Nov. 3.-In the morning I had the honour of a conversation with the queen, the most delightful, on her part, I had ever yet been indulged with.  It was all upon dress, and she said so nearly what I had just imputed to her in my little stanzas, that I could scarce refrain producing them ; yet could not muster courage.  She told me, with the sweetest grace imaginable, how well she had liked at first her jewels and ornaments as queen,—­“But how soon,” cried she, “was that over!  Believe me, Miss Burney, it is a pleasure of a week,—­a fortnight, at most,—­and to return no more!  I thought, at first, I should always choose to wear them, but the fatigue, and trouble of putting them on, and the care they required, and the fear of losing them,—­believe me, ma’am, in a fortnight’s time I longed again for my own earlier dress, and wished never to see them more!”

She then still more opened her opinions and feelings.  She told me she had never, in her most juvenile years, loved dress and shew, nor received the smallest pleasure from any thing in her external appearance beyond neatness and comfort :  yet did not disavow that the first week or fortnight of being a queen, when only in her seventeenth year, she thought splendour sufficiently becoming her station to believe she should thenceforth choose constantly to support it.  But her eyes alone were dazzled, not her mind ; and therefore the delusion speedily vanished, and her understanding was too strong to give it any chance of returning,

A holiday at last.

Nov. 4.-This morning, when I attended the queen, she asked me if I should like to go and see my father at Chesington ? and then gave orders immediately for a chaise to be ready without delay—­ “And there is no need you should hurry yourself,” she added, “for it will do perfectly well if you are back to dinner; when I dress, I will send for Miss Planta.”

I thanked her very much, and she seemed quite delighted to give me this gratification.  “The first thing I thought of this morning, when I woke,” said she, “and when I saw the sun shining in upon the bed, was that this would be a fine morning for Miss Burney to go and see her father.”

And soon after, to make me yet more comfortable she found 434

a deputy for my man as well as for myself, condescending to give orders herself that another person might lay the cloth, lest I should be hurried home on that account.

I need not tell my two dear readers how sensibly I felt her goodness, when I acquaint them of its effect upon me ; which was no less than to induce, to impel me to trust her with my performance of her request. just as she was quitting her dressing-room, I got behind her, and suddenly blurted out—­

“Your majesty’s goodness to me, ma’am, makes me venture to own that there is a command which I received some time ago, and which I have made some attempt to execute.”

She turned round with great quickness,—­“The great coat?” she cried, “is it that?”