Part 51 (2/2)

In looking at a few of the precious papers which are now st which she desires that one of her gold chains hter Louisa, and a lock of her hair be set for you You can need no assurance, my dearest fanny, that every request of your beloved aunt will be sacred withGod bless you, my dearest fanny

Believe me, most affectionately yours, Cass ELIZTH AUSTEN

So ends the story of Jane Austen's life We can only hope that we have succeeded in conveying to the reader even a s which we ourselves entertain of the charm of her personality--a charenius In one respect it is easy to write about her--there is nothing to conceal

Some readers may perhaps add 'There is little to tell'; and it is true that, though the want of incident in her life has often been exaggerated, her occupations were largely those of helpfulness and sympathy towards others whose lot was more variable than hers, and the developenerations of readers

But this position gave her quite sufficient opportunity of showing her character--and it is a character which it is a continual pleasure to conteood sense did not diminish her liveliness Her intellectual qualities did not prevent the enjoyment of a dance, or attention to the enius left room for a belief that Cassandra iser and better than herself Her keen and humorous observation of the frailties of ence towards the faults of her neighbours Her growing fahtful to her nieces, who could consult their aunt and obtain a willing listener in any difficulty whatever, fro of a sa witness to the truth that eccentricity and self-consciousness are not essential parts of genius

When her body had been laid in Winchester Cathedral, the small band of mourners went back in sadness to their different homes They were very fond and very proud of her; and each, we are told, loved afterwards to fancy a resehter of their own to the dear sister Jane, whose perfect equal they yet never expected to see

Cassandra returned to Chawton and devoted a further ten years to the care of her aged mother Till old Mrs Austen's death in 1827, Martha Lloyd re went on, noht was quenched and the loss of it had cast a shade over the spirits of the survivors'[369] So, when the young Austens went to stay there, expecting to be particularly happy, they could not help feeling so of the chill of disappointment Later, Martha became the second wife of Francis Austen, while Cassandra lived on at Chawton

One of her great-nieces re her towards the end of her life at a christening, 'a pale, dark-eyed old lady, with a high arched nose and a kind se drawn bonnet, both made of black satin' She died of a sudden illness in 1845, at the house of her brother Francis, near Portsmouth--at his house, but in his absence; for he and his family had to leave for the West Indies (where he was to take up a co She was tended by her brothers Henry and Charles and her niece Caroline She was buried beside her mother at Chawton

All her brothers survived her, except James, as in bad health when his sister Jane died, and followed her in 1819

Edward (Knight) saw his children and his children's children grow up around him, and died at Godmersham as peacefully as he had lived, in 1852

Henry held the living of Steventon for three years after the death of his brother Jaht, was ready to take it He was afterwards Perpetual Curate of Bentley, near Farnham Later on, he lived for soe Wells in 1850

Both the sailor brothers rose to be Admirals[370] Charles was eainst Mehemet Ali, and became Rear-Admiral in 1846 In 1850 he commanded in the East Indian and Chinese waters, and died of cholera on the Irawaddy River in 1852, having 'won the hearts of all by his gentleness and kindness whilst he was struggling with disease'

Francis had thirty years on shore after the end of the long war; and his only subsequent foreign service was the command of the West Indian and North American Station, 1845-48 He, however, constantly rose in his profession, and enjoyed the estee GCB and Aded ninety-one

Shortly before the end of her life, Jane Austen wrote on a slip of paper:--

Profits of my novels, over and above the 600 in the Navy Fives

_s_ Residue fro in Henrietta St, March 1816 13 7

Received froerton, on 2nd edit of _Sense and S_, March 1816 12 15

February 21, 1817, First Profits of _Eerton--2nd edit of _S

and S_ 19 13

_Northanger Abbey_ and _Persuasion_ were published in four volumes by John Murray in 1818, and to the forraphical notice of the author froht the copyright of all the novels, except _Pride and Prejudice_ (which Jane Austen had sold outright to Mr Egerton), from Henry and Cassandra Austen, the joint proprietors, for the sum of two hundred and fifty pounds Mr Bentley ht of _Pride and Prejudice_, for he proceeded to issue a coraphical notice (also by Henry) containing a few extra facts not er Abbey_

(Jah' to his na to the property of Scarlets in 1836, wrote (in 1869-70) the _Mees, and which, as the work of three eyewitnesses,[371] enjoys an authority greater than that of any other account of her Its publication coincided with the beginning of a great advance in her fame, and we think it may be claimed that it was an important contributory cause of that advance Before that date, an appreciation of her genius was rather the special possession of small literary circles and individual faland and in America From her death to 1870, there was only one co, except a few articles and revieritten about her Since 1870, editions, lives, memoirs, &c, have been al to this streas, cannot induce ourselves to believe that the interest of the public is yet exhausted