Page:Castle Rackrent and The Absentee - Edgeworth (1895).djvu/44

xl pulled into the stream by a real fish, which had seized hold of the bait."

The dinner-party is too long to quote, but it is written in Miss Edgeworth's most racy and delightful vein of fun.

One more little fact should not be omitted in any mention of the Absentee. One of the heroines is Miss Broadhurst, the heiress. The Edgeworth family were much interested, soon after the book appeared, to hear that a real living Miss Broadhurst, an heiress, had appeared upon the scenes, and was, moreover, engaged to be married to Sneyd Edgeworth, one of the eldest sons of the family. In the story, says Mrs. Edgeworth, Miss Broadhurst selects from her lovers one who "unites worth and wit," and then she goes on to quote an old epigram of Mr. Edgeworth's on himself, which concluded with, "There's an Edge to his wit and there's worth in his heart."

Mr. Edgeworth, who was as usual busy building church spires for himself and other people, abandoned his engineering for a time to criticise his daughter's story, and he advised that the conclusion of the Absentee should be a letter from Larry the postilion. "He wrote one, she wrote another," says Mrs. Edgeworth. "He much preferred hers, which is the admirable finale of the Absentee" And just about this time Lord Ross is applied to, to frank the Edgeworth manuscripts.

"I cannot by any form of words express how delighted I am that you are none of you angry with me," writes modest Maria to her cousin, Miss Ruxton, "and that my uncle and aunt are pleased with what they have read of the Absentee. I long to hear whether their favour continues to the end, and extends to the catastrophe, that dangerous rock upon which poor authors are wrecked."