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she will have her orders in a day or two and mr was here at four o clock to ask you he has got one of the s boats and ia going o to her at six and hoped you would be here in time to go with him a stare or two at as william helped her out of the carriage was all the voluntary notice which this brother bestowed but he made no objection to her kissing him though still entirely engaged in further particulars of the s going out of harbor in which he had a strong right of interest being to commence his career of in her at this very time another moment and was in the narrow entrance passage of the house and in her mother s arms who met her there with looks of true kindness and with features which loved the more because they brought her aunt s before her and there were her two sisters a well grown fine girl of fourteen and the youngest of the family about five both glad to see her in their way though with no advantage of manner in receiving her but manner did not want would they but love her she should be satisfied she was then taken into a parlor so small that her first conviction waa of its being only a passage room to something better and she stood for a moment expecting to be invited on but when she saw there was no other door and that there were signs of habitation before her she called back her thoughts herself and grieved lest they should have been suspected her mother however could not stay long enough to suspect anything she was gone again to the street door to welcome william oh my dear william how glad i am to see you but have you heard about the she is gone out of harbor already three days before we had any thought of it and i do not know what i am to do about sam s things they will never be ready in time for she may have her orders to morrow perhaps it takes me quite unawares and now you must be off for too has been here quite in a worry about you and now what shall we do i thought to have such a comfortable evening with you and here everything comes upon me at once her son answered cheerfully telling her that everything was always for the best and making light of his own inconvenience in being obliged to hurry away so soon to be sure i had much rather she had stayed in harbor that i might have sat a few hours with you in comfort but as there is a boat ashore i had better go at once and there is no help for it whereabouts does the lie at near the but no matter here s in the parlor and why d we stay in the passage come mother you haye hardly looked at your own dear yet in they came and mrs price having kindly kissed her daughter again and commented a little on her growth began with very natural solicitude to feel for their and wants as travellers poor i how tired you must both be i and now what will you have i began to think you would never come and i have been watching for you this half hour and when did you get anything to eat and what would you like to have now i could not tell whether you would be for some meat or only a dish of tea after your journey or else i would have got something ready and now i am afraid will be here before there is time to dress a and we have no butcher at hand it is very inconvenient to have no butcher in the street we were better off in our last house perhaps you would like some tea as soon as it can be got they both declared they should prefer it to anything then my dear run into the kitchen and see if has put the water on a id tell her to bring in the tea things as soon as she can i wish we could get the bell mended but is a very handy little messenger went with alacrity proud to show her abilities before her fine new sister dear me continued the anxious mother what a sad fire we have got and i dare say you are both starved with cold draw your chair nearer my dear i cannot think what has been about i am sure i told her to bring some coals half an hour ago you should have taken care of the fire i was upstairs mamma moving my things said in a fearless self defending tone which startled you know you had but just settled that my sister and i should have the other room and i could not get to give me any help further discussion was prevented by various first the driver came to be paid then there was a between sam and about the manner of carrying up his sister s trunk which he would manage all his own way and lastly in walked mr price himself his own loud voice preceding him as with something of the oath kind he kicked away his son s and his daughter s in the passage and called out for a candle no candle was brought however and he walked into the room with doubting feelings had risen to meet him but sank down again on finding herself in the dusk and of with a friendly shake of his son s hand and an eager voice he instantly began ha welcome back my boy glad to see you have you heard the news the went out of harbor this morning sharp is the word you see by g	26
y you are just in time the doctor has been here inquiring for you he has got one of the boats and is to be oe for by six so you had better go with him i have been to s about your mess it is all in a way to be done i should not wonder if you had your to row but you cannot sail with this wind if yoa are to to the westward and captain thinks you will certainly have a to the with the elephant by q i wish you may but old was saying just now that he thought you would be sent first to the well we are ready whatever happens but by g you lost a fine sight by not being here in the morning to see the go out of harbor i would not have been out of the way for a thou sand pounds old ran in at to say she had slipped her and was coming out i jumped up and made but two steps to the platform if ever there was a perfect beauty afloat she is one and there she lies at and anybody in england would take her for an eight and twenty i was upon the platform two hours this afternoon looking at her she lies close to the between her and the just to the eastward of the sheer ha cried william that s just where i should have put her myself it s the best berth at but here is my sister sir here is turning and leading her forward it is bo dark you do not see her with an acknowledgment that he had quite f got her mr price now received his and having given her a cordial and observed that she was grown into a woman and he supposed would be wanting a husband soon seemed very much inclined to forget her again shrunk back to her seat with feelings sadly pained by his language and his smell of spirits and he talked on only to his son and only of the though william warmly interested as he was in that subject more than once tried to make his father think of and her long absence and long journey after sitting some time longer a candle was obtained but as there was still no appearance of tea nor from s reports from the kitchen much hope of any under a considerable period william determined to go and change his dress make the necessary preparations for his removal on board directly that he might have his tea in comfort afterwards as he left the room two rosy faced boys ragged dirty about eight and nine years old rushed into it just released horn school and coming eagerly to see their sister and tell that the was gone out of harbor tom and charles charles had been bom since s going away but tom she had often helped to nurse and now felt a particular pleasure in seeing again both were kissed very tenderly but tom she wanted to keep by her to try to trace the features of the baby she had loved and talked to oi his infant preference of herself tom however had no mind for such treatment he came home not to stand and be talked to but to run about and make a noise and both boys had soon burst her and the parlor door till her temples ached she had now seen all that were at home there remained only two brothers between herself and park one of whom was a clerk in a public office in london and the other on board an but though she had seen all the members of the family she had not yet heard all the noise they could make another quarter of an hour brought her a great deal more william was soon calling out from the landing place of the second story for his mother and for he was in distress for something that he had left there and did not find again a key was accused of having got at his new hat and some slight but essential alteration of his uniform waistcoat which he had been promised to have done for him entirely neglected mrs price and all went up to defend themselves all talking together but and the job was to be done as well as it could in a great hurry william trying in vain to send down again or keep her from being troublesome where she was the whole of which as almost every door in the house was open could be plainly distinguished in the parlor except when drowned at intervals by the superior noise of sam tom and charles chasing each other up and down stairs and tumbling about and was almost stunned the of the house the of the walls brought everything so close to her that added to the fatigue of her journey and all her recent agitation she hardly knew how to bear it within the room all was tranquil enough for having disappeared with the others there were soon only her and remaining and he taking a newspaper the loan of a applied himself ta studying it seeming to her existence the solitary candle was held between himself and the paper without reference to her convenience but she had nothing to do and was glad to have the light from her aching head as she sat in bewildered broken sorrowful contemplation she was at home but alas it was not such a home she had not such a welcome as she checked herself she was unreasonable right had she to be of importance to her family she could have none so long lost sight of william s concerns must be dearest they always had been and he had every right yet to have so little said or asked about	26
herself to have scarcely an inquiry made after it did pain her to have forgotten the friends who had done so much the dear dear friends but here one subject up all the rest perhaps it must be so the destination of the must be now pre eminently interesting a day or two might show the difference she was to blame yet she thought it would not have been so at o in her uncle s house there would have been a consideration of and seasons a of subject a pro an attention towards everybody which there not here the only which thoughts like these received for nearly half an hour was from a sudden burst of her father s not at all calculated t vol ii compose them at a more than ordinary pitch of and in the passage he exclaimed devil take those dogs how they are singing out ay sam s voice all the rest that boy is fit for a you there sam stop your confounded pipe or i hall be after you this threat was so disregarded that though within five minutes afterwards the three boys all burst into the room together and sat down could not consider it as a proof of anything more than their being for the time thoroughly which their hot faces and panting seemed to prove especially as they were still kicking each other s and out at sudden starts immediately under their father s eye the next opening of the door brought something more welcome it was for the tea things which she had begun almost to despair of seeing that evening and an attendant girl whose inferior appearance informed to her great surprise that she had previously seen the upper servant brought in everything necessary for the meal looking as she put the kettle on the fire and glanced at her sister as if divided between the agreeable triumph of showing her activity and usefulness and the dread of being thought to herself by such an office she had been into the kitchen she said to hurry sally and help make the toast and spread the bread and butter or she did not know when they should have got tea and she was sure her sister must want something after her journey park was very thankful she could not but own that she should be very glad of a little tea and immediately set about making it as if pleased to have the employment all to herself and with only a little unnecessary bustle and some few attempts at keeping her brothers in better order she could herself very well s spirit was as much refreshed as her body her head and heart were soon the better for such well timed kindness had an open sensible countenance she was like william and hoped to find her like him in disposition and good will towards herself in this more placid state of things william followed not far behind by his mother and he complete in his lieutenant s uniform looking and moving all the taller firmer and more graceful for it and with the happiest smile over his face walked up directly to who rising from her seat looked at him for a moment in speechless admiration and then threw her arms round his neck to sob out her various emotions of pain and pleasure anxious not to appear unhappy she soon recovered herself and wiping away her tears was able to notice and admire all the striking parts of his dress listening with spirits to his cheerful hopes of being on shore some part of every day before they sailed and even of getting her to to see the the next bustle brought in mr the surgeon of the a very well behaved young man who came to call for his friend and for whom there was with some contrivance found a chair and field with some hasty washing of the tea s a cup and and after another of an hour of earnest talk between the gentlemen noise rising upon noise and bustle upon bustle men and boys at last all in motion together the moment came for setting off everything ready william took leave and all them were gone for the three boys in spite of their mother s entreaty determined to see their brother and mr to the sally port and mr price walked off at the same time to carry back his neighbor s newspaper something like tranquillity might now be hoped for and accordingly when had been pre on to carry away the tea things and mrs price had walked about the room some time looking for a shirt sleeve which at last hunted out from a drawer in the kitchen the small party of females were pretty well composed and the mother having lamented again over the impossibility of getting sam ready in time was at leisure to think of her eldest daughter and the friends she had come from a few inquiries began but one of the earliest how did her sister manage about her servants was she as much as herself to get tolerable servants soon led her mind away from and fixed it on her own domestic and the shocking character of all the servants of whom she be her own two were the very worst engrossed her completely the were all forgotten in the faults of against whom had also much to and little bet a great deal more and who did seem thoroughly without a single that could not help that her mother meant to part with her when her year wm up her year cried mrs price i am sure i hope i shall he rid of her before she has stayed a year for that will not be up till november are come to such a pass my dear in that it	26
is quite a miracle if one keeps them more than half a year i have no hope of ever being settled and if i was to part with i should only get something worse and yet i do not think i am a very difficult mistress to please and i am sure the place is easy enough for there is always a girl under her and i often do half the work myself was silent but not from being convinced that there might not be a remedy found for some of these as she now sat looking at she could not but particularly of another sister a very pretty little girl whom she had left there not much younger when she went into who had died a few years afterwards there had been something remarkably amiable about her in those early days had preferred her to and when the news of her death had at last reached had for a short time been quite afflicted the sight of brought the image of little mary back again but she would not have pained her mother by alluding to her the world while considering her with ideas at a small distance was hold ing out something to catch her eyes meaning to screen it at the same time from s what have you got there my love said come and show it to me it was a silver knife up jumped claiming it aa her own and trying to get it away hut the child ran to her mother s protection and could only reproach which she did very warmly and evidently hoping to interest on her side it was very hard that she was not to have her own knife it was her own knife little sister mary had left it to her upon her death bed and she ought to have had it to keep herself long ago but mamma kept it from her and was always letting get hold of it and the end of it would be that would spoil it and get it for her own though mamma had promised her that should not have it in her own hands was quite shocked every feeling of duty honor and tenderness was wounded by her sister s speech and her mother s reply now cried mrs price in a complaining voice now how can you be so cross you are always quarrelling about that knife i wish you would not be so poor little how cross is to you but you should not have taken it out my dear when i sent you to the drawer you know i told you not to touch it because is so cross about it i must hide it another time poor mary little thought it would be such a bone of when she gave it me to keep only two hours before she died poor little soul she could but just speak to park be beard and said so prettily let sister my knife mamma i am dead and buried poor dear was so fond of it tbat would it lie by ber in bed all ber illness it was tbe gift of ber good old mrs admiral only six weeks before was taken for poor little sweet creature well was taken away from evil to come my own ber you not tbe luck of a good aunt lives too far o e to of little people as you bad indeed to convey from aunt but a message to say ber was a good girl and learnt ber book bad been at one moment a murmur in tbe drawing room at park about sending ber a prayer book but no second sound bad been beard of a purpose mrs bad gone and taken down two old of ber witb tbat idea but upon examination tbe of generosity went off one was found to too small a print for a s eyes and tbe to be too for ber to carry about fatigued and fatigued again was to accept tbe first invitation of going to bed and before bad ber cry at being allowed to sit up only one extraordinary in of sister was o leaving all below in confusion and noise again tbe boys begging for ber calling out for bis rum and water and never to be was nothing to e her im tim confined and furnished chamber that she was to share with the of the rooms and below indeed and the of the passage staircase struck her beyond her imagination she soon learnt to think oi her own little at park in that house reckoned too small anybody s comfort chapter xv sir haye seen all his niece s feelings when she wrote her first letter to her aunt be would not have for though a good night s rest a pleasant morning the hope of soon seeing william again and the quiet state of the house from tom and being gone to school sam on some project of his own and her father on his usual enabled her to express herself cheerfully on the subject of home there were still to her own perfect consciousness many suppressed he have seen only half that she felt before the end of a week he would have thought mr sure of her and been delighted with his own sagacity before the week ended it was all disappointment in the first place william was gone the had had her orders the wind had changed and he was sailed within four days from their reaching and during those days she had seen him only twice in a short and hurried way when he had come ashore on duty there had been no free conversation no walk on the no visit to the dock yard no acquaintance with the nothing of all that they had planned and depended on everything in that quarter failed her except william s a tion	26
