Complete Works of Jane Austen (301 page)
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Authors: Jane Austen
The rest was common enquiries and remarks, with kind notice of little Mary, and a very well-bred bow and proper address to Miss Heywood on her being named to him. And they parted to meet again within a few hours. Sidney Parker was about seven or eight and twenty, very good-looking, with a decided air of ease and fashion and a lively countenance. This adventure afforded agreeable discussion for some time. Mrs. Parker entered into all her husband’s joy on the occasion and exulted in the credit which Sidney’s arrival would give to the place.
The road to Sanditon House was a broad, handsome, planted approach between fields, leading at the end of a quarter of a mile through second gates into grounds which, though not extensive, had all the beauty and respectability which an abundance of very fine timber could give. These entrance gates were so much in a corner of the grounds or paddock, so near to one of its boundaries, that an outside fence was at first almost pressing on the road, till an angle
here
and a curve
there
threw them to a better distance. The fence was a proper park paling in excellent condition, with clusters of fine elms or rows of old thorns following its line almost everywhere.
Almost
must be stipulated, for there were vacant spaces, and through one of these, Charlotte, as soon as they entered the enclosure, caught a glimpse over the pales of something white and womanish in the field on the other side. It was something which immediately brought Miss Brereton into her head; and stepping to the pales, she saw indeed and very decidedly, in spite of the mist, Miss Brereton seated not far before her at the foot of the bank, which sloped down from the outside of the paling, and which a narrow path seemed to skirt along — Miss Brereton seated, apparently very composedly — and Sir Edward Denham by her side.
They were sitting so near each other and appeared so closely engaged in gentle conversation that Charlotte instantly felt she had nothing to do but to step back again and say not a word. Privacy was certainly their object. It could not but strike her rather unfavourably with regard to Clara; but hers was a situation which must not be judged with severity.
She was glad to perceive that nothing had been discerned by Mrs. Parker. If Charlotte had not been considerably the taller of the two, Miss Brereton’s white ribbons might not have fallen within the ken of
her
more observant eyes. Among other points of moralising reflection which the sight of this tête-à-tête produced, Charlotte could not but think of the extreme difficulty which secret lovers must have in finding a proper spot for their stolen interviews. Here perhaps they had thought themselves so perfectly secure from observation; the whole field open before them, a steep bank and pales never crossed by the foot of man at their back, and a great thickness of air to aid them as well! Yet here she had seen them. They were really ill-used.
The house was large and handsome. Two servants appeared to admit them and everything had a suitable air of property and order, Lady Denham valued herself upon her liberal establishment and had great enjoyment in the order and importance of her style of living. They were shown into the usual sitting room, well proportioned and well furnished, though it was furniture rather originally good and extremely well kept than new or showy. And as Lady Denham was not there, Charlotte had leisure to look about her and to be told by Mrs. Parker that the whole-length portrait of a stately gentleman which, placed over the mantelpiece, caught the eye immediately, was the picture of Sir Henry Denham; and that one among many miniatures in another part of the room, little conspicuous, represented Mr. Hollis, poor Mr. Hollis! It was impossible not to feel him hardly used: to be obliged to stand back in his own house and see the best place by the fire constantly occupied by Sir Harry Denham.
Chawton, Hampshire, Austen’s long time home
CONTENTS
LETTER the FIRST From ISABEL to LAURA
LETTER 8th LAURA to MARIANNE, in continuation
LETTER the 9th From the same to the same
LETTER 10th LAURA in continuation
LETTER 11th LAURA in continuation
LETTER the 12th LAURA in continuation
LETTER the 13th LAURA in continuation
LETTER the 14th LAURA in continuation
LETTER the 15th LAURA in continuation.
AN UNFINISHED NOVEL IN LETTERS
LETTER the FIRST is from Miss MARGARET LESLEY to Miss CHARLOTTE
LETTER the SECOND From Miss C. LUTTERELL to Miss M. LESLEY in answer.
LETTER the THIRD From Miss MARGARET LESLEY to Miss C. LUTTERELL Lesley
LETTER the FOURTH From Miss C. LUTTERELL to Miss M. LESLEY Bristol
LETTER the FIFTH Miss MARGARET LESLEY to Miss CHARLOTTE LUTTERELL
LETTER the SIXTH LADY LESLEY to Miss CHARLOTTE LUTTERELL Lesley-Castle
LETTER the SEVENTH From Miss C. LUTTERELL to Miss M. LESLEY Bristol the
LETTER the EIGHTH Miss LUTTERELL to Mrs MARLOWE Bristol April 4th
LETTER the NINTH Mrs MARLOWE to Miss LUTTERELL Grosvenor Street, April
LETTER the TENTH From Miss MARGARET LESLEY to Miss CHARLOTTE LUTTERELL
LETTER the FIRST From a MOTHER to her FREIND.
