still came on. Lord Lansdowne alluded to this in presenting him to Madame de Staël, before dinner, in the midst of the listening circle. She began to compliment him and herself upon the exertion he had made to come and see her: "O ma'am, say no more, for I would have . done a great deal more to see so great a curiosity I " Lord Lansdowne says it is impossible to describe the shock in Madame de Staël's face — the breathless astonishment and the total change produced in her opinion of the man. She said afterwards to Lord Lansdowne, who had told her he was a simple country clergyman, " Je vois bien que ce n'est qu'un simple curé qui n'a pas le sens commun quoique grand poëte! "
From Bowood Miss Edgeworth paid some other visits, seeing many old friends, and among them Mrs. Barbauld and the Miss Baillies.
Joanna Baillie and her sister, most kind, cordial, and warmhearted, came running down their little flagged walk to welcome us—both Joanna and her sister have such agreeable and new conversation—not old trumpery literature over again, and reviews, but new circumstances worth telling apropos to every subject that is touched upon: frank observations on character without either ill-nature or the fear of committing themselves : no blue-stocking tittle-tattle or habits of worshipping or being worshipped: domestic, affectionate, good to live with and without fussing, continually doing what is most obliging and whatever makes us feel most at home. Breakfast is very pleasant in this house, the two good sisters look so neat and cheerful.
Although she had met with much encouraging criticism in the matter of her father's life, she still hesitated to publish. "The result of all I see, think, and feel," she tells her step-mother, " is, that we should be in no haste." Down to the very business arrangements the book weighed on her. She had hitherto left all such details to her father; and her kind friend Johnson being also dead, she felt yet more undecided how to act. At every moment, in every detail of her life, she missed her father ; but she was too brave a woman not to struggle with her grief, or not to adapt herself to altered conditions. Her eyes still caused her much
