Ladies, caught red-handed

Mrs. Digby told me that when she lived in London with her sister, Mrs. Brooke, they were, every now and then, honoured by the visits of Dr. Samuel Johnson. He called on them one day , soon after the publication of his immortal dictionary. The two ladies paid him due compliments on the occasion. Among other topics of praise, they very much commended the omission of all naughty words. What! my dears! then you have been looking for them? said the moralist. The ladies, confused at being caught, dropped the subject of the dictionary.

J. Sutherland, The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes, Oxford 1982, S. 108.