Mr. Blackwood, whose opinion is of some value, thought very highly of _Marriage,_ and he writes to Miss Ferrier (1817):--
"Mr. B. will not allow himself to think for one moment that there can be any uncertainty as to the work being completed. Not to mention his own deep disappointment, Mr. B. would almost consider it a crime if a work possessing so much interest and useful instruction were not given to the world. The author is the only critic of whom Mr. B. is afraid, and after what he has said, he anxiously hopes that this censor of the press will very speedily affix the _imprimatur."_
In allusion to Sir Walter's eulogium on the novel above quoted, Mr. Blackwood writes to the author:--
"I have the pleasure of enclosing you this concluding sentence of the new _Tales of my Landlord,_ which are to be published to-morrow. After this call, surely you will be no longer silent. If the great magician does not conjure you I shall give up all hopes."
But Miss Ferrier seems to have been proof against the great magician even. _Marriage_ became deservedly popular, and was translated into French, as appears from the annexed:--
"We perceive by the French papers that a translation of Miss Ferrier's clever novel _Marriage_ has been very successful in France."-_New_ _Times,_ 6 Oct. '25.
For _Marriage_ she received the sum of £150. Her second venture was more successful in a pecuniary sense. Space, however, prohibits me from dwelling any longer on _Marriage,_ so we come next to _The Inheritance._ This novel appeared six years after, in 1824, and is a work of very great merit. To her sister (Mrs. Kinloch, in London) Miss Ferrier writes:--
"John (her brother) has now completed a bargain with Mr. Blackwood, by which I am to have £1000 for a novel now in hand, but which is not nearly finished, and possibly never may be. Nevertheless he is desirous of announcing it in his magazine, and therefore I wish to prepare you for the _shock._ I can say nothing more than I have already said on the subject of _vigilence,_ if not of secrecy. I never will avow myself, and nothing can hurt and offend me so much as any of my friends doing it for me; this is not _faron de_ _parler,_ but my real and unalterable feeling; I could not bear the fuss of authorism!"