PREFACE
balls where they meet the aristocracy, though they go in a friend's carriage, not in their own, and when aristocratic acquaintances call, the early dinner rather put them to shame.
Emma Watson became the object of attention to a peer and to another man of independent fortune at the same time. It appears from the outline of the plot which the author confessed to her sister, that Emma was to decline an offer of marriage from a peer and to marry a most eligible clergyman. That the story was carrying her out of the region of gentility can hardly have been Jane Austen's reason for laying it aside. Nor could it be that "The Watsons" was broken up for the purpose of using the materials in another fabric. Mrs. Robert Watson, with her vulgar airs of fashion, bears a strong resemblance to Mrs. Elton; Henry Crawford as a gay breaker of hearts of women has a resemblance to Tom Musgrave; and the querulous selfishness of Margaret foreshadows that of Mary Musgrove. But no other affinities appear. Mr. Watson is, like Mr. Woodhouse, an invalid, but he is not a valetudinarian.
The characters of "The Watsons," like those of the entire Austen repertory, move, live, and have their being, in an atmosphere of sanctimonious gentility. Love and marriage are the
