Page:Austen Lady Susan Watson Letters.djvu/420

LETTERS OF JANE AUSTEN 1807

are no letters of 1806, so that this batch were written after the Austens had been established at Southampton for more than a year. “Our guests” in the thirty-sixth letter were James and Mary, who had been staying with their relations in Castle Square. There is little to observe in the rest of the letter, although one is glad to find that Captain Foote was not put out of temper by having to eat underdone mutton, and that Mrs. Austen’s finances were in a satisfactory condition at the commencement of the new year.

“Clarentine” is, of course, Miss S. S. Burney’s work, which other people besides Jane have thought “foolish.” It is a novel of the most ordinary description, and not one which she would have been likely to approve. There is a playful allusion in these letters to the chance of Martha Lloyd’s marriage; Jane could not foresee that this even would be delayed until her own brother Frank sought the lady’s affection many years later. &emsp;&emsp;[384]