NORTHANGER ABBEY

by

Jane Austen
(1803)

Prepared and published by:

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 CHAPTER 1

No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have
supposed her born to be an heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her
father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her.
Her father was a clergyman, without being neglected, or poor, and a very
respectable man, though his name was Richard—and he had never been
handsome. He had a considerable independence besides two good livings—and he
was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters. Her mother was a
woman of useful plain sense, with a good temper, and, what is more remarkable,
with a good constitution. She had three sons before Catherine was born; and
instead of dying in bringing the latter into the world, as anybody might expect,
she still lived on—lived to have six children more—to see them growing up around
her, and to enjoy excellent health herself. A family of ten children will be always
called a fine family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the
number; but the Morlands had little other right to the word, for they were in
general very plain, and Catherine, for many years of her life, as plain as any. She
had a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour, dark lank hair, and
strong features—so much for her person; and not less unpropitious for heroism
seemed her mind. She was fond of all boy's plays, and greatly preferred cricket
not merely to dolls, but to the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, nursing a
dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush. Indeed she had no taste
for a garden; and if she gathered flowers at all, it was chiefly for the pleasure of
mischief—at least so it was conjectured from her always preferring those which
she was forbidden to take. Such were her propensities—her abilities were quite as
extraordinary. She never could learn or understand anything before she was
taught; and sometimes not even then, for she was often inattentive, and
occasionally stupid. Her mother was three months in teaching her only to repeat
the "Beggar's Petition"; and after all, her next sister, Sally, could say it better than
she did. Not that Catherine was always stupid—by no means; she learnt the fable
of "The Hare and Many Friends" as quickly as any girl in England. Her mother
wished her to learn music; and Catherine was sure she should like it, for she was
very fond of tinkling the keys of the old forlorn spinner; so, at eight years old she
began. She learnt a year, and could not bear it; and Mrs. Morland, who did not
insist on her daughters being accomplished in spite of incapacity or distaste,
allowed her to leave off. The day which dismissed the music-master was one of
the happiest of Catherine's life. Her taste for drawing was not superior; though
whenever she could obtain the outside of a letter from her mother or seize upon
any other odd piece of paper, she did what she could in that way, by drawing
houses and trees, hens and chickens, all very much like one another. Writing and
accounts she was taught by her father; French by her mother: her proficiency in
either was not remarkable, and she shirked her lessons in both whenever she
could. What a strange, unaccountable character!—for with all these symptoms of
profligacy at ten years old, she had neither a bad heart nor a bad temper, was
seldom stubborn, scarcely ever quarrelsome, and very kind to the little ones, with
few interruptions of tyranny; she was moreover noisy and wild, hated
confinement and cleanliness, and loved nothing so well in the world as rolling
down the green slope at the back of the house.

Such was Catherine Morland at ten. At fifteen, appearances were mending;

she began to curl her hair and long for balls; her complexion improved, her
features were softened by plumpness and colour, her eyes gained more animation,
and her figure more consequence. Her love of dirt gave way to an inclination for
finery, and she grew clean as she grew smart; she had now the pleasure of
sometimes hearing her father and mother remark on her personal improvement.
"Catherine grows quite a good-looking girl—she is almost pretty today," were
words which caught her ears now and then; and how welcome were the sounds!
To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been
looking plain the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can
ever receive.

Mrs. Morland was a very good woman, and wished to see her children
everything they ought to be; but her time was so much occupied in lying-in and
teaching the little ones, that her elder daughters were inevitably left to shift for
themselves; and it was not very wonderful that Catherine, who had by nature
nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, baseball, riding on horseback, and
running about the country at the age of fourteen, to books—or at least books of
information—for, provided that nothing like useful knowledge could be gained
from them, provided they were all story and no reflection, she had never any
objection to books at all. But from fifteen to seventeen she was in training for a
heroine; she read all such works as heroines must read to supply their memories
with those quotations which are so serviceable and so soothing in the vicissitudes
of their eventful lives.

From Pope, she learnt to censure those who

"bear about the mockery of woe."

 From Gray, that

"Many a flower is born to blush unseen,

"And waste its fragrance on the desert air."

From Thompson, that—

"It is a delightful task

"To teach the young idea how to shoot."

And from Shakespeare she gained a great store of information — amongst the
rest, that—

"Trifles light as air,

"Are, to the jealous, confirmation strong,
"As proofs of Holy Writ."

That

"The poor beetle, which we tread upon,

"In corporal sufferance feels a pang as great
"As when a giant dies."

And that a young woman in love always looks—

"like Patience on a monument

"Smiling at Grief."

So far her improvement was sufficient—and in many other points she came
on exceedingly well; for though she could not write sonnets, she brought herself to
read them; and though there seemed no chance of her throwing a whole party into
raptures by a prelude on the pianoforte, of her own composition, she could listen
to other people's performance with very little fatigue. Her greatest deficiency was
in the pencil—she had no notion of drawing—not enough even to attempt a sketch
of her lover's profile, that she might be detected in the design. There she fell
miserably short of the true heroic height. At present she did not know her own
poverty, for she had no lover to portray. She had reached the age of seventeen,
without having seen one amiable youth who could call forth her sensibility,
without having inspired one real passion, and without having excited even any
admiration but what was very moderate and very transient. This was strange
indeed! But strange things may be generally accounted for if their cause be fairly
searched out. There was not one lord in the neighbourhood; no—not even a
baronet. There was not one family among their acquaintance who had reared and
supported a boy accidentally found at their door—not one young man whose
origin was unknown. Her father had no ward, and the squire of the parish no
children.

But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty

surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to
throw a hero in her way.

Mr. Allen, who owned the chief of the property about Fullerton, the village in
Wiltshire where the Morlands lived, was ordered to Bath for the benefit of a gouty
constitution—and his lady, a good-humoured woman, fond of Miss Morland, and
probably aware that if adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village,
she must seek them abroad, invited her to go with them. Mr. and Mrs. Morland
were all compliance, and Catherine all happiness.

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 CHAPTER 2

In addition to what has been already said of Catherine Morland's personal

and mental endowments, when about to be launched into all the difficulties and
dangers of a six weeks' residence in Bath, it may be stated, for the reader's more
certain information, lest the following pages should otherwise fail of giving any
idea of what her character is meant to be, that her heart was affectionate; her
disposition cheerful and open, without conceit or affectation of any kind—her
manners just removed from the awkwardness and shyness of a girl; her person
pleasing, and, when in good looks, pretty—and her mind about as ignorant and
uninformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is.

When the hour of departure drew near, the maternal anxiety of Mrs. Morland
will be naturally supposed to be most severe. A thousand alarming presentiments
of evil to her beloved Catherine from this terrific separation must oppress her
heart with sadness, and drown her in tears for the last day or two of their being
together; and advice of the most important and applicable nature must of course
flow from her wise lips in their parting conference in her closet. Cautions against
the violence of such noblemen and baronets as delight in forcing young ladies
away to some remote farm-house, must, at such a moment, relieve the fulness of
her heart. Who would not think so? But Mrs. Morland knew so little of lords and
baronets, that she entertained no notion of their general mischievousness, and
was wholly unsuspicious of danger to her daughter from their machinations. Her
cautions were confined to the following points. "I beg, Catherine, you will always
wrap yourself up very warm about the throat, when you come from the rooms at
night; and I wish you would try to keep some account of the money you spend; I
will give you this little book on purpose."

Sally, or rather Sarah (for what young lady of common gentility will reach the
age of sixteen without altering her name as far as she can?), must from situation
be at this time the intimate friend and confidante of her sister. It is remarkable,
however, that she neither insisted on Catherine's writing by every post, nor
exacted her promise of transmitting the character of every new acquaintance, nor
a detail of every interesting conversation that Bath might produce. Everything
indeed relative to this important journey was done, on the part of the Morlands,
with a degree of moderation and composure, which seemed rather consistent with
the common feelings of common life, than with the refined susceptibilities, the
tender emotions which the first separation of a heroine from her family ought
always to excite. Her father, instead of giving her an unlimited order on his
banker, or even putting an hundred pounds bank-bill into her hands, gave her
only ten guineas, and promised her more when she wanted it.

Under these unpromising auspices, the parting took place, and the journey
began. It was performed with suitable quietness and uneventful safety. Neither
robbers nor tempests befriended them, nor one lucky overturn to introduce them
to the hero. Nothing more alarming occurred than a fear, on Mrs. Allen's side, of
having once left her clogs behind her at an inn, and that fortunately proved to be
groundless.

They arrived at Bath. Catherine was all eager delight—her eyes were here,
there, everywhere, as they approached its fine and striking environs, and
afterwards drove through those streets which conducted them to the hotel. She
was come to be happy, and she felt happy already.

They were soon settled in comfortable lodgings in Pulteney Street.

It is now expedient to give some description of Mrs. Allen, that the reader
may be able to judge in what manner her actions will hereafter tend to promote
the general distress of the work, and how she will, probably, contribute to reduce
poor Catherine to all the desperate wretchedness of which a last volume is
capable—whether by her imprudence, vulgarity, or jealousy—whether by
intercepting her letters, ruining her character, or turning her out of doors.

Mrs. Allen was one of that numerous class of females, whose society can raise
no other emotion than surprise at there being any men in the world who could
like them well enough to marry them. She had neither beauty, genius,
accomplishment, nor manner. The air of a gentlewoman, a great deal of quiet,
inactive good temper, and a trifling turn of mind were all that could account for
her being the choice of a sensible, intelligent man like Mr. Allen. In one respect
she was admirably fitted to introduce a young lady into public, being as fond of
going everywhere and seeing everything herself as any young lady could be. Dress
was her passion. She had a most harmless delight in being fine; and our heroine's
entree into life could not take place till after three or four days had been spent in
learning what was mostly worn, and her chaperone was provided with a dress of
the newest fashion. Catherine too made some purchases herself, and when all
these matters were arranged, the important evening came which was to usher her
into the Upper Rooms. Her hair was cut and dressed by the best hand, her clothes
put on with care, and both Mrs. Allen and her maid declared she looked quite as
she should do. With such encouragement, Catherine hoped at least to pass
uncensured through the crowd. As for admiration, it was always very welcome
when it came, but she did not depend on it.
 Mrs. Allen was so long in dressing that they did not enter the ballroom till
late. The season was full, the room crowded, and the two ladies squeezed in as
well as they could. As for Mr. Allen, he repaired directly to the card-room, and
left them to enjoy a mob by themselves. With more care for the safety of her new
gown than for the comfort of her protegee, Mrs. Allen made her way through the
throng of men by the door, as swiftly as the necessary caution would allow;
Catherine, however, kept close at her side, and linked her arm too firmly within
her friend's to be torn asunder by any common effort of a struggling assembly. But
to her utter amazement she found that to proceed along the room was by no
means the way to disengage themselves from the crowd; it seemed rather to
increase as they went on, whereas she had imagined that when once fairly within
the door, they should easily find seats and be able to watch the dances with
perfect convenience. But this was far from being the case, and though by
unwearied diligence they gained even the top of the room, their situation was just
the same; they saw nothing of the dancers but the high feathers of some of the
ladies. Still they moved on—something better was yet in view; and by a continued
exertion of strength and ingenuity they found themselves at last in the passage
behind the highest bench. Here there was something less of crowd than below;
and hence Miss Morland had a comprehensive view of all the company beneath
her, and of all the dangers of her late passage through them. It was a splendid
sight, and she began, for the first time that evening, to feel herself at a ball: she
longed to dance, but she had not an acquaintance in the room. Mrs. Allen did all
that she could do in such a case by saying very placidly, every now and then, "I
wish you could dance, my dear—I wish you could get a partner." For some time
her young friend felt obliged to her for these wishes; but they were repeated so
often, and proved so totally ineffectual, that Catherine grew tired at last, and
would thank her no more.

They were not long able, however, to enjoy the repose of the eminence they
had so laboriously gained. Everybody was shortly in motion for tea, and they must
squeeze out like the rest. Catherine began to feel something of disappointment—
she was tired of being continually pressed against by people, the generality of
whose faces possessed nothing to interest, and with all of whom she was so
wholly unacquainted that she could not relieve the irksomeness of imprisonment
by the exchange of a syllable with any of her fellow captives; and when at last
arrived in the tea-room, she felt yet more the awkwardness of having no party to
join, no acquaintance to claim, no gentleman to assist them. They saw nothing of
Mr. Allen; and after looking about them in vain for a more eligible situation, were
obliged to sit down at the end of a table, at which a large party were already
placed, without having anything to do there, or anybody to speak to, except each
other.

Mrs. Allen congratulated herself, as soon as they were seated, on having

preserved her gown from injury. "It would have been very shocking to have it
torn," said she, "would not it? It is such a delicate muslin. For my part I have not
seen anything I like so well in the whole room, I assure you."
 "How uncomfortable it is," whispered Catherine, "not to have a single
acquaintance here!"

"Yes, my dear," replied Mrs. Allen, with perfect serenity, "it is very
uncomfortable indeed."

"What shall we do? The gentlemen and ladies at this table look as if they
wondered why we came here—we seem forcing ourselves into their party."

"Aye, so we do. That is very disagreeable. I wish we had a large acquaintance

here."

"I wish we had any—it would be somebody to go to."

"Very true, my dear; and if we knew anybody we would join them directly.
The Skinners were here last year—I wish they were here now."

"Had not we better go away as it is? Here are no tea-things for us, you see."

"No more there are, indeed. How very provoking! But I think we had better
sit still, for one gets so tumbled in such a crowd! How is my head, my dear?
Somebody gave me a push that has hurt it, I am afraid."

"No, indeed, it looks very nice. But, dear Mrs. Allen, are you sure there is
nobody you know in all this multitude of people? I think you must know
somebody."

"I don't, upon my word—I wish I did. I wish I had a large acquaintance here
with all my heart, and then I should get you a partner. I should be so glad to have
you dance. There goes a strange-looking woman! What an odd gown she has got
on! How old-fashioned it is! Look at the back."

After some time they received an offer of tea from one of their neighbours; it
was thankfully accepted, and this introduced a light conversation with the
gentleman who offered it, which was the only time that anybody spoke to them
during the evening, till they were discovered and joined by Mr. Allen when the
dance was over.

"Well, Miss Morland," said he, directly, "I hope you have had an agreeable
ball."

"Very agreeable indeed," she replied, vainly endeavouring to hide a great

yawn.

"I wish she had been able to dance," said his wife; "I wish we could have got a
partner for her. I have been saying how glad I should be if the Skinners were here
this winter instead of last; or if the Parrys had come, as they talked of once, she
might have danced with George Parry. I am so sorry she has not had a partner!"
 "We shall do better another evening I hope," was Mr. Allen's consolation.

The company began to disperse when the dancing was over—enough to leave
space for the remainder to walk about in some comfort; and now was the time for
a heroine, who had not yet played a very distinguished part in the events of the
evening, to be noticed and admired. Every five minutes, by removing some of the
crowd, gave greater openings for her charms. She was now seen by many young
men who had not been near her before. Not one, however, started with rapturous
wonder on beholding her, no whisper of eager inquiry ran round the room, nor
was she once called a divinity by anybody. Yet Catherine was in very good looks,
and had the company only seen her three years before, they would now have
thought her exceedingly handsome.

She was looked at, however, and with some admiration; for, in her own
hearing, two gentlemen pronounced her to be a pretty girl. Such words had their
due effect; she immediately thought the evening pleasanter than she had found it
before—her humble vanity was contented—she felt more obliged to the two young
men for this simple praise than a true-quality heroine would have been for fifteen
sonnets in celebration of her charms, and went to her chair in good humour with
everybody, and perfectly satisfied with her share of public attention.

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 CHAPTER 3

Every morning now brought its regular duties—shops were to be visited; some
new part of the town to be looked at; and the pump-room to be attended, where
they paraded up and down for an hour, looking at everybody and speaking to no
one. The wish of a numerous acquaintance in Bath was still uppermost with Mrs.
Allen, and she repeated it after every fresh proof, which every morning brought,
of her knowing nobody at all.

They made their appearance in the Lower Rooms; and here fortune was more
favourable to our heroine. The master of the ceremonies introduced to her a very
gentlemanlike young man as a partner; his name was Tilney. He seemed to be
about four or five and twenty, was rather tall, had a pleasing countenance, a very
intelligent and lively eye, and, if not quite handsome, was very near it. His
address was good, and Catherine felt herself in high luck. There was little leisure
for speaking while they danced; but when they were seated at tea, she found him
as agreeable as she had already given him credit for being. He talked with fluency
and spirit—and there was an archness and pleasantry in his manner which
interested, though it was hardly understood by her. After chatting some time on
such matters as naturally arose from the objects around them, he suddenly
addressed her with—"I have hitherto been very remiss, madam, in the proper
attentions of a partner here; I have not yet asked you how long you have been in
Bath; whether you were ever here before; whether you have been at the Upper
Rooms, the theatre, and the concert; and how you like the place altogether. I have
been very negligent—but are you now at leisure to satisfy me in these particulars?
If you are I will begin directly."

"You need not give yourself that trouble, sir."

"No trouble, I assure you, madam." Then forming his features into a set smile,
and affectedly softening his voice, he added, with a simpering air, "Have you been
long in Bath, madam?"

"About a week, sir," replied Catherine, trying not to laugh.

"Really!" with affected astonishment.

"Why should you be surprised, sir?"

 "Why, indeed!" said he, in his natural tone. "But some emotion must appear to
be raised by your reply, and surprise is more easily assumed, and not less
reasonable than any other. Now let us go on. Were you never here before,
madam?"

"Never, sir."

"Indeed! Have you yet honoured the Upper Rooms?"

"Yes, sir, I was there last Monday."

"Have you been to the theatre?"

"Yes, sir, I was at the play on Tuesday."

"To the concert?"

"Yes, sir, on Wednesday."

"And are you altogether pleased with Bath?"

"Yes—I like it very well."

"Now I must give one smirk, and then we may be rational again." Catherine
turned away her head, not knowing whether she might venture to laugh. "I see
what you think of me," said he gravely—"I shall make but a poor figure in your
journal tomorrow."

"My journal!"

"Yes, I know exactly what you will say: Friday, went to the Lower Rooms;
wore my sprigged muslin robe with blue trimmings—plain black shoes—appeared
to much advantage; but was strangely harassed by a queer, half-witted man, who
would make me dance with him, and distressed me by his nonsense."

"Indeed I shall say no such thing."

"Shall I tell you what you ought to say?"

"If you please."

"I danced with a very agreeable young man, introduced by Mr. King; had a
great deal of conversation with him—seems a most extraordinary genius—hope I
may know more of him. That, madam, is what I wish you to say."

"But, perhaps, I keep no journal."

 "Perhaps you are not sitting in this room, and I am not sitting by you. These
are points in which a doubt is equally possible. Not keep a journal! How are your
absent cousins to understand the tenour of your life in Bath without one? How are
the civilities and compliments of every day to be related as they ought to be,
unless noted down every evening in a journal? How are your various dresses to be
remembered, and the particular state of your complexion, and curl of your hair to
be described in all their diversities, without having constant recourse to a journal?
My dear madam, I am not so ignorant of young ladies' ways as you wish to believe
me; it is this delightful habit of journaling which largely contributes to form the
easy style of writing for which ladies are so generally celebrated. Everybody allows
that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female. Nature may have
done something, but I am sure it must be essentially assisted by the practice of
keeping a journal."

"I have sometimes thought," said Catherine, doubtingly, "whether ladies do

write so much better letters than gentlemen! That is—I should not think the
superiority was always on our side."

"As far as I have had opportunity of judging, it appears to me that the usual
style of letter-writing among women is faultless, except in three particulars."

"And what are they?"

"A general deficiency of subject, a total inattention to stops, and a very

frequent ignorance of grammar."

"Upon my word! I need not have been afraid of disclaiming the compliment.
You do not think too highly of us in that way."

"I should no more lay it down as a general rule that women write better
letters than men, than that they sing better duets, or draw better landscapes. In
every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided
between the sexes."

They were interrupted by Mrs. Allen: "My dear Catherine," said she, "do take
this pin out of my sleeve; I am afraid it has torn a hole already; I shall be quite
sorry if it has, for this is a favourite gown, though it cost but nine shillings a
yard."

"That is exactly what I should have guessed it, madam," said Mr. Tilney,
looking at the muslin.

"Do you understand muslins, sir?"

"Particularly well; I always buy my own cravats, and am allowed to be an

excellent judge; and my sister has often trusted me in the choice of a gown. I
bought one for her the other day, and it was pronounced to be a prodigious
bargain by every lady who saw it. I gave but five shillings a yard for it, and a true
Indian muslin."

Mrs. Allen was quite struck by his genius. "Men commonly take so little
notice of those things," said she; "I can never get Mr. Allen to know one of my
gowns from another. You must be a great comfort to your sister, sir."

"I hope I am, madam."

"And pray, sir, what do you think of Miss Morland's gown?"

"It is very pretty, madam," said he, gravely examining it; "but I do not think it
will wash well; I am afraid it will fray."

"How can you," said Catherine, laughing, "be so—" She had almost said
"strange."

"I am quite of your opinion, sir," replied Mrs. Allen; "and so I told Miss
Morland when she bought it."

"But then you know, madam, muslin always turns to some account or other;
Miss Morland will get enough out of it for a handkerchief, or a cap, or a cloak.
Muslin can never be said to be wasted. I have heard my sister say so forty times,
when she has been extravagant in buying more than she wanted, or careless in
cutting it to pieces."

"Bath is a charming place, sir; there are so many good shops here. We are
sadly off in the country; not but what we have very good shops in Salisbury, but it
is so far to go—eight miles is a long way; Mr. Allen says it is nine, measured nine;
but I am sure it cannot be more than eight; and it is such a fag—I come back tired
to death. Now, here one can step out of doors and get a thing in five minutes."

Mr. Tilney was polite enough to seem interested in what she said; and she
kept him on the subject of muslins till the dancing recommenced. Catherine
feared, as she listened to their discourse, that he indulged himself a little too
much with the foibles of others. "What are you thinking of so earnestly?" said he,
as they walked back to the ballroom; "not of your partner, I hope, for, by that
shake of the head, your meditations are not satisfactory."

Catherine coloured, and said, "I was not thinking of anything."

"That is artful and deep, to be sure; but I had rather be told at once that you
will not tell me."

"Well then, I will not."

 "Thank you; for now we shall soon be acquainted, as I am authorized to tease
you on this subject whenever we meet, and nothing in the world advances
intimacy so much."

They danced again; and, when the assembly closed, parted, on the lady's side
at least, with a strong inclination for continuing the acquaintance. Whether she
thought of him so much, while she drank her warm wine and water, and prepared
herself for bed, as to dream of him when there, cannot be ascertained; but I hope
it was no more than in a slight slumber, or a morning doze at most; for if it be
true, as a celebrated writer has maintained, that no young lady can be justified in
falling in love before the gentleman's love is declared,* it must be very improper
that a young lady should dream of a gentleman before the gentleman is first
known to have dreamt of her. How proper Mr. Tilney might be as a dreamer or a
lover had not yet perhaps entered Mr. Allen's head, but that he was not
objectionable as a common acquaintance for his young charge he was on inquiry
satisfied; for he had early in the evening taken pains to know who her partner
was, and had been assured of Mr. Tilney's being a clergyman, and of a very
respectable family in Gloucestershire.

* Vide a letter from Mr. Richardson, No. 97, Vol. II, Rambler.

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 CHAPTER 4

With more than usual eagerness did Catherine hasten to the pump-room the
next day, secure within herself of seeing Mr. Tilney there before the morning were
over, and ready to meet him with a smile; but no smile was demanded—Mr.
Tilney did not appear. Every creature in Bath, except himself, was to be seen in
the room at different periods of the fashionable hours; crowds of people were
every moment passing in and out, up the steps and down; people whom nobody
cared about, and nobody wanted to see; and he only was absent. "What a
delightful place Bath is," said Mrs. Allen as they sat down near the great clock,
after parading the room till they were tired; "and how pleasant it would be if we
had any acquaintance here."

This sentiment had been uttered so often in vain that Mrs. Allen had no
particular reason to hope it would be followed with more advantage now; but we
are told to "despair of nothing we would attain," as "unwearied diligence our point
would gain"; and the unwearied diligence with which she had every day wished
for the same thing was at length to have its just reward, for hardly had she been
seated ten minutes before a lady of about her own age, who was sitting by her,
and had been looking at her attentively for several minutes, addressed her with
great complaisance in these words: "I think, madam, I cannot be mistaken; it is a
long time since I had the pleasure of seeing you, but is not your name Allen?" This
question answered, as it readily was, the stranger pronounced hers to be Thorpe;
and Mrs. Allen immediately recognized the features of a former schoolfellow and
intimate, whom she had seen only once since their respective marriages, and that
many years ago. Their joy on this meeting was very great, as well it might, since
they had been contented to know nothing of each other for the last fifteen years.
Compliments on good looks now passed; and, after observing how time had
slipped away since they were last together, how little they had thought of meeting
in Bath, and what a pleasure it was to see an old friend, they proceeded to make
inquiries and give intelligence as to their families, sisters, and cousins, talking
both together, far more ready to give than to receive information, and each
hearing very little of what the other said. Mrs. Thorpe, however, had one great
advantage as a talker, over Mrs. Allen, in a family of children; and when she
expatiated on the talents of her sons, and the beauty of her daughters, when she
related their different situations and views—that John was at Oxford, Edward at
Merchant Taylors', and William at sea—and all of them more beloved and
respected in their different station than any other three beings ever were, Mrs.
Allen had no similar information to give, no similar triumphs to press on the
unwilling and unbelieving ear of her friend, and was forced to sit and appear to
listen to all these maternal effusions, consoling herself, however, with the
discovery, which her keen eye soon made, that the lace on Mrs. Thorpe's pelisse
was not half so handsome as that on her own.

"Here come my dear girls," cried Mrs. Thorpe, pointing at three smart-looking
females who, arm in arm, were then moving towards her. "My dear Mrs. Allen, I
long to introduce them; they will be so delighted to see you: the tallest is Isabella,
my eldest; is not she a fine young woman? The others are very much admired too,
but I believe Isabella is the handsomest."

The Miss Thorpes were introduced; and Miss Morland, who had been for a
short time forgotten, was introduced likewise. The name seemed to strike them
all; and, after speaking to her with great civility, the eldest young lady observed
aloud to the rest, "How excessively like her brother Miss Morland is!"

"The very picture of him indeed!" cried the mother—and "I should have
known her anywhere for his sister!" was repeated by them all, two or three times
over. For a moment Catherine was surprised; but Mrs. Thorpe and her daughters
had scarcely begun the history of their acquaintance with Mr. James Morland,
before she remembered that her eldest brother had lately formed an intimacy with
a young man of his own college, of the name of Thorpe; and that he had spent the
last week of the Christmas vacation with his family, near London.

The whole being explained, many obliging things were said by the Miss
Thorpes of their wish of being better acquainted with her; of being considered as
already friends, through the friendship of their brothers, etc., which Catherine
heard with pleasure, and answered with all the pretty expressions she could
command; and, as the first proof of amity, she was soon invited to accept an arm
of the eldest Miss Thorpe, and take a turn with her about the room. Catherine
was delighted with this extension of her Bath acquaintance, and almost forgot Mr.
Tilney while she talked to Miss Thorpe. Friendship is certainly the finest balm for
the pangs of disappointed love.

Their conversation turned upon those subjects, of which the free discussion
has generally much to do in perfecting a sudden intimacy between two young
ladies: such as dress, balls, flirtations, and quizzes. Miss Thorpe, however, being
four years older than Miss Morland, and at least four years better informed, had a
very decided advantage in discussing such points; she could compare the balls of
Bath with those of Tunbridge, its fashions with the fashions of London; could
rectify the opinions of her new friend in many articles of tasteful attire; could
discover a flirtation between any gentleman and lady who only smiled on each
other; and point out a quiz through the thickness of a crowd. These powers
received due admiration from Catherine, to whom they were entirely new; and the
respect which they naturally inspired might have been too great for familiarity,
had not the easy gaiety of Miss Thorpe's manners, and her frequent expressions of
delight on this acquaintance with her, softened down every feeling of awe, and
left nothing but tender affection. Their increasing attachment was not to be
satisfied with half a dozen turns in the pump-room, but required, when they all
quitted it together, that Miss Thorpe should accompany Miss Morland to the very
door of Mr. Allen's house; and that they should there part with a most
affectionate and lengthened shake of hands, after learning, to their mutual relief,
that they should see each other across the theatre at night, and say their prayers
in the same chapel the next morning. Catherine then ran directly upstairs, and
watched Miss Thorpe's progress down the street from the drawing-room window;
admired the graceful spirit of her walk, the fashionable air of her figure and dress;
and felt grateful, as well she might, for the chance which had procured her such a
friend.

Mrs. Thorpe was a widow, and not a very rich one; she was a good-
humoured, well-meaning woman, and a very indulgent mother. Her eldest
daughter had great personal beauty, and the younger ones, by pretending to be as
handsome as their sister, imitating her air, and dressing in the same style, did
very well.

This brief account of the family is intended to supersede the necessity of a

long and minute detail from Mrs. Thorpe herself, of her past adventures and
sufferings, which might otherwise be expected to occupy the three or four
following chapters; in which the worthlessness of lords and attornies might be set
forth, and conversations, which had passed twenty years before, be minutely
repeated.

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 CHAPTER 5

Catherine was not so much engaged at the theatre that evening, in returning
the nods and smiles of Miss Thorpe, though they certainly claimed much of her
leisure, as to forget to look with an inquiring eye for Mr. Tilney in every box
which her eye could reach; but she looked in vain. Mr. Tilney was no fonder of
the play than the pump-room. She hoped to be more fortunate the next day; and
when her wishes for fine weather were answered by seeing a beautiful morning,
she hardly felt a doubt of it; for a fine Sunday in Bath empties every house of its
inhabitants, and all the world appears on such an occasion to walk about and tell
their acquaintance what a charming day it is.

As soon as divine service was over, the Thorpes and Allens eagerly joined
each other; and after staying long enough in the pump-room to discover that the
crowd was insupportable, and that there was not a genteel face to be seen, which
everybody discovers every Sunday throughout the season, they hastened away to
the Crescent, to breathe the fresh air of better company. Here Catherine and
Isabella, arm in arm, again tasted the sweets of friendship in an unreserved
conversation; they talked much, and with much enjoyment; but again was
Catherine disappointed in her hope of reseeing her partner. He was nowhere to be
met with; every search for him was equally unsuccessful, in morning lounges or
evening assemblies; neither at the Upper nor Lower Rooms, at dressed or
undressed balls, was he perceivable; nor among the walkers, the horsemen, or the
curricle-drivers of the morning. His name was not in the pump-room book, and
curiosity could do no more. He must be gone from Bath. Yet he had not
mentioned that his stay would be so short! This sort of mysteriousness, which is
always so becoming in a hero, threw a fresh grace in Catherine's imagination
around his person and manners, and increased her anxiety to know more of him.
From the Thorpes she could learn nothing, for they had been only two days in
Bath before they met with Mrs. Allen. It was a subject, however, in which she
often indulged with her fair friend, from whom she received every possible
encouragement to continue to think of him; and his impression on her fancy was
not suffered therefore to weaken. Isabella was very sure that he must be a
charming young man, and was equally sure that he must have been delighted with
her dear Catherine, and would therefore shortly return. She liked him the better
for being a clergyman, "for she must confess herself very partial to the profession";
and something like a sigh escaped her as she said it. Perhaps Catherine was wrong
in not demanding the cause of that gentle emotion—but she was not experienced
enough in the finesse of love, or the duties of friendship, to know when delicate
raillery was properly called for, or when a confidence should be forced.

Mrs. Allen was now quite happy—quite satisfied with Bath. She had found
some acquaintance, had been so lucky too as to find in them the family of a most
worthy old friend; and, as the completion of good fortune, had found these friends
by no means so expensively dressed as herself. Her daily expressions were no
longer, "I wish we had some acquaintance in Bath!" They were changed into, "How
glad I am we have met with Mrs. Thorpe!" and she was as eager in promoting the
intercourse of the two families, as her young charge and Isabella themselves could
be; never satisfied with the day unless she spent the chief of it by the side of Mrs.
Thorpe, in what they called conversation, but in which there was scarcely ever
any exchange of opinion, and not often any resemblance of subject, for Mrs.
Thorpe talked chiefly of her children, and Mrs. Allen of her gowns.

The progress of the friendship between Catherine and Isabella was quick as
its beginning had been warm, and they passed so rapidly through every gradation
of increasing tenderness that there was shortly no fresh proof of it to be given to
their friends or themselves. They called each other by their Christian name, were
always arm in arm when they walked, pinned up each other's train for the dance,
and were not to be divided in the set; and if a rainy morning deprived them of
other enjoyments, they were still resolute in meeting in defiance of wet and dirt,
and shut themselves up, to read novels together. Yes, novels; for I will not adopt
that ungenerous and impolitic custom so common with novel-writers, of degrading
by their contemptuous censure the very performances, to the number of which
they are themselves adding—joining with their greatest enemies in bestowing the
harshest epithets on such works, and scarcely ever permitting them to be read by
their own heroine, who, if she accidentally take up a novel, is sure to turn over its
insipid pages with disgust. Alas! If the heroine of one novel be not patronized by
the heroine of another, from whom can she expect protection and regard? I cannot
approve of it. Let us leave it to the reviewers to abuse such effusions of fancy at
their leisure, and over every new novel to talk in threadbare strains of the trash
with which the press now groans. Let us not desert one another; we are an injured
body. Although our productions have afforded more extensive and unaffected
pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world, no species of
composition has been so much decried. From pride, ignorance, or fashion, our
foes are almost as many as our readers. And while the abilities of the nine-
hundredth abridger of the History of England, or of the man who collects and
publishes in a volume some dozen lines of Milton, Pope, and Prior, with a paper
from the Spectator, and a chapter from Sterne, are eulogized by a thousand
pens—there seems almost a general wish of decrying the capacity and
undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which
have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them. "I am no novel-reader—I
seldom look into novels—Do not imagine that I often read novels—It is really very
well for a novel." Such is the common cant. "And what are you reading, Miss—?"
"Oh! It is only a novel!" replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with
affected indifference, or momentary shame. "It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or
Belinda"; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind
are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the
happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are
conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language. Now, had the same young
lady been engaged with a volume of the Spectator, instead of such a work, how
proudly would she have produced the book, and told its name; though the
chances must be against her being occupied by any part of that voluminous
publication, of which either the matter or manner would not disgust a young
person of taste: the substance of its papers so often consisting in the statement of
improbable circumstances, unnatural characters, and topics of conversation which
no longer concern anyone living; and their language, too, frequently so coarse as
to give no very favourable idea of the age that could endure it.

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 CHAPTER 6

The following conversation, which took place between the two friends in the
pump-room one morning, after an acquaintance of eight or nine days, is given as a
specimen of their very warm attachment, and of the delicacy, discretion,
originality of thought, and literary taste which marked the reasonableness of that
attachment.

They met by appointment; and as Isabella had arrived nearly five minutes
before her friend, her first address naturally was, "My dearest creature, what can
have made you so late? I have been waiting for you at least this age!"

"Have you, indeed! I am very sorry for it; but really I thought I was in very
good time. It is but just one. I hope you have not been here long?"

"Oh! These ten ages at least. I am sure I have been here this half hour. But
now, let us go and sit down at the other end of the room, and enjoy ourselves. I
have an hundred things to say to you. In the first place, I was so afraid it would
rain this morning, just as I wanted to set off; it looked very showery, and that
would have thrown me into agonies! Do you know, I saw the prettiest hat you can
imagine, in a shop window in Milsom Street just now—very like yours, only with
coquelicot ribbons instead of green; I quite longed for it. But, my dearest
Catherine, what have you been doing with yourself all this morning? Have you
gone on with Udolpho?"

"Yes, I have been reading it ever since I woke; and I am got to the black veil."

"Are you, indeed? How delightful! Oh! I would not tell you what is behind the
black veil for the world! Are not you wild to know?"

"Oh! Yes, quite; what can it be? But do not tell me—I would not be told upon
any account. I know it must be a skeleton, I am sure it is Laurentina's skeleton.
Oh! I am delighted with the book! I should like to spend my whole life in reading
it. I assure you, if it had not been to meet you, I would not have come away from
it for all the world."
 "Dear creature! How much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished
Udolpho, we will read the Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or
twelve more of the same kind for you."

"Have you, indeed! How glad I am! What are they all?"

"I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocketbook. Castle
of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest,
Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us
some time."

"Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?"

"Yes, quite sure; for a particular friend of mine, a Miss Andrews, a sweet girl,
one of the sweetest creatures in the world, has read every one of them. I wish you
knew Miss Andrews, you would be delighted with her. She is netting herself the
sweetest cloak you can conceive. I think her as beautiful as an angel, and I am so
vexed with the men for not admiring her! I scold them all amazingly about it."

"Scold them! Do you scold them for not admiring her?"

"Yes, that I do. There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my
friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves; it is not my nature. My
attachments are always excessively strong. I told Captain Hunt at one of our
assemblies this winter that if he was to tease me all night, I would not dance with
him, unless he would allow Miss Andrews to be as beautiful as an angel. The men
think us incapable of real friendship, you know, and I am determined to show
them the difference. Now, if I were to hear anybody speak slightingly of you, I
should fire up in a moment: but that is not at all likely, for you are just the kind
of girl to be a great favourite with the men."

"Oh, dear!" cried Catherine, colouring. "How can you say so?"

"I know you very well; you have so much animation, which is exactly what
Miss Andrews wants, for I must confess there is something amazingly insipid
about her. Oh! I must tell you, that just after we parted yesterday, I saw a young
man looking at you so earnestly—I am sure he is in love with you." Catherine
coloured, and disclaimed again. Isabella laughed. "It is very true, upon my
honour, but I see how it is; you are indifferent to everybody's admiration, except
that of one gentleman, who shall be nameless. Nay, I cannot blame you"—
speaking more seriously—"your feelings are easily understood. Where the heart is
really attached, I know very well how little one can be pleased with the attention
of anybody else. Everything is so insipid, so uninteresting, that does not relate to
the beloved object! I can perfectly comprehend your feelings."

"But you should not persuade me that I think so very much about Mr. Tilney,
for perhaps I may never see him again."
 "Not see him again! My dearest creature, do not talk of it. I am sure you
would be miserable if you thought so!"

"No, indeed, I should not. I do not pretend to say that I was not very much
pleased with him; but while I have Udolpho to read, I feel as if nobody could
make me miserable. Oh! The dreadful black veil! My dear Isabella, I am sure there
must be Laurentina's skeleton behind it."

"It is so odd to me, that you should never have read Udolpho before; but I
suppose Mrs. Morland objects to novels."

"No, she does not. She very often reads Sir Charles Grandison herself; but
new books do not fall in our way."

"Sir Charles Grandison! That is an amazing horrid book, is it not? I remember

Miss Andrews could not get through the first volume."

"It is not like Udolpho at all; but yet I think it is very entertaining."

"Do you indeed! You surprise me; I thought it had not been readable. But, my
dearest Catherine, have you settled what to wear on your head tonight? I am
determined at all events to be dressed exactly like you. The men take notice of
that sometimes, you know."

"But it does not signify if they do," said Catherine, very innocently.

"Signify! Oh, heavens! I make it a rule never to mind what they say. They are
very often amazingly impertinent if you do not treat them with spirit, and make
them keep their distance."

"Are they? Well, I never observed that. They always behave very well to me."

"Oh! They give themselves such airs. They are the most conceited creatures in
the world, and think themselves of so much importance! By the by, though I have
thought of it a hundred times, I have always forgot to ask you what is your
favourite complexion in a man. Do you like them best dark or fair?"

"I hardly know. I never much thought about it. Something between both, I
think. Brown—not fair, and—and not very dark."

"Very well, Catherine. That is exactly he. I have not forgot your description of
Mr. Tilney—'a brown skin, with dark eyes, and rather dark hair.' Well, my taste is
different. I prefer light eyes, and as to complexion—do you know—I like a sallow
better than any other. You must not betray me, if you should ever meet with one
of your acquaintance answering that description."

"Betray you! What do you mean?"

 "Nay, do not distress me. I believe I have said too much. Let us drop the
subject."

Catherine, in some amazement, complied, and after remaining a few moments

silent, was on the point of reverting to what interested her at that time rather
more than anything else in the world, Laurentina's skeleton, when her friend
prevented her, by saying, "For heaven's sake! Let us move away from this end of
the room. Do you know, there are two odious young men who have been staring
at me this half hour. They really put me quite out of countenance. Let us go and
look at the arrivals. They will hardly follow us there."

Away they walked to the book; and while Isabella examined the names, it was
Catherine's employment to watch the proceedings of these alarming young men.

"They are not coming this way, are they? I hope they are not so impertinent
as to follow us. Pray let me know if they are coming. I am determined I will not
look up."

In a few moments Catherine, with unaffected pleasure, assured her that she
need not be longer uneasy, as the gentlemen had just left the pump-room.

"And which way are they gone?" said Isabella, turning hastily round. "One
was a very good-looking young man."

"They went towards the church-yard."

"Well, I am amazingly glad I have got rid of them! And now, what say you to
going to Edgar's Buildings with me, and looking at my new hat? You said you
should like to see it."

Catherine readily agreed. "Only," she added, "perhaps we may overtake the
two young men."

"Oh! Never mind that. If we make haste, we shall pass by them presently, and
I am dying to show you my hat."

"But if we only wait a few minutes, there will be no danger of our seeing them
at all."

"I shall not pay them any such compliment, I assure you. I have no notion of
treating men with such respect. That is the way to spoil them."

Catherine had nothing to oppose against such reasoning; and therefore, to

show the independence of Miss Thorpe, and her resolution of humbling the sex,
they set off immediately as fast as they could walk, in pursuit of the two young
men.
 CHAPTER 7

Half a minute conducted them through the pump-yard to the archway,

opposite Union Passage; but here they were stopped. Everybody acquainted with
Bath may remember the difficulties of crossing Cheap Street at this point; it is
indeed a street of so impertinent a nature, so unfortunately connected with the
great London and Oxford roads, and the principal inn of the city, that a day never
passes in which parties of ladies, however important their business, whether in
quest of pastry, millinery, or even (as in the present case) of young men, are not
detained on one side or other by carriages, horsemen, or carts. This evil had been
felt and lamented, at least three times a day, by Isabella since her residence in
Bath; and she was now fated to feel and lament it once more, for at the very
moment of coming opposite to Union Passage, and within view of the two
gentlemen who were proceeding through the crowds, and threading the gutters of
that interesting alley, they were prevented crossing by the approach of a gig,
driven along on bad pavement by a most knowing-looking coachman with all the
vehemence that could most fitly endanger the lives of himself, his companion, and
his horse.

"Oh, these odious gigs!" said Isabella, looking up. "How I detest them." But
this detestation, though so just, was of short duration, for she looked again and
exclaimed, "Delightful! Mr. Morland and my brother!"

