"My servant will return for a french answer. J intreat miss burney
to correct the words but to preserve the sense of that card.

"Best compliments to my dear protectress, Madame Phillipe."

MISS BURNEY TO DR. BURNEY (her father).

"MICKLEHAM, _February 29, 1793_.

"There can be nothing imagined more charming, more fascinating than
this colony; between their sufferings and their _agremens_ they
occupy us almost wholly. M. de Narbonne, alas, has no L1000 a year!
he got over only L4000 at the beginning, from a most splendid
fortune; and, little foreseeing how all has turned out, he has
lived, we fear, upon the principal....

"M. d'Arblay is one of the most singularly interesting characters
that can ever have been formed. He has a sincerity, a frankness, an
ingenuous openness of nature, that I had been unjust enough to think
could not belong to a Frenchman. With all this, which is his
military portion, he is passionately fond of literature, a most
delicate critic in his own language, well versed in both Italian and
German, and a very elegant poet. He has just undertaken to become my
French master for pronunciation, and he gives me long daily lessons
in reading. Pray expect wonderful improvements! In return I hear him
in English."

MISS BURNEY TO MRS. LOCK.

"_Thursday_, MICKLEHAM.

"Madame de Stael has written me two English notes, quite beautiful
in ideas, and not very reprehensible in idiom. But English has
nothing to do with elegance such as theirs--at least, little and
rarely. I am always exposing myself to the wrath of John Bull, when
this coterie come into competition. It is inconceivable what a
convert M. de Talleyrand has made of me; I think him now one of the
first members, and one of the most charming, of this exquisite set."

DR. BURNEY TO MISS BURNEY.

"CHELSEA COLLEGE, _Tuesday Morning_, _February 19, 1793_.

"Why, Fanny, what are you about, and where are you? I shall write
_at_ you, not knowing how to write _to_ you, as Swift did to the
flying and romantic Lord Peterborough."

MISS BURNEY TO MRS. PHILLIPS.

"_Friday, May 31_, CHESSINGTON.

"My dearest Fredy, in the beginning of her knowledge of this
transaction, told me that Mr. Lock was of opinion that the L100 per
annum might do, as it does for many a curate. M. d'A. also most