CHAWTON, Friday (Sept. 29).
MY DEAR ANNA,--We told Mr. B. Lefroy that if the weather did not prevent
us we should certainly come and see you to-morrow and bring Cassy,
trusting to your being good enough to give her a dinner about one
o'clock, that we might be able to be with you the earlier and stay the
longer. But on giving Cassy her choice between the Fair at Alton or
Wyards, it must be confessed that she has preferred the former, which we
trust will not greatly affront you; if it does, you may hope that some
little Anne hereafter may revenge the insult by a similar preference of
an Alton Fair to her Cousin Cassy. In the mean while we have determined
to put off our visit to you until Monday, which we hope will be not less
convenient. I wish the weather may not resolve on another put off. I
must come to you before Wednesday if it be possible, for on that day I
am going to London for a week or two with your Uncle Henry, who is
expected here on Sunday. If Monday should appear too dirty for walking,
and Mr. Lefroy would be so kind as to come and fetch me, I should be
much obliged to him. Cassy might be of the party, and your Aunt
Cassandra will take another opportunity.
Yours very affectionately, my dear Anna,
J. AUSTEN.
_Note by Lord Brabourne._
But before the week or two to which she had limited her visit in Hans
Place was at an end, her brother fell ill, and on October 22 he was in
such danger that she wrote to Steventon to summon her father to town.
The letter was two days on the road, and reached him on Sunday the 24th.
Even then he did not start immediately. In the evening he and his wife
rode to Chawton, and it was not until the next day that he and Cassandra
arrived in Hans Place. The malady from which Henry Austen was suffering
was low fever, and he was for some days at death's door: but he rallied
soon after his brother and sisters arrived, and recovered so quickly
that the former was able to leave him at the end of the week. The great
anxiety and fatigue which Jane underwent at this time was supposed by
some of her family to have broken down her health. She was in a very
feeble and exhausted condition when the bank in which her brother Henry
was a partner broke, and he not only lost all that he possessed, but
most of his relations suffered severely also. Jane was well enough to
pay several visits with her sister in the summer of 1816, including one
to Steventon,--the last she ever paid to that home of her childhood. The
last note which Mrs. Lefroy had preserved is dated,--