observe all that passed. Her nearest relations were aware that
she had good sense, but seem not to have suspected that under her
demure and bashful deportment were concealed a fertile invention
and a keen sense of the ridiculous. She had not, it is true, an
eye for the fine shades of character. But every marked
peculiarity instantly caught her notice and remained engraven on
her imagination. Thus while still a girl she had laid up such a
store of materials for fiction as few of those who mix much in
the world are able to accumulate during a long life. She had
watched and listened to people of every class, from princes and
great officers of state down to artists living in garrets and
poets familiar with subterranean cookshops. Hundreds of
remarkable persons had passed in review before her, English,
French, German, Italian, lords and fiddlers, deans of cathedrals
and managers of theatres, travellers leading about newly caught
savages, and singing women escorted by deputy husbands.

So strong was the impression made on the mind of Frances by the
society which she was in the habit of seeing and hearing, that
she began to write little fictitious narratives as soon as she
could use her pen with ease, which, as we have said, was not very
early. Her sisters were amused by her stories. But Dr. Burney
knew nothing of their existence ; and in another quarter her
literary propensities met with serious discouragement. When she
was fifteen, her father took a second wife.(8) The new Mrs.
Burney soon found out that her daughter-in-law was fond of
scribbling, and delivered several good-natured lectures on the
subject. The advice no doubt was well meant, and might have been
given by the most judicious friend ; for at that time, from
causes to which we may hereafter advert, nothing could be more