Chapter 9: (beginning with the words with a thousand regrets--p

117 of this edition) and Chapters 10-12.

The dates added by Miss Austen are:

(1) at the top of the first page of the first quire, _Jan: 27.-1817_

(2) at the top of the first page of the third quire, _March 1^{st}_

(3) at the end of the last sentence (the last page of the third
quire), _March 18_.

Part of the second quire was originally written in pencil, and afterwards inked over. The passage so written is that printed on pp. 99-101 of this edition (from _cried Lady D--_ to _so seriously that Charlotte_). The author of the _Memoir_ writes, on this point:

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 in ink afterwards.

But the manuscript as such does not bear out this implication of a progressive decline. The place at which pencil was used is in fact not much later than the middle; and the latter part of the manuscript shows no change in legibility or in accuracy.

FRAGMENT
OF A
NOVEL