l duties to which he looked forward: he was in
earnest, and began by making use of his former classical knowledge to
take up a serious study of the New Testament in the original language.
He seems to have been in advance of his age in this respect; for when he
went to be examined by the Bishop, that dignitary, after asking him such
questions as he thought desirable, put his hand on a book which lay near
him on the table, and which happened to be a Greek Testament, and said:
'As for _this_ book, Mr. Austen, I dare say it is some years since
either you or I looked into it.'

Henry Austen became in time an earnest preacher of the evangelical
school, and was for many years perpetual curate of Bentley, near Alton.
He did not marry the 'Hanwell favourite,' but found a wife after some
years in Miss Eleanor Jackson, who survived him.

It must have been somewhere about this time that Jane Austen succeeded
in recovering the MS. of _Northanger Abbey_. An unsuccessful attempt to
secure the publication of the novel in the year 1809 has already been
noticed; but we learn from the _Memoir_ that after four works of hers
had been published, and somewhat widely circulated, one of her brothers
(acting for her) negotiated with the publisher who had bought it, and
found him very willing to receive back his money, and resign all claim
to the copyright. When the bargain was concluded and the money paid, but
not till then, the negotiator had the satisfaction of informing him that
the work which had been so lightly esteemed was by the author of _Pride
and Prejudice_.[315]

Meanwhile, Jane had been for some months engaged on _Persuasion_. It was
begun before she went to London in the autumn of 1815 for the
publication of _Emma_; but that visit and all that happened to her
during the winter must certainly have interrupted its composition, and
possibly modified its tone. It is less high-spirited and more tender in
its description of a stricken heart than anything she had attempted
before.

In May, Cassandra and Jane left Chawton to spend three weeks at
Cheltenham, stopping with their brother at Steventon, and with the
Fowles at Kintbury on the way, and again at Steventon on their return.
Jane must have been decidedly out of health, for the change in her did
not escape the notice of her friends. But whatever was the exact state
of her health during the first half of this year, it did not prevent her
from being able, on July 18, to write 'Finis'