I’m a little late posting today’s letter, dated from 23rd March 1817 — as I was away for a lovely Jane Austen themed weekend from Friday noon — but after a gap of more than a week, we at last have another letter! This is to niece Fanny Knight – and we’ve all read/heard/quoted the excerpt that makes up today’s post title!
This letter also is bittersweet, in that it hints of the next book she has prepared for publication, even as in the next paragraph she remarks upon the illness that would take her from the world only four months later. This is a letter begun on 23rd March, and will be added to and completed on 25th.