What Will He Do with It?

"I quite agree with you, Alban; Honoria Vipont is a very superior young lady." -- "I knew you would think so!" cried the Colonel, with more warmth than usual to him. -- "Many years since," resumed Darrell, with reflective air, "I read Miss Edgeworth's novels; and in conversing with Miss Honoria Vipont, methinks I confer with one of Miss Edgeworth's heroines -- so rational, so prudent, so well-behaved -- so free from silly romantic notions -- so replete with solid information, moral philosophy and natural history -- so sure to regulate her watch and her heart to the precise moment, for the one to strike, and the other to throb -- and to marry at last a respectable steady husband, whom she will win with dignity, and would lose with decorum! A very superior girl indeed." (Darrell speaks -- not the author. Darrell is unjust to the more exquisite female characters of a Novelist, admirable for strength of sense, correctness of delineation, terseness of narrative, and lucidity of style -- nor less admirable for the unexaggerated nobleness of sentiment by which some of her heroines are notably distinguished.)