sat down, as she
afterwards said, like a pretty little miss, for the remainder of one
of the most humdrum evenings that she had ever passed.

"Strange, indeed, strange and most strange, the event considered, was
this opening intercourse between Mrs. Thrale and Signor Piozzi.
Little could she imagine that the person she was thus called away
from holding up to ridicule, would become, but a few years
afterwards, the idol of her fancy and the lord of her destiny! And
little did the company present imagine, that this burlesque scene was
but the first of a drama the most extraordinary of real life, of
which these two persons were to be the hero and heroine: though, when
the catastrophe was known, this incident, witnessed by so many, was
recollected and repeated from coterie to coterie throughout London,
with comments and sarcasms of endless variety."[1]

[Footnote 1: Memoirs of Dr. Burney, &c., vol. ii, pp. 105--111.]

Madame D'Arblay mentioned the same circumstance in conversation to
the Rev. W. Harness: yet it seems strange in connection with an entry
in "Thraliana" from which it would appear that her friend was far
from wanting in susceptibility to sweet sounds:

"13 _August_, 1780.--Piozzi is become a prodigious favourite with me,
he is so intelligent a creature, so discerning, one can't help
wishing for his good opinion; his singing surpasses everybody's for
taste, tenderness, and true elegance; his hand on the forte piano too
is so soft, so sweet, so delicate, every tone goes to the heart, I
think, and fills the mind with emotions one would not be without,
though inconvenient enough sometimes. He wants nothing from us: he
comes for his health he says: I see nothing ail the man but pride.
The newspapers yesterday told what all the musical folks gained, and
set Piozzi down 1200_l_. o' year."

On the 24th August, 1780, Madame D'Arblay writes: "I have not seen
Piozzi: he left me your letter, which indeed is a charming one,
though its contents puzzled me much whether to make me sad or merry."
Mrs. Thrale was still at Brighton; so that the scene at Dr. Burney's
must have occurred subsequently; when she had already begun to find
Piozzi what the Neapolitan ladies understand by _simpatico_. Madame
D'Arblay's "Memoirs," as I shall have occasion to point out, are by
no means so trustworthy a register of dates, facts, or impressions as
her "Diary."

Whilst Thrale lived, Mrs. Thrale's regard for Piozzi was certainly
not of