Dinner with my darlings

The visit to the East India Museum goes off very well: sure matters there are somewhat higgledy-piggeldy, but I find General Y-'s little figures or some that are very similar, and all have a most entertaining and instructive time. Little V and the F- children are all exceeding prepossesst with one another, and indeed I think that Harry now has something of a boyish admiration for the young Duchess.

Little Lord S- comes on a nursery visit and while Flora shows some inclination to be haughty and distant and even to display a little jealousy, Quintus shows an extreme pretty welcoming spirit. Julius and little Hannah are much in the nursery – as Mrs F- says, Patty can mind them perfectly well, Seraphine can come feed Hannah when necessary, and they are all company for one another.

There is still a deal of romping in the garden while the weather remains fine and warm. Roberts has made the suggestion that – tho’ 'tis the wrong time of year to be starting such a thing, and would have to be held over some months – the children might have their own little garden plots. Miss N- finds this a most excellent idea.

As Parliament is not yet in session, our dear Grand Turk makes several journeys back and forth to the ironworks, to be assur’d that all is in order and proceeding as it should, but returns to say Mr D- shows excellent well and perchance they should consider offering him partnership.

My darlings frequently invite me to join them for family dinner when they have no company and I have no other engagement. Harry and Bess are allow’d to come to dinner rather than have nursery supper on these occasions.

Harry and Josh will shortly return to school (there is a deal of groaning over this, in spite of the fine tales they will have to tell their schoolmates, that includes Josh’s visit to the infant wombatt at Richmond). They have been about completing their set holiday tasks, which have been subject to a deal of disturbance with the move to Town.

Harry has been displaying some fret about his, to do with some matter of Latin composition, which he does not find as congenial to him as mathematicks. I strongly advise him that he should consult Mr MacD-, that is a very not’d classickal scholar.

I see he has some shyness about this, and indeed I think that Sandy for his part also has some shyness towards the children, so I go about to acquaint them better with one another. This has an entirely happy outcome, as Sandy is able to make clear to Harry certain matters that previous teaching had left obscure to his mind, and Harry greatly prepossesses Sandy with his intelligent grasp.

Sure, Sandy remarks to me, he could never have made a schoolmaster for he doubts not that that would mean teaching a great many dunces, which would greatly provoke his temper, but 'tis extreme congenial to encounter a keen young mind that desires to learn.

Bess has become entire besott’d with the theatre and would go every night would her parents permit, even to see the same play over and over again.

So I am become almost one of the family.

I wait until Harry and Bess are chas’d off to bed one e’en as I dine with my darlings, and then disclose to them the business with Herr F-, the scoundrel. They commiserate with me much – presuming wretch, says Josiah, sure you must wish that the Admiral and his horse-whip were in Town. Oh, says I, I confide that Hector has taken care of the situation, so I need not call on Marcello with his stiletto. They chuckle.

But, says I, I mind me that you were going about to sound out this difficulty with Hector and the girls in the household, do you come to any conclusions?

Oh, we make some progress, says Eliza. 'Tis an entire imbroglio that we must set before your judgement to see whether the dearest of C-'s wit will find some way of contriving to unknot it.

My dears, should you object did I smoke a fine cigar while we talk? – We are both entirely agreeable to this. I take a little madeira, my wild girl has a glass of port, and our dear Grand Turk helps himself to some brandy.

I have been going about, says Josiah, to convoke with Hector as one that may advise me about certain matters of Town life, as a discreet and intelligent fellow that sees much and also knows how to keep his mouth shut.

Oh? says I. Sure I knew nothing of this, indeed I am not mistress in my own household.

'Tis man-to-man discourse, says Eliza with a comickal look.

And in eventual course he comes to tell me that he finds himself in an entire conundrum. I do not need to rehearse to you, loveliest of C-s, the events through which Hector came to your household, which have given him an entire distaste for situations in which favours are sought of one who is not in a position of equality and who may fear the reception that a rejection might receive.

Oh, says I, 'tis a view that does him entire credit.

Indeed it does, says my wild girl.

But, he says, when you were in Naples, there grew up, he thought, a friendship 'twixt himself and Euphemia, for they felt, there, more on an equality, 'twas an entirely different circumstance to their London life, both being strangers to the place and out of the household.

But then there was the return to Town and the household and it seem’d to him that did he take the matter further, 'twould be entirely the sort of thing he most dislik’d, that she might feel compell’d to accept his addresses or at least uneasy about refusing them. He does not suppose, he assur’d me, that she was the kind that would take advantage, which is indeed another thing that may happen in such cases.

And now, he says, here she is walking out with that rogue Thomas, that feels no qualms at making his suit. And so as not to look particular over Euphemia’s followers, he feels oblig’d also to be strict with Prue.

Oh, says I, oh, oh. That all this is going on under my roof – but indeed, I notic’d in Naples that he no longer treat’d her as a silly girl that he had to keep under hand but as a sensible young woman that sought to advance in her profession and entire worthy of respect.

But as to Euphemia, says my wild girl, I have sound’d out some of the matter from her side. I have gone about exchanging receipts with her, and, thinking of that matter of Naples, I mind’d that she had acquir’d a knowledge of cooking in the Neapolitan style, and desir’d her, if she would, to convey some of this to me.

This led her on at length to discourse of Guiseppina, and then of sudden she pauses and says to me, Mrs F-, witchcraft is quite entire a matter of false superstitious belief, is it not? To which I of course reply that indeed 'tis so, and the law is strict on those that seek to deceive the simple with suppos’d magick for profit.

But mayhap, she goes on, 'tis another matter in Naples? For Guiseppina, that was a very fine woman, was also what they call a strega. And Guiseppina apprehend’d that Euphemia had a considerable mind towards Hector, and offer’d to make her a love-spell, but she could not like the notion. Even so, Guiseppina, she thinks, may have gone about out of kindness to cast a spell - for she sent her some matter that she is suppos’d to convey secretly to Hector – and she fears that Hector has gain’d some hint of this, or feels it as a compulsion - like unto, she said, the philtre in Her Ladyship’s fine tale – that he goes about to fight against.

Oh, says I, the poor things. Indeed I do not immediate see the way to untangle this –

My darlings laugh at me very gentle and says their dearest of C-s will always be about finding some contrivance, and look where the last one got her.

O, says I, how could I imagine such a wretch as Herr F-, that thinks himself a fellow no woman could refuse and that any woman that gives him a polite greeting desires him in her bed? That supposes I am hanging out for a lover because it seems that Milord is quite ravisht by the charms of Miss R-. Sure I think he took entirely too literal the songs that Miss McK- sang at my soirée.

Indeed, my darling, says Eliza, a little consideration on his part should reveal that you are not one that ever needs to be hanging out for a lover –

- I confide not, says I, I do not think it is vanity in me to agree.

My dear ones look at me very fond.