"Good heaven! 'Tis James!" was uttered at the same moment by Catherine;
and, on catching the young men's eyes, the horse was immediately checked with a
violence which almost threw him on his haunches, and the servant having now
scampered up, the gentlemen jumped out, and the equipage was delivered to his
care.

Catherine, by whom this meeting was wholly unexpected, received her

brother with the liveliest pleasure; and he, being of a very amiable disposition,
and sincerely attached to her, gave every proof on his side of equal satisfaction,
which he could have leisure to do, while the bright eyes of Miss Thorpe were
incessantly challenging his notice; and to her his devoirs were speedily paid, with
a mixture of joy and embarrassment which might have informed Catherine, had
she been more expert in the development of other people's feelings, and less
simply engrossed by her own, that her brother thought her friend quite as pretty
as she could do herself.

John Thorpe, who in the meantime had been giving orders about the horses,
soon joined them, and from him she directly received the amends which were her
due; for while he slightly and carelessly touched the hand of Isabella, on her he
bestowed a whole scrape and half a short bow. He was a stout young man of
middling height, who, with a plain face and ungraceful form, seemed fearful of
being too handsome unless he wore the dress of a groom, and too much like a
gentleman unless he were easy where he ought to be civil, and impudent where he
might be allowed to be easy. He took out his watch: "How long do you think we
have been running it from Tetbury, Miss Morland?"

"I do not know the distance." Her brother told her that it was twenty-three
miles.

"Three and twenty!" cried Thorpe. "Five and twenty if it is an inch." Morland
remonstrated, pleaded the authority of road-books, innkeepers, and milestones;
but his friend disregarded them all; he had a surer test of distance. "I know it
must be five and twenty," said he, "by the time we have been doing it. It is now
half after one; we drove out of the inn-yard at Tetbury as the town clock struck
eleven; and I defy any man in England to make my horse go less than ten miles an
hour in harness; that makes it exactly twenty-five."

"You have lost an hour," said Morland; "it was only ten o'clock when we came
from Tetbury."

"Ten o'clock! It was eleven, upon my soul! I counted every stroke. This
brother of yours would persuade me out of my senses, Miss Morland; do but look
at my horse; did you ever see an animal so made for speed in your life?" (The
servant had just mounted the carriage and was driving off.) "Such true blood!
Three hours and and a half indeed coming only three and twenty miles! Look at
that creature, and suppose it possible if you can."

"He does look very hot, to be sure."

"Hot! He had not turned a hair till we came to Walcot Church; but look at his
forehand; look at his loins; only see how he moves; that horse cannot go less than
ten miles an hour: tie his legs and he will get on. What do you think of my gig,
Miss Morland? A neat one, is not it? Well hung; town-built; I have not had it a
month. It was built for a Christchurch man, a friend of mine, a very good sort of
fellow; he ran it a few weeks, till, I believe, it was convenient to have done with
it. I happened just then to be looking out for some light thing of the kind, though
I had pretty well determined on a curricle too; but I chanced to meet him on
Magdalen Bridge, as he was driving into Oxford, last term: 'Ah! Thorpe,' said he,
'do you happen to want such a little thing as this? It is a capital one of the kind,
but I am cursed tired of it.' 'Oh! D—,' said I; 'I am your man; what do you ask?'
And how much do you think he did, Miss Morland?"

"I am sure I cannot guess at all."

"Curricle-hung, you see; seat, trunk, sword-case, splashing-board, lamps,

silver moulding, all you see complete; the iron-work as good as new, or better. He
asked fifty guineas; I closed with him directly, threw down the money, and the
carriage was mine."

"And I am sure," said Catherine, "I know so little of such things that I cannot
judge whether it was cheap or dear."

"Neither one nor t'other; I might have got it for less, I dare say; but I hate
haggling, and poor Freeman wanted cash."

"That was very good-natured of you," said Catherine, quite pleased.

"Oh! D—— it, when one has the means of doing a kind thing by a friend, I
hate to be pitiful."

An inquiry now took place into the intended movements of the young ladies;
and, on finding whither they were going, it was decided that the gentlemen should
accompany them to Edgar's Buildings, and pay their respects to Mrs. Thorpe.
James and Isabella led the way; and so well satisfied was the latter with her lot,
so contentedly was she endeavouring to ensure a pleasant walk to him who
brought the double recommendation of being her brother's friend, and her friend's
brother, so pure and uncoquettish were her feelings, that, though they overtook
and passed the two offending young men in Milsom Street, she was so far from
seeking to attract their notice, that she looked back at them only three times.

John Thorpe kept of course with Catherine, and, after a few minutes' silence,
renewed the conversation about his gig. "You will find, however, Miss Morland, it
would be reckoned a cheap thing by some people, for I might have sold it for ten
guineas more the next day; Jackson, of Oriel, bid me sixty at once; Morland was
with me at the time."

"Yes," said Morland, who overheard this; "but you forget that your horse was
included."

"My horse! Oh, d—— it! I would not sell my horse for a hundred. Are you
fond of an open carriage, Miss Morland?"

"Yes, very; I have hardly ever an opportunity of being in one; but I am

particularly fond of it."

"I am glad of it; I will drive you out in mine every day."
 "Thank you," said Catherine, in some distress, from a doubt of the propriety
of accepting such an offer.

"I will drive you up Lansdown Hill tomorrow."

"Thank you; but will not your horse want rest?"

"Rest! He has only come three and twenty miles today; all nonsense; nothing
ruins horses so much as rest; nothing knocks them up so soon. No, no; I shall
exercise mine at the average of four hours every day while I am here."

"Shall you indeed!" said Catherine very seriously. "That will be forty miles a
day."

"Forty! Aye, fifty, for what I care. Well, I will drive you up Lansdown
tomorrow; mind, I am engaged."

"How delightful that will be!" cried Isabella, turning round. "My dearest
Catherine, I quite envy you; but I am afraid, brother, you will not have room for a
third."

"A third indeed! No, no; I did not come to Bath to drive my sisters about; that
would be a good joke, faith! Morland must take care of you."

This brought on a dialogue of civilities between the other two; but Catherine
heard neither the particulars nor the result. Her companion's discourse now sunk
from its hitherto animated pitch to nothing more than a short decisive sentence of
praise or condemnation on the face of every woman they met; and Catherine, after
listening and agreeing as long as she could, with all the civility and deference of
the youthful female mind, fearful of hazarding an opinion of its own in opposition
to that of a self-assured man, especially where the beauty of her own sex is
concerned, ventured at length to vary the subject by a question which had been
long uppermost in her thoughts; it was, "Have you ever read Udolpho, Mr.
Thorpe?"

"Udolpho! Oh, Lord! Not I; I never read novels; I have something else to do."

Catherine, humbled and ashamed, was going to apologize for her question,
but he prevented her by saying, "Novels are all so full of nonsense and stuff; there
has not been a tolerably decent one come out since Tom Jones, except The Monk;
I read that t'other day; but as for all the others, they are the stupidest things in
creation."

"I think you must like Udolpho, if you were to read it; it is so very
interesting."

"Not I, faith! No, if I read any, it shall be Mrs. Radcliffe's; her novels are
amusing enough; they are worth reading; some fun and nature in them."
 "Udolpho was written by Mrs. Radcliffe," said Catherine, with some
hesitation, from the fear of mortifying him.

"No sure; was it? Aye, I remember, so it was; I was thinking of that other
stupid book, written by that woman they make such a fuss about, she who
married the French emigrant."

"I suppose you mean Camilla?"

"Yes, that's the book; such unnatural stuff! An old man playing at see-saw, I
took up the first volume once and looked it over, but I soon found it would not
do; indeed I guessed what sort of stuff it must be before I saw it: as soon as I
heard she had married an emigrant, I was sure I should never be able to get
through it."

"I have never read it."

"You had no loss, I assure you; it is the horridest nonsense you can imagine;
there is nothing in the world in it but an old man's playing at see-saw and learning
Latin; upon my soul there is not."

This critique, the justness of which was unfortunately lost on poor Catherine,
brought them to the door of Mrs. Thorpe's lodgings, and the feelings of the
discerning and unprejudiced reader of Camilla gave way to the feelings of the
dutiful and affectionate son, as they met Mrs. Thorpe, who had descried them
from above, in the passage. "Ah, Mother! How do you do?" said he, giving her a
hearty shake of the hand. "Where did you get that quiz of a hat? It makes you look
like an old witch. Here is Morland and I come to stay a few days with you, so you
must look out for a couple of good beds somewhere near." And this address
seemed to satisfy all the fondest wishes of the mother's heart, for she received him
with the most delighted and exulting affection. On his two younger sisters he then
bestowed an equal portion of his fraternal tenderness, for he asked each of them
how they did, and observed that they both looked very ugly.

These manners did not please Catherine; but he was James's friend and
Isabella's brother; and her judgment was further bought off by Isabella's assuring
her, when they withdrew to see the new hat, that John thought her the most
charming girl in the world, and by John's engaging her before they parted to dance
with him that evening. Had she been older or vainer, such attacks might have
done little; but, where youth and diffidence are united, it requires uncommon
steadiness of reason to resist the attraction of being called the most charming girl
in the world, and of being so very early engaged as a partner; and the
consequence was that, when the two Morlands, after sitting an hour with the
Thorpes, set off to walk together to Mr. Allen's, and James, as the door was closed
on them, said, "Well, Catherine, how do you like my friend Thorpe?" instead of
answering, as she probably would have done, had there been no friendship and no
flattery in the case, "I do not like him at all," she directly replied, "I like him very
much; he seems very agreeable."

"He is as good-natured a fellow as ever lived; a little of a rattle; but that will
recommend him to your sex, I believe: and how do you like the rest of the
family?"

"Very, very much indeed: Isabella particularly."

"I am very glad to hear you say so; she is just the kind of young woman I
could wish to see you attached to; she has so much good sense, and is so
thoroughly unaffected and amiable; I always wanted you to know her; and she
seems very fond of you. She said the highest things in your praise that could
possibly be; and the praise of such a girl as Miss Thorpe even you, Catherine,"
taking her hand with affection, "may be proud of."

"Indeed I am," she replied; "I love her exceedingly, and am delighted to find
that you like her too. You hardly mentioned anything of her when you wrote to
me after your visit there."

"Because I thought I should soon see you myself. I hope you will be a great
deal together while you are in Bath. She is a most amiable girl; such a superior
understanding! How fond all the family are of her; she is evidently the general
favourite; and how much she must be admired in such a place as this—is not
she?"

"Yes, very much indeed, I fancy; Mr. Allen thinks her the prettiest girl in
Bath."

"I dare say he does; and I do not know any man who is a better judge of
beauty than Mr. Allen. I need not ask you whether you are happy here, my dear
Catherine; with such a companion and friend as Isabella Thorpe, it would be
impossible for you to be otherwise; and the Allens, I am sure, are very kind to
you?"

"Yes, very kind; I never was so happy before; and now you are come it will be
more delightful than ever; how good it is of you to come so far on purpose to see
me."

James accepted this tribute of gratitude, and qualified his conscience for
accepting it too, by saying with perfect sincerity, "Indeed, Catherine, I love you
dearly."

Inquiries and communications concerning brothers and sisters, the situation

of some, the growth of the rest, and other family matters now passed between
them, and continued, with only one small digression on James's part, in praise of
Miss Thorpe, till they reached Pulteney Street, where he was welcomed with great
kindness by Mr. and Mrs. Allen, invited by the former to dine with them, and
summoned by the latter to guess the price and weigh the merits of a new muff
and tippet. A pre-engagement in Edgar's Buildings prevented his accepting the
invitation of one friend, and obliged him to hurry away as soon as he had satisfied
the demands of the other. The time of the two parties uniting in the Octagon
Room being correctly adjusted, Catherine was then left to the luxury of a raised,
restless, and frightened imagination over the pages of Udolpho, lost from all
worldly concerns of dressing and dinner, incapable of soothing Mrs. Allen's fears
on the delay of an expected dressmaker, and having only one minute in sixty to
bestow even on the reflection of her own felicity, in being already engaged for the
evening.

Ebd
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 CHAPTER 8

In spite of Udolpho and the dressmaker, however, the party from Pulteney
Street reached the Upper Rooms in very good time. The Thorpes and James
Morland were there only two minutes before them; and Isabella having gone
through the usual ceremonial of meeting her friend with the most smiling and
affectionate haste, of admiring the set of her gown, and envying the curl of her
hair, they followed their chaperones, arm in arm, into the ballroom, whispering to
each other whenever a thought occurred, and supplying the place of many ideas
by a squeeze of the hand or a smile of affection.

The dancing began within a few minutes after they were seated; and James,
who had been engaged quite as long as his sister, was very importunate with
Isabella to stand up; but John was gone into the card-room to speak to a friend,
and nothing, she declared, should induce her to join the set before her dear
Catherine could join it too. "I assure you," said she, "I would not stand up without
your dear sister for all the world; for if I did we should certainly be separated the
whole evening." Catherine accepted this kindness with gratitude, and they
continued as they were for three minutes longer, when Isabella, who had been
talking to James on the other side of her, turned again to his sister and whispered,
"My dear creature, I am afraid I must leave you, your brother is so amazingly
impatient to begin; I know you will not mind my going away, and I dare say John
will be back in a moment, and then you may easily find me out." Catherine,
though a little disappointed, had too much good nature to make any opposition,
and the others rising up, Isabella had only time to press her friend's hand and say,
"Good-bye, my dear love," before they hurried off. The younger Miss Thorpes
being also dancing, Catherine was left to the mercy of Mrs. Thorpe and Mrs.
Allen, between whom she now remained. She could not help being vexed at the
non-appearance of Mr. Thorpe, for she not only longed to be dancing, but was
likewise aware that, as the real dignity of her situation could not be known, she
was sharing with the scores of other young ladies still sitting down all the
discredit of wanting a partner. To be disgraced in the eye of the world, to wear
the appearance of infamy while her heart is all purity, her actions all innocence,
and the misconduct of another the true source of her debasement, is one of those
circumstances which peculiarly belong to the heroine's life, and her fortitude
under it what particularly dignifies her character. Catherine had fortitude too; she
suffered, but no murmur passed her lips.
 From this state of humiliation, she was roused, at the end of ten minutes, to a
pleasanter feeling, by seeing, not Mr. Thorpe, but Mr. Tilney, within three yards
of the place where they sat; he seemed to be moving that way, but he did not see
her, and therefore the smile and the blush, which his sudden reappearance raised
in Catherine, passed away without sullying her heroic importance. He looked as
handsome and as lively as ever, and was talking with interest to a fashionable and
pleasing-looking young woman, who leant on his arm, and whom Catherine
immediately guessed to be his sister; thus unthinkingly throwing away a fair
opportunity of considering him lost to her forever, by being married already. But
guided only by what was simple and probable, it had never entered her head that
Mr. Tilney could be married; he had not behaved, he had not talked, like the
married men to whom she had been used; he had never mentioned a wife, and he
had acknowledged a sister. From these circumstances sprang the instant
conclusion of his sister's now being by his side; and therefore, instead of turning
of a deathlike paleness and falling in a fit on Mrs. Allen's bosom, Catherine sat
erect, in the perfect use of her senses, and with cheeks only a little redder than
usual.

Mr. Tilney and his companion, who continued, though slowly, to approach,
were immediately preceded by a lady, an acquaintance of Mrs. Thorpe; and this
lady stopping to speak to her, they, as belonging to her, stopped likewise, and
Catherine, catching Mr. Tilney's eye, instantly received from him the smiling
tribute of recognition. She returned it with pleasure, and then advancing still
nearer, he spoke both to her and Mrs. Allen, by whom he was very civilly
acknowledged. "I am very happy to see you again, sir, indeed; I was afraid you
had left Bath." He thanked her for her fears, and said that he had quitted it for a
week, on the very morning after his having had the pleasure of seeing her.

"Well, sir, and I dare say you are not sorry to be back again, for it is just the
place for young people—and indeed for everybody else too. I tell Mr. Allen, when
he talks of being sick of it, that I am sure he should not complain, for it is so very
agreeable a place, that it is much better to be here than at home at this dull time
of year. I tell him he is quite in luck to be sent here for his health."

"And I hope, madam, that Mr. Allen will be obliged to like the place, from
finding it of service to him."

"Thank you, sir. I have no doubt that he will. A neighbour of ours, Dr.
Skinner, was here for his health last winter, and came away quite stout."

"That circumstance must give great encouragement."

"Yes, sir—and Dr. Skinner and his family were here three months; so I tell
Mr. Allen he must not be in a hurry to get away."

Here they were interrupted by a request from Mrs. Thorpe to Mrs. Allen, that
she would move a little to accommodate Mrs. Hughes and Miss Tilney with seats,
as they had agreed to join their party. This was accordingly done, Mr. Tilney still
continuing standing before them; and after a few minutes' consideration, he asked
Catherine to dance with him. This compliment, delightful as it was, produced
severe mortification to the lady; and in giving her denial, she expressed her
sorrow on the occasion so very much as if she really felt it that had Thorpe, who
joined her just afterwards, been half a minute earlier, he might have thought her
sufferings rather too acute. The very easy manner in which he then told her that
he had kept her waiting did not by any means reconcile her more to her lot; nor
did the particulars which he entered into while they were standing up, of the
horses and dogs of the friend whom he had just left, and of a proposed exchange
of terriers between them, interest her so much as to prevent her looking very often
towards that part of the room where she had left Mr. Tilney. Of her dear Isabella,
to whom she particularly longed to point out that gentleman, she could see
nothing. They were in different sets. She was separated from all her party, and
away from all her acquaintance; one mortification succeeded another, and from
the whole she deduced this useful lesson, that to go previously engaged to a ball
does not necessarily increase either the dignity or enjoyment of a young lady.
From such a moralizing strain as this, she was suddenly roused by a touch on the
shoulder, and turning round, perceived Mrs. Hughes directly behind her, attended
by Miss Tilney and a gentleman. "I beg your pardon, Miss Morland," said she, "for
this liberty—but I cannot anyhow get to Miss Thorpe, and Mrs. Thorpe said she
was sure you would not have the least objection to letting in this young lady by
you." Mrs. Hughes could not have applied to any creature in the room more happy
to oblige her than Catherine. The young ladies were introduced to each other,
Miss Tilney expressing a proper sense of such goodness, Miss Morland with the
real delicacy of a generous mind making light of the obligation; and Mrs. Hughes,
satisfied with having so respectably settled her young charge, returned to her
party.

Miss Tilney had a good figure, a pretty face, and a very agreeable
countenance; and her air, though it had not all the decided pretension, the
resolute stylishness of Miss Thorpe's, had more real elegance. Her manners
showed good sense and good breeding; they were neither shy nor affectedly open;
and she seemed capable of being young, attractive, and at a ball without wanting
to fix the attention of every man near her, and without exaggerated feelings of
ecstatic delight or inconceivable vexation on every little trifling occurrence.
Catherine, interested at once by her appearance and her relationship to Mr.
Tilney, was desirous of being acquainted with her, and readily talked therefore
whenever she could think of anything to say, and had courage and leisure for
saying it. But the hindrance thrown in the way of a very speedy intimacy, by the
frequent want of one or more of these requisites, prevented their doing more than
going through the first rudiments of an acquaintance, by informing themselves
how well the other liked Bath, how much she admired its buildings and
surrounding country, whether she drew, or played, or sang, and whether she was
fond of riding on horseback.
 The two dances were scarcely concluded before Catherine found her arm
gently seized by her faithful Isabella, who in great spirits exclaimed, "At last I
have got you. My dearest creature, I have been looking for you this hour. What
could induce you to come into this set, when you knew I was in the other? I have
been quite wretched without you."

"My dear Isabella, how was it possible for me to get at you? I could not even
see where you were."

"So I told your brother all the time—but he would not believe me. Do go and
see for her, Mr. Morland, said I—but all in vain—he would not stir an inch. Was
not it so, Mr. Morland? But you men are all so immoderately lazy! I have been
scolding him to such a degree, my dear Catherine, you would be quite amazed.
You know I never stand upon ceremony with such people."

"Look at that young lady with the white beads round her head," whispered
Catherine, detaching her friend from James. "It is Mr. Tilney's sister."

"Oh! Heavens! You don't say so! Let me look at her this moment. What a
delightful girl! I never saw anything half so beautiful! But where is her all-
conquering brother? Is he in the room? Point him out to me this instant, if he is. I
die to see him. Mr. Morland, you are not to listen. We are not talking about you."

"But what is all this whispering about? What is going on?"

"There now, I knew how it would be. You men have such restless curiosity!
Talk of the curiosity of women, indeed! 'Tis nothing. But be satisfied, for you are
not to know anything at all of the matter."

"And is that likely to satisfy me, do you think?"

"Well, I declare I never knew anything like you. What can it signify to you,
what we are talking of. Perhaps we are talking about you; therefore I would advise
you not to listen, or you may happen to hear something not very agreeable."

In this commonplace chatter, which lasted some time, the original subject
seemed entirely forgotten; and though Catherine was very well pleased to have it
dropped for a while, she could not avoid a little suspicion at the total suspension
of all Isabella's impatient desire to see Mr. Tilney. When the orchestra struck up a
fresh dance, James would have led his fair partner away, but she resisted. "I tell
you, Mr. Morland," she cried, "I would not do such a thing for all the world. How
can you be so teasing; only conceive, my dear Catherine, what your brother wants
me to do. He wants me to dance with him again, though I tell him that it is a most
improper thing, and entirely against the rules. It would make us the talk of the
place, if we were not to change partners."

"Upon my honour," said James, "in these public assemblies, it is as often done
as not."
 "Nonsense, how can you say so? But when you men have a point to carry,
you never stick at anything. My sweet Catherine, do support me; persuade your
brother how impossible it is. Tell him that it would quite shock you to see me do
such a thing; now would not it?"

"No, not at all; but if you think it wrong, you had much better change."

"There," cried Isabella, "you hear what your sister says, and yet you will not
mind her. Well, remember that it is not my fault, if we set all the old ladies in
Bath in a bustle. Come along, my dearest Catherine, for heaven's sake, and stand
by me." And off they went, to regain their former place. John Thorpe, in the
meanwhile, had walked away; and Catherine, ever willing to give Mr. Tilney an
opportunity of repeating the agreeable request which had already flattered her
once, made her way to Mrs. Allen and Mrs. Thorpe as fast as she could, in the
hope of finding him still with them—a hope which, when it proved to be fruitless,
she felt to have been highly unreasonable. "Well, my dear," said Mrs. Thorpe,
impatient for praise of her son, "I hope you have had an agreeable partner."

"Very agreeable, madam."

"I am glad of it. John has charming spirits, has not he?"

"Did you meet Mr. Tilney, my dear?" said Mrs. Allen.

"No, where is he?"

"He was with us just now, and said he was so tired of lounging about, that he
was resolved to go and dance; so I thought perhaps he would ask you, if he met
with you."

"Where can he be?" said Catherine, looking round; but she had not looked
round long before she saw him leading a young lady to the dance.

"Ah! He has got a partner; I wish he had asked you," said Mrs. Allen; and
after a short silence, she added, "he is a very agreeable young man."

"Indeed he is, Mrs. Allen," said Mrs. Thorpe, smiling complacently; "I must
say it, though I am his mother, that there is not a more agreeable young man in
the world."

This inapplicable answer might have been too much for the comprehension of
many; but it did not puzzle Mrs. Allen, for after only a moment's consideration,
she said, in a whisper to Catherine, "I dare say she thought I was speaking of her
son."

Catherine was disappointed and vexed. She seemed to have missed by so little
the very object she had had in view; and this persuasion did not incline her to a
very gracious reply, when John Thorpe came up to her soon afterwards and said,
"Well, Miss Morland, I suppose you and I are to stand up and jig it together
again."

"Oh, no; I am much obliged to you, our two dances are over; and, besides, I
am tired, and do not mean to dance any more."

"Do not you? Then let us walk about and quiz people. Come along with me,
and I will show you the four greatest quizzers in the room; my two younger sisters
and their partners. I have been laughing at them this half hour."

Again Catherine excused herself; and at last he walked off to quiz his sisters
by himself. The rest of the evening she found very dull; Mr. Tilney was drawn
away from their party at tea, to attend that of his partner; Miss Tilney, though
belonging to it, did not sit near her, and James and Isabella were so much engaged
in conversing together that the latter had no leisure to bestow more on her friend
than one smile, one squeeze, and one "dearest Catherine."

Ebd
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 CHAPTER 9

The progress of Catherine's unhappiness from the events of the evening was
as follows. It appeared first in a general dissatisfaction with everybody about her,
while she remained in the rooms, which speedily brought on considerable
weariness and a violent desire to go home. This, on arriving in Pulteney Street,
took the direction of extraordinary hunger, and when that was appeased, changed
into an earnest longing to be in bed; such was the extreme point of her distress;
for when there she immediately fell into a sound sleep which lasted nine hours,
and from which she awoke perfectly revived, in excellent spirits, with fresh hopes
and fresh schemes. The first wish of her heart was to improve her acquaintance
with Miss Tilney, and almost her first resolution, to seek her for that purpose, in
the pump-room at noon. In the pump-room, one so newly arrived in Bath must be
met with, and that building she had already found so favourable for the discovery
of female excellence, and the completion of female intimacy, so admirably adapted
for secret discourses and unlimited confidence, that she was most reasonably
encouraged to expect another friend from within its walls. Her plan for the
morning thus settled, she sat quietly down to her book after breakfast, resolving
to remain in the same place and the same employment till the clock struck one;
and from habitude very little incommoded by the remarks and ejaculations of
Mrs. Allen, whose vacancy of mind and incapacity for thinking were such, that as
she never talked a great deal, so she could never be entirely silent; and, therefore,
while she sat at her work, if she lost her needle or broke her thread, if she heard a
carriage in the street, or saw a speck upon her gown, she must observe it aloud,
whether there were anyone at leisure to answer her or not. At about half past
twelve, a remarkably loud rap drew her in haste to the window, and scarcely had
she time to inform Catherine of there being two open carriages at the door, in the
first only a servant, her brother driving Miss Thorpe in the second, before John
Thorpe came running upstairs, calling out, "Well, Miss Morland, here I am. Have
you been waiting long? We could not come before; the old devil of a coachmaker
was such an eternity finding out a thing fit to be got into, and now it is ten
thousand to one but they break down before we are out of the street. How do you
do, Mrs. Allen? A famous bag last night, was not it? Come, Miss Morland, be
quick, for the others are in a confounded hurry to be off. They want to get their
tumble over."

"What do you mean?" said Catherine. "Where are you all going to?"
 "Going to? Why, you have not forgot our engagement! Did not we agree
together to take a drive this morning? What a head you have! We are going up
Claverton Down."

"Something was said about it, I remember," said Catherine, looking at Mrs.
Allen for her opinion; "but really I did not expect you."

"Not expect me! That's a good one! And what a dust you would have made, if
I had not come."

Catherine's silent appeal to her friend, meanwhile, was entirely thrown away,
for Mrs. Allen, not being at all in the habit of conveying any expression herself by
a look, was not aware of its being ever intended by anybody else; and Catherine,
whose desire of seeing Miss Tilney again could at that moment bear a short delay
in favour of a drive, and who thought there could be no impropriety in her going
with Mr. Thorpe, as Isabella was going at the same time with James, was
therefore obliged to speak plainer. "Well, ma'am, what do you say to it? Can you
spare me for an hour or two? Shall I go?"

"Do just as you please, my dear," replied Mrs. Allen, with the most placid
indifference. Catherine took the advice, and ran off to get ready. In a very few
minutes she reappeared, having scarcely allowed the two others time enough to
get through a few short sentences in her praise, after Thorpe had procured Mrs.
Allen's admiration of his gig; and then receiving her friend's parting good wishes,
they both hurried downstairs. "My dearest creature," cried Isabella, to whom the
duty of friendship immediately called her before she could get into the carriage,
"you have been at least three hours getting ready. I was afraid you were ill. What
a delightful ball we had last night. I have a thousand things to say to you; but
make haste and get in, for I long to be off."

Catherine followed her orders and turned away, but not too soon to hear her
friend exclaim aloud to James, "What a sweet girl she is! I quite dote on her."

"You will not be frightened, Miss Morland," said Thorpe, as he handed her in,
"if my horse should dance about a little at first setting off. He will, most likely,
give a plunge or two, and perhaps take the rest for a minute; but he will soon
know his master. He is full of spirits, playful as can be, but there is no vice in
him."

Catherine did not think the portrait a very inviting one, but it was too late to
retreat, and she was too young to own herself frightened; so, resigning herself to
her fate, and trusting to the animal's boasted knowledge of its owner, she sat
peaceably down, and saw Thorpe sit down by her. Everything being then
arranged, the servant who stood at the horse's head was bid in an important voice
"to let him go," and off they went in the quietest manner imaginable, without a
plunge or a caper, or anything like one. Catherine, delighted at so happy an
escape, spoke her pleasure aloud with grateful surprise; and her companion
immediately made the matter perfectly simple by assuring her that it was entirely
owing to the peculiarly judicious manner in which he had then held the reins, and
the singular discernment and dexterity with which he had directed his whip.
Catherine, though she could not help wondering that with such perfect command
of his horse, he should think it necessary to alarm her with a relation of its tricks,
congratulated herself sincerely on being under the care of so excellent a
coachman; and perceiving that the animal continued to go on in the same quiet
manner, without showing the smallest propensity towards any unpleasant
vivacity, and (considering its inevitable pace was ten miles an hour) by no means
alarmingly fast, gave herself up to all the enjoyment of air and exercise of the
most invigorating kind, in a fine mild day of February, with the consciousness of
safety. A silence of several minutes succeeded their first short dialogue; it was
broken by Thorpe's saying very abruptly, "Old Allen is as rich as a Jew—is not
he?" Catherine did not understand him—and he repeated his question, adding in
explanation, "Old Allen, the man you are with."

"Oh! Mr. Allen, you mean. Yes, I believe, he is very rich."

"And no children at all?"

"No—not any."

"A famous thing for his next heirs. He is your godfather, is not he?"

"My godfather! No."

"But you are always very much with them."

"Yes, very much."

"Aye, that is what I meant. He seems a good kind of old fellow enough, and
has lived very well in his time, I dare say; he is not gouty for nothing. Does he
drink his bottle a day now?"

"His bottle a day! No. Why should you think of such a thing? He is a very
temperate man, and you could not fancy him in liquor last night?"

"Lord help you! You women are always thinking of men's being in liquor.
Why, you do not suppose a man is overset by a bottle? I am sure of this—that if
everybody was to drink their bottle a day, there would not be half the disorders in
the world there are now. It would be a famous good thing for us all."

"I cannot believe it."

"Oh! Lord, it would be the saving of thousands. There is not the hundredth
part of the wine consumed in this kingdom that there ought to be. Our foggy
climate wants help."
 "And yet I have heard that there is a great deal of wine drunk in Oxford."

"Oxford! There is no drinking at Oxford now, I assure you. Nobody drinks

there. You would hardly meet with a man who goes beyond his four pints at the
utmost. Now, for instance, it was reckoned a remarkable thing, at the last party in
my rooms, that upon an average we cleared about five pints a head. It was looked
upon as something out of the common way. Mine is famous good stuff, to be sure.
You would not often meet with anything like it in Oxford—and that may account
for it. But this will just give you a notion of the general rate of drinking there."

"Yes, it does give a notion," said Catherine warmly, "and that is, that you all
drink a great deal more wine than I thought you did. However, I am sure James
does not drink so much."

This declaration brought on a loud and overpowering reply, of which no part

was very distinct, except the frequent exclamations, amounting almost to oaths,
which adorned it, and Catherine was left, when it ended, with rather a
strengthened belief of there being a great deal of wine drunk in Oxford, and the
same happy conviction of her brother's comparative sobriety.

Thorpe's ideas then all reverted to the merits of his own equipage, and she
was called on to admire the spirit and freedom with which his horse moved along,
and the ease which his paces, as well as the excellence of the springs, gave the
motion of the carriage. She followed him in all his admiration as well as she
could. To go before or beyond him was impossible. His knowledge and her
ignorance of the subject, his rapidity of expression, and her diffidence of herself
put that out of her power; she could strike out nothing new in commendation, but
she readily echoed whatever he chose to assert, and it was finally settled between
them without any difficulty that his equipage was altogether the most complete of
its kind in England, his carriage the neatest, his horse the best goer, and himself
the best coachman. "You do not really think, Mr. Thorpe," said Catherine,
venturing after some time to consider the matter as entirely decided, and to offer
some little variation on the subject, "that James's gig will break down?"

"Break down! Oh! Lord! Did you ever see such a little tittuppy thing in your
life? There is not a sound piece of iron about it. The wheels have been fairly worn
out these ten years at least—and as for the body! Upon my soul, you might shake
it to pieces yourself with a touch. It is the most devilish little rickety business I
ever beheld! Thank God! we have got a better. I would not be bound to go two
miles in it for fifty thousand pounds."

"Good heavens!" cried Catherine, quite frightened. "Then pray let us turn
back; they will certainly meet with an accident if we go on. Do let us turn back,
Mr. Thorpe; stop and speak to my brother, and tell him how very unsafe it is."

"Unsafe! Oh, lord! What is there in that? They will only get a roll if it does
break down; and there is plenty of dirt; it will be excellent falling. Oh, curse it!
The carriage is safe enough, if a man knows how to drive it; a thing of that sort in
good hands will last above twenty years after it is fairly worn out. Lord bless you!
I would undertake for five pounds to drive it to York and back again, without
losing a nail."

Catherine listened with astonishment; she knew not how to reconcile two
such very different accounts of the same thing; for she had not been brought up to
understand the propensities of a rattle, nor to know to how many idle assertions
and impudent falsehoods the excess of vanity will lead. Her own family were
plain, matter-of-fact people who seldom aimed at wit of any kind; her father, at
the utmost, being contented with a pun, and her mother with a proverb; they
were not in the habit therefore of telling lies to increase their importance, or of
asserting at one moment what they would contradict the next. She reflected on the
affair for some time in much perplexity, and was more than once on the point of
requesting from Mr. Thorpe a clearer insight into his real opinion on the subject;
but she checked herself, because it appeared to her that he did not excel in giving
those clearer insights, in making those things plain which he had before made
ambiguous; and, joining to this, the consideration that he would not really suffer
his sister and his friend to be exposed to a danger from which he might easily
preserve them, she concluded at last that he must know the carriage to be in fact
perfectly safe, and therefore would alarm herself no longer. By him the whole
matter seemed entirely forgotten; and all the rest of his conversation, or rather
talk, began and ended with himself and his own concerns. He told her of horses
which he had bought for a trifle and sold for incredible sums; of racing matches,
in which his judgment had infallibly foretold the winner; of shooting parties, in
which he had killed more birds (though without having one good shot) than all his
companions together; and described to her some famous day's sport, with the fox-
hounds, in which his foresight and skill in directing the dogs had repaired the
mistakes of the most experienced huntsman, and in which the boldness of his
riding, though it had never endangered his own life for a moment, had been
constantly leading others into difficulties, which he calmly concluded had broken
the necks of many.

Little as Catherine was in the habit of judging for herself, and unfixed as were
her general notions of what men ought to be, she could not entirely repress a
doubt, while she bore with the effusions of his endless conceit, of his being
altogether completely agreeable. It was a bold surmise, for he was Isabella's
brother; and she had been assured by James that his manners would recommend
him to all her sex; but in spite of this, the extreme weariness of his company,
which crept over her before they had been out an hour, and which continued
unceasingly to increase till they stopped in Pulteney Street again, induced her, in
some small degree, to resist such high authority, and to distrust his powers of
giving universal pleasure.

When they arrived at Mrs. Allen's door, the astonishment of Isabella was
hardly to be expressed, on finding that it was too late in the day for them to
attend her friend into the house: "Past three o'clock!" It was inconceivable,
incredible, impossible! And she would neither believe her own watch, nor her
brother's, nor the servant's; she would believe no assurance of it founded on
reason or reality, till Morland produced his watch, and ascertained the fact; to
have doubted a moment longer then would have been equally inconceivable,
incredible, and impossible; and she could only protest, over and over again, that
no two hours and a half had ever gone off so swiftly before, as Catherine was
called on to confirm; Catherine could not tell a falsehood even to please Isabella;
but the latter was spared the misery of her friend's dissenting voice, by not
waiting for her answer. Her own feelings entirely engrossed her; her wretchedness
was most acute on finding herself obliged to go directly home. It was ages since
she had had a moment's conversation with her dearest Catherine; and, though she
had such thousands of things to say to her, it appeared as if they were never to be
together again; so, with sniffles of most exquisite misery, and the laughing eye of
utter despondency, she bade her friend adieu and went on.

Catherine found Mrs. Allen just returned from all the busy idleness of the
morning, and was immediately greeted with, "Well, my dear, here you are," a truth
which she had no greater inclination than power to dispute; "and I hope you have
had a pleasant airing?"

"Yes, ma'am, I thank you; we could not have had a nicer day."

"So Mrs. Thorpe said; she was vastly pleased at your all going."

"You have seen Mrs. Thorpe, then?"

"Yes, I went to the pump-room as soon as you were gone, and there I met
her, and we had a great deal of talk together. She says there was hardly any veal
to be got at market this morning, it is so uncommonly scarce."

"Did you see anybody else of our acquaintance?"

"Yes; we agreed to take a turn in the Crescent, and there we met Mrs.
Hughes, and Mr. and Miss Tilney walking with her."

"Did you indeed? And did they speak to you?"

"Yes, we walked along the Crescent together for half an hour. They seem very
agreeable people. Miss Tilney was in a very pretty spotted muslin, and I fancy, by
what I can learn, that she always dresses very handsomely. Mrs. Hughes talked to
me a great deal about the family."

"And what did she tell you of them?"

"Oh! A vast deal indeed; she hardly talked of anything else."

"Did she tell you what part of Gloucestershire they come from?"
 "Yes, she did; but I cannot recollect now. But they are very good kind of
people, and very rich. Mrs. Tilney was a Miss Drummond, and she and Mrs.
Hughes were schoolfellows; and Miss Drummond had a very large fortune; and,
when she married, her father gave her twenty thousand pounds, and five hundred
to buy wedding-clothes. Mrs. Hughes saw all the clothes after they came from the
warehouse."

"And are Mr. and Mrs. Tilney in Bath?"

"Yes, I fancy they are, but I am not quite certain. Upon recollection, however,
I have a notion they are both dead; at least the mother is; yes, I am sure Mrs.
Tilney is dead, because Mrs. Hughes told me there was a very beautiful set of
pearls that Mr. Drummond gave his daughter on her wedding-day and that Miss
Tilney has got now, for they were put by for her when her mother died."

"And is Mr. Tilney, my partner, the only son?"

"I cannot be quite positive about that, my dear; I have some idea he is; but,
however, he is a very fine young man, Mrs. Hughes says, and likely to do very
well."

Catherine inquired no further; she had heard enough to feel that Mrs. Allen
had no real intelligence to give, and that she was most particularly unfortunate
herself in having missed such a meeting with both brother and sister. Could she
have foreseen such a circumstance, nothing should have persuaded her to go out
with the others; and, as it was, she could only lament her ill luck, and think over
what she had lost, till it was clear to her that the drive had by no means been
very pleasant and that John Thorpe himself was quite disagreeable.

Ebd
E-BooksDirectory.com
 CHAPTER 10

The Allens, Thorpes, and Morlands all met in the evening at the theatre; and,
as Catherine and Isabella sat together, there was then an opportunity for the latter
to utter some few of the many thousand things which had been collecting within
her for communication in the immeasurable length of time which had divided
them. "Oh, heavens! My beloved Catherine, have I got you at last?" was her
address on Catherine's entering the box and sitting by her. "Now, Mr. Morland,"
for he was close to her on the other side, "I shall not speak another word to you
all the rest of the evening; so I charge you not to expect it. My sweetest Catherine,
how have you been this long age? But I need not ask you, for you look
delightfully. You really have done your hair in a more heavenly style than ever;
you mischievous creature, do you want to attract everybody? I assure you, my
brother is quite in love with you already; and as for Mr. Tilney—but that is a
settled thing—even your modesty cannot doubt his attachment now; his coming
back to Bath makes it too plain. Oh! What would not I give to see him! I really am
quite wild with impatience. My mother says he is the most delightful young man
in the world; she saw him this morning, you know; you must introduce him to
me. Is he in the house now? Look about, for heaven's sake! I assure you, I can
hardly exist till I see him."

"No," said Catherine, "he is not here; I cannot see him anywhere."

"Oh, horrid! Am I never to be acquainted with him? How do you like my

gown? I think it does not look amiss; the sleeves were entirely my own thought.
Do you know, I get so immoderately sick of Bath; your brother and I were
agreeing this morning that, though it is vastly well to be here for a few weeks, we
would not live here for millions. We soon found out that our tastes were exactly
alike in preferring the country to every other place; really, our opinions were so
exactly the same, it was quite ridiculous! There was not a single point in which we
differed; I would not have had you by for the world; you are such a sly thing, I am
sure you would have made some droll remark or other about it."

"No, indeed I should not."

"Oh, yes you would indeed; I know you better than you know yourself. You
would have told us that we seemed born for each other, or some nonsense of that
kind, which would have distressed me beyond conception; my cheeks would have
been as red as your roses; I would not have had you by for the world."

"Indeed you do me injustice; I would not have made so improper a remark

upon any account; and besides, I am sure it would never have entered my head."

Isabella smiled incredulously and talked the rest of the evening to James.

Catherine's resolution of endeavouring to meet Miss Tilney again continued in

full force the next morning; and till the usual moment of going to the pump-room,
she felt some alarm from the dread of a second prevention. But nothing of that
kind occurred, no visitors appeared to delay them, and they all three set off in
good time for the pump-room, where the ordinary course of events and
conversation took place; Mr. Allen, after drinking his glass of water, joined some
gentlemen to talk over the politics of the day and compare the accounts of their
newspapers; and the ladies walked about together, noticing every new face, and
almost every new bonnet in the room. The female part of the Thorpe family,
attended by James Morland, appeared among the crowd in less than a quarter of
an hour, and Catherine immediately took her usual place by the side of her friend.
James, who was now in constant attendance, maintained a similar position, and
separating themselves from the rest of their party, they walked in that manner for
some time, till Catherine began to doubt the happiness of a situation which,
confining her entirely to her friend and brother, gave her very little share in the
notice of either. They were always engaged in some sentimental discussion or
lively dispute, but their sentiment was conveyed in such whispering voices, and
their vivacity attended with so much laughter, that though Catherine's supporting
opinion was not unfrequently called for by one or the other, she was never able to
give any, from not having heard a word of the subject. At length however she was
empowered to disengage herself from her friend, by the avowed necessity of
speaking to Miss Tilney, whom she most joyfully saw just entering the room with
Mrs. Hughes, and whom she instantly joined, with a firmer determination to be
acquainted, than she might have had courage to command, had she not been
urged by the disappointment of the day before. Miss Tilney met her with great
civility, returned her advances with equal goodwill, and they continued talking
together as long as both parties remained in the room; and though in all
probability not an observation was made, nor an expression used by either which
had not been made and used some thousands of times before, under that roof, in
every Bath season, yet the merit of their being spoken with simplicity and truth,
and without personal conceit, might be something uncommon.

