As to the first, without you are inclined to have them at the opening of the house, perhaps her remaining in the country, in their own company, where they do very well, may ease you of some expense; but of this you must be the best judge. With respect to him, I think you can have no objection to take him upon the terms he proposes himself. I forgot to tell you that Mrs. Siddons is about twenty years of age. It would be unjust not to remark one circumstance in favour of them both; I mean the universal good character they have preserved here for many years, on account of their public as well as private conduct in life. I beg you to be very particular in your answer to the three queries, and likewise expressly to mention the time you wish to see them, that they may arrange their little matters accordingly. In a _postscript_ he adds:— She is the most extraordinary quick study I ever heard of. This cannot be amiss, for, if I recollect right, we have a sufficient number of the _leaden-headed_ ones at D. Lane already. Then come letters from Siddons, in answer to some from Bate, concluding an engagement. We can see the trembling anxiety of the young couple. “They were in much concern,” he says, “at not hearing sooner,” as from the line he had shown him in Mr. Garrick’s handwriting, he had been sure of Mrs. Siddons’s engagement. They had, in consequence, given his partners in management at Cheltenham notice of his intention to go; if anything had happened, therefore, to prevent their engagement, it would have “proved a very unlucky circumstance.” He then touches on a very necessary point—their pressing need of money to tide them over Mrs. Siddons’s expected confinement. “Mr. Garrick,” he says, “has conferred an eternal obligation by his kind offer of the cash.” In his next letter, dated Gloucester, November 9th, 1775, he writes:—“From my former accounts of Mrs. Siddons’s time, you’ll be surprised when I tell you she is brought to bed; she was unexpectedly taken ill when performing on the stage, and early the next morning produc’d me a fine girl. They are both, thank Heaven, likely to do well; but I am afraid, Sir, notwithstanding this, I shan’t be able to leave this much sooner than the time I last mentioned.” He then alludes to twenty pounds borrowed in Garrick’s name to meet pressing demands. This “fine girl” was Mrs. Siddons’ daughter Sarah, whose premature death later nearly broke her mother’s heart. CHAPTER III. “DAVEY.”