“I know that you do not like me to go to Holcroft’s. I think you right in the principle, but a little wrong in the present application.
“When I lived alone, I always dined on a Sunday with company, in the evening, if not at dinner, at St P[aul’s, with Johnson], generally also of a Tuesday, and some other day at Fuseli’s.
“I like to see new faces as a study, and since my return from Norway, or rather since I have accepted of invitations, I have dined every third Sunday at Twiss’s, nay oftener, for they sent for me when they had any extraordinary company. I was glad to go, because my lodging was noisy of a Sunday, and Mr S.’s house and spirits were so altered, that my visits depressed him, instead of exhilarating me.
“I am then, you perceive, thrown out of my track, and have not traced another. But so far from wishing to obtrude on yours, I had written to Mrs Jackson, and mentioned Sunday, and am now sorry that I did not fix on to-day as one of the days for sitting for my picture.
“To Mr Johnson I would go without ceremony, but it is not convenient for me at present to make haphazard visits.
“Should Carlisle chance to call on you this morning, send him to me; but by himself, for he often has a companion with him, which would defeat my purpose.”
