ed with Mrs. ---'s, should I
ever meet with it, which I hope I may not. I think I can be stout
against anything written by her. I have made up my mind to like no
novels really, but Miss Edgeworth's, E.'s, and my own.'

It was not, however, what she _knew_, but what she _was_, that
distinguished her from others. I cannot better describe the fascination
which she exercised over children than by quoting the words of two of her
nieces. One says:--

'As a very little girl I was always creeping up to aunt Jane, and
following her whenever I could, in the house and out of it. I might
not have remembered this but for the recollection of my mother's
telling me privately, that I must not be troublesome to my aunt. Her
first charm to children was great sweetness of manner. She seemed to
love you, and you loved her in return. This, as well as I can now
recollect, was what I felt in my early days, before I was old enough
to be amused by her cleverness. But soon came the delight of her
playful talk. She could make everything amusing to a child. Then, as
I got older, when cousins came to share the entertainment, she would
tell us the most delightful stories, chiefly of Fairyland, and her
fairies had all characters of their own. The tale was invented, I am
sure, at the moment, and was continued for two or three days, if
occasion served.'

Again: 'When staying at Chawton, with two of her other nieces, we often
had amusements in which my aunt was very helpful. She was the one to
whom we always looked for help. She would furnish us with what we wanted
from her wardrobe; and she would be the entertaining visitor in our make-
believe house. She amused us in various ways. Once, I remember, in
giving a conversation as between myself and my two cousins, supposing we
were all grown up, the day after a ball.'

Very similar is the testimony of another niece:--'Aunt Jane was the
general favourite with children; her ways with them being so playful, and
her long circumstantial stories so delightful. These were continued from
time to time, and were begged for on all possible and impossible
occasions; woven, as she proceeded, out of nothing but her own happy
talent for invention. Ah! if but one of them could be recovered! And
again, as I grew older, when the original seventeen years between our
ages seemed to shrink to seven, or to nothing, it comes back to me now
how strangely I