"Colonel Digby owes much to Miss Burney for all the consolations of
literature and religion so charitably offered. But indeed who would not
sympathise with his bereavement of a partner so lovely that, should he
ever think of replacing her, beauty of the first order must be his
object."
This was perhaps a little pointed, but I could never agree in Dr Johnson's
estimate of her as "Pretty Burney," and she was not reckoned a pretty
woman by others. She had not the graces of height nor elegance in
movement, and might in complexion be called a brown woman. The eyes, while
expressive, were decidedly green. If I add that she slightly stooped,
though by no means sufficiently to be a deformity, and that her features
were, on the whole pleasing, I have been honest in my description.
While we were speaking, the Princess Royal entered, fresh and bright as
the day, to inspect the case and add to it her own little tribute, a posy
of beautiful satin flowers made by her own fair hands. This she attached
to the case.
"I really think it very pretty," she said, adding in the most winning
manner, "I hope Miss Burney and Miss P. approve it. Princess Elizabeth's
gift is a fairing from Cheltenham--a most elegant little box, containing a
bottle of rose perfume which came to mama from India, in the great box
from the Bengal Nabob."
This would add interest to the gift, these bottles consisting of a minute
tube of the precious oil of roses, enclosed, as it were, in a thick tube
of embossed glass, ornamented with gold and sealed. Each of the lovely
Princesses now brought her gift, and each spoke with us with the most
conciliatory softness. Princess Elizabeth said laughing:--
"How go the equerries' teas, Miss Burney? Do they still insist on their
right to wait on you, even when Mrs Schwellenberg is present?"