head and teach her to think of her cousin with feelings on the contrary she could think of nothing but its beloved inmates its happy ways where she now was was in full contrast to it the elegance propriety regularity harmony and perhaps above all the peace and tranquillity of were brought to her remembrance every hour of the day by the of everything opposite to them here the living in incessant noise was to a frame and temper delicate and nervous like s an evil which no elegance or harmony could have entirely for it was the greatest misery of all at no sounds of no raised voice no abrupt bursts no tread of violence was ever heard all proceeded in a regular course of cheerful everybody had their due importance everybody s feelings were consulted if tenderness could be ever supposed wanting good sense and good breeding supplied its place and as to the little sometimes introduced by aunt they were short they were trifling they were as a drop of water to the ocean compared with the ceaseless tumult of her present abode here everybody was noisy every voice was loud excepting perhaps her mother s which resembled the soft monotony of lady s only worn into whatever was wanted was for and the servants out their excuses from the kitchen the doors were in constant the stairs were never at rest nothing was done without a clatter nobody sat still and nobody could command attention when they spoke in a review of the two houses as they appeared to her before the end of a week was tempted to apply to them dr johnson s celebrated judgment as to matrimony and and say that though park might have some pains could have no pleasures chapter xvi was right enough in not expecting to hear from miss now at the rapid rate in which their correspondence had mary s next letter was after a decidedly longer interval than the last hut she was not right in supposing that such an interval would he felt a great relief to herself here was another strange revolution of mind she was really glad to receive the letter when it did come in her present exile from good society and distance from everything that had heen wont to interest her a letter from one to the set where her heart lived written with affection and some degree of elegance was thoroughly the usual plea of increasing engagements was made in excuse for not having written to her earlier and now that i have begun she continued my letter will not be worth your reading for there will be no little offering of love at the end no three or four lines from the most devoted h c in the world for henry is in business called him to ten days ago or perhaps he only pretended the call for the sake of being travelling at the same time that you were but there he is and by the by his absence may sufficiently account for any of his sister s in writing for there has been no well mary when do you write to is not it time for you to write to to spur me on at last after various attempts at meeting i have seen your cousins dear and dearest mrs they found me at home yesterday and we were glad to see each other again we seemed very glad to see each other and i do really think we were a little we had a vast deal to say shall i tell you how mrs looked when your name was mentioned i did not use to think her wanting in self possession hut she had not quite enough for the demands of yesterday upon the whole was in the best looks of the two at least after you were spoken of there was no recovering the complexion from the moment that i spoke of and spoke of her as a sister should but mrs s day of good looks will come we have cards for her first party on the th then she will be in beauty for she will open one of the best houses in street i was in it two years ago when it was lady s and prefer it to almost any i know in and certainly she will then feel to use a vulgar phrase that she has got her for her penny henry could not have afforded her such a house i hope she will recollect it and be satisfied as well as she may with moving the queen of a palace though the king may appear best in the background and as i have no desire to her i never force your name upon her again she will grow sober by degrees from all that i hear and guess baron s attentions to continue but i do not know that he has any serious encouragement she ought to do better a poor honorable is no catch and i cannot imagine any liking in the case for take away his and the poor baron has nothing what a a makes i if his rents were but equal to his t your cousin moves slowly detained perchance by parish duties there may be some old woman at to be converted i am unwilling to vol ii fancy myself neglected lor ih me adieu mj dear sweet this is a long letter from london write me a pretty one in reply to henry s eyes when he comes back and send me an account of all the dashing young captains whom you disdain for hia sake there was great food for meditation in letter and chiefly for unpleasant meditation and yet with all the uneasiness it supplied it her with the absent it told her of people and things about whom she had never felt so much curiosity as now	26
and she would have been glad to have been sure of such a letter every week her correspondence with her aunt was her only concern of higher interest as for any society in that at all make amends for at home there were none within the circle of her father s and mother s acquaintance to afford her the smallest satisfaction she saw nobody in whose favor she could wish to overcome her own shyness and reserve the men appeared to her all coarse the women all everybody and she gave as little contentment she received from either to old or new acquaintance the young ladies who approached her at first with some respect in consideration of her coming from a s family were soon offended by what they termed airs for as she neither played on the nor wore fine they could on further observation admit no right of superiority the first solid consolation which received for the evils of home the first which her judgment entirely approve and which gave any promise park of was in a better knowledge of and a hope of being of service to her had always behaved pleasantly to herself but the determined character of her general manners had astonished and alarmed her and it was at least a fortnight before she began to understand a disposition so totally from her own saw that much was wrong at home and wanted to set it right that a girl of fourteen acting only on her own reason should in the method of reform was not wonderful and soon became more disposed to admire the natural light of the mind which could so early distinguish justly than to censure severely the faults of conduct to which it led was only acting on the same truths and pursuing the same system which her own judgment acknowledged but which her more and yielding temper would have shrunk from asserting tried to be useful where she could only have gone away and cried and that was useful she could perceive that things bad as they were would have been worse but for such and that both her mother and were restrained from some of very indulgence and vulgarity in argument with her mother had in point of reason the advantage and never was there any maternal tenderness to buy her off the blind fondness which was forever producing evil around her she had never known there was no gratitude for affection past or present to make her better bear with its to the others all this became gradually evident and ally placed before her sister as an object of mingled compassion and respect that her manner was wrong however at times very wrong her measures often ill chosen and ill timed and her looks and language very often could not cease to feel but she began to hope they might be she found looked up to her and wished for her good opinion and new as anything like an office of authority was to new as it was to imagine herself capable of guiding or informing any one she did resolve to give occasional hints to and endeavor to exercise for her advantage the notions of what was due to everybody and what would be wisest for herself which her own more favored education had fixed in her her or at least the consciousness d use of it originated in an act of kindness by which after many of delicacy she at last worked herself up to it had very early occurred to her that a small sum of money might perhaps restore peace forever on the sore subject of the silver knife as it now was continually and the riches which she was in possession of herself her uncle having given her at parting made her as able as she was willing to be generous but she was so wholly unused to confer except on the very poor so in removing evils or among her equals and so fearful of appearing to herself as a great lady at home that it took some time to determine that it would not be in her to make such a present park it was made however at last a knife was bought for and accepted with great delight its giving it every advantage over the other that could be desired was established in the full possession of her own handsomely declaring that now she had got one so much prettier herself she should never want that again and no reproach seemed conveyed to the equally satisfied mother which had almost feared to be impossible the deed answered a source of domestic was entirely done away and it was the means of opening s heart to her and giving her something more to love and be interested in showed that she had delicacy pleased as she was to be mistress of property which she had been struggling for at least two years she yet feared that her sister s judgment had been against her and that a reproof was designed her for having so struggled as to make the purchase necessary for the tranquillity of the house her temper was open she acknowledged her fears blamed herself for having so warmly and from that hour understanding the worth of her disposition and perceiving how fully she was inclined to seek her good opinion and refer to her judgment began to feel again the blessing of affection and to entertain the hope of being useful to a mind so much in need of help and so much deserving it she gave advice advice too sound to be resisted by a good understanding and given so mildly and as not to an imperfect per and she had the happiness of observing its good effects not more was not expected by one who while seeing all the obligation and of submission and forbearance saw also with sympathetic of feeling all that	26
night before was come for a day or two was staying at the crown had accidentally met with a navy officer or two of his acquaintance since his arrival but had no object of that kind in coming by the time he had given all this information it was not unreasonable to suppose that might be looked at and spoken to and she was tolerably able to bear his eye and hear that he had spent half an hour with his sister the before his leaving london that she had sent her best and kindest love but had had no time for writing that he thought himself lucky in seeing mary for even half an hour having spent scarcely twenty four hours in london after his return from before he set oft again that her cousin was in town had been in town he understood a few days that he had not seen him himself but that he was well and left them all well at and was to dine as yesterday with the listened even to the circumstance nay it seemed a relief to her worn mind to be at any certainty and the words then by this time it is all settled without more evidence of emotion than a faint blush after talking a little more about a subject in which her interest was most apparent began to hint at the of an early walk it was a lovely morning and at that season of the year a fine morning so often turned off that it was wisest for everybody not to delay their exercise and such hints producing nothing he soon proceeded to a positive recommendation to mrs price and her daughters to take their walk without loss of time now they came to an understanding mrs price it appeared scarcely ever stirred out of doors except on a sunday she owned she could seldom with her large family find time for a walk would she not then persuade her daughters to take advantage of such weather and allow him the pleasure of attending them mrs price was greatly obliged and very her daughters were very much confined was a sad place they did not often get out and she knew they had some errands in the town which they would be very glad to do and the consequence was that strange as it was strange awkward and distressing found herself and within ten minutes walking towards the high street with mr it was soon pain upon pain confusion upon confusion for they were hardly in the high street before they met her father whose appearance was not the better from its being saturday he and as he looked was obliged to introduce him to mr she could not have a doubt of the manner in which mr must be struck he must be ashamed and disgusted altogether he must soon give her up and cease to have the smallest inclination for the match and yet though she had been so much wanting his affection to be cured this was a sort of cure that would be almost as bad as the complaint and i believe there is scarcely a young lady in the united who would not rather put up with the misfortune of being sought by a clever agreeable man than have him driven away by the vulgarity of her nearest relations mr probably could not regard his future father in law with any idea of taking him for a model in dress but as instantly and to her great relief discerned her father was a very different man a very different mr price in his behavior to this most highly respected stranger from what he was in his own family at home his manners now though not polished were more than they were grateful animated manly his expressions were those of an attached father and a sensible man his loud tones did very well in the open air and there was not a single oath to be heard such was his instinctive compliment to the good manners of mr and be the consequence what it might s immediate feelings were infinitely soothed the conclusion of the two gentlemen s was an offer of mr price s to take mr into the dock yard which mr desirous of accepting as a favor what was intended as such though he had seen the dock yard again and again and hoping to be so much the longer with was very gratefully disposed to avail himself of if the miss prices were not afraid of the fatigue and as it was somehow or other ascertained or inferred or at least acted upon that they were not at all afraid to the dock yard they were all to go and but for mr mr price would have turned thither directly without the smallest consideration for his daughters errands in the high street he took care however that they should be allowed to go to the shops they came out expressly to visit and it did not delay them long for could so little bear to excite impatience or be waited for that before the gentlemen as they stood at the door could do more than begin upon the last naval or settle the number of three now in commission their companions were ready to proceed they were then to set forward for the dock yard at once and the walk would have been conducted according to mr s opinion in a singular manner had mr price been allowed the entire of it as the two girls he found would have been left to follow and keep up with them or not as they could while they walked on together at their own hasty pace he was able to introduce some improvement occasionally though by no means to the extent he wished he absolutely would not walk away from them and at any cross ing or any	26
crowd when mr price was only calling out come girls fan come sue take care of yourself keep a sharp i he ould give them his attendance once fairly in the dock yard he began to reckon upon some happy intercourse with as they were yery soon joined by a brother of mr price s who was come to take his daily survey of how things went on and who must prove a far more worthy companion than himself and after a time the two officers seemed very well satisfied in going about together and discussing matters of equal and never failing interest while the young people sat down upon some in the yard or found a seat on board a vessel in the stocks which they all went to look at was most conveniently in want of rest could not have wished her more fatigued or more ready to sit down but he could have wished her sister away a quick looking girl of s age was the very worst third in the world totally different from lady all eyes and ears and there was no introducing the main point before her he must content himself with being only generally agreeable and letting have her share of entertainment with the indulgence now and then of a look or hint for the better informed and conscious was what he had mostly to talk of there he had been some time and everything there was rising in importance from his present schemes such a man could come from no place no society without something to amuse his journeys his acquaintance were all of use and was park entertained in a way quite new to her for somewhat more was related than the accidental of the parties he had been in for her approbation the particular reason of his going into at all at this unusual time of year was given it had been real business relative to the renewal of a lease in which the welfare of a large and he believed industrious family was at stake he had suspected his agent of some dealing of meaning to bias him against the deserving and he had determined to go himself and thoroughly investigate the merits of the case he had gone had done even more good than he had foreseen had been useful to more than his first plan had comprehended and was now able to congratulate himself upon it and to feel that in performing a duty he had secured agreeable recollections for his own mind he had introduced himself to some tenants whom he had never seen before he had begun making acquaintance with cottages whose very existence though on his own estate had been hitherto unknown to him this was aimed and well aimed at it was pleasing to hear him speak so properly here he had been acting as he ought to do to be the friend of the poor and oppressed i nothing could be more grateful to her and she was on the point of giving him an look when it was all frightened off by his adding a something too pointed of his hoping soon to have an assistant a mend a guide in every plan of utility or charity for a somebody that would make and all about it a dearer object than it had ever been yet fare she turned away and wished he would not say such things she was willing to allow he might have more good qualities than she had been wont to suppose she began to feel the possibility of his turning out well at last but he was and must ever be completely to her and ought not to think of her he perceived that enough had been said of and that it would be as well to talk of something else and turned to he could not have chosen better that was a topic to bring back her attention and her looks almost instantly it was a real indulgence to her to hear or to speak of so long divided from everybody who knew the place she felt it quite the voice of a end when he mentioned it and led the way to her fond exclamations in praise of its beauties and comforts and by his honorable tribute to its inhabitants allowed her to gratify her own heart in the warmest in speaking of her uncle as all that was clever and good and her aunt as having the sweetest of all sweet he had a great attachment to himself he said so he looked forward with the hope of spending much very much of his time there always there or in the neighborhood he particularly built upon a very happy summer and autumn there this year he felt that it would be so he depended upon it a summer and autumn infinitely superior to the last as animated as as social but with circumstances of superiority indescribable park he continued what a society will be in those houses and at perhaps a fourth may be added some small hunting box in the vicinity of everything so dear for as to any in as once good proposed i hope i foresee two objections two fair excellent irresistible objections to that plan was doubly silenced here though when the moment was passed could regret that she had not forced herself into the acknowledged comprehension of one half of his meaning and encouraged him to say something more of his sister and it was a subject which she must learn to speak of and the weakness that shrunk from it would soon be quite when mr price and his friend had seen all that they wished or had time for the others were ready to return and in the course of their walk back mr contrived a minute s privacy for telling that his only business in was	26
said she was very well and did not like to be supposed otherwise but take it all in all he was convinced that her present residence could not be comfortable and therefore could not be for her and he was growing anxious for her being again at where her own happiness and his in seeing her must be so much greater park ton have been here a month i think said he no not quite a month it is only four weeks to morrow since i left you are a most accurate and honest i should call that a month i did not arrive here till tuesday evening and it is to be a two months visit is not it tes my uncle talked of two months i suppose it will not be less and how are you to be conveyed back again who comes for you i do not know i have heard nothing about it yet from my aunt perhaps i may be to stay longer it may not be convenient for me to be fetched exactly at the two months end after a moment s reflection mr r plied i know i know its way i know its faults towards you i know the danger of your being so far forgotten as to have your comforts give way to the imaginary convenience of any single being in the family i am aware that you may be left here week after week if sir thomas cannot settle everything for coming himself or sending your aunt s maid for you without the slightest alteration of the arrangements which he may have laid down for the next quarter of a year this will not do two months is an ample allowance i should think six weeks quite enough i am considering your sister s health said he addressing himself to which i think the confinement of park to she requires constant air and exercise when you know her as well as i do i am sure you will agree that she does and that she ought never to he long from the free air and of the country if therefore turning again to you find yourself growing and any difficulties arise your returning to without waiting for the two months to he ended that must not he regarded as of any if you feel yourself at all less strong or than usual and will only let my sister know it give her only the slightest hint she and i will immediately come down and take you hack to you know the ease and the pleasure with which this would he done you know all that would he felt on the occasion thanked him hut tried to laugh it off i am perfectly serious he replied as you perfectly know and i hope you will not he cruelly concealing any tendency to indeed you shall not it shall not he in your power for so long only as you positively say in every letter to mary i am well and i know you cannot speak or write a falsehood so long only shall you he considered as well thanked him again hut was affected and distressed to a degree that made it for her to say much or even to he certain of what she ought to say this was towards the close of their walk he attended them to the last and left them only at the door of their own house when he knew them to he going to dinner and therefore pretended to he waited for elsewhere i wish you were not so tired said he still after all the others were in the house i wish i left you in stronger health is there anything i can do for you in town i have half an idea of going into again soon i am not satisfied i am sure he still means to impose on me if possible and get a cousin of his own into a certain mill which i design for somebody else i must come to an understanding with him i must make him know that i will not be on the south side of any more than on the north that i will be master of my own property i was not explicit enough with him before the mischief such a man does on an estate both as to the credit of his employer and the welfare of the poor is inconceivable i have a great mind to go back into directly and put everything at once on such a footing as cannot be afterwards from is a clever fellow i do not wish to him provided he does not try to me but it would be simple to be by a man who has no right of to me and worse than simple to let him give me a hard hearted fellow for a tenant instead of an honest man to whom i have given half a promise already would not it be worse than simple shall i go do you advise it i advise you know very well what is right yes when you give me your opinion i always know what is right your judgment is my rule of right park oh no do not say so we have all a better guide in ourselves if we would attend to it than any other person can be good by i wish you a pleasant journey to morrow is there nothing i can do for you in town nothing i am much obliged to you have you no message for anybody my love to your sister if you please and when you see my cousin my cousin i wish you would be so good as to say that i suppose i shall soon hear from him certainly and if he is lazy or i will write his excuses	26
