In this we cannot agree, to accuse Jane of it is to accuse her of lacking the very gift in which she was pre-eminent—selection. The merit of her bores is that they never bore, but are only amusing. She never proses, and her few paragraphs of quotation from the sayings of Miss Bates set that lady before us as clearly or more clearly than if fifty pages from the actual life had been given by the phonograph. From what Jane says she apparently saw this article in March 1816 when she was back at Chawton; for she writes: “The authoress of _Emma_ has no reason, I think, to complain of her treatment in it, except in the total omission of _Mansfield Park_; I cannot but be sorry that so clever a man as the reviewer of _Emma_ should consider it as unworthy of being noticed.” That Jane was satisfied with her treatment by Mr. Murray may be seen by her handing over to him the conduct of the second edition of _Mansfield Park_. She writes in one place, “I had a most civil note in reply from Mr. Murray. He is so very polite indeed that it is quite over-coming.” At this time she must have begun the last and shortest of her books, _Persuasion_, which she finished in August of the same year. And with this we enter on the last phase, the gradual decline and sinking of the bright spirit, which had added so greatly to the happiness of thousands it had never known. CHAPTER XIX LAST DAYS The evening of Jane’s life had set in, but yet it had not occurred even to those who loved her best that they must inevitably lose her. She was in her forty-first year; recognition from the public had just begun to be accorded to her; in the novels she had lately written no sign of decay could be detected. It is true that in both _Emma_ and _Persuasion_ there is a particular maturity of rendering, and a kindlier tone that marks perhaps a difference, but not degeneracy. If the word seriousness can ever be used of such clear-cut, brilliant work as hers, we might say that a certain sweet seriousness pervaded these two, which are more alike in tone than any of the other novels. _Persuasion_ has been called the “most beautiful of all the novels”; it has many excellencies, not the least among which is the character of the heroine, whose girlish weakness develops into a loyal steadfastness. She has also that endearingness that perhaps certain others of the heroines lack. In fact, of all the principal female characters that of Anne Elliot has most of that nameless and indefinable charm, which comes from a combination of qualities such as firmness, gentleness, unselfishness, sympathy and sweetness, a charm which is more lovable than any number of stereotyped graces. Though Anne was at one time weak, we feel that she outgrows it, that it was the weakness of immaturity, not of character, and that her loyalty fully redeems it.