Presenting Miss Jane Austen

No one outside the family knew that she was writing at all, but inside the family it was one of those secrets everybody knows. Even the littlest niece, keeping close to Aunt Jane for the love she always found there, knew that something unusually exciting was going on. Sometimes in the midst of their play Aunt Jane would begin to laugh softly, run to the little desk, write something quickly down and come back laughing. Sometimes she would call Aunt Cassy and read her something she had just put on paper; every now and then she would have to stop to let Aunt Cassy laugh and the two would laugh together. The sisters explained that Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy were a secret no one but the family so much as guessed.