ey returned, and made what excuses they could, but said very
frankly they had not heard her performance, and begged her to begin
again; which she complied with, and gave them the opportunity of a
second retirement. Miss Leigh was by this time all fire and flame to see
her heavenly harmony thus slighted; and when they returned, told them
she did not understand playing to an empty room. Mr. Edgcombe begged ten
thousand pardons, and said, if she would play _Godi_, it was a tune he
died to hear, and it would be an obligation he should never forget. She
made answer she would do him a much greater favour by her absence, which
she supposed was all that was necessary at that time; and ran down
stairs in a great fury to publish as fast as she could; and was so
indefatigable in this pious design, that in four-and-twenty hours all
the people in town had heard the story. My Lady Sunderland could not
avoid hearing this story, and three days after, invited Miss Leigh to
dinner, where, in the presence of her sister and all the servants, she
told her she was very sorry she had been so rudely treated in her house;
that it was very true Mr. Edgcombe had been a perpetual companion of her
sister's these two years, and she thought it high time he should explain
himself, and she expected her sister should act in this matter as
discreetly as Lady K. [Katherine] Pelham had done in the like case; who
had given Mr. Pelham four months to resolve in, and after that he was
either to marry her or to lose her for ever. Sir Robert Sutton
interrupted her by saying, that he never doubted the honour of Mr.
Edgcombe, and was persuaded he could have no ill design in his family.
The affair stands thus, and Mr. Edgcombe has four months to provide
himself elsewhere; during which time he has free egress and regress; and
'tis seriously the opinion of many that a wedding will in good earnest
be brought about by this admirable conduct.

"I send you a novel instead of a letter, but, as it is in your power to
shorten it when you please, by reading no farther than you like, I will
make no excuses for the length of it."

Lady Mary had contracted an intimacy with Griselda Baillie, the wife of
Mr. (afterwards Sir A.) Murray, of Stanhope, after her return from
abroad, and there is frequent mention of her in the correspondence; but
the friendship came to an abrupt end in 1725.

"Among the rest a very odd whim has entered the little head of Mrs.
Murray: do you know