"How well your brother dances!" was an artless exclamation of Catherine's

towards the close of their conversation, which at once surprised and amused her
companion.

"Henry!" she replied with a smile. "Yes, he does dance very well."
 "He must have thought it very odd to hear me say I was engaged the other
evening, when he saw me sitting down. But I really had been engaged the whole
day to Mr. Thorpe." Miss Tilney could only bow. "You cannot think," added
Catherine after a moment's silence, "how surprised I was to see him again. I felt so
sure of his being quite gone away."

"When Henry had the pleasure of seeing you before, he was in Bath but for a
couple of days. He came only to engage lodgings for us."

"That never occurred to me; and of course, not seeing him anywhere, I
thought he must be gone. Was not the young lady he danced with on Monday a
Miss Smith?"

"Yes, an acquaintance of Mrs. Hughes."

"I dare say she was very glad to dance. Do you think her pretty?"

"Not very."

"He never comes to the pump-room, I suppose?"

"Yes, sometimes; but he has rid out this morning with my father."

Mrs. Hughes now joined them, and asked Miss Tilney if she was ready to go.
"I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you again soon," said Catherine. "Shall
you be at the cotillion ball tomorrow?"

"Perhaps we—Yes, I think we certainly shall."

"I am glad of it, for we shall all be there." This civility was duly returned; and
they parted—on Miss Tilney's side with some knowledge of her new
acquaintance's feelings, and on Catherine's, without the smallest consciousness of
having explained them.

She went home very happy. The morning had answered all her hopes, and the
evening of the following day was now the object of expectation, the future good.
What gown and what head-dress she should wear on the occasion became her
chief concern. She cannot be justified in it. Dress is at all times a frivolous
distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim. Catherine
knew all this very well; her great aunt had read her a lecture on the subject only
the Christmas before; and yet she lay awake ten minutes on Wednesday night
debating between her spotted and her tamboured muslin, and nothing but the
shortness of the time prevented her buying a new one for the evening. This would
have been an error in judgment, great though not uncommon, from which one of
the other sex rather than her own, a brother rather than a great aunt, might have
warned her, for man only can be aware of the insensibility of man towards a new
gown. It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to
understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in
their attire; how little it is biased by the texture of their muslin, and how
unsusceptible of peculiar tenderness towards the spotted, the sprigged, the mull,
or the jackonet. Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire
her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are
enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most
endearing to the latter. But not one of these grave reflections troubled the
tranquillity of Catherine.

She entered the rooms on Thursday evening with feelings very different from
what had attended her thither the Monday before. She had then been exulting in
her engagement to Thorpe, and was now chiefly anxious to avoid his sight, lest he
should engage her again; for though she could not, dared not expect that Mr.
Tilney should ask her a third time to dance, her wishes, hopes, and plans all
centred in nothing less. Every young lady may feel for my heroine in this critical
moment, for every young lady has at some time or other known the same
agitation. All have been, or at least all have believed themselves to be, in danger
from the pursuit of someone whom they wished to avoid; and all have been
anxious for the attentions of someone whom they wished to please. As soon as
they were joined by the Thorpes, Catherine's agony began; she fidgeted about if
John Thorpe came towards her, hid herself as much as possible from his view, and
when he spoke to her pretended not to hear him. The cotillions were over, the
country-dancing beginning, and she saw nothing of the Tilneys.

"Do not be frightened, my dear Catherine," whispered Isabella, "but I am

really going to dance with your brother again. I declare positively it is quite
shocking. I tell him he ought to be ashamed of himself, but you and John must
keep us in countenance. Make haste, my dear creature, and come to us. John is
just walked off, but he will be back in a moment."

Catherine had neither time nor inclination to answer. The others walked
away, John Thorpe was still in view, and she gave herself up for lost. That she
might not appear, however, to observe or expect him, she kept her eyes intently
fixed on her fan; and a self-condemnation for her folly, in supposing that among
such a crowd they should even meet with the Tilneys in any reasonable time, had
just passed through her mind, when she suddenly found herself addressed and
again solicited to dance, by Mr. Tilney himself. With what sparkling eyes and
ready motion she granted his request, and with how pleasing a flutter of heart she
went with him to the set, may be easily imagined. To escape, and, as she believed,
so narrowly escape John Thorpe, and to be asked, so immediately on his joining
her, asked by Mr. Tilney, as if he had sought her on purpose!—it did not appear
to her that life could supply any greater felicity.

Scarcely had they worked themselves into the quiet possession of a place,
however, when her attention was claimed by John Thorpe, who stood behind her.
"Heyday, Miss Morland!" said he. "What is the meaning of this? I thought you and
I were to dance together."
 "I wonder you should think so, for you never asked me."

"That is a good one, by Jove! I asked you as soon as I came into the room,
and I was just going to ask you again, but when I turned round, you were gone!
This is a cursed shabby trick! I only came for the sake of dancing with you, and I
firmly believe you were engaged to me ever since Monday. Yes; I remember, I
asked you while you were waiting in the lobby for your cloak. And here have I
been telling all my acquaintance that I was going to dance with the prettiest girl in
the room; and when they see you standing up with somebody else, they will quiz
me famously."

"Oh, no; they will never think of me, after such a description as that."

"By heavens, if they do not, I will kick them out of the room for blockheads.
What chap have you there?" Catherine satisfied his curiosity. "Tilney," he
repeated. "Hum—I do not know him. A good figure of a man; well put together.
Does he want a horse? Here is a friend of mine, Sam Fletcher, has got one to sell
that would suit anybody. A famous clever animal for the road—only forty guineas.
I had fifty minds to buy it myself, for it is one of my maxims always to buy a good
horse when I meet with one; but it would not answer my purpose, it would not do
for the field. I would give any money for a real good hunter. I have three now, the
best that ever were backed. I would not take eight hundred guineas for them.
Fletcher and I mean to get a house in Leicestershire, against the next season. It is
so d—uncomfortable, living at an inn."

This was the last sentence by which he could weary Catherine's attention, for
he was just then borne off by the resistless pressure of a long string of passing
ladies. Her partner now drew near, and said, "That gentleman would have put me
out of patience, had he stayed with you half a minute longer. He has no business
to withdraw the attention of my partner from me. We have entered into a contract
of mutual agreeableness for the space of an evening, and all our agreeableness
belongs solely to each other for that time. Nobody can fasten themselves on the
notice of one, without injuring the rights of the other. I consider a country-dance
as an emblem of marriage. Fidelity and complaisance are the principal duties of
both; and those men who do not choose to dance or marry themselves, have no
business with the partners or wives of their neighbours."

"But they are such very different things!"

"—That you think they cannot be compared together."

"To be sure not. People that marry can never part, but must go and keep
house together. People that dance only stand opposite each other in a long room
for half an hour."

"And such is your definition of matrimony and dancing. Taken in that light
certainly, their resemblance is not striking; but I think I could place them in such
a view. You will allow, that in both, man has the advantage of choice, woman
only the power of refusal; that in both, it is an engagement between man and
woman, formed for the advantage of each; and that when once entered into, they
belong exclusively to each other till the moment of its dissolution; that it is their
duty, each to endeavour to give the other no cause for wishing that he or she had
bestowed themselves elsewhere, and their best interest to keep their own
imaginations from wandering towards the perfections of their neighbours, or
fancying that they should have been better off with anyone else. You will allow all
this?"

"Yes, to be sure, as you state it, all this sounds very well; but still they are so
very different. I cannot look upon them at all in the same light, nor think the
same duties belong to them."

"In one respect, there certainly is a difference. In marriage, the man is

supposed to provide for the support of the woman, the woman to make the home
agreeable to the man; he is to purvey, and she is to smile. But in dancing, their
duties are exactly changed; the agreeableness, the compliance are expected from
him, while she furnishes the fan and the lavender water. That, I suppose, was the
difference of duties which struck you, as rendering the conditions incapable of
comparison."

"No, indeed, I never thought of that."

"Then I am quite at a loss. One thing, however, I must observe. This

disposition on your side is rather alarming. You totally disallow any similarity in
the obligations; and may I not thence infer that your notions of the duties of the
dancing state are not so strict as your partner might wish? Have I not reason to
fear that if the gentleman who spoke to you just now were to return, or if any
other gentleman were to address you, there would be nothing to restrain you from
conversing with him as long as you chose?"

"Mr. Thorpe is such a very particular friend of my brother's, that if he talks to

me, I must talk to him again; but there are hardly three young men in the room
besides him that I have any acquaintance with."

"And is that to be my only security? Alas, alas!"

"Nay, I am sure you cannot have a better; for if I do not know anybody, it is
impossible for me to talk to them; and, besides, I do not want to talk to anybody."

"Now you have given me a security worth having; and I shall proceed with
courage. Do you find Bath as agreeable as when I had the honour of making the
inquiry before?"

"Yes, quite—more so, indeed."

 "More so! Take care, or you will forget to be tired of it at the proper time.
You ought to be tired at the end of six weeks."

"I do not think I should be tired, if I were to stay here six months."

"Bath, compared with London, has little variety, and so everybody finds out
every year. 'For six weeks, I allow Bath is pleasant enough; but beyond that, it is
the most tiresome place in the world.' You would be told so by people of all
descriptions, who come regularly every winter, lengthen their six weeks into ten
or twelve, and go away at last because they can afford to stay no longer."

"Well, other people must judge for themselves, and those who go to London
may think nothing of Bath. But I, who live in a small retired village in the
country, can never find greater sameness in such a place as this than in my own
home; for here are a variety of amusements, a variety of things to be seen and
done all day long, which I can know nothing of there."

"You are not fond of the country."

"Yes, I am. I have always lived there, and always been very happy. But
certainly there is much more sameness in a country life than in a Bath life. One
day in the country is exactly like another."

"But then you spend your time so much more rationally in the country."

"Do I?"

"Do you not?"

"I do not believe there is much difference."

"Here you are in pursuit only of amusement all day long."

"And so I am at home—only I do not find so much of it. I walk about here,

and so I do there; but here I see a variety of people in every street, and there I can
only go and call on Mrs. Allen."

Mr. Tilney was very much amused.

"Only go and call on Mrs. Allen!" he repeated. "What a picture of intellectual

poverty! However, when you sink into this abyss again, you will have more to say.
You will be able to talk of Bath, and of all that you did here."

"Oh! Yes. I shall never be in want of something to talk of again to Mrs. Allen,
or anybody else. I really believe I shall always be talking of Bath, when I am at
home again—I do like it so very much. If I could but have Papa and Mamma, and
the rest of them here, I suppose I should be too happy! James's coming (my eldest
brother) is quite delightful—and especially as it turns out that the very family we
are just got so intimate with are his intimate friends already. Oh! Who can ever be
tired of Bath?"

"Not those who bring such fresh feelings of every sort to it as you do. But
papas and mammas, and brothers, and intimate friends are a good deal gone by,
to most of the frequenters of Bath—and the honest relish of balls and plays, and
everyday sights, is past with them." Here their conversation closed, the demands
of the dance becoming now too importunate for a divided attention.

Soon after their reaching the bottom of the set, Catherine perceived herself to
be earnestly regarded by a gentleman who stood among the lookers-on,
immediately behind her partner. He was a very handsome man, of a commanding
aspect, past the bloom, but not past the vigour of life; and with his eye still
directed towards her, she saw him presently address Mr. Tilney in a familiar
whisper. Confused by his notice, and blushing from the fear of its being excited by
something wrong in her appearance, she turned away her head. But while she did
so, the gentleman retreated, and her partner, coming nearer, said, "I see that you
guess what I have just been asked. That gentleman knows your name, and you
have a right to know his. It is General Tilney, my father."

Catherine's answer was only "Oh!"—but it was an "Oh!" expressing everything

needful: attention to his words, and perfect reliance on their truth. With real
interest and strong admiration did her eye now follow the general, as he moved
through the crowd, and "How handsome a family they are!" was her secret remark.

In chatting with Miss Tilney before the evening concluded, a new source of
felicity arose to her. She had never taken a country walk since her arrival in Bath.
Miss Tilney, to whom all the commonly frequented environs were familiar, spoke
of them in terms which made her all eagerness to know them too; and on her
openly fearing that she might find nobody to go with her, it was proposed by the
brother and sister that they should join in a walk, some morning or other. "I shall
like it," she cried, "beyond anything in the world; and do not let us put it off—let
us go tomorrow." This was readily agreed to, with only a proviso of Miss Tilney's,
that it did not rain, which Catherine was sure it would not. At twelve o'clock,
they were to call for her in Pulteney Street; and "Remember—twelve o'clock," was
her parting speech to her new friend. Of her other, her older, her more
established friend, Isabella, of whose fidelity and worth she had enjoyed a
fortnight's experience, she scarcely saw anything during the evening. Yet, though
longing to make her acquainted with her happiness, she cheerfully submitted to
the wish of Mr. Allen, which took them rather early away, and her spirits danced
within her, as she danced in her chair all the way home.
 CHAPTER 11

The morrow brought a very sober-looking morning, the sun making only a few
efforts to appear, and Catherine augured from it everything most favourable to her
wishes. A bright morning so early in the year, she allowed, would generally turn
to rain, but a cloudy one foretold improvement as the day advanced. She applied
to Mr. Allen for confirmation of her hopes, but Mr. Allen, not having his own
skies and barometer about him, declined giving any absolute promise of sunshine.
She applied to Mrs. Allen, and Mrs. Allen's opinion was more positive. "She had
no doubt in the world of its being a very fine day, if the clouds would only go off,
and the sun keep out."

At about eleven o'clock, however, a few specks of small rain upon the
windows caught Catherine's watchful eye, and "Oh! dear, I do believe it will be
wet," broke from her in a most desponding tone.

"I thought how it would be," said Mrs. Allen.

"No walk for me today," sighed Catherine; "but perhaps it may come to
nothing, or it may hold up before twelve."

"Perhaps it may, but then, my dear, it will be so dirty."

"Oh! That will not signify; I never mind dirt."

"No," replied her friend very placidly, "I know you never mind dirt."

After a short pause, "It comes on faster and faster!" said Catherine, as she
stood watching at a window.

"So it does indeed. If it keeps raining, the streets will be very wet."

"There are four umbrellas up already. How I hate the sight of an umbrella!"

"They are disagreeable things to carry. I would much rather take a chair at
any time."

"It was such a nice-looking morning! I felt so convinced it would be dry!"

 "Anybody would have thought so indeed. There will be very few people in the
pump-room, if it rains all the morning. I hope Mr. Allen will put on his greatcoat
when he goes, but I dare say he will not, for he had rather do anything in the
world than walk out in a greatcoat; I wonder he should dislike it, it must be so
comfortable."

The rain continued—fast, though not heavy. Catherine went every five
minutes to the clock, threatening on each return that, if it still kept on raining
another five minutes, she would give up the matter as hopeless. The clock struck
twelve, and it still rained. "You will not be able to go, my dear."

"I do not quite despair yet. I shall not give it up till a quarter after twelve.
This is just the time of day for it to clear up, and I do think it looks a little lighter.
There, it is twenty minutes after twelve, and now I shall give it up entirely. Oh!
That we had such weather here as they had at Udolpho, or at least in Tuscany
and the south of France!—the night that poor St. Aubin died!—such beautiful
weather!"

At half past twelve, when Catherine's anxious attention to the weather was
over and she could no longer claim any merit from its amendment, the sky began
voluntarily to clear. A gleam of sunshine took her quite by surprise; she looked
round; the clouds were parting, and she instantly returned to the window to
watch over and encourage the happy appearance. Ten minutes more made it
certain that a bright afternoon would succeed, and justified the opinion of Mrs.
Allen, who had "always thought it would clear up." But whether Catherine might
still expect her friends, whether there had not been too much rain for Miss Tilney
to venture, must yet be a question.

It was too dirty for Mrs. Allen to accompany her husband to the pump-room;
he accordingly set off by himself, and Catherine had barely watched him down the
street when her notice was claimed by the approach of the same two open
carriages, containing the same three people that had surprised her so much a few
mornings back.

"Isabella, my brother, and Mr. Thorpe, I declare! They are coming for me
perhaps—but I shall not go—I cannot go indeed, for you know Miss Tilney may
still call." Mrs. Allen agreed to it. John Thorpe was soon with them, and his voice
was with them yet sooner, for on the stairs he was calling out to Miss Morland to
be quick. "Make haste! Make haste!" as he threw open the door. "Put on your hat
this moment—there is no time to be lost—we are going to Bristol. How d'ye do,
Mrs. Allen?"

"To Bristol! Is not that a great way off? But, however, I cannot go with you
today, because I am engaged; I expect some friends every moment." This was of
course vehemently talked down as no reason at all; Mrs. Allen was called on to
second him, and the two others walked in, to give their assistance. "My sweetest
Catherine, is not this delightful? We shall have a most heavenly drive. You are to
thank your brother and me for the scheme; it darted into our heads at breakfast-
time, I verily believe at the same instant; and we should have been off two hours
ago if it had not been for this detestable rain. But it does not signify, the nights
are moonlight, and we shall do delightfully. Oh! I am in such ecstasies at the
thoughts of a little country air and quiet! So much better than going to the Lower
Rooms. We shall drive directly to Clifton and dine there; and, as soon as dinner is
over, if there is time for it, go on to Kingsweston."

"I doubt our being able to do so much," said Morland.

"You croaking fellow!" cried Thorpe. "We shall be able to do ten times more.
Kingsweston! Aye, and Blaize Castle too, and anything else we can hear of; but
here is your sister says she will not go."

"Blaize Castle!" cried Catherine. "What is that'?"

"The finest place in England—worth going fifty miles at any time to see."

"What, is it really a castle, an old castle?"

"The oldest in the kingdom."

"But is it like what one reads of?"

"Exactly—the very same."

"But now really—are there towers and long galleries?"

"By dozens."

"Then I should like to see it; but I cannot—I cannot go.

"Not go! My beloved creature, what do you mean'?"

"I cannot go, because"—looking down as she spoke, fearful of Isabella's

smile—"I expect Miss Tilney and her brother to call on me to take a country walk.
They promised to come at twelve, only it rained; but now, as it is so fine, I dare
say they will be here soon."

"Not they indeed," cried Thorpe; "for, as we turned into Broad Street, I saw
them—does he not drive a phaeton with bright chestnuts?"

"I do not know indeed."

"Yes, I know he does; I saw him. You are talking of the man you danced with
last night, are not you?"

"Yes.
 "Well, I saw him at that moment turn up the Lansdown Road, driving a
smart-looking girl."

"Did you indeed?"

"Did upon my soul; knew him again directly, and he seemed to have got some
very pretty cattle too."

"It is very odd! But I suppose they thought it would be too dirty for a walk."

"And well they might, for I never saw so much dirt in my life. Walk! You
could no more walk than you could fly! It has not been so dirty the whole winter;
it is ankle-deep everywhere."

Isabella corroborated it: "My dearest Catherine, you cannot form an idea of
the dirt; come, you must go; you cannot refuse going now."

"I should like to see the castle; but may we go all over it? May we go up every
staircase, and into every suite of rooms?"

"Yes, yes, every hole and corner."

"But then, if they should only be gone out for an hour till it is dryer, and call
by and by?"

"Make yourself easy, there is no danger of that, for I heard Tilney hallooing to
a man who was just passing by on horseback, that they were going as far as Wick
Rocks."

"Then I will. Shall I go, Mrs. Allen?"

"Just as you please, my dear."

"Mrs. Allen, you must persuade her to go," was the general cry. Mrs. Allen
was not inattentive to it: "Well, my dear," said she, "suppose you go." And in two
minutes they were off.

Catherine's feelings, as she got into the carriage, were in a very unsettled
state; divided between regret for the loss of one great pleasure, and the hope of
soon enjoying another, almost its equal in degree, however unlike in kind. She
could not think the Tilneys had acted quite well by her, in so readily giving up
their engagement, without sending her any message of excuse. It was now but an
hour later than the time fixed on for the beginning of their walk; and, in spite of
what she had heard of the prodigious accumulation of dirt in the course of that
hour, she could not from her own observation help thinking that they might have
gone with very little inconvenience. To feel herself slighted by them was very
painful. On the other hand, the delight of exploring an edifice like Udolpho, as her
fancy represented Blaize Castle to be, was such a counterpoise of good as might
console her for almost anything.

They passed briskly down Pulteney Street, and through Laura Place, without
the exchange of many words. Thorpe talked to his horse, and she meditated, by
turns, on broken promises and broken arches, phaetons and false hangings,
Tilneys and trap-doors. As they entered Argyle Buildings, however, she was
roused by this address from her companion, "Who is that girl who looked at you
so hard as she went by?"

"Who? Where?"

"On the right-hand pavement—she must be almost out of sight now."

Catherine looked round and saw Miss Tilney leaning on her brother's arm,
walking slowly down the street. She saw them both looking back at her. "Stop,
stop, Mr. Thorpe," she impatiently cried; "it is Miss Tilney; it is indeed. How
could you tell me they were gone? Stop, stop, I will get out this moment and go to
them." But to what purpose did she speak? Thorpe only lashed his horse into a
brisker trot; the Tilneys, who had soon ceased to look after her, were in a moment
out of sight round the corner of Laura Place, and in another moment she was
herself whisked into the marketplace. Still, however, and during the length of
another street, she entreated him to stop. "Pray, pray stop, Mr. Thorpe. I cannot
go on. I will not go on. I must go back to Miss Tilney." But Mr. Thorpe only
laughed, smacked his whip, encouraged his horse, made odd noises, and drove on;
and Catherine, angry and vexed as she was, having no power of getting away, was
obliged to give up the point and submit. Her reproaches, however, were not
spared. "How could you deceive me so, Mr. Thorpe? How could you say that you
saw them driving up the Lansdown Road? I would not have had it happen so for
the world. They must think it so strange, so rude of me! To go by them, too,
without saying a word! You do not know how vexed I am; I shall have no pleasure
at Clifton, nor in anything else. I had rather, ten thousand times rather, get out
now, and walk back to them. How could you say you saw them driving out in a
phaeton?" Thorpe defended himself very stoutly, declared he had never seen two
men so much alike in his life, and would hardly give up the point of its having
been Tilney himself.

Their drive, even when this subject was over, was not likely to be very
agreeable. Catherine's complaisance was no longer what it had been in their
former airing. She listened reluctantly, and her replies were short. Blaize Castle
remained her only comfort; towards that, she still looked at intervals with
pleasure; though rather than be disappointed of the promised walk, and especially
rather than be thought ill of by the Tilneys, she would willingly have given up all
the happiness which its walls could supply—the happiness of a progress through a
long suite of lofty rooms, exhibiting the remains of magnificent furniture, though
now for many years deserted—the happiness of being stopped in their way along
narrow, winding vaults, by a low, grated door; or even of having their lamp, their
only lamp, extinguished by a sudden gust of wind, and of being left in total
darkness. In the meanwhile, they proceeded on their journey without any
mischance, and were within view of the town of Keynsham, when a halloo from
Morland, who was behind them, made his friend pull up, to know what was the
matter. The others then came close enough for conversation, and Morland said,
"We had better go back, Thorpe; it is too late to go on today; your sister thinks so
as well as I. We have been exactly an hour coming from Pulteney Street, very little
more than seven miles; and, I suppose, we have at least eight more to go. It will
never do. We set out a great deal too late. We had much better put it off till
another day, and turn round."

"It is all one to me," replied Thorpe rather angrily; and instantly turning his
horse, they were on their way back to Bath.

"If your brother had not got such a d—beast to drive," said he soon
afterwards, "we might have done it very well. My horse would have trotted to
Clifton within the hour, if left to himself, and I have almost broke my arm with
pulling him in to that cursed broken-winded jade's pace. Morland is a fool for not
keeping a horse and gig of his own."

"No, he is not," said Catherine warmly, "for I am sure he could not afford it."

"And why cannot he afford it?"

"Because he has not money enough."

"And whose fault is that?"

"Nobody's, that I know of." Thorpe then said something in the loud,
incoherent way to which he had often recourse, about its being a d—thing to be
miserly; and that if people who rolled in money could not afford things, he did
not know who could, which Catherine did not even endeavour to understand.
Disappointed of what was to have been the consolation for her first
disappointment, she was less and less disposed either to be agreeable herself or to
find her companion so; and they returned to Pulteney Street without her speaking
twenty words.

As she entered the house, the footman told her that a gentleman and lady had
called and inquired for her a few minutes after her setting off; that, when he told
them she was gone out with Mr. Thorpe, the lady had asked whether any message
had been left for her; and on his saying no, had felt for a card, but said she had
none about her, and went away. Pondering over these heart-rending tidings,
Catherine walked slowly upstairs. At the head of them she was met by Mr. Allen,
who, on hearing the reason of their speedy return, said, "I am glad your brother
had so much sense; I am glad you are come back. It was a strange, wild scheme."

They all spent the evening together at Thorpe's. Catherine was disturbed and
out of spirits; but Isabella seemed to find a pool of commerce, in the fate of which
she shared, by private partnership with Morland, a very good equivalent for the
quiet and country air of an inn at Clifton. Her satisfaction, too, in not being at the
Lower Rooms was spoken more than once. "How I pity the poor creatures that are
going there! How glad I am that I am not amongst them! I wonder whether it will
be a full ball or not! They have not begun dancing yet. I would not be there for all
the world. It is so delightful to have an evening now and then to oneself. I dare
say it will not be a very good ball. I know the Mitchells will not be there. I am
sure I pity everybody that is. But I dare say, Mr. Morland, you long to be at it, do
not you? I am sure you do. Well, pray do not let anybody here be a restraint on
you. I dare say we could do very well without you; but you men think yourselves
of such consequence."

Catherine could almost have accused Isabella of being wanting in tenderness

towards herself and her sorrows, so very little did they appear to dwell on her
mind, and so very inadequate was the comfort she offered. "Do not be so dull, my
dearest creature," she whispered. "You will quite break my heart. It was amazingly
shocking, to be sure; but the Tilneys were entirely to blame. Why were not they
more punctual? It was dirty, indeed, but what did that signify? I am sure John
and I should not have minded it. I never mind going through anything, where a
friend is concerned; that is my disposition, and John is just the same; he has
amazing strong feelings. Good heavens! What a delightful hand you have got!
Kings, I vow! I never was so happy in my life! I would fifty times rather you
should have them than myself."

And now I may dismiss my heroine to the sleepless couch, which is the true
heroine's portion; to a pillow strewed with thorns and wet with tears. And lucky
may she think herself, if she get another good night's rest in the course of the next
three months.

Ebd
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 CHAPTER 12

"Mrs. Allen," said Catherine the next morning, "will there be any harm in my
calling on Miss Tilney today? I shall not be easy till I have explained everything."

"Go, by all means, my dear; only put on a white gown; Miss Tilney always
wears white."

Catherine cheerfully complied, and being properly equipped, was more

impatient than ever to be at the pump-room, that she might inform herself of
General Tilneys lodgings, for though she believed they were in Milsom Street, she
was not certain of the house, and Mrs. Allen's wavering convictions only made it
more doubtful. To Milsom Street she was directed, and having made herself
perfect in the number, hastened away with eager steps and a beating heart to pay
her visit, explain her conduct, and be forgiven; tripping lightly through the
church-yard, and resolutely turning away her eyes, that she might not be obliged
to see her beloved Isabella and her dear family, who, she had reason to believe,
were in a shop hard by. She reached the house without any impediment, looked at
the number, knocked at the door, and inquired for Miss Tilney. The man believed
Miss Tilney to be at home, but was not quite certain. Would she be pleased to
send up her name? She gave her card. In a few minutes the servant returned, and
with a look which did not quite confirm his words, said he had been mistaken, for
that Miss Tilney was walked out. Catherine, with a blush of mortification, left the
house. She felt almost persuaded that Miss Tilney was at home, and too much
offended to admit her; and as she retired down the street, could not withhold one
glance at the drawing-room windows, in expectation of seeing her there, but no
one appeared at them. At the bottom of the street, however, she looked back
again, and then, not at a window, but issuing from the door, she saw Miss Tilney
herself. She was followed by a gentleman, whom Catherine believed to be her
father, and they turned up towards Edgar's Buildings. Catherine, in deep
mortification, proceeded on her way. She could almost be angry herself at such
angry incivility; but she checked the resentful sensation; she remembered her own
ignorance. She knew not how such an offence as hers might be classed by the laws
of worldly politeness, to what a degree of unforgivingness it might with propriety
lead, nor to what rigours of rudeness in return it might justly make her amenable.

Dejected and humbled, she had even some thoughts of not going with the
others to the theatre that night; but it must be confessed that they were not of
long continuance, for she soon recollected, in the first place, that she was without
any excuse for staying at home; and, in the second, that it was a play she wanted
very much to see. To the theatre accordingly they all went; no Tilneys appeared to
plague or please her; she feared that, amongst the many perfections of the family,
a fondness for plays was not to be ranked; but perhaps it was because they were
habituated to the finer performances of the London stage, which she knew, on
Isabella's authority, rendered everything else of the kind "quite horrid." She was
not deceived in her own expectation of pleasure; the comedy so well suspended
her care that no one, observing her during the first four acts, would have
supposed she had any wretchedness about her. On the beginning of the fifth,
however, the sudden view of Mr. Henry Tilney and his father, joining a party in
the opposite box, recalled her to anxiety and distress. The stage could no longer
excite genuine merriment—no longer keep her whole attention. Every other look
upon an average was directed towards the opposite box; and, for the space of two
entire scenes, did she thus watch Henry Tilney, without being once able to catch
his eye. No longer could he be suspected of indifference for a play; his notice was
never withdrawn from the stage during two whole scenes. At length, however, he
did look towards her, and he bowed—but such a bow! No smile, no continued
observance attended it; his eyes were immediately returned to their former
direction. Catherine was restlessly miserable; she could almost have run round to
the box in which he sat and forced him to hear her explanation. Feelings rather
natural than heroic possessed her; instead of considering her own dignity injured
by this ready condemnation—instead of proudly resolving, in conscious
innocence, to show her resentment towards him who could harbour a doubt of it,
to leave to him all the trouble of seeking an explanation, and to enlighten him on
the past only by avoiding his sight, or flirting with somebody else—she took to
herself all the shame of misconduct, or at least of its appearance, and was only
eager for an opportunity of explaining its cause.

The play concluded—the curtain fell—Henry Tilney was no longer to be seen

where he had hitherto sat, but his father remained, and perhaps he might be now
coming round to their box. She was right; in a few minutes he appeared, and,
making his way through the then thinning rows, spoke with like calm politeness to
Mrs. Allen and her friend. Not with such calmness was he answered by the latter:
"Oh! Mr. Tilney, I have been quite wild to speak to you, and make my apologies.
You must have thought me so rude; but indeed it was not my own fault, was it,
Mrs. Allen? Did not they tell me that Mr. Tilney and his sister were gone out in a
phaeton together? And then what could I do? But I had ten thousand times rather
have been with you; now had not I, Mrs. Allen?"

"My dear, you tumble my gown," was Mrs. Allen's reply.

Her assurance, however, standing sole as it did, was not thrown away; it
brought a more cordial, more natural smile into his countenance, and he replied in
a tone which retained only a little affected reserve: "We were much obliged to you
at any rate for wishing us a pleasant walk after our passing you in Argyle Street:
you were so kind as to look back on purpose."
 "But indeed I did not wish you a pleasant walk; I never thought of such a
thing; but I begged Mr. Thorpe so earnestly to stop; I called out to him as soon as
ever I saw you; now, Mrs. Allen, did not—Oh! You were not there; but indeed I
did; and, if Mr. Thorpe would only have stopped, I would have jumped out and
run after you."

Is there a Henry in the world who could be insensible to such a declaration?

Henry Tilney at least was not. With a yet sweeter smile, he said everything that
need be said of his sister's concern, regret, and dependence on Catherine's honour.
"Oh! Do not say Miss Tilney was not angry," cried Catherine, "because I know she
was; for she would not see me this morning when I called; I saw her walk out of
the house the next minute after my leaving it; I was hurt, but I was not affronted.
Perhaps you did not know I had been there."

"I was not within at the time; but I heard of it from Eleanor, and she has been
wishing ever since to see you, to explain the reason of such incivility; but perhaps
I can do it as well. It was nothing more than that my father—they were just
preparing to walk out, and he being hurried for time, and not caring to have it put
off—made a point of her being denied. That was all, I do assure you. She was very
much vexed, and meant to make her apology as soon as possible."

Catherine's mind was greatly eased by this information, yet a something of

solicitude remained, from which sprang the following question, thoroughly artless
in itself, though rather distressing to the gentleman: "But, Mr. Tilney, why were
you less generous than your sister? If she felt such confidence in my good
intentions, and could suppose it to be only a mistake, why should you be so ready
to take offence?"

"Me! I take offence!"

"Nay, I am sure by your look, when you came into the box, you were angry."

"I angry! I could have no right."

"Well, nobody would have thought you had no right who saw your face." He
replied by asking her to make room for him, and talking of the play.

He remained with them some time, and was only too agreeable for Catherine
to be contented when he went away. Before they parted, however, it was agreed
that the projected walk should be taken as soon as possible; and, setting aside the
misery of his quitting their box, she was, upon the whole, left one of the happiest
creatures in the world.

While talking to each other, she had observed with some surprise that John
Thorpe, who was never in the same part of the house for ten minutes together,
was engaged in conversation with General Tilney; and she felt something more
than surprise when she thought she could perceive herself the object of their
attention and discourse. What could they have to say of her? She feared General
Tilney did not like her appearance: she found it was implied in his preventing her
admittance to his daughter, rather than postpone his own walk a few minutes.
"How came Mr. Thorpe to know your father?" was her anxious inquiry, as she
pointed them out to her companion. He knew nothing about it; but his father, like
every military man, had a very large acquaintance.

When the entertainment was over, Thorpe came to assist them in getting out.
Catherine was the immediate object of his gallantry; and, while they waited in the
lobby for a chair, he prevented the inquiry which had travelled from her heart
almost to the tip of her tongue, by asking, in a consequential manner, whether she
had seen him talking with General Tilney: "He is a fine old fellow, upon my soul!
Stout, active—looks as young as his son. I have a great regard for him, I assure
you: a gentleman-like, good sort of fellow as ever lived."

"But how came you to know him?"

"Know him! There are few people much about town that I do not know. I
have met him forever at the Bedford; and I knew his face again today the moment
he came into the billiard-room. One of the best players we have, by the by; and
we had a little touch together, though I was almost afraid of him at first: the odds
were five to four against me; and, if I had not made one of the cleanest strokes
that perhaps ever was made in this world—I took his ball exactly—but I could not
make you understand it without a table; however, I did beat him. A very fine
fellow; as rich as a Jew. I should like to dine with him; I dare say he gives famous
dinners. But what do you think we have been talking of? You. Yes, by heavens!
And the general thinks you the finest girl in Bath."

"Oh! Nonsense! How can you say so?"

"And what do you think I said?"—lowering his voice—"well done, general,

said I; I am quite of your mind."

Here Catherine, who was much less gratified by his admiration than by
General Tilney's, was not sorry to be called away by Mr. Allen. Thorpe, however,
would see her to her chair, and, till she entered it, continued the same kind of
delicate flattery, in spite of her entreating him to have done.

That General Tilney, instead of disliking, should admire her, was very
delightful; and she joyfully thought that there was not one of the family whom she
need now fear to meet. The evening had done more, much more, for her than
could have been expected.
 CHAPTER 13

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday have now

passed in review before the reader; the events of each day, its hopes and fears,
mortifications and pleasures, have been separately stated, and the pangs of
Sunday only now remain to be described, and close the week. The Clifton scheme
had been deferred, not relinquished, and on the afternoon's crescent of this day, it
was brought forward again. In a private consultation between Isabella and James,
the former of whom had particularly set her heart upon going, and the latter no
less anxiously placed his upon pleasing her, it was agreed that, provided the
weather were fair, the party should take place on the following morning; and they
were to set off very early, in order to be at home in good time. The affair thus
determined, and Thorpe's approbation secured, Catherine only remained to be
apprised of it. She had left them for a few minutes to speak to Miss Tilney. In
that interval the plan was completed, and as soon as she came again, her
agreement was demanded; but instead of the gay acquiescence expected by
Isabella, Catherine looked grave, was very sorry, but could not go. The
engagement which ought to have kept her from joining in the former attempt
would make it impossible for her to accompany them now. She had that moment
settled with Miss Tilney to take their proposed walk tomorrow; it was quite
determined, and she would not, upon any account, retract. But that she must and
should retract was instantly the eager cry of both the Thorpes; they must go to
Clifton tomorrow, they would not go without her, it would be nothing to put off a
mere walk for one day longer, and they would not hear of a refusal. Catherine was
distressed, but not subdued. "Do not urge me, Isabella. I am engaged to Miss
Tilney. I cannot go." This availed nothing. The same arguments assailed her again;
she must go, she should go, and they would not hear of a refusal. "It would be so
easy to tell Miss Tilney that you had just been reminded of a prior engagement,
and must only beg to put off the walk till Tuesday."

"No, it would not be easy. I could not do it. There has been no prior
engagement." But Isabella became only more and more urgent, calling on her in
the most affectionate manner, addressing her by the most endearing names. She
was sure her dearest, sweetest Catherine would not seriously refuse such a trifling
request to a friend who loved her so dearly. She knew her beloved Catherine to
have so feeling a heart, so sweet a temper, to be so easily persuaded by those she
loved. But all in vain; Catherine felt herself to be in the right, and though pained
by such tender, such flattering supplication, could not allow it to influence her.
Isabella then tried another method. She reproached her with having more affection
for Miss Tilney, though she had known her so little a while, than for her best and
oldest friends, with being grown cold and indifferent, in short, towards herself. "I
cannot help being jealous, Catherine, when I see myself slighted for strangers, I,
who love you so excessively! When once my affections are placed, it is not in the
power of anything to change them. But I believe my feelings are stronger than
anybody's; I am sure they are too strong for my own peace; and to see myself
supplanted in your friendship by strangers does cut me to the quick, I own. These
Tilneys seem to swallow up everything else."

Catherine thought this reproach equally strange and unkind. Was it the part
of a friend thus to expose her feelings to the notice of others? Isabella appeared to
her ungenerous and selfish, regardless of everything but her own gratification.
These painful ideas crossed her mind, though she said nothing. Isabella, in the
meanwhile, had applied her handkerchief to her eyes; and Morland, miserable at
such a sight, could not help saying, "Nay, Catherine. I think you cannot stand out
any longer now. The sacrifice is not much; and to oblige such a friend—I shall
think you quite unkind, if you still refuse."

This was the first time of her brother's openly siding against her, and anxious
to avoid his displeasure, she proposed a compromise. If they would only put off
their scheme till Tuesday, which they might easily do, as it depended only on
themselves, she could go with them, and everybody might then be satisfied. But
"No, no, no!" was the immediate answer; "that could not be, for Thorpe did not
know that he might not go to town on Tuesday." Catherine was sorry, but could
do no more; and a short silence ensued, which was broken by Isabella, who in a
voice of cold resentment said, "Very well, then there is an end of the party. If
Catherine does not go, I cannot. I cannot be the only woman. I would not, upon
any account in the world, do so improper a thing."

"Catherine, you must go," said James.

"But why cannot Mr. Thorpe drive one of his other sisters? I dare say either
of them would like to go."

"Thank ye," cried Thorpe, "but I did not come to Bath to drive my sisters
about, and look like a fool. No, if you do not go, d—— me if I do. I only go for
the sake of driving you."

"That is a compliment which gives me no pleasure." But her words were lost
on Thorpe, who had turned abruptly away.

The three others still continued together, walking in a most uncomfortable

manner to poor Catherine; sometimes not a word was said, sometimes she was
again attacked with supplications or reproaches, and her arm was still linked
within Isabella's, though their hearts were at war. At one moment she was
softened, at another irritated; always distressed, but always steady.
 "I did not think you had been so obstinate, Catherine," said James; "you were
not used to be so hard to persuade; you once were the kindest, best-tempered of
my sisters."

"I hope I am not less so now," she replied, very feelingly; "but indeed I cannot
go. If I am wrong, I am doing what I believe to be right."

"I suspect," said Isabella, in a low voice, "there is no great struggle."

Catherine's heart swelled; she drew away her arm, and Isabella made no
opposition. Thus passed a long ten minutes, till they were again joined by Thorpe,
who, coming to them with a gayer look, said, "Well, I have settled the matter, and
now we may all go tomorrow with a safe conscience. I have been to Miss Tilney,
and made your excuses."

"You have not!" cried Catherine.

"I have, upon my soul. Left her this moment. Told her you had sent me to say
that, having just recollected a prior engagement of going to Clifton with us
tomorrow, you could not have the pleasure of walking with her till Tuesday. She
said very well, Tuesday was just as convenient to her; so there is an end of all our
difficulties. A pretty good thought of mine—hey?"

Isabella's countenance was once more all smiles and good humour, and James
too looked happy again.

"A most heavenly thought indeed! Now, my sweet Catherine, all our distresses
are over; you are honourably acquitted, and we shall have a most delightful
party."

"This will not do," said Catherine; "I cannot submit to this. I must run after
Miss Tilney directly and set her right."

Isabella, however, caught hold of one hand, Thorpe of the other, and
remonstrances poured in from all three. Even James was quite angry. When
everything was settled, when Miss Tilney herself said that Tuesday would suit her
as well, it was quite ridiculous, quite absurd, to make any further objection.

"I do not care. Mr. Thorpe had no business to invent any such message. If I
had thought it right to put it off, I could have spoken to Miss Tilney myself. This
is only doing it in a ruder way; and how do I know that Mr. Thorpe has—He may
be mistaken again perhaps; he led me into one act of rudeness by his mistake on
Friday. Let me go, Mr. Thorpe; Isabella, do not hold me."

Thorpe told her it would be in vain to go after the Tilneys; they were turning
the corner into Brock Street, when he had overtaken them, and were at home by
this time.
 "Then I will go after them," said Catherine; "wherever they are I will go after
them. It does not signify talking. If I could not be persuaded into doing what I
thought wrong, I never will be tricked into it." And with these words she broke
away and hurried off. Thorpe would have darted after her, but Morland withheld
him. "Let her go, let her go, if she will go. She is as obstinate as—"

Thorpe never finished the simile, for it could hardly have been a proper one.

