Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters: A Family RecordAusten-Leigh, William
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Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters: A Family Record
Austen-Leigh, William
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817; Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 -- Family; Novelists, English -- 19th century -- Family relationships
_Tuesday._--I received your letter last night, and
wish it may be soon followed by another to say
that all is over; but I cannot help thinking that
nature will struggle again, and produce a revival.
Poor woman! May her end be peaceful and easy as
the exit we have witnessed! And I dare say it
will. If there is no revival, suffering must be
all over; even the consciousness of existence, I
suppose, was gone when you wrote. The nonsense I
have been writing in this and in my last letter
seems out of place at such a time, but I will not
mind it; it will do you no harm, and nobody else
will be attacked by it. I am heartily glad that
you can speak so comfortably of your own health
and looks, though I can scarcely comprehend the
latter being really approved. Could travelling
fifty miles produce such an immediate change? You
were looking very poorly here, and everybody
seemed sensible of it. Is there a charm in a hack
post-chaise? But if there were, Mrs. Craven's
carriage might have undone it all. I am much
obliged to you for the time and trouble you have
bestowed on Mary's cap, and am glad it pleases
her; but it will prove a useless gift at present,
I suppose. Will not she leave Ibthorp on her
mother's death? As a companion you are all that
Martha can be supposed to want, and in that
light, under these circumstances, your visit will
indeed have been well timed.
* * * * *
The Cookes want us to drink tea with them
to-night, but I do not know whether my mother will
have nerves for it. We are engaged to-morrow
evening--what request we are in! Mrs. Chamberlayne
expressed to her niece her wish of being intimate
enough with us to ask us to drink tea with her in
a quiet way. We have therefore offered her
ourselves and our quietness through the same
medium. Our tea and sugar will last a great while.
I think we are just the kind of people and party
to be treated about among our relations; we cannot
be supposed to be very rich.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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