Till Pride and Prejudice showed what a precious gem was hidden in that unbending case, she was no more regarded in society than a poker or a fire-screen, or any other thin upright piece of wood or iron that fills its corner in peace and quietness. The case is very different now; she is still a poker—but a poker of whom every one is afraid.
Of Jane Austen
letter to Sir William Elford, 3 April 1815, in R. Brimley Johnson (ed.) The Letters of Mary Russell Mitford (1925)
