t he
would go away and stay a month, with other threats of the same
nature; and she, not being of a caressing or obliging disposition,
never, I suppose, soothed his anger or requested his stay.

"Of all this, however, I can know nothing but from _her_, who is very
reserved, and whose kindness I cannot so confide in as to be sure she
would tell me all that passed between them; and her attachment is
probably greater to him than me, whom he has always endeavoured to
lessen as much as possible, both in her eyes and--what was worse--her
father's, by telling him how my parts had been over-praised by
Johnson, and over-rated by the world; that my daughter's skill in
languages, even at the age of fourteen, would vastly exceed mine, and
such other idle stuff; which Mr. Thrale had very little care about,
but which Hetty doubtless thought of great importance. Be this as it
may, no angry words ever passed between him and me, except perhaps
now and then a little spar or so when company was by, in the way of
raillery merely.

"Yesterday, when Sir Joshua and Fitzmaurice dined here, I addressed
myself to him with great particularity of attention, begging his
company for Saturday, as I expected ladies, and said he must come and
flirt with them, &c. My daughter in the meantime kept on telling me
that Mr. Baretti was grown very old and very cross, would not look at
her exercises, but said he would leave this house soon, for it was no
better than Pandaemonium. Accordingly, the next day he packed up his
cloke-bag, which he had not done for three years, and sent it to
town; and while we were wondering what he would say about it at
breakfast, he was walking to London himself, without taking leave of
any one person, except it may be the girl, who owns they had much
talk, in the course of which he expressed great aversion to me and
even to her, who, he said, he once thought well of.

"Now whether she had ever told the man things that I might have said
of him in his absence, by way of provoking him to go, and so rid
herself of his tuition; whether he was puffed up with the last 100
guineas and longed to be spending it _all' Italiano;_ whether he
thought Mr. Thrale would call him back, and he should be better
established here than ever; or whether he really was idiot enough to
be angry at my threatening to whip Susan and Sophy for going out of
bounds, although _he_ had given them leave, for Hetty said that was
the first offence he took huff at