A Memoir of Jane Austen

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62
Bath
quiet. Miss Irvine says she is never speaking a word. Poor wretch;
I am afraid she is en pénitence. Here has been that excellent Mrs.
Coulthart calling, while my mother was out, and I was believed to
be so. I always respected her, as a good-hearted friendly woman.
And the Browns have been here; I find their affidavits° on the
table. The “Ambuscade” reached Gibraltar on the 9th of March,
and found all well; so say the papers. We have had no letters from
anybody, but we expect to hear from Edward tomorrow, and from
you soon afterwards. How happy they are at Godmersham now! I
shall be very glad of a letter from Ibthorp, that I may know how
you all are, but particularly yourself. This is nice weather for Mrs.
J. Austen’s going to Speen, and I hope she will have a pleasant
visit there. I expect a prodigious account of the christening dinner;
perhaps it brought you at last into the company of Miss
Dundas again.
‘Tuesday.–– I received your letter last night, and wish it may be
soon followed by another to say that all is over; but I cannot help
thinking that nature will struggle again, and produce a revival.
Poor woman! May her end be peaceful and easy as the exit we
have witnessed!° And I dare say it will. If there is no revival,
suffering must be all over; even the consciousness of existence, I
suppose, was gone when you wrote. The nonsense I have been
writing in this and in my last letter seems out of place at such a
time, but I will not mind it; it will do you no harm, and nobody
else will be attacked by it. I am heartily glad that you can speak so
comfortably of your own health and looks, though I can scarcely
comprehend the latter being really approved. Could travelling
fifty miles produce such an immediate change? You were looking
very poorly here, and everybody seemed sensible of it. Is there a
charm in a hack postchaise?° But if there were, Mrs. Craven’s
carriage might have undone it all. I am much obliged to you for
the time and trouble you have bestowed on Mary’s cap, and am
glad it pleases her; but it will prove a useless gift at present, I
suppose. Will not she leave Ibthorp on her mother’s death? As a
companion you are all that Martha can be supposed to want, and
in that light, under these circumstances, your visit will indeed
have been well timed.