[After saying that Mr
and Mrs Prior do not leave for Ireland quite as soon as
they had intended, she continues.] “The time I spend here appears lost.
While I remained in England I would fain have been near those I love. . . . I
could not live the life they lead at Eton; nothing but dress and ridicule going
forward, and I really believe their fondness for ridicule tends to make them
affected, the women in their manners and the men in their conversation, for
witlings abound and puns fly about like crackers, though you would scarcely
guess they had any meaning in them, if you did not hear the noise they create.
So much company without any sociability would be to me an insupportable
fatigue. I am, ’tis true, quite alone in a crowd, yet cannot help
reflecting on the scene around me, and my thoughts harass me. Vanity in one
shape or other reigns triumphant. . . . My thoughts and wishes tend to that
land where the God of love will wipe away all
| LIFE IN IRELAND. | 185 |