Away walked Catherine in great agitation, as fast as the crowd would permit
her, fearful of being pursued, yet determined to persevere. As she walked, she
reflected on what had passed. It was painful to her to disappoint and displease
them, particularly to displease her brother; but she could not repent her
resistance. Setting her own inclination apart, to have failed a second time in her
engagement to Miss Tilney, to have retracted a promise voluntarily made only five
minutes before, and on a false pretence too, must have been wrong. She had not
been withstanding them on selfish principles alone, she had not consulted merely
her own gratification; that might have been ensured in some degree by the
excursion itself, by seeing Blaize Castle; no, she had attended to what was due to
others, and to her own character in their opinion. Her conviction of being right,
however, was not enough to restore her composure; till she had spoken to Miss
Tilney she could not be at ease; and quickening her pace when she got clear of the
Crescent, she almost ran over the remaining ground till she gained the top of
Milsom Street. So rapid had been her movements that in spite of the Tilneys'
advantage in the outset, they were but just turning into their lodgings as she came
within view of them; and the servant still remaining at the open door, she used
only the ceremony of saying that she must speak with Miss Tilney that moment,
and hurrying by him proceeded upstairs. Then, opening the first door before her,
which happened to be the right, she immediately found herself in the drawing-
room with General Tilney, his son, and daughter. Her explanation, defective only
in being—from her irritation of nerves and shortness of breath—no explanation at
all, was instantly given. "I am come in a great hurry—It was all a mistake—I never
promised to go—I told them from the first I could not go.—I ran away in a great
hurry to explain it.—I did not care what you thought of me.—I would not stay for
the servant."

The business, however, though not perfectly elucidated by this speech, soon
ceased to be a puzzle. Catherine found that John Thorpe had given the message;
and Miss Tilney had no scruple in owning herself greatly surprised by it. But
whether her brother had still exceeded her in resentment, Catherine, though she
instinctively addressed herself as much to one as to the other in her vindication,
had no means of knowing. Whatever might have been felt before her arrival, her
eager declarations immediately made every look and sentence as friendly as she
could desire.

The affair thus happily settled, she was introduced by Miss Tilney to her
father, and received by him with such ready, such solicitous politeness as recalled
Thorpe's information to her mind, and made her think with pleasure that he might
be sometimes depended on. To such anxious attention was the general's civility
carried, that not aware of her extraordinary swiftness in entering the house, he
was quite angry with the servant whose neglect had reduced her to open the door
of the apartment herself. "What did William mean by it? He should make a point
of inquiring into the matter." And if Catherine had not most warmly asserted his
innocence, it seemed likely that William would lose the favour of his master
forever, if not his place, by her rapidity.

After sitting with them a quarter of an hour, she rose to take leave, and was
then most agreeably surprised by General Tilney's asking her if she would do his
daughter the honour of dining and spending the rest of the day with her. Miss
Tilney added her own wishes. Catherine was greatly obliged; but it was quite out
of her power. Mr. and Mrs. Allen would expect her back every moment. The
general declared he could say no more; the claims of Mr. and Mrs. Allen were not
to be superseded; but on some other day he trusted, when longer notice could be
given, they would not refuse to spare her to her friend. "Oh, no; Catherine was
sure they would not have the least objection, and she should have great pleasure
in coming." The general attended her himself to the street-door, saying everything
gallant as they went downstairs, admiring the elasticity of her walk, which
corresponded exactly with the spirit of her dancing, and making her one of the
most graceful bows she had ever beheld, when they parted.

Catherine, delighted by all that had passed, proceeded gaily to Pulteney

Street, walking, as she concluded, with great elasticity, though she had never
thought of it before. She reached home without seeing anything more of the
offended party; and now that she had been triumphant throughout, had carried
her point, and was secure of her walk, she began (as the flutter of her spirits
subsided) to doubt whether she had been perfectly right. A sacrifice was always
noble; and if she had given way to their entreaties, she should have been spared
the distressing idea of a friend displeased, a brother angry, and a scheme of great
happiness to both destroyed, perhaps through her means. To ease her mind, and
ascertain by the opinion of an unprejudiced person what her own conduct had
really been, she took occasion to mention before Mr. Allen the half-settled scheme
of her brother and the Thorpes for the following day. Mr. Allen caught at it
directly. "Well," said he, "and do you think of going too?"

"No; I had just engaged myself to walk with Miss Tilney before they told me
of it; and therefore you know I could not go with them, could I?"

"No, certainly not; and I am glad you do not think of it. These schemes are
not at all the thing. Young men and women driving about the country in open
carriages! Now and then it is very well; but going to inns and public places
together! It is not right; and I wonder Mrs. Thorpe should allow it. I am glad you
do not think of going; I am sure Mrs. Morland would not be pleased. Mrs. Allen,
are not you of my way of thinking? Do not you think these kind of projects
objectionable?"
 "Yes, very much so indeed. Open carriages are nasty things. A clean gown is
not five minutes' wear in them. You are splashed getting in and getting out; and
the wind takes your hair and your bonnet in every direction. I hate an open
carriage myself."

"I know you do; but that is not the question. Do not you think it has an odd
appearance, if young ladies are frequently driven about in them by young men, to
whom they are not even related?"

"Yes, my dear, a very odd appearance indeed. I cannot bear to see it."

"Dear madam," cried Catherine, "then why did not you tell me so before? I am
sure if I had known it to be improper, I would not have gone with Mr. Thorpe at
all; but I always hoped you would tell me, if you thought I was doing wrong."

"And so I should, my dear, you may depend on it; for as I told Mrs. Morland
at parting, I would always do the best for you in my power. But one must not be
over particular. Young people will be young people, as your good mother says
herself. You know I wanted you, when we first came, not to buy that sprigged
muslin, but you would. Young people do not like to be always thwarted."

"But this was something of real consequence; and I do not think you would
have found me hard to persuade."

"As far as it has gone hitherto, there is no harm done," said Mr. Allen; "and I
would only advise you, my dear, not to go out with Mr. Thorpe any more."

"That is just what I was going to say," added his wife.

Catherine, relieved for herself, felt uneasy for Isabella, and after a moment's
thought, asked Mr. Allen whether it would not be both proper and kind in her to
write to Miss Thorpe, and explain the indecorum of which she must be as
insensible as herself; for she considered that Isabella might otherwise perhaps be
going to Clifton the next day, in spite of what had passed. Mr. Allen, however,
discouraged her from doing any such thing. "You had better leave her alone, my
dear; she is old enough to know what she is about, and if not, has a mother to
advise her. Mrs. Thorpe is too indulgent beyond a doubt; but, however, you had
better not interfere. She and your brother choose to go, and you will be only
getting ill will."

Catherine submitted, and though sorry to think that Isabella should be doing
wrong, felt greatly relieved by Mr. Allen's approbation of her own conduct, and
truly rejoiced to be preserved by his advice from the danger of falling into such an
error herself. Her escape from being one of the party to Clifton was now an escape
indeed; for what would the Tilneys have thought of her, if she had broken her
promise to them in order to do what was wrong in itself, if she had been guilty of
one breach of propriety, only to enable her to be guilty of another?
 CHAPTER 14

The next morning was fair, and Catherine almost expected another attack
from the assembled party. With Mr. Allen to support her, she felt no dread of the
event: but she would gladly be spared a contest, where victory itself was painful,
and was heartily rejoiced therefore at neither seeing nor hearing anything of them.
The Tilneys called for her at the appointed time; and no new difficulty arising, no
sudden recollection, no unexpected summons, no impertinent intrusion to
disconcert their measures, my heroine was most unnaturally able to fulfil her
engagement, though it was made with the hero himself. They determined on
walking round Beechen Cliff, that noble hill whose beautiful verdure and hanging
coppice render it so striking an object from almost every opening in Bath.

"I never look at it," said Catherine, as they walked along the side of the river,
"without thinking of the south of France."

"You have been abroad then?" said Henry, a little surprised.

"Oh! No, I only mean what I have read about. It always puts me in mind of
the country that Emily and her father travelled through, in The Mysteries of
Udolpho. But you never read novels, I dare say?"

"Why not?"

"Because they are not clever enough for you—gentlemen read better books."

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel,
must be intolerably stupid. I have read all Mrs. Radcliffe's works, and most of
them with great pleasure. The Mysteries of Udolpho, when I had once begun it, I
could not lay down again; I remember finishing it in two days—my hair standing
on end the whole time."

"Yes," added Miss Tilney, "and I remember that you undertook to read it
aloud to me, and that when I was called away for only five minutes to answer a
note, instead of waiting for me, you took the volume into the Hermitage Walk,
and I was obliged to stay till you had finished it."
 "Thank you, Eleanor—a most honourable testimony. You see, Miss Morland,
the injustice of your suspicions. Here was I, in my eagerness to get on, refusing to
wait only five minutes for my sister, breaking the promise I had made of reading
it aloud, and keeping her in suspense at a most interesting part, by running away
with the volume, which, you are to observe, was her own, particularly her own. I
am proud when I reflect on it, and I think it must establish me in your good
opinion."

"I am very glad to hear it indeed, and now I shall never be ashamed of liking
Udolpho myself. But I really thought before, young men despised novels
amazingly."

"It is amazingly; it may well suggest amazement if they do—for they read
nearly as many as women. I myself have read hundreds and hundreds. Do not
imagine that you can cope with me in a knowledge of Julias and Louisas. If we
proceed to particulars, and engage in the never-ceasing inquiry of 'Have you read
this?' and 'Have you read that?' I shall soon leave you as far behind me as—what
shall I say?—I want an appropriate simile.—as far as your friend Emily herself left
poor Valancourt when she went with her aunt into Italy. Consider how many
years I have had the start of you. I had entered on my studies at Oxford, while
you were a good little girl working your sampler at home!"

"Not very good, I am afraid. But now really, do not you think Udolpho the
nicest book in the world?"

"The nicest—by which I suppose you mean the neatest. That must depend
upon the binding."

"Henry," said Miss Tilney, "you are very impertinent. Miss Morland, he is
treating you exactly as he does his sister. He is forever finding fault with me, for
some incorrectness of language, and now he is taking the same liberty with you.
The word 'nicest,' as you used it, did not suit him; and you had better change it as
soon as you can, or we shall be overpowered with Johnson and Blair all the rest of
the way."

"I am sure," cried Catherine, "I did not mean to say anything wrong; but it is
a nice book, and why should not I call it so?"

"Very true," said Henry, "and this is a very nice day, and we are taking a very
nice walk, and you are two very nice young ladies. Oh! It is a very nice word
indeed! It does for everything. Originally perhaps it was applied only to express
neatness, propriety, delicacy, or refinement—people were nice in their dress, in
their sentiments, or their choice. But now every commendation on every subject is
comprised in that one word."

"While, in fact," cried his sister, "it ought only to be applied to you, without
any commendation at all. You are more nice than wise. Come, Miss Morland, let
us leave him to meditate over our faults in the utmost propriety of diction, while
we praise Udolpho in whatever terms we like best. It is a most interesting work.
You are fond of that kind of reading?"

"To say the truth, I do not much like any other."

"Indeed!"

"That is, I can read poetry and plays, and things of that sort, and do not
dislike travels. But history, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in. Can
you?"

"Yes, I am fond of history."

"I wish I were too. I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does
not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or
pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women
at all—it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for
a great deal of it must be invention. The speeches that are put into the heroes'
mouths, their thoughts and designs—the chief of all this must be invention, and
invention is what delights me in other books."

"Historians, you think," said Miss Tilney, "are not happy in their flights of
fancy. They display imagination without raising interest. I am fond of history—
and am very well contented to take the false with the true. In the principal facts
they have sources of intelligence in former histories and records, which may be as
much depended on, I conclude, as anything that does not actually pass under
one's own observation; and as for the little embellishments you speak of, they are
embellishments, and I like them as such. If a speech be well drawn up, I read it
with pleasure, by whomsoever it may be made—and probably with much greater,
if the production of Mr. Hume or Mr. Robertson, than if the genuine words of
Caractacus, Agricola, or Alfred the Great."

"You are fond of history! And so are Mr. Allen and my father; and I have two
brothers who do not dislike it. So many instances within my small circle of friends
is remarkable! At this rate, I shall not pity the writers of history any longer. If
people like to read their books, it is all very well, but to be at so much trouble in
filling great volumes, which, as I used to think, nobody would willingly ever look
into, to be labouring only for the torment of little boys and girls, always struck me
as a hard fate; and though I know it is all very right and necessary, I have often
wondered at the person's courage that could sit down on purpose to do it."

"That little boys and girls should be tormented," said Henry, "is what no one
at all acquainted with human nature in a civilized state can deny; but in behalf of
our most distinguished historians, I must observe that they might well be offended
at being supposed to have no higher aim, and that by their method and style, they
are perfectly well qualified to torment readers of the most advanced reason and
mature time of life. I use the verb 'to torment,' as I observed to be your own
method, instead of 'to instruct,' supposing them to be now admitted as
synonymous."

"You think me foolish to call instruction a torment, but if you had been as
much used as myself to hear poor little children first learning their letters and
then learning to spell, if you had ever seen how stupid they can be for a whole
morning together, and how tired my poor mother is at the end of it, as I am in the
habit of seeing almost every day of my life at home, you would allow that 'to
torment' and 'to instruct' might sometimes be used as synonymous words."

"Very probably. But historians are not accountable for the difficulty of
learning to read; and even you yourself, who do not altogether seem particularly
friendly to very severe, very intense application, may perhaps be brought to
acknowledge that it is very well worth-while to be tormented for two or three
years of one's life, for the sake of being able to read all the rest of it. Consider—if
reading had not been taught, Mrs. Radcliffe would have written in vain—or
perhaps might not have written at all."

Catherine assented—and a very warm panegyric from her on that lady's

merits closed the subject. The Tilneys were soon engaged in another on which she
had nothing to say. They were viewing the country with the eyes of persons
accustomed to drawing, and decided on its capability of being formed into
pictures, with all the eagerness of real taste. Here Catherine was quite lost. She
knew nothing of drawing—nothing of taste: and she listened to them with an
attention which brought her little profit, for they talked in phrases which
conveyed scarcely any idea to her. The little which she could understand,
however, appeared to contradict the very few notions she had entertained on the
matter before. It seemed as if a good view were no longer to be taken from the top
of an high hill, and that a clear blue sky was no longer a proof of a fine day. She
was heartily ashamed of her ignorance. A misplaced shame. Where people wish to
attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well-informed mind is to
come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible
person would always wish to avoid. A woman especially, if she have the
misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.

The advantages of natural folly in a beautiful girl have been already set forth
by the capital pen of a sister author; and to her treatment of the subject I will
only add, in justice to men, that though to the larger and more trifling part of the
sex, imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms, there is
a portion of them too reasonable and too well informed themselves to desire
anything more in woman than ignorance. But Catherine did not know her own
advantages—did not know that a good-looking girl, with an affectionate heart and
a very ignorant mind, cannot fail of attracting a clever young man, unless
circumstances are particularly untoward. In the present instance, she confessed
and lamented her want of knowledge, declared that she would give anything in
the world to be able to draw; and a lecture on the picturesque immediately
followed, in which his instructions were so clear that she soon began to see beauty
in everything admired by him, and her attention was so earnest that he became
perfectly satisfied of her having a great deal of natural taste. He talked of
foregrounds, distances, and second distances—side-screens and perspectives—
lights and shades; and Catherine was so hopeful a scholar that when they gained
the top of Beechen Cliff, she voluntarily rejected the whole city of Bath as
unworthy to make part of a landscape. Delighted with her progress, and fearful of
wearying her with too much wisdom at once, Henry suffered the subject to
decline, and by an easy transition from a piece of rocky fragment and the
withered oak which he had placed near its summit, to oaks in general, to forests,
the enclosure of them, waste lands, crown lands and government, he shortly
found himself arrived at politics; and from politics, it was an easy step to silence.
The general pause which succeeded his short disquisition on the state of the
nation was put an end to by Catherine, who, in rather a solemn tone of voice,
uttered these words, "I have heard that something very shocking indeed will soon
come out in London."

Miss Tilney, to whom this was chiefly addressed, was startled, and hastily
replied, "Indeed! And of what nature?"

"That I do not know, nor who is the author. I have only heard that it is to be
more horrible than anything we have met with yet."

"Good heaven! Where could you hear of such a thing?"

"A particular friend of mine had an account of it in a letter from London

yesterday. It is to be uncommonly dreadful. I shall expect murder and everything
of the kind."

"You speak with astonishing composure! But I hope your friend's accounts
have been exaggerated; and if such a design is known beforehand, proper
measures will undoubtedly be taken by government to prevent its coming to
effect."

"Government," said Henry, endeavouring not to smile, "neither desires nor

dares to interfere in such matters. There must be murder; and government cares
not how much."

The ladies stared. He laughed, and added, "Come, shall I make you
understand each other, or leave you to puzzle out an explanation as you can?
No—I will be noble. I will prove myself a man, no less by the generosity of my
soul than the clearness of my head. I have no patience with such of my sex as
disdain to let themselves sometimes down to the comprehension of yours. Perhaps
the abilities of women are neither sound nor acute—neither vigorous nor keen.
Perhaps they may want observation, discernment, judgment, fire, genius, and
wit."
 "Miss Morland, do not mind what he says; but have the goodness to satisfy
me as to this dreadful riot."

"Riot! What riot?"

"My dear Eleanor, the riot is only in your own brain. The confusion there is
scandalous. Miss Morland has been talking of nothing more dreadful than a new
publication which is shortly to come out, in three duodecimo volumes, two
hundred and seventy-six pages in each, with a frontispiece to the first, of two
tombstones and a lantern—do you understand? And you, Miss Morland—my
stupid sister has mistaken all your clearest expressions. You talked of expected
horrors in London—and instead of instantly conceiving, as any rational creature
would have done, that such words could relate only to a circulating library, she
immediately pictured to herself a mob of three thousand men assembling in St.
George's Fields, the Bank attacked, the Tower threatened, the streets of London
flowing with blood, a detachment of the Twelfth Light Dragoons (the hopes of the
nation) called up from Northampton to quell the insurgents, and the gallant
Captain Frederick Tilney, in the moment of charging at the head of his troop,
knocked off his horse by a brickbat from an upper window. Forgive her stupidity.
The fears of the sister have added to the weakness of the woman; but she is by no
means a simpleton in general."

Catherine looked grave. "And now, Henry," said Miss Tilney, "that you have
made us understand each other, you may as well make Miss Morland understand
yourself—unless you mean to have her think you intolerably rude to your sister,
and a great brute in your opinion of women in general. Miss Morland is not used
to your odd ways."

"I shall be most happy to make her better acquainted with them."

"No doubt; but that is no explanation of the present."

"What am I to do?"

"You know what you ought to do. Clear your character handsomely before
her. Tell her that you think very highly of the understanding of women."

"Miss Morland, I think very highly of the understanding of all the women in
the world—especially of those—whoever they may be—with whom I happen to be
in company."

"That is not enough. Be more serious."

"Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women
than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much that they never find it
necessary to use more than half."
 "We shall get nothing more serious from him now, Miss Morland. He is not in
a sober mood. But I do assure you that he must be entirely misunderstood, if he
can ever appear to say an unjust thing of any woman at all, or an unkind one of
me."

It was no effort to Catherine to believe that Henry Tilney could never be

wrong. His manner might sometimes surprise, but his meaning must always be
just: and what she did not understand, she was almost as ready to admire, as
what she did. The whole walk was delightful, and though it ended too soon, its
conclusion was delightful too; her friends attended her into the house, and Miss
Tilney, before they parted, addressing herself with respectful form, as much to
Mrs. Allen as to Catherine, petitioned for the pleasure of her company to dinner
on the day after the next. No difficulty was made on Mrs. Allen's side, and the
only difficulty on Catherine's was in concealing the excess of her pleasure.

The morning had passed away so charmingly as to banish all her friendship
and natural affection, for no thought of Isabella or James had crossed her during
their walk. When the Tilneys were gone, she became amiable again, but she was
amiable for some time to little effect; Mrs. Allen had no intelligence to give that
could relieve her anxiety; she had heard nothing of any of them. Towards the end
of the morning, however, Catherine, having occasion for some indispensable yard
of ribbon which must be bought without a moment's delay, walked out into the
town, and in Bond Street overtook the second Miss Thorpe as she was loitering
towards Edgar's Buildings between two of the sweetest girls in the world, who had
been her dear friends all the morning. From her, she soon learned that the party
to Clifton had taken place. "They set off at eight this morning," said Miss Anne,
"and I am sure I do not envy them their drive. I think you and I are very well off
to be out of the scrape. It must be the dullest thing in the world, for there is not a
soul at Clifton at this time of year. Belle went with your brother, and John drove
Maria."

Catherine spoke the pleasure she really felt on hearing this part of the
arrangement.

"Oh! yes," rejoined the other, "Maria is gone. She was quite wild to go. She
thought it would be something very fine. I cannot say I admire her taste; and for
my part, I was determined from the first not to go, if they pressed me ever so
much."

Catherine, a little doubtful of this, could not help answering, "I wish you
could have gone too. It is a pity you could not all go."

"Thank you; but it is quite a matter of indifference to me. Indeed, I would not
have gone on any account. I was saying so to Emily and Sophia when you
overtook us."
 Catherine was still unconvinced; but glad that Anne should have the
friendship of an Emily and a Sophia to console her, she bade her adieu without
much uneasiness, and returned home, pleased that the party had not been
prevented by her refusing to join it, and very heartily wishing that it might be too
pleasant to allow either James or Isabella to resent her resistance any longer.

Ebd
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 CHAPTER 15

Early the next day, a note from Isabella, speaking peace and tenderness in
every line, and entreating the immediate presence of her friend on a matter of the
utmost importance, hastened Catherine, in the happiest state of confidence and
curiosity, to Edgar's Buildings. The two youngest Miss Thorpes were by
themselves in the parlour; and, on Anne's quitting it to call her sister, Catherine
took the opportunity of asking the other for some particulars of their yesterday's
party. Maria desired no greater pleasure than to speak of it; and Catherine
immediately learnt that it had been altogether the most delightful scheme in the
world, that nobody could imagine how charming it had been, and that it had been
more delightful than anybody could conceive. Such was the information of the
first five minutes; the second unfolded thus much in detail—that they had driven
directly to the York Hotel, ate some soup, and bespoke an early dinner, walked
down to the pump-room, tasted the water, and laid out some shillings in purses
and spars; thence adjoined to eat ice at a pastry-cook's, and hurrying back to the
hotel, swallowed their dinner in haste, to prevent being in the dark; and then had
a delightful drive back, only the moon was not up, and it rained a little, and Mr.
Morland's horse was so tired he could hardly get it along.

Catherine listened with heartfelt satisfaction. It appeared that Blaize Castle

had never been thought of; and, as for all the rest, there was nothing to regret for
half an instant. Maria's intelligence concluded with a tender effusion of pity for
her sister Anne, whom she represented as insupportably cross, from being
excluded the party.

"She will never forgive me, I am sure; but, you know, how could I help it?
John would have me go, for he vowed he would not drive her, because she had
such thick ankles. I dare say she will not be in good humour again this month; but
I am determined I will not be cross; it is not a little matter that puts me out of
temper."

Isabella now entered the room with so eager a step, and a look of such happy
importance, as engaged all her friend's notice. Maria was without ceremony sent
away, and Isabella, embracing Catherine, thus began: "Yes, my dear Catherine, it
is so indeed; your penetration has not deceived you. Oh! That arch eye of yours! It
sees through everything."
 Catherine replied only by a look of wondering ignorance.

"Nay, my beloved, sweetest friend," continued the other, "compose yourself. I

am amazingly agitated, as you perceive. Let us sit down and talk in comfort. Well,
and so you guessed it the moment you had my note? Sly creature! Oh! My dear
Catherine, you alone, who know my heart, can judge of my present happiness.
Your brother is the most charming of men. I only wish I were more worthy of
him. But what will your excellent father and mother say? Oh! Heavens! When I
think of them I am so agitated!"

Catherine's understanding began to awake: an idea of the truth suddenly

darted into her mind; and, with the natural blush of so new an emotion, she cried
out, "Good heaven! My dear Isabella, what do you mean? Can you—can you really
be in love with James?"

This bold surmise, however, she soon learnt comprehended but half the fact.
The anxious affection, which she was accused of having continually watched in
Isabella's every look and action, had, in the course of their yesterday's party,
received the delightful confession of an equal love. Her heart and faith were alike
engaged to James. Never had Catherine listened to anything so full of interest,
wonder, and joy. Her brother and her friend engaged! New to such circumstances,
the importance of it appeared unspeakably great, and she contemplated it as one
of those grand events, of which the ordinary course of life can hardly afford a
return. The strength of her feelings she could not express; the nature of them,
however, contented her friend. The happiness of having such a sister was their
first effusion, and the fair ladies mingled in embraces and tears of joy.

Delighting, however, as Catherine sincerely did in the prospect of the

connection, it must be acknowledged that Isabella far surpassed her in tender
anticipations. "You will be so infinitely dearer to me, my Catherine, than either
Anne or Maria: I feel that I shall be so much more attached to my dear Morland's
family than to my own."

This was a pitch of friendship beyond Catherine.

"You are so like your dear brother," continued Isabella, "that I quite doted on
you the first moment I saw you. But so it always is with me; the first moment
settles everything. The very first day that Morland came to us last Christmas—the
very first moment I beheld him—my heart was irrecoverably gone. I remember I
wore my yellow gown, with my hair done up in braids; and when I came into the
drawing-room, and John introduced him, I thought I never saw anybody so
handsome before."

Here Catherine secretly acknowledged the power of love; for, though

exceedingly fond of her brother, and partial to all his endowments, she had never
in her life thought him handsome.
 "I remember too, Miss Andrews drank tea with us that evening, and wore her
puce-coloured sarsenet; and she looked so heavenly that I thought your brother
must certainly fall in love with her; I could not sleep a wink all right for thinking
of it. Oh! Catherine, the many sleepless nights I have had on your brother's
account! I would not have you suffer half what I have done! I am grown
wretchedly thin, I know; but I will not pain you by describing my anxiety; you
have seen enough of it. I feel that I have betrayed myself perpetually—so
unguarded in speaking of my partiality for the church! But my secret I was always
sure would be safe with you."

Catherine felt that nothing could have been safer; but ashamed of an
ignorance little expected, she dared no longer contest the point, nor refuse to have
been as full of arch penetration and affectionate sympathy as Isabella chose to
consider her. Her brother, she found, was preparing to set off with all speed to
Fullerton, to make known his situation and ask consent; and here was a source of
some real agitation to the mind of Isabella. Catherine endeavoured to persuade
her, as she was herself persuaded, that her father and mother would never oppose
their son's wishes. "It is impossible," said she, "for parents to be more kind, or
more desirous of their children's happiness; I have no doubt of their consenting
immediately."

"Morland says exactly the same," replied Isabella; "and yet I dare not expect
it; my fortune will be so small; they never can consent to it. Your brother, who
might marry anybody!"

Here Catherine again discerned the force of love.

"Indeed, Isabella, you are too humble. The difference of fortune can be
nothing to signify."

"Oh! My sweet Catherine, in your generous heart I know it would signify

nothing; but we must not expect such disinterestedness in many. As for myself, I
am sure I only wish our situations were reversed. Had I the command of millions,
were I mistress of the whole world, your brother would be my only choice."

This charming sentiment, recommended as much by sense as novelty, gave

Catherine a most pleasing remembrance of all the heroines of her acquaintance;
and she thought her friend never looked more lovely than in uttering the grand
idea. "I am sure they will consent," was her frequent declaration; "I am sure they
will be delighted with you."

"For my own part," said Isabella, "my wishes are so moderate that the
smallest income in nature would be enough for me. Where people are really
attached, poverty itself is wealth; grandeur I detest: I would not settle in London
for the universe. A cottage in some retired village would be ecstasy. There are
some charming little villas about Richmond."
 "Richmond!" cried Catherine. "You must settle near Fullerton. You must be
near us."

"I am sure I shall be miserable if we do not. If I can but be near you, I shall
be satisfied. But this is idle talking! I will not allow myself to think of such things,
till we have your father's answer. Morland says that by sending it tonight to
Salisbury, we may have it tomorrow. Tomorrow? I know I shall never have
courage to open the letter. I know it will be the death of me."

A reverie succeeded this conviction—and when Isabella spoke again, it was to

resolve on the quality of her wedding-gown.

Their conference was put an end to by the anxious young lover himself, who
came to breathe his parting sigh before he set off for Wiltshire. Catherine wished
to congratulate him, but knew not what to say, and her eloquence was only in her
eyes. From them, however, the eight parts of speech shone out most expressively,
and James could combine them with ease. Impatient for the realization of all that
he hoped at home, his adieus were not long; and they would have been yet
shorter, had he not been frequently detained by the urgent entreaties of his fair
one that he would go. Twice was he called almost from the door by her eagerness
to have him gone. "Indeed, Morland, I must drive you away. Consider how far you
have to ride. I cannot bear to see you linger so. For heaven's sake, waste no more
time. There, go, go—I insist on it."

The two friends, with hearts now more united than ever, were inseparable for
the day; and in schemes of sisterly happiness the hours flew along. Mrs. Thorpe
and her son, who were acquainted with everything, and who seemed only to want
Mr. Morland's consent, to consider Isabella's engagement as the most fortunate
circumstance imaginable for their family, were allowed to join their counsels, and
add their quota of significant looks and mysterious expressions to fill up the
measure of curiosity to be raised in the unprivileged younger sisters. To
Catherine's simple feelings, this odd sort of reserve seemed neither kindly meant,
nor consistently supported; and its unkindness she would hardly have forborne
pointing out, had its inconsistency been less their friend; but Anne and Maria
soon set her heart at ease by the sagacity of their "I know what"; and the evening
was spent in a sort of war of wit, a display of family ingenuity, on one side in the
mystery of an affected secret, on the other of undefined discovery, all equally
acute.

Catherine was with her friend again the next day, endeavouring to support
her spirits and while away the many tedious hours before the delivery of the
letters; a needful exertion, for as the time of reasonable expectation drew near,
Isabella became more and more desponding, and before the letter arrived, had
worked herself into a state of real distress. But when it did come, where could
distress be found? "I have had no difficulty in gaining the consent of my kind
parents, and am promised that everything in their power shall be done to forward
my happiness," were the first three lines, and in one moment all was joyful
security. The brightest glow was instantly spread over Isabella's features, all care
and anxiety seemed removed, her spirits became almost too high for control, and
she called herself without scruple the happiest of mortals.

Mrs. Thorpe, with tears of joy, embraced her daughter, her son, her visitor,
and could have embraced half the inhabitants of Bath with satisfaction. Her heart
was overflowing with tenderness. It was "dear John" and "dear Catherine" at every
word; "dear Anne and dear Maria" must immediately be made sharers in their
felicity; and two "dears" at once before the name of Isabella were not more than
that beloved child had now well earned. John himself was no skulker in joy. He
not only bestowed on Mr. Morland the high commendation of being one of the
finest fellows in the world, but swore off many sentences in his praise.

The letter, whence sprang all this felicity, was short, containing little more
than this assurance of success; and every particular was deferred till James could
write again. But for particulars Isabella could well afford to wait. The needful was
comprised in Mr. Morland's promise; his honour was pledged to make everything
easy; and by what means their income was to be formed, whether landed property
were to be resigned, or funded money made over, was a matter in which her
disinterested spirit took no concern. She knew enough to feel secure of an
honourable and speedy establishment, and her imagination took a rapid flight over
its attendant felicities. She saw herself at the end of a few weeks, the gaze and
admiration of every new acquaintance at Fullerton, the envy of every valued old
friend in Putney, with a carriage at her command, a new name on her tickets, and
a brilliant exhibition of hoop rings on her finger.

When the contents of the letter were ascertained, John Thorpe, who had only
waited its arrival to begin his journey to London, prepared to set off. "Well, Miss
Morland," said he, on finding her alone in the parlour, "I am come to bid you
good-bye." Catherine wished him a good journey. Without appearing to hear her,
he walked to the window, fidgeted about, hummed a tune, and seemed wholly
self-occupied.

"Shall not you be late at Devizes?" said Catherine. He made no answer; but
after a minute's silence burst out with, "A famous good thing this marrying
scheme, upon my soul! A clever fancy of Morland's and Belle's. What do you think
of it, Miss Morland? I say it is no bad notion."

"I am sure I think it a very good one."

"Do you? That's honest, by heavens! I am glad you are no enemy to

matrimony, however. Did you ever hear the old song 'Going to One Wedding
Brings on Another?' I say, you will come to Belle's wedding, I hope."

"Yes; I have promised your sister to be with her, if possible."

 "And then you know"—twisting himself about and forcing a foolish laugh—"I
say, then you know, we may try the truth of this same old song."

"May we? But I never sing. Well, I wish you a good journey. I dine with Miss
Tilney today, and must now be going home."

"Nay, but there is no such confounded hurry. Who knows when we may be
together again? Not but that I shall be down again by the end of a fortnight, and a
devilish long fortnight it will appear to me."

"Then why do you stay away so long?" replied Catherine—finding that he

waited for an answer.

"That is kind of you, however—kind and good-natured. I shall not forget it in

a hurry. But you have more good nature and all that, than anybody living, I
believe. A monstrous deal of good nature, and it is not only good nature, but you
have so much, so much of everything; and then you have such—upon my soul, I
do not know anybody like you."

"Oh! dear, there are a great many people like me, I dare say, only a great deal
better. Good morning to you."

"But I say, Miss Morland, I shall come and pay my respects at Fullerton
before it is long, if not disagreeable."

"Pray do. My father and mother will be very glad to see you."

"And I hope—I hope, Miss Morland, you will not be sorry to see me."

"Oh! dear, not at all. There are very few people I am sorry to see. Company is
always cheerful."

"That is just my way of thinking. Give me but a little cheerful company, let
me only have the company of the people I love, let me only be where I like and
with whom I like, and the devil take the rest, say I. And I am heartily glad to hear
you say the same. But I have a notion, Miss Morland, you and I think pretty
much alike upon most matters."

"Perhaps we may; but it is more than I ever thought of. And as to most
matters, to say the truth, there are not many that I know my own mind about."

"By Jove, no more do I. It is not my way to bother my brains with what does
not concern me. My notion of things is simple enough. Let me only have the girl I
like, say I, with a comfortable house over my head, and what care I for all the
rest? Fortune is nothing. I am sure of a good income of my own; and if she had
not a penny, why, so much the better."
 "Very true. I think like you there. If there is a good fortune on one side, there
can be no occasion for any on the other. No matter which has it, so that there is
enough. I hate the idea of one great fortune looking out for another. And to marry
for money I think the wickedest thing in existence. Good day. We shall be very
glad to see you at Fullerton, whenever it is convenient." And away she went. It
was not in the power of all his gallantry to detain her longer. With such news to
communicate, and such a visit to prepare for, her departure was not to be delayed
by anything in his nature to urge; and she hurried away, leaving him to the
undivided consciousness of his own happy address, and her explicit
encouragement.

The agitation which she had herself experienced on first learning her brother's
engagement made her expect to raise no inconsiderable emotion in Mr. and Mrs.
Allen, by the communication of the wonderful event. How great was her
disappointment! The important affair, which many words of preparation ushered
in, had been foreseen by them both ever since her brother's arrival; and all that
they felt on the occasion was comprehended in a wish for the young people's
happiness, with a remark, on the gentleman's side, in favour of Isabella's beauty,
and on the lady's, of her great good luck. It was to Catherine the most surprising
insensibility. The disclosure, however, of the great secret of James's going to
Fullerton the day before, did raise some emotion in Mrs. Allen. She could not
listen to that with perfect calmness, but repeatedly regretted the necessity of its
concealment, wished she could have known his intention, wished she could have
seen him before he went, as she should certainly have troubled him with her best
regards to his father and mother, and her kind compliments to all the Skinners.

Ebd
E-BooksDirectory.com
 CHAPTER 16

Catherine's expectations of pleasure from her visit in Milsom Street were so

very high that disappointment was inevitable; and accordingly, though she was
most politely received by General Tilney, and kindly welcomed by his daughter,
though Henry was at home, and no one else of the party, she found, on her
return, without spending many hours in the examination of her feelings, that she
had gone to her appointment preparing for happiness which it had not afforded.
Instead of finding herself improved in acquaintance with Miss Tilney, from the
intercourse of the day, she seemed hardly so intimate with her as before; instead
of seeing Henry Tilney to greater advantage than ever, in the ease of a family
party, he had never said so little, nor been so little agreeable; and, in spite of their
father's great civilities to her—in spite of his thanks, invitations, and
compliments—it had been a release to get away from him. It puzzled her to
account for all this. It could not be General Tilney's fault. That he was perfectly
agreeable and good-natured, and altogether a very charming man, did not admit of
a doubt, for he was tall and handsome, and Henry's father. He could not be
accountable for his children's want of spirits, or for her want of enjoyment in his
company. The former she hoped at last might have been accidental, and the latter
she could only attribute to her own stupidity. Isabella, on hearing the particulars
of the visit, gave a different explanation: "It was all pride, pride, insufferable
haughtiness and pride! She had long suspected the family to be very high, and this
made it certain. Such insolence of behaviour as Miss Tilney's she had never heard
of in her life! Not to do the honours of her house with common good breeding! To
behave to her guest with such superciliousness! Hardly even to speak to her!"

"But it was not so bad as that, Isabella; there was no superciliousness; she
was very civil."

"Oh! Don't defend her! And then the brother, he, who had appeared so
attached to you! Good heavens! Well, some people's feelings are incomprehensible.
And so he hardly looked once at you the whole day?"

"I do not say so; but he did not seem in good spirits."

"How contemptible! Of all things in the world inconstancy is my aversion. Let

me entreat you never to think of him again, my dear Catherine; indeed he is
unworthy of you."
 "Unworthy! I do not suppose he ever thinks of me."

"That is exactly what I say; he never thinks of you. Such fickleness! Oh! How
different to your brother and to mine! I really believe John has the most constant
heart."

"But as for General Tilney, I assure you it would be impossible for anybody to
behave to me with greater civility and attention; it seemed to be his only care to
entertain and make me happy."

"Oh! I know no harm of him; I do not suspect him of pride. I believe he is a

very gentleman-like man. John thinks very well of him, and John's judgment—"

"Well, I shall see how they behave to me this evening; we shall meet them at
the rooms."

"And must I go?"

"Do not you intend it? I thought it was all settled."

"Nay, since you make such a point of it, I can refuse you nothing. But do not
insist upon my being very agreeable, for my heart, you know, will be some forty
miles off. And as for dancing, do not mention it, I beg; that is quite out of the
question. Charles Hodges will plague me to death, I dare say; but I shall cut him
very short. Ten to one but he guesses the reason, and that is exactly what I want
to avoid, so I shall insist on his keeping his conjecture to himself."

Isabella's opinion of the Tilneys did not influence her friend; she was sure
there had been no insolence in the manners either of brother or sister; and she did
not credit there being any pride in their hearts. The evening rewarded her
confidence; she was met by one with the same kindness, and by the other with
the same attention, as heretofore: Miss Tilney took pains to be near her, and
Henry asked her to dance.

Having heard the day before in Milsom Street that their elder brother,
Captain Tilney, was expected almost every hour, she was at no loss for the name
of a very fashionable-looking, handsome young man, whom she had never seen
before, and who now evidently belonged to their party. She looked at him with
great admiration, and even supposed it possible that some people might think him
handsomer than his brother, though, in her eyes, his air was more assuming, and
his countenance less prepossessing. His taste and manners were beyond a doubt
decidedly inferior; for, within her hearing, he not only protested against every
thought of dancing himself, but even laughed openly at Henry for finding it
possible. From the latter circumstance it may be presumed that, whatever might
be our heroine's opinion of him, his admiration of her was not of a very dangerous
kind; not likely to produce animosities between the brothers, nor persecutions to
the lady. He cannot be the instigator of the three villains in horsemen's greatcoats,
by whom she will hereafter be forced into a traveling-chaise and four, which will
drive off with incredible speed. Catherine, meanwhile, undisturbed by
presentiments of such an evil, or of any evil at all, except that of having but a
short set to dance down, enjoyed her usual happiness with Henry Tilney, listening
with sparkling eyes to everything he said; and, in finding him irresistible,
becoming so herself.

At the end of the first dance, Captain Tilney came towards them again, and,
much to Catherine's dissatisfaction, pulled his brother away. They retired
whispering together; and, though her delicate sensibility did not take immediate
alarm, and lay it down as fact, that Captain Tilney must have heard some
malevolent misrepresentation of her, which he now hastened to communicate to
his brother, in the hope of separating them forever, she could not have her partner
conveyed from her sight without very uneasy sensations. Her suspense was of full
five minutes' duration; and she was beginning to think it a very long quarter of an
hour, when they both returned, and an explanation was given, by Henry's
requesting to know if she thought her friend, Miss Thorpe, would have any
objection to dancing, as his brother would be most happy to be introduced to her.
Catherine, without hesitation, replied that she was very sure Miss Thorpe did not
mean to dance at all. The cruel reply was passed on to the other, and he
immediately walked away.

"Your brother will not mind it, I know," said she, "because I heard him say
before that he hated dancing; but it was very good-natured in him to think of it. I
suppose he saw Isabella sitting down, and fancied she might wish for a partner;
but he is quite mistaken, for she would not dance upon any account in the world."

Henry smiled, and said, "How very little trouble it can give you to understand
the motive of other people's actions."

"Why? What do you mean?"

"With you, it is not, How is such a one likely to be influenced, What is the
inducement most likely to act upon such a person's feelings, age, situation, and
probable habits of life considered—but, How should I be influenced, What would
be my inducement in acting so and so?"

"I do not understand you."

"Then we are on very unequal terms, for I understand you perfectly well."

"Me? Yes; I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible."

"Bravo! An excellent satire on modern language."

"But pray tell me what you mean."

 "Shall I indeed? Do you really desire it? But you are not aware of the
consequences; it will involve you in a very cruel embarrassment, and certainly
bring on a disagreement between us.

"No, no; it shall not do either; I am not afraid."

"Well, then, I only meant that your attributing my brother's wish of dancing
with Miss Thorpe to good nature alone convinced me of your being superior in
good nature yourself to all the rest of the world."

Catherine blushed and disclaimed, and the gentleman's predictions were

verified. There was a something, however, in his words which repaid her for the
pain of confusion; and that something occupied her mind so much that she drew
back for some time, forgetting to speak or to listen, and almost forgetting where
she was; till, roused by the voice of Isabella, she looked up and saw her with
Captain Tilney preparing to give them hands across.

Isabella shrugged her shoulders and smiled, the only explanation of this
extraordinary change which could at that time be given; but as it was not quite
enough for Catherine's comprehension, she spoke her astonishment in very plain
terms to her partner.

"I cannot think how it could happen! Isabella was so determined not to
dance."

"And did Isabella never change her mind before?"

"Oh! But, because—And your brother! After what you told him from me, how
could he think of going to ask her?"

"I cannot take surprise to myself on that head. You bid me be surprised on
your friend's account, and therefore I am; but as for my brother, his conduct in
the business, I must own, has been no more than I believed him perfectly equal
to. The fairness of your friend was an open attraction; her firmness, you know,
could only be understood by yourself."

