My  mother  jested  him  lately  on  a  circumstance  which  bad  a  good
deal  of  character  in  it. When  we  were  very  young  girls,  too  young
to  remember  the  scene,  there  happened  to  be  a  good  many  clever  people
at  Balcarres  at  Christmas,  and  as  a  gambol  of  the  season  they  agreed
to  write  each  his  own  character,  to  give  them  to  Hume,  and  make  him
shew  them  to  my  father,  as  extracts  he  had  taken  from  the  pope's  library
at  Rome. He  did : — my  father  said, '  I  don't  know  who  the  rest  of
your  fine  fellows  and  charming  princesses  are,  Hume;  but  if  you  had
not  told  me  where  you  got  this  character,  I  should  have  said  it  was
that  of  my  wife.*  **  I  was  pleased,"  said  my  mother,  "  with  my  lord's
answer;  it  shewed  that  at  least  I  had  been  an  honest  woman."

*  '^  Hume's  character  of  himself,"  said  she,  "  was  well  drawn  and
full  of  candour ;  he  spoke  of  himself  as  he  ought,  but  added  what  sur-
prised us  all,  that,  plain  as  his  manners  were,  and  apparently  careless
of  attention,  vanity  was  his  predominant  weakness. 