The first letter given in the Memoirs from Maria to her favourite aunt
Ruxton is a very sad one, which tells of the early death of her sister
Honora, a beautiful girl of fifteen, the only daughter of Mrs. Honora
Edgeworth, who died of consumption, as her mother had died. This letter,
written in the dry phraseology of the time, is nevertheless full of
feeling, above all for her father who was, as Maria says elsewhere,
ever since she could think or feel, the first object and motive of her
mind.