The next morning Fanny came to take leave of me. Colonel Parker could no longer be absent from his regiment, which was stationed at Portsmouth, therefore they proposed leaving London for that place on the following day. "Remember me kindly to Lord Worcester, when you see him," said Fanny. "There is something in that young man's countenance I like so much, and his manners are so excessively high bred and gentlemanlike, that I cannot think how you can resist him and treat him so very coldly as you do. As to Amy, she is going stark mad to be introduced to him." "With all my heart," said I. We were now interrupted by the Prince Esterhazy, who entered all over mud, saying, "_Comment ça va?_" without taking off his hat. "We are discussing the merits of the young Marquis of Worcester, Prince," Fanny observed to him. "A very fine young man to be sure, certainly," said Esterhazy; "but good mine God, can you not take him one to yourself, instead of all these young fellows running, _toujours_, after you. I could not come near you for a mile the other night, you have so many people round about you." "That was because you did not take off your hat," I said. "It is my way," answered the prince; "and I do the same to the queen." "_Ca se peut_," said I, "_mais, moi, je prétends que vous ne le ferez pas ici: ainsi votre seigneurie aura la bonté, ou, d'oter votre chapeau, ou de vous en aller toute suite._" "_Je prendrai la dernière partie_," answered the prince, putting on his great coat and retiring. "You have been too severe, Harriette," said Fanny, after Prince Esterhazy had taken his departure. "I would not have been so to a poor man; but really, I have no idea of having one's house mistaken for a cabaret by a nasty coarse German, who, with all his impudence, is, as I am informed, the meanest man alive; besides he always stands with his back to the fire, without paying the least attention when the ladies shiver and shake and vow and declare they are dying with cold!" Fanny told me, calling another subject, that Julia had not only surmounted her reluctance to Napier, but had become almost as fond of him as she had been of Sir Harry Mildmay; and that was the reason why she refused to join us at Brighton. I inquired whether he seemed disposed to behave well to Julia and her family. "Oh, he is horribly stingy," answered Fanny, "and Julia is obliged to affect coldness and refuse him the slightest favour, till he brings her money; otherwise she would get nothing out of him. Yet he seems to be passionately fond of her, and writes sonnets on her beauty, styling her, at forty, although the mother of nine children, 'his beautiful maid.'" Fanny having her carriage at the door I proposed our calling on Julia. "I am going to take my leave of her," Fanny replied, and we drove immediately to her residence.