"Ah!" cried the society-loving little lady, with an exasperated Irish
accent, "come out of that _sphare_ of solitary self-sufficiency _ye_
live in, do! Come to me!" Which objurgation certainly presented in a
most ludicrous light my life of very sad seclusion, and sent us both
into fits of laughter.
I have alluded to a friendship which I formed soon after my appearance
on the stage with Miss E---- F----. She was the daughter of Mr. F----,
for many years member for Tiverton. Miss F---- and I perpetuated a close
attachment already traditional between our families, her mother having
been Mrs. Siddons's dearest friend. Indeed, for many years of her life,
Mrs. F---- seems to me to have postponed the claims even of her husband
and children upon her time and attention, to her absolute devotion to
her celebrated idol. Mr. F---- was a dutiful member of the House of
Commons, and I suppose his boy was at school and his girl too young to
demand her mother's constant care and superintendence, at the time when
she literally gave up the whole of her existence to Mrs. Siddons during
the London season, passing her days in her society and her evenings in
her dressing-room at the theater, whenever Mrs.
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