Page:Daughters of Genius.djvu/398

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390 LADY MORGAN. Brown's counter, and a little later its venturous young author entered her house unnoticed, returned her bor- rowed garments to their place, and joined the Feather- stones at breakfast. Next day she went with the family to Bracklin, having forgotten to leave her address with the publisher. She heard no more of St. Clair, until, during her next visit to Dublin, she accompanied Mrs. Featherstone to call on an invalid friend, and found a printed copy of her novel lying upon the window seat. She promptly com- municated with Mr. Brown, who presented her with four copies — and nothing more. The book had some success, and was even translated into German with^a remarkable preface, stating that the writer had strangled herself with a handkerchief for love. She afterwards rewrote it, and the new version was published in England. She left the Featherstones in 1801, and in 1805 pub' lished her second novel, " The Novice of St. Dominic." Her handwriting was extremely illegible, and the work (it was in six volumes) was copied out for her as fast as she wrote it by Francis Crossley, a youth of eighteen, one of the most devoted of her many admirers. The book was issued in London, and she was promptly paid for it. Of the sum she received — her first literary earnings — the greater part was sent to her father ; the rest she spent in purchasing a winter cloak and an Irish harp. Her next effort, " The Wild Irish Girl," was in a new vein. It treated of the Irish scenes with which she was familiar, and described them with the humor, the fervor, and the patriotic feeling that marked her own truly Irish character. The plot was based upon an incident in her own life, and the fact that public opinion identified her with her heroine, is shown by the letters she received from her friends, in which she is quite as often addressed by the name of G-lorvina, as by that of Sydney. Some