l have seen but one, and
that is Mr. Wills's annual ball. But we are very well feathered for
that, a la Uestris. I had not the ordering so much ornament, and
when it is over, and we have had our diversion, I shall read a
lecture upon heads, which I wish not to be filled with so many
thoughts about dress. But she coaxed Mrs. Webb into all this a mon
inscu, and then I cannot be Mr. Killjoy; so pour le moment I seem to
approve of it.

We have been at one opera, and| instead of other spectacles, I
propose to go for the first part of the evening to Ranelagh, quand
la presse n'y sera pas. Lady Craufurd's new chair is, as Sir C.
Williams said of Dicky's, the charming'st thing in town, et les deux
laquais qui la precedent attirent les yeux de tous les envieux et
envieuses.

Sir Alexander comes and dines here with March, and is as easy as
ever was Sir Jos. Vanheck, and lives with his friends now upon the
same foot as before this acquisition of honour. I am told that you
have a receipt as Lord Lieutenant to make knights yourself. But I
suppose if you intend me such an honour I must come and fetch it. I
suppose you do everything that is Royal except touching for the
Evil, which would be the most useful fleuron of the Crown if it was
effectual.

Storer was out of spirits yesterday at dinner, and I found out
afterwards that he had been losing, like a simple boy, his money at
Charles's and Richard's damned Pharo bank, which swallows up
everybody's cash that comes to Brooks's, as I am told. I suppose
that the bank is supported, if such a thing wanted support, by
Brooks himself and your friend Jack Manners. It is a creditable way
of living, I must own; and it would be well if by robbing some you
might pay others, only that ce qui est acquis et (est?) jette par la
fenetre, et si l'on paye, ou ne s'acquitte pas.

(1781,) May 16, Wednesday night.--I was engaged to dine to-day at
Lady Ossory's,(157) but I called in at Lady Lucan's, and they
obliged me to send an excuse, and so I dined there, and dine at Lady
Ossory's on Saturday. I found myself with a party of Irish, Dean
Marly, and Lady Clermont, and with her Mrs. Jones, whom I was
ravished to see, for she had given a ball where Caroline was, and
commended her dancing, and I tormented the poor woman with such a
number of questions about her, that I believe she thought me
distracted. It is hard upon me to be so circumstanced that I cannot
see what would give me so much pleasure, b