shall hate this man:  he does nothing but hop, skip, and dance about me, grin and make mouths; and every body upholds him in it.

Must this (I hope not!) be the last time that I write myself to you

Charlotte Grandison?

LETTER XVII

MISS BYRON, TO MISS SELBY ST. JAMES’S-SQUARE, FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 7.

Sir Charles Grandison set out early this morning for Lord W——­’s, in his way to Lady Mansfield’s.  I am here with this whimsical Charlotte.

Lady L——­, Miss Jervois, myself, and every female of the family, or who do business for both sisters out of it, are busy in some way or other, preparatory to the approaching Tuesday.

Miss Grandison is the only idle person.  I tell her, she is affectedly so.

The earl has presented her, in his son’s name, with some very rich trinkets.  Very valuable jewels are also bespoke by Lord G——­, who takes Lady L——­’s advice in every thing; as one well read in the fashions.  New equipages are bespoke; and gay ones they will be.

Miss Grandison confounded me this morning by an instance of her generosity.  She was extremely urgent with me to accept, as her third sister, of her share of her mother’s jewels.  You may believe, that I absolutely refused such a present.  I was angry with her; and told her, she had but one way of making it up with me; and that was, that since she would be so completely set out from her lord, she would unite the two halves, by presenting hers to Lady L——­, who had refused jewels from her lord on her marriage; and who then would make an appearance, occasionally, as brilliant as her own.

She was pleased with the hint; and has actually given them (unknown to any body but me) to her jeweller; who is to dispose them in such figures, as shall answer those she herself is to have, which Lady L——­ has not.  And by this contrivance, which will make them in a manner useless to herself, she thinks she shall oblige her sister, however reluctant, to accept of them.

Lady Gertrude is also preparing some fine presents for her niece elect:  but neither the delighted approbation of the family she is entering into, nor the satisfaction expressed by her own friends, give the perverse Charlotte any visible joy, nor procure for Lord G——­ the distinction which she ought to think of beginning to pay him.  But, for his part, never was man so happy.  He would, however, perhaps, fare better from her, if he could be more moderate in the outward expression of his joy; which she has taken it into her head to call an insult upon her.