It is a rule with me, that a person who can write a long letter, with ease, cannot write ill."

"That will not do for a compliment to Darcy, Caroline," cried her brother - "because he does not write with ease. He studies too much for words of four syllables. - Do not you, Darcy?"

"My style of writing is very different from yours."

"Oh!" cried Miss Bingley, "Charles writes in the most careless way imaginable. He leaves out half his words, and blots the rest."

"My ideas flow so rapidly that I have not time to express them - by which means my letters sometimes convey no ideas at all to my correspondents."

"Your humility, Mr. Bingley," said Elizabeth, "must disarm reproof."

"Nothing is more deceitful," said Darcy, "than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast."

"And which of the two do you call my little recent piece of modesty?"

"The indirect boast - for you are really proud of your defects in writing, because you consider them as proceeding from a rapidity of thought and carelessness of execution, which if not estimable, you think at least highly interesting."

I am re-reading Pride & Prejudice. Something about this book, more than any of Jane Austen's others, is so irresistably quotable and applicable to real life. Jane's dialogue never ceases to captivate me, and I particularly enjoy these conversations at Netherfield, while poor Miss Bennet is lying upstairs with a headache and sore throat. There's so much wit and thought, and so much going on between the lines. If I were Lizzy, I would never want to leave! Which tempts me to quote Miss Austen again:


'My idea of good company, Mr Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.'

'You are mistaken,' said he gently, 'that is not good company; that is the best." ~ Persuasion

There will never be another Jane.

Happy Birthday, Emmy

Today is the birthday of my dear friend, Emmy, otherwise known as Miss Catholic Nerd Writer (read her blog, it's amazing). My tea-drinking, Janeite, soccer-loving, novel-writing sister.

I met her about two years ago on a little website called Maidens of Modesty, which is sadly inactive now. We "adopted" each other as sisters. Emmy is one of the most incredible girls I know. She has an inspiring faith (she probably wouldn't agree, but it has inspired me many times!). She's humble... but she's also got spunk. She's a kindred spirit, owns more BBC miniseries than I do, and has lent me awesome books. When we met up in January to wreak havoc on a bookstore, Emmy further proved to me that she is 100% awesome: she hugged the Jane Austen shelf and hid a book about Martin Luther without shame or thought for what people might think. She gives me good advice and warns me what not to read or watch, just as a big sister should. :) Because even though we're not really related, she IS my big sister. Being the oldest in a family of five kids, it means a lot to me to have an older Catholic girl in my life so I can be the little sister once in a while.

Happy birthday, Emmy. You're the best big sister. :) I love you so much!

I wanted to give you Henry Tilney, but he wouldn't agree to being gift-wrapped.