"You are laughing; but, I assure you, Isabella is very firm in general."

"It is as much as should be said of anyone. To be always firm must be to be

often obstinate. When properly to relax is the trial of judgment; and, without
reference to my brother, I really think Miss Thorpe has by no means chosen ill in
fixing on the present hour."

The friends were not able to get together for any confidential discourse till all
the dancing was over; but then, as they walked about the room arm in arm,
Isabella thus explained herself: "I do not wonder at your surprise; and I am really
fatigued to death. He is such a rattle! Amusing enough, if my mind had been
disengaged; but I would have given the world to sit still."
 "Then why did not you?"

"Oh! My dear! It would have looked so particular; and you know how I abhor
doing that. I refused him as long as I possibly could, but he would take no denial.
You have no idea how he pressed me. I begged him to excuse me, and get some
other partner—but no, not he; after aspiring to my hand, there was nobody else in
the room he could bear to think of; and it was not that he wanted merely to
dance, he wanted to be with me. Oh! Such nonsense! I told him he had taken a
very unlikely way to prevail upon me; for, of all things in the world, I hated fine
speeches and compliments; and so—and so then I found there would be no peace
if I did not stand up. Besides, I thought Mrs. Hughes, who introduced him, might
take it ill if I did not: and your dear brother, I am sure he would have been
miserable if I had sat down the whole evening. I am so glad it is over! My spirits
are quite jaded with listening to his nonsense: and then, being such a smart young
fellow, I saw every eye was upon us."

"He is very handsome indeed."

"Handsome! Yes, I suppose he may. I dare say people would admire him in
general; but he is not at all in my style of beauty. I hate a florid complexion and
dark eyes in a man. However, he is very well. Amazingly conceited, I am sure. I
took him down several times, you know, in my way."

When the young ladies next met, they had a far more interesting subject to
discuss. James Morland's second letter was then received, and the kind intentions
of his father fully explained. A living, of which Mr. Morland was himself patron
and incumbent, of about four hundred pounds yearly value, was to be resigned to
his son as soon as he should be old enough to take it; no trifling deduction from
the family income, no niggardly assignment to one of ten children. An estate of at
least equal value, moreover, was assured as his future inheritance.

James expressed himself on the occasion with becoming gratitude; and the
necessity of waiting between two and three years before they could marry, being,
however unwelcome, no more than he had expected, was borne by him without
discontent. Catherine, whose expectations had been as unfixed as her ideas of her
father's income, and whose judgment was now entirely led by her brother, felt
equally well satisfied, and heartily congratulated Isabella on having everything so
pleasantly settled.

"It is very charming indeed," said Isabella, with a grave face. "Mr. Morland
has behaved vastly handsome indeed," said the gentle Mrs. Thorpe, looking
anxiously at her daughter. "I only wish I could do as much. One could not expect
more from him, you know. If he finds he can do more by and by, I dare say he
will, for I am sure he must be an excellent good-hearted man. Four hundred is but
a small income to begin on indeed, but your wishes, my dear Isabella, are so
moderate, you do not consider how little you ever want, my dear."
 "It is not on my own account I wish for more; but I cannot bear to be the
means of injuring my dear Morland, making him sit down upon an income hardly
enough to find one in the common necessaries of life. For myself, it is nothing; I
never think of myself."

"I know you never do, my dear; and you will always find your reward in the
affection it makes everybody feel for you. There never was a young woman so
beloved as you are by everybody that knows you; and I dare say when Mr.
Morland sees you, my dear child—but do not let us distress our dear Catherine by
talking of such things. Mr. Morland has behaved so very handsome, you know. I
always heard he was a most excellent man; and you know, my dear, we are not to
suppose but what, if you had had a suitable fortune, he would have come down
with something more, for I am sure he must be a most liberal-minded man."

"Nobody can think better of Mr. Morland than I do, I am sure. But everybody
has their failing, you know, and everybody has a right to do what they like with
their own money." Catherine was hurt by these insinuations. "I am very sure," said
she, "that my father has promised to do as much as he can afford."

Isabella recollected herself. "As to that, my sweet Catherine, there cannot be a

doubt, and you know me well enough to be sure that a much smaller income
would satisfy me. It is not the want of more money that makes me just at present
a little out of spirits; I hate money; and if our union could take place now upon
only fifty pounds a year, I should not have a wish unsatisfied. Ah! my Catherine,
you have found me out. There's the sting. The long, long, endless two years and
half that are to pass before your brother can hold the living."

"Yes, yes, my darling Isabella," said Mrs. Thorpe, "we perfectly see into your
heart. You have no disguise. We perfectly understand the present vexation; and
everybody must love you the better for such a noble honest affection."

Catherine's uncomfortable feelings began to lessen. She endeavoured to

believe that the delay of the marriage was the only source of Isabella's regret; and
when she saw her at their next interview as cheerful and amiable as ever,
endeavoured to forget that she had for a minute thought otherwise. James soon
followed his letter, and was received with the most gratifying kindness.

Ebd
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 CHAPTER 17

The Allens had now entered on the sixth week of their stay in Bath; and
whether it should be the last was for some time a question, to which Catherine
listened with a beating heart. To have her acquaintance with the Tilneys end so
soon was an evil which nothing could counterbalance. Her whole happiness
seemed at stake, while the affair was in suspense, and everything secured when it
was determined that the lodgings should be taken for another fortnight. What this
additional fortnight was to produce to her beyond the pleasure of sometimes
seeing Henry Tilney made but a small part of Catherine's speculation. Once or
twice indeed, since James's engagement had taught her what could be done, she
had got so far as to indulge in a secret "perhaps," but in general the felicity of
being with him for the present bounded her views: the present was now
comprised in another three weeks, and her happiness being certain for that
period, the rest of her life was at such a distance as to excite but little interest. In
the course of the morning which saw this business arranged, she visited Miss
Tilney, and poured forth her joyful feelings. It was doomed to be a day of trial. No
sooner had she expressed her delight in Mr. Allen's lengthened stay than Miss
Tilney told her of her father's having just determined upon quitting Bath by the
end of another week. Here was a blow! The past suspense of the morning had
been ease and quiet to the present disappointment. Catherine's countenance fell,
and in a voice of most sincere concern she echoed Miss Tilney's concluding words,
"By the end of another week!"

"Yes, my father can seldom be prevailed on to give the waters what I think a
fair trial. He has been disappointed of some friends' arrival whom he expected to
meet here, and as he is now pretty well, is in a hurry to get home."

"I am very sorry for it," said Catherine dejectedly; "if I had known this
before—"

"Perhaps," said Miss Tilney in an embarrassed manner, "you would be so

good—it would make me very happy if—"

The entrance of her father put a stop to the civility, which Catherine was
beginning to hope might introduce a desire of their corresponding. After
addressing her with his usual politeness, he turned to his daughter and said,
"Well, Eleanor, may I congratulate you on being successful in your application to
your fair friend?"

"I was just beginning to make the request, sir, as you came in."

"Well, proceed by all means. I know how much your heart is in it. My
daughter, Miss Morland," he continued, without leaving his daughter time to
speak, "has been forming a very bold wish. We leave Bath, as she has perhaps told
you, on Saturday se'nnight. A letter from my steward tells me that my presence is
wanted at home; and being disappointed in my hope of seeing the Marquis of
Longtown and General Courteney here, some of my very old friends, there is
nothing to detain me longer in Bath. And could we carry our selfish point with
you, we should leave it without a single regret. Can you, in short, be prevailed on
to quit this scene of public triumph and oblige your friend Eleanor with your
company in Gloucestershire? I am almost ashamed to make the request, though its
presumption would certainly appear greater to every creature in Bath than
yourself. Modesty such as yours—but not for the world would I pain it by open
praise. If you can be induced to honour us with a visit, you will make us happy
beyond expression. 'Tis true, we can offer you nothing like the gaieties of this
lively place; we can tempt you neither by amusement nor splendour, for our mode
of living, as you see, is plain and unpretending; yet no endeavours shall be
wanting on our side to make Northanger Abbey not wholly disagreeable."

Northanger Abbey! These were thrilling words, and wound up Catherine's

feelings to the highest point of ecstasy. Her grateful and gratified heart could
hardly restrain its expressions within the language of tolerable calmness. To
receive so flattering an invitation! To have her company so warmly solicited!
Everything honourable and soothing, every present enjoyment, and every future
hope was contained in it; and her acceptance, with only the saving clause of Papa
and Mamma's approbation, was eagerly given. "I will write home directly," said
she, "and if they do not object, as I dare say they will not—"

General Tilney was not less sanguine, having already waited on her excellent
friends in Pulteney Street, and obtained their sanction of his wishes. "Since they
can consent to part with you," said he, "we may expect philosophy from all the
world."

Miss Tilney was earnest, though gentle, in her secondary civilities, and the
affair became in a few minutes as nearly settled as this necessary reference to
Fullerton would allow.

The circumstances of the morning had led Catherine's feelings through the
varieties of suspense, security, and disappointment; but they were now safely
lodged in perfect bliss; and with spirits elated to rapture, with Henry at her heart,
and Northanger Abbey on her lips, she hurried home to write her letter. Mr. and
Mrs. Morland, relying on the discretion of the friends to whom they had already
entrusted their daughter, felt no doubt of the propriety of an acquaintance which
had been formed under their eye, and sent therefore by return of post their ready
consent to her visit in Gloucestershire. This indulgence, though not more than
Catherine had hoped for, completed her conviction of being favoured beyond
every other human creature, in friends and fortune, circumstance and chance.
Everything seemed to cooperate for her advantage. By the kindness of her first
friends, the Allens, she had been introduced into scenes where pleasures of every
kind had met her. Her feelings, her preferences, had each known the happiness of
a return. Wherever she felt attachment, she had been able to create it. The
affection of Isabella was to be secured to her in a sister. The Tilneys, they, by
whom, above all, she desired to be favourably thought of, outstripped even her
wishes in the flattering measures by which their intimacy was to be continued.
She was to be their chosen visitor, she was to be for weeks under the same roof
with the person whose society she mostly prized—and, in addition to all the rest,
this roof was to be the roof of an abbey! Her passion for ancient edifices was next
in degree to her passion for Henry Tilney—and castles and abbeys made usually
the charm of those reveries which his image did not fill. To see and explore either
the ramparts and keep of the one, or the cloisters of the other, had been for many
weeks a darling wish, though to be more than the visitor of an hour had seemed
too nearly impossible for desire. And yet, this was to happen. With all the chances
against her of house, hall, place, park, court, and cottage, Northanger turned up
an abbey, and she was to be its inhabitant. Its long, damp passages, its narrow
cells and ruined chapel, were to be within her daily reach, and she could not
entirely subdue the hope of some traditional legends, some awful memorials of an
injured and ill-fated nun.

It was wonderful that her friends should seem so little elated by the
possession of such a home, that the consciousness of it should be so meekly
borne. The power of early habit only could account for it. A distinction to which
they had been born gave no pride. Their superiority of abode was no more to them
than their superiority of person.

Many were the inquiries she was eager to make of Miss Tilney; but so active
were her thoughts, that when these inquiries were answered, she was hardly more
assured than before, of Northanger Abbey having been a richly endowed convent
at the time of the Reformation, of its having fallen into the hands of an ancestor
of the Tilneys on its dissolution, of a large portion of the ancient building still
making a part of the present dwelling although the rest was decayed, or of its
standing low in a valley, sheltered from the north and east by rising woods of oak.

Ebd
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 CHAPTER 18

With a mind thus full of happiness, Catherine was hardly aware that two or
three days had passed away, without her seeing Isabella for more than a few
minutes together. She began first to be sensible of this, and to sigh for her
conversation, as she walked along the pump-room one morning, by Mrs. Allen's
side, without anything to say or to hear; and scarcely had she felt a five minutes'
longing of friendship, before the object of it appeared, and inviting her to a secret
conference, led the way to a seat. "This is my favourite place," said she as they sat
down on a bench between the doors, which commanded a tolerable view of
everybody entering at either; "it is so out of the way."

Catherine, observing that Isabella's eyes were continually bent towards one
door or the other, as in eager expectation, and remembering how often she had
been falsely accused of being arch, thought the present a fine opportunity for
being really so; and therefore gaily said, "Do not be uneasy, Isabella, James will
soon be here."

"Psha! My dear creature," she replied, "do not think me such a simpleton as to
be always wanting to confine him to my elbow. It would be hideous to be always
together; we should be the jest of the place. And so you are going to Northanger! I
am amazingly glad of it. It is one of the finest old places in England, I understand.
I shall depend upon a most particular description of it."

"You shall certainly have the best in my power to give. But who are you
looking for? Are your sisters coming?"

"I am not looking for anybody. One's eyes must be somewhere, and you know
what a foolish trick I have of fixing mine, when my thoughts are an hundred miles
off. I am amazingly absent; I believe I am the most absent creature in the world.
Tilney says it is always the case with minds of a certain stamp."

"But I thought, Isabella, you had something in particular to tell me?"

 "Oh! Yes, and so I have. But here is a proof of what I was saying. My poor
head, I had quite forgot it. Well, the thing is this: I have just had a letter from
John; you can guess the contents."

"No, indeed, I cannot."

"My sweet love, do not be so abominably affected. What can he write about,
but yourself? You know he is over head and ears in love with you."

"With me, dear Isabella!"

"Nay, my sweetest Catherine, this is being quite absurd! Modesty, and all
that, is very well in its way, but really a little common honesty is sometimes quite
as becoming. I have no idea of being so overstrained! It is fishing for compliments.
His attentions were such as a child must have noticed. And it was but half an
hour before he left Bath that you gave him the most positive encouragement. He
says so in this letter, says that he as good as made you an offer, and that you
received his advances in the kindest way; and now he wants me to urge his suit,
and say all manner of pretty things to you. So it is in vain to affect ignorance."

Catherine, with all the earnestness of truth, expressed her astonishment at

such a charge, protesting her innocence of every thought of Mr. Thorpe's being in
love with her, and the consequent impossibility of her having ever intended to
encourage him. "As to any attentions on his side, I do declare, upon my honour, I
never was sensible of them for a moment—except just his asking me to dance the
first day of his coming. And as to making me an offer, or anything like it, there
must be some unaccountable mistake. I could not have misunderstood a thing of
that kind, you know! And, as I ever wish to be believed, I solemnly protest that
no syllable of such a nature ever passed between us. The last half hour before he
went away! It must be all and completely a mistake—for I did not see him once
that whole morning."

"But that you certainly did, for you spent the whole morning in Edgar's
Buildings—it was the day your father's consent came—and I am pretty sure that
you and John were alone in the parlour some time before you left the house."

"Are you? Well, if you say it, it was so, I dare say—but for the life of me, I
cannot recollect it. I do remember now being with you, and seeing him as well as
the rest—but that we were ever alone for five minutes—However, it is not worth
arguing about, for whatever might pass on his side, you must be convinced, by my
having no recollection of it, that I never thought, nor expected, nor wished for
anything of the kind from him. I am excessively concerned that he should have
any regard for me—but indeed it has been quite unintentional on my side; I never
had the smallest idea of it. Pray undeceive him as soon as you can, and tell him I
beg his pardon—that is—I do not know what I ought to say—but make him
understand what I mean, in the properest way. I would not speak disrespectfully
of a brother of yours, Isabella, I am sure; but you know very well that if I could
think of one man more than another—he is not the person." Isabella was silent.
"My dear friend, you must not be angry with me. I cannot suppose your brother
cares so very much about me. And, you know, we shall still be sisters."

"Yes, yes" (with a blush), "there are more ways than one of our being sisters.
But where am I wandering to? Well, my dear Catherine, the case seems to be that
you are determined against poor John—is not it so?"

"I certainly cannot return his affection, and as certainly never meant to
encourage it."

"Since that is the case, I am sure I shall not tease you any further. John
desired me to speak to you on the subject, and therefore I have. But I confess, as
soon as I read his letter, I thought it a very foolish, imprudent business, and not
likely to promote the good of either; for what were you to live upon, supposing
you came together? You have both of you something, to be sure, but it is not a
trifle that will support a family nowadays; and after all that romancers may say,
there is no doing without money. I only wonder John could think of it; he could
not have received my last."

"You do acquit me, then, of anything wrong?—You are convinced that I never
meant to deceive your brother, never suspected him of liking me till this
moment?"

"Oh! As to that," answered Isabella laughingly, "I do not pretend to determine

what your thoughts and designs in time past may have been. All that is best
known to yourself. A little harmless flirtation or so will occur, and one is often
drawn on to give more encouragement than one wishes to stand by. But you may
be assured that I am the last person in the world to judge you severely. All those
things should be allowed for in youth and high spirits. What one means one day,
you know, one may not mean the next. Circumstances change, opinions alter."

"But my opinion of your brother never did alter; it was always the same. You
are describing what never happened."

"My dearest Catherine," continued the other without at all listening to her, "I
would not for all the world be the means of hurrying you into an engagement
before you knew what you were about. I do not think anything would justify me
in wishing you to sacrifice all your happiness merely to oblige my brother, because
he is my brother, and who perhaps after all, you know, might be just as happy
without you, for people seldom know what they would be at, young men
especially, they are so amazingly changeable and inconstant. What I say is, why
should a brother's happiness be dearer to me than a friend's? You know I carry my
notions of friendship pretty high. But, above all things, my dear Catherine, do not
be in a hurry. Take my word for it, that if you are in too great a hurry, you will
certainly live to repent it. Tilney says there is nothing people are so often deceived
in as the state of their own affections, and I believe he is very right. Ah! Here he
comes; never mind, he will not see us, I am sure."

Catherine, looking up, perceived Captain Tilney; and Isabella, earnestly fixing
her eye on him as she spoke, soon caught his notice. He approached immediately,
and took the seat to which her movements invited him. His first address made
Catherine start. Though spoken low, she could distinguish, "What! Always to be
watched, in person or by proxy!"

"Psha, nonsense!" was Isabella's answer in the same half whisper. "Why do
you put such things into my head? If I could believe it—my spirit, you know, is
pretty independent."

"I wish your heart were independent. That would be enough for me."

"My heart, indeed! What can you have to do with hearts? You men have none
of you any hearts."

"If we have not hearts, we have eyes; and they give us torment enough."

"Do they? I am sorry for it; I am sorry they find anything so disagreeable in
me. I will look another way. I hope this pleases you" (turning her back on him); "I
hope your eyes are not tormented now."

"Never more so; for the edge of a blooming cheek is still in view—at once too
much and too little."

Catherine heard all this, and quite out of countenance, could listen no longer.
Amazed that Isabella could endure it, and jealous for her brother, she rose up, and
saying she should join Mrs. Allen, proposed their walking. But for this Isabella
showed no inclination. She was so amazingly tired, and it was so odious to parade
about the pump-room; and if she moved from her seat she should miss her sisters;
she was expecting her sisters every moment; so that her dearest Catherine must
excuse her, and must sit quietly down again. But Catherine could be stubborn too;
and Mrs. Allen just then coming up to propose their returning home, she joined
her and walked out of the pump-room, leaving Isabella still sitting with Captain
Tilney. With much uneasiness did she thus leave them. It seemed to her that
Captain Tilney was falling in love with Isabella, and Isabella unconsciously
encouraging him; unconsciously it must be, for Isabella's attachment to James was
as certain and well acknowledged as her engagement. To doubt her truth or good
intentions was impossible; and yet, during the whole of their conversation her
manner had been odd. She wished Isabella had talked more like her usual self,
and not so much about money, and had not looked so well pleased at the sight of
Captain Tilney. How strange that she should not perceive his admiration!
Catherine longed to give her a hint of it, to put her on her guard, and prevent all
the pain which her too lively behaviour might otherwise create both for him and
her brother.
 The compliment of John Thorpe's affection did not make amends for this
thoughtlessness in his sister. She was almost as far from believing as from wishing
it to be sincere; for she had not forgotten that he could mistake, and his assertion
of the offer and of her encouragement convinced her that his mistakes could
sometimes be very egregious. In vanity, therefore, she gained but little; her chief
profit was in wonder. That he should think it worth his while to fancy himself in
love with her was a matter of lively astonishment. Isabella talked of his
attentions; she had never been sensible of any; but Isabella had said many things
which she hoped had been spoken in haste, and would never be said again; and
upon this she was glad to rest altogether for present ease and comfort.

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 CHAPTER 19

A few days passed away, and Catherine, though not allowing herself to
suspect her friend, could not help watching her closely. The result of her
observations was not agreeable. Isabella seemed an altered creature. When she
saw her, indeed, surrounded only by their immediate friends in Edgar's Buildings
or Pulteney Street, her change of manners was so trifling that, had it gone no
farther, it might have passed unnoticed. A something of languid indifference, or of
that boasted absence of mind which Catherine had never heard of before, would
occasionally come across her; but had nothing worse appeared, that might only
have spread a new grace and inspired a warmer interest. But when Catherine saw
her in public, admitting Captain Tilney's attentions as readily as they were
offered, and allowing him almost an equal share with James in her notice and
smiles, the alteration became too positive to be passed over. What could be meant
by such unsteady conduct, what her friend could be at, was beyond her
comprehension. Isabella could not be aware of the pain she was inflicting; but it
was a degree of wilful thoughtlessness which Catherine could not but resent.
James was the sufferer. She saw him grave and uneasy; and however careless of
his present comfort the woman might be who had given him her heart, to her it
was always an object. For poor Captain Tilney too she was greatly concerned.
Though his looks did not please her, his name was a passport to her goodwill, and
she thought with sincere compassion of his approaching disappointment; for, in
spite of what she had believed herself to overhear in the pump-room, his
behaviour was so incompatible with a knowledge of Isabella's engagement that she
could not, upon reflection, imagine him aware of it. He might be jealous of her
brother as a rival, but if more had seemed implied, the fault must have been in
her misapprehension. She wished, by a gentle remonstrance, to remind Isabella of
her situation, and make her aware of this double unkindness; but for
remonstrance, either opportunity or comprehension was always against her. If
able to suggest a hint, Isabella could never understand it. In this distress, the
intended departure of the Tilney family became her chief consolation; their
journey into Gloucestershire was to take place within a few days, and Captain
Tilney's removal would at least restore peace to every heart but his own. But
Captain Tilney had at present no intention of removing; he was not to be of the
party to Northanger; he was to continue at Bath. When Catherine knew this, her
resolution was directly made. She spoke to Henry Tilney on the subject, regretting
his brother's evident partiality for Miss Thorpe, and entreating him to make
known her prior engagement.
 "My brother does know it," was Henry's answer.

"Does he? Then why does he stay here?"

He made no reply, and was beginning to talk of something else; but she
eagerly continued, "Why do not you persuade him to go away? The longer he
stays, the worse it will be for him at last. Pray advise him for his own sake, and
for everybody's sake, to leave Bath directly. Absence will in time make him
comfortable again; but he can have no hope here, and it is only staying to be
miserable."

Henry smiled and said, "I am sure my brother would not wish to do that."

"Then you will persuade him to go away?"

"Persuasion is not at command; but pardon me, if I cannot even endeavour to

persuade him. I have myself told him that Miss Thorpe is engaged. He knows
what he is about, and must be his own master."

"No, he does not know what he is about," cried Catherine; "he does not know
the pain he is giving my brother. Not that James has ever told me so, but I am
sure he is very uncomfortable."

"And are you sure it is my brother's doing?"

"Yes, very sure."

"Is it my brother's attentions to Miss Thorpe, or Miss Thorpe's admission of

them, that gives the pain?"

"Is not it the same thing?"

"I think Mr. Morland would acknowledge a difference. No man is offended by

another man's admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can
make it a torment."

Catherine blushed for her friend, and said, "Isabella is wrong. But I am sure
she cannot mean to torment, for she is very much attached to my brother. She has
been in love with him ever since they first met, and while my father's consent was
uncertain, she fretted herself almost into a fever. You know she must be attached
to him."

"I understand: she is in love with James, and flirts with Frederick."

"Oh! no, not flirts. A woman in love with one man cannot flirt with another."

"It is probable that she will neither love so well, nor flirt so well, as she might
do either singly. The gentlemen must each give up a little."
 After a short pause, Catherine resumed with, "Then you do not believe
Isabella so very much attached to my brother?"

"I can have no opinion on that subject."

"But what can your brother mean? If he knows her engagement, what can he
mean by his behaviour?"

"You are a very close questioner."

"Am I? I only ask what I want to be told."

"But do you only ask what I can be expected to tell?"

"Yes, I think so; for you must know your brother's heart."

"My brother's heart, as you term it, on the present occasion, I assure you I
can only guess at."

"Well?"

"Well! Nay, if it is to be guesswork, let us all guess for ourselves. To be

guided by second-hand conjecture is pitiful. The premises are before you. My
brother is a lively and perhaps sometimes a thoughtless young man; he has had
about a week's acquaintance with your friend, and he has known her engagement
almost as long as he has known her."

"Well," said Catherine, after some moments' consideration, "you may be able
to guess at your brother's intentions from all this; but I am sure I cannot. But is
not your father uncomfortable about it? Does not he want Captain Tilney to go
away? Sure, if your father were to speak to him, he would go."

"My dear Miss Morland," said Henry, "in this amiable solicitude for your
brother's comfort, may you not be a little mistaken? Are you not carried a little
too far? Would he thank you, either on his own account or Miss Thorpe's, for
supposing that her affection, or at least her good behaviour, is only to be secured
by her seeing nothing of Captain Tilney? Is he safe only in solitude? Or is her
heart constant to him only when unsolicited by anyone else? He cannot think
this—and you may be sure that he would not have you think it. I will not say, 'Do
not be uneasy,' because I know that you are so, at this moment; but be as little
uneasy as you can. You have no doubt of the mutual attachment of your brother
and your friend; depend upon it, therefore, that real jealousy never can exist
between them; depend upon it that no disagreement between them can be of any
duration. Their hearts are open to each other, as neither heart can be to you; they
know exactly what is required and what can be borne; and you may be certain
that one will never tease the other beyond what is known to be pleasant."
 Perceiving her still to look doubtful and grave, he added, "Though Frederick
does not leave Bath with us, he will probably remain but a very short time,
perhaps only a few days behind us. His leave of absence will soon expire, and he
must return to his regiment. And what will then be their acquaintance? The mess-
room will drink Isabella Thorpe for a fortnight, and she will laugh with your
brother over poor Tilney's passion for a month."

Catherine would contend no longer against comfort. She had resisted its
approaches during the whole length of a speech, but it now carried her captive.
Henry Tilney must know best. She blamed herself for the extent of her fears, and
resolved never to think so seriously on the subject again.

Her resolution was supported by Isabella's behaviour in their parting

interview. The Thorpes spent the last evening of Catherine's stay in Pulteney
Street, and nothing passed between the lovers to excite her uneasiness, or make
her quit them in apprehension. James was in excellent spirits, and Isabella most
engagingly placid. Her tenderness for her friend seemed rather the first feeling of
her heart; but that at such a moment was allowable; and once she gave her lover a
flat contradiction, and once she drew back her hand; but Catherine remembered
Henry's instructions, and placed it all to judicious affection. The embraces, tears,
and promises of the parting fair ones may be fancied.

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 CHAPTER 20

Mr. and Mrs. Allen were sorry to lose their young friend, whose good humour
and cheerfulness had made her a valuable companion, and in the promotion of
whose enjoyment their own had been gently increased. Her happiness in going
with Miss Tilney, however, prevented their wishing it otherwise; and, as they
were to remain only one more week in Bath themselves, her quitting them now
would not long be felt. Mr. Allen attended her to Milsom Street, where she was to
breakfast, and saw her seated with the kindest welcome among her new friends;
but so great was her agitation in finding herself as one of the family, and so
fearful was she of not doing exactly what was right, and of not being able to
preserve their good opinion, that, in the embarrassment of the first five minutes,
she could almost have wished to return with him to Pulteney Street.

Miss Tilney's manners and Henry's smile soon did away some of her
unpleasant feelings; but still she was far from being at ease; nor could the
incessant attentions of the general himself entirely reassure her. Nay, perverse as
it seemed, she doubted whether she might not have felt less, had she been less
attended to. His anxiety for her comfort—his continual solicitations that she
would eat, and his often-expressed fears of her seeing nothing to her taste—
though never in her life before had she beheld half such variety on a breakfast-
table—made it impossible for her to forget for a moment that she was a visitor.
She felt utterly unworthy of such respect, and knew not how to reply to it. Her
tranquillity was not improved by the general's impatience for the appearance of
his eldest son, nor by the displeasure he expressed at his laziness when Captain
Tilney at last came down. She was quite pained by the severity of his father's
reproof, which seemed disproportionate to the offence; and much was her concern
increased when she found herself the principal cause of the lecture, and that his
tardiness was chiefly resented from being disrespectful to her. This was placing
her in a very uncomfortable situation, and she felt great compassion for Captain
Tilney, without being able to hope for his goodwill.

He listened to his father in silence, and attempted not any defence, which
confirmed her in fearing that the inquietude of his mind, on Isabella's account,
might, by keeping him long sleepless, have been the real cause of his rising late. It
was the first time of her being decidedly in his company, and she had hoped to be
now able to form her opinion of him; but she scarcely heard his voice while his
father remained in the room; and even afterwards, so much were his spirits
affected, she could distinguish nothing but these words, in a whisper to Eleanor,
"How glad I shall be when you are all off."

The bustle of going was not pleasant. The clock struck ten while the trunks
were carrying down, and the general had fixed to be out of Milsom Street by that
hour. His greatcoat, instead of being brought for him to put on directly, was
spread out in the curricle in which he was to accompany his son. The middle seat
of the chaise was not drawn out, though there were three people to go in it, and
his daughter's maid had so crowded it with parcels that Miss Morland would not
have room to sit; and, so much was he influenced by this apprehension when he
handed her in, that she had some difficulty in saving her own new writing-desk
from being thrown out into the street. At last, however, the door was closed upon
the three females, and they set off at the sober pace in which the handsome,
highly fed four horses of a gentleman usually perform a journey of thirty miles:
such was the distance of Northanger from Bath, to be now divided into two equal
stages. Catherine's spirits revived as they drove from the door; for with Miss
Tilney she felt no restraint; and, with the interest of a road entirely new to her, of
an abbey before, and a curricle behind, she caught the last view of Bath without
any regret, and met with every milestone before she expected it. The tediousness
of a two hours' wait at Petty France, in which there was nothing to be done but to
eat without being hungry, and loiter about without anything to see, next
followed—and her admiration of the style in which they travelled, of the
fashionable chaise and four—postilions handsomely liveried, rising so regularly in
their stirrups, and numerous outriders properly mounted, sunk a little under this
consequent inconvenience. Had their party been perfectly agreeable, the delay
would have been nothing; but General Tilney, though so charming a man, seemed
always a check upon his children's spirits, and scarcely anything was said but by
himself; the observation of which, with his discontent at whatever the inn
afforded, and his angry impatience at the waiters, made Catherine grow every
moment more in awe of him, and appeared to lengthen the two hours into four. At
last, however, the order of release was given; and much was Catherine then
surprised by the general's proposal of her taking his place in his son's curricle for
the rest of the journey: "the day was fine, and he was anxious for her seeing as
much of the country as possible."

The remembrance of Mr. Allen's opinion, respecting young men's open

carriages, made her blush at the mention of such a plan, and her first thought was
to decline it; but her second was of greater deference for General Tilney's
judgment; he could not propose anything improper for her; and, in the course of a
few minutes, she found herself with Henry in the curricle, as happy a being as
ever existed. A very short trial convinced her that a curricle was the prettiest
equipage in the world; the chaise and four wheeled off with some grandeur, to be
sure, but it was a heavy and troublesome business, and she could not easily forget
its having stopped two hours at Petty France. Half the time would have been
enough for the curricle, and so nimbly were the light horses disposed to move,
that, had not the general chosen to have his own carriage lead the way, they could
have passed it with ease in half a minute. But the merit of the curricle did not all
belong to the horses; Henry drove so well—so quietly—without making any
disturbance, without parading to her, or swearing at them: so different from the
only gentleman-coachman whom it was in her power to compare him with! And
then his hat sat so well, and the innumerable capes of his greatcoat looked so
becomingly important! To be driven by him, next to being dancing with him, was
certainly the greatest happiness in the world. In addition to every other delight,
she had now that of listening to her own praise; of being thanked at least, on his
sister's account, for her kindness in thus becoming her visitor; of hearing it ranked
as real friendship, and described as creating real gratitude. His sister, he said, was
uncomfortably circumstanced—she had no female companion—and, in the
frequent absence of her father, was sometimes without any companion at all.

"But how can that be?" said Catherine. "Are not you with her?"

"Northanger is not more than half my home; I have an establishment at my

own house in Woodston, which is nearly twenty miles from my father's, and some
of my time is necessarily spent there."

"How sorry you must be for that!"

"I am always sorry to leave Eleanor."

"Yes; but besides your affection for her, you must be so fond of the abbey!
After being used to such a home as the abbey, an ordinary parsonage-house must
be very disagreeable."

He smiled, and said, "You have formed a very favourable idea of the abbey."

"To be sure, I have. Is not it a fine old place, just like what one reads about?"

"And are you prepared to encounter all the horrors that a building such as
'what one reads about' may produce? Have you a stout heart? Nerves fit for
sliding panels and tapestry?"

"Oh! yes—I do not think I should be easily frightened, because there would be
so many people in the house—and besides, it has never been uninhabited and left
deserted for years, and then the family come back to it unawares, without giving
any notice, as generally happens."

"No, certainly. We shall not have to explore our way into a hall dimly lighted
by the expiring embers of a wood fire—nor be obliged to spread our beds on the
floor of a room without windows, doors, or furniture. But you must be aware that
when a young lady is (by whatever means) introduced into a dwelling of this kind,
she is always lodged apart from the rest of the family. While they snugly repair to
their own end of the house, she is formally conducted by Dorothy, the ancient
housekeeper, up a different staircase, and along many gloomy passages, into an
apartment never used since some cousin or kin died in it about twenty years
before. Can you stand such a ceremony as this? Will not your mind misgive you
when you find yourself in this gloomy chamber—too lofty and extensive for you,
with only the feeble rays of a single lamp to take in its size—its walls hung with
tapestry exhibiting figures as large as life, and the bed, of dark green stuff or
purple velvet, presenting even a funereal appearance? Will not your heart sink
within you?"

"Oh! But this will not happen to me, I am sure."

"How fearfully will you examine the furniture of your apartment! And what
will you discern? Not tables, toilettes, wardrobes, or drawers, but on one side
perhaps the remains of a broken lute, on the other a ponderous chest which no
efforts can open, and over the fireplace the portrait of some handsome warrior,
whose features will so incomprehensibly strike you, that you will not be able to
withdraw your eyes from it. Dorothy, meanwhile, no less struck by your
appearance, gazes on you in great agitation, and drops a few unintelligible hints.
To raise your spirits, moreover, she gives you reason to suppose that the part of
the abbey you inhabit is undoubtedly haunted, and informs you that you will not
have a single domestic within call. With this parting cordial she curtsies off—you
listen to the sound of her receding footsteps as long as the last echo can reach
you—and when, with fainting spirits, you attempt to fasten your door, you
discover, with increased alarm, that it has no lock."

"Oh! Mr. Tilney, how frightful! This is just like a book! But it cannot really
happen to me. I am sure your housekeeper is not really Dorothy. Well, what
then?"

"Nothing further to alarm perhaps may occur the first night. After
surmounting your unconquerable horror of the bed, you will retire to rest, and get
a few hours' unquiet slumber. But on the second, or at farthest the third night
after your arrival, you will probably have a violent storm. Peals of thunder so loud
as to seem to shake the edifice to its foundation will roll round the neighbouring
mountains—and during the frightful gusts of wind which accompany it, you will
probably think you discern (for your lamp is not extinguished) one part of the
hanging more violently agitated than the rest. Unable of course to repress your
curiosity in so favourable a moment for indulging it, you will instantly arise, and
throwing your dressing-gown around you, proceed to examine this mystery. After
a very short search, you will discover a division in the tapestry so artfully
constructed as to defy the minutest inspection, and on opening it, a door will
immediately appear—which door, being only secured by massy bars and a
padlock, you will, after a few efforts, succeed in opening—and, with your lamp in
your hand, will pass through it into a small vaulted room."

"No, indeed; I should be too much frightened to do any such thing."

"What! Not when Dorothy has given you to understand that there is a secret
subterraneous communication between your apartment and the chapel of St.
Anthony, scarcely two miles off? Could you shrink from so simple an adventure?
No, no, you will proceed into this small vaulted room, and through this into
several others, without perceiving anything very remarkable in either. In one
perhaps there may be a dagger, in another a few drops of blood, and in a third the
remains of some instrument of torture; but there being nothing in all this out of
the common way, and your lamp being nearly exhausted, you will return towards
your own apartment. In repassing through the small vaulted room, however, your
eyes will be attracted towards a large, old-fashioned cabinet of ebony and gold,
which, though narrowly examining the furniture before, you had passed
unnoticed. Impelled by an irresistible presentiment, you will eagerly advance to it,
unlock its folding doors, and search into every drawer—but for some time without
discovering anything of importance—perhaps nothing but a considerable hoard of
diamonds. At last, however, by touching a secret spring, an inner compartment
will open—a roll of paper appears—you seize it—it contains many sheets of
manuscript—you hasten with the precious treasure into your own chamber, but
scarcely have you been able to decipher 'Oh! Thou—whomsoever thou mayst be,
into whose hands these memoirs of the wretched Matilda may fall'—when your
lamp suddenly expires in the socket, and leaves you in total darkness."

"Oh! No, no—do not say so. Well, go on."

But Henry was too much amused by the interest he had raised to be able to
carry it farther; he could no longer command solemnity either of subject or voice,
and was obliged to entreat her to use her own fancy in the perusal of Matilda's
woes. Catherine, recollecting herself, grew ashamed of her eagerness, and began
earnestly to assure him that her attention had been fixed without the smallest
apprehension of really meeting with what he related. "Miss Tilney, she was sure,
would never put her into such a chamber as he had described! She was not at all
afraid."

As they drew near the end of their journey, her impatience for a sight of the
abbey—for some time suspended by his conversation on subjects very different—
returned in full force, and every bend in the road was expected with solemn awe
to afford a glimpse of its massy walls of grey stone, rising amidst a grove of
ancient oaks, with the last beams of the sun playing in beautiful splendour on its
high Gothic windows. But so low did the building stand, that she found herself
passing through the great gates of the lodge into the very grounds of Northanger,
without having discerned even an antique chimney.

She knew not that she had any right to be surprised, but there was a
something in this mode of approach which she certainly had not expected. To pass
between lodges of a modern appearance, to find herself with such ease in the very
precincts of the abbey, and driven so rapidly along a smooth, level road of fine
gravel, without obstacle, alarm, or solemnity of any kind, struck her as odd and
inconsistent. She was not long at leisure, however, for such considerations. A
sudden scud of rain, driving full in her face, made it impossible for her to observe
anything further, and fixed all her thoughts on the welfare of her new straw
bonnet; and she was actually under the abbey walls, was springing, with Henry's
assistance, from the carriage, was beneath the shelter of the old porch, and had
even passed on to the hall, where her friend and the general were waiting to
welcome her, without feeling one awful foreboding of future misery to herself, or
one moment's suspicion of any past scenes of horror being acted within the
solemn edifice. The breeze had not seemed to waft the sighs of the murdered to
her; it had wafted nothing worse than a thick mizzling rain; and having given a
good shake to her habit, she was ready to be shown into the common drawing-
room, and capable of considering where she was.

An abbey! Yes, it was delightful to be really in an abbey! But she doubted, as

she looked round the room, whether anything within her observation would have
given her the consciousness. The furniture was in all the profusion and elegance of
modern taste. The fireplace, where she had expected the ample width and
ponderous carving of former times, was contracted to a Rumford, with slabs of
plain though handsome marble, and ornaments over it of the prettiest English
china. The windows, to which she looked with peculiar dependence, from having
heard the general talk of his preserving them in their Gothic form with reverential
care, were yet less what her fancy had portrayed. To be sure, the pointed arch
was preserved—the form of them was Gothic—they might be even casements—
but every pane was so large, so clear, so light! To an imagination which had
hoped for the smallest divisions, and the heaviest stone-work, for painted glass,
dirt, and cobwebs, the difference was very distressing.

The general, perceiving how her eye was employed, began to talk of the
smallness of the room and simplicity of the furniture, where everything, being for
daily use, pretended only to comfort, etc.; flattering himself, however, that there
were some apartments in the Abbey not unworthy her notice—and was proceeding
to mention the costly gilding of one in particular, when, taking out his watch, he
stopped short to pronounce it with surprise within twenty minutes of five! This
seemed the word of separation, and Catherine found herself hurried away by Miss
Tilney in such a manner as convinced her that the strictest punctuality to the
family hours would be expected at Northanger.

Returning through the large and lofty hall, they ascended a broad staircase of
shining oak, which, after many flights and many landing-places, brought them
upon a long, wide gallery. On one side it had a range of doors, and it was lighted
on the other by windows which Catherine had only time to discover looked into a
quadrangle, before Miss Tilney led the way into a chamber, and scarcely staying
to hope she would find it comfortable, left her with an anxious entreaty that she
would make as little alteration as possible in her dress.
 CHAPTER 21

A moment's glance was enough to satisfy Catherine that her apartment was
very unlike the one which Henry had endeavoured to alarm her by the description
of. It was by no means unreasonably large, and contained neither tapestry nor
velvet. The walls were papered, the floor was carpeted; the windows were neither
less perfect nor more dim than those of the drawing-room below; the furniture,
though not of the latest fashion, was handsome and comfortable, and the air of
the room altogether far from uncheerful. Her heart instantaneously at ease on this
point, she resolved to lose no time in particular examination of anything, as she
greatly dreaded disobliging the general by any delay. Her habit therefore was
thrown off with all possible haste, and she was preparing to unpin the linen
package, which the chaise-seat had conveyed for her immediate accommodation,
when her eye suddenly fell on a large high chest, standing back in a deep recess
on one side of the fireplace. The sight of it made her start; and, forgetting
everything else, she stood gazing on it in motionless wonder, while these thoughts
crossed her:

"This is strange indeed! I did not expect such a sight as this! An immense
heavy chest! What can it hold? Why should it be placed here? Pushed back too, as
if meant to be out of sight! I will look into it—cost me what it may, I will look
into it—and directly too—by daylight. If I stay till evening my candle may go out."
She advanced and examined it closely: it was of cedar, curiously inlaid with some
darker wood, and raised, about a foot from the ground, on a carved stand of the
same. The lock was silver, though tarnished from age; at each end were the
imperfect remains of handles also of silver, broken perhaps prematurely by some
strange violence; and, on the centre of the lid, was a mysterious cipher, in the
same metal. Catherine bent over it intently, but without being able to distinguish
anything with certainty. She could not, in whatever direction she took it, believe
the last letter to be a T; and yet that it should be anything else in that house was
a circumstance to raise no common degree of astonishment. If not originally
theirs, by what strange events could it have fallen into the Tilney family?
 Her fearful curiosity was every moment growing greater; and seizing, with
trembling hands, the hasp of the lock, she resolved at all hazards to satisfy herself
at least as to its contents. With difficulty, for something seemed to resist her
efforts, she raised the lid a few inches; but at that moment a sudden knocking at
the door of the room made her, starting, quit her hold, and the lid closed with
alarming violence. This ill-timed intruder was Miss Tilney's maid, sent by her
mistress to be of use to Miss Morland; and though Catherine immediately
dismissed her, it recalled her to the sense of what she ought to be doing, and
forced her, in spite of her anxious desire to penetrate this mystery, to proceed in
her dressing without further delay. Her progress was not quick, for her thoughts
and her eyes were still bent on the object so well calculated to interest and alarm;
and though she dared not waste a moment upon a second attempt, she could not
remain many paces from the chest. At length, however, having slipped one arm
into her gown, her toilette seemed so nearly finished that the impatience of her
curiosity might safely be indulged. One moment surely might be spared; and, so
desperate should be the exertion of her strength, that, unless secured by
supernatural means, the lid in one moment should be thrown back. With this
spirit she sprang forward, and her confidence did not deceive her. Her resolute
effort threw back the lid, and gave to her astonished eyes the view of a white
cotton counterpane, properly folded, reposing at one end of the chest in
undisputed possession!

