Part 7 (2/2)

God,the plan I propose executing, your letter would have that effect; it is iratitude and affection in ter than you have chosen, and from the bottom of my heart I believe you to be perfectly sincere when you assurethat can contribute to my ease and comfort, and that happiness,to my wishes

Froht to treat you as our adopted child I have felt for you the tenderness of aof affection than at this time; to reward your merit, therefore, and to place you in a situation where your many excellent qualities will be call'd forth and render'd useful to the neighbourhood is the fondest wish of e landed possessions, highly gratifying to a man, are entirely lost on me at present; but when I see you in enjoyratitude toplaced inhappiness on one so very dear to me If my income had not been sufficient to enable us both to live in affluence I should never have proposed this plan, for nothing would have given id economy take the place of that liberality which the poor have always experienced froned you, I trust, my dear Edward, you will feel yourself richYou may assure yourself andthis dear place will no longer be remembered when I see you in possession of it My attachment to it can, I think, only cease with h to be your frequent daily visitor and within reach of the sight of you and your boys and Lizzie and her girls, I trust I shall be as happy, perhaps happier, than I am now

Your most sincere friend, C K

Meanwhile, Francis Austen hadout to the East Indies, according to the custom of those days as a 'volunteer,' he became a midshi+pman, but reht of, dearly earned, and justly valued blessing'--was bestowed upon him two years sooner than it fell to the lot of William Price in _Mansfield Park_, and he becae of seventeen--a sufficient testiuished hi life As lieutenant he remained another year in the East Indies, and then returned to serve on the Home Station The result of this last move was that in 1793, rather es of Ja back a son, who, having quitted the ht be justly proud

Other events, grave and gay, were now happening at Steventon Besides Eliza de Feuillide, who took refuge there with her young son while the clouds were gathering round her husband in France, the rectory had another visitor in the suhter of Mrs

Austen's only sister, who came here after her father's death Dr Cooper had set out in June with his son and daughter, and his neighbours, the Lybbe Powyses, on a tour to the Isle of Wight The tour had ied to Caroline Lybbe Powys, and his sister to Captain Thomas Williams, RN, whom she met at Ryde Dr Cooper, whose health had been the chief reason for the tour, did not long survive his return, dying at Sonning (of which he had been vicar since 1784) on August 27 The date of his daughter's wedding was already fixed, but had of course to be postponed She went immediately to Steventon, and was married from the Rectory on Decee was to provide an opening for the naval career of the youngest of the Austens, Charles, as three years younger than Jane, and e last met in the nursery As he was also five years junior to Francis, the latter must have quitted the Naval Academy some time before his brother entered it

Charles Austen was one of those happy e by every one horeat a favourite he was at home is easily to be read between the lines of his sister's letters; and when he died at the age of seventy-three as Admiral of the British Fleet in the Burmese waters, one ith hirief to the whole fleet--I know I cried bitterly when I found he was dead' The char expression of countenance in the est brotherthe Academy he served under his cousin's husband, Captain Thoh to witness and take part in a allant action when, in June 1796, Captain Williaate, _La Tribune_, and, after a run of two hundred and ten e of seventeen, thisexperience; while to Captain Williahthood

What with their visitors and their dances, and with a wedding to prepare for, lifethe autue to enjoy asas early as shefor a year or two to the stoke (like every other town of any size) boasted of during the winter months

Unfortunately, we know very little of Jane's personal history from 1792 to 1796 Most of her time would naturally be spent at ho at Southa with Cassandra one hot summer's day fro (in 1794), now visiting in Gloucestershi+re[59]

Early in 1794 came the shock of the execution of the Comte de Feuillide; and Eliza, ed and motherless, and with an invalid boy, must have become more of a serious care to her relations Over the acquittal of her benefactor and Godfather, Warren Hastings, there was but one feeling in the fah-minded patriot, a warm and disinterested friend, and a scholar whose approbation was an honour The event inspired Henry Austen with e 'Perratulate ht dear to every Englishman must it be to behold the issue of a combat where forms of judicature threatened to annihilate the essence of justice'

