“On Wednesday we dined at Mr. Edgeworth’s house: there is something highly fascinating in the company of celebrated people. In conversing with Miss Edgeworth, I felt that I was renewing, as it were, an old acquaintance; for who is there to whom she is altogether unknown? I must acknowledge, however, that my introduction to her was not made without some trepidation on my part, but so kind, so unassuming is her manner, that in a very short time I felt almost entirely at my ease in her company. I could not, however, quite rid myself of the feeling that I was in the company of one who had shown by her works that she could detect, and that she noticed every little symptom of weakness which to a common eye might pass unobserved. I was uneasy lest she should discover the defects in my education before I could take an opportunity of alluding to them, as is my custom in similar cases. Miss Edgeworth is a short, sprightly woman, without any of the affectation of politeness, but with much that is real. One is apt to suppose that a person of celebrity must always appear as though a high character was to be supported; there is nothing of this kind about Miss Edgeworth; she is exceedingly lively, and even playful in her manner, and seems to have not the slightest objection to a good joke.” “I still esteem it,” writes the surviving brother, “one of the greatest honours of my life to have sat next to her at dinner by her own desire. To me, and doubtless to my brother Rowland also, the interview with this admirable woman savoured of romance. As an abstraction, she had long been to every member of our family an object of respect amounting to reverence. Her works had been to us a source of delight, of instruction, of purity, and of elevation, but herself seemed indefinitely removed, and we could hardly believe that we were now actually in her presence, and admitted to friendly intercourse.” “On Saturday I gave Mr. Edgeworth some parts of the rough draft of ‘Public Education’ to read, which I had taken with me to Ireland. He desired one of his monitors to take it to his house, and leave it in his bedchamber, stating that he always lay in bed till the middle of the day on Sunday, and that he could read it before he arose in the morning.