myself he could say no more for would be no longer detained he pressed her hand looked at her and was gone he went to while away the next three hours as he could with his other acquaintance till the best dinner that a capital inn afforded was ready for their enjoyment and she turned in to her more simple one immediately their general fare bore a very different character and could he have suspected how many besides that of exercise she endured in her father s house he would have wondered that her looks were not much more affected than he found them she was so little equal to s and s brought to table as they all were with such of plates and not half cleaned knives and forks that she was very often constrained to her meal till she could send her brothers in the evening for and after being nursed up at it was too late in the day to be hardened at and though sir thomas had he known all might have thought his niece in the most promising way of being starved both mind and body into a much value for mr s good company and good fortune he would probably have feared to push his experiment further lest she might die under the cure was out of spirits all the rest of the day though tolerably secure of not seeing mr again she could not help being low it was parting with somebody of the nature of a friend and though in one light glad to have him gone it seemed as if she was now deserted by everybody it was a sort of renewed separation from and she could not think of his returning to town and being frequently with mary and without feelings so near akin to envy as made her hate herself for having them her had no from anything passing around her a friend or two of her father s as always happened if he was not with them spent the long long evening there and from six o clock to half past nine there was little of noise or she was very low the wonderful improvement which she still fancied in mr was the nearest to comfort of anything within the current of her thoughts not considering in how di a circle she had been just seeing him nor how much might be owing to contrast she was quite persuaded of his more gentle and of others than formerly and if in little things must it park not be so in great so anxious for her health and comfort so very feeling as he now expressed himself and really seemed might not it be fairly supposed that he would not much longer in a suit so distressing to her it was presumed that mr was travelling back to london on the morrow for nothing more was seen of him at mr price s and two days afterwards it was a fact ascertained to by the following letter from his sister opened and read by her on another account with the most anxious curiosity i have to inform you my dearest that henry has been down to to see you that he had a delightful walk with you to the dock yard last saturday and one still more to be dwelt on the next day on the when the air the sparkling sea and your sweet looks and conversation were altogether in the most delicious harmony and afforded sensations which are to raise ecstasy even in this as well as i understand is to be the substance of my information he makes me write but i do not know what else is to be communicated except this said visit to and these two said walks and his introduction to your family especially to a fair sister of yours a fine girl of fifteen who was of the party on the taking her first lesson i presume in love i have not time for writing much but it would be out of place if i had for this is to be a mere letter of business for the purpose of conveying necessary information which could not be delayed without risk of evil my dear dear if i had you here how i would talk to you i you should listen to me till you were tired and advise me till you park were still tired more but it is impossible to put a part of my great mind on paper so i will altogether and leave you to guess what you like i have no news for you you have politics of course and it would be too bad to plague yon with the names of people and parties that fill up my time i ought to have sent you an account of your cousin s first party but i was lazy and now it is too long ago suffice it that everything was just as it ought to be in a style that any of her connections must have been gratified to witness and that her own dress and manners did her the greatest credit my friend mrs is mad for such a house and it would not make me miserable i go to lady after she seems in high spirits and very happy i fancy lord s is very good and pleasant in his own family and i do not think him so very ill looking as i did at least one sees many worse he will not do by the side of your cousin of the last mentioned hero what shall i say if i avoided his name it would look suspicious i will say then that we have seen him two or three times and that my friends here are very much struck with his appearance mrs no bad judge declares she knows but three men in town who have so good a	26
person height and air and i must confess when he dined here the other day there were none to compare with him and we were a party of sixteen luckily there is no distinction of dress nowadays to tell tales but but but yours affectionately i had almost forgot it was s fault he gets into my head more than does me good one very material thing i had to say from henry and myself i mean about our taking you back into my dear little creature do not stay at to lose your pretty looks those vile sea breezes are the ruin of beauty and health my poor aunt always felt affected if within ten miles of the sea the admiral ol coarse never believed bat i know it was so i am at service and henry s at an s notice i should like the scheme and we make a little and show a in our way and not mind passing through london and seeing the inside of st s square only keep your cousin from me at such a time i not like to be tempted what a long letter one rd more henry i find has some idea of going into again upon some that you approve but this cannot possibly be permitted before the middle of next week that is he cannot anyhow be spared till after the th for toe have a party that evening the value of a man like henry on such an occasion is what you can have no conception of so you must take it upon my word to be he will see the which i own i am not sorry for having a little curiosity and so i think has he though he will not acknowledge it this was a letter to be run through eagerly to be read deliberately to supply matter for much reflection and to leave everything in greater suspense than ever the only certainty to be drawn from it was that nothing decisive had yet taken place had not yet spoken how miss really felt how she meant to act or might act without or against her meaning whether his importance to her were quite what it had been the last separation whether if lessened it were likely to lessen more or to recover itself were subjects for endless conjecture and to be thought of on that day and many days to come without producing any conclusion the idea tha returned the was that miss park after proving herself cooled and staggered by a return to london habits would yet prove herself in the end too much attached to him to give him up she would try to be more ambitious than her heart would allow she would hesitate she would she would condition she would require a great deal but she would finally accept this was s most frequent expectation a house in town that she thought must be impossible yet there was no saying what miss might not ask the prospect for her cousin grew worse and worse the woman who could speak of him and speak only of his appearance i what an unworthy attachment to be support from the of mrs she who had known him intimately half a year was ashamed of her those parts of the letter which related only to mr and herself touched her in comparison slightly whether mr went into before or after the th was certainly no concern of hers though everything considered she thought he would go without delay that miss should endeavor to secure a meeting between him and mrs was all in her worst line of conduct and unkind and ill judged but she hoped he would not be by any such degrading curiosity he acknowledged no such and his sister ought to have given him credit for better feelings than her own she was yet more impatient for another letter from town after receiving this than she had been before and for a few days was so unsettled by it park altogether by what had come and what might come that her usual and conversations with were much suspended she could not command her attention as she wished if mr remembered her message to her cousin she thought it very likely most likely that he would write to her at all events it would be most consistent with his usual kindness and till she got rid of this idea till it gradually wore off by no letters appearing in the course of three or four days more she was in a most restless anxious state at length a something like composure succeeded suspense must be submitted to and must not be allowed to wear her out and make her useless time did something her own exertions something more and she resumed her attentions to and again awakened the same interest in them was growing very fond of her and though without any of the early delight in books which had been so strong in with a disposition much less inclined to pursuits or to information for information s sake she had so strong a desire of not appearing ignorant as with a good clear understanding made her a most attentive profitable thankful pupil was her s explanations and remarks were a most important addition to every essay or every chapter of history what told her of former times dwelt more on her mind than the pages of and she paid her sister the compliment of preferring her style to that of any printed author the early habit of reading was wanting park their conversations however were not always on subjects so high as history or morals others had their hour and of lesser matters none returned so often or remained so long between them as park a description of the people the manners the amusements the ways of	26
park who had an innate taste for the genteel and well appointed was eager to hear and could not but indulge herself in dwelling on so beloved a theme she hoped it was not wrong though after a time s very great admiration of everything said or done in her uncle s house and earnest longing to go into seemed almost to blame her for exciting feelings which could not be gratified poor was very little better fitted for home than her elder sister and as grew thoroughly to understand this she began to feel that when her own release from came her happiness would have a material in leaving behind that a girl so capable of being made everything good should be left in such hands distressed her more and more were she likely to have a home to invite her to what a blessing it would be and had it been possible for her to return mr s regard the probability of his being very far from to such a measure would have been the greatest increase of all her own comforts she thought he was really good tempered and could fancy his entering into a plan of that sort most pleasantly vol ii xx seven weeks of the two were very nearly gone when the one letter the letter from so long expected was put into s hands as she opened and saw its length she prepared herself for a minute detail of happiness and a profusion of love and praise towards the fortunate creature who was now mistress of his fate these were the contents my dear excuse me that i have not written before told me that you were wishing to hear from me but i found it impossible to write from london and persuaded myself that you would understand my silence could i have sent a few happy lines they should not have been wanting but nothing of that nature was ever in my power i am returned to in a less assured state than when i left it my hopes are much weaker you are probably aware of this already so very fond of you as miss is it is most natural that she should tell you enough of her own feelings to furnish a tolerable guess at mine i will not be prevented however from making my own communication our confidences in you need not clash i ask no questions there is something soothing in the that we have the same friend and that whatever unhappy differences of opinion may exist between us we are united in our love of you it will be a comfort to me to tell you how things now are and what are my park present plans if plans i can be said to have i have been returned since saturday i was three weeks in london and saw her for london very often i had every attention from the that could be reasonably expected i dare say i was not reasonable in carrying with me hopes of an intercourse at all like that of it was her manner however rather than any of meeting had she been different when i did see her i should have made no complaint but from the very first she was altered my first reception was unlike what i had hoped that i had almost resolved on leaving london again directly i need not tou know the weak side of her character and may imagine the sentiments and expressions which were me she was in high spirits and surrounded by those who were giving all the support of their own bad sense to her too lively mind i do not like mrs she is a cold hearted vain woman who has married entirely from convenience and though evidently unhappy in her marriage places her disappointment not to faults of judgment or temper or of age but to her being after all less than many of her acquaintance especially than her sister lady and is the determined of everything and ambitious provided it be only and ambitious enough i look upon her intimacy with those two sisters as the greatest misfortune of her life and mine they have been leading her astray for years could she be detached from them i and sometimes i do not despair of it for the affection appears to be principally on their side they are very fond of her but i am sure she does not love them as she loves you when i think of her great attachment to you indeed and the whole of her judicious upright conduct as a sister she appears a very different creature capable of everything noble and i am ready to blame myself for a too harsh construction of a playful manner i cannot give her up she is the only woman in the world whom i could ti think of m a wife if i did not that she had some regard for me of coarse i should not this i do it i am that die is not a decided preference i have no jealousy of any it is the of the world altogether that i am of it is the habits of wealth that i fear her ideas are not higher than h t own fortune may warrant but they are beyond what our united could there is however even here i could better bear to lose her because not rich enough than because of my that would only prove her i not equal to sacrifices which in fact i am scarcely justified in asking and if i am refused that i think will be the honest motive her prejudices i trust are not so strong as they were ton have my thoughts exactly as they arise my dear perhaps they are sometimes contradictory but it will not be a less faithful picture of my mind having once begun it is a	26
pleasure to me to tell you all i feel i cannot give h up connected as we already are and i hope are to be to give up mary would be to give up the society c some of those most dear to me to banish myself from the very houses and friends whom under any other distress i should turn to for consolation the loss oi mary i must consider as the loss of and of w re it a decided thing an actual refusal i hope i should know how to bear it and how to endeavor to her hold on my heart and in the course a few years but i am writing nonsense were i refused i must bear it and till i am i can never cease to try for her this is the truth the only question is how what may be the means i have sometimes thought of going to london again after and sometimes resolved on doing nothing till she returns to even now she speaks with pleasure of being in in june but june is at a great distance and i believe i shall write to her have nearly on explaining myself by letter to be at an early certainty is a material object my present state is miserably irksome considering everything i think a letter will be decidedly the best method of explanation i shall be able to write much that i could not say and shall be giving her time for reflection before she on her answer and i am less afraid of the result of reflection than of an immediate hasty impulse i think i am my greatest danger would lie in her consulting mrs and i at a distance unable to help my own cause a letter to all the evil of consultation and where the mind is anything short of perfect decision an adviser may in an unlucky moment lead it to do what it may afterwards r i must think this matter over a little this long letter full of my own concerns alone will be enough to tire even the friendship of a the last time i saw was at mrs s party i am more and more satisfied with all that i see and hear of him there is not a shadow of wavering he thoroughly knows his own mind and acts up to his resolutions an quality i could not see him and my eldest sister in the same room with out what you once told me and i edge that they did not meet as friends there was marked coolness on her side they scarcely spoke i saw him draw back surprised and i was sorry that mrs should resent any former supposed slight to miss you will wish to hear my opinion maria s degree of comfort as a wife there is no appearance of i hope they get on pretty well together i dined twice in street and might have been there of but it is to be as a brother seems to enjoy london exceedingly i had little enjoyment there but have less here we are not a lively party are yery wanted i miss yoa more i express my mother desires her best love and hopes to hear from you soon she talks of yon almost every hour and i am sorry to find how many weeks more st is likely to be without you my father means to fetch you himself but it will not be till after when he has business in town you are happy at i but this must not be a yearly visit i want yoa at home that i may have your opinion about i have little heart for improvements till i know that it will ever have a mistress i think i shall certainly write it is quite settled that the go to bath they leave on monday i am glad of it i am not comfortable enough to be fit for anybody but your aunt seems to feel out of luck that such an article of news should fall to my pen instead of hers yours ever my dearest i never will no i certainly never will wish for a letter again was s secret declaration as she finished this what do they bring but disappointment and sorrow not till after how shall i bear it and my poor aunt talking of me every hour checked the tendency of these thoughts as well as she could but she was within half a minute of starting the idea that sir thomas was quite unkind both to her aunt and to herself as for the main subject of the letter there was nothing in that to soothe irritation she was almost vexed into displeasure and anger against there is no good in this delay said she why is not it settled he is blinded nothing will open his eyes nothing can park after having had truths before him so long in vain he will marry her and be poor and miserable god grant that her influence do not make him cease to be respectable she looked oyer the letter again so very fond of me his nonsense all she loves nobody but herself and her brother her friends leading her astray for years she is quite as likely to have led them astray they have all perhaps been one another but if they are so much of her than she is of them she is the less likely to have been hurt except by their flattery the only woman in the world whom he could ever think of as a wife i firmly believe it it is an attachment to govern his whole life accepted or refused his heart is wedded to her forever the loss of mary i must consider as the loss of and you do not know me	26
