"M. d'Arblay is one of the most singularly interesting characters that can ever have been formed. He has a sincerity, a frankness, an ingenuous openness of nature, that I had been unjust enough to think could not belong to a Frenchman. With all this, which is his military portion, he is passionately fond of literature, a most delicate critic in his own language, well versed in both Italian and German, and a very elegant poet. He has just undertaken to become my French master for pronunciation, and he gives me long daily lessons in reading. Pray expect wonderful improvements! In return I hear him in English." MISS BURNEY TO MRS. LOCK. "_Thursday_, MICKLEHAM. "Madame de Stael has written me two English notes, quite beautiful in ideas, and not very reprehensible in idiom. But English has nothing to do with elegance such as theirs--at least, little and rarely. I am always exposing myself to the wrath of John Bull, when this coterie come into competition. It is inconceivable what a convert M. de Talleyrand has made of me; I think him now one of the first members, and one of the most charming, of this exquisite set." DR. BURNEY TO MISS BURNEY. "CHELSEA COLLEGE, _Tuesday Morning_, _February 19, 1793_. "Why, Fanny, what are you about, and where are you? I shall write _at_ you, not knowing how to write _to_ you, as Swift did to the flying and romantic Lord Peterborough." MISS BURNEY TO MRS. PHILLIPS. "_Friday, May 31_, CHESSINGTON. "My dearest Fredy, in the beginning of her knowledge of this transaction, told me that Mr. Lock was of opinion that the L100 per annum might do, as it does for many a curate. M. d'A. also most solemnly and affectingly declares that _le simple necessaire_ is all he requires, and here, in your vicinity, would unhesitatingly be preferred by him to the most brilliant fortune in another _sejour_. "If _he_ can say that, what must _I_ be not to echo it? I, who in the bosom of my most chosen, most darling friends----" DR. BURNEY TO MISS BURNEY. "_May 1793._ "Dear Fanny,--I have for some time seen very plainly that you are _eprise_, and have been extremely uneasy at the discovery. You must have observed my silent gravity, surpassing that of mere illness and its consequent low spirits. I had some thoughts of writing to Susan about it, and intended begging her to do what I must now do for myself--that is, beg, warn, and admonish you not to entangle yourself in a wild and romantic attachment which offers nothing in prospect but poverty and distress, with future inconvenience and unhappiness...." FROM MADAME D'ARBLAY TO MRS. ----. "_August 2, 1793._