ual companion,
who had stood by her side till now and aided her in every difficult
task. She felt like "drifting over an unknown sea without chart or
compass." Nor were her spirits or those of the family raised by outward
events. Wet seasons had induced famine and typhus fever, and the tenants
were suffering from disease and distress. Then, too, the family had
their own private anxieties in the illness of William, Lovell and Fanny.
They were all more or less delicate; most of them had inherited
consumptive tendencies, and many months rarely passed without Miss
Edgeworth having to record cases of sickness in those about her. These
illnesses always absorbed her whole attention, called forth all her
kindliness and unselfishness. She was ever the ready, willing nurse, the
writer of bulletins to those away, the cheerer of long, sad hours of
suffering. They were weary months, those early ones of 1818, and only in
her affections did she find comfort. She writes:--

I was always fond of being loved, but of late I am become more
sensible of the soothing power of affectionate expressions. Indeed,
I have reason, although much has been taken from me, to be heartily
grateful for all I have left of excellent friends, and for much,
much unexpected kindness which has been shown to me and mine, not
only by persons unconnected by any natural ties with me or them,
but from mere acquaintance become friends.

In June she was able to announce: "I am now within two months' work of
finishing all I mean to write; but the work of revision and
consideration--O! most anxious consideration." She was still desirous of
having the opinion of friends, and more especially she desired the
opinion of M. Dumont. Hearing he was to stay with Lord Lansdowne, at
Bowood, she yielded to the importunities of these friends and went there
to meet him, taking with her her sister Honora. She was soon able to
tell Mrs. Edgeworth that Dumont "has been very much pleased with my
father's manuscript; he has read a good deal and likes it. He hates Mr.
Day in spite of all his good qualities; he says he knows he could not
bear that sort of man, who has such pride and misanthropies about
trifles, raising a great theory of morals upon an _amour propre
blesse_."

The change of scene was clearly beneficial to her. Once more her letters
were filled with the anecdotes, the interesting talk she hears, accounts
of which she knows will give pleas