lie awake the remainder, to comprehend with composure her present state,
and pay for the overplus of bliss by headache and fatigue.

* * * * *

Then follows Chapter XI., _i.e_. XII. in the published book and at the
end is written--

_Finis_, _July_ 18, 1816.




CHAPTER XIII.


_The Last Work_.

Jane Austen was taken from us: how much unexhausted talent perished with
her, how largely she might yet have contributed to the entertainment of
her readers, if her life had been prolonged, cannot be known; but it is
certain that the mine at which she had so long laboured was not worked
out, and that she was still diligently employed in collecting fresh
materials from it. 'Persuasion' had been finished in August 1816; some
time was probably given to correcting it for the press; but on the 27th
of the following January, according to the date on her own manuscript,
she began a new novel, and worked at it up to the 17th of March. The
chief part of this manuscript is written in her usual firm and neat hand,
but some of the latter pages seem to have been first traced in pencil,
probably when she was too weak to sit long at her desk, and written over