She was gazing on it with the first blush of surprise when Miss Tilney,
anxious for her friend's being ready, entered the room, and to the rising shame of
having harboured for some minutes an absurd expectation, was then added the
shame of being caught in so idle a search. "That is a curious old chest, is not it?"
said Miss Tilney, as Catherine hastily closed it and turned away to the glass. "It is
impossible to say how many generations it has been here. How it came to be first
put in this room I know not, but I have not had it moved, because I thought it
might sometimes be of use in holding hats and bonnets. The worst of it is that its
weight makes it difficult to open. In that corner, however, it is at least out of the
way."

Catherine had no leisure for speech, being at once blushing, tying her gown,
and forming wise resolutions with the most violent dispatch. Miss Tilney gently
hinted her fear of being late; and in half a minute they ran downstairs together, in
an alarm not wholly unfounded, for General Tilney was pacing the drawing-room,
his watch in his hand, and having, on the very instant of their entering, pulled the
bell with violence, ordered "Dinner to be on table directly!"

Catherine trembled at the emphasis with which he spoke, and sat pale and
breathless, in a most humble mood, concerned for his children, and detesting old
chests; and the general, recovering his politeness as he looked at her, spent the
rest of his time in scolding his daughter for so foolishly hurrying her fair friend,
who was absolutely out of breath from haste, when there was not the least
occasion for hurry in the world: but Catherine could not at all get over the double
distress of having involved her friend in a lecture and been a great simpleton
herself, till they were happily seated at the dinner-table, when the general's
complacent smiles, and a good appetite of her own, restored her to peace. The
dining-parlour was a noble room, suitable in its dimensions to a much larger
drawing-room than the one in common use, and fitted up in a style of luxury and
expense which was almost lost on the unpractised eye of Catherine, who saw little
more than its spaciousness and the number of their attendants. Of the former, she
spoke aloud her admiration; and the general, with a very gracious countenance,
acknowledged that it was by no means an ill-sized room, and further confessed
that, though as careless on such subjects as most people, he did look upon a
tolerably large eating-room as one of the necessaries of life; he supposed,
however, "that she must have been used to much better-sized apartments at Mr.
Allen's?"

"No, indeed," was Catherine's honest assurance; "Mr. Allen's dining-parlour

was not more than half as large," and she had never seen so large a room as this
in her life. The general's good humour increased. Why, as he had such rooms, he
thought it would be simple not to make use of them; but, upon his honour, he
believed there might be more comfort in rooms of only half their size. Mr. Allen's
house, he was sure, must be exactly of the true size for rational happiness.

The evening passed without any further disturbance, and, in the occasional
absence of General Tilney, with much positive cheerfulness. It was only in his
presence that Catherine felt the smallest fatigue from her journey; and even then,
even in moments of languor or restraint, a sense of general happiness
preponderated, and she could think of her friends in Bath without one wish of
being with them.

The night was stormy; the wind had been rising at intervals the whole
afternoon; and by the time the party broke up, it blew and rained violently.
Catherine, as she crossed the hall, listened to the tempest with sensations of awe;
and, when she heard it rage round a corner of the ancient building and close with
sudden fury a distant door, felt for the first time that she was really in an abbey.
Yes, these were characteristic sounds; they brought to her recollection a countless
variety of dreadful situations and horrid scenes, which such buildings had
witnessed, and such storms ushered in; and most heartily did she rejoice in the
happier circumstances attending her entrance within walls so solemn! She had
nothing to dread from midnight assassins or drunken gallants. Henry had certainly
been only in jest in what he had told her that morning. In a house so furnished,
and so guarded, she could have nothing to explore or to suffer, and might go to
her bedroom as securely as if it had been her own chamber at Fullerton. Thus
wisely fortifying her mind, as she proceeded upstairs, she was enabled, especially
on perceiving that Miss Tilney slept only two doors from her, to enter her room
with a tolerably stout heart; and her spirits were immediately assisted by the
cheerful blaze of a wood fire. "How much better is this," said she, as she walked
to the fender—"how much better to find a fire ready lit, than to have to wait
shivering in the cold till all the family are in bed, as so many poor girls have been
obliged to do, and then to have a faithful old servant frightening one by coming in
with a faggot! How glad I am that Northanger is what it is! If it had been like
some other places, I do not know that, in such a night as this, I could have
answered for my courage: but now, to be sure, there is nothing to alarm one."

She looked round the room. The window curtains seemed in motion. It could
be nothing but the violence of the wind penetrating through the divisions of the
shutters; and she stepped boldly forward, carelessly humming a tune, to assure
herself of its being so, peeped courageously behind each curtain, saw nothing on
either low window seat to scare her, and on placing a hand against the shutter,
felt the strongest conviction of the wind's force. A glance at the old chest, as she
turned away from this examination, was not without its use; she scorned the
causeless fears of an idle fancy, and began with a most happy indifference to
prepare herself for bed. "She should take her time; she should not hurry herself;
she did not care if she were the last person up in the house. But she would not
make up her fire; that would seem cowardly, as if she wished for the protection of
light after she were in bed." The fire therefore died away, and Catherine, having
spent the best part of an hour in her arrangements, was beginning to think of
stepping into bed, when, on giving a parting glance round the room, she was
struck by the appearance of a high, old-fashioned black cabinet, which, though in
a situation conspicuous enough, had never caught her notice before. Henry's
words, his description of the ebony cabinet which was to escape her observation
at first, immediately rushed across her; and though there could be nothing really
in it, there was something whimsical, it was certainly a very remarkable
coincidence! She took her candle and looked closely at the cabinet. It was not
absolutely ebony and gold; but it was japan, black and yellow japan of the
handsomest kind; and as she held her candle, the yellow had very much the effect
of gold. The key was in the door, and she had a strange fancy to look into it; not,
however, with the smallest expectation of finding anything, but it was so very
odd, after what Henry had said. In short, she could not sleep till she had
examined it. So, placing the candle with great caution on a chair, she seized the
key with a very tremulous hand and tried to turn it; but it resisted her utmost
strength. Alarmed, but not discouraged, she tried it another way; a bolt flew, and
she believed herself successful; but how strangely mysterious! The door was still
immovable. She paused a moment in breathless wonder. The wind roared down
the chimney, the rain beat in torrents against the windows, and everything
seemed to speak the awfulness of her situation. To retire to bed, however,
unsatisfied on such a point, would be vain, since sleep must be impossible with
the consciousness of a cabinet so mysteriously closed in her immediate vicinity.
Again, therefore, she applied herself to the key, and after moving it in every
possible way for some instants with the determined celerity of hope's last effort,
the door suddenly yielded to her hand: her heart leaped with exultation at such a
victory, and having thrown open each folding door, the second being secured only
by bolts of less wonderful construction than the lock, though in that her eye could
not discern anything unusual, a double range of small drawers appeared in view,
with some larger drawers above and below them; and in the centre, a small door,
closed also with a lock and key, secured in all probability a cavity of importance.
 Catherine's heart beat quick, but her courage did not fail her. With a cheek
flushed by hope, and an eye straining with curiosity, her fingers grasped the
handle of a drawer and drew it forth. It was entirely empty. With less alarm and
greater eagerness she seized a second, a third, a fourth; each was equally empty.
Not one was left unsearched, and in not one was anything found. Well read in the
art of concealing a treasure, the possibility of false linings to the drawers did not
escape her, and she felt round each with anxious acuteness in vain. The place in
the middle alone remained now unexplored; and though she had "never from the
first had the smallest idea of finding anything in any part of the cabinet, and was
not in the least disappointed at her ill success thus far, it would be foolish not to
examine it thoroughly while she was about it." It was some time however before
she could unfasten the door, the same difficulty occurring in the management of
this inner lock as of the outer; but at length it did open; and not vain, as hitherto,
was her search; her quick eyes directly fell on a roll of paper pushed back into the
further part of the cavity, apparently for concealment, and her feelings at that
moment were indescribable. Her heart fluttered, her knees trembled, and her
cheeks grew pale. She seized, with an unsteady hand, the precious manuscript, for
half a glance sufficed to ascertain written characters; and while she acknowledged
with awful sensations this striking exemplification of what Henry had foretold,
resolved instantly to peruse every line before she attempted to rest.

The dimness of the light her candle emitted made her turn to it with alarm;
but there was no danger of its sudden extinction; it had yet some hours to burn;
and that she might not have any greater difficulty in distinguishing the writing
than what its ancient date might occasion, she hastily snuffed it. Alas! It was
snuffed and extinguished in one. A lamp could not have expired with more awful
effect. Catherine, for a few moments, was motionless with horror. It was done
completely; not a remnant of light in the wick could give hope to the rekindling
breath. Darkness impenetrable and immovable filled the room. A violent gust of
wind, rising with sudden fury, added fresh horror to the moment. Catherine
trembled from head to foot. In the pause which succeeded, a sound like receding
footsteps and the closing of a distant door struck on her affrighted ear. Human
nature could support no more. A cold sweat stood on her forehead, the
manuscript fell from her hand, and groping her way to the bed, she jumped
hastily in, and sought some suspension of agony by creeping far underneath the
clothes. To close her eyes in sleep that night, she felt must be entirely out of the
question. With a curiosity so justly awakened, and feelings in every way so
agitated, repose must be absolutely impossible. The storm too abroad so dreadful!
She had not been used to feel alarm from wind, but now every blast seemed
fraught with awful intelligence. The manuscript so wonderfully found, so
wonderfully accomplishing the morning's prediction, how was it to be accounted
for? What could it contain? To whom could it relate? By what means could it have
been so long concealed? And how singularly strange that it should fall to her lot
to discover it! Till she had made herself mistress of its contents, however, she
could have neither repose nor comfort; and with the sun's first rays she was
determined to peruse it. But many were the tedious hours which must yet
intervene. She shuddered, tossed about in her bed, and envied every quiet
sleeper. The storm still raged, and various were the noises, more terrific even than
the wind, which struck at intervals on her startled ear. The very curtains of her
bed seemed at one moment in motion, and at another the lock of her door was
agitated, as if by the attempt of somebody to enter. Hollow murmurs seemed to
creep along the gallery, and more than once her blood was chilled by the sound of
distant moans. Hour after hour passed away, and the wearied Catherine had
heard three proclaimed by all the clocks in the house before the tempest subsided
or she unknowingly fell fast asleep.

Ebd
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 CHAPTER 22

The housemaid's folding back her window-shutters at eight o'clock the next
day was the sound which first roused Catherine; and she opened her eyes,
wondering that they could ever have been closed, on objects of cheerfulness; her
fire was already burning, and a bright morning had succeeded the tempest of the
night. Instantaneously, with the consciousness of existence, returned her
recollection of the manuscript; and springing from the bed in the very moment of
the maid's going away, she eagerly collected every scattered sheet which had burst
from the roll on its falling to the ground, and flew back to enjoy the luxury of
their perusal on her pillow. She now plainly saw that she must not expect a
manuscript of equal length with the generality of what she had shuddered over in
books, for the roll, seeming to consist entirely of small disjointed sheets, was
altogether but of trifling size, and much less than she had supposed it to be at
first.

Her greedy eye glanced rapidly over a page. She started at its import. Could it
be possible, or did not her senses play her false? An inventory of linen, in coarse
and modern characters, seemed all that was before her! If the evidence of sight
might be trusted, she held a washing-bill in her hand. She seized another sheet,
and saw the same articles with little variation; a third, a fourth, and a fifth
presented nothing new. Shirts, stockings, cravats, and waistcoats faced her in
each. Two others, penned by the same hand, marked an expenditure scarcely
more interesting, in letters, hair-powder, shoe-string, and breeches-ball. And the
larger sheet, which had enclosed the rest, seemed by its first cramp line, "To
poultice chestnut mare"—a farrier's bill! Such was the collection of papers (left
perhaps, as she could then suppose, by the negligence of a servant in the place
whence she had taken them) which had filled her with expectation and alarm, and
robbed her of half her night's rest! She felt humbled to the dust. Could not the
adventure of the chest have taught her wisdom? A corner of it, catching her eye as
she lay, seemed to rise up in judgment against her. Nothing could now be clearer
than the absurdity of her recent fancies. To suppose that a manuscript of many
generations back could have remained undiscovered in a room such as that, so
modern, so habitable!—Or that she should be the first to possess the skill of
unlocking a cabinet, the key of which was open to all!

How could she have so imposed on herself? Heaven forbid that Henry Tilney
should ever know her folly! And it was in a great measure his own doing, for had
not the cabinet appeared so exactly to agree with his description of her
adventures, she should never have felt the smallest curiosity about it. This was
the only comfort that occurred. Impatient to get rid of those hateful evidences of
her folly, those detestable papers then scattered over the bed, she rose directly,
and folding them up as nearly as possible in the same shape as before, returned
them to the same spot within the cabinet, with a very hearty wish that no
untoward accident might ever bring them forward again, to disgrace her even with
herself.

Why the locks should have been so difficult to open, however, was still
something remarkable, for she could now manage them with perfect ease. In this
there was surely something mysterious, and she indulged in the flattering
suggestion for half a minute, till the possibility of the door's having been at first
unlocked, and of being herself its fastener, darted into her head, and cost her
another blush.

She got away as soon as she could from a room in which her conduct
produced such unpleasant reflections, and found her way with all speed to the
breakfast-parlour, as it had been pointed out to her by Miss Tilney the evening
before. Henry was alone in it; and his immediate hope of her having been
undisturbed by the tempest, with an arch reference to the character of the
building they inhabited, was rather distressing. For the world would she not have
her weakness suspected, and yet, unequal to an absolute falsehood, was
constrained to acknowledge that the wind had kept her awake a little. "But we
have a charming morning after it," she added, desiring to get rid of the subject;
"and storms and sleeplessness are nothing when they are over. What beautiful
hyacinths! I have just learnt to love a hyacinth."

"And how might you learn? By accident or argument?"

"Your sister taught me; I cannot tell how. Mrs. Allen used to take pains, year
after year, to make me like them; but I never could, till I saw them the other day
in Milsom Street; I am naturally indifferent about flowers."

"But now you love a hyacinth. So much the better. You have gained a new
source of enjoyment, and it is well to have as many holds upon happiness as
possible. Besides, a taste for flowers is always desirable in your sex, as a means of
getting you out of doors, and tempting you to more frequent exercise than you
would otherwise take. And though the love of a hyacinth may be rather domestic,
who can tell, the sentiment once raised, but you may in time come to love a rose?"

"But I do not want any such pursuit to get me out of doors. The pleasure of
walking and breathing fresh air is enough for me, and in fine weather I am out
more than half my time. Mamma says I am never within."
 "At any rate, however, I am pleased that you have learnt to love a hyacinth.
The mere habit of learning to love is the thing; and a teachableness of disposition
in a young lady is a great blessing. Has my sister a pleasant mode of instruction?"

Catherine was saved the embarrassment of attempting an answer by the

entrance of the general, whose smiling compliments announced a happy state of
mind, but whose gentle hint of sympathetic early rising did not advance her
composure.

The elegance of the breakfast set forced itself on Catherine's notice when they
were seated at table; and, lucidly, it had been the general's choice. He was
enchanted by her approbation of his taste, confessed it to be neat and simple,
thought it right to encourage the manufacture of his country; and for his part, to
his uncritical palate, the tea was as well flavoured from the clay of Staffordshire,
as from that of Dresden or Save. But this was quite an old set, purchased two
years ago. The manufacture was much improved since that time; he had seen
some beautiful specimens when last in town, and had he not been perfectly
without vanity of that kind, might have been tempted to order a new set. He
trusted, however, that an opportunity might ere long occur of selecting one—
though not for himself. Catherine was probably the only one of the party who did
not understand him.

Shortly after breakfast Henry left them for Woodston, where business
required and would keep him two or three days. They all attended in the hall to
see him mount his horse, and immediately on re-entering the breakfast-room,
Catherine walked to a window in the hope of catching another glimpse of his
figure. "This is a somewhat heavy call upon your brother's fortitude," observed the
general to Eleanor. "Woodston will make but a sombre appearance today."

"Is it a pretty place?" asked Catherine.

"What say you, Eleanor? Speak your opinion, for ladies can best tell the taste
of ladies in regard to places as well as men. I think it would be acknowledged by
the most impartial eye to have many recommendations. The house stands among
fine meadows facing the south-east, with an excellent kitchen-garden in the same
aspect; the walls surrounding which I built and stocked myself about ten years
ago, for the benefit of my son. It is a family living, Miss Morland; and the
property in the place being chiefly my own, you may believe I take care that it
shall not be a bad one. Did Henry's income depend solely on this living, he would
not be ill-provided for. Perhaps it may seem odd, that with only two younger
children, I should think any profession necessary for him; and certainly there are
moments when we could all wish him disengaged from every tie of business. But
though I may not exactly make converts of you young ladies, I am sure your
father, Miss Morland, would agree with me in thinking it expedient to give every
young man some employment. The money is nothing, it is not an object, but
employment is the thing. Even Frederick, my eldest son, you see, who will
perhaps inherit as considerable a landed property as any private man in the
county, has his profession."

The imposing effect of this last argument was equal to his wishes. The silence
of the lady proved it to be unanswerable.

Something had been said the evening before of her being shown over the
house, and he now offered himself as her conductor; and though Catherine had
hoped to explore it accompanied only by his daughter, it was a proposal of too
much happiness in itself, under any circumstances, not to be gladly accepted; for
she had been already eighteen hours in the abbey, and had seen only a few of its
rooms. The netting-box, just leisurely drawn forth, was closed with joyful haste,
and she was ready to attend him in a moment. "And when they had gone over the
house, he promised himself moreover the pleasure of accompanying her into the
shrubberies and garden." She curtsied her acquiescence. "But perhaps it might be
more agreeable to her to make those her first object. The weather was at present
favourable, and at this time of year the uncertainty was very great of its
continuing so. Which would she prefer? He was equally at her service. Which did
his daughter think would most accord with her fair friend's wishes? But he
thought he could discern. Yes, he certainly read in Miss Morland's eyes a
judicious desire of making use of the present smiling weather. But when did she
judge amiss? The abbey would be always safe and dry. He yielded implicitly, and
would fetch his hat and attend them in a moment." He left the room, and
Catherine, with a disappointed, anxious face, began to speak of her unwillingness
that he should be taking them out of doors against his own inclination, under a
mistaken idea of pleasing her; but she was stopped by Miss Tilney's saying, with a
little confusion, "I believe it will be wisest to take the morning while it is so fine;
and do not be uneasy on my father's account; he always walks out at this time of
day."

Catherine did not exactly know how this was to be understood. Why was
Miss Tilney embarrassed? Could there be any unwillingness on the general's side
to show her over the abbey? The proposal was his own. And was not it odd that
he should always take his walk so early? Neither her father nor Mr. Allen did so.
It was certainly very provoking. She was all impatience to see the house, and had
scarcely any curiosity about the grounds. If Henry had been with them indeed!
But now she should not know what was picturesque when she saw it. Such were
her thoughts, but she kept them to herself, and put on her bonnet in patient
discontent.

She was struck, however, beyond her expectation, by the grandeur of the
abbey, as she saw it for the first time from the lawn. The whole building enclosed
a large court; and two sides of the quadrangle, rich in Gothic ornaments, stood
forward for admiration. The remainder was shut off by knolls of old trees, or
luxuriant plantations, and the steep woody hills rising behind, to give it shelter,
were beautiful even in the leafless month of March. Catherine had seen nothing to
compare with it; and her feelings of delight were so strong, that without waiting
for any better authority, she boldly burst forth in wonder and praise. The general
listened with assenting gratitude; and it seemed as if his own estimation of
Northanger had waited unfixed till that hour.

The kitchen-garden was to be next admired, and he led the way to it across a
small portion of the park.

The number of acres contained in this garden was such as Catherine could
not listen to without dismay, being more than double the extent of all Mr. Allen's,
as well her father's, including church-yard and orchard. The walls seemed
countless in number, endless in length; a village of hot-houses seemed to arise
among them, and a whole parish to be at work within the enclosure. The general
was flattered by her looks of surprise, which told him almost as plainly, as he
soon forced her to tell him in words, that she had never seen any gardens at all
equal to them before; and he then modestly owned that, "without any ambition of
that sort himself—without any solicitude about it—he did believe them to be
unrivalled in the kingdom. If he had a hobby-horse, it was that. He loved a
garden. Though careless enough in most matters of eating, he loved good fruit—or
if he did not, his friends and children did. There were great vexations, however,
attending such a garden as his. The utmost care could not always secure the most
valuable fruits. The pinery had yielded only one hundred in the last year. Mr.
Allen, he supposed, must feel these inconveniences as well as himself."

"No, not at all. Mr. Allen did not care about the garden, and never went into
it."

With a triumphant smile of self-satisfaction, the general wished he could do

the same, for he never entered his, without being vexed in some way or other, by
its falling short of his plan.

"How were Mr. Allen's succession-houses worked?" describing the nature of

his own as they entered them.

"Mr. Allen had only one small hot-house, which Mrs. Allen had the use of for
her plants in winter, and there was a fire in it now and then."

"He is a happy man!" said the general, with a look of very happy contempt.

Having taken her into every division, and led her under every wall, till she
was heartily weary of seeing and wondering, he suffered the girls at last to seize
the advantage of an outer door, and then expressing his wish to examine the effect
of some recent alterations about the tea-house, proposed it as no unpleasant
extension of their walk, if Miss Morland were not tired. "But where are you going,
Eleanor? Why do you choose that cold, damp path to it? Miss Morland will get
wet. Our best way is across the park."

"This is so favourite a walk of mine," said Miss Tilney, "that I always think it
the best and nearest way. But perhaps it may be damp."
 It was a narrow winding path through a thick grove of old Scotch firs; and
Catherine, struck by its gloomy aspect, and eager to enter it, could not, even by
the general's disapprobation, be kept from stepping forward. He perceived her
inclination, and having again urged the plea of health in vain, was too polite to
make further opposition. He excused himself, however, from attending them: "The
rays of the sun were not too cheerful for him, and he would meet them by another
course." He turned away; and Catherine was shocked to find how much her spirits
were relieved by the separation. The shock, however, being less real than the
relief, offered it no injury; and she began to talk with easy gaiety of the delightful
melancholy which such a grove inspired.

"I am particularly fond of this spot," said her companion, with a sigh. "It was
my mother's favourite walk."

Catherine had never heard Mrs. Tilney mentioned in the family before, and
the interest excited by this tender remembrance showed itself directly in her
altered countenance, and in the attentive pause with which she waited for
something more.

"I used to walk here so often with her!" added Eleanor; "though I never loved
it then, as I have loved it since. At that time indeed I used to wonder at her
choice. But her memory endears it now."

"And ought it not," reflected Catherine, "to endear it to her husband? Yet the
general would not enter it." Miss Tilney continuing silent, she ventured to say,
"Her death must have been a great affliction!"

"A great and increasing one," replied the other, in a low voice. "I was only
thirteen when it happened; and though I felt my loss perhaps as strongly as one so
young could feel it, I did not, I could not, then know what a loss it was." She
stopped for a moment, and then added, with great firmness, "I have no sister, you
know—and though Henry—though my brothers are very affectionate, and Henry
is a great deal here, which I am most thankful for, it is impossible for me not to
be often solitary."

"To be sure you must miss him very much."

"A mother would have been always present. A mother would have been a
constant friend; her influence would have been beyond all other."

"Was she a very charming woman? Was she handsome? Was there any picture
of her in the abbey? And why had she been so partial to that grove? Was it from
dejection of spirits?"—were questions now eagerly poured forth; the first three
received a ready affirmative, the two others were passed by; and Catherine's
interest in the deceased Mrs. Tilney augmented with every question, whether
answered or not. Of her unhappiness in marriage, she felt persuaded. The general
certainly had been an unkind husband. He did not love her walk: could he
therefore have loved her? And besides, handsome as he was, there was a
something in the turn of his features which spoke his not having behaved well to
her.

"Her picture, I suppose," blushing at the consummate art of her own question,
"hangs in your father's room?"

"No; it was intended for the drawing-room; but my father was dissatisfied
with the painting, and for some time it had no place. Soon after her death I
obtained it for my own, and hung it in my bed-chamber—where I shall be happy
to show it you; it is very like." Here was another proof. A portrait—very like—of a
departed wife, not valued by the husband! He must have been dreadfully cruel to
her!

Catherine attempted no longer to hide from herself the nature of the feelings
which, in spite of all his attentions, he had previously excited; and what had been
terror and dislike before, was now absolute aversion. Yes, aversion! His cruelty to
such a charming woman made him odious to her. She had often read of such
characters, characters which Mr. Allen had been used to call unnatural and
overdrawn; but here was proof positive of the contrary.

She had just settled this point when the end of the path brought them
directly upon the general; and in spite of all her virtuous indignation, she found
herself again obliged to walk with him, listen to him, and even to smile when he
smiled. Being no longer able, however, to receive pleasure from the surrounding
objects, she soon began to walk with lassitude; the general perceived it, and with
a concern for her health, which seemed to reproach her for her opinion of him,
was most urgent for returning with his daughter to the house. He would follow
them in a quarter of an hour. Again they parted—but Eleanor was called back in
half a minute to receive a strict charge against taking her friend round the abbey
till his return. This second instance of his anxiety to delay what she so much
wished for struck Catherine as very remarkable.

Ebd
E-BooksDirectory.com
 CHAPTER 23

An hour passed away before the general came in, spent, on the part of his
young guest, in no very favourable consideration of his character. "This
lengthened absence, these solitary rambles, did not speak a mind at ease, or a
conscience void of reproach." At length he appeared; and, whatever might have
been the gloom of his meditations, he could still smile with them. Miss Tilney,
understanding in part her friend's curiosity to see the house, soon revived the
subject; and her father being, contrary to Catherine's expectations, unprovided
with any pretence for further delay, beyond that of stopping five minutes to order
refreshments to be in the room by their return, was at last ready to escort them.

They set forward; and, with a grandeur of air, a dignified step, which caught
the eye, but could not shake the doubts of the well-read Catherine, he led the way
across the hall, through the common drawing-room and one useless antechamber,
into a room magnificent both in size and furniture—the real drawing-room, used
only with company of consequence. It was very noble—very grand—very
charming!—was all that Catherine had to say, for her indiscriminating eye scarcely
discerned the colour of the satin; and all minuteness of praise, all praise that had
much meaning, was supplied by the general: the costliness or elegance of any
room's fitting-up could be nothing to her; she cared for no furniture of a more
modern date than the fifteenth century. When the general had satisfied his own
curiosity, in a close examination of every well-known ornament, they proceeded
into the library, an apartment, in its way, of equal magnificence, exhibiting a
collection of books, on which an humble man might have looked with pride.
Catherine heard, admired, and wondered with more genuine feeling than before—
gathered all that she could from this storehouse of knowledge, by running over the
titles of half a shelf, and was ready to proceed. But suites of apartments did not
spring up with her wishes. Large as was the building, she had already visited the
greatest part; though, on being told that, with the addition of the kitchen, the six
or seven rooms she had now seen surrounded three sides of the court, she could
scarcely believe it, or overcome the suspicion of there being many chambers
secreted. It was some relief, however, that they were to return to the rooms in
common use, by passing through a few of less importance, looking into the court,
which, with occasional passages, not wholly unintricate, connected the different
sides; and she was further soothed in her progress by being told that she was
treading what had once been a cloister, having traces of cells pointed out, and
observing several doors that were neither opened nor explained to her—by finding
herself successively in a billiard-room, and in the general's private apartment,
without comprehending their connection, or being able to turn aright when she
left them; and lastly, by passing through a dark little room, owning Henry's
authority, and strewed with his litter of books, guns, and greatcoats.

From the dining-room, of which, though already seen, and always to be seen
at five o'clock, the general could not forgo the pleasure of pacing out the length,
for the more certain information of Miss Morland, as to what she neither doubted
nor cared for, they proceeded by quick communication to the kitchen—the ancient
kitchen of the convent, rich in the massy walls and smoke of former days, and in
the stoves and hot closets of the present. The general's improving hand had not
loitered here: every modern invention to facilitate the labour of the cooks had
been adopted within this, their spacious theatre; and, when the genius of others
had failed, his own had often produced the perfection wanted. His endowments of
this spot alone might at any time have placed him high among the benefactors of
the convent.

With the walls of the kitchen ended all the antiquity of the abbey; the fourth
side of the quadrangle having, on account of its decaying state, been removed by
the general's father, and the present erected in its place. All that was venerable
ceased here. The new building was not only new, but declared itself to be so;
intended only for offices, and enclosed behind by stable-yards, no uniformity of
architecture had been thought necessary. Catherine could have raved at the hand
which had swept away what must have been beyond the value of all the rest, for
the purposes of mere domestic economy; and would willingly have been spared
the mortification of a walk through scenes so fallen, had the general allowed it;
but if he had a vanity, it was in the arrangement of his offices; and as he was
convinced that, to a mind like Miss Morland's, a view of the accommodations and
comforts, by which the labours of her inferiors were softened, must always be
gratifying, he should make no apology for leading her on. They took a slight
survey of all; and Catherine was impressed, beyond her expectation, by their
multiplicity and their convenience. The purposes for which a few shapeless
pantries and a comfortless scullery were deemed sufficient at Fullerton, were here
carried on in appropriate divisions, commodious and roomy. The number of
servants continually appearing did not strike her less than the number of their
offices. Wherever they went, some pattened girl stopped to curtsy, or some
footman in dishabille sneaked off. Yet this was an abbey! How inexpressibly
different in these domestic arrangements from such as she had read about—from
abbeys and castles, in which, though certainly larger than Northanger, all the
dirty work of the house was to be done by two pair of female hands at the utmost.
How they could get through it all had often amazed Mrs. Allen; and, when
Catherine saw what was necessary here, she began to be amazed herself.

They returned to the hall, that the chief staircase might be ascended, and the
beauty of its wood, and ornaments of rich carving might be pointed out: having
gained the top, they turned in an opposite direction from the gallery in which her
room lay, and shortly entered one on the same plan, but superior in length and
breadth. She was here shown successively into three large bed-chambers, with
their dressing-rooms, most completely and handsomely fitted up; everything that
money and taste could do, to give comfort and elegance to apartments, had been
bestowed on these; and, being furnished within the last five years, they were
perfect in all that would be generally pleasing, and wanting in all that could give
pleasure to Catherine. As they were surveying the last, the general, after slightly
naming a few of the distinguished characters by whom they had at times been
honoured, turned with a smiling countenance to Catherine, and ventured to hope
that henceforward some of their earliest tenants might be "our friends from
Fullerton." She felt the unexpected compliment, and deeply regretted the
impossibility of thinking well of a man so kindly disposed towards herself, and so
full of civility to all her family.

The gallery was terminated by folding doors, which Miss Tilney, advancing,
had thrown open, and passed through, and seemed on the point of doing the same
by the first door to the left, in another long reach of gallery, when the general,
coming forwards, called her hastily, and, as Catherine thought, rather angrily
back, demanding whether she were going?—And what was there more to be
seen?—Had not Miss Morland already seen all that could be worth her notice?—
And did she not suppose her friend might be glad of some refreshment after so
much exercise? Miss Tilney drew back directly, and the heavy doors were closed
upon the mortified Catherine, who, having seen, in a momentary glance beyond
them, a narrower passage, more numerous openings, and symptoms of a winding
staircase, believed herself at last within the reach of something worth her notice;
and felt, as she unwillingly paced back the gallery, that she would rather be
allowed to examine that end of the house than see all the finery of all the rest.
The general's evident desire of preventing such an examination was an additional
stimulant. Something was certainly to be concealed; her fancy, though it had
trespassed lately once or twice, could not mislead her here; and what that
something was, a short sentence of Miss Tilney's, as they followed the general at
some distance downstairs, seemed to point out: "I was going to take you into what
was my mother's room—the room in which she died—" were all her words; but
few as they were, they conveyed pages of intelligence to Catherine. It was no
wonder that the general should shrink from the sight of such objects as that room
must contain; a room in all probability never entered by him since the dreadful
scene had passed, which released his suffering wife, and left him to the stings of
conscience.

She ventured, when next alone with Eleanor, to express her wish of being
permitted to see it, as well as all the rest of that side of the house; and Eleanor
promised to attend her there, whenever they should have a convenient hour.
Catherine understood her: the general must be watched from home, before that
room could be entered. "It remains as it was, I suppose?" said she, in a tone of
feeling.

"Yes, entirely."
 "And how long ago may it be that your mother died?"

"She has been dead these nine years." And nine years, Catherine knew, was a
trifle of time, compared with what generally elapsed after the death of an injured
wife, before her room was put to rights.

"You were with her, I suppose, to the last?"

"No," said Miss Tilney, sighing; "I was unfortunately from home. Her illness
was sudden and short; and, before I arrived it was all over."

Catherine's blood ran cold with the horrid suggestions which naturally sprang
from these words. Could it be possible? Could Henry's father—? And yet how
many were the examples to justify even the blackest suspicions! And, when she
saw him in the evening, while she worked with her friend, slowly pacing the
drawing-room for an hour together in silent thoughtfulness, with downcast eyes
and contracted brow, she felt secure from all possibility of wronging him. It was
the air and attitude of a Montoni! What could more plainly speak the gloomy
workings of a mind not wholly dead to every sense of humanity, in its fearful
review of past scenes of guilt? Unhappy man! And the anxiousness of her spirits
directed her eyes towards his figure so repeatedly, as to catch Miss Tilney's
notice. "My father," she whispered, "often walks about the room in this way; it is
nothing unusual."

"So much the worse!" thought Catherine; such ill-timed exercise was of a piece
with the strange unseasonableness of his morning walks, and boded nothing good.

After an evening, the little variety and seeming length of which made her
peculiarly sensible of Henry's importance among them, she was heartily glad to be
dismissed; though it was a look from the general not designed for her observation
which sent his daughter to the bell. When the butler would have lit his master's
candle, however, he was forbidden. The latter was not going to retire. "I have
many pamphlets to finish," said he to Catherine, "before I can close my eyes, and
perhaps may be poring over the affairs of the nation for hours after you are
asleep. Can either of us be more meetly employed? My eyes will be blinding for
the good of others, and yours preparing by rest for future mischief."

But neither the business alleged, nor the magnificent compliment, could win
Catherine from thinking that some very different object must occasion so serious a
delay of proper repose. To be kept up for hours, after the family were in bed, by
stupid pamphlets was not very likely. There must be some deeper cause:
something was to be done which could be done only while the household slept;
and the probability that Mrs. Tilney yet lived, shut up for causes unknown, and
receiving from the pitiless hands of her husband a nightly supply of coarse food,
was the conclusion which necessarily followed. Shocking as was the idea, it was at
least better than a death unfairly hastened, as, in the natural course of things, she
must ere long be released. The suddenness of her reputed illness, the absence of
her daughter, and probably of her other children, at the time—all favoured the
supposition of her imprisonment. Its origin—jealousy perhaps, or wanton
cruelty—was yet to be unravelled.

In revolving these matters, while she undressed, it suddenly struck her as not
unlikely that she might that morning have passed near the very spot of this
unfortunate woman's confinement—might have been within a few paces of the cell
in which she languished out her days; for what part of the abbey could be more
fitted for the purpose than that which yet bore the traces of monastic division? In
the high-arched passage, paved with stone, which already she had trodden with
peculiar awe, she well remembered the doors of which the general had given no
account. To what might not those doors lead? In support of the plausibility of this
conjecture, it further occurred to her that the forbidden gallery, in which lay the
apartments of the unfortunate Mrs. Tilney, must be, as certainly as her memory
could guide her, exactly over this suspected range of cells, and the staircase by the
side of those apartments of which she had caught a transient glimpse,
communicating by some secret means with those cells, might well have favoured
the barbarous proceedings of her husband. Down that staircase she had perhaps
been conveyed in a state of well-prepared insensibility!

Catherine sometimes started at the boldness of her own surmises, and

sometimes hoped or feared that she had gone too far; but they were supported by
such appearances as made their dismissal impossible.

The side of the quadrangle, in which she supposed the guilty scene to be
acting, being, according to her belief, just opposite her own, it struck her that, if
judiciously watched, some rays of light from the general's lamp might glimmer
through the lower windows, as he passed to the prison of his wife; and, twice
before she stepped into bed, she stole gently from her room to the corresponding
window in the gallery, to see if it appeared; but all abroad was dark, and it must
yet be too early. The various ascending noises convinced her that the servants
must still be up. Till midnight, she supposed it would be in vain to watch; but
then, when the clock had struck twelve, and all was quiet, she would, if not quite
appalled by darkness, steal out and look once more. The clock struck twelve—and
Catherine had been half an hour asleep.

Ebd
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 CHAPTER 24

The next day afforded no opportunity for the proposed examination of the
mysterious apartments. It was Sunday, and the whole time between morning and
afternoon service was required by the general in exercise abroad or eating cold
meat at home; and great as was Catherine's curiosity, her courage was not equal
to a wish of exploring them after dinner, either by the fading light of the sky
between six and seven o'clock, or by the yet more partial though stronger
illumination of a treacherous lamp. The day was unmarked therefore by anything
to interest her imagination beyond the sight of a very elegant monument to the
memory of Mrs. Tilney, which immediately fronted the family pew. By that her
eye was instantly caught and long retained; and the perusal of the highly strained
epitaph, in which every virtue was ascribed to her by the inconsolable husband,
who must have been in some way or other her destroyer, affected her even to
tears.

That the general, having erected such a monument, should be able to face it,
was not perhaps very strange, and yet that he could sit so boldly collected within
its view, maintain so elevated an air, look so fearlessly around, nay, that he
should even enter the church, seemed wonderful to Catherine. Not, however, that
many instances of beings equally hardened in guilt might not be produced. She
could remember dozens who had persevered in every possible vice, going on from
crime to crime, murdering whomsoever they chose, without any feeling of
humanity or remorse; till a violent death or a religious retirement closed their
black career. The erection of the monument itself could not in the smallest degree
affect her doubts of Mrs. Tilney's actual decease. Were she even to descend into
the family vault where her ashes were supposed to slumber, were she to behold
the coffin in which they were said to be enclosed—what could it avail in such a
case? Catherine had read too much not to be perfectly aware of the ease with
which a waxen figure might be introduced, and a supposititious funeral carried
on.

The succeeding morning promised something better. The general's early walk,
ill-timed as it was in every other view, was favourable here; and when she knew
him to be out of the house, she directly proposed to Miss Tilney the
accomplishment of her promise. Eleanor was ready to oblige her; and Catherine
reminding her as they went of another promise, their first visit in consequence
was to the portrait in her bed-chamber. It represented a very lovely woman, with
a mild and pensive countenance, justifying, so far, the expectations of its new
observer; but they were not in every respect answered, for Catherine had
depended upon meeting with features, hair, complexion, that should be the very
counterpart, the very image, if not of Henry's, of Eleanor's—the only portraits of
which she had been in the habit of thinking, bearing always an equal resemblance
of mother and child. A face once taken was taken for generations. But here she
was obliged to look and consider and study for a likeness. She contemplated it,
however, in spite of this drawback, with much emotion, and, but for a yet
stronger interest, would have left it unwillingly.

Her agitation as they entered the great gallery was too much for any
endeavour at discourse; she could only look at her companion. Eleanor's
countenance was dejected, yet sedate; and its composure spoke her inured to all
the gloomy objects to which they were advancing. Again she passed through the
folding doors, again her hand was upon the important lock, and Catherine, hardly
able to breathe, was turning to close the former with fearful caution, when the
figure, the dreaded figure of the general himself at the further end of the gallery,
stood before her! The name of "Eleanor" at the same moment, in his loudest tone,
resounded through the building, giving to his daughter the first intimation of his
presence, and to Catherine terror upon terror. An attempt at concealment had
been her first instinctive movement on perceiving him, yet she could scarcely hope
to have escaped his eye; and when her friend, who with an apologizing look
darted hastily by her, had joined and disappeared with him, she ran for safety to
her own room, and, locking herself in, believed that she should never have
courage to go down again. She remained there at least an hour, in the greatest
agitation, deeply commiserating the state of her poor friend, and expecting a
summons herself from the angry general to attend him in his own apartment. No
summons, however, arrived; and at last, on seeing a carriage drive up to the
abbey, she was emboldened to descend and meet him under the protection of
visitors. The breakfast-room was gay with company; and she was named to them
by the general as the friend of his daughter, in a complimentary style, which so
well concealed his resentful ire, as to make her feel secure at least of life for the
present. And Eleanor, with a command of countenance which did honour to her
concern for his character, taking an early occasion of saying to her, "My father
only wanted me to answer a note," she began to hope that she had either been
unseen by the general, or that from some consideration of policy she should be
allowed to suppose herself so. Upon this trust she dared still to remain in his
presence, after the company left them, and nothing occurred to disturb it.

In the course of this morning's reflections, she came to a resolution of making

her next attempt on the forbidden door alone. It would be much better in every
respect that Eleanor should know nothing of the matter. To involve her in the
danger of a second detection, to court her into an apartment which must wring
her heart, could not be the office of a friend. The general's utmost anger could not
be to herself what it might be to a daughter; and, besides, she thought the
examination itself would be more satisfactory if made without any companion. It
would be impossible to explain to Eleanor the suspicions, from which the other
had, in all likelihood, been hitherto happily exempt; nor could she therefore, in
her presence, search for those proofs of the general's cruelty, which however they
might yet have escaped discovery, she felt confident of somewhere drawing forth,
in the shape of some fragmented journal, continued to the last gasp. Of the way to
the apartment she was now perfectly mistress; and as she wished to get it over
before Henry's return, who was expected on the morrow, there was no time to be
lost. The day was bright, her courage high; at four o'clock, the sun was now two
hours above the horizon, and it would be only her retiring to dress half an hour
earlier than usual.

