was one of those women who do not seem to require beauty." The one love-affair of Maria Edgeworth's life took place during one of her visits to Paris, when she had reached the mature age of thirty-five. Her admirer was a Swede, Monsieur Edelcrantz by name. She herself treated the affair lightly in her letters, but Mrs. Edgeworth said, "She refused M. Edelcrantz, but she felt much more for him than esteem or admiration; she was exceedingly in love with him. Mr. Edgeworth left her to decide for herself, but she saw too plainly what it would be to us to lose her, and what she would feel at parting with us. She decided rightly for her own future happiness and for that of her family, but she suffered much at the time, and for long afterwards. While we were at Paris, I remember that in a shop where Charlotte and I were making purchases, Maria sat apart absorbed in thought, and so deep in reverie that when her father came in and stood opposite to her, she did not see him till he spoke to her, when she started and burst into tears. Even after her return to Edgeworthstown, it was long before she recovered the elasticity of her mind. 'Leonora,' which she began immediately after our return home, was written with the hope of pleasing the Chevalier Edelcrantz. It was written in a style that he liked, and the idea of what he would think of it was, I
