Christian to make no selfish refusal to the poor, a few months, I
foresee, must make the sum a hundred." In 1816, when that sister
died, and Mrs. Inchbald buried the last of her immediate home
relations--though she had still nephews to find money for--she said
it had been a consolation to her when sometimes she cried with cold
to think that her sister, who was less able to bear privation, had
her fire lighted for her before she rose, and her food brought to
her ready cooked.

Even at fifty Mrs. Inchbald's beauty of face inspired admiration.
The beauty of the inner life increased with years. Lively and quick
of temper, impulsive, sensitive, she took into her heart all that
was best in the sentiments associated with the teaching of Rousseau
and the dreams of the French Revolution. Mrs. Inchbald spoke her
mind most fully in this little story, which is told with a dramatic
sense of construction that swiftly carries on the action to its
close. She was no weak sentimentalist, who hung out her feelings to
view as an idle form of self-indulgence. Most unselfishly she
wrought her own life to the pattern in her mind; even the little
faults she could not conquer, she well knew.

Mrs. Inchbald died at the age of sixty-eight, on the 1st of August,
1821, a devout Roman Catholic, her thoughts in her last years
looking habitually through all disguises of convention up to
Nature's God.

H. M.