Your letter and the enclosure were most welcome and most
gratefully received. To show you how much I am up to business, I accompanied
Molly to Sir William Newcomen’s Bank in Castle Street, and
presented my twenty-pound cheque with the air of one who knew what she was
about, though I never was so confused in
| EARLY GIRLHOOD. | 145 |
Mrs. Shee looked surprised, and asked Molly to tea in the evening. Coming home, through Dame Street, we stopped at Mr. Lee’s music shop, and I asked him for his bill for the hire of the piano, and begged he would send for it immediately. He said very politely that he would send for the piano, but he begged we would accept the hire, as you had been one of his best friends, and had ordered above a hundred pounds worth of music from him for the Theatre Royal, but that everything was changed now, and there was no longer any taste for music. I asked him if he would lend me a copy of the Beggars’ Opera and the Padlock. He sent them to me in the evening, with a pretty note, begging my acceptance of them; and as we had another night out of the piano, may be Olivia and I did not sing them from one end to the other! “The Miser who a Shilling sees,” makes the most beautiful duet in the world. I am sure it is Irish.
| 146 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
Well, sir, on arriving home what should I find but a note from Dr. Pellegrini relative to my intentions, which, to tell you the truth, I had explained to him, saying that the Rev. Mr. Peter Lefanu, a celebrated preacher, would call on me at one o’clock the next day. He had given him a commission to find a young lady who would act as something between a governess and a dame de compagnie to two young ladies, daughters of the Right Honourable Charles Sheridan, Secretary-at-War for Ireland, and the husband of that beautiful woman who, you may remember, put out the fire of the curtain of her box at the theatre last winter, when the whole house rose up to applaud. Well, the idea of this visit from Mr. Lefanu frightened me beyond everything, I was so utterly unprepared for it; and Olivia positively refused to be in the room. However, I was dressed very nicely, and seated on the sofa all in good time, and I took up Locke, “to call up a look,” as Lady Pentweasle says, when I heard his knock at the door. Molly announced him—“The Rev. Mr. Peter ——,” but could get no further. She was in such a rage. Well, now, dear papa, who do you think he turned out to be? Why, the clergyman who preached the charity sermon at the Lying-in Hospital last Christmas, and that we all cried at hearing, and you said, “That man is a regular pickpocket, for I have given a crown and I did not mean to give half.” Well, he took my hand, and we sat down. He looked very earnestly, and said:
“Are you the young lady of whom Dr. Pellegrini
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I said, “Yes, sir, I believe so.”
“Are you Miss Owenson, my dear—daughter of my old friend Mr. Owenson of the Theatre Royal?”
I was ready to burst into tears, and could only answer, “Yes, sir.”
“But you are very young, my dear; I should say you were fitter to go to school than to commence instructress.”
“Perhaps so, sir; but great misfortunes have come upon poor papa unexpectedly, and ——“
Here I was obliged to cover my face with my handkerchief. I suppose to give me time to recover, he gently drew Locke out of my hand, and appeared to be looking through it.
“Upon my word,” said he, laughing, “this is a very grave study for so young a lady. Now,” said he, “let me hear your definition of an ‘innate idea.’”
He looked so comical that I could not help laughing, too.
“Oh, my dear, don’t hurry yourself, it is a question might puzzle a conjuror.”
“Well, sir,” said I, “I had no idea of you until I saw and heard you preach your beautiful sermon for the poor women of the Lying-in Hospital; but having seen and heard you, I have an idea of you which can never be removed.”
He actually threw himself back in his chair, and took my hand, and, would you believe it, papa, kissed it. He is of French descent, you know.
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“Well,” said he, “you are the most flattering little logician I ever coped with.” He then took a serious tone, and said, “My dear little girl, I respect your intentions; and from what Dr. Pellegrini tells me, your acquirements fit you for the situation you are seeking, but you have at present one great fault. Don’t be frightened” (I suppose I looked so)—“it is one will mend but too soon. The Misses Sheridan are, I should think, much about your own age, and the worst of it is, there are two rascally boys, Charles and Tom, who have the bad habit of running into their sisters’ study when they come home for vacation, and making a terrible row there. However, I shall meet Mr. and Mrs. Sheridan at dinner to-day at my brother’s, Mr. Joe Lefanu’s, who is married to their sister. We will talk over this, and you shall hear from me early tomorrow.”
