dered her especially
attractive to a clever and lively girl.'[55] How intensely Jane loved
and admired her is shown by some lines which she wrote on December 16,
1808--the anniversary both of her own birth and of the sudden death of
her friend, killed by a fall from her horse in 1804. It has sometimes
been assumed that the self-restraint in expressions of affection to be
found throughout Jane's published writings, and the self-control they
display in matters of emotion, arises from the fact that in the writer's
nature there were no very ardent affections to be restrained, and no
overpowering emotions to be suppressed. These lines show the
baselessness of such an assumption. It was not for the gaze of the
public, but to relieve her own heart, that Jane, at the age of
thirty-three, wrote thus, four years after the death of this elder
friend. Here she dared to speak as she felt, striving in all the warmth
and depth of enduring attachment and admiration to paint a character
which she yet declares to have been 'past her power to praise.' The
verses continue thus:--

But come, fond fancy, thou indulgent power;
Hope is desponding, chill, severe, to thee:
Bless thou this little portion of an hour;
Let me behold her as she used to be.

I see her here with all her smiles benign,
Her looks of eager love, her accents sweet,
That voice and countenance almost divine,
Expression, harmony, alike complete.

Listen! It is not sound alone, 'tis sense,
'Tis genius, taste, and tenderness of soul;
'Tis genuine warmth of heart without pretence,
And purity of mind that crowns the whole.

* * * * *

Can aught enhance such goodness? Yes, to me
Her partial favour from my earliest years
Consummates all: ah! give me but to see
Her smile of love! The vision disappears.

Time was now to bring changes to the Austens. The elder brothers
married. James had a curacy at Overton, and near Overton was Laverstoke
Manor House, now occupied by General and Lady Jane Mathew. James became
engaged to their daughter Anne, five years older than himself. They were
married in March 1792, and started life on an income of L300 (of which
L100 was an allowance made by General Mathew), keeping, it is said, a
small pack of harriers for the husband, and a close c