SOUTHAMPTON, Wednesday (January 7, 1807).
MY DEAR CASSANDRA,--You were mistaken in supposing I should expect your
letter on Sunday; I had no idea of hearing from you before Tuesday, and
my pleasure yesterday was therefore unhurt by any previous
disappointment. I thank you for writing so much; you must really have
sent me the value of two letters in one. We are extremely glad to hear
that Elizabeth is so much better, and hope you will be sensible of still
further amendment in her when you return from Canterbury.
Of your visit there I must now speak "incessantly;" it surprises, but
pleases me more, and I consider it as a very just and honorable
distinction of you, and not less to the credit of Mrs. Knight. I have no
doubt of your spending your time with her most pleasantly in quiet and
rational conversation, and am so far from thinking her expectations of
you will be deceived, that my only fear is of your being so agreeable,
so much to her taste, as to make her wish to keep you with her forever.
If that should be the case, we must remove to Canterbury, which I should
not like so well as Southampton.
When you receive this, our guests will be all gone or going; and I shall
be left to the comfortable disposal of my time, to ease of mind from the
torments of rice puddings and apple dumplings, and probably to regret
that I did not take more pains to please them all.
Mrs. J. Austen has asked me to return with her to Steventon; I need not
give my answer; and she has invited my mother to spend there the time of
Mrs. F. A.'s confinement, which she seems half inclined to do.
A few days ago I had a letter from Miss Irvine, and as I was in her
debt, you will guess it to be a remonstrance, not a very severe one,
however; the first page is in her usual retrospective, jealous,
inconsistent style, but the remainder is chatty and harmless. She
supposes my silence may have proceeded from resentment of her not having
written to inquire particularly after my hooping-cough, etc. She is a
funny one.
I have answered her letter, and have endeavored to give something like
the truth with as little incivility as I could, by placing my silence to
the want of subject in the very quiet way in which we live. Phebe has
repented, and stays. I have also written to Charles, and I answered Miss
Buller's letter by return of post, as I intended to tell you in my last.
Two or three things I recollected when it was too late, that I might
have told you; one is that the Welbys have lost their eldest son by a
putrid fever at Eton, and another that Tom Chute is going to settle in
Norfolk.
You have scarcely ever mentioned Lizzy since your being at Godmersham. I
hope it is not because she is altered for the worse.
I cannot yet satisfy Fanny as to Mrs. Foote's baby's name, and I must
not encourage her to expect a good one, as Captain Foote is a professed
adversary to all but the plainest; he likes only Mary, Elizabeth, Anne,
etc. Our best chance is of "Caroline," which in compliment to a sister
seems the only exception.
He dined with us on Friday, and I fear will not soon venture again, for
the strength of our dinner was a boiled leg of mutton, underdone even
for James; and Captain Foote has a particular dislike to underdone
mutton; but he was so good-humored and pleasant that I did not much mind
his being starved. He gives us all the most cordial invitation to his
house in the country, saying just what the Williams ought to say to make
us welcome. Of them we have seen nothing since you left us, and we hear
that they are just gone to Bath again, to be out of the way of further
alterations at Brooklands.
Mrs. F. A. has had a very agreeable letter from Mrs. Dickson, who was
delighted with the purse, and desires her not to provide herself with a
christening dress, which is exactly what her young correspondent wanted;
and she means to defer making any of the caps as long as she can, in
hope of having Mrs. D.'s present in time to be serviceable as a pattern.
She desires me to tell you that the gowns were cut out before your
letter arrived, but that they are long enough for Caroline. The _Beds_,
as I believe they are called, have fallen to Frank's share to continue,
and of course are cut out to admiration.
"Alphonsine" did not do. We were disgusted in twenty pages, as,
independent of a bad translation, it has indelicacies which disgrace a
pen hitherto so pure; and we changed it for the "Female Quixote," which
now makes our evening amusement; to me a very high one, as I find the
work quite equal to what I remembered it. Mrs. F. A., to whom it is new,
enjoys it as one could wish; the other Mary, I believe, has little
pleasure from that or any other book.