the families would never be connected if you did not connect them oh write write finish it at once let there be an end of this suspense fix commit condemn yourself such sensations however were too near akin to resentment to be long guiding s she was soon more softened and sorrowful his warm regard his kind expressions his confidential treatment touched her strongly he was only too good to everybody it was a letter in short which she would not but have had for the world and which could never be valued enough this was the end of it everybody at all to letter writing without having much to say which will include a large park proportion of the female world at least must feel with lady that she was out ci lack in such a capital piece of news as the certainty of the going to bath occur at a time when she could make no advantage of it and will admit that it must have been very to her to see it fall to the share of her son and treated as as possible at the end of a long letter instead of having it to spread over the largest part of a page of her own for though lady rather shone in the line having early in her marriage from the want of other employment and the circumstance of sir thomas s being in parliament got into the way of making and keeping and formed for herself a very creditable commonplace style so that a very little matter was enough for her she could not do entirely without any she must have something to write about even to her niece and being so soon to lose all the benefit of dr grant s symptoms and mrs grant s morning calls it was very hard upon her to be deprived of one of the last uses she could put them to there was a rich amends however preparing for her lady s hour of good luck came within a few days from the receipt of s letter had one from her aunt beginning thus mt dear i take up my pen to some very alarming intelligence which i make no doubt will give you much concern j tliis was a great deal better than to to take up the pen to her with all the particulars of the intended journey for the present intelligence was of a nature to promise occupation for the pen for many days to come being no less than the dangerous illness of her eldest son of which they had received notice by express a few hours before tom had gone from london with a party of young men to where a neglected fall and a good deal of drinking had brought on a fever and when the party broke up being unable to move had been left by himself at the house of one of these young men to the comforts of sickness and solitude and the attendance only of servants instead of being soon well enough to follow his friends as he had then hoped his disorder increased considerably and it was not long before he thought so ill of himself as to be as ready as his physician to have a letter despatched to this distressing intelligence as may suppose observed her after giving the substance of it has agitated us exceedingly and we cannot prevent our selves from being greatly alarmed and apprehensive for the poor invalid whose state sir thomas fears may be very critical and kindly attending his brother immediately but i am happy to add that sir thomas will not leave me on this distressing occasion as it would be too trying for me we shall greatly miss in our small circle but i trust and hope he find the poor invalid in a less alarming state than might be apprehended and that he will be able to bring him to shortly which sir thomas should be done and thinks best on every account and i flatter myself the poor sufferer will soon be able to bear the removal without material inconvenience or injury as i have little doubt of your feeling for us my dear under these distressing circumstances i will write again very soon s feelings on the occasion were indeed considerably more warm and genuine than her aunt s style of writing she felt truly for them all tom ill gone to attend him and the sadly small party remaining at were cares to shut out every other care or almost every other she could just find selfishness enough to wonder whether written to miss before this summons came but no sentiment dwelt long with her that was not purely affectionate and anxious her aunt did not neglect her she wrote again and again they were receiving frequent accounts from and these accounts were as regularly to in the same style and the same of hopes and fears all following and producing each other at hap hazard it was a sort of playing at being frightened the sufferings which lady did not see had little power over her fancy and she wrote very comfortably about agitation and anxiety and poor till tom was actually conveyed to and her own eyes had beheld his altered appearance then a letter which she had been previously preparing for was finished in a different style in the language of real feeling park and alarm then she wrote as she hare spoken he is just come my dear and is taken upstairs and i am so shocked to see him that i do not know what to do i am sure he has been very ill poor tom i i am quite grieved for him and very much frightened and so is sir thomas and how glad i should be if you were here to comfort me i but sir thomas hopes he will be	26
better to morrow and says we must consider his journey the real solicitude now awakened in the maternal bosom was not soon over tom s extreme impatience to be removed to and experience those comforts of home and family which had been little thought of in health had probably induced his being conveyed thither too early as a return of fever came on and for a week he was in a more alarming state than ever they were all very seriously frightened lady wrote her daily terrors to her niece who might now be said to live upon letters and pass all her time between suffering from that of today and looking forward to to morrow s without any particular affection for her eldest cousin her tenderness of heart made her feel that she could not spare him and the purity of her principles added yet a solicitude when she considered how little useful how little self denying his life had apparently been was her only companion and listener on this as on more common occasions was always ready to hear and to nobody else could be interested in so remote an evil as illness in a family above a hundred miles o not even mrs price beyond a brief question or two if she saw her daughter with a letter in her hand and now and then the quiet observation of my poor sister must be in a great deal of trouble so long divided and so differently situated the ties of blood were little more than nothing an attachment originally as tranquil as their was now become a mere name mrs price did quite as much for lady as would have done for mrs price three or four prices might have been swept away any or all except and william and lady would have thought little about it or perhaps might have caught from mrs s lips the cant of its being a very happy thing and a great blessing to their poor dear sister price to have them so well provided for chapter xxi at about the week s end from his return to tom s immediate danger was over and he was so far pronounced safe as to make his mother perfectly easy for being now used to the sight of him in his helpless state and hearing only the best and never thinking beyond what she heard with no disposition for alarm and no at a hint lady was the happiest subject in the world for a little medical the fever was subdued the fever had been his complaint of course he would soon be well again lady could think nothing less and shared her aunt s security till she received a few lines written purposely to give her a clearer idea of his brother s situation and her with the apprehensions which he and his ther had from the physician with respect to some strong symptoms which seemed to seize the frame on the departure of the fever they judged it best that lady should not be harassed by which it was to be hoped would prove but there was no reason why should not know the truth they were apprehensive for his lungs a very few lines from showed her the patient and the sick room in a and stronger park light than all lady s sheets of paper could do there was hardly any one in the house who might not have described from personal better than herself not one who was not more useful at times to her son she could do nothing but glide in quietly and look at him but when able to talk or be talked to or read to was the companion he preferred his aunt worried him by her cares and sir thomas knew not how to bring down his conversation or his voice to the level of irritation and was all in all would certainly believe him so at least and must find that her estimation of him was higher than ever when he appeared as the attendant of a suffering brother there was not only the of recent illness to assist there was also as she now learnt nerves much affected spirits much depressed to calm and raise and her own imagination added that there must be a mind to be properly guided the family were not and she was more inclined to hope than fear for her cousin except when she thought of miss but miss gave her the idea of being the child of good luck and to her selfishness and vanity it would be good luck to have the only son even in the sick chamber the fortunate mary was not forgotten s letter had this n the subject of my last i had actually begun a letter when called away by tom s illness but i have now changed my mind and fear to trust the influence of friends when tom is better i shall go such was the state of and so it continued with scarcely any change till a line occasionally added by to his mother s letter was enough for s information tom s was slow came particularly late this year as had most sorrowfully considered on first learning that she had no chance of leaving till after it it came and she had yet heard nothing of her return nothing even of the going to london which was to her return her aunt often expressed a wish for her but there was no notice no message from the uncle on whom all depended she supposed he could not yet leave his son but it was a cruel a terrible delay to her the end of april was coming on it would soon be almost three months instead of two that she had been absent from them all and that her days had been passing in a state of penance which	26
she loved them too well to hope they would thoroughly understand and who could yet say when there might be leisure to think of or fetch her her eagerness her impatience her longing to be with them were such as to bring a line or two of s forever before her with what intense desire she wants her home was continually on her tongue as the truest description of a yearning which she could not suppose any school boy s bosom to feel more keenly when she had been coming to she had loved to call it her home had been fond of saying that she was going home the word had been very dear to her and so it still was but it must be applied to that was now the home was was home they had been long so arranged in the indulgence of her secret meditations and nothing was more to her than to find her aunt using the same language i cannot but say i much t your being from home at this distressing time so yery trying to my spirits i trust and hope and sincerely wish you may never be absent from home so long again were most delightful sentences to her still it was her private delicacy to her parents made her careful not to betray such a preference of her uncle s house it was always when i go back into or when i return to i shall do so and so for a great while it was so bat at last the longing grew stronger it caution and she found herself talking of what she should do when she went home before she was aware she reproached herself colored and looked fearfully towards her father and mother she need not have been uneasy there was no sign of displeasure or even of hearing her they were perfectly free from any jealousy of she was as welcome to wish herself there as to be there it was sad to to lose all the pleasures oi spring she had not known before what pleasures she had to lose in passing march and april in a town she had not known before how much the and progress of vegetation had delighted her what animation both of body and mind she had from watching the advance of that season which cannot in spite of its be and seeing its increasing beauties from the earliest flowers in the warmest divisions of her aunt s garden to the opening of leaves of her uncle s and the glory of his woods to be losing such pleasures was no trifle to be losing them because she was in the midst of and noise to have confinement bad air bad smells for liberty freshness fragrance and was infinitely worse but even these to regret were feeble compared with what arose from the conviction of being missed by her best friends and the longing to be useful to those who were wanting her could she have been at home she might have been of service to every creature in the house she felt that she must have been of use to all to all she must have saved some trouble of head or hand and were it only in supporting the spirits of her aunt keeping her from the evil of solitude or the still greater evil of a restless companion too apt to be danger in order to her importance her being there would have been a general good she loved to fancy how she could have read to her aunt how she could have talked to her and tried at once to make her feel the blessing of what was and prepare her mind for what might be and how many walks up and down stairs she might have saved her and how many messages she might have carried vol ii it astonished her that tom s sisters be satisfied with remaining in london at such a time through an illness which had now under different degrees of danger lasted several weeks they might return to when they chose travelling could he no difficulty to them and she could not comprehend how both could still keep away if mrs could imagine any interfering obligations was certainly able to quit london whenever she chose it appeared from one of her aunt s letters that had offered to return if wanted but this was all it was evident that she would rather remain where she was was disposed to think the influence of london very much at war with all she saw the proof of it in miss as well as in her cousins her attachment to had been respectable the most respectable part of her character her friendship for herself had at least been where was either sentiment now it was so long since had had any letter from her that she had some reason to think lightly of the friendship which had been so dwelt on it was weeks since she had heard anything of miss or of her other connections in town except through and she was beginning to suppose that she might never know whether mr had gone into again or not till they met and might never hear from his sister any more this spring when the following letter was received to revive old and create some new sensations forgive me my dear as soon as you can for my long silence and as if you could forgive me directly this is my modest request and expectation for you are so good that i depend upon being treated better than i deserve and i write now to beg an immediate answer i want to know the state of things at park and you no doubt are perfectly able to give it one should be a brute not to feel for the distress they are in and from what	26
i hear poor mr has a bad chance of ultimate recovery i thought little of his illness at first i looked upon him as a sort of person to be made a fuss with and to make a fuss himself in any trifling disorder and was chiefly concerned for those who had to nurse him but now it is confidently asserted that he is really in a decline that the symptoms are most alarming and that part of the family at least are aware of it if it be so i am sure you must be included in that part that part and therefore entreat you to let me know how far i have been rightly informed i need not say how rejoiced i shall be to hear there has been any mistake but the report is so that i confess i cannot help trembling to have such a fine young man cut oft in the flower of his days is most melancholy poor sir thomas will feel it dreadfully i really am quite agitated on the subject i see you smile and look cunning but upon my honor i never a physician in my life poor young man if he is to die there will be two poor young men less in the world and with a fearless face and bold voice would i say to any one that wealth and consequence could fall into no hands more deserving of them it was a foolish last christmas but the evil of a few days may be blotted out in part and hide many it will be but the loss of the after his name with real affection like mine more might be overlooked write to me by return of post judge of my anxiety and do not trifle with it tell me the real u have it from the fountain head and now do not to be ashamed o either m j feelings or own me they are not natural they are and i pot it to your sur would not do more good with all the property than any other sir had the been at home i would not have troubled you but you are now the only one i can apply to for the truth his sisters not being within my reach mrs r has been spending the with the at as to be sure yon know and is not yet returned and is with the cousins who near square but i forgot their name and street could i immediately apply to either however i should still prefer you because it strikes me that they have all along been so unwilling to have their own amusements cut up as to shut their eyes to the truth i suppose mrs r s holidays will not last much longer no doubt they are thorough to her the are pleasant people and her husband away she can haye nothing but enjoyment i give her credit for his going down to bath to fetch his mother but how will she and the agree in one house henry is not at hand so i have nothing to say from him do you think would have been in town again long ago but for this illness yours ever i had actually begun folding my letter when henry walked in but he brings no intelligence to prevent my sending it mrs b knows a decline is apprehended he saw her this morning she returns to street today the old lady is o ne now do not make yourself uneasy with any queer fancies because he has been spending a few days at he does it every spring be assured he cares for nobody but you at this moment he is wild to see you and occupied only in the means for doing so and for making his pleasure to yours in proof he and more eagerly what he said at about our conveying you home and i join him in it with all my soul dear write directly and tell us to come it will do us all good he and i can go to the you know and be no trouble to our friends at park it would really be gratifying to see them all again and a little addition of society mi t be of infinite use to them and as to yourself you must feel yourself to be so wanted there that you cannot in conscience conscientious as you are keep away when you have the means of returning i have not time or patience to give half henry s messages be satisfied that the spirit of each and every one is affection s disgust at the greater part of this letter with her extreme reluctance to bring the writer of it and her cousin together would have made her as she felt incapable of judging whether the concluding offer might be accepted or not to herself it was most tempting to be finding herself perhaps within three days transported to was an image of the greatest felicity but it would have been a material to be owing such felicity to persons in whose feelings and conduct at the present moment she saw so much to condemn the sister s feelings the brother s conduct her cold hearted ambition his thoughtless vanity to have him still the acquaintance the perhaps of mrs she was she had thought better of him happily however she was not left to weigh and decide between opposite inclinations and doubtful notions of right there was no occasion to determine whether she ought to keep and mary asunder or not she had a rule to apply to which settled everything her awe of her uncle and her dread of taking a liberty with him made it instantly plain to her what she had to do she must absolutely decline the proposal if he wanted he would send for her and even to offer an	26
