382 Old Neighbours — An Admiral on Shore. [April, 



carpet under her feet or tlie shawl on her shoulders, either would instantly 

 have been stripped off to offer. Then her exquisite good humour I 

 Coarse and boisterous she certainly was, and terribly Irish ; but the 

 severest stickler for female decorum, the nicest critic of female manners, 

 would have been disarmed by the contagion of Mrs. Floyd's good- 

 humour. 



This person, whom every body loved so much, and whom I loved also 

 with all my heart, had however one failing which annoyed me not a 

 little — she was an authoress, had written a comedy which she frequently 

 promised, or rather threatened to read to me ; a comedy in five acts, and 

 in prose, as tlie French title-pages say. Ah me ! During one or two 

 years' acquaintance, my principal business was to evade the hearing of 

 that lecture. I pique myself on my management in that particular ; on 

 the certainty which from long practice I felt when the topic was 

 coming on, and the address with which I contrived to turn it oflF — some- 

 times by dexterous stupidity, sometimes by a lucky manoeuvre ; some- 

 times by sheer out-talking ; sometimes by running away. It was her 

 favourite topic ; even at times when she could hardly design to treat me 

 with it entire, in a walk for instance, or between the courses at dinner, 

 she was always talking of this play — telling of the friends who had 

 praised and the managers who had rejected — threatening to " print it 

 and shame the rogues," quoting the principal points, whether of wit 

 or of sentiment, and illusti'ating her criticisms on other productions by 

 references to parallel passages in her own drama. 



I believe tliat I may have heard the whole play piecemeal ; but still I 

 congratulated myself on having escaped the threatened infliction in the 

 lump — partly because I had determined in my own mind not to hear it, 

 so that the avoidal was a sort of triumph of which all obstinate people 

 know the value ; partly because I had a very sincere dread of giving 

 offence, and a well-grounded diffidence of my own politeness. The manu- 

 script (for it had actually been produced one night, and nothing saved 

 me from being obliged to listen but the good luck of Bill Jones and 

 Sally's having contrived to set fire to the kitchen chimney — happy con- 

 flagration I) the manuscript was in size portentous. Every act looked 

 as long as two. I never could have set it out with the right sort of at- 

 tention, laughing and crying at the proper places — I know that I could 

 not ; and although, from my experience of Mrs. Floyd's delightful good- 

 humour, I might have relied on her for forgiving as much as authoress 

 could forgive any untimely symptom of weariness during the recital of her 

 piece, yet I had an internal feeling that it would be better not to try. 

 So we fenced it oft". The very last words that she spoke to me, when 

 calling to take leave on her departure from Hannonby, were " well, you 

 must come and stay with us as soon as we are settled, and then you shall 

 hear my comedy." — N.B. The title of the play is the Jovial Sailors ; the 

 scene on board a man-of-war ; and the species what the authoress calls 

 nutico sentimental. It is still unacted — I had like to have said und — d. 

 If any one wants the plot, I think I can help him to it. 



My chief friend and favourite of the family was one who had hardly 

 seemed to belong to it — Anne, sister Anne, the eldest daughter. I 

 liked her even better than I did her father and mother, although for 

 very different qualities. She was " inland bred," and combined in her- 

 self sufficient selfpossession and knowledge of the world, of literature, 

 and of society, to have set up the whole house, provided it had been 