My mother does not seem at all more disappointed than ourselves at the
termination of the family treaty; she thinks less of that just now than
of the comfortable state of her own finances, which she finds on closing
her year's accounts beyond her expectation, as she begins the new year
with a balance of 30_l._ in her favor; and when she has written her
answer to my aunt, which you know always hangs a little upon her mind,
she will be above the world entirely. You will have a great deal of
unreserved discourse with Mrs. K., I dare say, upon this subject, as
well as upon many other of our family matters. Abuse everybody but me.
_Thursday._--We expected James yesterday, but he did not come; if he
comes at all now, his visit will be a very short one, as he must return
to-morrow, that Ajax and the chair may be sent to Winchester on
Saturday. Caroline's new pelisse depended upon her mother's being able
or not to come so far in the chair; how the guinea that will be saved by
the same means of return is to be spent I know not. Mrs. J. A. does not
talk much of poverty now, though she has no hope of my brother's being
able to buy another horse next summer.
Their scheme against Warwickshire continues, but I doubt the family's
being at Stoneleigh so early as James says he must go, which is May.
My mother is afraid I have not been explicit enough on the subject of
her wealth; she began 1806 with 68_l._ she begins 1807 with 99_l._, and
this after 32_l._ purchase of stock. Frank too has been settling his
accounts and making calculations, and each party feels quite equal to
our present expenses; but much increase of house-rent would not do for
either. Frank limits himself, I believe, to four hundred a year.
You will be surprised to hear that Jenny is not yet come back; we have
heard nothing of her since her reaching Itchingswell, and can only
suppose that she must be detained by illness in somebody or other, and
that she has been each day expecting to be able to come on the morrow. I
am glad I did not know beforehand that she was to be absent during the
whole or almost the whole of our friends being with us, for though the
inconvenience has not been nothing, I should have feared still more.
Our dinners have certainly suffered not a little by having only Molly's
head and Molly's hands to conduct them; she fries better than she did,
but not like Jenny.
We did _not_ take our walk on Friday, it was too dirty, nor have we yet
done it; we may perhaps do something like it to-day, as after seeing
Frank skate, which he hopes to do in the meadows by the beech, we are to
treat ourselves with a passage over the ferry. It is one of the
pleasantest frosts I ever knew, so very quiet. I hope it will last some
time longer for Frank's sake, who is quite anxious to get some skating;
he tried yesterday, but it would not do.
Our acquaintance increase too fast. He was recognized lately by Admiral
Bertie, and a few days since arrived the Admiral and his daughter
Catherine to wait upon us. There was nothing to like or dislike in
either. To the Berties are to be added the Lances, with whose cards we
have been endowed, and whose visit Frank and I returned yesterday. They
live about a mile and three-quarters from S. to the right of the new
road to Portsmouth, and I believe their house is one of those which are
to be seen almost anywhere among the woods on the other side of the
Itchen. It is a handsome building, stands high, and in a very beautiful
situation.
We found only Mrs. Lance at home, and whether she boasts any offspring
besides a grand pianoforte did not appear. She was civil and chatty
enough, and offered to introduce us to some acquaintance in Southampton,
which we gratefully declined.
I suppose they must be acting by the orders of Mr. Lance of Netherton in
this civility, as there seems no other reason for their coming near us.
They will not come often, I dare say. They live in a handsome style and
are rich, and she seemed to like to be rich, and we gave her to
understand that we were far from being so; she will soon feel therefore
that we are not worth her acquaintance.
You must have heard from Martha by this time. We have had no accounts of
Kintbury since her letter to me.
Mrs. F. A. has had one fainting fit lately; it came on as usual after
eating a hearty dinner, but did not last long.
I can recollect nothing more to say. When my letter is gone, I suppose I
shall.
Yours affectionately, J. A.
I have just asked Caroline if I should send her love to her godmamma, to
which she answered "Yes."
Miss AUSTEN,
Godmersham Park, Faversham, Kent.