early return was a presumption which hardly anything would have seemed to justify she thanked miss but gave a decided negative her uncle she understood meant to fetch her and as her cousin s illness had continued so many weeks without her being thought at all necessary she must suppose her return would be unwelcome at present and that she should be felt an her representation of her cousin s state at this time was exactly according to her own belief of it and such as she supposed would convey to the sanguine mind of her correspondent the hope of everything she was wishing for would be forgiven for being a clergyman it seemed under certain conditions of wealth and this she suspected was all the conquest of prejudice which he was so ready to congratulate himself upon she had only learnt to think nothing of consequence but money chapter as could not doubt that her answer was conveying a real disappointment she was rather in expectation from her knowledge of miss s temper of being urged again and though no second letter arrived for the space of a week she had still the same feeling when it did come on receiving it she could instantly decide on its containing little writing and was persuaded of its having the air of a letter of haste and business its object was and two moments were enough to start the probability of its being merely to give her notice that they should be in that very day and to throw her into all the agitation of doubting what she ought to do in such a case if two moments however can surround with difficulties a third can them and before she had opened the possibility of mr and miss s having applied to her uncle and obtained his permission was giving her ease this was the letter a most scandalous ill natured has just reached me and i write dear to warn you against giving the least credit to it should it spread into the country depend upon it there is some mistake and that a day or two will clear it up at any rate that henry is and in spite of a moment s thinks of but you say not a word of it hear nothing nothing whisper nothing till i write again i am sure it will be all hushed up and nothing proved but s folly if they are gone i would lay my life they are only gone to park and with them but why would not you let us come for you i wish you may not repent it yours etc stood aghast as no scandalous had reached her it was impossible for her to understand much of this strange letter she could only perceive that it must relate to street and mr and only conjecture that something very had just occurred in that quarter to draw the notice of the world and to excite her jealousy in miss s apprehension if she heard it miss need not be alarmed for her she was only sorry for the parties concerned and for if the report should spread so far but she hoped it might not if the were gone themselves to as was to be inferred from what miss said it was not likely that anything unpleasant should have preceded them or at least should make any impression as to mr she hoped it might give him a knowledge of his own disposition convince him that he was not capable of being steadily attached to any one woman in the world and shame him from any longer in addressing herself it was very strange i she had begun to think he really loved her and to fancy his affection for her something more than common and his park ter still said that lie cared for nobody else yet there must have been some marked display of attentions to her cousin there must have been some strong since her correspondent was not of a sort to regard a slight one very uncomfortable she was and must continue till she heard from miss again it was impossible to banish the letter from her thoughts and she could not relieve herself by speaking of it to any human being miss need not have urged secrecy with so much warmth she might have trusted to her sense of what was due to her cousin the next day came and brought no second letter was disappointed she could still think of little else all the morning but when her father came back in the afternoon with the daily newspaper as usual she was so far from expecting any through such a channel that the subject was for a moment out of her head she was deep in other musing the remembrance of her first evening in that room of her father and his newspaper came across her no candle was now wanted the sun was yet an hour and a half above the horizon she felt that she had indeed been three months there and the sun s rays falling strongly into the parlor instead of cheering made her still more melancholy for sunshine appeared to her a totally different thing in a town and in the country here its power was only a glare a stifling sickly glare serving but to bring forward and dirt that might otherwise have slept there was neither nor in sunshine in a town she sat in a blaze of oppressive heat in a cloud of moving dust and her eyes could only wander from the walls marked by her father s head to the table cut and by her brothers where stood the tea board never thoroughly cleaned the cups and wiped in streaks the milk a mixture of floating in thin blue and the bread and butter growing every minute more greasy than even s hands had first produced it	26
her father read his newspaper and her mother lamented over the ragged carpet as usual while the tea was in preparation and wished would mend it and was first roused by his calling out to her after and considering over a particular paragraph what s the name of your great cousins in town fan a moment s recollection enabled her to say sir and don t they live in street yes sir then there s the devil to pay among them that s all there holding out the paper to her much good may such fine relations do you i don t know what sir thomas may think of such matters he may be too much of the and fine gentleman to like his daughter the less but by if she belonged to me i d give her the rope s end as long as i could stand over her a little for man and woman too would be the best way of preventing such things read to herself that it was with infinite concern the newspaper had to announce to the world a matrimonial in the family of mr r of street the beautiful mrs r whose name had not long been in the lists of and who had promised to become so brilliant a leader in the fashionable world having quitted her husband s roof in company with the well known and mr c the intimate friend and associate of mr r and it was not known even to the editor of the newspaper whither they were gone it is a mistake sir said instantly it must be a mistake it cannot be true it must mean some other people she spoke from the instinctive wish of shame she spoke with a resolution which sprung from despair for she spoke what she did not could not believe herself it had been the shock of conviction as she read the truth rushed on her and how she could have spoken at all how she could even have breathed was afterwards matter of wonder to herself mr price cared too little about the report to make her much answer it might be all a lie he acknowledged but so many fine ladies were going to the devil nowadays that way that there was no answering for anybody indeed i hope it is not true said mrs price it would be so very shocking if i have spoken once to about that carpet i am sure i have spoken at least a dozen times have not i and it would not be ten minutes work the horror of a mind like s as it received the conviction of such guilty and began to take in some part of the that must can hardly be described at first it was a sort of but every moment was her perception of the horrible evil she could not doubt she dared not indulge a hope of the paragraph being false miss s letter which she had read so often as to make every line her own was in frightful with it her ei r defence of her brother her hope of its being hushed up her evident agitation were all of a piece with something very bad and if there was a woman of character in existence who could treat as a trifle sin of the first magnitude who could try to it over and desire to have it she could believe miss to be the woman now she could see her own mistake as to who were gone or said to be gone it was not mr and mrs it was mrs and mr seemed to herself never to have been shocked before there was no possibility of rest the evening passed without a pause of misery the night was totally sleepless she passed only from feelings of sickness to of horror and from hot fits of fever to cold the event was so shocking that there were moments when her heart from it as impossible when she thought it could not be a woman married only six months ago a man himself devoted even engaged to another that other her near relation the whole family both families connected as they were by tie upon tie all friends all intimate together it was too horrible a confusion of guilt too gross a of evil for human nature not in a state of utter to be capable of yet her judgment told her it was so his unsettled affections wavering with his vanity maria s decided attachment and no sufficient principle on either side gave it possibility miss s letter it a fact what would be the consequence whom would it not injure whose views might it not affect whose peace would it not cut up forever miss herself but it was dangerous perhaps to tread such ground she confined herself or tried to confine herself to the simple family misery which must envelope all if it were indeed a matter of guilt and public exposure the mother s sufferings the father s there she paused s tom s s there a yet longer pause they were the two on whom it would fall most horribly sir thomas s parental solicitude and high sense of honor and decorum s upright principles temper and genuine strength of feeling made her think it scarcely possible for them to support life and reason under such disgrace and it appeared to her that as far as this world alone was concerned the greatest blessing to every one of kindred with mrs would be instant nothing happened the next day or the next to her terrors two posts came in and brought no public or private there was no second letter to explain away the first from miss there was no intelligence from though it was now full time for her to hear again from her aunt	26
this was an evil omen she had indeed scarcely the shadow of a hope to soothe her mind and was reduced to so low and wan and trembling a condition as no mother not unkind except mrs price could hare overlooked when the third day did bring the sickening knock and a letter was again put into her hands it bore the london and came from dear yon know our present wretchedness may support you under your share we have been here two days but there is nothing to be done the cannot be traced tou may not have heard of the last blow s she is gone to scotland with she left london a few hours before we entered it at any other time this would have been felt dreadfully now it seems nothing yet it is a heavy my father is not overpowered more cannot be hoped he is still able to think and act and i write by his desire to propose your returning home he is anxious to get you there for my mother s sake i shall be at the morning after you receive this and hope to find you ready to set off for m father wishes you to invite to go with you for a few months settle it as you like say what is proper i am sure you will feel such an instance of his kindness at such a moment i do justice to his meaning however i may it you may imagine something of m present state there is no end of the evil let loose upon us you will see me early by the mail yours etc never had more wanted a cordial never had she felt such a one as this letter contained tomorrow to to morrow she was she felt she was in the greatest danger of being exquisitely happy while so many were miserable the evil which brought such good to her she dreaded lest she should learn to be insensible of it to be going so soon sent for so kindly sent for as a comfort and with leave to take was altogether such a combination of blessings as set her heart in a glow and for a time seemed to distance every pain and make her incapable of sharing the distress even of those whose distress she thought of most s could affect her comparatively but little she was amazed and shocked but it could not occupy her could not dwell on her mind she was obliged to call herself to think of it and acknowledge it to be terrible and grievous or it was escaping her in the midst of all the pressing joyful cares attending this summons to herself there is nothing like employment active indispensable employment for sorrow employment even melancholy may melancholy and her occupations were hopeful she had so much to do that not even the horrible story of mrs now fixed to the last point of certainty could affect her as it had done before she had not time to be miserable within twenty four hours she was hoping to be gone her father and mother must be spoken to prepared everything got ready business followed the day was hardly long enough the happiness she was too park ness very little by the black communication which must briefly it the joyful consent of her father and mother to s going with her the general satisfaction with which the going of both seemed regarded and the ecstasy of herself were all serving to support her spirits the affliction of the was little felt in the family mrs price talked of her poor sister for a few minutes but how to find anything to hold s clothes because took away all the boxes and spoilt them was much more in her thoughts and as for now unexpectedly gratified in the first wish of her heart and knowing nothing personally of those who had or of those who were if she could help rejoicing from beginning to end it was as much as ought to be expected from human virtue at fourteen as nothing was really left for the decision of mrs price or the good offices of everything was and duly accomplished and the girls were ready for the morrow the advantage of much sleep to prepare them for their journey was impossible the cousin who was travelling towards them could hardly have less than visited their agitated spirits one all happiness the other all varying and indescribable by eight in the morning was in the house the girls heard his entrance from above and went down the idea of immediately seeing with the knowledge of what he most park be suffering brought back all her own first feelings he so near her and in misery she was ready to sink as she entered the parlor he was alone and met her instantly and she found herself pressed to his heart with only these words just articulate my my only sister my only comfort now she could say nothing nor for some minutes could he say more he turned away to recover himself and when he spoke again though his voice still faltered his manner showed the wish of self command and the resolution of avoiding any further allusion have you when shall you be ready does go were questions following each other rapidly his great object was to be off as soon as possible when was considered time was precious and the state of his own mind made him find relief only iii motion it was settled that he should order the carriage to the door in half an hour answered for their having and being quite ready in half an hour he had already ate and declined staying for their meal he would walk round the and join them with the carriage he was gone again glad to	26
get away even from he looked very ill evidently suffering under violent emotions which he was determined to suppress she knew it must be so but it was terrible to her the carriage came and he entered the house again at the same moment just in time to spend a few minutes with the family and be a witness vol but that he saw nothing of the tranquil manner in which the daughters were parted with and just in time to prevent their sitting down to the table which by dint of much unusual activity was quite and completely ready as the carriage from the door s last meal in her father s house was in character with her first she was dismissed from it as as she bad been welcomed how her heart swelled with joy and gratitude as she passed the of and how s face wore its smiles may be easily conceived sitting forwards however and by her bonnet those smiles were unseen the journey was likely to be a silent one s deep sighs often reached had he been alone with her his heart must have opened in spite of every resolution but s presence him quite into himself and his attempts to talk on indifferent subjects could never be long supported watched him with never failing solicitude and sometimes catching his eye revived an affectionate smile which comforted her but the first day s journey passed without her hearing a word from him on the subjects that were weighing him down the next morning produced a little more just before their setting out from oxford while was stationed at a window in eager observation of the departure of a large family from the inn the other two were standing by the fire and particularly struck by the alteration in s looks and from his ignorance of the park daily evils of her father s house an undue share of the change all to the recent event took her hand and said in a low hut very expressive tone no wonder you must feel it you must suffer how a man who had once loved could desert you i but yours your regard was new compared with think of me the first division of their journey occupied a long day and brought them almost knocked up to oxford hut the second was over at a much earlier hour they were in the of long before the usual dinner time and as they approached the beloved place the hearts of both sisters sank a little began to dread the meeting with her and tom under so dreadful a humiliation and to feel with some anxiety that all her best manners all her lately acquired knowledge of what was practised here was on the point of being called into action visions of good and ill breeding of old and new were before her and she was meditating much upon silver forks and finger glasses had been everywhere awake to the difference of the country since february but when they entered the park her and her pleasures were of the keenest sort it was three months full three months since her it and the change was from winter to summer her eye fell everywhere on and of the green and the trees though not fully clothed were in that delightful state when further beauty is known to be at hand and when while much b actually given to the sight more yet remains for the imagination her enjoyment however was for herself alone could not share it she looked at him hut he was leaning hack sunk in a deeper gloom than ever and with eyes closed as if the view of cheerfulness oppressed him and the lovely scenes of home must he shut out it made her melancholy again and the knowledge of what must he enduring there invested even the house modem and airy and well situated as it was with a melancholy aspect by one of the suffering party within they were expected with such impatience as she had never known had scarcely passed the solemn looking servants when lady came from the drawing room to meet her came with no indolent step and falling on her neck said dear now i shall he comfortable chapter it liad been a miserable party each of the three believing themselves most miserable mrs however as most attached to maria was really the greatest sufferer maria was her first favorite the dearest of all the match had been her own as she had been wont with such pride of heart to feel and say and this conclusion of it almost overpowered her she was an altered creature indifferent to everything that passed the being left with her sister and nephew and all the house under her care had been an advantage entirely thrown away she had been unable to direct or dictate or even fancy herself useful when really touched by affliction her active powers had been all and neither lady nor tom had received from her the smallest support or attempt at support she had done no more for them than they had done for each other they had been all solitary helpless and forlorn alike and now the arrival of the others only established her superiority in wretchedness her companions were relieved but there was no good for her was almost as welcome to his brother as to her aunt but mrs instead of having comfort from either was but the more irritated by the sight of the person whom in the blindness of her anger she could have charged as the demon of the piece had accepted mr this could not have happened too was a grievance she had not spirits to notice her in more than a f repulsive looks but she felt her as a spy and an intruder and an niece and everything most	26
