Johnson, and I. She too said she was very glad I was come; for
she was going to Bath, and should have been sorry to leave Dr.
Johnson before I came. This seemed to be attentive and kind; and I,
_who had not been informed of any change, imagined all to be as well
as formerly_. He was little inclined to talk at dinner, and went to
sleep after it; but when he joined us in the drawing-room he seemed
revived, and was again himself."
This is quite decisive so far as Boswell is concerned, and disposes
at once of all his preceding insinuations to her disadvantage. He had
not seen her before since Thrale's death; and now, finding them
together and jealously scrutinising their tone and manner towards
each, he imagined all to be as well as formerly.[1] That they were on
the point of living apart, and of keeping up their habitual
interchange of mind exclusively by letters, is no proof that either
was capriciously or irrecoverably estranged.
[Footnote 1: "Now on March 21, 1783, fifteen months before the
marriage in question, Boswell speaks of the severance of the old
friendship as effected: 'appearances of friendship,' he says, 'were
still maintained between them.' Boswell was at feud with the lady
when he wrote, as we all know. But his evidence is surely sufficient
as to the fact of the rupture, though not as to its causes."--_(Edin.
Rev._ p. 510.) Boswell's concluding evidence, that to the best of his
knowledge and observation, there was no change or rupture, is
suppressed!]
The pleasures of intimacy in friendship depend far more on external
circumstances than people of a sentimental turn of mind are willing
to concede; and when constant companionship ceases to suit the
convenience of both parties, the chances are that it will be dropped
on the first favourable opportunity.
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