ands. It will not be in my power
from particular circumstances to command this copy
before the month of August, but then if you accept
my proposal you may depend on receiving it. Be so
good as to send me a line in answer as soon as
possible as my stay in this place will not exceed
a few days. Should no notice be taken of this
address, I shall feel myself at liberty to secure
the publication of my work by applying elsewhere.

I am, Gentlemen, etc., etc.,
M. A. D.

Direct to Mrs. Ashton Dennis,
Post Office, Southampton
April 5, 1809.

With this letter was preserved the following reply:--

MADAM,--We have to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter of the 5th inst. It is true that at the
time mentioned we purchased of Mr. Seymour a MS.
novel entitled _Susan_, and paid him for it the
sum of L10, for which we have his stamped receipt,
as a full consideration, but there was not any
time stipulated for its publication, neither are
we bound to publish it. Should you or anyone else
[publish it] we shall take proceedings to stop the
sale. The MS. shall be yours for the same as we
paid for it.

For CROSBY & CO.
I am yours, etc.
RICHARD CROSBY.

From the fact that this letter was carefully preserved among Jane's
correspondence, from the almost exact coincidence of the dates at which
the writer was to leave Southampton, &c., and from the fact that a Mr.
Seymour was Henry Austen's man of business, there can be no reasonable
doubt that the letter refers to one of Jane Austen's works. It need
cause no surprise that she should have written under an assumed name, or
that she should have got some one else to write for her in view of the
secrecy which she long maintained regarding the authorship of her
novels. If we assume, then, that the letter concerns one of Jane
Austen's novels--which novel is it? At first sight it might naturally
seem to be the story called _Lady Susan_, which was published in the
second edition of the _Memoir_; but there are two objections to this:
one, that so far from making two volumes, _Lady Sus