A Memoir of Jane Austen

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74
Character and Tastes
obsolete; and the ugly practice which it expressed is much less
prevalent now than it was then. The laugh which she occasionally
raised was by imagining for her neighbours, as she was equally
ready to imagine for her friends or herself, impossible contingencies,
or by relating in prose or verse some trifling anecdote coloured
to her own fancy, or in writing a fictitious history of what
they were supposed to have said or done, which could deceive
nobody.
The following specimens may be given of the liveliness of
mind which imparted an agreeable flavour both to her correspondence
and her conversation:––
ON READING IN THE NEWSPAPERS THE MARRIAGE OF MR. GELL
TO MISS GILL, OF EASTBOURNE.°
At Eastbourne Mr. Gell, From being perfectly well,
Became dreadfully ill, For love of Miss Gill.
So he said, with some sighs, I’m the slave of your iis;
Oh, restore, if you please, By accepting my ees.
ON THE MARRIAGE OF A MIDDLE-AGED FLIRT WITH A MR. WAKE,
WHOM, IT WAS SUPPOSED, SHE WOULD SCARCELY HAVE
ACCEPTED IN HER YOUTH.°
Maria, good-humoured, and handsome, and tall,
For a husband was at her last stake;
And having in vain danced at many a ball,
Is now happy to jump at a Wake.
‘We were all at the play last night to see Miss O’Neil in Isabella.°
I do not think she was quite equal to my expectation. I
fancy I want something more than can be. Acting seldom satisfies
me. I took two pockethandkerchiefs, but had very little occasion
for either. She is an elegant creature, however, and hugs Mr.
Young delightfully.’
‘So, Miss B. is actually married, but I have never seen it in the
papers; and one may as well be single if the wedding is not to be
in print.’°
Once, too, she took it into her head to write the following mock
panegyric on a young friend, who really was clever and
handsome:––