ed so well. If you could
discover whether Northamptonshire is a country of
hedgerows, I should be glad again.

Thursday [February 4, 1813].

Your letter was truly welcome, and I am much
obliged to you for all your praise; it came at a
right time, for I had had some fits of disgust.
Our second evening's reading to Miss Benn had not
pleased me so well, but I believe something must
be attributed to my mother's too rapid way of
getting on: though she perfectly understands the
characters herself, she cannot speak as they
ought. Upon the whole, however, I am quite vain
enough and well-satisfied enough. The work is
rather too light, and bright, and sparkling; it
wants shade; it wants to be stretched out here and
there with a long chapter of sense, if it could be
had; if not, of solemn specious nonsense, about
something unconnected with the story; an essay on
writing, a critique on Walter Scott, or the
history of Buonaparte, or anything that would form
a contrast, and bring the reader with increased
delight to the playfulness and epigrammatism of
the general style. I doubt your quite agreeing
with me here. I know your starched notions. The
caution observed at Steventon[244] with regard to
the possession of the book is an agreeable
surprise to me, and I heartily wish it may be the
means of saving you from anything unpleasant--but
you must be prepared for the neighbourhood being
perhaps already informed of there being such a
work in the world and in the Chawton world. . . .
The greatest blunder in the printing that I have met
with is in page 220, l. 3, where two speeches are
made into one.[245] There might as well have been
no supper at Longbourn; but I suppose it was the
remains of Mrs. Bennet's old Meryton habits.

Tuesday [February 9, 1813].

This will be a quick return for yours, my dear
Cassandra; I doubt its having much else to
recommend it; but there is no saying; it may turn
out to be a very long and delightful letter.

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