e_. Another gay three
months followed, seeing old friends and making new ones:--

We have seen Mademoiselle Mars twice, or thrice rather, in the
_Mariage de Figaro_, and in the little pieces of _Le jaloux sans
amour_ and _La jeunesse de Henri Cinq_, and admire her
exceedingly. _En petit comite_ the other night at the Duchesse
d'Escars, a discussion took place between the Duchesse de la Force,
Marmont and Pozzo di Borgo on the _bon et mauvais ton_ of different
expressions; _bonne societe_ is an expression bourgeoise. You may
say _bonne compagnie_ or _la haute societe_. "_Viola des nuances_,"
as Madame d'Escars said. Such a wonderful jabbering as these
grandees made about these small matters! It puts me in mind of a
conversation in the _World_ on good company, which we all used to
admire.

In December the travellers were back again in London, but several more
visits were paid before they returned to Ireland. Thus they halted at
Clifton to see Miss Edgeworth's sister Emmeline, who was married there,
and stayed at Bowood, Easton Grey, Badminton and various other houses,
in all of which they met with a warm welcome. Beloved Aunt Ruxton, too,
had to be seen on the way home. It was March before the sisters reached
Edgeworthstown, after not quite a year's absence; a year that seemed to
Miss Edgeworth like a delightful dream, full of Alps and glaciers and
cascades and Mont Blanc, and "troops of acquaintances in splendid
succession and visionary confusion"--a dream of which the sober
certainty of happiness remained, assuring her that all that had passed
had been no dream, but a reality.

CHAPTER XII.

THE MEMOIRS PUBLISHED.--1821 TO 1825.

The _Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth_ had been published during Miss
Edgeworth's stay on the Continent. After all the anxiety she had felt
while preparing the work for the press, she was now able to write to her
friends at home:--

You would scarcely believe, my dear friends, the calm of mind and
the sort of satisfied resignation I feel as to my father's life. I
suppose the two years of doubt and extreme anxiety that I felt
exhausted all my power of doubting. I know that I have done my very
best, I know that I have done my duty, and I firmly believe that if
my dear father could see the whole, he would be satisfied with what
I have done.

Still she was sensitive to what those said