“Go,” she said to him in substance, “try to assume some of the graces that you sorely lack. Learn to dress stylishly, and be taught the proper curl for a wig. Train yourself into a fashionable-looking husband, and come back to me.” Thus commanded, Day spent many weary hours wielding the foil, and being carried through the intricacies of the dance. And those legs of his--how he put them into exercise, hoping against hope to straighten them ere he returned to England! But there was evidently no improvement in the end, for when the lady saw him, she unhesitatingly refused him. It is sufficient to say that, in time, Edgeworth married both sisters, Death regarding kindly his love of novelty. With affections thus left high and dry, Day turned once more to Sabrina. He had long ago discarded Lucretia, who apprenticed herself to a milliner, and later became the wife of an honest draper. But Sabrina was fair to look upon and Day saw no reason why she should not satisfy his ideas of wifehood, provided she would dress according to his tastes. We applaud the shake of those auburn ringlets as she refused his wishes, and thus escaped matrimony with him.[32] There was another lady upon whom this honour was to descend. When Miss Milnes, of Wakefield, was approached by Day, she was informed of all his requirements, and was deceived as to none of his vagaries. It must have been somewhat of a surprise to him when she accepted him, outlandish attire and all; and it is a pleasant disappointment to know that the marriage was a happy one, despite the fact that Mrs. Day insisted upon holding opinions of her own. Day was most content when he was theorising; at the same time, it must not be lost sight of that he had timely interests. His feelings were strongly aroused against the state of negro slavery in America, and he was earnest in his advocacy of parliamentary reform. His great fault was that he was always carried to extremes whenever good motives prompted him. His earnest concern for the poor, during 1781, was accompanied by stern denials of pleasures for himself,--well-nigh of the necessities of life. Day realised the failures of his theories as applied to grown people; had he not done so, we most likely would not have had “Sandford and Merton.” His attention was soon attracted to the infant mind as an unworked field; the Edgeworths were meeting success with their children’s books; he would attempt the same thing, and so, during 1783, 1787, and 1789, the three successive volumes of his famous story appeared--an elongated “Waste Not, Want Not.”