Page:Maria Edgeworth (Zimmern 1883).djvu/188

176 had been his, and which accompanied her whenever she went away. At home it was placed on a table he had made, and to which she, inheriting some of his faculty for mechanical inventions, had attached some ingenious contrivances of her own, such as brackets, fire-screens, and paper rests. In summer time this little table was generally rolled into a recess behind the pillars of the library, in winter it stood near the fire. She wrote on folio sheets, which she sewed together in chapters, and her MSS. were wonderfully neat, clean, and free from erasures. At luncheon time she ceased writing, and since she made this her chief meal in the day, she was obliged, often most unwillingly, to forego her desire to return to her desk. But she knew that to write directly after eating was bad for her, and she submitted instead to doing some needle-work. It was while working with her needle, however, that most of her stories were conceived and developed.

Sometimes she would drive out in the afternoon. She was rather nervous about horses, and always sat with her back to them that she might not see them. When quite at her ease on the score of coachman and steeds, she greatly enjoyed a drive in an open carriage, talking and laughing all the time, and amusing her companions with her endless flow of anecdotes and fun. With her habitual indifference to nature she rarely knew and still less cared whither the drive had been directed. Most commonly she wrote again till dinner time. In her latter years she would retire and sleep for an hour after this meal, rejoining the family circle at the tea-table. The evenings were usually spent in reading aloud; sometimes Miss Edgeworth was the reader, sometimes she would work and listen while others read. The enjoyment she felt in literature was