He was having a difficult task with Mrs. Thrale, for the sprightly little lady had made up her mind to visit the Linleys and have at least one _bon mot_ respecting Tom circulated among the early visitors to the Pump Room before any of her rival gossips had a chance of seeing the youth. But she found herself confronted by the mighty form of Johnson a few yards from the door of their house.
"Dear sir," she cried, "you are doing yeoman's service to the family of Linley. Oh, the idle curiosity of the people here! How melancholy is the position of a public character! Every fellow who has ever heard Miss Linley sing fancies he is privileged to enter her house upon the most sacred occasion; and as for your modish young woman, she looks on the Linley family as she does upon the Roman baths--to be freely visited as one of the sights of the place."
"Madam, you exaggerate," said Dr. Johnson. "The persons in Bath whose inquisitiveness makes them disregardful of the decencies of life do not number more than a dozen."
"Ah, sir," said the lady, "you are charitably disposed."
"Madam, to suggest that I am charitable were to suggest that I am incapable of taking a just view of a very simple matter, and that, let me tell you, madam, is something which no considerations of charity will prevent my contesting."
"Dear sir," said Mrs. Thrale, "you will force me to appeal to your charity at this time on behalf of Mr. Boswell. If you do not permit him to enter the house and bring us a faithful report of young Mr. Linley, a whole day may pass before the Pump Room knows anything of him."
"Psha! madam, do you know the Pump Room so indifferently as to fancy that it will wait for any report of the young gentleman before forming its own conclusions on the subject of his return?"
"Ah, Dr. Johnson, but Mr. Boswell is invariably so accurate in his reports on everything," persisted the lady.
Little Mr. Boswell smirked between the cross-fires of the yellow lamplight and the lurid links; he smirked and bowed low beneath the force of the lady's compliment. He had not a nice ear either for compliment or detraction: he failed to appreciate the whisper of a zephyr of sarcasm.
But his huge patron was not Zephyrus, but Boreas.