repay your frankness with an air of pretended carelessness. But,
though somewhat disconcerted just now, I will promise not to let
my vexation live out another day. Adieu, my dear daddy; I won't
be mortified and I won't be downed; but I will be proud to find I
have, out of my own family, as well as in it, a friend who loves
me well enough to speak plain truth to me."

Frances now turned from her dramatic schemes to an undertaking
far better suited to her talents. She determined to write a new
tale on a plan excellently contrived for the display of the
powers in which her superiority to other writers lay. It was, in
truth, a grand and various picture gallery, which presented to
the eye a long series of men and women, each marked by some
strong peculiar feature. There were avarice and prodigality, the
pride of blood and the pride of money, morbid restlessness and
morbid apathy, frivolous garrulity, supercilious silence, a
Democritus to laugh at everything and a Heraclitus to lament over
everything. The work proceeded fast, and in twelve months was
completed,

Page xxix

It wanted something of the simplicity which had been among the
most attractive charms of "Evelina"; but it furnished ample proof
that the four years, which had elapsed since "Evelina" appeared,
had not been unprofitably spent. Those who saw "Cecilia" in
manuscript pronounced it the best novel of the age. Mrs. Thrale
laughed and wept over it. Crisp was even vehement in applause,
and offered to insure the rapid and complete success of the book
for half-a-crown. What Miss Burney received for the copyright is