Tales and Novels, vol 9

罜#Tales and Novels, vol 9

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales & Novels, Vol. IX, by Maria Edgeworth #10 in our series by Maria Edgeworth
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Title: Tales & Novels, Vol. IX [Contents: Harrington; Thoughts on Bores; Ormond]
Author: Maria Edgeworth
Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9107] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 7, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES & NOVELS, VOL. IX ***

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Debra Storr and Distributed Proofreaders

TALES AND NOVELS
BY
MARIA EDGEWORTH

IN TEN VOLUMES
WITH ENGRAVINGS ON STEEL

VOL. IX.
HARRINGTON; THOUGHTS ON BORES;
AND
ORMOND.

TO THE READER.
In my seventy-fourth year, I have the satisfaction of seeing another work of my daughter brought before the public. This was more than I could have expected from my advanced age and declining health.
I have been reprehended by some of the public critics for the notices which I have annexed to my daughter's works. As I do not know their reasons for this reprehension, I cannot submit even to their respectable authority. I trust, however, the British public will sympathize with what a father feels for a daughter's literary success, particularly as this father and daughter have written various works in partnership.
The natural and happy confidence reposed in me by my daughter puts it in my power to assure the public that she does not write negligently. I can assert that twice as many pages were written for these volumes as are now printed.
The first of these tales, HARRINGTON, was occasioned by an extremely well-written letter, which Miss Edgeworth received from America, from a Jewish lady, complaining of the illiberality with which the Jewish nation had been treated in some of Miss Edgeworth's works.
The second tale, ORMOND, is the story of a young gentleman, who is in some respects the reverse of Vivian. The moral of this tale does not immediately appear, for the author has taken peculiar care that it should not obtrude itself upon the reader.
Public critics have found several faults with Miss Edgeworth's former works--she takes this opportunity of returning them sincere thanks for the candid and lenient manner in which her errors have been pointed out. In the present Tales she has probably fallen into many other faults, but she has endeavoured to avoid those for which she has been justly reproved.
And now, indulgent reader, I beg you to pardon this intrusion, and, with the most grateful acknowledgments, I bid you farewell for ever.
RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH.
_Edgeworthstown, May_ 31,1817.
_Note_--Mr. Edgeworth died a few days after he wrote this Preface--the 13th June, 1817.
* * * * *

HARRINGTON.

CHAPTER I.
When I was a little boy of about six years old, I was standing with a maid-servant in the balcony of one of the upper rooms of my father's house in London--it was the evening of the first day that I had ever been in London, and my senses had been excited, and almost exhausted, by the vast variety of objects that were new to me. It was dusk, and I was growing sleepy, but my attention was awakened by a fresh wonder. As I stood peeping between the bars of the balcony, I saw star after star of light appear in quick succession, at a certain height and distance, and in a regular line, approaching nearer and nearer. I twitched the skirt of my maid's gown repeatedly, but she was talking to some acquaintance at the window of a neighbouring house, and she did not attend to me. I pressed my forehead more closely against the bars of the balcony, and strained my eyes more eagerly towards the object of my curiosity. Presently the figure of the lamp-lighter with his blazing torch in one hand, and his ladder in the other, became visible; and, with as much delight as philosopher ever enjoyed in discovering the cause of a new and grand phenomenon, I watched his operations. I saw him fix and mount his ladder with his little black pot swinging from his arm, and