LETTERS OF JANE AUSTEN
She showed me a letter which she had received
from her friend a few weeks ago (in answer to
one wiritten by her to recommend a nephew of
Mrs. Russell to his notice at Cambridge), towards
the end of which was a sentence to this
effect: “I am very sorry to hear of Mrs. Austen′s
illness. It would give me particular pleasure
to have an opportunity of improving my acquaintance
with that family — with a hope of
creating to myself a nearer interest. But at present
I cannot indulge any expectation of it.”
This is rational enough; there is less love and
more sense in it than sometimes appeared before,
and I am very well satisfied. It will all go on
exceedingly well, and decline away in a very
reasonable manner. There seems no likelihood
of his coming into Hampshire this Christmas,
and it is therefore most probable that our indifference
will soon be mutual, unless his regard,
which appeared to spring from knowing nothing
of me at first, is best supported by never seeing
me.
Mrs. Lefroy made no remarks in the letter, nor did she indeed say anything about him as relative to me. Perhaps she thinks she has said too much already. She saw a great deal of the Mapletons while she was in Bath. Christian is still in a very bad state of health, consumptive,
and not likely to recover.