odious by her other aunt was received with quiet kindness lady could not give her much time or many words but she felt her as s sister to have a claim at and ready to kiss and like her and was more than satisfied for she came perfectly aware that nothing but ill humor was to be expected from aunt and was so provided with happiness so strong in that best of blessings an escape from many certain evils that she could have stood against a great deal more indifference than she met with from the others she was now left a good deal to herself to get acquainted with the house and grounds as she could and spent her days very happily in so doing while those who might otherwise have attended to her were shut up or wholly occupied each with the person quite dependent on them at this time for everything like comfort trying to bury his own feelings in exertions for the relief of his brother s and devoted to her aunt returning to every former office with more than former zeal and thinking she could never do enough for one who seemed much to want her i j l f to talk over the dreadful business with talk and lament was all lady s consolation to be listened to and borne with and hear the voice of kindness and sympathy in return was everything that could be done for her to be otherwise comforted was out of the question the case admitted of no comfort lady did not think deeply but guided by sir thomas she thought justly on all important points and she saw therefore in all its what had happened and neither endeavored herself nor required to advise her to think little of guilt and her affections were not acute nor was her mind after a time found it not impossible to direct her thoughts to other subjects and revive some interest in the usual occupation but whenever lady was fixed on the event she could see it only in one light as the loss of a daughter and a disgrace never to be wiped off learnt from her all the particulars which had yet her aunt was no very but with the help of some letters to and from sir thomas and what she already knew herself and could reasonably combine she was soon able to understand quite as much as she wished of the circumstances attending the story mrs had gone for the holidays to with a family whom she had just grown intimate with a family of lively agreeable manners and probably of morals and discretion to suit for to their house mr had constant access at all times his having been in the same neighborhood already knew mr had been gone at this time to bath to pass a few days with his mother and bring her back to town and maria was with these friends without any restraint without even for had removed from street two or three weeks before on a visit to some relations of sir thomas a removal which her father and mother were now disposed to attribute to some view of convenience on mr s account very soon after the return to street sir thomas had received a letter from an old and most particular friend in london who hearing and witnessing a good deal to alarm him in that quarter wrote to recommend sir thomas s coming to himself and using his influence with his daughter to put an end to an intimacy which was already exposing her to unpleasant remarks and evidently making mi uneasy sir thomas was preparing to act upon this letter without communicating its contents to any creature at when it was followed by another sent express from the same friend to break to him the almost desperate situation in which affairs then stood with the young people mrs had left her husband s house mr had been in great anger and distress to him mr for his advice mr feared there had been at least very the of mrs senior threatened he was doing all in his power to quiet everything with the hope of park mrs s return but was so much in street by the influence of mr s mother that the worst consequences might be apprehended this dreadful communication could not be kept from the rest of the family sir thomas set off would go with him and the others had been left in a state of wretchedness inferior only to what followed the receipt of the next letters from london everything was by that time public beyond a hope the servant of mrs the mother had exposure in her power and supported by her mistress was not to be silenced the two ladies even in the short time they had been together had and the bitterness of the elder against her daughter in law might perhaps arise almost as much from the personal with which she had herself been treated as from sensibility for her son however that might be she was but had she been less obstinate or of less weight with her son who was always guided by the last speaker by the person who could get hold of and shut him up the case would still have been hopeless for mrs did not appear again and there was every reason to conclude her to be concealed somewhere with mr who had quitted his uncle s house as for a journey on the very day of her herself sir thomas however remained yet a little longer in town in the hope of discovering and her from further vice though all was lost on the side of character his present state could hardly bear to think of there was but one of his children who was not at this time a source of misery to him tom s complaints had	26
been greatly heightened bj the shock of his sister s conduct and his so much thrown back by it that even had been struck by the difference and all her were regularly sent off to her husband and s the additional blow which had met him on his arrival in london though its ice had been at the moment must she knew be sorely felt she saw that it was his letters expressed how much he it under any circumstances it would have been an unwelcome alliance but to have it so formed and such a period chosen for its completion placed s feelings in a most light and severely the folly of her choice he called it a bad thing done in the worst manner and at the worst time and though was yet as more than maria as folly than vice he could not but regard the step she had taken as opening the worst of a conclusion hereafter like her sister s such was his opinion of the set into which she had thrown herself felt for him most he could have no comfort but in every other child must be his heart his displeasure against herself she trusted reasoning differently from mrs would now be done away she should be justified mr would have fully her conduct in refusing him but this though most material to herself would be a park poor consolation to sir thomas her uncle s displeasure was terrible to her but what could her justification or her gratitude and attachment do for him his stay must be on alone she was mistaken however in supposing that gave his father no present pain it was of a much less nature than what the others excited but sir thomas was considering his happiness as very deeply involved in the offence of his sister and friend cut o e by it as he must be from the woman whom he had been pursuing with attachment and strong probability of success and who in everything but this brother would have been so eligible a connection he was aware of what must be suffering on his own behalf in addition to all the rest when they were in town he had seen or his feelings and having reason to think that one interview with miss had taken place from which derived only increased distress had been as anxious on that account as on others to get him out of town and had engaged him in taking home to her aunt with a view to his relief and benefit no less than theirs was not in the secret of her uncle s feelings sir thomas not in the secret of miss s character had he been to her conversation with his son he would not have wished her to belong to him though her twenty thousand pounds had been forty that must be forever divided from miss did not admit of a doubt with and yet till she knew that he felt the same her own was insufficient she thought he did but she wanted to be assured of it if he would now speak to her with the y had sometimes been too much for her before it would be most but that she found was not to be she seldom saw him never alone he probably avoided being alone with her what was to be inferred that his judgment submitted to all his own peculiar and bitter share of this family affliction but that it was too keenly felt to be a subject of the slightest communication this must be his state he yielded but it was with agonies which did not admit of speech long would it be ere miss s name passed his lips again or she could hope for a renewal of such confidential intercourse as had been it was long they reached on thursday and it was not till sunday evening that began to talk to her on the subject sitting with her on sunday evening a wet sunday evening the very time of all others when if a friend is at hand the heart must be opened and everything told no one else in the room except his mother who after hearing an affecting sermon had cried herself to sleep it was impossible not to speak and so with the usual hardly to be traced as to what came first and the usual declaration that if she would listen to him for a few minutes he should be very brief and certainly never tax her kindness in the same way again she need not fear a repetition it would be a subject entirely he entered upon the luxury of relating circumstances and sensations of the first interest to himself to one of whose affectionate sympathy he was quite convinced how listened with what curiosity and concern what pain and what delight how the agitation of his voice was watched and how carefully her own eyes were fixed on any object but himself may be imagined the opening was alarming he had seen miss he had been invited to see her he had received a note from lady to beg him to call and regarding it as what was meant to be the last last interview of friendship and her with all the feelings of shame and wretchedness which s sister ought to have known he had gone to her in such a state of mind so softened so devoted as made it for a few moments impossible to s fears that it should be the last but as he proceeded in his story these fears were over she had met him he said with a serious certainly a serious even an agitated air but before he had been able to speak one intelligible sentence she had introduced the subject in a manner which he owned had shocked him i heard you	26
were in town said she i wanted to see you let us talk over this sad business what can equal the folly of our two relations i could not answer but i believe my looks spoke she felt sometimes how quick to feel with a graver look and voice she then added i do not mean to defend henry at your sister s expense so she began but how she went on is not fit is hardly fit to be repeated to you i cannot recall all her words i would not dwell upon them if i could their sub was great anger at the folly of each she her brother s folly in being drawn on by a woman whom he had never cared for to do what must lose him the woman he adored but still more the folly of poor maria in sacrificing such a situation plunging into such difficulties under the idea of being really loved by a man who had long ago made his indifference clear guess what i must have felt to hear the woman whom no name than folly given so voluntarily so freely so coolly to it no reluctance no horror no feminine shall i say no modest is what the world does for where shall we find a woman whom nature had so richly endowed spoilt spoilt after a little reflection he went on with a sort of desperate calmness i will tell you everything and then have done forever she saw it only as folly and that folly stamped only by exposure the want of common discretion of caution his going down to for the whole time of her being at her putting herself in the power of a servant it was the detection in short oh it was the detection not the offence which she it was the which had brought things to extremity and obliged her brother to give up every dearer plan in order to fly with her he stopped and what said believing herself required to speak what could you say nothing nothing to be understood i was like a man stunned she went on began to talk park of you yes then she began to talk of you as well she might the loss of such a there she spoke very but she has always done justice to you he has thrown away said she such a woman as he will never see again she would have fixed him she would have made him happy forever my dearest i am giving you i hope more pleasure than pain by this of what might have been but what never can be now you do not wish me to be silent if you do give me but a look a word and i have done no look or word was given thank god said he we were all disposed to wonder but it seems to have been the merciful appointment of providence that the heart which knew no should not suffer she spoke of you with high praise and warm affection yet even here there was a dash of evil for in the midst of it she could exclaim why would not she have him it is all her fault simple girl i shall never forgive her had she accepted him as she ought they might now have been on the point of marriage and henry would have been too happy and too busy to want any other object he would have taken no pains to be on terms with mrs again it would have all ended in a regular standing in yearly meetings at and you have believed it possible but the charm is broken my eyes are opened cruel said quite cruel at such a moment to give way to and to speak with lightness and to you absolute cruelty park cruelty do you call it we differ there no hers is not a cruel nature i do not consider her as meaning to wound my feelings the evil lies yet deeper in her total ignorance of there such feelings in a of mind which made it natural to her to treat the subject as she did she was speaking only as she had been used to hear others speak as she imagined everybody else would speak hers are not faults of temper she would not voluntarily give unnecessary pain to any one and though i may deceive myself i cannot but think that for me for my feelings she would hers are faults of principle of delicacy and a mind perhaps it is best for me since it leaves me so little to regret not so however gladly would i submit to all the increased pain of losing her rather than have to think of her as i do i told her so yes when i left her i told her so how long were you together five and twenty minutes well she went on to say that what remained now to be done was to bring about a marriage between them she spoke of it with a voice than i can he was obliged to pause more than once as he continued we must persuade henry to marry her said she and what with honor and the certainty of having shut himself out forever from i do not despair of it he must give up i do not think that even he could now park hope to succeed with one of her stamp and therefore i hope we may find no difficulty my influence which is not small shall all go that way and when once married and properly supported by her own family people of respectability as they are she may recover her footing in society to a certain degree in some circles we know she would never be admitted but with good dinners and large parties there	26
will always be those who will be glad of her acquaintance and there is undoubtedly more liberality and on those points than formerly what i advise is that your father be quiet do not let him injure his own cause by interference persuade him to let things take their course if by any exertions of his she is induced to leave henry s protection there will be much less chance of his marrying her than if she remain with him i know how he is likely to be influenced let sir thomas trust to his honor and compassion and it may all end well but if he get his daughter away it will be destroying the chief hold after repeating this was so much affected that watching him with silent but most tender concern was almost sorry that the subject had been entered on at all it was long before he could speak again at last now said he i shall soon have done i have told you the substance of all that she said as soon as i could speak i replied that i had not supposed it possible coming in such a state of mind into that house as i had done that anything could occur to make me suffer more but that she vol ii had been deeper wounds in almost eveiy sentence that though i had in the coarse of our acquaintance been often sensible of some difference in our opinions on points too of some moment it had not entered my imagination to conceive the difference could be such as she had now proved it that the manner in which she treated the dreadful crime committed by her brother and my sister with whom lay the greater tion i pretended not to say but the manner in which she spoke of the crime itself giving it every reproach but the right considering its ill consequences only as they were to be or by a defiance of decency and impudence in wrong and last of all and above all to us a compliance a compromise an acquiescence in the continuance of the sin on the chance of a marriage which thinking as i now thought of her brother should rather be prevented than sought all this together most convinced me that i had never understood her before and that as far as related to mind it had been the creature of my own imagination not miss that i had been too apt to dwell on for many months past that perhaps it was best for me i had less to regret in sacrificing a friendship feelings hopes which must at any rate have been torn from me now and yet that i must and would confess that could i have restored her to what she had appeared to me before i would infinitely prefer any increase of the pain of parting for the sake of carrying with me the right of ten and esteem this is what i said the purport of it but as you may imagine not spoken so or as i have repeated it to you she was astonished exceedingly astonished more than astonished i saw her change countenance she turned extremely red i imagined i saw a mixture of many feelings a great though short struggle half a wish of yielding to truths half a sense of shame but habit habit carried it she would have laughed if she could it was a sort of laugh as she answered a pretty good lecture upon my word was it part of your last sermon at this rate you will soon reform everybody at and and when i hear of you next it may be as a celebrated preacher in some great society of or as a missionary into foreign parts she tried to speak carelessly but she was not so careless as she wanted to appear i only in reply that from my heart i wished her well and earnestly hoped that she might soon learn to think more justly and not owe the most valuable knowledge we could any of us acquire the knowledge of ourselves and of our duty to the lessons of affliction and immediately left the room i had gone a few steps when i heard the door open behind me mr said she i looked back mr said she with a smile but it was a smile to the conversation that had passed a playful smile seeming to invite in order to subdue me at least it appeared so to me i resisted it was the impulse of the moment to resist and still walked on i have since sometimes for a moment regretted that i did not go back but i know i was right and has been the end of our acquaintance and what an acquaintance has it been i how have i been deceived equally in brother and sister deceived i thank you for your patience this has been the greatest relief and now we will have done and such was s dependence on his words that for five minutes she thought they had done then however it all came on again or something very like it and nothing less than lady s rousing thoroughly up could really close such a conversation till that happened they continued to talk of miss alone and how she had attached him and how delightful nature had made her and how excellent she would have been had she fallen into good hands earlier now at liberty to speak openly felt more than justified in adding to his knowledge of her real character by some hint of what share his brother s state of health might be supposed to have in her wish for a complete reconciliation this was not an agreeable intimation resisted it for a while it would have been a	26
vast deal pleasanter to have had her more disinterested in her attachment but his vanity was not of a strength to fight long against reason he submitted to believe that tom s illness had influenced her only for himself this thought that considering the many of opposing habits she had certainly been more attached to him than could have been expected and for his sake been more near doing right thought exactly tlie same and they were also quite agreed in their opinion of the lasting effect the impression which such a disappointment must make on liis mind time would undoubtedly some what of his sufferings but still it was a sort of thing which he never could get entirely the better of and as to his ever meeting with any woman i ho could it was too impossible to be named but with indignation s was all that he had to cling to c xxiv let other pens dwell on guilt and i quit such odious subjects as soon as i can impatient to restore everybody not greatly in fault themselves to tolerable comfort and to have done with all the rest my indeed at this very time i have the satisfaction of knowing must have been happy in spite of everything she must have been a happy creature in spite of all that she felt or thought she felt for the distress of those around her she had sources of delight that must force their way she was returned to park she was useful she was beloved she was safe from mr and when sir thomas came back she had every proof that could be given in his then melancholy state of spirits of his perfect approbation and increased regard and happy as all this must make her she would still have been happy without any of it for was no longer the of miss it is true that was very far from happy himself he was suffering from disappointment and regret over what was and wishing for what could never be she knew it was so and sorry but it was with a sorrow so founded on satisfaction so tending to ease and in harmony with dearest sensation that there are few who might not haye heen glad to exchange their greatest for it sir thomas poor sir thomas a parent and conscious of errors in his own conduct as a parent was the longest to suffer he felt that he ought not to have allowed the marriage that his daughter s sentiments had heen sufficiently known to him to render him in it that in so doing he had sacrificed the right to the expedient and heen governed hy motives of selfishness and worldly wisdom these were reflections that required some time to soften but time will do almost everything and though little comfort arose on mrs s side for the misery she had occasioned comfort was to be found greater than he had supposed in his other children s match became a less desperate business than he had considered it at first she was humble and wishing to be forgiven and mr desirous of being really received into the family was disposed to look up to him and be guided he was not very solid but there was a hope of his becoming less trifling of his being at least tolerably domestic and quiet and at any rate there was comfort in finding his estate rather more and his debts much less than he had feared and in being consulted and treated as the friend best worth attending to there was comfort also in tom who gradually regained his health without the and selfishness of his previous habits he was the better forever for his illness he had f and he had learnt to think two advantages that he had known before and the arising from the deplorable event in street to which he felt himself by all the dangerous intimacy of his theatre made an impression on his mind which at the age of six and twenty with no want of sense or good companions was in its happy effects he became what he ought to be useful to his father steady and quiet and not living merely for himself here was comfort indeed and quite as soon as sir thomas could place dependence on such sources of good was to his father s ease by improvement in the only point in which he had given him pain before improvement in his spirits after wandering about and sitting under trees with all the summer evenings he had so well talked his mind into submission as to be very tolerably cheerful again these were the circumstances and the hopes which gradually brought their to sir thomas his sense of what was lost and in part him to himself though the anguish arising from the conviction of his own errors in the education of his daughters was never to be entirely done away too late he became aware how to the character of any young people must be the totally opposite treatment which maria and had been always at home where the excessive indulgence and flattery of their aunt had been continually contrasted with his own ih park severity he saw how ill he had judged in expecting to what was wrong in mrs by its reverse in himself clearly saw that he had but increased the evil by teaching them to repress their spirits in his presence as to make their real disposition unknown to him and sending them for all their to a person who had been able to attach them only by the blindness of her affection and the excess of her praise here had been grievous but bad as it was he gradually grew to feel that it had not been the most mistake in his plan of education something must have been wanting	26
