in common life. But I was very much mistaken. As a stranger I
must have admired her noble appearance and beautiful countenance,
and have regretted that nothing in her conversation kept pace
with their promise and, as a celebrated actress I had
still only to do the same.

Whether fame and success have spoiled her, or whether she only
possesses the skill of representing and embellishing materials
with which she is furnished by others, I know not but still I
remain disappointed.

She was scarcely seated, and a little general discourse begun,
before she told me--at once--that "There was no part she had ever
so much wished to act as that of Cecilia."

I made some little acknowledgment, and hurried to ask when she
had seen Sir Joshua Reynolds, Miss Palmer, and others with whom I
knew her acquainted.

The play she was to read was "The Provoked Husband." She
appeared neither alarmed nor elated by her summons, but calmly to
look upon it as a thing of course, from her celebrity.

I should very much have liked to have heard her read the play,
but my dearest Mrs. Delany spent the whole evening with me, and I
could therefore take no measures for finding out a convenient
adjoining room. Mrs. Schwellenberg, I heard afterwards, was so
accommodated, though not well enough for the tea-table.