dies influenced her, as his friendship had in
earlier days influenced her father. Mr. Day further plied her with
tar-water, then deemed a sovereign remedy for all complaints. Either
owing to this or the change of air, her eyes certainly grew better and
her general health improved, although she remained delicate, subject to
headaches, and unequal to much bodily exertion.

The following year (1782) her father resolved to return to Ireland to
reside. He had seen on his brief visits the mischievous results of
absenteeism, and felt that if it were in the power of any man to serve
the country which gave him bread, he ought to sacrifice every inferior
consideration and reside where he could be most useful. As, however,
Mrs. Honora Edgeworth's health could not be pronounced an "inferior
consideration," Mr. Edgeworth had been forced to live in England. Now,
though his new wife had even before marriage shown consumptive symptoms,
her constitution had so much strengthened that it seemed possible to
inhabit the family house. Mr. Edgeworth therefore returned to Ireland
with a firm determination to dedicate the remainder of his life to the
education of his children, the improvement of his estate, and the
endeavor to contribute to the amelioration of its inhabitants. He took
Maria with him, and there now began for her the tranquil current of
existence that was diversified by no remarkable events outside the
domain of friendship and kindred. The home she now entered, the social
and domestic duties she now undertook, continued the same for life. Her
return to Ireland marks an epoch in her history.

CHAPTER III.

GIRLHOOD.

Ireland is not among those countries that arouse in the hearts of
strangers a desire to pitch their tents, and to judge from the readiness
with which her own children leave her, we cannot suppose that they find
her a fascinating land. And little wonder, when we consider the state of
ferment and disorder which, in a greater or less degree, has always
prevailed there. Yet Miss Edgeworth says:--

Things and persons are so much improved in Ireland of latter days,
that only those who can remember how they were some thirty or forty
years ago can conceive the variety of domestic grievances which, in
those times, assailed the master of a family immediately upon his
arrival at his Irish home. Wherever he turned his eyes, in or out
of his house, damp, dilapidation, waste appeared. Pain