within or time would have worn away much of its ill effect he feared that principle active principle had been wanting that they had never been properly taught to govern their inclinations and by that sense of duty which can alone suffice they had been instructed in their religion but never required to bring it into daily practice to be distinguished for elegance and accomplishments the object of their youth could have had no useful influence that way no moral effect on the mind he had meant them to be good but his cares had been directed to the understanding and manners not the disposition and of the necessity of self denial and humility he feared they had never heard from any lips that could profit them bitterly did he a deficiency which now he could scarcely comprehend to have been bible did he feel that with all the cost and care of an anxious and expensive education he had brought up his daughters without their understanding their first duties or his being acquainted with their character and temper the high spirit and strong passions of mrs especially were made known to him only in their sad result she was not to be prevailed on to leave mr she hoped to marry him and they continued together till she was obliged to be convinced that such hope was vain and till the disappointment and wretchedness arising from the conviction rendered her temper so bad and her feelings for him so like hatred as to make them for a while each other s punishment and then induce a voluntary separation she had lived with him to be reproached as the ruin of all his happiness in and carried away no better consolation in leaving him than that she had divided them what can exceed the misery of such a mind in such a situation mr had no difficulty in a divorce and so ended a marriage contracted under such circumstances as to make any better end the e of good luck not to be reckoned on she had despised him and loved another and he had been very much aware that it was so the of stupidity and the disappointments of selfish passion can excite little pity his punishment followed his conduct as did a deeper punishment the deeper guilt of his wife he was released from the engagement to be and unhappy till some other pretty girl could attract him into matrimony again and he might set forward on a second and it is to be hoped more prosperous trial of the i if to be at least with good humor and good luck while she must withdraw with infinitely stronger feelings to a retirement and reproach which could allow no second spring of hope or character where she could be placed became a subject of most melancholy and momentous consultation mrs whose attachment seemed to with the of her niece would have had her received at home and by them all sir thomas would not hear of it and mrs s anger against was so much the greater from considering her residence there as the motive she persisted in placing his scruples to her account though sir thomas very solemnly assured her that had there been no young woman in question had there been no young person of either sex belonging to him to be by the society or hurt by the character of mrs he would never have offered so great an insult to the neighborhood as to expect it to notice her as a daughter he hoped a penitent one she should be protected by him and secured in every comfort and supported by every encouragement to do right which their relative situations admitted but further than that he would not go maria had destroyed her own character and he would not by a vain attempt to restore what never could be restored be affording his sanction to vice or in seeking to lessen its disgrace be to introducing such park misery in another man s family as he had known himself it ended in mrs s to quit and devote herself to her unfortunate maria and in an establishment being formed for them in another country remote and private where shut up together with little society on one side no affection on the other no judgment it may be reasonably supposed that their became their mutual punishment mrs s removal from was the great comfort of sir thomas s life his opinion of her had been sinking from the day of his return from in every transaction together from that period in their daily intercourse in business or in chat she had been regularly losing ground in his esteem and convincing him that either time had done her much or that he had considerably her sense and wonderfully borne with her manners before he had felt her as an evil which was so much the worse as there seemed no chance of its ceasing but with life she seemed a part of himself that must be borne forever to be relieved from her therefore was so great a felicity that had she not left bitter behind her there might have been danger of his learning almost to approve the evil which produced such a good she was regretted by no one at she had never been able to attach even those she loved best and since mrs s her temper had been in a state of such irritation as to make her everywhere not even park had tears for aunt not even when she was gone forever that escaped better than maria was owing in some measure to a favorable difference of disposition and circumstance but in a greater to lier having been less the darling of that very aunt less flattered and less spoilt her beauty and had held but a second place she liad been always used to	26
think herself a little inferior to maria her temper was naturally the easiest of the two her feelings though quick were more and education had not given her so very a degree of self consequence she had submitted the best to the disappointment in henry after the first bitterness of the conviction of being was over she had been tolerably soon in a fair way of not thinking of him again and when the acquaintance was renewed in town and mr s house became s object she had had the merit of withdrawing herself from it and of choosing that time to pay a visit to her other friends in order to secure herself from being again too much attracted this had been her motive in going to her cousins mr s convenience had had nothing to do with it she had been allowing his attentions some time but with very little idea of ever accepting him and had not her sister s conduct burst forth as it did and her increased dread of her father and of home on that event imagining its certain consequence to herself would be greater severity and restraint made her hastily resolve on avoiding such immediate horrors at all risks it is probable that mr would never have succeeded she had not with worse feelings than those of selfish alarm it had appeared to her the only thing to be done maria s guilt had induced s folly henry ruined by early independence and bad domestic example indulged in the of a cold blooded vanity a little too long it had by an opening and led him into the way of happiness could ht have been satisfied with the conquest of one amiable woman s affections could he have found sufficient exultation in the reluctance in working himself into the esteem and tenderness of price there would have been every probability of success and felicity for him his affection had already done something her influence over him had already given him some ice over her would he have deserved more there can be no doubt that more would have been obtained especially when that marriage had taken place which would have given him the assistance of her conscience in her first inclination and brought them very often together would he have and must have been his reward and a reward very voluntarily bestowed within a reasonable period from s marrying mary had he done as he iu tended and as he knew he ought by going down to after his return from he might have been deciding his own hi destiny but he was pressed to stay for mrs s party his staying was made of flattering consequence and he was to meet mrs there curiosity and vanity were both engaged and the temptation of immediate pleasure was too strong for a mind unused to make any sacrifice to right he resolved to his journey resolved that writing should answer the purpose of it or that its purpose was unimportant and stayed he saw mrs was received by her with a coldness which ought to have been repulsive and established apparent indifference between them forever but he was he could not bear to be thrown by the woman whose smiles had been so wholly at his command he must exert himself to subdue so proud a display of resentment it was anger on s account he must get the better of it and make mrs maria again in her treatment of himself in this spirit he began the attack and by animated perseverance had soon re established the sort of familiar intercourse of gallantry of which bounded his views but in over the discretion which though beginning in anger might have saved them both he had put himself in the power of feelings on her side more strong than he had supposed she loved him there was no withdrawing attentions dear to her he was entangled by his own vanity with as little excuse of love as possible and without the smallest of mind towards her cousin to keep and the from a knowledge of what was passing became his first object secrecy could not ma have been more desirable for mrs s credit than he felt it for hia own when he returned from he would have been glad to see mrs no more all that followed was the result of her and he went off with her at last because he could not help it even at the moment but her infinitely more when all the bustle of the was over and a very few months had taught him by th force of contrast to place a yet higher value on the sweetness of her temper the purity of her mind and the excellence of her principles that punishment the public punishment of disgrace should in a just measure attend his share of the offence is we know not one of the which society gives to virtue in this world the penalty is less equal than could be wished but without to look forward to a appointment hereafter we may fairly consider a man of sense like henry to be providing for himself no small portion of vexation and regret vexation that must rise sometimes to self reproach and regret to wretchedness in having so hospitality so injured peace so his best most and acquaintance and so lost the woman whom he had as well as passionately loved after what had passed to wound and the two families the continuance of the and in such close neighborhood would have been most distressing but the absence of the ter for some months purposely lengthened ended very fortunately in the necessity or at least the of a permanent removal dr grant through an interest on which he had almost ceased to form hopes succeeded to a stall in westminster which as affording an occasion for	26
leaving an excuse for residence in london and an increase of income to answer the expenses of the change was highly acceptable to those who went an those who stayed mrs grant with a temper to love and be loved must have gone with some regret from the scenes and people she had been used to but the same happiness of disposition must in any place and any society secure her a great deal to enjoy and she had again a home to offer mary and mary had had enough of her own friends enough of vanity ambition love and disappointment in the course of the last half year to be in need of the true kindness of her sister s heart and the rational tranquillity of her ways they lived together and when dr grant had brought on and death by three great dinners in one week they still lived together for mary though perfectly resolved against ever herself to a younger brother again was long in finding among the dashing representatives or idle heir who were at the command of her beauty and her any one who could satisfy the better taste she had acquired at whose character and manners could a hope of the domestic happiness she had there learnt to estimate or put sufficiently out of her head vol ii had greatly the of her in this respect he had not to wait and wish with vacant affections for an object worthy to succeed her in them scarcely had he done mary and observing to how impossible it was that he should ever meet with such woman before it began to strike him whether a very different kind of woman might not do just as well or a g deal better whether herself were not growing as dear as important to him in all her smiles and all her ways as mary had ever been and whether it might not be a possible a hopeful undertaking to persuade her that her warm and regard for him would be foundation enough for wedded love i purposely from dates on this occasion that every one may be at liberty to fix their own aware that the cure of passions and the transfer of must vary much as to time in different people i only entreat everybody to believe that exactly at the time when it was quite natural that it should be so and not a week earlier did cease to care about miss and became as anxious to marry as herself could desire with such a regard for her indeed as his had long been a regard founded on the most claims of innocence and helplessness and completed by every recommendation of growing worth what could be more natural than the change loving guiding protecting her as he had been doing ever since her being ten years old her mind in so great a degree formed by his care and her comfort de park on his kindness an object to him of such close and peculiar interest dearer by all his own importance with her than any one else at what was there now to add but that he should learn to prefer soft light eyes to sparkling dark ones and being always with her and always talking and his feelings exactly in that favorable state which a recent disappointment gives those soft light eyes could not be very long in obtaining the pre eminence having once set out and felt that he had done so on this road to happiness there was nothing on the side of prudence to stop him or make his progress slow no doubts of her deserving no fears opposition of taste no need of drawing new hopes of happiness from of temper her mind disposition opinions and habits wanted no half concealment no self deception on the present no reliance on future improvement even in the midst of his late he had acknowledged s mental superiority what must be his sense of it now therefore she was of course only too good for him but as nobody minds having what is too good for them he was very steadily earnest in the pursuit of the blessing and it was not possible that encouragement from her should be long wanting timid anxious doubting as she was it was still impossible that such tenderness as hers should not at times hold out the strongest hope of success though it remained for a later period to tell him the whole delightful and astonishing truth his happiness in knowing himself to have been so long the beloved of such a heart most have heen g enough to warrant any strength of language in which he could clothe it to her or to himself it most have been a delightful happiness but there was happiness elsewhere which no description can reach let no one presume to g ve the feelings of a young woman on receiving the assurance of that affection of which she has scarcely allowed herself to entertain a hope their own inclinations ascertained there were no difficulties behind no of poverty or parent it was a match which sir thomas s wishes had even sick of ambitious and connections more and more the sterling good of principle and and chiefly anxious to bind by the strongest all that remained to him of domestic felicity he had pondered with genuine satisfaction on the more than possibility of the two young friends finding their mutual consolation in each other for all that had occurred of disappointment to either and the joyful consent which met s application the high sense of having realized a g acquisition in the promise of for k daughter formed just such a contrast with his early opinion on the subject when the poor little girl s coming had been first agitated as time is forever producing between the plans and of mortals for their own instruction	26
without education fortune or connections did it very thoroughly she could hardly have made a more choice sir thomas had interest which from principle as well as pride from a general wish of doing right and a desire of seeing all that were connected with him in situations of respectability he would have been glad to exert for the advantage of lady s sister but her husband s profession was such as no interest could reach and before he had time to devise any other method of assisting them an absolute breach between the sisters had taken place it was the natural result of the conduct of h party and such as a very almost always produces to save herself from useless remonstrance mrs price never wrote to her family on the subject till actually married lady who was a woman of very tranquil feelings and a temper remarkably easy and indolent would have contented herself with merely giving up her sister and thinking no more of the matter but mrs had a spirit of activity which could not be satisfied till she had written a long and angry letter to to point out the folly of her conduct and threaten her with all its possible ill consequences mrs price in her turn was injured and angry and an answer which comprehended each sister in its bitterness and bestowed such very reflections on the pride of sir thomas as mrs could not possibly keep to herself put an end to all intercourse between them for a considerable period their homes were so distant and the circles in which they moved so distinct as almost to the means of ever hearing of each other s existence during the eleven following years or at least to make it very wonderful to sir thomas that mrs should ever have it in her power to tell them as she now and then did in an angry voice that had got another child by the end of eleven years however mrs price could no longer a rd to cherish pride or resentment or to lose one connection that might possibly assist her a large and still increasing family a husband for active service but not the less equal to company and good liquor and a very small income to supply their wants made her eager to regain the friends she had so carelessly sacrificed and she addressed lady in a letter which spoke so much and such a of children and such a want of almost everything else as could not but dispose them all to a reconciliation she was preparing for her ninth lying in and after the and imploring their countenance as to the expected child she could not conceal how important she felt they might be to the future maintenance of the eight already in being her eldest was a boy of ten years old a fine spirited fellow who longed to be out in the world but what could she do was there any chance of his being hereafter useful to sir thomas in the concerns of his west indian property no situation would be beneath him or what did sir thomas think of or how could a boy be sent out to the east the letter was not it re established peace and kindness sir thomas sent friendly advice and professions lady despatched money and baby linen and mrs wrote the letters such were its immediate and within a a more important advantage to mrs price resulted from it mrs was often observing to the others that she could not get her poor sister and her family out of her head and that much as they had all done for her she seemed to be wanting to do more and at length she could not but own it to be her wish that poor mrs price should be relieved from the charge and expense of one child entirely out of her great number what if they were among them to undertake the care of her eldest daughter a girl now nine years old of an age to require more attention than her poor mother could possibly give the trouble and expense of it to them would be nothing com with the benevolence of the action lady agreed with her instantly i think we cannot do better said she let us send for the child sir thomas could not give so and a consent he and hesitated it was a serious charge a girl so brought up must be provided for or there would be cruelty instead of kindness in taking her from her family he thought of his own four children of his two sons of cousins in love etc j but no sooner had he deliberately begun to state his objections than mrs interrupted him with a reply to them all whether stated or not my dear sir thomas i perfectly comprehend you and do justice to the generosity and delicacy of your notions which indeed are quite of a piece with your general conduct and i entirely agree with you in the main as to the propriety of doing everything one could by way of providing for a child one had in a manner taken into one s own hands and i am sure i should be the last person in the world to withhold my upon such an occasion having no children of my own whom should i look to in any little matter i may ever have to bestow but the children of my sisters and i am sure mr is too just but you know i am a woman of few words and professions do not let us be frightened from a good deed by a trifle give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world and ten to one but she has the means of settling well without further expense to anybody a niece of ours sir thomas	26
