pinned with a single pin by the lapels tight across the neck under
the chin, and open all below. After surveying us and hearing that
our name was Edgeworth, she smiled graciously and bid us follow
her, saying, "_Maman est chez elle._" She led the way with the
grace of a young lady who has been taught to dance, across two
ante-chambers, miserable-looking, but miserable or not, no house in
Paris can be without them. The girl or young lady, for we were
still in doubt which to think her, led us into a small room, in
which the candles were so well screened by a green tin screen that
we could scarcely distinguish the tall form of a lady in black who
rose from her arm-chair by the fireside as the door opened; a great
puff of smoke came from the huge fireplace at the same moment. She
came forward, and we made our way towards her as well as we could
through a confusion of tables, chairs and work-baskets, china,
writing-desks and inkstands, and bird-cages and a harp. She did not
speak, and as her back was now turned to both fire and candle I
could not see her face, nor anything but the outline of her form
and her attitude. Her form was the remains of a fine form, and her
attitude that of a woman used to a better drawing-room. I, being
foremost, and she silent, was compelled to speak to the figure in
darkness: "_Madame de Genlis nous a fait l'honneur de nous mander
qu'elle voulait bien nous permettre de lui rendre visite, et de lui
offrir nos respects_," said I, or words to that effect; to which
she replied by taking my hand, and saying something in which
"_charmee_" was the most intelligible word. Whilst she spoke she
looked over my shoulder at my father, whose bow, I presume, told
her he was a gentleman, for she spoke to him immediately as if she
wished to please, and seated us in fauteuils near the fire. I then
had a full view of her face and figure. She looked like the
full-length picture of my great-grandmother Edgeworth you may have
seen in the garret, very thin and melancholy, but her face not so
handsome as my grandmother's; dark eyes, long sallow cheeks,
compressed thin lips, two or three black ringlets on a high
forehead, a cap that Mrs. Grier might wear--altogether an
appearance of fallen fortunes, worn-out health, and excessive but
guarded irritabil