_Sunday._--We had Mr. and Mrs. Davenant here. They are very lively and
agreeable, and I like them more' and more. Mrs. Davenant is one of the
saucy women of the ton, indeed; but she has good parts, and is gay and
entertaining; and her sposo, who passionately adores her, though
five years her junior, is one of the best-tempered and most
pleasant-charactered young men imaginable....
“Mrs. Davenant is very agreeable,” said I to Mr. Crutchley, “I like her
much. Don't you?”
“Yes, very much,” said he; “she is lively and entertaining;” and then a
moment after, “'Tis wonderful,” he exclaimed, “that such a thing as that
can captivate a man!”
“Nay,” cried I, “nobody more, for her husband quite adores her.”
“So I find,” said he; “and Mrs. Thrale says men in general like her.”
“They certainly do,” cried I, “and all the oddity is in you who do not,
not in them who do.”
“May be so,” answered he, “but it don't do for me, indeed.”
We then came to two gates, and there I stopped short, to wait till
they joined us; and Mr. Crutchley, turning about and looking at Mrs.
Davenant, as she came forward, said, rather in a muttering voice, and
to himself than to me, “What a thing for an attachment! No, no, it would
not do for me!--too much glare! too much flippancy! too much hoop!
too much gauze! too much slipper! too much neck! Oh, hide it! hide
it! muffle it up! muffle it up! If it is but in a fur cloak, I am for
muffling it all up!”