"To-morrow there is a party of _purple_ at the 'blue' Miss * * *'s.
Shall I go? um!--I don't much affect your blue-bottles;--but one ought
to be civil. There will be, 'I guess now' (as the Americans say), the
Staëls and Mackintoshes--good--the * * * s and * * * s--not so good--the
* * * s, &c. &c.--good for nothing. Perhaps that blue-winged Kashmirian
butterfly of book-learning, Lady * * * *, will be there. I hope so; it
is a pleasure to look upon that most beautiful of faces.

"Wrote to H.:--he has been telling that I ----[99]. I am sure, at
least, _I_ did not mention it, and I wish he had not. He is a good
fellow, and I obliged myself ten times more by being of use than I did
him,--and there's an end on 't.

"Baldwin is boring me to present their King's Bench petition. I
presented Cartwright's last year; and Stanhope and I stood against the
whole House, and mouthed it valiantly--and had some fun and a little
abuse for our opposition. But 'I am not i' th' vein' for this business.
Now, had * * been here, she would have _made_ me do it. _There_ is a
woman, who, amid all her fascination, always urged a man to usefulness
or glory. Had she remained, she had been my tutelar genius.

"Baldwin is very importunate--but, poor fellow, 'I can't get out, I
can't get out--said the starling.' Ah, I am as bad as that dog Sterne,
who preferred whining over 'a dead ass to relieving a living
mother'--villain--hypocrite--slave--sycophant! but _I_ am no better.
Here I cannot stimulate myself to a speech for the sake of these
unfortunates, and three words and half a smile of * * had she been here
to urge it, (and urge it she infallibly would--at least she always
pressed me on senatorial duties, and particularly in the cause of
weakness,) would have made me an advocate, if not an orator. Curse on