The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson, Volumes One and Two: Written by HerselfWilson, Harriette
General
The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson, Volumes One and Two: Written by Herself
Wilson, Harriette
Courtesans -- Great Britain -- Biography; Wilson, Harriette, 1786-1846
Worcester's carriage now drove up to the door.
"My lord, you have not a minute to lose," eagerly spoke Will Haught.
"Put up the carriage, and bring me some cold beef," answered his
lordship.
"What will you say to your uncle?" I asked.
"He be hanged!" was the reply.
At past ten o'clock Lord Charles sent down a groom on horseback to
inquire for Worcester, and state that the ladies waited for him to take
his part in the quadrilles, which he had studied for that night.
Worcester ran up into his bedroom, and called out from the window, after
putting on his night-cap, that he was ill, and in bed, and desired he
might not again be disturbed at so late an hour.
It would be tedious to attempt relating all, or even one twentieth part,
of the tender proofs of love and affection which Worcester was in the
daily, I may say hourly, habit of evincing towards me. His lordship has
often watched my sleep in the cold, for half, nay sometimes, during the
whole of the night, sitting by my bedside. On an occasion when I was
induced to consult a medical man about a trifling indisposition, which
was not in the least alarming, Lord Worcester wrote the doctor a most
romantic letter, enclosing a fifty-pound note, and declaring that his
obligation to him would be eternal if he could contrive to be of the
slightest use to me. He would send fur shoes and fur cloaks after me
in hot dry weather; because one could never be certain that it would
not rain before my return. He took upon him all the care of the house,
ordering dinner, &c., from having once happened to hear me say that I
did not like to know beforehand what I was to eat.
When the Prince Regent, who then commanded the regiment, came down to
the Pavilion Worcester was in despair; for he saw no possible means to
avoid visiting His Royal Highness. The dinner, which was given expressly
for the officers of the Tenth Hussars, he was obliged to attend. On that
occasion, which was the first of his passing an evening from home, after
giving me my dinner he sighed over me when he took leave, as though it
had been to go to the Antipodes.
Lord Worcester's rapture on his return knew no bounds. "My dear
Harriette," said his lordship, "the Prince's band at the Pavillion was
so very beautiful, that it would have been impossible for me, who love
music to excess, not to have enjoyed it; therefore, as I abhor the idea
of enjoying anything on earth of which you cannot partake with me, I
went into a corner, where I was not observed, to stop my ears and think
only of you. I must now tell you that the Prince has given me a general
invitation to go to him every evening, and I have settled my plan, to
avoid it. I intend to sham lame, and practise it at home till I can
limp very decently and naturally, and then I will wait upon His Royal
Highness and tell him that I have a sprain which keeps me in constant
pain, and confines me to the house."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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