t Miss Edgeworth need not be afraid of being excelled
in "that faithful but flattering representation of the spoken language
of persons of wit and politeness--in that light and graceful tone of
raillery and argument, and in that gift of sportive but cutting
_medisance_ which is sure of success in those circles where success is
supposed to be most difficult and desirable." In support of his
statement he points to the conversation of Lady Delacour (_Belinda_),
Lady Dashfort (_Absentee_) and Lady Geraldine (_Ennui_).

The first series of _Tales from Fashionable_ _Life_ met with so much
favor that the publisher clamored for more. Some were lying ready,
others had to be written, but in 1812 Miss Edgeworth was able to issue a
second series, containing three stories, of which one, _The Absentee_,
ranks worthily beside _Castle Rackrent_ as a masterpiece. The evils this
story sought to expose came daily under Miss Edgeworth's observation;
she beheld the Irish landed gentry forsake their homes and their duties
in order to go to London and cut a figure in fashionable society,
spending beyond their means, oblivious of the state of home affairs, and
merely regarding their properties as good milch kine. How their
unfortunate tenants were ground down in order to meet these claims they
neither knew nor cared. Lord and Lady Clonbrony, the absentees, are
drawn with vivid touches: she is devoured by ambition to shine in a
society for which she is not fitted, and voluntarily submits to any
humiliations and rebuffs, any sacrifices, to attain this end; he,
uprooted from his wonted surroundings, cannot acclimatize himself to new
ones, and, merely to pass his time, sinks into the vices of gaming and
betting. Lady Clonbrony affects a contempt for her native land and
pretends she is not Irish. As, however, she cannot rid herself of an
Irish pronunciation and Irish phrases, she is constantly placed in the
dilemma of holding her tongue and appearing yet more foolish than she
is; or, by mistaking reverse of wrong for right, so caricaturing the
English pronunciation that thus alone she betrayed herself not to be
English. In vain, too, this lady struggles to school her free,
good-natured Irish manner into the cold, sober, stiff deportment she
deems English. The results to which all this gives rise are delineated
with consummate skill and good-humored satire. The scenes that occur in
London society are highly diverting, but the story gains in deeper
i