erty, largely caused by a
worthless husband, obliged her to perform the most menial labors. She
rejoiced on one occasion that the approach of warmer weather released
her from the duty of making fires, scouring the grate, sifting the
cinders, and of going up and down three pair of long stairs with water
or dirt. All this Mrs. Inchbald thought that she could cheerfully bear,
but the labor of being a fine lady the remainder of the day was almost
too much for her. "Last Thursday," she wrote to a friend, "I finished
scouring my bed-chamber, while a coach with a coronet and two footmen
waited at the door to take me an airing."

The same courage and industry were carried by Mrs. Inchbald into her
literary labors, the profits of which enabled her to live with
considerable comfort toward the end of her life. She left a large
number of plays, many of which had been acted with success, and two
novels, "A Simple Story," published in 1791, and "Nature and Art,"
published five years later. Neither of these works has much merit from
a critical point of view. They are faulty in construction, and give
frequent evidence of the authoress' lack of education.

Yet, in her ability to excite the interest and to move the feelings of
her reader, Mrs. Inchbald met with great success. Her novels are of the
pathetic order, and appeal to the sympathies with a sometimes powerful
effect. Maria Edgeworth was deeply moved by the "Simple Story." "Its
effect upon my feelings," she said after reading it for the fourth
time, "was as powerful as at the first reading; I never read _any_
novel--I except none,--I never read any novel that affected me so
strongly, or that so completely possessed me with the belief in the
real existence, of all the persons it represents. I never once
recollected the author whilst I was reading it; never said or thought,
_that's a fine sentiment_,--or, _that is well expressed_--or, _that is
well invented_; I believed all to be real, and was affected as I should
be by the real scenes, if they had passed before my eyes; it is truly
and deeply pathetic."

The sisters, Harriet and Sophia Lee, wrote a number of stories gathered
together under the rather unfortunate title of "The Canterbury Tales,"
which had a long-continued popularity. "The Young Lady's Tale," and
"The Clergyman's Tale" were written by Sophia; all the others, together
with the novel "Errors of Innocence," belonged to Harriet. These
stories have great narrative inte