the more, I being out of humour, being at a play without my wife, and she
ill at home, and having no desire also to be seen, and, therefore, could
not look about me. Thence to the Temple, and there we parted, and I to
see Kate Joyce, where I find her and her friends in great ease of mind,
the jury having this day given in their verdict that her husband died of a
feaver. Some opposition there was, the foreman pressing them to declare
the cause of the feaver, thinking thereby to obstruct it: but they did
adhere to their verdict, and would give no reason; so all trouble is now
over, and she safe in her estate, which I am mighty glad of, and so took
leave, and home, and up to my wife, not owning my being at a play, and
there she shews me her ring of a Turky-stone set with little sparks of
dyamonds,

[The turquoise. This stone was sometimes referred to simply as the
turkey, and Broderip ("Zoological Recreations") conjectured that the
bird (turkey) took its name from the blue or turquoise colour of the
skin about its head.]

which I am to give her, as my Valentine, and I am not much troubled at it.
It will cost me near L5--she costing me but little compared with other
wives, and I have not many occasions to spend on her. So to my office,
where late, and to think upon my observations to-morrow, upon the report
of the Committee to the Parliament about the business of tickets, whereof
my head is full, and so home to supper and to bed.

19th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning drawing up an answer
to the Report of the Committee for miscarriages to the Parliament touching
our paying men by tickets, which I did do in a very good manner I think.
Dined with my clerks at home, where much good discourse of our business of
the Navy, and the trouble now upon us, more than we expected. After dinner