Bound by ties indissoluble of honour not to betray a trust that, in
the ignorance of her pity, she had herself unwittingly sought, even
to him she was as immutably silent, on this subject, as to all
others--save, singly, to the eldest daughter of the house: whose
conduct, through scenes of dreadful difficulty, notwithstanding her
extreme youth, was even exemplary; and to whom the self-beguiled, yet
generous mother, gave full and free permission to confide every
thought and feeling to the Memorialist."
* * * * *
"Various incidental circumstances began, at length, to open the
reluctant eyes of Dr. Burney to an impelled, though clouded
foresight, of the portentous event which might latently be the cause
of the alteration of all around at Streatham. He then naturally
wished for some explanation with his daughter, though he never
forced, or even claimed her confidence; well knowing, that
voluntarily to give it him had been her earliest delight.
"But in taking her home with him one morning, to pass a day in St.
Martin's Street, he almost involuntarily, in driving from the
paddock, turned back his head towards the house, and, in a tone the
most impressive, sighed out: 'Adieu, Streatham!--Adieu!'"
* * * * *
"_A few weeks earlier_, the Memorialist had passed a nearly similar
scene with Dr. Johnson. Not, however, she believes, from the same
formidable species of surmise; but from the wounds inflicted upon his
injured sensibility, through the palpably altered looks, tone, and
deportment, of the bewildered lady of the mansion; who, cruelly aware
what would be his wrath, and how overwhelming his reproaches against
her projected union, wished to break up their residing under the same
roof before it should be proclaimed.
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