years later appeared her last work--a series of biographical and
critical notices prefixed to a large collection of acting plays. During
the greater part of the intervening period she lived in lodgings in
Leicester Square--or "Leicester Fields" as the place was still often
called--in a house opposite that of Sir Joshua Reynolds. The oeconomy
which she had learnt in her early days she continued to practise;
dressing with extraordinary plainness, and often going without a fire in
winter; so that she was able, through her self-sacrifice, to keep from
want a large band of poor relatives and friends. The society she mixed
with was various, but, for the most part, obscure. There were occasional
visits from the now triumphant Mrs. Siddons; there were incessant
propositions--but alas! they were equivocal--from Sir Charles Bunbury;
for the rest, she passed her life among actor-managers and humble
playwrights and unremembered medical men. One of her friends was William
Godwin, who described her to Mrs. Shelley as a "piquante mixture between
a lady and a milkmaid", and who, it is said, suggested part of the plot
of _A Simple Story._ But she quarreled with him when he married Mary
Wollstonecraft, after whose death she wrote to him thus--"With the most
sincere sympathy in all you have suffered--with the most perfect
forgiveness of all you have said to me, there must nevertheless be an
end to our acquaintance _for ever._ I respect your prejudices, but I
also respect my own." Far more intimate were her relations with Dr.
Gisborne--a mysterious figure, with whom, in some tragic manner that we
can only just discern, was enacted her final romance. His name--often in
company with that of another physician, Dr. Warren, for whom, too, she
had a passionate affection--occurs frequently among her papers; and her
diary for December 17, 1794, has this entry:--"Dr. Gisborne drank tea
here, and staid very late: he talked seriously of marrying--but not
_me_." Many years later, one September, she amused herself by making out
a list of all the Septembers since her marriage, with brief notes as to
her state of mind during each. The list has fortunately survived, and
some of the later entries are as follows:--

1791. London; after my novel, Simple Story ... very happy.

1792. London; in Leicester Square ... cheerful, content, and
sometimes rather happy....

1794. Extremely happy, but for poor Debby's death.

1795. My brother