Part 8 (1/2)

[57] _Chawton Manor and its Owners_, p 159

[58] These letters will be found in Mr W H Pollock's _Jane Austen, her Contemporaries and herself_

[59] _Brabourne_, vol ii p 341, and vol i p 281 The Gloucestershi+re visit was probably to the Fowles at Elkstone See p

373

[60] It was far fro his wish that _Lady Susan_ should form the title of a separate volume This work, and _The Watsons_, were to be printed as an appendix at the end of the _Memoir_ By some mistake, however, when the second edition appeared, the whole book bore the title of _Lady Susan_ on its outside cover

[61] How little she expected theathered from a sentence written by her niece Anna, at the time of the publication of the _Menation of Aunt Cassandra would have been at theread and coreat'

[62] _Essays and Studies by Melish association_, vol

ii p 10

CHAPTER VI

ROMANCE

1795-1802

Miss Mitford, in a paragraph showing some hostility to Jane Austen, tells us that her own hbourhood of the Austens and knew Jane as 'the prettiest, silliest,butterfly she ever remembers' It is perhaps a sufficient answer to this attack if we remark that when Mrs Mitford married and left her home Jane was barely ten years old, and that at a date two years later she was accused by a cousin of being 'priirls, enjoyed adood deal of it; but she says so much to her elder sister and mentor about one particular flirtation that we may be sure that it was neither a serious nor a frequent occupation with her

In a letter[63] written from Steventon, November 17, 1798, she mentions a visit froh private conversation with her to hear all that was interesting,--

which you will easily credit when I tell you that of her nephew she said nothing at all, and of her friend very little She did not once mention the name of the former to _me_, and I was too proud towhere he was, I learnt that he was gone back to London in his way to Ireland, where he is called to the Bar and means to practise

She showed me a letter which she had received froo (in answer to one written by her to recoe) towards the end of which was a sentence to this effect: 'I aiveto e any expectation of it' This is rational enough; there is less love and more sense in it than sometimes appeared before, and I aly well, and decline away in a very reasonableinto Hampshi+re this Christmas, and it is therefore most probable that our indifference will soon befro ofh Jane was interested to hear of him, had evidently not touched her heart, and we should know nothing more of him if it were not for a letter of hers to her brother Frank, written more than fourteen years afterwards, and published in the _Sailor Brothers_[64]

I wonder whether you happened to see Mr

Blackall's e in the papers last January

We did He was married at Clifton to a Miss Lehose father had been late of Antigua I should very much like to knohat sort of a woman she is He was a piece of perfection--noisy perfection--hiard We had noticed a few , the very living which we recollected his talking of, and wishi+ng for; an exceeding good one, Great[65] Cadbury in Somersetshi+re I could wish Miss Lewis to be of a silent turn and rather ignorant, but naturally intelligent and wishi+ng to learn, fond of cold veal pies, green tea in the afternoon, and a green -blind at night

North Cadbury is an E, and Mr Blackall was a Fellow of that society, who, after the fashi+on of the ti and his wife Jane had known hih with sufficient detachment to remember and to criticise his de others, and other little peculiarities The 'friend' of 1798 e don; and she was not likely to have had an opportunity of knowing individually more than one of that limited community, who did not naturally come in the Austens' way It seeether; and if this is correct, we have identified one of the admirers of our heroine[66]

More serious--but not _very_ serious--was the attachment between her and Mrs Lefroy's nephew, Tom Lefroy, afterwards Chief Justice of Ireland, which is mentioned somewhat cautiously in the _Memoir_, and the end of which is alluded to in the letter already quoted

The young people became acquainted in the winter of 1795-6, and took to each other from the first In a lively letter to Cassandra on January 9, 1796, Jane describes a ball at Manydown:--

Mr H[eathcote][67] began with Elizabeth, and afterwards danced with her again; but _they_ do not kno _to be particular_ I flatter myself, however, that they will profit by the three successive lessons which I have given the letter which I have this moment received from you, that I am almost afraid to tell you howdown together I _can_ expose myself, however, only _once more_, because he leaves the country soon after next Friday, on which day we _are_ to have a dance at Ashe after all He is a very gentleever met, except at the three last balls, I cannot say hed at aboutto Steventon, and ran ae called on Mrs Lefroy a few days agoAfter I had written the above, we received a visit froe The latter is really very well-behaved now; and as to the other, he has but _one_ fault, which ti coat is a great deal too light He is a very great admirer of Toine, which _he_ did when he ounded