All our authorities agree in describing her as one of the most considerate and least censorious of mortals. 'She was singularly free,' says one of her nieces, 'from the habit . . . of looking out for people's foibles for her own amusement, or the entertainment of her hearers. . . . I do not suppose she ever in her life said a sharp thing.' We may be sure, therefore, that when she seems to imply that her mother's ailments were imaginary, or that Mrs. Knight's generosity to Edward was insignificant, or that Mrs. Knight herself was about to contract a second marriage, she is no more serious than when she describes herself as having taken too much wine, as a hardened flirt, or as a selfish housekeeper ordering only those things which she herself preferred. We must therefore take the letters as they are, without expecting to find any expression of views on such important subjects as religion, politics, or literature--subjects which might better be discussed in conversation with Cassandra; and with these limitations in our minds we shall probably agree with Mr. A. C. Bradley,[62] who does not find the letters disappointing because 'the Jane Austen who wrote the novels is in them.' FOOTNOTES: [51] _Memoir_, p. 9. [52] Lady Dorchester gave one in January 1799, not at Greywell, but at Kempshot, which her husband acquired shortly before the end of the eighteenth century. [53] The sisters kept the name Bigg, though father and brother became Bigg Wither. [54] _Memoir_, pp. 93, 94. [55] _Memoir_, p. 54. [56] See p. 79. [57] _Chawton Manor and its Owners_, p. 159. [58] These letters will be found in Mr. W. H. Pollock's _Jane Austen, her Contemporaries and herself_. [59] _Brabourne_, vol. ii. p. 341, and vol. i. p. 281. The Gloucestershire visit was probably to the Fowles at Elkstone. See p. 373. [60] It was far from being his wish that _Lady Susan_ should form the title of a separate volume. This work, and _The Watsons_, were to be printed as an appendix at the end of the _Memoir_. By some mistake, however, when the second edition appeared, the whole book bore the title of _Lady Susan_ on its outside cover. [61] How little she expected them to be published may be gathered from a sentence written by her niece Anna, at the time of the publication of the _Memoir_: 'I can fancy what the indignation of Aunt Cassandra would have been at the mere idea of its [the correspondence] being read and commented upon by any of us nephews and nieces, little or great.' [62] _Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association_, vol. ii. p. 10. CHAPTER VI ROMANCE 1795-1802