seldom letting anybody in, though I have a room for separate visitors; but I almost look on a morning visit as an immorality. At four we dine. We have the same elegant table as usual, but I generally confine myself to one single dish of meat. I have taken to drink half a glass of wine. At six we have coffee. At eight, tea, when we have sometimes a dowager or two of quality. At ten we have salad and fruits. Each has her book, which we read without any restraint, as if we were alone, without apologies or speech-making."
Of Mrs. Garrick she says a little later:—
"Her garden and her family amuse her; but the idea of company is death to her. We never see a human face but each other's. Though in such deep retirement I am never dull, because I am not reduced to the fatigue of entertaining dunces, nor of being obliged to listen to them. We dress like a couple of scaramouches; dispute like a couple of Jesuits; eat like a couple of aldermen; walk like a couple of porters; and read as much as any two doctors of either University. I wish the fatal 20th were well over, I dread the anniversary of that day. On her wedding-day she went to the Abbey, where she stayed a good while, and she said she had been to spend the morning on her husband's grave, where, for the future, she should pass all her wedding-days. Yet she seems cheerful, and never indulges the least melancholy in company."
