The Jane Austen Society(72)

After the meeting was called to order and the imminent vesting of the Knight estate in Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen of Greater Birmingham was announced, Dr. Gray called for a vote on presenting an offer to the heir of the estate for the contents of the Chawton House library and the leasehold interest of the steward’s cottage.

The vote was swiftly carried.

“We next need to vote on an appropriate purchase price for the library, as it has no present market value. Evie,” announced Dr. Gray.

The young girl stood up from her regular perch on the little stool by the piano. She held in her hands the notebook that contained a cataloguing of all two thousand three hundred and seventy-five books in the library, plus one loose-leaf letter. The notebook was passed around to each of the other four attendants.

“So you’re saying, from what I can tell, that some of these particular editions have not appeared in a public notice of sale before?” began Dr. Gray as he flipped through the notebook in astonishment.

Evie nodded.

“Has Mr. Sinclair seen this?” Adeline asked.

“Yes, when he stayed over the night of our first meeting. He came in rather late to the library and caught me at work. I showed him some of the volumes, and he took the notebook away for a bit to study.”

“And?” asked Dr. Gray eagerly.

Mimi spoke up now. “I looked it over with him earlier today in London, before my train, and brought it back with me. It’s a good thing you’re all sitting down—he thinks, based on the public records he has access to, that we are talking anywhere from one hundred thousand pounds upwards.”

“How far upwards?” asked Adam.

Mimi looked at Adam, who was now standing with Adeline behind Dr. Gray, both of them examining the notebook over his shoulders. “Well, the Third Folio of Shakespeare alone is potentially worth ten thousand pounds or more. There are also dozens of first editions of critical eighteenth-century texts, both fiction and non-fiction. The First Book of Urizen by William Blake and the first edition of Don Quixote each figure into the tens of thousands of pounds as well.”

“This is absolutely astonishing,” exclaimed Dr. Gray. “Evie, my God, do you know what you have here?”

Evie had the look of pride of scholarship and achievement written all over her face. “Yes, of course—that’s why I did it.”

The last item in the notebook was not a book entry at all, but the letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen, dated August 6, 1816.

“That’s the month she finished writing Persuasion!” exclaimed Adeline.

“Why . . .” Dr. Gray looked up at Evie and Mimi. “My God. It can’t be.”

Evie and Mimi smiled at each other. “We would have told you sooner, but Miss Frances needed to keep this all extremely confidential, for obvious reasons,” Evie explained. “She and I were the only people in the world to know, until Yardley, and then Mimi here this afternoon.”

Dr. Gray started to read the copy that Evie had diligently made of the letter, the original still hiding safely within the flap of one of the two thousand three hundred and seventy-five books in the lower library. Evie informed them all as he read that she had checked out Jane Austen’s deeply slanted handwriting in the Persuasion manuscript on display at the British Museum during one of Evie’s Sunday outings there, to make sure that her “translation” was competent and complete.

Dr. Gray fell back in his chair and wordlessly held the copy up for Adeline to take next. She carried it over to the light near the piano and read it standing next to Adam.

Everyone in the room was speechless.

Finally Adeline said, “Do we have any idea on the value, at all?”

“Not really,” replied Mimi. “Yardley checked everywhere—so few have ever come up for auction. One letter sold in 1930 at Sotheby’s, but only for a thousand pounds.”

“It’s not the value, though,” spoke up Dr. Gray.

“It’s what we learn,” added Adam, and everyone in the room turned to look at him.

“Yes,” Evie stated proudly. “There is no price on that.”

“But it’s still in its rightful place, correct?” questioned Dr. Gray. “We can’t afford to be accused of hiding or stealing anything.”

“No worries at all. I only moved the books about as I dusted,” Evie replied. “If Mr. Knatchbull-what’s-his-face wants to take stock of what’s in there, he is welcome to it.”

“Well, then, what do we think?” Dr. Gray asked the room.

“Forty thousand pounds,” said Mimi without hesitation. “I have been tracking Jane Austen sales through Sotheby’s and Christie’s for several years now, and with the war, things stayed pretty flat until recently. If we average out each book at twenty pounds, that will look completely reasonable to anyone inclined to sell quickly.”

“But where on earth will we get that much money?” Adeline asked.

Mimi looked about the room. “From me.” She stood up. “I know you all have been hesitant to take any money from me, but as I understand it from Andrew, public funds are only slowly trickling in from the notice we posted in The Times. Look, it’s fine, it’s a movie or two—without sounding arrogant I mean. I have more than enough anyway. And God knows my fiancé does, too. Then once the books unrelated to Jane Austen are sold off at the appropriate time and place, the trust will have tens of thousands of pounds to purchase the cottage and as many Austen artifacts as it chooses, as well as to generate enough interest on the capital for future endeavours.”