Page:Maria Edgeworth (Zimmern 1883).djvu/157

on which account she asked her good friend, Dr. Holland, of Knutsford to propose some other plans. Very significant is the remark she makes: "Observe that Fanny and I both prefer society, good society, even to fine landscapes, or even to volcanoes." Finally Paris was pronounced safe, and they set out thither. It was on this occasion, when crossing to Holyhead, that she made her first acquaintance with a steam-boat. She disliked what she called the "jigging motion," which, she said, was like the shake felt in a carriage when a pig is scratching himself against the hind wheel while waiting at an Irish inn door. Her letters to her stepmother and sisters during this trip are frequent and detailed. At Paris they stayed some months, establishing themselves domestically in apartments in the Place du Palais Bourbon. " Madame Maria Edgeworth et Mademoiselles ses sœurs" ran their visiting cards, which were soon left at the best Parisian houses. Many new friends were added to those they had previously made, and under the changed regime, the connection of Miss Edgeworth with the Abbe Edgeworth became a passport to the homes of the old nobility. The circumstance that Miss Edgeworth was a most accomplished French scholar, speaking the language with as much ease as if it were her own, enabled her thoroughly to enter into and enjoy the society that was offered her. Her knowledge of French classic literature charmed her hosts, and brought out all their best powers of conversation. Her ready sympathy and real interest won their hearts and induced many of them to tell her the sad stories of their adventures in the revolutionary days. But her intercourse was not confined to the aristocracy. Her hereditary taste for science brought her in contact with most of the distinguished scientific men