atural to the character I drew, and tend in their
representation to the moral I would _enforce_ or _insinuate_.

Oh, thank you for telling me of my blunder in making the dean die
of _apoplexy_ with his eyes fixed on Helen. Absurd! How shall I
kill him in the next edition, if ever I am allowed an opportunity?
Would palsy do? May there not be a partial power of _will_
surviving a stroke of palsy, which would permit the poor old man to
die with his eyes directed to his niece? Please to answer this
question; and if palsy will not do my business, please to suggest
something that will, and with as little alteration of the text as
maybe. Not because I am unwilling to take the trouble of
correcting, but that I don't think it worth while to make
alterations, even emendations, of great length. Better make a new
one, according to Pope's hackney coachman's principle. (The
punctuation shall be mended.)

CHAPTER XIV.

LAST YEARS.

More and more Miss Edgeworth's life revolved round home and friends. "In
this world, in which I have lived nearly three-quarters of a century, I
have found nothing one-quarter so well worth living for as old friends,"
she said. In her person old age was seen in its most attractive form.
Her lively interests remained undimmed. At seventy she even set herself
to learn a new language, Spanish, while her impulsiveness never became
extinct, though she playfully hoped that, provided she lived so long,
she might perhaps at eighty arrive at years of discretion. It was in
1835 that Mr. Ticknor, the American historian of Spanish literature,
visited Edgeworthstown. He has recorded in his journal a pleasing and
vivid picture of his visit. He describes Miss Edgeworth as small, short
and spare, with frank and kind manners, always looking straight into the
face of those she spoke to with a pair of mild, deep gray eyes. Her
kindness and vivacity instantly put her visitors at ease. Mr. Ticknor
was also impressed with the harmony that existed in a family composed of
the most heterogeneous relationships. What struck him about Miss
Edgeworth herself was her uncommon quickness of perception, her
fertility of allusion, and the great resources of fact which a
remarkable memory supplied to her. He likens her conversation to that of
her own Lady Davenant. Mr. Ticknor observed that though she would talk
freely about herself and her works, she never int