She certainly took a kind of parental interest in the beings whom she had created, and did not dismiss them from her thoughts when she had finished her last chapter.  We have seen, in one of her letters, her personal affection for Darcy and Elizabeth; and when sending a copy of ‘Emma’ to a friend whose daughter had been lately born, she wrote thus:  ’I trust you will be as glad to see my “Emma,” as I shall be to see your Jemima.’  She was very fond of Emma, but did not reckon on her being a general favourite; for, when commencing that work, she said, ’I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.’  She would, if asked, tell us many little particulars about the subsequent career of some of her people.  In this traditionary way we learned that Miss Steele never succeeded in catching the Doctor; that Kitty Bennet was satisfactorily married to a clergyman near Pemberley, while Mary obtained nothing higher than one of her uncle Philip’s clerks, and was content to be considered a star in the society of Meriton; that the ‘considerable sum’ given by Mrs. Norris to William Price was one pound; that Mr. Woodhouse survived his daughter’s marriage, and kept her and Mr. Knightley from settling at Donwell, about two years; and that the letters placed by Frank Churchill before Jane Fairfax, which she swept away unread, contained the word ‘pardon.’  Of the good people in ‘Northanger Abbey’ and ‘Persuasion’ we know nothing more than what is written:  for before those works were published their author had been taken away from us, and all such amusing communications had ceased for ever.

CHAPTER XI.

Declining health of Jane Austen—­Elasticity of her spirits—­Her resignation and humility—­Her death.

Early in the year 1816 some family troubles disturbed the usually tranquil course of Jane Austen’s life; and it is probable that the inward malady, which was to prove ultimately fatal, was already felt by her; for some distant friends, {159} whom she visited in the spring of that year, thought that her health was somewhat impaired, and observed that she went about her old haunts, and recalled old recollections connected with them in a particular manner, as if she did not expect ever to see them again.  It is not surprising that, under these circumstances, some of her letters were of a graver tone than had been customary with her, and expressed resignation rather than cheerfulness.  In reference to these troubles in a letter to her brother Charles, after mentioning that she had been laid up with an attack of bilious fever, she says:  ’I live up stairs for the present and am coddled.  I am the only one of the party who has been so silly, but a weak body must excuse weak nerves.’  And again, to another correspondent:  ’But I am getting too near complaint; it has been the appointment of God, however secondary causes may have operated.’  But the elasticity of her spirits soon recovered their tone.  It was in the latter half of that year that she addressed the two following lively letters to a nephew, one while he was at Winchester School, the other soon after he had left it:—­