at ability, and endowed with a wonderfully accurate and
retentive memory. It will be seen also that she has the unimpeachable
authority of Cassandra to support her; we can therefore feel confidence
in the truth of the story, although date, place, and even the name[68]
of the gentleman are missing.

Caroline Austen's account is as follows:--

All that I know is this. At Newtown, Aunt
Cassandra was staying with us [i.e. with the
writer and her mother, Mrs. James Austen] when we
made acquaintance with a certain Mr. H. E., of the
Engineers. He was very pleasing and very
good-looking. My aunt was very much struck with
him, and _I_ was struck by her commendation; she
so rarely admired strangers. Afterwards, at
another time--I do not remember exactly when--she
spoke of him as of one so unusually gifted with
all that was agreeable, and said that he reminded
her strongly of a gentleman whom they had met one
summer when they were by the sea--I think she said
in Devonshire; I don't think she named the place,
and I am sure she did not say Lyme, for that I
should have remembered--that he seemed greatly
attracted by my Aunt Jane--I suppose it was an
intercourse of some weeks--and that when they had
to part (I imagine he was a visitor also, but his
family might have lived near) he was urgent to
know where they would be the next summer, implying
or perhaps saying that he should be there also,
wherever it might be. I can only say that the
impression left on Aunt Cassandra was that he had
fallen in love with her sister, and was quite in
earnest. Soon afterwards they heard of his death.
Mr. H. E. also died of a sudden illness soon after
we had seen him at Newtown, and I suppose it was
that coincidence of early death that led my aunt
to speak of him--the unknown--at all. I am sure
she thought he was worthy of her sister, from the
way in which she recalled his memory, and also
that she did not doubt, either, that he would have
been a successful suitor.

This short history contains all the facts that are known. The rest must
be left to imagination; but of two things we may be sure: the man whom
Cassa