generously impulsive as ever. On one occasion she writes to Mrs.
Ruxton:--

It is very happy for your little niece that you have so much the
habit of expressing to her your kind feelings. I really think that
if my thoughts and feelings were shut up completely within me, I
should burst in a week, like a steam engine without a
snifting-clack, now called by the grander name of a safety-valve.
You want to know what I am doing and thinking of: of ditches,
drains and sewers, of dragging quicks from one hedge and sticking
them down into another, at the imminent peril of their green lives;
of two houses to let, one tenant promised from the Isle of Man,
another from the Irish Survey; of two bullfinches, each in his cage
on the table--one who would sing if he could, and the other who
could sing, I am told, if he would. Then I am thinking for three
hours a day of _Helen_, to what purpose I dare not say.

Before the year 1830 was ended Miss Edgeworth had lost this aunt, whom
she had loved so long and fondly. It was the severing of a life-long
friendship, the heaviest blow that had befallen her since her father's
death. She was in London when the event took place, and it was some
comfort to her to find herself so kindly welcomed by those whom she had
liked best in years gone by. She says sadly:--

It is always gratifying to find old friends the same after long
absence, but it has been particularly so to me now, when not only
the leaves of the pleasures of life fall naturally in its winter,
but when the great branches on whom happiness depended are gone.

During this visit she kept out of all large parties, but renewed many
old ties. One of the things she enjoyed most was a children's party at
Mrs. Lockhart's. She was in her element among the young ones. "If Mrs.
Lockhart had invented forever she could not have found what would please
me more." This London visit extended over some months:--

Old as I am, and imaginative as I am thought to be, I have really
always found that the pleasures I have expected would be great,
have actually been greater in the enjoyment than in the
anticipation. This is written in my sixty-fourth year. The pleasure
of being with Fanny has been far, far greater than I had expected.
The pleasures here altogether, including the kindness of old
friends and the civilities of acquaintances,