She still _laid it on_. 'Pray, Madam, let us have no more of
this,' he rejoined. Not paying any attention to these warnings, she
continued still her eulogy. At length, provoked by this indelicate
and _vain_ obtrusion of compliments, he exclaimed, 'Dearest lady,
consider with yourself what your flattery is worth, before you bestow
it so freely.'
"How different does this story appear, when accompanied with all
those circumstances which really belong to it, but which Mrs. Thrale
either did not know, or has suppressed!"
How do we know that these circumstances really belong to it? what
essential difference do they make? and how do they prove Mrs.
Thrale's inaccuracy, who expressly states the nature of the probable,
though certainly most inadequate, provocation.
The other instance is a story which she tells on Mr. Thrale's
authority, of an argument between Johnson and a gentleman, which the
master of the house, a nobleman, tried to cut short by saying loud
enough for the doctor to hear, "Our friend has no meaning in all
this, except just to relate at the Club to-morrow how he teased
Johnson at dinner to-day; this is all to do himself honour." "No,
upon my word," replied the other, "I see no honour in it, whatever
you may do." "Well, Sir," returned Mr. Johnson sternly, "if you do
not see the honour, I am sure I feel the disgrace." Malone, on the
authority of a nameless friend, asserts that it was not at the house
of a nobleman, that the gentleman's remark was uttered in a low tone,
and that Johnson made no retort at all.
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