When that is the case, Madam, don’t take the pains of inquiring more; as I shall leave no _body_ to return to, even Cagliostro would bring me back to no purpose.” CHAPTER IX. Lady Correspondents.--Madame de Genlis.--Miss Burney and Hannah More.--Deaths of Mrs. Clive and Sir Horace Mann.--Story of Madame de Choiseul.--Richmond.--Queensberry House.--Warren Hastings.--Genteel Comedy.--St. Swithin.--Riverside Conceits.--Lord North.--The Theatre again.--Gibbon’s History.--Sheridan.--Conway’s Comedy.--A Turkish War.--Society Newspapers.--The Misses Berry.--Bonner’s Ghost.--The Arabian Nights.--King’s College Chapel.--Richmond Society.--New Arrivals.--The Berrys visit Italy.--A Farewell Letter. No one who has looked through Walpole’s published letters can have failed to observe that the great majority of those which belong to the last twelve or thirteen years of the writer’s life are addressed to female correspondents. This is not an accidental circumstance. It is clear that, as his old friends dropped off, Horace supplied their places, in almost every instance, with women. The antiquary Pinkerton succeeds to the antiquary Cole,[100] but Montagu and Mason, Sir Horace Mann[101] and Lord Strafford,[102] had no successors of their own sex. Except when literary topics were on the carpet, Walpole, in his latter days, shrank from engaging in discussion with younger and more vigorous men. In several passages of his correspondence, he acknowledges this feeling of reserve and shyness. But with ladies of every class he was always at home and at ease. Old or young, grave or gay, English or French, they found him their devoted servant, full of nicely adjusted gallantry, never too busy to entertain with gossip and letters, ever ready to assist with advice, and, when occasion required, with the contents of a well-stocked purse. Thus, from the year 1785 onwards, we have him generally in correspondence with ladies, and as often as not, about ladies. During the first part of this period especially, sketches of well-known women meet us, thrown off at frequent intervals by his practised pen. Here is an account of a visit from Madame de Genlis in July, 1785: