Thursday, Oct 27th.
The wheel of the carriage is gone to Ledbury; therefore going to Eastnor is out of the question. A battle of the frogs & mice[1] about dining at Mrs. Martin’s. She sent a note of invitation yesterday. I wish she wd. send no note of the kind to me. Bummy wont go,—but she wishes Henrietta & me to go. Now Henrietta always wishes to go everywhere,—so there is no veto from her. But I wish to go nowhere,—& it seems hard that my inclination should be forced whenever an opportunity is offered. I grew out of humour—& complained of it!— It was very wrong of me to be out of humour, particularly on such an unimportant occasion. I gave up at last—& wrote an assent to Mrs. Martin—, & then I made friends with dear Bummy. I cannot—I ought not to, bear, “displeasing her!—[”]
After all, there need not have been such a fuss; for the rain settled the question finally. We cd. not go thro’ it.
Dear Bummy is uncomfortable about Charlotte, who, if she does not come to England at the end of this month or at the beginning of november, will not be able to come at all. Dear kind Bummy has written to Papa to tell him so—but to say also that she will not leave us even to receive Charlotte, in the case of our being obliged to leave Hope End immediately. When will his answer come?— I feel, I feel, that not for our sakes, is dear Bummy so kind—but for the sake of one more beloved than the living can be!—That feeling makes me prize the kindness more. May God bless her for it!-- Surely we ought to try to do everything most likely to please her. I was very wrong this morning. Sent a brace of pheasants to Mr. Boyd.
1. A reference to Homer’s mock-heroic Batrachomyomachia. An early English version of this appeared as The Strange, wonderfull and bloudy Battell betweene Frogs and Mise, trans. W.F[owldes]., (London, 1603).