LETTER the SECOND From a YOUNG LADY crossed in Love to her freind
LETTER the THIRD From a YOUNG LADY in distressed Circumstances to her
LETTER the FOURTH From a YOUNG LADY rather impertinent to her freind
LETTER the FIFTH From a YOUNG LADY very much in love to her Freind
SCRAPS TO MISS FANNY CATHERINE AUSTEN
THE FEMALE PHILOSOPHER: A LETTER
A LETTER from a YOUNG LADY, whose feelings being too strong for
A TOUR THROUGH WALES — in a LETTER from a YOUNG LADY —
MISS GEORGIANA STANHOPE TO MISS X X X
THE MYSTERY: AN UNFINISHED COMEDY
LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP
TO MADAME LA COMTESSE DE FEUILLIDE THIS NOVEL
IS INSCRIBED BY HER
OBLIGED HUMBLE SERVANT
THE AUTHOR.
“Deceived in Friendship and Betrayed in Love.”
LETTER the FIRST From ISABEL to LAURA
How often, in answer to my repeated intreaties that you would give my Daughter a regular detail of the Misfortunes and Adventures of your Life, have you said “No, my freind never will I comply with your request till I may be no longer in Danger of again experiencing such dreadful ones.”
Surely that time is now at hand. You are this day 55. If a woman may ever be said to be in safety from the determined Perseverance of disagreeable Lovers and the cruel Persecutions of obstinate Fathers, surely it must be at such a time of Life. Isabel
LETTER 2nd LAURA to ISABEL
Altho’ I cannot agree with you in supposing that I shall never again be exposed to Misfortunes as unmerited as those I have already experienced, yet to avoid the imputation of Obstinacy or ill-nature, I will gratify the curiosity of your daughter; and may the fortitude with which I have suffered the many afflictions of my past Life, prove to her a useful lesson for the support of those which may befall her in her own. Laura
LETTER 3rd LAURA to MARIANNE
As the Daughter of my most intimate freind I think you entitled to that knowledge of my unhappy story, which your Mother has so often solicited me to give you.
My Father was a native of Ireland and an inhabitant of Wales; my Mother was the natural Daughter of a Scotch Peer by an italian Opera-girl — I was born in Spain and received my Education at a Convent in France.
When I had reached my eighteenth Year I was recalled by my Parents to my paternal roof in Wales. Our mansion was situated in one of the most romantic parts of the Vale of Uske. Tho’ my Charms are now considerably softened and somewhat impaired by the Misfortunes I have undergone, I was once beautiful. But lovely as I was the Graces of my Person were the least of my Perfections. Of every accomplishment accustomary to my sex, I was Mistress. When in the Convent, my progress had always exceeded my instructions, my Acquirements had been wonderfull for my age, and I had shortly surpassed my Masters.
In my Mind, every Virtue that could adorn it was centered; it was the Rendez-vous of every good Quality and of every noble sentiment.
A sensibility too tremblingly alive to every affliction of my Freinds, my Acquaintance and particularly to every affliction of my own, was my only fault, if a fault it could be called. Alas! how altered now! Tho’ indeed my own Misfortunes do not make less impression on me than they ever did, yet now I never feel for those of an other. My accomplishments too, begin to fade — I can neither sing so well nor Dance so gracefully as I once did — and I have entirely forgot the MINUET DELA COUR. Adeiu. Laura.
LETTER 4th Laura to MARIANNE
Our neighbourhood was small, for it consisted only of your Mother. She may probably have already told you that being left by her Parents in indigent Circumstances she had retired into Wales on eoconomical motives. There it was our freindship first commenced. Isobel was then one and twenty. Tho’ pleasing both in her Person and Manners (between ourselves) she never possessed the hundredth part of my Beauty or Accomplishments. Isabel had seen the World. She had passed 2 Years at one of the first Boarding-schools in London; had spent a fortnight in Bath and had supped one night in Southampton.
“Beware my Laura (she would often say) Beware of the insipid Vanities and idle Dissipations of the Metropolis of England; Beware of the unmeaning Luxuries of Bath and of the stinking fish of Southampton.”
“Alas! (exclaimed I) how am I to avoid those evils I shall never be exposed to? What probability is there of my ever tasting the Dissipations of London, the Luxuries of Bath, or the stinking Fish of Southampton? I who am doomed to waste my Days of Youth and Beauty in an humble Cottage in the Vale of Uske.”