It was done; and Catherine found herself alone in the gallery before the clocks
had ceased to strike. It was no time for thought; she hurried on, slipped with the
least possible noise through the folding doors, and without stopping to look or
breathe, rushed forward to the one in question. The lock yielded to her hand, and,
luckily, with no sullen sound that could alarm a human being. On tiptoe she
entered; the room was before her; but it was some minutes before she could
advance another step. She beheld what fixed her to the spot and agitated every
feature. She saw a large, well-proportioned apartment, an handsome dimity bed,
arranged as unoccupied with an housemaid's care, a bright Bath stove, mahogany
wardrobes, and neatly painted chairs, on which the warm beams of a western sun
gaily poured through two sash windows! Catherine had expected to have her
feelings worked, and worked they were. Astonishment and doubt first seized
them; and a shortly succeeding ray of common sense added some bitter emotions
of shame. She could not be mistaken as to the room; but how grossly mistaken in
everything else!—in Miss Tilney's meaning, in her own calculation! This
apartment, to which she had given a date so ancient, a position so awful, proved
to be one end of what the general's father had built. There were two other doors
in the chamber, leading probably into dressing-closets; but she had no inclination
to open either. Would the veil in which Mrs. Tilney had last walked, or the
volume in which she had last read, remain to tell what nothing else was allowed
to whisper? No: whatever might have been the general's crimes, he had certainly
too much wit to let them sue for detection. She was sick of exploring, and desired
but to be safe in her own room, with her own heart only privy to its folly; and she
was on the point of retreating as softly as she had entered, when the sound of
footsteps, she could hardly tell where, made her pause and tremble. To be found
there, even by a servant, would be unpleasant; but by the general (and he seemed
always at hand when least wanted), much worse! She listened—the sound had
ceased; and resolving not to lose a moment, she passed through and closed the
door. At that instant a door underneath was hastily opened; someone seemed with
swift steps to ascend the stairs, by the head of which she had yet to pass before
she could gain the gallery. She had no power to move. With a feeling of terror not
very definable, she fixed her eyes on the staircase, and in a few moments it gave
Henry to her view. "Mr. Tilney!" she exclaimed in a voice of more than common
astonishment. He looked astonished too. "Good God!" she continued, not
attending to his address. "How came you here? How came you up that staircase?"
 "How came I up that staircase!" he replied, greatly surprised. "Because it is
my nearest way from the stable-yard to my own chamber; and why should I not
come up it?"

Catherine recollected herself, blushed deeply, and could say no more. He

seemed to be looking in her countenance for that explanation which her lips did
not afford. She moved on towards the gallery. "And may I not, in my turn," said
he, as he pushed back the folding doors, "ask how you came here? This passage is
at least as extraordinary a road from the breakfast-parlour to your apartment, as
that staircase can be from the stables to mine."

"I have been," said Catherine, looking down, "to see your mother's room."

"My mother's room! Is there anything extraordinary to be seen there?"

"No, nothing at all. I thought you did not mean to come back till tomorrow."

"I did not expect to be able to return sooner, when I went away; but three
hours ago I had the pleasure of finding nothing to detain me. You look pale. I am
afraid I alarmed you by running so fast up those stairs. Perhaps you did not
know—you were not aware of their leading from the offices in common use?"

"No, I was not. You have had a very fine day for your ride."

"Very; and does Eleanor leave you to find your way into all the rooms in the
house by yourself?"

"Oh! No; she showed me over the greatest part on Saturday—and we were
coming here to these rooms—but only"—dropping her voice—"your father was
with us."

"And that prevented you," said Henry, earnestly regarding her. "Have you
looked into all the rooms in that passage?"

"No, I only wanted to see—Is not it very late? I must go and dress."

"It is only a quarter past four" showing his watch—"and you are not now in
Bath. No theatre, no rooms to prepare for. Half an hour at Northanger must be
enough."

She could not contradict it, and therefore suffered herself to be detained,
though her dread of further questions made her, for the first time in their
acquaintance, wish to leave him. They walked slowly up the gallery. "Have you
had any letter from Bath since I saw you?"

"No, and I am very much surprised. Isabella promised so faithfully to write

directly."
 "Promised so faithfully! A faithful promise! That puzzles me. I have heard of a
faithful performance. But a faithful promise—the fidelity of promising! It is a
power little worth knowing, however, since it can deceive and pain you. My
mother's room is very commodious, is it not? Large and cheerful-looking, and the
dressing-closets so well disposed! It always strikes me as the most comfortable
apartment in the house, and I rather wonder that Eleanor should not take it for
her own. She sent you to look at it, I suppose?"

"No."

"It has been your own doing entirely?" Catherine said nothing. After a short
silence, during which he had closely observed her, he added, "As there is nothing
in the room in itself to raise curiosity, this must have proceeded from a sentiment
of respect for my mother's character, as described by Eleanor, which does honour
to her memory. The world, I believe, never saw a better woman. But it is not
often that virtue can boast an interest such as this. The domestic, unpretending
merits of a person never known do not often create that kind of fervent,
venerating tenderness which would prompt a visit like yours. Eleanor, I suppose,
has talked of her a great deal?"

"Yes, a great deal. That is—no, not much, but what she did say was very
interesting. Her dying so suddenly" (slowly, and with hesitation it was spoken),
"and you—none of you being at home—and your father, I thought—perhaps had
not been very fond of her."

"And from these circumstances," he replied (his quick eye fixed on hers), "you
infer perhaps the probability of some negligence—some"—(involuntarily she shook
her head)—"or it may be—of something still less pardonable." She raised her eyes
towards him more fully than she had ever done before. "My mother's illness," he
continued, "the seizure which ended in her death, was sudden. The malady itself,
one from which she had often suffered, a bilious fever—its cause therefore
constitutional. On the third day, in short, as soon as she could be prevailed on, a
physician attended her, a very respectable man, and one in whom she had always
placed great confidence. Upon his opinion of her danger, two others were called in
the next day, and remained in almost constant attendance for four and twenty
hours. On the fifth day she died. During the progress of her disorder, Frederick
and I (we were both at home) saw her repeatedly; and from our own observation
can bear witness to her having received every possible attention which could
spring from the affection of those about her, or which her situation in life could
command. Poor Eleanor was absent, and at such a distance as to return only to
see her mother in her coffin."

"But your father," said Catherine, "was he afflicted?"

"For a time, greatly so. You have erred in supposing him not attached to her.
He loved her, I am persuaded, as well as it was possible for him to—we have not
all, you know, the same tenderness of disposition—and I will not pretend to say
that while she lived, she might not often have had much to bear, but though his
temper injured her, his judgment never did. His value of her was sincere; and, if
not permanently, he was truly afflicted by her death."

"I am very glad of it," said Catherine; "it would have been very shocking!"

"If I understand you rightly, you had formed a surmise of such horror as I
have hardly words to—Dear Miss Morland, consider the dreadful nature of the
suspicions you have entertained. What have you been judging from? Remember
the country and the age in which we live. Remember that we are English, that we
are Christians. Consult your own understanding, your own sense of the probable,
your own observation of what is passing around you. Does our education prepare
us for such atrocities? Do our laws connive at them? Could they be perpetrated
without being known, in a country like this, where social and literary intercourse
is on such a footing, where every man is surrounded by a neighbourhood of
voluntary spies, and where roads and newspapers lay everything open? Dearest
Miss Morland, what ideas have you been admitting?"

They had reached the end of the gallery, and with tears of shame she ran off
to her own room.

Ebd
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 CHAPTER 25

The visions of romance were over. Catherine was completely awakened.

Henry's address, short as it had been, had more thoroughly opened her eyes to the
extravagance of her late fancies than all their several disappointments had done.
Most grievously was she humbled. Most bitterly did she cry. It was not only with
herself that she was sunk—but with Henry. Her folly, which now seemed even
criminal, was all exposed to him, and he must despise her forever. The liberty
which her imagination had dared to take with the character of his father—could
he ever forgive it? The absurdity of her curiosity and her fears—could they ever be
forgotten? She hated herself more than she could express. He had—she thought he
had, once or twice before this fatal morning, shown something like affection for
her. But now—in short, she made herself as miserable as possible for about half
an hour, went down when the clock struck five, with a broken heart, and could
scarcely give an intelligible answer to Eleanor's inquiry if she was well. The
formidable Henry soon followed her into the room, and the only difference in his
behaviour to her was that he paid her rather more attention than usual. Catherine
had never wanted comfort more, and he looked as if he was aware of it.

The evening wore away with no abatement of this soothing politeness; and
her spirits were gradually raised to a modest tranquillity. She did not learn either
to forget or defend the past; but she learned to hope that it would never transpire
farther, and that it might not cost her Henry's entire regard. Her thoughts being
still chiefly fixed on what she had with such causeless terror felt and done,
nothing could shortly be clearer than that it had been all a voluntary, self-created
delusion, each trifling circumstance receiving importance from an imagination
resolved on alarm, and everything forced to bend to one purpose by a mind
which, before she entered the abbey, had been craving to be frightened. She
remembered with what feelings she had prepared for a knowledge of Northanger.
She saw that the infatuation had been created, the mischief settled, long before
her quitting Bath, and it seemed as if the whole might be traced to the influence
of that sort of reading which she had there indulged.

Charming as were all Mrs. Radcliffe's works, and charming even as were the
works of all her imitators, it was not in them perhaps that human nature, at least
in the Midland counties of England, was to be looked for. Of the Alps and
Pyrenees, with their pine forests and their vices, they might give a faithful
delineation; and Italy, Switzerland, and the south of France might be as fruitful in
horrors as they were there represented. Catherine dared not doubt beyond her
own country, and even of that, if hard pressed, would have yielded the northern
and western extremities. But in the central part of England there was surely some
security for the existence even of a wife not beloved, in the laws of the land, and
the manners of the age. Murder was not tolerated, servants were not slaves, and
neither poison nor sleeping potions to be procured, like rhubarb, from every
druggist. Among the Alps and Pyrenees, perhaps, there were no mixed characters.
There, such as were not as spotless as an angel might have the dispositions of a
fiend. But in England it was not so; among the English, she believed, in their
hearts and habits, there was a general though unequal mixture of good and bad.
Upon this conviction, she would not be surprised if even in Henry and Eleanor
Tilney, some slight imperfection might hereafter appear; and upon this conviction
she need not fear to acknowledge some actual specks in the character of their
father, who, though cleared from the grossly injurious suspicions which she must
ever blush to have entertained, she did believe, upon serious consideration, to be
not perfectly amiable.

Her mind made up on these several points, and her resolution formed, of
always judging and acting in future with the greatest good sense, she had nothing
to do but to forgive herself and be happier than ever; and the lenient hand of time
did much for her by insensible gradations in the course of another day. Henry's
astonishing generosity and nobleness of conduct, in never alluding in the slightest
way to what had passed, was of the greatest assistance to her; and sooner than
she could have supposed it possible in the beginning of her distress, her spirits
became absolutely comfortable, and capable, as heretofore, of continual
improvement by anything he said. There were still some subjects, indeed, under
which she believed they must always tremble—the mention of a chest or a
cabinet, for instance—and she did not love the sight of japan in any shape: but
even she could allow that an occasional memento of past folly, however painful,
might not be without use.

The anxieties of common life began soon to succeed to the alarms of romance.
Her desire of hearing from Isabella grew every day greater. She was quite
impatient to know how the Bath world went on, and how the rooms were
attended; and especially was she anxious to be assured of Isabella's having
matched some fine netting-cotton, on which she had left her intent; and of her
continuing on the best terms with James. Her only dependence for information of
any kind was on Isabella. James had protested against writing to her till his return
to Oxford; and Mrs. Allen had given her no hopes of a letter till she had got back
to Fullerton. But Isabella had promised and promised again; and when she
promised a thing, she was so scrupulous in performing it! This made it so
particularly strange!

For nine successive mornings, Catherine wondered over the repetition of a

disappointment, which each morning became more severe: but, on the tenth,
when she entered the breakfast-room, her first object was a letter, held out by
Henry's willing hand. She thanked him as heartily as if he had written it himself.
"'Tis only from James, however," as she looked at the direction. She opened it; it
was from Oxford; and to this purpose:

"Dear Catherine,

"Though, God knows, with little inclination for writing, I think it my duty to
tell you that everything is at an end between Miss Thorpe and me. I left her and
Bath yesterday, never to see either again. I shall not enter into particulars—they
would only pain you more. You will soon hear enough from another quarter to
know where lies the blame; and I hope will acquit your brother of everything but
the folly of too easily thinking his affection returned. Thank God! I am undeceived
in time! But it is a heavy blow! After my father's consent had been so kindly
given—but no more of this. She has made me miserable forever! Let me soon hear
from you, dear Catherine; you are my only friend; your love I do build upon. I
wish your visit at Northanger may be over before Captain Tilney makes his
engagement known, or you will be uncomfortably circumstanced. Poor Thorpe is
in town: I dread the sight of him; his honest heart would feel so much. I have
written to him and my father. Her duplicity hurts me more than all; till the very
last, if I reasoned with her, she declared herself as much attached to me as ever,
and laughed at my fears. I am ashamed to think how long I bore with it; but if
ever man had reason to believe himself loved, I was that man. I cannot
understand even now what she would be at, for there could be no need of my
being played off to make her secure of Tilney. We parted at last by mutual
consent—happy for me had we never met! I can never expect to know such
another woman! Dearest Catherine, beware how you give your heart. "Believe me,"
&c.

Catherine had not read three lines before her sudden change of countenance,
and short exclamations of sorrowing wonder, declared her to be receiving
unpleasant news; and Henry, earnestly watching her through the whole letter, saw
plainly that it ended no better than it began. He was prevented, however, from
even looking his surprise by his father's entrance. They went to breakfast directly;
but Catherine could hardly eat anything. Tears filled her eyes, and even ran down
her cheeks as she sat. The letter was one moment in her hand, then in her lap,
and then in her pocket; and she looked as if she knew not what she did. The
general, between his cocoa and his newspaper, had luckily no leisure for noticing
her; but to the other two her distress was equally visible. As soon as she dared
leave the table she hurried away to her own room; but the housemaids were busy
in it, and she was obliged to come down again. She turned into the drawing-room
for privacy, but Henry and Eleanor had likewise retreated thither, and were at
that moment deep in consultation about her. She drew back, trying to beg their
pardon, but was, with gentle violence, forced to return; and the others withdrew,
after Eleanor had affectionately expressed a wish of being of use or comfort to her.
 After half an hour's free indulgence of grief and reflection, Catherine felt
equal to encountering her friends; but whether she should make her distress
known to them was another consideration. Perhaps, if particularly questioned, she
might just give an idea—just distantly hint at it—but not more. To expose a
friend, such a friend as Isabella had been to her—and then their own brother so
closely concerned in it! She believed she must waive the subject altogether. Henry
and Eleanor were by themselves in the breakfast-room; and each, as she entered
it, looked at her anxiously. Catherine took her place at the table, and, after a short
silence, Eleanor said, "No bad news from Fullerton, I hope? Mr. and Mrs.
Morland—your brothers and sisters—I hope they are none of them ill?"

"No, I thank you" (sighing as she spoke); "they are all very well. My letter was
from my brother at Oxford."

Nothing further was said for a few minutes; and then speaking through her
tears, she added, "I do not think I shall ever wish for a letter again!"

"I am sorry," said Henry, closing the book he had just opened; "if I had
suspected the letter of containing anything unwelcome, I should have given it with
very different feelings."

"It contained something worse than anybody could suppose! Poor James is so
unhappy! You will soon know why."

"To have so kind-hearted, so affectionate a sister," replied Henry warmly,

"must be a comfort to him under any distress."

"I have one favour to beg," said Catherine, shortly afterwards, in an agitated
manner, "that, if your brother should be coming here, you will give me notice of
it, that I may go away."

"Our brother! Frederick!"

"Yes; I am sure I should be very sorry to leave you so soon, but something
has happened that would make it very dreadful for me to be in the same house
with Captain Tilney."

Eleanor's work was suspended while she gazed with increasing astonishment;
but Henry began to suspect the truth, and something, in which Miss Thorpe's
name was included, passed his lips.

"How quick you are!" cried Catherine: "you have guessed it, I declare! And
yet, when we talked about it in Bath, you little thought of its ending so. Isabella—
no wonder now I have not heard from her—Isabella has deserted my brother, and
is to marry yours! Could you have believed there had been such inconstancy and
fickleness, and everything that is bad in the world?"
 "I hope, so far as concerns my brother, you are misinformed. I hope he has
not had any material share in bringing on Mr. Morland's disappointment. His
marrying Miss Thorpe is not probable. I think you must be deceived so far. I am
very sorry for Mr. Morland—sorry that anyone you love should be unhappy; but
my surprise would be greater at Frederick's marrying her than at any other part of
the story."

"It is very true, however; you shall read James's letter yourself. Stay—There is
one part—" recollecting with a blush the last line.

"Will you take the trouble of reading to us the passages which concern my
brother?"

"No, read it yourself," cried Catherine, whose second thoughts were clearer. "I
do not know what I was thinking of" (blushing again that she had blushed before);
"James only means to give me good advice."

He gladly received the letter, and, having read it through, with close
attention, returned it saying, "Well, if it is to be so, I can only say that I am sorry
for it. Frederick will not be the first man who has chosen a wife with less sense
than his family expected. I do not envy his situation, either as a lover or a son."

Miss Tilney, at Catherine's invitation, now read the letter likewise, and,
having expressed also her concern and surprise, began to inquire into Miss
Thorpe's connections and fortune.

"Her mother is a very good sort of woman," was Catherine's answer.

"What was her father?"

"A lawyer, I believe. They live at Putney."

"Are they a wealthy family?"

"No, not very. I do not believe Isabella has any fortune at all: but that will not
signify in your family. Your father is so very liberal! He told me the other day that
he only valued money as it allowed him to promote the happiness of his children."
The brother and sister looked at each other. "But," said Eleanor, after a short
pause, "would it be to promote his happiness, to enable him to marry such a girl?
She must be an unprincipled one, or she could not have used your brother so. And
how strange an infatuation on Frederick's side! A girl who, before his eyes, is
violating an engagement voluntarily entered into with another man! Is not it
inconceivable, Henry? Frederick too, who always wore his heart so proudly! Who
found no woman good enough to be loved!"

"That is the most unpromising circumstance, the strongest presumption

against him. When I think of his past declarations, I give him up. Moreover, I
have too good an opinion of Miss Thorpe's prudence to suppose that she would
part with one gentleman before the other was secured. It is all over with Frederick
indeed! He is a deceased man—defunct in understanding. Prepare for your sister-
in-law, Eleanor, and such a sister-in-law as you must delight in! Open, candid,
artless, guileless, with affections strong but simple, forming no pretensions, and
knowing no disguise."

"Such a sister-in-law, Henry, I should delight in," said Eleanor with a smile.

"But perhaps," observed Catherine, "though she has behaved so ill by our
family, she may behave better by yours. Now she has really got the man she likes,
she may be constant."

"Indeed I am afraid she will," replied Henry; "I am afraid she will be very
constant, unless a baronet should come in her way; that is Frederick's only
chance. I will get the Bath paper, and look over the arrivals."

"You think it is all for ambition, then? And, upon my word, there are some
things that seem very like it. I cannot forget that, when she first knew what my
father would do for them, she seemed quite disappointed that it was not more. I
never was so deceived in anyone's character in my life before."

"Among all the great variety that you have known and studied."

"My own disappointment and loss in her is very great; but, as for poor James,
I suppose he will hardly ever recover it."

"Your brother is certainly very much to be pitied at present; but we must not,
in our concern for his sufferings, undervalue yours. You feel, I suppose, that in
losing Isabella, you lose half yourself: you feel a void in your heart which nothing
else can occupy. Society is becoming irksome; and as for the amusements in which
you were wont to share at Bath, the very idea of them without her is abhorrent.
You would not, for instance, now go to a ball for the world. You feel that you
have no longer any friend to whom you can speak with unreserve, on whose
regard you can place dependence, or whose counsel, in any difficulty, you could
rely on. You feel all this?"

"No," said Catherine, after a few moments' reflection, "I do not—ought I? To

say the truth, though I am hurt and grieved, that I cannot still love her, that I am
never to hear from her, perhaps never to see her again, I do not feel so very, very
much afflicted as one would have thought."

"You feel, as you always do, what is most to the credit of human nature. Such
feelings ought to be investigated, that they may know themselves."

Catherine, by some chance or other, found her spirits so very much relieved
by this conversation that she could not regret her being led on, though so
unaccountably, to mention the circumstance which had produced it.
 CHAPTER 26

From this time, the subject was frequently canvassed by the three young
people; and Catherine found, with some surprise, that her two young friends were
perfectly agreed in considering Isabella's want of consequence and fortune as
likely to throw great difficulties in the way of her marrying their brother. Their
persuasion that the general would, upon this ground alone, independent of the
objection that might be raised against her character, oppose the connection,
turned her feelings moreover with some alarm towards herself. She was as
insignificant, and perhaps as portionless, as Isabella; and if the heir of the Tilney
property had not grandeur and wealth enough in himself, at what point of interest
were the demands of his younger brother to rest? The very painful reflections to
which this thought led could only be dispersed by a dependence on the effect of
that particular partiality, which, as she was given to understand by his words as
well as his actions, she had from the first been so fortunate as to excite in the
general; and by a recollection of some most generous and disinterested sentiments
on the subject of money, which she had more than once heard him utter, and
which tempted her to think his disposition in such matters misunderstood by his
children.

They were so fully convinced, however, that their brother would not have the
courage to apply in person for his father's consent, and so repeatedly assured her
that he had never in his life been less likely to come to Northanger than at the
present time, that she suffered her mind to be at ease as to the necessity of any
sudden removal of her own. But as it was not to be supposed that Captain Tilney,
whenever he made his application, would give his father any just idea of Isabella's
conduct, it occurred to her as highly expedient that Henry should lay the whole
business before him as it really was, enabling the general by that means to form a
cool and impartial opinion, and prepare his objections on a fairer ground than
inequality of situations. She proposed it to him accordingly; but he did not catch
at the measure so eagerly as she had expected. "No," said he, "my father's hands
need not be strengthened, and Frederick's confession of folly need not be
forestalled. He must tell his own story."

"But he will tell only half of it."

"A quarter would be enough."

 A day or two passed away and brought no tidings of Captain Tilney. His
brother and sister knew not what to think. Sometimes it appeared to them as if
his silence would be the natural result of the suspected engagement, and at others
that it was wholly incompatible with it. The general, meanwhile, though offended
every morning by Frederick's remissness in writing, was free from any real anxiety
about him, and had no more pressing solicitude than that of making Miss
Morland's time at Northanger pass pleasantly. He often expressed his uneasiness
on this head, feared the sameness of every day's society and employments would
disgust her with the place, wished the Lady Frasers had been in the country,
talked every now and then of having a large party to dinner, and once or twice
began even to calculate the number of young dancing people in the
neighbourhood. But then it was such a dead time of year, no wild-fowl, no game,
and the Lady Frasers were not in the country. And it all ended, at last, in his
telling Henry one morning that when he next went to Woodston, they would take
him by surprise there some day or other, and eat their mutton with him. Henry
was greatly honoured and very happy, and Catherine was quite delighted with the
scheme. "And when do you think, sir, I may look forward to this pleasure? I must
be at Woodston on Monday to attend the parish meeting, and shall probably be
obliged to stay two or three days."

"Well, well, we will take our chance some one of those days. There is no need
to fix. You are not to put yourself at all out of your way. Whatever you may
happen to have in the house will be enough. I think I can answer for the young
ladies making allowance for a bachelor's table. Let me see; Monday will be a busy
day with you, we will not come on Monday; and Tuesday will be a busy one with
me. I expect my surveyor from Brockham with his report in the morning; and
afterwards I cannot in decency fail attending the club. I really could not face my
acquaintance if I stayed away now; for, as I am known to be in the country, it
would be taken exceedingly amiss; and it is a rule with me, Miss Morland, never
to give offence to any of my neighbours, if a small sacrifice of time and attention
can prevent it. They are a set of very worthy men. They have half a buck from
Northanger twice a year; and I dine with them whenever I can. Tuesday,
therefore, we may say is out of the question. But on Wednesday, I think, Henry,
you may expect us; and we shall be with you early, that we may have time to look
about us. Two hours and three quarters will carry us to Woodston, I suppose; we
shall be in the carriage by ten; so, about a quarter before one on Wednesday, you
may look for us."

A ball itself could not have been more welcome to Catherine than this little
excursion, so strong was her desire to be acquainted with Woodston; and her
heart was still bounding with joy when Henry, about an hour afterwards, came
booted and greatcoated into the room where she and Eleanor were sitting, and
said, "I am come, young ladies, in a very moralizing strain, to observe that our
pleasures in this world are always to be paid for, and that we often purchase them
at a great disadvantage, giving ready-monied actual happiness for a draft on the
future, that may not be honoured. Witness myself, at this present hour. Because I
am to hope for the satisfaction of seeing you at Woodston on Wednesday, which
bad weather, or twenty other causes, may prevent, I must go away directly, two
days before I intended it."

"Go away!" said Catherine, with a very long face. "And why?"

"Why! How can you ask the question? Because no time is to be lost in
frightening my old housekeeper out of her wits, because I must go and prepare a
dinner for you, to be sure."

"Oh! Not seriously!"

"Aye, and sadly too—for I had much rather stay."

"But how can you think of such a thing, after what the general said? When he
so particularly desired you not to give yourself any trouble, because anything
would do."

Henry only smiled. "I am sure it is quite unnecessary upon your sister's
account and mine. You must know it to be so; and the general made such a point
of your providing nothing extraordinary: besides, if he had not said half so much
as he did, he has always such an excellent dinner at home, that sitting down to a
middling one for one day could not signify."

"I wish I could reason like you, for his sake and my own. Good-bye. As
tomorrow is Sunday, Eleanor, I shall not return."

He went; and, it being at any time a much simpler operation to Catherine to

doubt her own judgment than Henry's, she was very soon obliged to give him
credit for being right, however disagreeable to her his going. But the
inexplicability of the general's conduct dwelt much on her thoughts. That he was
very particular in his eating, she had, by her own unassisted observation, already
discovered; but why he should say one thing so positively, and mean another all
the while, was most unaccountable! How were people, at that rate, to be
understood? Who but Henry could have been aware of what his father was at?

From Saturday to Wednesday, however, they were now to be without Henry.

This was the sad finale of every reflection: and Captain Tilney's letter would
certainly come in his absence; and Wednesday she was very sure would be wet.
The past, present, and future were all equally in gloom. Her brother so unhappy,
and her loss in Isabella so great; and Eleanor's spirits always affected by Henry's
absence! What was there to interest or amuse her? She was tired of the woods and
the shrubberies—always so smooth and so dry; and the abbey in itself was no
more to her now than any other house. The painful remembrance of the folly it
had helped to nourish and perfect was the only emotion which could spring from
a consideration of the building. What a revolution in her ideas! She, who had so
longed to be in an abbey! Now, there was nothing so charming to her imagination
as the unpretending comfort of a well-connected parsonage, something like
Fullerton, but better: Fullerton had its faults, but Woodston probably had none. If
Wednesday should ever come!

It did come, and exactly when it might be reasonably looked for. It came—it
was fine—and Catherine trod on air. By ten o'clock, the chaise and four conveyed
the two from the abbey; and, after an agreeable drive of almost twenty miles, they
entered Woodston, a large and populous village, in a situation not unpleasant.
Catherine was ashamed to say how pretty she thought it, as the general seemed to
think an apology necessary for the flatness of the country, and the size of the
village; but in her heart she preferred it to any place she had ever been at, and
looked with great admiration at every neat house above the rank of a cottage, and
at all the little chandler's shops which they passed. At the further end of the
village, and tolerably disengaged from the rest of it, stood the parsonage, a new-
built substantial stone house, with its semicircular sweep and green gates; and, as
they drove up to the door, Henry, with the friends of his solitude, a large
Newfoundland puppy and two or three terriers, was ready to receive and make
much of them.

Catherine's mind was too full, as she entered the house, for her either to
observe or to say a great deal; and, till called on by the general for her opinion of
it, she had very little idea of the room in which she was sitting. Upon looking
round it then, she perceived in a moment that it was the most comfortable room
in the world; but she was too guarded to say so, and the coldness of her praise
disappointed him.

"We are not calling it a good house," said he. "We are not comparing it with
Fullerton and Northanger—we are considering it as a mere parsonage, small and
confined, we allow, but decent, perhaps, and habitable; and altogether not inferior
to the generality; or, in other words, I believe there are few country parsonages in
England half so good. It may admit of improvement, however. Far be it from me
to say otherwise; and anything in reason—a bow thrown out, perhaps—though,
between ourselves, if there is one thing more than another my aversion, it is a
patched-on bow."

Catherine did not hear enough of this speech to understand or be pained by

it; and other subjects being studiously brought forward and supported by Henry,
at the same time that a tray full of refreshments was introduced by his servant,
the general was shortly restored to his complacency, and Catherine to all her usual
ease of spirits.

The room in question was of a commodious, well-proportioned size, and

handsomely fitted up as a dining-parlour; and on their quitting it to walk round
the grounds, she was shown, first into a smaller apartment, belonging peculiarly
to the master of the house, and made unusually tidy on the occasion; and
afterwards into what was to be the drawing-room, with the appearance of which,
though unfurnished, Catherine was delighted enough even to satisfy the general. It
was a prettily shaped room, the windows reaching to the ground, and the view
from them pleasant, though only over green meadows; and she expressed her
admiration at the moment with all the honest simplicity with which she felt it.
"Oh! Why do not you fit up this room, Mr. Tilney? What a pity not to have it
fitted up! It is the prettiest room I ever saw; it is the prettiest room in the world!"

"I trust," said the general, with a most satisfied smile, "that it will very
speedily be furnished: it waits only for a lady's taste!"

"Well, if it was my house, I should never sit anywhere else. Oh! What a sweet
little cottage there is among the trees—apple trees, too! It is the prettiest cottage!"

"You like it—you approve it as an object—it is enough. Henry, remember that

Robinson is spoken to about it. The cottage remains."

Such a compliment recalled all Catherine's consciousness, and silenced her

directly; and, though pointedly applied to by the general for her choice of the
prevailing colour of the paper and hangings, nothing like an opinion on the subject
could be drawn from her. The influence of fresh objects and fresh air, however,
was of great use in dissipating these embarrassing associations; and, having
reached the ornamental part of the premises, consisting of a walk round two sides
of a meadow, on which Henry's genius had begun to act about half a year ago, she
was sufficiently recovered to think it prettier than any pleasure-ground she had
ever been in before, though there was not a shrub in it higher than the green
bench in the corner.

A saunter into other meadows, and through part of the village, with a visit to
the stables to examine some improvements, and a charming game of play with a
litter of puppies just able to roll about, brought them to four o'clock, when
Catherine scarcely thought it could be three. At four they were to dine, and at six
to set off on their return. Never had any day passed so quickly!

She could not but observe that the abundance of the dinner did not seem to
create the smallest astonishment in the general; nay, that he was even looking at
the side-table for cold meat which was not there. His son and daughter's
observations were of a different kind. They had seldom seen him eat so heartily at
any table but his own, and never before known him so little disconcerted by the
melted butter's being oiled.

At six o'clock, the general having taken his coffee, the carriage again received
them; and so gratifying had been the tenor of his conduct throughout the whole
visit, so well assured was her mind on the subject of his expectations, that, could
she have felt equally confident of the wishes of his son, Catherine would have
quitted Woodston with little anxiety as to the How or the When she might return
to it.
 CHAPTER 27

The next morning brought the following very unexpected letter from Isabella:

Bath, April

My dearest Catherine, I received your two kind letters with the greatest
delight, and have a thousand apologies to make for not answering them sooner. I
really am quite ashamed of my idleness; but in this horrid place one can find time
for nothing. I have had my pen in my hand to begin a letter to you almost every
day since you left Bath, but have always been prevented by some silly trifler or
other. Pray write to me soon, and direct to my own home. Thank God, we leave
this vile place tomorrow. Since you went away, I have had no pleasure in it—the
dust is beyond anything; and everybody one cares for is gone. I believe if I could
see you I should not mind the rest, for you are dearer to me than anybody can
conceive. I am quite uneasy about your dear brother, not having heard from him
since he went to Oxford; and am fearful of some misunderstanding. Your kind
offices will set all right: he is the only man I ever did or could love, and I trust
you will convince him of it. The spring fashions are partly down; and the hats the
most frightful you can imagine. I hope you spend your time pleasantly, but am
afraid you never think of me. I will not say all that I could of the family you are
with, because I would not be ungenerous, or set you against those you esteem; but
it is very difficult to know whom to trust, and young men never know their minds
two days together. I rejoice to say that the young man whom, of all others, I
particularly abhor, has left Bath. You will know, from this description, I must
mean Captain Tilney, who, as you may remember, was amazingly disposed to
follow and tease me, before you went away. Afterwards he got worse, and became
quite my shadow. Many girls might have been taken in, for never were such
attentions; but I knew the fickle sex too well. He went away to his regiment two
days ago, and I trust I shall never be plagued with him again. He is the greatest
coxcomb I ever saw, and amazingly disagreeable. The last two days he was always
by the side of Charlotte Davis: I pitied his taste, but took no notice of him. The
last time we met was in Bath Street, and I turned directly into a shop that he
might not speak to me; I would not even look at him. He went into the pump-
room afterwards; but I would not have followed him for all the world. Such a
contrast between him and your brother! Pray send me some news of the latter—I
am quite unhappy about him; he seemed so uncomfortable when he went away,
with a cold, or something that affected his spirits. I would write to him myself,
but have mislaid his direction; and, as I hinted above, am afraid he took
something in my conduct amiss. Pray explain everything to his satisfaction; or, if
he still harbours any doubt, a line from himself to me, or a call at Putney when
next in town, might set all to rights. I have not been to the rooms this age, nor to
the play, except going in last night with the Hodges, for a frolic, at half price: they
teased me into it; and I was determined they should not say I shut myself up
because Tilney was gone. We happened to sit by the Mitchells, and they
pretended to be quite surprised to see me out. I knew their spite: at one time they
could not be civil to me, but now they are all friendship; but I am not such a fool
as to be taken in by them. You know I have a pretty good spirit of my own. Anne
Mitchell had tried to put on a turban like mine, as I wore it the week before at the
concert, but made wretched work of it—it happened to become my odd face, I
believe, at least Tilney told me so at the time, and said every eye was upon me;
but he is the last man whose word I would take. I wear nothing but purple now: I
know I look hideous in it, but no matter—it is your dear brother's favourite
colour. Lose no time, my dearest, sweetest Catherine, in writing to him and to me,
Who ever am, etc.

Such a strain of shallow artifice could not impose even upon Catherine. Its
inconsistencies, contradictions, and falsehood struck her from the very first. She
was ashamed of Isabella, and ashamed of having ever loved her. Her professions
of attachment were now as disgusting as her excuses were empty, and her
demands impudent. "Write to James on her behalf! No, James should never hear
Isabella's name mentioned by her again."

On Henry's arrival from Woodston, she made known to him and Eleanor their
brother's safety, congratulating them with sincerity on it, and reading aloud the
most material passages of her letter with strong indignation. When she had
finished it—"So much for Isabella," she cried, "and for all our intimacy! She must
think me an idiot, or she could not have written so; but perhaps this has served to
make her character better known to me than mine is to her. I see what she has
been about. She is a vain coquette, and her tricks have not answered. I do not
believe she had ever any regard either for James or for me, and I wish I had never
known her."

"It will soon be as if you never had," said Henry.

"There is but one thing that I cannot understand. I see that she has had
designs on Captain Tilney, which have not succeeded; but I do not understand
what Captain Tilney has been about all this time. Why should he pay her such
attentions as to make her quarrel with my brother, and then fly off himself?"
 "I have very little to say for Frederick's motives, such as I believe them to
have been. He has his vanities as well as Miss Thorpe, and the chief difference is,
that, having a stronger head, they have not yet injured himself. If the effect of his
behaviour does not justify him with you, we had better not seek after the cause."

"Then you do not suppose he ever really cared about her?"

"I am persuaded that he never did."

"And only made believe to do so for mischief's sake?"

Henry bowed his assent.

"Well, then, I must say that I do not like him at all. Though it has turned out
so well for us, I do not like him at all. As it happens, there is no great harm done,
because I do not think Isabella has any heart to lose. But, suppose he had made
her very much in love with him?"

"But we must first suppose Isabella to have had a heart to lose—consequently

to have been a very different creature; and, in that case, she would have met with
very different treatment."

"It is very right that you should stand by your brother."

"And if you would stand by yours, you would not be much distressed by the
disappointment of Miss Thorpe. But your mind is warped by an innate principle
of general integrity, and therefore not accessible to the cool reasonings of family
partiality, or a desire of revenge."

Catherine was complimented out of further bitterness. Frederick could not be

unpardonably guilty, while Henry made himself so agreeable. She resolved on not
answering Isabella's letter, and tried to think no more of it.

Ebd
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 CHAPTER 28

Soon after this, the general found himself obliged to go to London for a week;
and he left Northanger earnestly regretting that any necessity should rob him even
for an hour of Miss Morland's company, and anxiously recommending the study of
her comfort and amusement to his children as their chief object in his absence.
His departure gave Catherine the first experimental conviction that a loss may be
sometimes a gain. The happiness with which their time now passed, every
employment voluntary, every laugh indulged, every meal a scene of ease and good
humour, walking where they liked and when they liked, their hours, pleasures,
and fatigues at their own command, made her thoroughly sensible of the restraint
which the general's presence had imposed, and most thankfully feel their present
release from it. Such ease and such delights made her love the place and the
people more and more every day; and had it not been for a dread of its soon
becoming expedient to leave the one, and an apprehension of not being equally
beloved by the other, she would at each moment of each day have been perfectly
happy; but she was now in the fourth week of her visit; before the general came
home, the fourth week would be turned, and perhaps it might seem an intrusion if
she stayed much longer. This was a painful consideration whenever it occurred;
and eager to get rid of such a weight on her mind, she very soon resolved to speak
to Eleanor about it at once, propose going away, and be guided in her conduct by
the manner in which her proposal might be taken.

Aware that if she gave herself much time, she might feel it difficult to bring
forward so unpleasant a subject, she took the first opportunity of being suddenly
alone with Eleanor, and of Eleanor's being in the middle of a speech about
something very different, to start forth her obligation of going away very soon.
Eleanor looked and declared herself much concerned. She had "hoped for the
pleasure of her company for a much longer time—had been misled (perhaps by her
wishes) to suppose that a much longer visit had been promised—and could not
but think that if Mr. and Mrs. Morland were aware of the pleasure it was to her
to have her there, they would be too generous to hasten her return." Catherine
explained: "Oh! As to that, Papa and Mamma were in no hurry at all. As long as
she was happy, they would always be satisfied."

"Then why, might she ask, in such a hurry herself to leave them?"

"Oh! Because she had been there so long."

 "Nay, if you can use such a word, I can urge you no farther. If you think it
long—"

"Oh! No, I do not indeed. For my own pleasure, I could stay with you as long
again." And it was directly settled that, till she had, her leaving them was not
even to be thought of. In having this cause of uneasiness so pleasantly removed,
the force of the other was likewise weakened. The kindness, the earnestness of
Eleanor's manner in pressing her to stay, and Henry's gratified look on being told
that her stay was determined, were such sweet proofs of her importance with
them, as left her only just so much solicitude as the human mind can never do
comfortably without. She did—almost always—believe that Henry loved her, and
quite always that his father and sister loved and even wished her to belong to
them; and believing so far, her doubts and anxieties were merely sportive
irritations.

Henry was not able to obey his father's injunction of remaining wholly at
Northanger in attendance on the ladies, during his absence in London, the
engagements of his curate at Woodston obliging him to leave them on Saturday for
a couple of nights. His loss was not now what it had been while the general was
at home; it lessened their gaiety, but did not ruin their comfort; and the two girls
agreeing in occupation, and improving in intimacy, found themselves so well
sufficient for the time to themselves, that it was eleven o'clock, rather a late hour
at the abbey, before they quitted the supper-room on the day of Henry's
departure. They had just reached the head of the stairs when it seemed, as far as
the thickness of the walls would allow them to judge, that a carriage was driving
up to the door, and the next moment confirmed the idea by the loud noise of the
house-bell. After the first perturbation of surprise had passed away, in a "Good
heaven! What can be the matter?" it was quickly decided by Eleanor to be her
eldest brother, whose arrival was often as sudden, if not quite so unseasonable,
and accordingly she hurried down to welcome him.

Catherine walked on to her chamber, making up her mind as well as she

could, to a further acquaintance with Captain Tilney, and comforting herself
under the unpleasant impression his conduct had given her, and the persuasion of
his being by far too fine a gentleman to approve of her, that at least they should
not meet under such circumstances as would make their meeting materially
painful. She trusted he would never speak of Miss Thorpe; and indeed, as he must
by this time be ashamed of the part he had acted, there could be no danger of it;
and as long as all mention of Bath scenes were avoided, she thought she could
behave to him very civilly. In such considerations time passed away, and it was
certainly in his favour that Eleanor should be so glad to see him, and have so
much to say, for half an hour was almost gone since his arrival, and Eleanor did
not come up.

At that moment Catherine thought she heard her step in the gallery, and
listened for its continuance; but all was silent. Scarcely, however, had she
convicted her fancy of error, when the noise of something moving close to her
door made her start; it seemed as if someone was touching the very doorway—and
in another moment a slight motion of the lock proved that some hand must be on
it. She trembled a little at the idea of anyone's approaching so cautiously; but
resolving not to be again overcome by trivial appearances of alarm, or misled by a
raised imagination, she stepped quietly forward, and opened the door. Eleanor,
and only Eleanor, stood there. Catherine's spirits, however, were tranquillized but
for an instant, for Eleanor's cheeks were pale, and her manner greatly agitated.
Though evidently intending to come in, it seemed an effort to enter the room, and
a still greater to speak when there. Catherine, supposing some uneasiness on
Captain Tilney's account, could only express her concern by silent attention,
obliged her to be seated, rubbed her temples with lavender-water, and hung over
her with affectionate solicitude. "My dear Catherine, you must not—you must not
indeed—" were Eleanor's first connected words. "I am quite well. This kindness
distracts me—I cannot bear it—I come to you on such an errand!"

"Errand! To me!"

"How shall I tell you! Oh! How shall I tell you!"

A new idea now darted into Catherine's mind, and turning as pale as her
friend, she exclaimed, "'Tis a messenger from Woodston!"

