Page:Maria Edgeworth (Zimmern 1883).djvu/194

182 several times in danger of being thrust aside. She wrote to her sister: —

To the day of her death, Miss Edgeworth never became the prudent, staid, self-contained person, we should imagine her from her books, did we possess them only as guides to her character. Rosamond remained as generously impulsive as ever. On one occasion she writes to Mrs. Ruxton: —

Before the year 1830 was ended, Miss Edgeworth had lost this aunt, whom she had loved so long and fondly. It was the severing of a life-long friendship, the heaviest blow that had befallen her since her father's death. She was in London when the event