Life And Letters Of Maria Edgeworth/Volume 2/Letter 130

MARIA to MRS. R. BUTLER.

EDGEWORTHSTOWN, August 1, 1843.

I have just wakened and risen from the sofa rejoicing, like a dwarf, "to run my course." I was put to sleep, not by magnetism, but by the agreeable buzz of dear Pakenham's voice reading out a man's peregrinations from Egypt to Australia&mdash;"the way was long, the road was dark," and the reader declares I was asleep before we got to Egypt.

Mr. Maltby is wondrous tall, and Pakenham has had the diversion long-looked-for of seeing "Maltby hand Maria in to dinner." Mr. Maltby is a very gentlemanlike man, every inch of him, many as they are, and very conversable&mdash;really conversable, he both hears and talks, and follows and leads.