ower of observation. The shy girl who avoided notice
herself, found her social pleasure in watching and listening to clever
people. Perhaps a Gallic strain--for her mother was of French
descent--gave her clear-sightedness. She had a turn for social satire
which added humorous discrimination to her judgments. She understood
people better than books, and perceived their petty hypocrisies,
self-deceptions, and conventional standards, with witty good sense and
love of sincerity. Years of this silent note-taking and personal
intercourse with brilliant people gave her unusual knowledge of the
world.

She was a docile girl, ready always to heed her father and her "Daddy
Crisp," ready to obey her kindly stepmother, and try to exchange for
practical occupations her pet pastime of scribbling.

But from the time she was ten she had loved to write down her
impressions, and the habit was too strong to be more than temporarily
renounced. Like many imaginative persons, she was fond of carrying on
serial inventions in which repressed fancies found expression. One long
story she destroyed; but the characters haunted her, and she began a
sequel which became 'Evelina.' In the young, beautiful, virtuous
heroine, with her many mortifying experiences and her ultimate triumph,
she may have found compensation for a starved vanity of her own.

For a long time she and her sisters enjoyed Evelina's tribulations; then
Fanny grew ambitious, and encouraged by her brother, thought of
publication. When she tremblingly asked her father's consent, he
carelessly countenanced the venture and gave it no second thought. After
much negotiation, a publisher offered twenty pounds for the manuscript,
and in 1778 the appearance of 'Evelina' ended Fanny Burney's obscurity.
For a long time the book was the topic of boundless praise and endless
discussion. Every one wondered who could have written the clever story,
which was usually attributed to a society man. The great Dr. Johnson was
enthusiastic, insisted upon knowing the author, and soon grew very fond
of his little Fanny. He introduced her to his friends, and she became
the celebrity of a delightful circle. Sir Joshua Reynolds and Burke sat
up all night to finish 'Evelina.' The Thrales, Madame Delaney,--who
later introduced her at court,--Sheridan, Gibbon, and Sir Walter Scott,
were among those who admired her most cordially.

It was a happy time for Fanny, encouraged to believe her talent far
greater tha