great improvement which has lately taken place in
his dancing. Miss Heathcote is pretty, but not
near so handsome as I expected.

* * * * *

Henry is still hankering after the Regulars, and
as his project of purchasing the adjutancy of the
Oxfordshire is now over, he has got a scheme in
his head about getting a lieutenancy and adjutancy
in the 86th, a new-raised regiment, which he
fancies will be ordered to the Cape of Good Hope.
I heartily hope that he will, as usual, be
disappointed in this scheme.

Steventon: Thursday [January 14, 1796].

I am very much flattered by your commendation of
my last letter, for I write only for fame, and
without any view to pecuniary emolument.

Tell Mary[73] that I make over Mr. Heartley and
all his estate to her for her sole use and benefit
in future, and not only him, but all my other
admirers into the bargain wherever she can find
them, even the kiss which C. Powlett wanted to
give me, as I mean to confine myself in future to
Mr. Tom Lefroy, for whom I don't care sixpence.
Assure her also as a last and indubitable proof of
Warren's indifference to me, that he actually drew
that gentleman's picture for me, and delivered it
to me without a sigh.

The next batch of letters date from a visit paid by Jane, in August
1796, to Rowling, the Kent home of her brother Edward. She seems to have
experienced a difficulty in finding an escort for her return journey.
Henry kept changing his plans; and Frank, the sailor, was liable to be
sent for at a day's notice. She had evidently been studying her copy of
_Camilla_.

Cork Street: Tuesday morn [August 1796].

MY DEAR CASSANDRA,--Here I am once more in this
scene of dissipation and vice, and I begin already
to find my morals corrupted. We reached Staines
yesterday, I do not [know] when, without suffering
so much from the heat as I had hoped to do. We set
off again this morning at seven o'clock, and had a
very pleasant drive, as the morning was cloudy and
perfectly cool. I came all the way in the chaise
from Hartford Bridge.