he baby will be always craving something) he wanted me to go
abroad with him--I forget whither--But to some place that he supposed
(poor man!) I should like to visit. I told him, I dared to say, he
wished to be thought a modern husband, and a fashionable man; and he
would get a bad name, if he could never stir out without his wife.
Neither could he answer that, you know.

Well, we went on, mutter, mutter, grumble, grumble, the thunder rolling
at a distance; a little impatience now and then, however, portending,
that it would come nearer. But, as yet, it was only, Pray, my dear,
oblige me; and, Pray, my lord, excuse me; till this morning, when he had
the assurance to be pretty peremptory; hinting, that the lord in waiting
had been spoken to. A fine time of it would a wife have, if she were not
at liberty to dress herself as she pleases. Were I to choose again, I do
assure you, my dear, it should not be a man, who by his taste for moths
and butterflies, shells, china, and such-like trifles, would give me
warning, that he would presume to dress his baby, and when he had done,
would perhaps admire his own fancy more than her person. I believe, my
Harriet, I shall make you afraid of matrimony: but I will pursue my
subject, for all that--

When the insolent saw that I did not dress, as he would have had me; he
drew out his face, glouting, to half the length of my arm; but was
silent. Soon after Lady L---- sending to know whether her lord and she
were to attend us to the drawing-room, and I returning for answer, that I
should be glad of their company at dinner; he was in violent wrath.
True, as you are alive! and dressing himself in a great hurry, left the
house, without saying, By your leave, With your leave, or whether he
would return to dinner, or not. Very pretty doings, Harriet!

Lord and Lady L---- came to dinner, however. I thought they were very
kind, and, till they opened their lips, was going to thank them: for
then, it was all elder sister, and insolent brother-in-law, I do assure
you. Upon my word, Harriet, they took upon them. Lady L---- told me, I
might be the happiest creature in the world, if--and there was so good as
to stop.

One of the happiest only, Lady L----! Who can be happier than you?

But I, said she, should neither be so, nor deserve to be so, if--Good of
her again, to stop at if.

We cannot be all of one mind, replied I. I shall be wiser, in time.

Where was poor Lord G---- gone?

Poor Lord