at the end of the first
draft of _Persuasion_; and thereby hangs an interesting tale, which we
cannot do better than relate in the words of the _Memoir_.

The book had been brought to an end in July; and
the re-engagement of the hero and heroine effected
in a totally different manner in a scene laid at
Admiral Croft's lodgings. But her performance did
not satisfy her. She thought it tame and flat, and
was desirous of producing something better. This
weighed upon her mind--the more so, probably, on
account of the weak state of her health; so that
one night she retired to rest in very low spirits.
But such depression was little in accordance with
her nature, and was soon shaken off. The next
morning she awoke to more cheerful views and
brighter inspirations; the sense of power revived;
and imagination resumed its course. She cancelled
the condemned chapter, and wrote two others,
entirely different, in its stead. The result is
that we possess the visit of the Musgrove party to
Bath; the crowded and animated scenes at the White
Hart Hotel; and the charming conversation between
Captain Harville and Anne Elliot, overheard by
Captain Wentworth, by which the two faithful
lovers were at last led to understand each other's
feelings. The tenth and eleventh chapters of
_Persuasion_, then, rather than the actual
winding-up of the story, contain the latest of her
printed compositions--her last contribution to the
entertainment of the public. Perhaps it may be
thought that she has seldom written anything more
brilliant; and that, independent of the original
manner in which the _denouement_ is brought about,
the pictures of Charles Musgrove's good-natured
boyishness and of his wife's jealous selfishness
would have been incomplete without these finishing
strokes. The cancelled chapter exists in
manuscript. It is certainly inferior to the two
which were substituted for it; but it was such as
some writers and some readers might have been
contented with; and it contained touches which
scarcely any other hand could have given, the
suppressio