was in
consequence of this that, at her brother Lovell's desire, Miss Edgeworth
once more resumed the rent-receiving and general management, which since
her father's death she had abandoned. With consummate skill and energy
she managed so that her family escaped the flood that swamped so many.
For Miss Edgeworth had keen business faculties, though, except in the
matter of the estate, they had never been called into play. Her
stepmother tells how--

"The great difficulty was paying everybody when rents were not to be
had; but Maria, resolutely avoiding the expense and annoyance of
employing a solicitor, undertook the whole, borrowing money in small
sums, paying off encumbrances, and repaying the borrowed money as the
times improved; thus enabling her brother to keep the land which so many
proprietors were then obliged to sell. While never distressing the
tenants, she at last brought the whole business to a triumphant
conclusion."

Yet at no time was Miss Edgeworth absorbed in one thing only; her wide
and universal interests could not slumber. Thus, with all the work of a
large estate on her hands, she still found time to read extensively. The
letters published by Sir Walter Scott under the pseudonym of Sir Malachy
Malagrowther had just appeared. They interested her strangely.

Lord Carrington was so kind as to frank to me these extraordinary
performances, which shall reach you through Lord Rosse, if you
please. It is wonderful that a poet could work up such an
enthusiasm about one-pound notes; wonderful that a lawyer should
venture to be so violent on the occasion as to talk of brandishing
claymores, and passing the fiery cross from hand to hand; and yet
there is the Chancellor of the Exchequer answering it from his
place in Parliament as a national concern! If Pat had written it,
the Attorney-General would, perhaps, have noticed it; but "Up with
the shillalah!" in Pat's mouth, and "Out with the claymore!" in Sir
Malachy's, are different quite.

A visit from Sir Humphrey Davy during the summer was a great delight.
Miss Edgeworth speaks of the range and pitch of his mind with high
praise, and relates besides an amusing anecdote that he told:--

Sir Humphrey repeated to us a remarkable criticism of Bonaparte's
on Talma's acting: "You don't play Nero well; you gesticulate too
much; you speak with too much vehemence. A despot does not need all