n it was. She wrote a drama which was read in solemn judgment
by her father and "Daddy Crisp," who decided against it as too like 'Les
Precieuses Ridicules,' a play she had never read. A second novel,
'Cecilia,' appeared in 1782, and was as successful as its predecessor.
Later readers find it less spontaneous, and after it she never resumed
her early style except in her journal and correspondence. Her ambition
was fully astir. She had every incentive from her family and friends.
But the old zest in composition had departed. The self-consciousness
which had always tormented her in society seized her now, when she was
trying to cater to public taste, and made her change her frank, free,
personal expression for a stilted artificial formality of phrase.

Her reputation was now at its height, and she was very happy in her
position as society favorite and pride of the father whom she had always
passionately admired, when she made the mistake of her life. Urged by
her father, she accepted a position at court as Second Keeper of the
Queen's Robes. There she spent five pleasureless and worse than
profitless years. In her 'Diary and Letters,' the most readable to-day
of all her works, she has told the story of wretched discomfort, of
stupidly uncongenial companionship, of arduous tasks made worse by the
selfish thoughtlessness of her superiors. She has also given our best
historical picture of that time; the every-day life at court, the slow
agony of King George's increasing insanity. But the drudgery and mean
hardships of the place, and the depression of being separated from her
family, broke down her health; and after much opposition she was allowed
to resign in 1791.

Soon afterwards she astonished her friends by marrying General D'Arblay,
a French officer and a gentleman, although very poor. As the pair had an
income of only one hundred pounds, this seems a perilously rash act for
a woman over forty. Fortunately the match proved a very happy one, and
the situation stimulated Madame D'Arblay to renewed authorship.
'Camilla,' her third novel, was sold by subscription, and was a very
remunerative piece of work. But from a critical point of view it was a
failure; and being written in a heavy pedantic style, is quite deficient
in her early charm. With the proceeds she built a modest home, Camilla
Cottage. Later the family moved to France, where her husband died and
where her only son received his early education. When he was nearl