With Irishman Thomas Leyfroy, a law student whom she met in late 1795 and early 1796, she flirted at three balls and ended the acquaintance. However, based on today's information, mainly from letters that have survived to the present day, we can assume that the relationship may have lasted longer. Austen herself was more involved in it (she wrote to her sister: "You scold me so much in the nice long letter which I have this moment received from you, that I am almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved. Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together.").
Austen's second love adventure occurred during one of her annual trips to the seaside. While she and her family were living in Bath, she met an amiable young man there who, according to Cassandra, had fallen utterly in love with Jane, and his proposal would be accepted. Circumstances, however, meant that the young man had to leave and news soon reached the sisters that the young man had died.
In December 1802, Jane and Cassandra were with family friends in Hampshire - Mr. and Mrs. Bigg Manydown. There she met Harris Bigg-Wither, six years younger, who proposed to Jane - without hesitation, she agreed to marry him. Unfortunately, the very next day she reversed her decision and together with Cassandra hastily returned to Bath. Austen admitted that her fiancé had a "bad physique. He was also a gullible man who spoke little, and when he did, he could be aggressive and completely lacked tact.
