Page:Mrs. Siddons (IA mrssiddons00kennrich).pdf/44

32 his intention to go; if anything had happened, therefore, to prevent their engagement, it would have "proved a very unlucky circumstance." He then touches on a very necessary point—their pressing need of money to tide them over Mrs. Siddons's expected confinement. "Mr. Garrick," he says, "has conferred an eternal obligation by his kind offer of the cash."

In his next letter, dated Gloucester, November 9th, 1775, he writes:—"From my former accounts of Mrs. Siddons's time, you'l be surprised when I tell you she is brought to bed; she was unexpectedly taken ill when performing on the stage, and early the next morning produc'd me a fine girl. They are both, thank Heaven, likely to do well; but I am afraid, Sir, notwithstanding this, I shan't be able to leave this much sooner than the time I last mentioned." He then alludes to twenty pounds borrowed in Garrick's name to meet pressing demands.

This "fine girl" was Mrs. Siddons' daughter Sarah, whose premature death later nearly broke her mother's heart.