We do not know how Mr. Jeffrey's involuntary tribute of admiration was conveyed to the author, but we are sure she must have valued it very highly. It was not the first time she had collected a miscellaneous set of opinions on her work. The two following critiques on _Mansfield Park_--apparently from two ladies of the same family--will illustrate the sort of want of comprehension from which the author had to suffer when she got outside the limits of her own immediate circle. _Mrs. B._--Much pleased with it: particularly with the character of Fanny as being so very natural. Thought Lady Bertram like herself. Preferred it to either of the others; but imagined _that_ might be want of taste, as she did not understand wit. _Mrs. Augusta B._ owned that she thought _S. and S._ and _P. and P._ downright nonsense, but expected to like _M. P._ better, and having finished the first volume, flattered herself she had got through the worst. Meanwhile, the banking-house of Austen, Maunde, and Tilson, had closed its doors; and on March 23, 1816, Henry Austen was declared a bankrupt: the immediate cause of the collapse being the failure of an Alton bank which the London firm had backed. No personal extravagance was charged against Henry; but he had the unpleasant sensation of starting life over again, and of having caused serious loss to several of his family, especially his brother Edward and Mr. Leigh Perrot, who had gone sureties for him on his appointment as Receiver-General for Oxfordshire. Jane herself was fortunate in losing no more than thirteen pounds--a portion of the profits of _Mansfield Park_.[314] Henry Austen possessed an extraordinary elasticity of nature which made a rebound from depression easy--indeed, almost inevitable--in his case. He returned at once to his original intention of taking Orders, as if the intervening military and banking career had been nothing more than an interruption of his normal course. Nor was it merely perfunctory performance of clerical duties to which he looked forward: he was in earnest, and began by making use of his former classical knowledge to take up a serious study of the New Testament in the original language. He seems to have been in advance of his age in this respect; for when he went to be examined by the Bishop, that dignitary, after asking him such questions as he thought desirable, put his hand on a book which lay near him on the table, and which happened to be a Greek Testament, and said: 'As for _this_ book, Mr. Austen, I dare say it is some years since either you or I looked into it.'