and seeming likely to do. Good
bye. I am sure Mr. W. D. {162} will be astonished at my writing so
much, for the paper is so thin that he will be able to count the lines
if not to read them.

Yours affecly,
'JANE AUSTEN.'

In the next letter will be found her description of her own style of
composition, which has already appeared in the notice prefixed to
'Northanger Abbey' and 'Persuasion':--

'Chawton, Monday, Dec. 16th (1816).

'MY DEAR E.,--One reason for my writing to you now is, that I may have
the pleasure of directing to you Esqre. I give you joy of having left
Winchester. Now you may own how miserable you were there; now it will
gradually all come out, your crimes and your miseries--how often you
went up by the Mail to London and threw away fifty guineas at a
tavern, and how often you were on the point of hanging yourself,
restrained only, as some ill-natured aspersion upon poor old Winton
has it, by the want of a tree within some miles of the city. Charles
Knight and his companions passed through Chawton about 9 this morning;
later than it used to be. Uncle Henry and I had a glimpse of his
handsome face, looking all health and good humour. I wonder when you
will come and see us. I know what I rather speculate upon, but shall
say nothing. We think uncle Henry in excellent looks. Look at him
this moment, and think so too, if you have not done it before; and we
have the great comfort of seeing decided improvement in uncle Charles,
both as to health, spirits, and appearance. And they are each of them
so agreeable in their different way, and harmonise so well, that their
visit is thorough enjoyment. Uncle Henry writes very superior
sermons. You and I must try to get hold of one or two, and put them
into our novels: it would be a fine help to a volume; and we could
make our heroine read it aloud on a Sunday evening, just as well as
Isabella Wardour, in the "Antiquary," is made to read the "History of
the Hartz Demon" in the ruins of St. Ruth, though I believe, on
recollection, Lovell is the reader. By the bye, my dear E., I am
quite concerned for the loss your mother mentions in her letter. Two
chapters and a half to be missing is monstrous! It is well that _I_
have not been at Steventon lately, and therefore cannot be suspected
of purloining them: two strong twigs and a half towards a nest of my