er
mainly as parsimonious; but her parsimony would be worth much less than
it is, if it were not set off by her servility to Sir Thomas, her
brutality to Fanny, and her undisciplined fondness for her other nieces.
Lady Bertram is formed for the enjoyment of all her readers; and a pale
example of what she might have become under less propitious
circumstances is given by Mrs. Price. Mrs. Norris, we are told, would
have done much better than Mrs. Price in her position. It must have
given Jane Austen great pleasure to make this remark. None of her bad
characters (except possibly Elizabeth Elliot) were quite inhuman to her,
and to have found a situation in which Mrs. Norris might have shone
would be a real satisfaction.

One more remark may be made on _Mansfield Park_. It affords what perhaps
is the only[286] probable instance in these books of a portrait drawn
from life. She must, one would think, have had in her mind her brother
Charles--as he had been twelve or fourteen years earlier--when she drew
so charming a sketch of a young sailor in William Price.

We must not forget, however, the author's strong denial of depicting
individuals, and her declaration that she was too proud of her gentlemen
'to admit that they were only Mr. A. or Colonel B.'; nor yet her modest
confession, when speaking of two of her favourites--Edmund Bertram and
Mr. Knightley--that she was aware they were 'very far from what I know
English gentlemen often are.'

Jane Austen may perhaps enjoy the distinction of having added words or
expressions to colloquial English. The name 'Collins' is almost
established as the description of a letter of thanks after a visit; and
we have heard of a highly intelligent family among whom a guinea is
always alluded to as 'something considerable' in memory of the sum
believed (on the authority of the _Memoir_) to have been given to
William Price by Aunt Norris.[287]

FOOTNOTES:

[257] 'Pengird' in _Brabourne_, but surely a misprint. Cf. _Brabourne_,
ii. pp. 199, 266. Mme. Perigord and Mme. Bigeon were two of Eliza's
French servants who stayed on with Henry until he moved to Hans Place.

[258] Lady Robert Kerr, whom Henry met in Scotland, and to whom he
divulged the secret of his sister's authorship.

[259] Lizzie and Marianne Knight.

[260] Part of his duties as Receiver of Oxfordshire.

[261] These sisters were daughters of the Master of Balliol; and Mrs.
Leigh was married to her first cousin, the Rev. Th