word or a hasty look." Nevertheless, he speedily looked about for a successor, and found one in Miss Beaufort, daughter of the Vicar of Collon. The marriage took place 31st May, 1798, at St. Anne's Church, Dublin, and Maria wrote to her new stepmother, "You will come into a new family, dear Miss Beaufort, but you will not come a stranger: you will not lead a new life, but only continue to lead the life you have been used to in your own happy cultivated family."
Strange to say, these words were verified to the letter, and Mr. Edgeworth's fourth and last wife brought nothing but harmony into this strangely-constituted home circle. "The more I see of my friend and mother," wrote Maria to her aunt, Mrs. Ruxton, "the more I love and esteem her. I never saw my father at any period of his life appear so happy as he does, and you know that he tastes happiness as much as any human being can. … I am going on in the old way writing stories. … My father has made our little rooms so nice for us, they are all fresh painted and papered. O, rebels! O, French! spare them. We have never injured you, and all we ask is to see everybody as happy as we are ourselves."
Disturbance was in the air—wars and rumours of wars—for it was the terrible year of '98. When the French landed at Killala in August a break
