* *

As for myself, you may be sure I shall return as
soon as I can. Tuesday is in my brain, but you
will feel the uncertainty of it.

* * * * *

You must fancy Henry in the backroom upstairs, and
I am generally there also, working or writing.

Even in illness, the interests of _Emma_ were not neglected; and a day
or two later Henry was able to dictate the following letter to Mr.
Murray:--

DEAR SIR,--Severe illness has confined me to my
bed ever since I received yours of y^{e} 15th. I
cannot yet hold a pen, and employ an amanuensis.
The politeness and perspicuity of your letter
equally claim my earliest exertion. Your official
opinion of the merits of _Emma_ is very valuable
and satisfactory.[299] Though I venture to differ
occasionally from your critique, yet I assure you
the quantum of your commendation rather exceeds
than falls short of the author's expectation and
my own. The terms you offer are so very inferior
to what we had expected that I am apprehensive of
having made some great error in my arithmetical
calculation. On the subject of the expence and
profit of publishing you must be much better
informed than I am, but documents in my possession
appear to prove that the sum offered by you for
the copyright of _Sense and Sensibility_,
_Mansfield Park_, and _Emma_ is not equal to the
money which my sister has actually cleared by one
very moderate edition of _Mansfield Park_;--(you
yourself expressed astonishment that so small an
edition of such a work should have been sent into
the world)--and a still smaller one of _Sense and
Sensibility_.[300]

Henry, however, became so alarmingly ill that on October 22 Jane
dispatched expresses to her brothers and sister, summoning them to
London. Mr. Knight left Godmersham for town on the 23rd, but owing to a
delay in the delivery of the letter, James Austen did not receive his
till the 24th. He rode to Chawton that evening, and the next day he and
Cassandra arrived in London. For a time Henry's life was in imminent
danger, but after a week's anxiety he was so far on the road to recovery
that his two brothers were able to return