I've no notion of compulsion. Nancy shall be my maid, for she is quite out
of the common style; can copy verses for one--I've no time, you know--and
draws patterns in a minute. I declare I don't know which I love best--
Fowler or Nancy--poor old Fowler, I think. Do you know she says I'm so like
the print of the Queen of France. It never struck me; but I'll go and ask
Topham."

I perceived that Fowler, wiser grown, had learned how much more secure the
reign of flattery is, than the reign of terror. She was now, as I found,
supreme in the favour of both her young and old lady. The specimen I have
given of Lady Anne Mowbray's conversation, or rather of Lady Anne's mode of
talking, will, I fancy, be amply sufficient to satiate all curiosity
concerning her ladyship's understanding and character. She had, indeed,
like most of the young ladies her companions--"no character at all."

Female conversation in general was, at this time, very different from what
it is in our happier days. A few bright stars had risen, and shone, and
been admired; but the useful light had not diffused itself. Miss Talbot's
and Miss Carter's learning and piety, Mrs. Montague's genius, Mrs. Vesey's
elegance, and Mrs. Boscawen's [Footnote: See Bas-Bleu.] "polished ease,"
had brought female literature into fashion in certain favoured circles; but
it had not, as it has now, become general in almost every rank of life.
Young ladies had, it is true, got beyond the Spectator and the Guardian:
Richardson's novels had done much towards opening a larger field of
discussion. One of Miss Burney's excellent novels had appeared, and had
made an era in London conversation; but still it was rather venturing out
of the safe course for a young lady to talk of books, even of novels; it
was not, as it is now, expected that she should know what is going on in
the literary world. The Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, and varieties of
literary and scientific journals, had not