The result is that we possess the visit of the
Musgrove party to Bath; the crowded and animated scenes at the White Hart
Hotel; and the charming conversation between Capt. Harville and Anne
Elliot, overheard by Capt. Wentworth, by which the two faithful lovers
were at last led to understand each other's feelings. The tenth and
eleventh chapters of 'Persuasion' then, rather than the actual winding-up
of the story, contain the latest of her printed compositions, her last
contribution to the entertainment of the public. Perhaps it may be
thought that she has seldom written anything more brilliant; and that,
independent of the original manner in which the _denouement_ is brought
about, the pictures of Charles Musgrove's good-natured boyishness and of
his wife's jealous selfishness would have been incomplete without these
finishing strokes. The cancelled chapter exists in manuscript. It is
certainly inferior to the two which were substituted for it: but it was
such as some writers and some readers might have been contented with; and
it contained touches which scarcely any other hand could have given, the
suppression of which may be almost a matter of regret.
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