I
believe that no flaw has ever been found in her seamanship either in
'Mansfield Park' or in 'Persuasion.'

But dearest of all to the heart of Jane was her sister Cassandra, about
three years her senior. Their sisterly affection for each other could
scarcely be exceeded. Perhaps it began on Jane's side with the feeling
of deference natural to a loving child towards a kind elder sister.
Something of this feeling always remained; and even in the maturity of
her powers, and in the enjoyment of increasing success, she would still
speak of Cassandra as of one wiser and better than herself. In
childhood, when the elder was sent to the school of a Mrs. Latournelle,
in the Forbury at Reading, the younger went with her, not because she was
thought old enough to profit much by the instruction there imparted, but
because she would have been miserable without her sister; her mother
observing that 'if Cassandra were going to have her head cut off, Jane
would insist on sharing her fate.' This attachment was never interrupted
or weakened. They lived in the same home, and shared the same bed-room,
till separated by death. They were not exactly alike. Cassandra's was
the colder and calmer disposition; she was always prudent and well
judging, but with less outward demonstration of feeling and less
sunniness of temper than Jane possessed. It was remarked in her family
that 'Cassandra had the _merit_ of having her temper always under
command, but that Jane had the _happiness_ of a temper that never
required to be commanded.' When 'Sense and Sensibility' came out, some
persons, who knew the family slightly, surmised that the two elder Miss
Dashwoods were intended by the author for her sister and herself; but
this could not be the case. Cassandra's character might indeed represent
the '_sense_' of Elinor, but Jane's had little in common with the
'_sensibility_' of Marianne. The young woman who, before the age of
twenty, could so clearly discern the failings of Marianne Dashwood, could
hardly have been subject to them herself.

This was the small circle, continually enlarged, however, by the
increasing families of four of her brothers, within which Jane Austen
found her wholesome pleasures, duties, and interests, and beyond which
she went very little into society during the last ten years of her life.
There was so much that was agreeable and attractive in this family party
that its members may be excused if they were inclined t