The first two letters which I am able to present to my readers were written from Steventon to Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra in January, 1796. The most interesting allusion, perhaps, is to her “ young Irish friend, ” who would seem by the context to have been the late Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, though at the time of writing only “ Mr. Tom Lefroy. ” I have no means of knowing how serious the “ flirtation ” between the two may have been, or whether it was to this that Mr. Austen Leigh refers when he tells us that “ in her youth she had declined the addresses of a gentleman who had the recommendations of good character and connections, and position in life, of everything, in fact, except the subtle power of touching her heart.” I am inclined, however, upon the whole, to think, from the tone of the letters, as well as from some passages in later letters, that this little affair had nothing to do with the “ addresses ” referred to, any more than with that