LONDON.
161
******* Far from being disappointed with the sight of what Mrs. Fry has effected, I was delighted. We emerged again from the thick dark silent walls of Newgate to the bustling city, and thence to the elegant part of the town ; and before we had time to arrange our ideas, and while the mild Quaker face and voice, and wonderful resolution and successful exertion of this admirable woman were fresh in our minds, morning visitors flowed in and common fife again went on.
At Almack's, that exclusive Paradise of Fashion to which they were admitted, Lord Londonderry came up and talked to Miss Edgeworth about Castle Rackrent and Ireland generally. He expressed himself as having been dying with impatience to be introduced to her. She naïvely says:—
It surprised me very much to perceive the rapidity with which a minister's having talked to a person spread through the room. Everybody I met afterwards that night and the next day observed to me that they had seen Lord Londonderry talking to me a great while.
Mrs. Siddons was among the persons whose acquaintance they formed.