One event of the deepest interest occurred during this period--naement to Thomas Fowle (brother of Eliza Lloyd's husband), which probably took place in 1795 when she enty-three years old She had known him from childhood, as he was a pupil at Steventon Rectory in 1779 Mr Fowle had taken Orders, and was at this tie did not seem prudent, but advancement was hoped for fros in his gift was Ryton in Shropshi+re, it must have been to this place that Mrs Austen alluded as the future hohter-in-law, Mary Lloyd At present, however, Lord Craven could only show his interest in Mr Fowle by taking hii a h the process of selection and elimination both in subjects and s _Elinor and Marianne_, a first sketch for _Sense and Sensibility_, but written in letters We know that it was read aloud, but no details have couess bethom the letters can have passed, for in the novel Elinor and Marianne are never parted, even for a single day It seems therefore as if the alterations subsequently made must have been radical; and the difficulty and labour which such a complete transforer If she decided against using letters as a vehicle for story-telling in the future, it seems all the more probable that the only other instance of her use of this style was at least as early as the date we have now reached

The author of the _Me him to include _Lady Susan_ in his second edition;[60] while he hireed with other critics that the as 'scarcely one on which a literary reputation could be founded' As a stage in the develop, it is not a story but a study There is hardly any atte of various characters; such as exist are kept in the background, and serve chiefly to bring into bolder relief the one full-length, highly finished, wholly sinister figure which occupies the canvas, but which seems, with the completion of the study, to have disappeared entirely from the mind of its creator It is equally reirl should have had independence and boldness enough to draw at full length a woman of the type of Lady Susan, and that, after she had done so, the purity of her iination and the delicacy of her taste should have prevented her fro the experiain wrote a story in letters, no one was everthem for exhibitions of character The letters of Lucy Steele, Mr Collins, Isabella Thorpe, Lady Bertrarove are all masterpieces of unconscious humour--and some of the more serious letters are not far behind thein in 1796, and will accoh the rest of the story They are far the most important additions that can be made to the short history contained in the _Meiven--it may have seehbours have been given partly in order to enable the readers of her letters to follow the numerous personal allusions to be found in them We must not, however, try to extract more out of the letters than they will yield The bulk of the to the collection published by Lord Brabourne, and nearly the whole of this collection consists of letters from Jane to Cassandra But the norether--residing in one house, sleeping in one room We can therefore only learn from this source what happened on the comparatively rare occasions when they were separated Nor is this all, for a good deal of their correspondence is reat deal was certainly destroyed by Cassandra of set purpose The Austens had a great hatred and dread of publicity Cassandra felt this with especial force, and the aze of strangers to dwell upon the actions or the feelings of so precious a being would have seee she became aware that Jane's faht come when the public would wish to know iven in the short memoir, written by Henry Austen, and prefixed to her posthumous works Cassandra would not indeed be likely to think it possible that the letters theht be made use of as reat sacrifice, and burn all those which were specially dear to herself, feeling confident that the remainder would not be disturbed

The destroyed MSS without doubt included rapher

We must also remember that the correspondence was between sisters who knew, each of the, and could feel sure that nothing one ht say would be misapprehended by the other; and the sort of freemasonry which results from such a situation adds to the difficulty of perfect comprehension by outsiders Jane, too, was a mistress of subtle irony: the inveterate playfulness which is constantly cropping up in her books appears also in her letters Secure of her correspondent, she could pass criticisine circumstances which would have been very far froht it possible that any less perfectly inforree in describing her as one of the most considerate and least censorious of ularly free,'

says one of her nieces, 'fro out for people's foibles for her own amusement, or the entertainment of her hearersI do not suppose she ever in her life said a sharp thing' We may be sure, therefore, that when she seeinary, or that Mrs Knight's generosity to Edas insignificant, or that Mrs Knight herself was about to contract a second e, she is notaken too much wine, as a hardened flirt, or as a selfish housekeeper ordering only those things which she herself preferred

Weto find any expression of views on such iion, politics, or literature--subjects which ht better be discussed in conversation with Cassandra; and with these liree with Mr A C Bradley,[62] who does not find the letters disappointing because 'the Jane Austen rote the novels is in them'

FOOTNOTES:

[51] _Meave one in January 1799, not at Greywell, but at Kempshot, which her husband acquired shortly before the end of the eighteenth century

[53] The sisters kept the na Wither

[54] _Memoir_, pp 93, 94

[55] _Memoir_, p 54

[56] See p 79