en sisters who
knew, each of them, what the other was thinking, and could feel sure
that nothing one might say would be misapprehended by the other; and the
sort of freemasonry which results from such a situation adds to the
difficulty of perfect comprehension by outsiders. Jane, too, was a
mistress of subtle irony: the inveterate playfulness which is constantly
cropping up in her books appears also in her letters. Secure of her
correspondent, she could pass criticisms, impute motives, and imagine
circumstances which would have been very far from her nature had she
thought it possible that any less perfectly informed third person could
see them.

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