"Do you know Miss Bates's niece? That is, I know you must have
seen her a hundred times--but are you acquainted?"
"Oh! yes; we are always forced to be acquainted whenever she comes
to Highbury. By the bye, _that_ is almost enough to put one out
of conceit with a niece. Heaven forbid! at least, that I should
ever bore people half so much about all the Knightleys together,
as she does about Jane Fairfax. One is sick of the very name
of Jane Fairfax. Every letter from her is read forty times over;
her compliments to all friends go round and round again; and if she
does but send her aunt the pattern of a stomacher, or knit a pair
of garters for her grandmother, one hears of nothing else for a month.
I wish Jane Fairfax very well; but she tires me to death."
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