MY DEAR ANNA,--I am quite ashamed to find that I have never answered
some question of yours in a former note. I kept it on purpose to refer
to it at a proper time, and then forgot it. I like the name "Which is
the Heroine" very well, and I dare say shall grow to like it very much
in time; but "Enthusiasm" was something so very superior that my common
title must appear to disadvantage. I am not sensible of any blunders
about Dawlish; the library was pitiful and wretched twelve years ago,
and not likely to have anybody's publications. There is no such title as
Desborough, either among dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, or barons.
These were your inquiries. I will now thank you for your envelope
received this morning. Your Aunt Cass is as well pleased with St. Julian
as ever, and I am delighted with the idea of seeing Progillian again.
_Wednesday_, 17.--We have now just finished the first of the three books
I had the pleasure of receiving yesterday. I read it aloud, and we are
all very much amused, and like the work quite as well as ever. I depend
on getting through another book before dinner, but there is really a
good deal of respectable reading in your forty-eight pages. I have no
doubt six would make a very good-sized volume. You must have been quite
pleased to have accomplished so much. I like Lord Portman and his
brother very much. I am only afraid that Lord P.'s good nature will make
most people like him better than he deserves. The whole family are very
good; and Lady Anne, who was your great dread, you have succeeded
particularly well with. Bell Griffin is just what she should be. My
corrections have not been more important than before; here and there we
have thought the sense could be expressed in fewer words, and I have
scratched out Sir Thos. from walking with the others to the stables,
etc. the very day after breaking his arm; for though I find your papa
did walk out immediately after his arm was set, I think it can be so
little usual as to appear unnatural in a book. Lynn will not do. Lynn is
towards forty miles from Dawlish and would not be talked of there. I
have put Starcross instead. If you prefer Easton, that must be always
safe.
I have also scratched out the introduction between Lord Portman and his
brother and Mr. Griffin. A country surgeon (don't tell Mr. C. Lyford)
would not be introduced to men of their rank; and when Mr. P. is first
brought in, he would not be introduced as the Honorable. That
distinction is never mentioned at such times; at least, I believe not.
Now we have finished the second book, or rather the fifth. I do think
you had better omit Lady Helena's postscript. To those that are
acquainted with "Pride and Prejudice" it will seem an imitation. And
your Aunt C. and I both recommend your making a little alteration in the
last scene between Devereux F. and Lady Clanmurray and her daughter. We
think they press him too much, more than sensible or well-bred women
would do; Lady C., at least, should have discretion enough to be sooner
satisfied with his determination of not going with them. I am very much
pleased with Egerton as yet. I did not expect to like him, but I do, and
Susan is a very nice little animated creature; but St. Julian is the
delight of our lives. He is quite interesting. The whole of his
break-off with Lady Helena is very well done. Yes; Russell Square is a
very proper distance from Berkeley Square. We are reading the last book.
They must be two days going from Dawlish to Bath. They are nearly one
hundred miles apart.
_Thursday._--We finished it last night after our return from drinking
tea at the Great House. The last chapter does not please us quite so
well; we do not thoroughly like the play, perhaps from having had too
much of plays in that way lately (_vide_ "Mansfield Park"), and we think
you had better not leave England. Let the Portmans go to Ireland; but as
you know nothing of the manners there, you had better not go with them.
You will be in danger of giving false representations. Stick to Bath and
the Foresters. There you will be quite at home.
Your Aunt C. does not like desultory novels, and is rather afraid yours
will be too much so, that there will be too frequently a change from one
set of people to another, and that circumstances will be introduced of
apparent consequence which will lead to nothing. It will not be so great
an objection to me if it does. I allow much more latitude than she does,
and think Nature and spirit cover many sins of a wandering story, and
people in general do not care so much about it for your comfort.
I should like to have had more of Devereux. I do not feel enough
acquainted with him. You were afraid of meddling with him, I dare say. I
like your sketch of Lord Clanmurray, and your picture of the two young
girls' enjoyment is very good. I have not noticed St. Julian's serious
conversation with Cecilia, but I like it exceedingly. What he says about
the madness of otherwise sensible women on the subject of their
daughters coming out is worth its weight in gold.