Page:Castle Rackrent and The Absentee - Edgeworth (1895).djvu/40

xxxvi a crown, but I made her a low bow, and stood to see her safe out of sight for the good of the family."

How marvellously vivid it all is! every word tells as the generations pass before us. The very spirit of romantic Irish fidelity is incarnate in Thady. Jason Quirk represents the feline element, which also belongs to our extraordinary Celtic race. The little volume contains the history of a nation. It is a masterpiece which Miss Edgeworth has never surpassed. It is almost provoking to have so many details of other and less interesting stories, such as Early Lessons, A Knapsack, The Prussian Vase, etc., and to hear so little of these two books by which she will be best remembered.