’I return you, with very many thanks, the books you have so obligingly supplied me with.  I am very sensible, I assure you, of the attention you have paid to my convenience and amusement.  I return also “Mansfield Park,” as ready for a second edition, I believe, as I can make it.  I am in Hans Place till the 16th.  From that day inclusive, my direction will be Chawton, Alton, Hants.

   ’I remain, dear Sir,

   ’Yr faithful humb.  Servt. 
   ’J.  AUSTEN.

   ’I wish you would have the goodness to send a line by the bearer,
   stating the day on which the set will be ready for the Prince
   Regent.’

   ’Hans Place, December 11 (1815).

’DEAR SIR,—­I am much obliged by yours, and very happy to feel everything arranged to our mutual satisfaction.  As to my direction about the title-page, it was arising from my ignorance only, and from my having never noticed the proper place for a dedication.  I thank you for putting me right.  Any deviation from what is usually done in such cases is the last thing I should wish for.  I feel happy in having a friend to save me from the ill effect of my own blunder.

   ’Yours, dear Sir, &c. 
   ‘J.  AUSTEN.’

   ’Chawton, April 1, 1816.

’DEAR SIR,—­I return you the “Quarterly Review” with many thanks.  The Authoress of “Emma” has no reason, I think, to complain of her treatment in it, except in the total omission of “Mansfield Park.”  I cannot but be sorry that so clever a man as the Reviewer of “Emma” should consider it as unworthy of being noticed.  You will be pleased to hear that I have received the Prince’s thanks for the handsome copy I sent him of “Emma.”  Whatever he may think of my share of the work, yours seems to have been quite right.

’In consequence of the late event in Henrietta Street, I must request that if you should at any time have anything to communicate by letter, you will be so good as to write by the post, directing to me (Miss J. Austen), Chawton, near Alton; and that for anything of a larger bulk, you will add to the same direction, by Collier’s Southampton coach.

   ’I remain, dear Sir,

   ’Yours very faithfully,
   ‘J.  AUSTEN.’

About the same time the following letters passed between the Countess of Morley and the writer of ‘Emma.’  I do not know whether they were personally acquainted with each other, nor in what this interchange of civilities originated:—­

   The Countess of Morley to Miss J. Austen.

   ’Saltram, December 27 (1815).

’MADAM,—­I have been most anxiously waiting for an introduction to “Emma,” and am infinitely obliged to you for your kind recollection of me, which will procure me the pleasure of her acquaintance some days sooner than I should otherwise have had it.  I am already become intimate with the Woodhouse family, and feel that they will not amuse and interest me less than the Bennetts, Bertrams, Norrises, and all their admirable predecessors.  I can give them no higher praise.

   ’I am, Madam, your much obliged
   ‘F.  MORLEY.’