Part 28 (2/2)

To be sure he did. I should otherwise have been displeased with him.

Dear, good soul!--And so you gave him a thousand pounds to take part of it back from him, by four or five paltry guineas at a time, at his pleasure?

Lord L---- and I, Charlotte, have but one purse. You may not perhaps, know how we manage it?

Pray, good, meek, dependent creature! how do you manage it?

Thus, Charlotte: My lord knows that his wife and he have but one interest; and from the first of our happy marriage, he would make me take one key, as he has another, of the private drawer, where his money and money-bills lie. There is a little memorandum-book in the drawer, in which he enters on one page, the money he receives; on the opposite, the money he takes out: and when I want money, I have recourse to my key. If I see but little in the drawer, I am the more moderate; or, perhaps, if my want is not urgent, defer the supplying of it till my lord is richer: but, little or much, I minute down the sum, as he himself does; and so we know what we are about; and I never put it out of my lord's power, by my unseasonable expenses, to preserve that custom of his, for which he is as much respected, as well served; not to suffer a demand to be twice made upon him where he is a debtor.

Good soul!--And, pray, don't you minute down, too, the use to which you put the money you take out?

Indeed I often do: always, indeed, when I take out more than five guineas at one time: I found my lord did so: and I followed the example of my own accord.

Happy pair! said I.--O Lady G----, what a charming example is this!--I hope you'll follow it.

Thank you, Harriet, for your advice. Why, I can't but say, that this is one pretty way of coaxing each other into frugality: but don't you think, that where an honest pair are so tender of disobliging, and so studious of obliging each other, that they seem to confess that the matrimonial good understanding hangs by very slender threads?

And do not the tenderest friends.h.i.+ps, said I, hang by as slender? Can delicate minds be united to each other but by delicate observances?

Why thou art a good soul, too, Harriet!--And so you would both have me make a present to Lord G---- of my thousand pounds before we have chosen our private drawer; before he has got two keys made to it?

Let him know, Charlotte, what Lord L---- and I do, if you think the example worth following--And then--

Ay, and then give him my thousand pounds for a beginning, Lady L----?

But see you not that this proposal should come from him, not from me?-- And should we not let each other see a little of each other's merits first?

See, first, the merits of the man you have married, Charlotte!

Yes, Lady L----. But yesterday married, you know. Can there be a greater difference between any two men in the world, than there often is between the same man, a lover, and a husband?--And now, my generous advisers, be pleased to continue silent. You cannot answer me fairly.

And besides, wot ye not the indelicacy of an early present, which you are not obliged to make?

We were both silent, each expecting the other to answer the strange creature.

She laughed at us both. Soft souls, and tender! said she, let me tell you, that there is more indelicacy in delicacy, than you very delicate people are aware of.

You, Charlotte, said Lady L----, have odder notions than any body else.

Had you been a man, you would have been a sad rake.

A rake, perhaps, I might have been; but not a sad one, Lady L----.

Lady G---- can't help being witty, said I: it is sometimes her misfortune, sometimes ours, that she cannot: however, I highly approve of the example set by Lord L----, and followed by Lady L----.

And so do I, Harriet. And when Lord G---- sets the example, I shall-- consider of it. I am not a bad economist. Had I ten thousand pounds in my hands, I would not be extravagant: had I but one hundred, I would not be mean. I value not money but as it enables me to lay an obligation, instead of being under the necessity of receiving one. I am my mother's daughter, and brother's sister; and yours, Lady L----, in this particular; and yours too, Harriet: different means may be taken to arrive at the same end. Lord G---- will have no reason to be dissatisfied with my prudence in money-matters, although I should not make him one of my best courtesies, as if--as if--(and she laughed; but checking herself)--I were conscious--again she laughed--that I had signed and sealed to my absolute dependence on his bounty.

What a mad creature! said Lady L----: But, my Harriet, don't you think that she behaved pretty well to Lord G---- at table?

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