Henry Austen became in time an earnest preacher of the evangelical school, and was for many years perpetual curate of Bentley, near Alton. He did not marry the 'Hanwell favourite,' but found a wife after some years in Miss Eleanor Jackson, who survived him. It must have been somewhere about this time that Jane Austen succeeded in recovering the MS. of _Northanger Abbey_. An unsuccessful attempt to secure the publication of the novel in the year 1809 has already been noticed; but we learn from the _Memoir_ that after four works of hers had been published, and somewhat widely circulated, one of her brothers (acting for her) negotiated with the publisher who had bought it, and found him very willing to receive back his money, and resign all claim to the copyright. When the bargain was concluded and the money paid, but not till then, the negotiator had the satisfaction of informing him that the work which had been so lightly esteemed was by the author of _Pride and Prejudice_.[315] Meanwhile, Jane had been for some months engaged on _Persuasion_. It was begun before she went to London in the autumn of 1815 for the publication of _Emma_; but that visit and all that happened to her during the winter must certainly have interrupted its composition, and possibly modified its tone. It is less high-spirited and more tender in its description of a stricken heart than anything she had attempted before. In May, Cassandra and Jane left Chawton to spend three weeks at Cheltenham, stopping with their brother at Steventon, and with the Fowles at Kintbury on the way, and again at Steventon on their return. Jane must have been decidedly out of health, for the change in her did not escape the notice of her friends. But whatever was the exact state of her health during the first half of this year, it did not prevent her from being able, on July 18, to write 'Finis' at the end of the first draft of _Persuasion_; and thereby hangs an interesting tale, which we cannot do better than relate in the words of the _Memoir_.