have had
enough for one lecture, Dr. Johnson. We will not be upon education any
more till after dinner, if you please," or some such speech. But when
there was nobody to restrain his dislikes it was extremely difficult to
find anybody with whom he could converse without living always on the
verge of a quarrel, or of something too like a quarrel to be pleasing. I
came into the room, for example, one evening where he and a gentleman,
whose abilities we all respect exceedingly, were sitting. A lady who
walked in two minutes before me had blown 'em both into a flame by
whispering something to Mr. S---d, which he endeavoured to explain away
so as not to affront the Doctor, whose suspicions were all alive. "And
have a care, sir," said he, just as I came in, "the Old Lion will not
bear to be tickled." The other was pale with rage, the lady wept at the
confusion she had caused, and I could only say with Lady Macbeth--

"Soh! you've displac'd the mirth, broke the good meeting
With most admir'd disorder."

Such accidents, however, occurred too often, and I was forced to take
advantage of my lost lawsuit and plead inability of purse to remain
longer in London or its vicinage. I had been crossed in my intentions of
going abroad, and found it convenient, for every reason of health, peace,
and pecuniary circumstances, to retire to Bath, where I knew Mr. Johnson
would not follow me, and where I could for that reason command some
little portion of time for my own use, a thing impossible while I
remained at Streatham or at London, as my hours, carriage, and servants
had long been at his command, who would not rise in the morning till
twelve o'clock, perhaps, and oblige me to make breakfast for him till the
bell rung for dinner, though much displeased if the toilet was neglected,
and though much of the time we passed together was spent in blaming or
deriding, very justly, my neglect of economy and waste of that money
which might make many families happy. The original reason of our
connection, his _particularly disordered health and spirits_, had been
long at an end, and he had no other ailments than old age and general
infirmity, which every professor of medicine was ardently zealous and
generally attentive to palliate, and to contribute all in their power for
the prolongation of a life so valuable. Veneration for his virtue,
reverence for his talents, delight in his conversation, and habitual
endurance of a yoke my husb