The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 1Edgeworth, Maria
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The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 1
Edgeworth, Maria
Edgeworth, Maria, 1768-1849; Novelists, Irish -- 19th century -- Biography
M. de Staël called his little brother, Alphonse Rocca, to introduce him
to us; he is a pleasing, gentle-looking, ivory-pale boy with dark-blue
eyes, not the least like Madame de Staël. M. de Staël speaks English
perfectly, and with the air of an Englishman of fashion. After our walk
he proposed our going on the lake--and we rowed for about an hour. The
deep, deep blue of the water, and the varying colours as the sun shone
and the shadows of the clouds appeared on it were beautiful. When we
returned and went to rest in M. de Staël's cabinet, Dumont, who had
quoted from Voltaire's "Ode on the Lake of Geneva," read it to us. Read
it and tell me where you think it ought to begin.
We slept at Morges on Tuesday, and arrived late and tired at Yverdun.
Next morning we went to see Pestalozzi's establishment; he recognised me
and I him; he is, tell my mother, the same wild-looking man he was, with
the addition of seventeen years. The whole superintendence of the school
is now in the hands of his masters; he just shows a visitor into the
room, and reappears as you are going away with a look that pleads
irresistibly for an obole of praise.
While we were in the school, and while I was stretching my poor little
comprehension to the utmost to follow the master of mathematics, I saw
enter a benevolent-looking man with an open forehead and a clear, kind
eye. He was obviously an Englishman, and from his manner of standing I
thought he was a captain in the navy. My attention was called away, and
I was intent upon an account of a school for deaf and dumb, which I was
interested in on account of William Beaufort, when a lady desired to be
introduced to me; she said she had been talking to Mrs. Moilliet, taking
her for Miss Edgeworth--she was "the wife of Captain Hillyar, Captain
Beaufort's friend." What a revolution in all our ideas! We almost ran to
Captain Hillyar, my benevolent--looking Englishman, and most cordially
did he receive us, and insisted upon our all coming to dine with him.
When I presented Fanny and Harriet to him as Captain Beaufort's nieces
he did look so pleased, and all the way home he was praising Captain
Beaufort with such delight to himself. "But I never write to the fellow,
faith! I'll tell you the truth; I can't bring myself to sit down and
write to him, he is such a superior being; I can't do it; what can I
have to say worth his reading? Why, look at his letters, one page of
them contains more sense than I could write in a volume."
At dinner, turning to Fanny and Harriet, he drank "Uncle Francis's
health;" and when we took leave he shook us by the hand at the carriage
door. "You know we sailors can never take leave without a hearty shake
of the hand. It comes from the heart, and I hope will go to it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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