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TALES AND NOVELS

VOLUME IX (of X)

HARRINGTON; THOUGHTS ON BORES; ORMOND

By Maria Edgeworth

With Engravings On Steel (Engravings are not included in this edition)



CONTENTS

TO THE READER.



HARRINGTON.

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER XVI.

CHAPTER XVII.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHAPTER XIX.



THOUGHTS ON BORES.



ORMOND

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV

CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER XVI.

CHAPTER XVII.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHAPTER XIX.

CHAPTER XX.

CHAPTER XXI.

CHAPTER XXII.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CHAPTER XXV.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CHAPTER XXVII.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CHAPTER XXIX.

CHAPTER XXX.

CHAPTER XXXI.

CHAPTER XXXII.



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 his red
smoking torch waving with astonishing velocity, as he ran up and down
the ladder. Just when he reached the ground, being then within a few
yards of our house, his torch flared on the face and figure of an old
man with a long white beard and a dark visage, who, holding a great bag
slung over one shoulder, walked slowly on, repeating in a low, abrupt,
mysterious tone, the cry of “Old clothes! Old clothes! Old clothes!”
 I could not understand the words he said, but as he looked up at
our balcony he saw me--smiled--and I remember thinking that he had a
good-natured countenance. The maid nodded to him; he stood still, and at
the same instant she seized upon me, exclaiming, “Time for you to come
off to bed, Master Harrington.”

I resisted, and, clinging to the rails, began kicking and roaring.

“If you don’t come quietly this minute, Master Harrington,” said she,
“I’ll call to Simon the Jew there,” pointing to him, “and he shall come
up and carry you away in his great bag.”

The old man’s eyes were upon me; and to my fancy the look of his
eyes and his whole face had changed in an instant. I was struck with
terror--my hands let go their grasp--and I suffered myself to be carried
off as quietly as my maid could desire. She hurried and huddled me into
bed, bid me go to sleep, and ran down stairs. To sleep I could not go,
but full of fear and curiosity I lay, pondering on the thoughts of Simon
the Jew and his bag, who had come to carry me away in the height of
my joys. His face with the light of the torch upon it appeared and
vanished, and flitted before my eyes. The next morning, when daylight
and courage returned, I asked my maid whether Simon the Jew was a good
or a bad man? Observing the impression that had been made upon my mind,
and foreseeing that the expedient, which she had thus found successful,
might be advantageously repeated, she answered with oracular duplic