Mrs.Edes had a Napoleonic ambition which was tragic and pathetic, because it could command only a narrow scope for its really unusual force.

If Mrs.
Edes had only been possessed of the opportunity to subjugate Europe, nothing except another Waterloo could have stopped her onward march.
But she had absolutely nothing to subjugate except poor little Fairbridge.

She was a woman of power which was wasted.

She was absurdly tragic, but none the less tragic.

Power spent upon petty ends is one of the greatest disasters of the world.