“It was so sudden, sir, and so unexpected, there was no time.”

“I dare say,” said the sweet queen, “Mrs. Locke was only veryhappy to have it at her house.”

“Indeed, ma’am,” cried I, “her kindness, and Mr. Locke’s would make anybody think so but they are all kindness and ggoodness.”

“I have heard indeed,” said the queen, “that they are all sensible, and amiable, and ingenuous, in that family.”

“They are indeed,” cried I, “and as exemplary as they are accomplished.”

“I have never seen Mrs. Locke,” said the king, “since she was that high;”—­pointing to little Miss Dewes.

“And I,” said the queen “I have never seen her in my life; but for all that, from what I hear of her, I cannot help feeling interested whenever I only hear her name.”

This, with a good deal of animation, she said directly to me.

“Mr. William Locke, ma’am,” said Mrs. Delany, “I understand from Miss Burney, is now making the same wonderful progress in painting that he had done before in drawing,”

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“I have seen some of his drawings,” said the queen, “which were charming.”

" How old is he?” cried the king.

“Eighteen, sir.”

“Eighteen!” repeated the king—­“how time flies!”

“Oh! for me,” cried the queen, “I am always quarrelling with time!  It is so short to do something, and so long to do nothing.”

She has now and then something foreign to our idiom, that has a very pretty effect.

“Time,” said the king, “always seems long when we are young, and short when we begin to grow old.”

“But nothing makes me so angry,” said the queen, “as to hear people not know what to do!  For me, I never have half time enough to do things.  But what makes me most angry still, is to see people go up to a window and say, ’what a bad day!—­dear, what shall we do such a day as this?’ ‘What?’ I say; ’why, employ yourselves; and then what signifies the bad day?’”

Afterwards, there was some talk upon sermons, and the queen wished the Bishop of Chester would publish another volume.

“No, no,” said the king, “you must not expect a man, while he continues preaching, to go on publishing.  Every sermon printed, diminishes his stock for the pulpit.”

“Very true,” said the queen, “but I believe the Bishop of Chester has enough to spare.”

The king then praised Carr’s sermons, and said he liked none but what were plain and unadorned.

“Nor I neither,” said the queen; “but for me, it is, I suppose, because the others I don’t understand.”

The king then, looking at his watch, said, “It is eight o’clock, and ]If we don’t go now, the children will be sent to the other house.”

“Yes, your majesty,” cried the queen, instantly rising.

Mrs. Delany put on her majesty’s cloak, and she took a very kind leave of her.  She then curtsied separately to us all, and the king handed her to the carriage.