396 LADY MOEGAN. tone of sorrow in Lady Morgan's longer letters ; and, as she grew older, it is sad to find her noting the death of one old friend after another, always with a few words of genuine appreciation. She was fond of society until the end, and on St. Patrick's Day, a week before the beginning of her last illness, she gave a musical morning party, of which she was herself the life and soul. She was not aware until the last that her illness was serious, and she dictated cheerful notes to her friends relative to her condition. On the very day of her death she called for her desk and tried to write a letter, but was obliged to give up the attempt. Shortly after, her breath began to fail her, and she turned to her favorite niece, who was supporting her, and asked, " Sydney, is this death?" After that she only spoke a few times to thank her friends and her servants, who were also her friends, for the services they rendered her. She died quietly and painlessly, in the evening of April 16, 1859, aged about seventy-six years. So lived and so died the Wild Irish Girl. She was the joy of every circle she entered, and her works, some of which are still read with pleasure, form an agreeable part of the record of her time.
