175 
Next came the settlement over the £3,000 compensation money. 
Here, considering that the lady was only nineteen, and so had two 
years’ loss to account for, and remembering the loss during the 
first engagement, Mr. Linley took £1,500 and the other moiety 
41,500, was handed over to the new housekeepers. This was 
the first considerable sum Sheridan had ever possessed, and he 
at once “acted as if the mines of Peru and Potosi had been 
at his command,”* and proceeded to live gaily until it was gone. 
Presently necessity compelled some sort of exertion. Sheridan 
has received lavish praise because his wife did not again appear 
in public, the credit being placed to his resolution, but it is 
clear through her life that this was the hated work she wished 
to escape. She once told her father that if she married she 
would do so to be free, and her marriage certainly removed 
her from the parental exactions. It must have been as much 
her will as his that she thus retired. After her marriage 
she improved in appearance, the peaceful rest must have been 
“most acceptable. Yet Sheridan found himself in a difficulty 
as usual never anticipated, as besides that he had _ notions 
‘that it did not become a “gintilmin” to work for money, he 
considered a public appearance before an audience a degradation, 
a sentiment in which his wife would be entirely in accord. 
‘He was often stung when twitted on being the son of a 
player, and once when boasting of a kingly descent another 
present remarked aside, “ He tells the truth for once, the 
last time I saw his father he was King of Denmark.” Yet 
: ories were started that they so far altered their resolution 
th at Mrs. Sheridan gave certain concerts both at her own house 
and at Bath.t Another account said these were private 
s ubscription concerts “by which perhaps more was obtained 
could have been the case in places of general admission.t 
* “ Annual Biography, &c.,” Vol. 1, p. 146. 
_ + “Lady’s Monthly Museum,” Vol. 23. + A. Lefanu, pp. 402, 403. 
M 
