This was sweetly said, and taken great notice of; and it was doing credit
to his own generous choice, and vastly more than I merited.
But I was forced to stand many more jokes afterwards: For Sir Simon said,
several times, Come, come, madam, now you are become one of us, I shall
be a little less scrupulous than I have been, I'll assure you.
When we came in to dinner, I made no difficulty of what all offered me,
the upper end of the table; and performed the honours of it with pretty
tolerable presence of mind, considering. And, with much ado, my good
benefactor promising to be down again before winter, we got off the ball;
but appointed Tuesday evening, at Lady Darnford's, to take leave of all
this good company, who promised to be there, my master designing to set
out on Wednesday morning for Bedfordshire.
We had prayers in the little chapel, in the afternoon; but they all
wished for the good clerk again, with great encomiums upon you, my dear
father; and the company staid supper also, and departed exceeding well
satisfied, and with abundance of wishes for the continuance of our mutual
happiness; and my master desired Mr. Peters to answer for him to the
ringers at the town, if they should hear of it; till our return into this
country; and that then he would be bountiful to them, because he would
not publicly declare it till he had first done so in Bedfordshire.
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