d not like any one to mention her name to him. One day he
was visiting her father when one of her nieces, taking some music from
a drawer, brought with it a piece of embroidery. "Washington," said
Mr. Hoffman, "this was poor Matilda's work." The effect was
instantaneous. The light-hearted conversationalist of a moment before
became silent and soon left the house. When in _Bracebridge Hall_ he
writes,--"I have loved as I never again shall love in this world--I
have been loved as I shall never again be loved,"--is he not thinking
of the fair Matilda? And in a note-book we find,--"She died in the
beauty of her youth, and in my memory she will ever be young and
beautiful."

In May, 1815, Irving went abroad for the second time. His purpose was
to stay a few months; he remained seventeen years. The first sight
that greeted the newly arrived American in Liverpool was the
mail-coach bringing the news of the battle of Waterloo. Irving's
sympathies were with Napoleon. "In spite of all his misdeeds he is a
noble fellow, and I am confident will eclipse in the eyes of posterity
all the crowned wiseacres that have crushed him by their overwhelming
confederacy." In the year 1818 the Irving brothers went into
bankruptcy. Washington's interest in the business was that of a
younger brother who had little responsibility. But of late years he
had been much harassed by the accumulating troubles. With the end of
the business anxieties he turns to literature with a whole-souled
devotion. His home friends tried to secure for him the position of
Secretary of the Legation in London; his brother William wrote that
Commodore Decatur was keeping open for his acceptance the office of
Chief Clerk in the Navy Department; but Irving turned the offers
aside. Irving is usually imaged as a sunshiny, genial, easy-going
gentleman into whose blood little of the iron of firmness had been
infused. The fact that he not only refused these offers but also
rejected offers from Scott and Murray shows that he had will enough to
keep to the bent of his genius at a time when he needed money and
influence. Murray offered him a salary of L1000 a year to be the
editor of a periodical.

The first number of the _Sketch Book_ appeared in May, 1819, and
consisted mainly in point of merit of two papers, _The Wife_ and _Rip
Van Winkle_. The series was finished in 1820. The work was highly
successful in America, and Irving was deeply moved by the cordial
expressions of prais