He now rose, and as he deposited Locke on the table, he took up a dirty little volume of my poems, which lay beside it.
“Pardi!” said he, in some surprise, “You are a poetess, too, are you?”
And then he read aloud, and most beautifully, my little stanzas to you on receiving your picture, and then rolling up the book put it into his pocket without ceremony; and, with a cordial shake of the hand and a “je me sauve” disappeared—and so ended this awful visit, which, though it left me agitated, left me delighted with what I had done, and so will you be some day, dear papa.
I am so tired I can write no more to-day; but we are
| EARLY GIRLHOOD. | 149 |
Dear Papa—The Sheridan scheme is all ended. The beautiful Mrs. Sheridan would not have me, and I am glad, as on consideration, I see it would not do, but I have got something to console me, I think.
This morning, at nine o’clock, Mr. Lefanu’s servant was here with a note,—I send it to you:—
“My dear Miss Owenson—The Sheridan scheme won’t answer—something better has just suggested itself. Dr. Dixon, the Bishop of Limerick, who has come to town to be present at a charity sermon this day, to be preached before the Lord-Lieutenant in St. Anne’s Church, sent me a note last night from his lady, desiring that I would find an accomplished young lady to take charge of her daughter, a little girl of ten years old, and that I would let the Bishop see the person before he left town, which he does on Monday morning. I must beg you, therefore, to come to his house in Molesworth Street, at ten o’clock this morning. I will be there to receive and present you. They are charming as well as excellent people.
And so, sir, Molly
and I stalled at half-past nine, and hustled our way as we could through the
crowds that were parading towards St. Anne’s Church, which you know
always fill the streets when the Lord-Lieu-
| 150 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
Nothing could be more cordial and kind than the Bishop. He slightly alluded to the original objection of youth, and said he could not give any positive answer till he had seen Mrs. Dixon, and that he would not lose a moment in writing to my friend Mr. Lefanu. He said he was sorry he was so hurried for time, but he was obliged to be back on diocesan business the following day; but he should carry away more than one agreeable impression of me;—and only imagine! he then took up a ragged book lying beside him,—my poems again, which that darling Mr. Lefanu had brought him,—and the stanzas to you turned down.
“These are very pretty stanzas,” said
he, “as to
| EARLY GIRLHOOD. | 151 |
After a little more conversation, the beau chaplain drew
in his head from the window, and said, “My lord, the Duke of Leinster’s carriage has drawn up,
and the ‘bidding bell’ has begun to ring.” The Bishop started
up. The chaplain presented him a pair of white gloves fringed with gold, and
his square cap. Of course I rose in a flurry. The Bishop wished me a cordial
good-bye, and Mr. Lefanu said,
“You will hear from me immediately.” So then I was just hurrying
down to join Molly in the
housekeeper’s room; but Mr. Lefanu, running upstairs
to meet me, said, “Stay here, my dear, the Bishop will send back his
carriage for you in five minutes, the streets are so crowded;”
and then he sprang into the Bishop’s coach and was out of sight in a
minute. I was waiting in the parlour for the carriage to return when it rolled
up. I ran out to get in—the steps were let down slap dash—the
footmen standing on either side, when to my surprise Molly
sprang in after me! the footmen grinning from ear to ear. Away we drove!
Molly’s head a mile out of the window, bowing to
every one she knew and every one she did not know; but, oh, papa! I wish you
could have seen the scene at Mrs. Shee’s hall door!
The thundering knock brought all the house to answer it, Mrs.
Shee at their head; but, oh! when she saw
Molly handed out of the Bishop’s carriage, she
looked as if she would die of surprise and envy—Olivia, with her head half out of the window,
ready to fall out of it with convulsions of laughter;
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“Foglan foh—Wait awhile.” |
Just as I was sealing up this to send for my Castle frank, a note from Mr. Lefanu arrived. Mrs. Dixon has been ordered abroad for her health; consequently the settlement about a governess is postponed. So dearest papa, good-bye and God bless you, my fingers are quite cramped with writing.—S. O.
