spirits were hardly high enough to enable him to bear up against unequal
fortune. He alludes in his letters, with expressions of regard, to his
brother-in-law, George Austen; but characteristically deplores his
growing family, thinking that he will not be able to put them out in the
world--a difficulty which did not eventually prove to be insuperable.

When the news of his death reached England--which would be in about six
months' time--George Austen and his wife were, fortunately, present to
comfort Philadelphia under the sad tidings. She and Betsy had now been
living in England for ten years, and had seen, no doubt, much of the
Steventon Austens. Warren Hastings's loyal attachment to the widow and
daughter of his friend remained unchanged, and they lived on terms of
intimacy with his brother-in-law Woodman and his family. As long as
Hancock lived he wrote constantly to wife and child, and gave
advice--occasionally, perhaps, of a rather embarrassing kind--about the
education of the latter. He discouraged, however, an idea of his wife's
that she should bring Betsy out to India at the age of twelve. At last
Mrs. Hancock, who, though a really good woman, was over-indulgent to her
daughter, was able to fulfil the chief desire of her own heart, and to
take her abroad to finish her studies, and later to seek an entry into
the great world in Paris. Her husband's affairs had been left in much
confusion, but Hastings's generous gift of L10,000 put them above want.

Betsy, or rather 'Eliza' ('for what young woman of common gentility,'
as we read in _Northanger Abbey_, 'will reach the age of sixteen without
altering her name as far as she can?'), was just grown up when this
great move was made. In years to come, her connexion with her Steventon
cousins was destined to be a close one; at the present time she was a
very pretty, lively girl, fond of amusements, and perhaps estimating her
own importance a little too highly. But she had been carefully educated,
and was capable of disinterested attachments. She seems to have had a
special love for her uncle, George Austen, and one of her earliest
letters from Paris, written May 16, 1780, announces that she is sending
to him her picture in miniature, adding 'It is reckoned like what I am
at present. The dress is quite the present fashion of what I usually
wear.' This miniature is still in existence, and represents a charming,
fresh young girl, in a low white dress edged with light blue r