d
ones behind of course. I was particularly
disappointed at seeing nothing of Mr. Crabbe. I
felt sure of him when I saw that the boxes were
fitted up with crimson velvet.

* * * * *

It was not possible for me to get the worsteds
yesterday. I heard Edward last night pressing
Henry to come to [? Godmersham], and I think Henry
engaged to go there after his November
collection.[260] Nothing has been done as to _S.
and S._ The books came to hand too late for him to
have time for it before he went.

* * * * *

I long to have you hear Mr. H.'s opinion of _P.
and P._ His admiring my Elizabeth so much is
particularly welcome to me.

Miss Austen, Chawton.

Her delight at the appreciation of her book by Warren Hastings may be
compared with a passage from Madame d'Arblay's diary, which forms a
curious link between the two writers.

Mrs. Cooke [Jane Austen's cousin], my excellent
neighbour, came in just now to read me a paragraph
of a letter from Mrs. Leigh of Oxfordshire, her
sister.[261] . . . After much civility about the new
work [_Camilla_] and its author, it finishes thus:
'Mr. Hastings I saw just now; I told him what was
going forward; he gave a great jump and exclaimed:
"Well, then, now I can serve her, thank heaven,
and I will! I will write to Anderson to engage
Scotland, and I will attack the East Indies
myself."'[262]

Henrietta Street:
Thursday [September 16, 1813, after dinner].

Thank you, my dearest Cassandra, for the nice long
letter I sent off this morning.

* * * * *

We are now all four of us young ladies sitting
round the circular table in the inner room writing
our letters, while the two brothers are having a
comfortable coze in the room adjoining. It is to
be a quiet evening, much to the satisfaction of
four of the six. My eyes are quite tired of dust
and lamps.

* * * * *

We . . . went to Wedgwood's, where my brother and
Fanny chose a