"You are mistaken, indeed," returned Eleanor, looking at her most

compassionately; "it is no one from Woodston. It is my father himself." Her voice
faltered, and her eyes were turned to the ground as she mentioned his name. His
unlooked-for return was enough in itself to make Catherine's heart sink, and for a
few moments she hardly supposed there were anything worse to be told. She said
nothing; and Eleanor, endeavouring to collect herself and speak with firmness, but
with eyes still cast down, soon went on. "You are too good, I am sure, to think the
worse of me for the part I am obliged to perform. I am indeed a most unwilling
messenger. After what has so lately passed, so lately been settled between us—
how joyfully, how thankfully on my side!—as to your continuing here as I hoped
for many, many weeks longer, how can I tell you that your kindness is not to be
accepted—and that the happiness your company has hitherto given us is to be
repaid by—But I must not trust myself with words. My dear Catherine, we are to
part. My father has recollected an engagement that takes our whole family away
on Monday. We are going to Lord Longtown's, near Hereford, for a fortnight.
Explanation and apology are equally impossible. I cannot attempt either."

"My dear Eleanor," cried Catherine, suppressing her feelings as well as she
could, "do not be so distressed. A second engagement must give way to a first. I
am very, very sorry we are to part—so soon, and so suddenly too; but I am not
offended, indeed I am not. I can finish my visit here, you know, at any time; or I
hope you will come to me. Can you, when you return from this lord's, come to
Fullerton?"

"It will not be in my power, Catherine."

 "Come when you can, then."

Eleanor made no answer; and Catherine's thoughts recurring to something

more directly interesting, she added, thinking aloud, "Monday—so soon as
Monday; and you all go. Well, I am certain of—I shall be able to take leave,
however. I need not go till just before you do, you know. Do not be distressed,
Eleanor, I can go on Monday very well. My father and mother's having no notice
of it is of very little consequence. The general will send a servant with me, I dare
say, half the way—and then I shall soon be at Salisbury, and then I am only nine
miles from home."

"Ah, Catherine! Were it settled so, it would be somewhat less intolerable,

though in such common attentions you would have received but half what you
ought. But—how can I tell you?—tomorrow morning is fixed for your leaving us,
and not even the hour is left to your choice; the very carriage is ordered, and will
be here at seven o'clock, and no servant will be offered you."

Catherine sat down, breathless and speechless. "I could hardly believe my
senses, when I heard it; and no displeasure, no resentment that you can feel at
this moment, however justly great, can be more than I myself—but I must not talk
of what I felt. Oh! That I could suggest anything in extenuation! Good God! What
will your father and mother say! After courting you from the protection of real
friends to this—almost double distance from your home, to have you driven out of
the house, without the considerations even of decent civility! Dear, dear
Catherine, in being the bearer of such a message, I seem guilty myself of all its
insult; yet, I trust you will acquit me, for you must have been long enough in this
house to see that I am but a nominal mistress of it, that my real power is
nothing."

"Have I offended the general?" said Catherine in a faltering voice.

"Alas! For my feelings as a daughter, all that I know, all that I answer for, is
that you can have given him no just cause of offence. He certainly is greatly, very
greatly discomposed; I have seldom seen him more so. His temper is not happy,
and something has now occurred to ruffle it in an uncommon degree; some
disappointment, some vexation, which just at this moment seems important, but
which I can hardly suppose you to have any concern in, for how is it possible?"

It was with pain that Catherine could speak at all; and it was only for
Eleanor's sake that she attempted it. "I am sure," said she, "I am very sorry if I
have offended him. It was the last thing I would willingly have done. But do not
be unhappy, Eleanor. An engagement, you know, must be kept. I am only sorry it
was not recollected sooner, that I might have written home. But it is of very little
consequence."

"I hope, I earnestly hope, that to your real safety it will be of none; but to
everything else it is of the greatest consequence: to comfort, appearance,
propriety, to your family, to the world. Were your friends, the Allens, still in Bath,
you might go to them with comparative ease; a few hours would take you there;
but a journey of seventy miles, to be taken post by you, at your age, alone,
unattended!"

"Oh, the journey is nothing. Do not think about that. And if we are to part, a
few hours sooner or later, you know, makes no difference. I can be ready by
seven. Let me be called in time." Eleanor saw that she wished to be alone; and
believing it better for each that they should avoid any further conversation, now
left her with, "I shall see you in the morning."

Catherine's swelling heart needed relief. In Eleanor's presence friendship and

pride had equally restrained her tears, but no sooner was she gone than they burst
forth in torrents. Turned from the house, and in such a way! Without any reason
that could justify, any apology that could atone for the abruptness, the rudeness,
nay, the insolence of it. Henry at a distance—not able even to bid him farewell.
Every hope, every expectation from him suspended, at least, and who could say
how long? Who could say when they might meet again? And all this by such a
man as General Tilney, so polite, so well bred, and heretofore so particularly fond
of her! It was as incomprehensible as it was mortifying and grievous. From what it
could arise, and where it would end, were considerations of equal perplexity and
alarm. The manner in which it was done so grossly uncivil, hurrying her away
without any reference to her own convenience, or allowing her even the
appearance of choice as to the time or mode of her travelling; of two days, the
earliest fixed on, and of that almost the earliest hour, as if resolved to have her
gone before he was stirring in the morning, that he might not be obliged even to
see her. What could all this mean but an intentional affront? By some means or
other she must have had the misfortune to offend him. Eleanor had wished to
spare her from so painful a notion, but Catherine could not believe it possible that
any injury or any misfortune could provoke such ill will against a person not
connected, or, at least, not supposed to be connected with it.

Heavily passed the night. Sleep, or repose that deserved the name of sleep,
was out of the question. That room, in which her disturbed imagination had
tormented her on her first arrival, was again the scene of agitated spirits and
unquiet slumbers. Yet how different now the source of her inquietude from what
it had been then—how mournfully superior in reality and substance! Her anxiety
had foundation in fact, her fears in probability; and with a mind so occupied in
the contemplation of actual and natural evil, the solitude of her situation, the
darkness of her chamber, the antiquity of the building, were felt and considered
without the smallest emotion; and though the wind was high, and often produced
strange and sudden noises throughout the house, she heard it all as she lay
awake, hour after hour, without curiosity or terror.

Soon after six Eleanor entered her room, eager to show attention or give
assistance where it was possible; but very little remained to be done. Catherine
had not loitered; she was almost dressed, and her packing almost finished. The
possibility of some conciliatory message from the general occurred to her as his
daughter appeared. What so natural, as that anger should pass away and
repentance succeed it? And she only wanted to know how far, after what had
passed, an apology might properly be received by her. But the knowledge would
have been useless here; it was not called for; neither clemency nor dignity was put
to the trial—Eleanor brought no message. Very little passed between them on
meeting; each found her greatest safety in silence, and few and trivial were the
sentences exchanged while they remained upstairs, Catherine in busy agitation
completing her dress, and Eleanor with more goodwill than experience intent upon
filling the trunk. When everything was done they left the room, Catherine
lingering only half a minute behind her friend to throw a parting glance on every
well-known, cherished object, and went down to the breakfast-parlour, where
breakfast was prepared. She tried to eat, as well to save herself from the pain of
being urged as to make her friend comfortable; but she had no appetite, and could
not swallow many mouthfuls. The contrast between this and her last breakfast in
that room gave her fresh misery, and strengthened her distaste for everything
before her. It was not four and twenty hours ago since they had met there to the
same repast, but in circumstances how different! With what cheerful ease, what
happy, though false, security, had she then looked around her, enjoying
everything present, and fearing little in future, beyond Henry's going to Woodston
for a day! Happy, happy breakfast! For Henry had been there; Henry had sat by
her and helped her. These reflections were long indulged undisturbed by any
address from her companion, who sat as deep in thought as herself; and the
appearance of the carriage was the first thing to startle and recall them to the
present moment. Catherine's colour rose at the sight of it; and the indignity with
which she was treated, striking at that instant on her mind with peculiar force,
made her for a short time sensible only of resentment. Eleanor seemed now
impelled into resolution and speech.

"You must write to me, Catherine," she cried; "you must let me hear from you
as soon as possible. Till I know you to be safe at home, I shall not have an hour's
comfort. For one letter, at all risks, all hazards, I must entreat. Let me have the
satisfaction of knowing that you are safe at Fullerton, and have found your family
well, and then, till I can ask for your correspondence as I ought to do, I will not
expect more. Direct to me at Lord Longtown's, and, I must ask it, under cover to
Alice."

"No, Eleanor, if you are not allowed to receive a letter from me, I am sure I
had better not write. There can be no doubt of my getting home safe."

Eleanor only replied, "I cannot wonder at your feelings. I will not importune
you. I will trust to your own kindness of heart when I am at a distance from you."
But this, with the look of sorrow accompanying it, was enough to melt Catherine's
pride in a moment, and she instantly said, "Oh, Eleanor, I will write to you
indeed."
 There was yet another point which Miss Tilney was anxious to settle, though
somewhat embarrassed in speaking of. It had occurred to her that after so long an
absence from home, Catherine might not be provided with money enough for the
expenses of her journey, and, upon suggesting it to her with most affectionate
offers of accommodation, it proved to be exactly the case. Catherine had never
thought on the subject till that moment, but, upon examining her purse, was
convinced that but for this kindness of her friend, she might have been turned
from the house without even the means of getting home; and the distress in which
she must have been thereby involved filling the minds of both, scarcely another
word was said by either during the time of their remaining together. Short,
however, was that time. The carriage was soon announced to be ready; and
Catherine, instantly rising, a long and affectionate embrace supplied the place of
language in bidding each other adieu; and, as they entered the hall, unable to
leave the house without some mention of one whose name had not yet been
spoken by either, she paused a moment, and with quivering lips just made it
intelligible that she left "her kind remembrance for her absent friend." But with
this approach to his name ended all possibility of restraining her feelings; and,
hiding her face as well as she could with her handkerchief, she darted across the
hall, jumped into the chaise, and in a moment was driven from the door.

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 CHAPTER 29

Catherine was too wretched to be fearful. The journey in itself had no terrors
for her; and she began it without either dreading its length or feeling its
solitariness. Leaning back in one comer of the carriage, in a violent burst of tears,
she was conveyed some miles beyond the walls of the abbey before she raised her
head; and the highest point of ground within the park was almost closed from her
view before she was capable of turning her eyes towards it. Unfortunately, the
road she now travelled was the same which only ten days ago she had so happily
passed along in going to and from Woodston; and, for fourteen miles, every bitter
feeling was rendered more severe by the review of objects on which she had first
looked under impressions so different. Every mile, as it brought her nearer
Woodston, added to her sufferings, and when within the distance of five, she
passed the turning which led to it, and thought of Henry, so near, yet so
unconscious, her grief and agitation were excessive.

The day which she had spent at that place had been one of the happiest of
her life. It was there, it was on that day, that the general had made use of such
expressions with regard to Henry and herself, had so spoken and so looked as to
give her the most positive conviction of his actually wishing their marriage. Yes,
only ten days ago had he elated her by his pointed regard—had he even confused
her by his too significant reference! And now—what had she done, or what had
she omitted to do, to merit such a change?

The only offence against him of which she could accuse herself had been such
as was scarcely possible to reach his knowledge. Henry and her own heart only
were privy to the shocking suspicions which she had so idly entertained; and
equally safe did she believe her secret with each. Designedly, at least, Henry could
not have betrayed her. If, indeed, by any strange mischance his father should have
gained intelligence of what she had dared to think and look for, of her causeless
fancies and injurious examinations, she could not wonder at any degree of his
indignation. If aware of her having viewed him as a murderer, she could not
wonder at his even turning her from his house. But a justification so full of torture
to herself, she trusted, would not be in his power.
 Anxious as were all her conjectures on this point, it was not, however, the
one on which she dwelt most. There was a thought yet nearer, a more prevailing,
more impetuous concern. How Henry would think, and feel, and look, when he
returned on the morrow to Northanger and heard of her being gone, was a
question of force and interest to rise over every other, to be never ceasing,
alternately irritating and soothing; it sometimes suggested the dread of his calm
acquiescence, and at others was answered by the sweetest confidence in his regret
and resentment. To the general, of course, he would not dare to speak; but to
Eleanor—what might he not say to Eleanor about her?

In this unceasing recurrence of doubts and inquiries, on any one article of

which her mind was incapable of more than momentary repose, the hours passed
away, and her journey advanced much faster than she looked for. The pressing
anxieties of thought, which prevented her from noticing anything before her, when
once beyond the neighbourhood of Woodston, saved her at the same time from
watching her progress; and though no object on the road could engage a moment's
attention, she found no stage of it tedious. From this, she was preserved too by
another cause, by feeling no eagerness for her journey's conclusion; for to return
in such a manner to Fullerton was almost to destroy the pleasure of a meeting
with those she loved best, even after an absence such as hers—an eleven weeks'
absence. What had she to say that would not humble herself and pain her family,
that would not increase her own grief by the confession of it, extend an useless
resentment, and perhaps involve the innocent with the guilty in undistinguishing
ill will? She could never do justice to Henry and Eleanor's merit; she felt it too
strongly for expression; and should a dislike be taken against them, should they
be thought of unfavourably, on their father's account, it would cut her to the
heart.

With these feelings, she rather dreaded than sought for the first view of that
well-known spire which would announce her within twenty miles of home.
Salisbury she had known to be her point on leaving Northanger; but after the first
stage she had been indebted to the post-masters for the names of the places which
were then to conduct her to it; so great had been her ignorance of her route. She
met with nothing, however, to distress or frighten her. Her youth, civil manners,
and liberal pay procured her all the attention that a traveller like herself could
require; and stopping only to change horses, she travelled on for about eleven
hours without accident or alarm, and between six and seven o'clock in the evening
found herself entering Fullerton.

A heroine returning, at the close of her career, to her native village, in all the
triumph of recovered reputation, and all the dignity of a countess, with a long
train of noble relations in their several phaetons, and three waiting-maids in a
travelling chaise and four, behind her, is an event on which the pen of the
contriver may well delight to dwell; it gives credit to every conclusion, and the
author must share in the glory she so liberally bestows. But my affair is widely
different; I bring back my heroine to her home in solitude and disgrace; and no
sweet elation of spirits can lead me into minuteness. A heroine in a hack post-
chaise is such a blow upon sentiment, as no attempt at grandeur or pathos can
withstand. Swiftly therefore shall her post-boy drive through the village, amid the
gaze of Sunday groups, and speedy shall be her descent from it.

But, whatever might be the distress of Catherine's mind, as she thus advanced
towards the parsonage, and whatever the humiliation of her biographer in relating
it, she was preparing enjoyment of no everyday nature for those to whom she
went; first, in the appearance of her carriage—and secondly, in herself. The chaise
of a traveller being a rare sight in Fullerton, the whole family were immediately at
the window; and to have it stop at the sweep-gate was a pleasure to brighten
every eye and occupy every fancy—a pleasure quite unlooked for by all but the
two youngest children, a boy and girl of six and four years old, who expected a
brother or sister in every carriage. Happy the glance that first distinguished
Catherine! Happy the voice that proclaimed the discovery! But whether such
happiness were the lawful property of George or Harriet could never be exactly
understood.

Her father, mother, Sarah, George, and Harriet, all assembled at the door to
welcome her with affectionate eagerness, was a sight to awaken the best feelings
of Catherine's heart; and in the embrace of each, as she stepped from the carriage,
she found herself soothed beyond anything that she had believed possible. So
surrounded, so caressed, she was even happy! In the joyfulness of family love
everything for a short time was subdued, and the pleasure of seeing her, leaving
them at first little leisure for calm curiosity, they were all seated round the tea-
table, which Mrs. Morland had hurried for the comfort of the poor traveller,
whose pale and jaded looks soon caught her notice, before any inquiry so direct as
to demand a positive answer was addressed to her.

Reluctantly, and with much hesitation, did she then begin what might
perhaps, at the end of half an hour, be termed, by the courtesy of her hearers, an
explanation; but scarcely, within that time, could they at all discover the cause, or
collect the particulars, of her sudden return. They were far from being an irritable
race; far from any quickness in catching, or bitterness in resenting, affronts: but
here, when the whole was unfolded, was an insult not to be overlooked, nor, for
the first half hour, to be easily pardoned. Without suffering any romantic alarm,
in the consideration of their daughter's long and lonely journey, Mr. and Mrs.
Morland could not but feel that it might have been productive of much
unpleasantness to her; that it was what they could never have voluntarily
suffered; and that, in forcing her on such a measure, General Tilney had acted
neither honourably nor feelingly—neither as a gentleman nor as a parent. Why he
had done it, what could have provoked him to such a breach of hospitality, and so
suddenly turned all his partial regard for their daughter into actual ill will, was a
matter which they were at least as far from divining as Catherine herself; but it
did not oppress them by any means so long; and, after a due course of useless
conjecture, that "it was a strange business, and that he must be a very strange
man," grew enough for all their indignation and wonder; though Sarah indeed still
indulged in the sweets of incomprehensibility, exclaiming and conjecturing with
youthful ardour. "My dear, you give yourself a great deal of needless trouble," said
her mother at last; "depend upon it, it is something not at all worth
understanding."

"I can allow for his wishing Catherine away, when he recollected this
engagement," said Sarah, "but why not do it civilly?"

"I am sorry for the young people," returned Mrs. Morland; "they must have a
sad time of it; but as for anything else, it is no matter now; Catherine is safe at
home, and our comfort does not depend upon General Tilney." Catherine sighed.
"Well," continued her philosophic mother, "I am glad I did not know of your
journey at the time; but now it is all over, perhaps there is no great harm done. It
is always good for young people to be put upon exerting themselves; and you
know, my dear Catherine, you always were a sad little scatter-brained creature;
but now you must have been forced to have your wits about you, with so much
changing of chaises and so forth; and I hope it will appear that you have not left
anything behind you in any of the pockets."

Catherine hoped so too, and tried to feel an interest in her own amendment,
but her spirits were quite worn down; and, to be silent and alone becoming soon
her only wish, she readily agreed to her mother's next counsel of going early to
bed. Her parents, seeing nothing in her ill looks and agitation but the natural
consequence of mortified feelings, and of the unusual exertion and fatigue of such
a journey, parted from her without any doubt of their being soon slept away; and
though, when they all met the next morning, her recovery was not equal to their
hopes, they were still perfectly unsuspicious of there being any deeper evil. They
never once thought of her heart, which, for the parents of a young lady of
seventeen, just returned from her first excursion from home, was odd enough!

As soon as breakfast was over, she sat down to fulfil her promise to Miss
Tilney, whose trust in the effect of time and distance on her friend's disposition
was already justified, for already did Catherine reproach herself with having
parted from Eleanor coldly, with having never enough valued her merits or
kindness, and never enough commiserated her for what she had been yesterday
left to endure. The strength of these feelings, however, was far from assisting her
pen; and never had it been harder for her to write than in addressing Eleanor
Tilney. To compose a letter which might at once do justice to her sentiments and
her situation, convey gratitude without servile regret, be guarded without
coldness, and honest without resentment—a letter which Eleanor might not be
pained by the perusal of—and, above all, which she might not blush herself, if
Henry should chance to see, was an undertaking to frighten away all her powers
of performance; and, after long thought and much perplexity, to be very brief was
all that she could determine on with any confidence of safety. The money
therefore which Eleanor had advanced was enclosed with little more than grateful
thanks, and the thousand good wishes of a most affectionate heart.
 "This has been a strange acquaintance," observed Mrs. Morland, as the letter
was finished; "soon made and soon ended. I am sorry it happens so, for Mrs.
Allen thought them very pretty kind of young people; and you were sadly out of
luck too in your Isabella. Ah! Poor James! Well, we must live and learn; and the
next new friends you make I hope will be better worth keeping."

Catherine coloured as she warmly answered, "No friend can be better worth
keeping than Eleanor."

"If so, my dear, I dare say you will meet again some time or other; do not be
uneasy. It is ten to one but you are thrown together again in the course of a few
years; and then what a pleasure it will be!"

Mrs. Morland was not happy in her attempt at consolation. The hope of
meeting again in the course of a few years could only put into Catherine's head
what might happen within that time to make a meeting dreadful to her. She could
never forget Henry Tilney, or think of him with less tenderness than she did at
that moment; but he might forget her; and in that case, to meet—! Her eyes filled
with tears as she pictured her acquaintance so renewed; and her mother,
perceiving her comfortable suggestions to have had no good effect, proposed, as
another expedient for restoring her spirits, that they should call on Mrs. Allen.

The two houses were only a quarter of a mile apart; and, as they walked,
Mrs. Morland quickly dispatched all that she felt on the score of James's
disappointment. "We are sorry for him," said she; "but otherwise there is no harm
done in the match going off; for it could not be a desirable thing to have him
engaged to a girl whom we had not the smallest acquaintance with, and who was
so entirely without fortune; and now, after such behaviour, we cannot think at all
well of her. Just at present it comes hard to poor James; but that will not last
forever; and I dare say he will be a discreeter man all his life, for the foolishness
of his first choice."

This was just such a summary view of the affair as Catherine could listen to;
another sentence might have endangered her complaisance, and made her reply
less rational; for soon were all her thinking powers swallowed up in the reflection
of her own change of feelings and spirits since last she had trodden that well-
known road. It was not three months ago since, wild with joyful expectation, she
had there run backwards and forwards some ten times a day, with an heart light,
gay, and independent; looking forward to pleasures untasted and unalloyed, and
free from the apprehension of evil as from the knowledge of it. Three months ago
had seen her all this; and now, how altered a being did she return!

She was received by the Allens with all the kindness which her unlooked-for
appearance, acting on a steady affection, would naturally call forth; and great was
their surprise, and warm their displeasure, on hearing how she had been treated—
though Mrs. Morland's account of it was no inflated representation, no studied
appeal to their passions. "Catherine took us quite by surprise yesterday evening,"
said she. "She travelled all the way post by herself, and knew nothing of coming
till Saturday night; for General Tilney, from some odd fancy or other, all of a
sudden grew tired of having her there, and almost turned her out of the house.
Very unfriendly, certainly; and he must be a very odd man; but we are so glad to
have her amongst us again! And it is a great comfort to find that she is not a poor
helpless creature, but can shift very well for herself."

Mr. Allen expressed himself on the occasion with the reasonable resentment
of a sensible friend; and Mrs. Allen thought his expressions quite good enough to
be immediately made use of again by herself. His wonder, his conjectures, and his
explanations became in succession hers, with the addition of this single remark—
"I really have not patience with the general"—to fill up every accidental pause.
And, "I really have not patience with the general," was uttered twice after Mr.
Allen left the room, without any relaxation of anger, or any material digression of
thought. A more considerable degree of wandering attended the third repetition;
and, after completing the fourth, she immediately added, "Only think, my dear, of
my having got that frightful great rent in my best Mechlin so charmingly mended,
before I left Bath, that one can hardly see where it was. I must show it you some
day or other. Bath is a nice place, Catherine, after all. I assure you I did not above
half like coming away. Mrs. Thorpe's being there was such a comfort to us, was
not it? You know, you and I were quite forlorn at first."

"Yes, but that did not last long," said Catherine, her eyes brightening at the
recollection of what had first given spirit to her existence there.

"Very true: we soon met with Mrs. Thorpe, and then we wanted for nothing.
My dear, do not you think these silk gloves wear very well? I put them on new
the first time of our going to the Lower Rooms, you know, and I have worn them
a great deal since. Do you remember that evening?"

"Do I! Oh! Perfectly."

"It was very agreeable, was not it? Mr. Tilney drank tea with us, and I always
thought him a great addition, he is so very agreeable. I have a notion you danced
with him, but am not quite sure. I remember I had my favourite gown on."

Catherine could not answer; and, after a short trial of other subjects, Mrs.
Allen again returned to—"I really have not patience with the general! Such an
agreeable, worthy man as he seemed to be! I do not suppose, Mrs. Morland, you
ever saw a better-bred man in your life. His lodgings were taken the very day after
he left them, Catherine. But no wonder; Milsom Street, you know."

As they walked home again, Mrs. Morland endeavoured to impress on her

daughter's mind the happiness of having such steady well-wishers as Mr. and
Mrs. Allen, and the very little consideration which the neglect or unkindness of
slight acquaintance like the Tilneys ought to have with her, while she could
preserve the good opinion and affection of her earliest friends. There was a great
deal of good sense in all this; but there are some situations of the human mind in
which good sense has very little power; and Catherine's feelings contradicted
almost every position her mother advanced. It was upon the behaviour of these
very slight acquaintance that all her present happiness depended; and while Mrs.
Morland was successfully confirming her own opinions by the justness of her own
representations, Catherine was silently reflecting that now Henry must have
arrived at Northanger; now he must have heard of her departure; and now,
perhaps, they were all setting off for Hereford.

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 CHAPTER 30

Catherine's disposition was not naturally sedentary, nor had her habits been
ever very industrious; but whatever might hitherto have been her defects of that
sort, her mother could not but perceive them now to be greatly increased. She
could neither sit still nor employ herself for ten minutes together, walking round
the garden and orchard again and again, as if nothing but motion was voluntary;
and it seemed as if she could even walk about the house rather than remain fixed
for any time in the parlour. Her loss of spirits was a yet greater alteration. In her
rambling and her idleness she might only be a caricature of herself; but in her
silence and sadness she was the very reverse of all that she had been before.

For two days Mrs. Morland allowed it to pass even without a hint; but when
a third night's rest had neither restored her cheerfulness, improved her in useful
activity, nor given her a greater inclination for needlework, she could no longer
refrain from the gentle reproof of, "My dear Catherine, I am afraid you are
growing quite a fine lady. I do not know when poor Richard's cravats would be
done, if he had no friend but you. Your head runs too much upon Bath; but there
is a time for everything—a time for balls and plays, and a time for work. You have
had a long run of amusement, and now you must try to be useful."

Catherine took up her work directly, saying, in a dejected voice, that "her
head did not run upon Bath—much."

"Then you are fretting about General Tilney, and that is very simple of you;
for ten to one whether you ever see him again. You should never fret about
trifles." After a short silence—"I hope, my Catherine, you are not getting out of
humour with home because it is not so grand as Northanger. That would be
turning your visit into an evil indeed. Wherever you are you should always be
contented, but especially at home, because there you must spend the most of your
time. I did not quite like, at breakfast, to hear you talk so much about the French
bread at Northanger."

"I am sure I do not care about the bread. It is all the same to me what I eat."

"There is a very clever essay in one of the books upstairs upon much such a
subject, about young girls that have been spoilt for home by great acquaintance—
The Mirror, I think. I will look it out for you some day or other, because I am sure
it will do you good."

Catherine said no more, and, with an endeavour to do right, applied to her

work; but, after a few minutes, sunk again, without knowing it herself, into
languor and listlessness, moving herself in her chair, from the irritation of
weariness, much oftener than she moved her needle. Mrs. Morland watched the
progress of this relapse; and seeing, in her daughter's absent and dissatisfied look,
the full proof of that repining spirit to which she had now begun to attribute her
want of cheerfulness, hastily left the room to fetch the book in question, anxious
to lose no time in attacking so dreadful a malady. It was some time before she
could find what she looked for; and other family matters occurring to detain her, a
quarter of an hour had elapsed ere she returned downstairs with the volume from
which so much was hoped. Her avocations above having shut out all noise but
what she created herself, she knew not that a visitor had arrived within the last
few minutes, till, on entering the room, the first object she beheld was a young
man whom she had never seen before. With a look of much respect, he
immediately rose, and being introduced to her by her conscious daughter as "Mr.
Henry Tilney," with the embarrassment of real sensibility began to apologize for
his appearance there, acknowledging that after what had passed he had little right
to expect a welcome at Fullerton, and stating his impatience to be assured of Miss
Morland's having reached her home in safety, as the cause of his intrusion. He did
not address himself to an uncandid judge or a resentful heart. Far from
comprehending him or his sister in their father's misconduct, Mrs. Morland had
been always kindly disposed towards each, and instantly, pleased by his
appearance, received him with the simple professions of unaffected benevolence;
thanking him for such an attention to her daughter, assuring him that the friends
of her children were always welcome there, and entreating him to say not another
word of the past.

He was not ill-inclined to obey this request, for, though his heart was greatly
relieved by such unlooked-for mildness, it was not just at that moment in his
power to say anything to the purpose. Returning in silence to his seat, therefore,
he remained for some minutes most civilly answering all Mrs. Morland's common
remarks about the weather and roads. Catherine meanwhile—the anxious,
agitated, happy, feverish Catherine—said not a word; but her glowing cheek and
brightened eye made her mother trust that this good-natured visit would at least
set her heart at ease for a time, and gladly therefore did she lay aside the first
volume of The Mirror for a future hour.

Desirous of Mr. Morland's assistance, as well in giving encouragement, as in

finding conversation for her guest, whose embarrassment on his father's account
she earnestly pitied, Mrs. Morland had very early dispatched one of the children
to summon him; but Mr. Morland was from home—and being thus without any
support, at the end of a quarter of an hour she had nothing to say. After a couple
of minutes' unbroken silence, Henry, turning to Catherine for the first time since
her mother's entrance, asked her, with sudden alacrity, if Mr. and Mrs. Allen were
now at Fullerton? And on developing, from amidst all her perplexity of words in
reply, the meaning, which one short syllable would have given, immediately
expressed his intention of paying his respects to them, and, with a rising colour,
asked her if she would have the goodness to show him the way. "You may see the
house from this window, sir," was information on Sarah's side, which produced
only a bow of acknowledgment from the gentleman, and a silencing nod from her
mother; for Mrs. Morland, thinking it probable, as a secondary consideration in
his wish of waiting on their worthy neighbours, that he might have some
explanation to give of his father's behaviour, which it must be more pleasant for
him to communicate only to Catherine, would not on any account prevent her
accompanying him. They began their walk, and Mrs. Morland was not entirely
mistaken in his object in wishing it. Some explanation on his father's account he
had to give; but his first purpose was to explain himself, and before they reached
Mr. Allen's grounds he had done it so well that Catherine did not think it could
ever be repeated too often. She was assured of his affection; and that heart in
return was solicited, which, perhaps, they pretty equally knew was already
entirely his own; for, though Henry was now sincerely attached to her, though he
felt and delighted in all the excellencies of her character and truly loved her
society, I must confess that his affection originated in nothing better than
gratitude, or, in other words, that a persuasion of her partiality for him had been
the only cause of giving her a serious thought. It is a new circumstance in
romance, I acknowledge, and dreadfully derogatory of an heroine's dignity; but if
it be as new in common life, the credit of a wild imagination will at least be all my
own.

A very short visit to Mrs. Allen, in which Henry talked at random, without
sense or connection, and Catherine, rapt in the contemplation of her own
unutterable happiness, scarcely opened her lips, dismissed them to the ecstasies
of another tete-a-tete; and before it was suffered to close, she was enabled to
judge how far he was sanctioned by parental authority in his present application.
On his return from Woodston, two days before, he had been met near the abbey
by his impatient father, hastily informed in angry terms of Miss Morland's
departure, and ordered to think of her no more.

Such was the permission upon which he had now offered her his hand. The
affrighted Catherine, amidst all the terrors of expectation, as she listened to this
account, could not but rejoice in the kind caution with which Henry had saved her
from the necessity of a conscientious rejection, by engaging her faith before he
mentioned the subject; and as he proceeded to give the particulars, and explain
the motives of his father's conduct, her feelings soon hardened into even a
triumphant delight. The general had had nothing to accuse her of, nothing to lay
to her charge, but her being the involuntary, unconscious object of a deception
which his pride could not pardon, and which a better pride would have been
ashamed to own. She was guilty only of being less rich than he had supposed her
to be. Under a mistaken persuasion of her possessions and claims, he had courted
her acquaintance in Bath, solicited her company at Northanger, and designed her
for his daughter-in-law. On discovering his error, to turn her from the house
seemed the best, though to his feelings an inadequate proof of his resentment
towards herself, and his contempt of her family.

John Thorpe had first misled him. The general, perceiving his son one night at
the theatre to be paying considerable attention to Miss Morland, had accidentally
inquired of Thorpe if he knew more of her than her name. Thorpe, most happy to
be on speaking terms with a man of General Tilney's importance, had been
joyfully and proudly communicative; and being at that time not only in daily
expectation of Morland's engaging Isabella, but likewise pretty well resolved upon
marrying Catherine himself, his vanity induced him to represent the family as yet
more wealthy than his vanity and avarice had made him believe them. With
whomsoever he was, or was likely to be connected, his own consequence always
required that theirs should be great, and as his intimacy with any acquaintance
grew, so regularly grew their fortune. The expectations of his friend Morland,
therefore, from the first overrated, had ever since his introduction to Isabella been
gradually increasing; and by merely adding twice as much for the grandeur of the
moment, by doubling what he chose to think the amount of Mr. Morland's
preferment, trebling his private fortune, bestowing a rich aunt, and sinking half
the children, he was able to represent the whole family to the general in a most
respectable light. For Catherine, however, the peculiar object of the general's
curiosity, and his own speculations, he had yet something more in reserve, and
the ten or fifteen thousand pounds which her father could give her would be a
pretty addition to Mr. Allen's estate. Her intimacy there had made him seriously
determine on her being handsomely legacied hereafter; and to speak of her
therefore as the almost acknowledged future heiress of Fullerton naturally
followed. Upon such intelligence the general had proceeded; for never had it
occurred to him to doubt its authority. Thorpe's interest in the family, by his
sister's approaching connection with one of its members, and his own views on
another (circumstances of which he boasted with almost equal openness), seemed
sufficient vouchers for his truth; and to these were added the absolute facts of the
Allens being wealthy and childless, of Miss Morland's being under their care,
and—as soon as his acquaintance allowed him to judge—of their treating her with
parental kindness. His resolution was soon formed. Already had he discerned a
liking towards Miss Morland in the countenance of his son; and thankful for Mr.
Thorpe's communication, he almost instantly determined to spare no pains in
weakening his boasted interest and ruining his dearest hopes. Catherine herself
could not be more ignorant at the time of all this, than his own children. Henry
and Eleanor, perceiving nothing in her situation likely to engage their father's
particular respect, had seen with astonishment the suddenness, continuance, and
extent of his attention; and though latterly, from some hints which had
accompanied an almost positive command to his son of doing everything in his
power to attach her, Henry was convinced of his father's believing it to be an
advantageous connection, it was not till the late explanation at Northanger that
they had the smallest idea of the false calculations which had hurried him on.
That they were false, the general had learnt from the very person who had
suggested them, from Thorpe himself, whom he had chanced to meet again in
town, and who, under the influence of exactly opposite feelings, irritated by
Catherine's refusal, and yet more by the failure of a very recent endeavour to
accomplish a reconciliation between Morland and Isabella, convinced that they
were separated forever, and spurning a friendship which could be no longer
serviceable, hastened to contradict all that he had said before to the advantage of
the Morlands—confessed himself to have been totally mistaken in his opinion of
their circumstances and character, misled by the rhodomontade of his friend to
believe his father a man of substance and credit, whereas the transactions of the
two or three last weeks proved him to be neither; for after coming eagerly forward
on the first overture of a marriage between the families, with the most liberal
proposals, he had, on being brought to the point by the shrewdness of the relator,
been constrained to acknowledge himself incapable of giving the young people
even a decent support. They were, in fact, a necessitous family; numerous, too,
almost beyond example; by no means respected in their own neighbourhood, as he
had lately had particular opportunities of discovering; aiming at a style of life
which their fortune could not warrant; seeking to better themselves by wealthy
connections; a forward, bragging, scheming race.

The terrified general pronounced the name of Allen with an inquiring look;
and here too Thorpe had learnt his error. The Allens, he believed, had lived near
them too long, and he knew the young man on whom the Fullerton estate must
devolve. The general needed no more. Enraged with almost everybody in the
world but himself, he set out the next day for the abbey, where his performances
have been seen.

I leave it to my reader's sagacity to determine how much of all this it was

possible for Henry to communicate at this time to Catherine, how much of it he
could have learnt from his father, in what points his own conjectures might assist
him, and what portion must yet remain to be told in a letter from James. I have
united for their case what they must divide for mine. Catherine, at any rate, heard
enough to feel that in suspecting General Tilney of either murdering or shutting
up his wife, she had scarcely sinned against his character, or magnified his
cruelty.

Henry, in having such things to relate of his father, was almost as pitiable as
in their first avowal to himself. He blushed for the narrow-minded counsel which
he was obliged to expose. The conversation between them at Northanger had been
of the most unfriendly kind. Henry's indignation on hearing how Catherine had
been treated, on comprehending his father's views, and being ordered to acquiesce
in them, had been open and bold. The general, accustomed on every ordinary
occasion to give the law in his family, prepared for no reluctance but of feeling, no
opposing desire that should dare to clothe itself in words, could ill brook the
opposition of his son, steady as the sanction of reason and the dictate of
conscience could make it. But, in such a cause, his anger, though it must shock,
could not intimidate Henry, who was sustained in his purpose by a conviction of
its justice. He felt himself bound as much in honour as in affection to Miss
Morland, and believing that heart to be his own which he had been directed to
gain, no unworthy retraction of a tacit consent, no reversing decree of
unjustifiable anger, could shake his fidelity, or influence the resolutions it
prompted.

He steadily refused to accompany his father into Herefordshire, an

engagement formed almost at the moment to promote the dismissal of Catherine,
and as steadily declared his intention of offering her his hand. The general was
furious in his anger, and they parted in dreadful disagreement. Henry, in an
agitation of mind which many solitary hours were required to compose, had
returned almost instantly to Woodston, and, on the afternoon of the following
day, had begun his journey to Fullerton.

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 CHAPTER 31

Mr. and Mrs. Morland's surprise on being applied to by Mr. Tilney for their
consent to his marrying their daughter was, for a few minutes, considerable, it
having never entered their heads to suspect an attachment on either side; but as
nothing, after all, could be more natural than Catherine's being beloved, they soon
learnt to consider it with only the happy agitation of gratified pride, and, as far as
they alone were concerned, had not a single objection to start. His pleasing
manners and good sense were self-evident recommendations; and having never
heard evil of him, it was not their way to suppose any evil could be told. Goodwill
supplying the place of experience, his character needed no attestation. "Catherine
would make a sad, heedless young housekeeper to be sure," was her mother's
foreboding remark; but quick was the consolation of there being nothing like
practice.

There was but one obstacle, in short, to be mentioned; but till that one was
removed, it must be impossible for them to sanction the engagement. Their
tempers were mild, but their principles were steady, and while his parent so
expressly forbade the connection, they could not allow themselves to encourage it.
That the general should come forward to solicit the alliance, or that he should
even very heartily approve it, they were not refined enough to make any parading
stipulation; but the decent appearance of consent must be yielded, and that once
obtained—and their own hearts made them trust that it could not be very long
denied—their willing approbation was instantly to follow. His consent was all that
they wished for. They were no more inclined than entitled to demand his money.
Of a very considerable fortune, his son was, by marriage settlements, eventually
secure; his present income was an income of independence and comfort, and
under every pecuniary view, it was a match beyond the claims of their daughter.

The young people could not be surprised at a decision like this. They felt and
they deplored—but they could not resent it; and they parted, endeavouring to
hope that such a change in the general, as each believed almost impossible, might
speedily take place, to unite them again in the fullness of privileged affection.
Henry returned to what was now his only home, to watch over his young
plantations, and extend his improvements for her sake, to whose share in them he
looked anxiously forward; and Catherine remained at Fullerton to cry. Whether
the torments of absence were softened by a clandestine correspondence, let us not
inquire. Mr. and Mrs. Morland never did—they had been too kind to exact any
promise; and whenever Catherine received a letter, as, at that time, happened
pretty often, they always looked another way.

The anxiety, which in this state of their attachment must be the portion of
Henry and Catherine, and of all who loved either, as to its final event, can hardly
extend, I fear, to the bosom of my readers, who will see in the tell-tale
compression of the pages before them, that we are all hastening together to
perfect felicity. The means by which their early marriage was effected can be the
only doubt: what probable circumstance could work upon a temper like the
general's? The circumstance which chiefly availed was the marriage of his
daughter with a man of fortune and consequence, which took place in the course
of the summer—an accession of dignity that threw him into a fit of good humour,
from which he did not recover till after Eleanor had obtained his forgiveness of
Henry, and his permission for him "to be a fool if he liked it!"

The marriage of Eleanor Tilney, her removal from all the evils of such a home
as Northanger had been made by Henry's banishment, to the home of her choice
and the man of her choice, is an event which I expect to give general satisfaction
among all her acquaintance. My own joy on the occasion is very sincere. I know
no one more entitled, by unpretending merit, or better prepared by habitual
suffering, to receive and enjoy felicity. Her partiality for this gentleman was not of
recent origin; and he had been long withheld only by inferiority of situation from
addressing her. His unexpected accession to title and fortune had removed all his
difficulties; and never had the general loved his daughter so well in all her hours
of companionship, utility, and patient endurance as when he first hailed her "Your
Ladyship!" Her husband was really deserving of her; independent of his peerage,
his wealth, and his attachment, being to a precision the most charming young man
in the world. Any further definition of his merits must be unnecessary; the most
charming young man in the world is instantly before the imagination of us all.
Concerning the one in question, therefore, I have only to add—aware that the
rules of composition forbid the introduction of a character not connected with my
fable—that this was the very gentleman whose negligent servant left behind him
that collection of washing-bills, resulting from a long visit at Northanger, by which
my heroine was involved in one of her most alarming adventures.

The influence of the viscount and viscountess in their brother's behalf was
assisted by that right understanding of Mr. Morland's circumstances which, as
soon as the general would allow himself to be informed, they were qualified to
give. It taught him that he had been scarcely more misled by Thorpe's first boast
of the family wealth than by his subsequent malicious overthrow of it; that in no
sense of the word were they necessitous or poor, and that Catherine would have
three thousand pounds. This was so material an amendment of his late
expectations that it greatly contributed to smooth the descent of his pride; and by
no means without its effect was the private intelligence, which he was at some
pains to procure, that the Fullerton estate, being entirely at the disposal of its
present proprietor, was consequently open to every greedy speculation.
 On the strength of this, the general, soon after Eleanor's marriage, permitted
his son to return to Northanger, and thence made him the bearer of his consent,
very courteously worded in a page full of empty professions to Mr. Morland. The
event which it authorized soon followed: Henry and Catherine were married, the
bells rang, and everybody smiled; and, as this took place within a twelvemonth
from the first day of their meeting, it will not appear, after all the dreadful delays
occasioned by the general's cruelty, that they were essentially hurt by it. To begin
perfect happiness at the respective ages of twenty-six and eighteen is to do pretty
well; and professing myself moreover convinced that the general's unjust
interference, so far from being really injurious to their felicity, was perhaps rather
conducive to it, by improving their knowledge of each other, and adding strength
to their attachment, I leave it to be settled, by whomsoever it may concern,
whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny,
or reward filial disobedience.

A NOTE ON THE TEXT

Northanger Abbey was written in 1797-98 under a different title. The
manuscript was revised around 1803 and sold to a London publisher, Crosbie &
Co., who sold it back in 1816. The Signet Classic text is based on the first
edition, published by John Murray, London, in 1818—the year following Miss
Austen's death. Spelling and punctuation have been largely brought into
conformity with modern British usage.

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