expiring with hunger, when Miss More found her. Her mother was a
washerwoman, and washed for Miss More's family; by accident, in a
tablecloth which was sent to her was left a silver spoon, which Mrs.
Yearsly returned. Struck with this instance of honesty, which was
repeated to her by the servants, Miss More sent for her, discovered her
distress and her genius, and though she was extremely eager in preparing
some of her own works for the press, she threw them all aside to correct
Mrs. Yearsly's poems, and obtained for her a subscription of L600. In
return, Mrs. Yearsly accused her of having defrauded her, of having been
actuated only by vanity in bringing her abilities to light--a new
species of vanity from one authoress to another--in short, abused her in
the basest and most virulent manner. Would you go to see Mrs. Yearsly?

Lo! I have almost filled the Bristol Chronicle, and have yet much that I
wish to say to you, dear Sophy, and that I could tell you in one
half-hour, talking at my usual rate of nine miles an hour: when that
will be, it is impossible to tell. My mother is now getting better. All
the children are perfectly well: Bessy's eyes are not inflamed:
Charlotte _est faite a peindre et plus encore a aimer_, if that were
French.

* * * * *

Little Thomas Day Edgeworth died at the age of three, whilst he was in
the care of the Ruxtons, and about the same time Maria Edgeworth's own
brother Richard, who had paid a long visit to his family at Clifton,
returned to North Carolina, where he had married and was already a
father.

* * * * *