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Then a woman with a nose an’ teeth on ’er, marched up. “What’s all this?” she says. “What do you want?” “Nothing,” I says, “only make Miss Bates, there, stop talkin’ or I’ll die.” “Miss Bates?” she says. “What in ’Eaven’s name makes you call ’er that?” “Because she is,” I says. “D’you know what you’re sayin’?” she says, an’ slings her bony arm round me to get me off the ground. “’Course I do,” I says, “an’ if you knew Jane you’d know too.” “That’s enough,” says she. “You’re comin’ on this train if I have to kill a Brigadier for you,” |
This is from “The Janeites” in Debits and Credits. After the war, a badly shell-shocked heavy gunner tells the story of his Battery, where the officers, and thence the men, had been enthusiasts for Jane Austen. They called their guns Lady Catherine de Burgh and the Reverend Collins, from Pride and Prejudice, and talked endlessly about Austen’s characters. So when the wounded Gunner Humberstall encountered a very talkative woman he called her Miss Bates, from Emma. A senior nurse, another Austen devotee, recognising the reference, had made room for him on a crowded hospital train saving his life. |
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