i may say or at least of yours would not grow up in this neighborhood without many advantages i don t say she would be so handsome as her cousins i dare say she would not but she would be introduced into the society of this country under such very favorable circumstances as in all human probability would get her a creditable establishment you are thinking of your sons but do not you know that of all things upon earth that is the least likely to happen brought up as they would be always together like brothers and sisters it is morally impossible i never knew an instance of it it is in fact the only sure way of providing against the connection suppose her a pretty girl and seen by tom or for the first time seven years hence and i dare say there would be mischief the very idea of her having been suffered to grow up at a distance from us all in poverty and neglect would be enough to either of the dear sweet tempered boys in love with her but breed her up with them from this time and suppose her even to have the beauty of an angel and she will never be more to either than a sister there is a great deal of truth in what you say replied sir thomas and far be it from me to throw any fanciful in the way of a plan which would be so consistent with the relative situations of each i only meant to observe that it ought not to be lightly engaged in and that to make it really serviceable to mrs price and creditable to ourselves we must secure to the child or consider ourselves engaged to secure to her hereafter as circumstances may arise the provision of a if no such establishment should o as you are so sanguine in expecting i thoroughly understand you cried mrs you are everything that is generous and considerate and i am sure we shall never on this point whatever i can do as you well know i am always ready enough to do for the good of those i love and though i could never feel for this little girl the part of the regard i bear your own dear children nor consider her in any respect so much my own i should hate myself if i were capable of her is not she a sister s child and could i bear to see her want while i had a bit of bread to give her my dear sir thomas with all my faults i have a warm heart and poor as i am would rather deny myself the necessaries of life than do an thing so if you are not against it i will write to my poor sister to morrow and make the proposal and as soon as matters are settled i will engage to get the child to you shall have no trouble about it my own trouble you know i never regard i will send to london on purpose and she may have a bed at her cousin the s and the child be appointed to meet her there they may easily get her from to town by the coach under the care of any creditable person that may chance to be going i dare say there is always some s wife or other going up except to the attack on s cousin sir thomas no longer made any objection and a more park respectable though less economical being accordingly everything was considered as settled and the pleasures of so benevolent a scheme were already enjoyed the division of gratifying sensations ought not in strict justice to have been equal for sir thomas was fully resolved to be the real and consistent patron of the selected child and mrs had not the least intention of being at any expense whatever in her maintenance as far as walking talking and reached she was thoroughly benevolent and nobody knew better how to dictate liberality to others but her love of money was equal to her love of directing and she knew quite as well how to save her own as to spend that of her friends having married on a income than she had been used to look forward to she had from the first fancied a very strict line of economy necessary and what was begun as a matter of prudence soon grew into a matter of choice as an object of that needful solicitude which there were no children to supply had there been a family to provide for mrs might never have saved her money but having no care of that kind there was nothing to her or lessen the comfort of making a yearly addition to an income which they had never lived up to under this principle by no real affection for her sister it was impossible for her to aim at more than the credit of projecting and arranging so expensive a charity though perhaps she might so little know herself as to walk home to the after this conversation in the happy belief of being the most liberal minded sister and aunt in the world when the subject was brought forward again her views were more fully explained and in reply to lady s calm inquiry of where shall the child come to first sister to you or to us sir thomas heard with some surprise that it would be totally out of mrs s power to take any share in the personal charge of her he had been considering her as a particularly welcome addition at the as a desirable companion to an aunt who had no children of her own but he found himself wholly mistaken mrs was sorry to say that the little girl s staying with them at least as things then were was quite out of the question	26
poor mr s state of health made it an impossibility he could no more bear the noise of a child than he could fly k indeed he should ever get well of his complaints it would be a different matter she should then be glad to take her turn and think nothing of the inconvenience but just now poor mr took up every moment of her time and the very mention of such a thing she was sure would him then she had better come to us said lady with the utmost composure a short pause sir thomas added with dignity yes let her home be in this house we will endeavor to do our duty by her and she will at least have the advantage of companions of her own age and of a regular park very true cried mrs which are both very important considerations j and it will be just the same to miss lee whether she has three girls to teach or only two there can be no difference i only wish i could be more useful but you see i do all in my power i am not one of those that spare their own trouble and shall fetch her however it may put me to inconvenience to have my chief away for three days i suppose sister you will put the child in the little white near the old it will be much the best place for her so near miss lee and not far from the girls and close by the who could either of them help to dress her you know and take care of her clothes for i suppose you would not think it fair to expect to wait on her as well as the others indeed i do not see that you could possibly place her anywhere else lady made no opposition i hope she will prove a well girl continued mrs and be sensible of her uncommon good fortune in having such friends should her disposition be really bad said sir thomas we must not for our own children s sake continue her in the family but there is no reason to expect so great an evil we shall probably see much to wish altered in her and must prepare ourselves for gross ignorance some meanness of opinions and very distressing vulgarity of manner but these are not faults nor i trust can they be dangerous for her associates had my daughters been younger than herself i park should hare considered the introduction of such a companion as a matter of very serious moment but as it is i hope there can be nothing to fear for them and everything to hope for her from the association that is exactly what i think cried mrs and what i was saying to my husband this morning it will be an education for the child said i only being with her cousins if miss lee taught her nothing she would learn to be good and clever from them i hope she will not my poor said lady i have but just got to leave it alone there will be some difficulty in our way mrs observed sir thomas as to the distinction proper to be made between the girls as they grow up how to preserve in the minds of my daughters the consciousness of what they are without making them think too lowly of their cousin and how without her spirits too far to make her remember that she is not a miss i should wish to see them very good friends and would on no account in my girls the smallest degree of towards their relation but still they cannot be equals their rank fortune rights and expectations will always be different it is a point of great delicacy and you must assist us in our to choose exactly the right line of conduct mrs was quite at his service and though she perfectly agreed with him as to its being a most difficult thing encouraged him to hope that between them it would be easily managed it will be readily believed that mrs did not write to her sister in vain mrs price seemed rather surprised that a girl should be fixed on when she had so many fine boys but accepted the offer most assuring them of her daughter s being a very well disposed good girl and trusting they would never have cause to throw her off she spoke of her further as somewhat delicate and but was sanguine in the hope of her being better for change of air poor woman i she probably thought change of air might agree with many of her children chapter n the little girl performed her long journey in safety and at was met by mrs who thus in the credit of being foremost to welcome her and in the importance of leading her in to the others and her to their kindness price was at this time just ten years old and though there might not be much in her first appearance to there was at least nothing to disgust her relations she was small of her age with no glow of complexion nor any other striking beauty exceedingly timid and shy and shrinking from notice but her air though awkward was not vulgar her voice was sweet and when she spoke her countenance was pretty sir thomas and lady received her very kindly and sir thomas seeing how much she needed encouragement tried to be all that was but he had to work against a most gravity of and lady without taking half so much trouble or speaking one word where he spoke ten by the mere aid of a good smile became immediately the less awful character of the two the young people were all at home and sustained their share in the introduction very well vol i with much good and no embarrassment	26
my dear their considerate aunt would reply it is very bad but you must not expect everybody to be as forward and quick at learning as yourself but aunt she is really so very ignorant do you know we asked her last night which way she would go to get to ireland and she said she should cross to the isle of she thinks of nothing but the isle of and she calls it the island as if there were no other island in the world i am sure i should have been ashamed of myself if i had not known better long before i was so old as she is i cannot remember the time when i did not know a great deal that she has not the least notion of yet how long ago it is aunt since we used to repeat the order of the kings of england with the dates of their accession and most of the principal events of their yes added the other and of the as low as besides a great deal of the heathen and all the and distinguished philosophers very true indeed my but you are blessed with wonderful memories and your poor cousin has probably none at all there is a vast deal of difference in memories as well as in everything else and therefore you must make allowance for your cousin and pity her deficiency and remember that if you are ever so forward and clever yourselves you should always be modest for much as you know already there is a great deal more for you to learn yes i know there is till i am seventeen but i must tell you another thing of so odd and so stupid do you know she says she does not want to learn either music or drawing to be sure my dear that is very stupid indeed and shows a great want of genius and but all things considered i do not know whether it is not as well that it should be so for though you know owing to me your papa and mamma are so good as to bring her up with you it is not at all necessary that she should be as accomplished as you are on the contrary it is much more desirable that there should be a difference such were the counsels by which mrs assisted to form her minds and it is not very wonderful that with all their promising park and early information they should be entirely deficient in the less common of generosity and humility in everything but disposition they were admirably taught sir thomas did not know what was wanting because though a truly anxious father he was not outwardly and the reserve of his manner repressed all the flow of their spirits before him to the education of her daughters lady paid not the smallest attention she had not time for such cares she was a woman who spent her days in sitting nicely dressed on a sofa doing some long piece of of little use and no beauty thinking more of her than her children but very indulgent to the latter when it did not put herself to inconvenience guided in everything important by sir thomas and in smaller concerns by her sister had she possessed greater leisure for the service of her girls she would probably have supposed it unnecessary for they were the care of a with proper masters and could want nothing more as for s being stupid at learning she could only say it was very unlucky but some people were stupid and must take more pains she did not know what else was to be done and except her being so dull she must add she saw no harm in the poor little thing and always found her very handy and quick in carrying messages and what she wanted with all her faults of ignorance and timidity was at park and learning to transfer in its favor much of her attachment to her former home grew up there not unhappily among her cousins there was no positive in maria or and though was often hy their treatment of her she thought too lowly of her own claims to feel injured hy it from about the time of her entering the family lady in consequence of a little ill health and a great deal of gave up the house in town which she had been used to occupy every spring and remained wholly in the country leaving sir thomas to attend his duty in parliament with whatever increase or of comfort might arise from her absence in the country therefore the miss continued to exercise their memories practise their and grow tall and womanly and their father saw them becoming in person manner and accomplishments everything that could satisfy his anxiety his eldest son was careless and extravagant and had already given him much uneasiness but his other children promised him nothing but good his daughters he felt while they retained the name of must be giving it new grace and in it he trusted would extend its respectable and the character of his strong good sense and of mind bid most fairly for utility honor and happiness to himself and all his connections he was to be a clergyman amid the cares and the complacency which his own children suggested sir thomas did not forget to do what he could for the children of mrs price he assisted her liberally in the education and disposal of her sons as they became old enough lor a pursuit and though almost totally separated from her family was sensible of the truest satisfaction in hearing of any kindness towards them or of anything at all promising in their situation or conduct once and once only in the course of many years had she the happiness of being with william of the rest she saw nothing nobody	26
shall you like it was too much surprised to do more than repeat her aunt s words going to leave you yes my dear why should you be astonished you have been five years with us and my sister always meant to take you when mr died but you must come up and tack on my patterns all the same the news was as disagreeable to as it had been unexpected she had never received kindness from her aunt and could not love her i shall be very sorry to go away said she with a faltering voice yes i dare say you will that s natural enough i suppose you have had as little to vex vol i s you since you came into this house as any creature in the world i hope i am not ungrateful aunt said modestly no my dear i hope not i have always found you a very good girl and am i never to live here again never my dear but you are sure of a com home it can make very little difference to you whether you are in one house or the other left the room with a very sorrowful heart she could not feel the difference to be so small she could not think of living with her aunt with anything like satisfaction as soon as she met with she told him her distress cousin said she something is going to happen which i do not like at all and though you have often persuaded me into being reconciled to things that i disliked at first you will not be able to do it now i am going to live entirely with my aunt indeed yes my aunt has just told me so it is quite settled i am to leave park and go to the white house i suppose as soon as she is removed there well and if the plan were not unpleasant to you i should call it an excellent one oh cousin it has everything else in its favor my aunt is acting like a sensible woman in wishing for you she is choosing a friend and companion exactly where she ought and i am glad her love of money park does not interfere you will be what you ought to be to her i hope it does not distress you very much indeed it does i cannot like it i love this house and everything in it i shall love nothing there you know how uncomfortable i feel with her i can say nothing for her manner to you as a child but it was the same with us all or nearly so she never knew how to be pleasant to children but you are now of an age to be treated better i think she is better already and when you are her only companion you must be important to her i can never be important to any one what is to prevent you everything my situation my foolishness and awkwardness as to your foolishness and awkwardness my dear believe me you never have a shadow of either but in using the words so there is no reason in the world why you should not be important where you are known you have good sense and a sweet temper and i am sure you have a grateful heart that could never receive kindness without wishing to return it i do not know any better for a friend and companion you are too kind said at such praise how shall i ever thank you as i ought for thinking so well of me oh cousin if i am to go away i shall remember your goodness to the last moment of my life why indeed i should hope to he remembered at such a distance as the white house you speak as if you were going two hundred miles off instead of only across the park but you will belong to us almost as much as ever the two families will be meeting every day in the year the only difference will be that living with your aunt you will necessarily be brought forward as you ought to be here there are too many whom you can hide behind but with her you will be forced to speak for yourself oh do not say so i must say it and say it with pleasure mrs is much better fitted than my mother for having the charge of you now she is of a temper to do a great deal for anybody she really interests herself about and she will force you to do justice to your natural powers sighed and said i cannot see things as you do but i ought to believe you to be right rather than myself and i am very much obliged to you for trying to reconcile me to what must be if i could suppose my aunt really to care for me it would be delightful to feel myself of consequence to anybody i here i know i am of none and yet i love the place so well the place is what you will not quit though you quit the house you will have as free a command of the park and gardens as ever even your constant little heart need not take fright at such a change you will have tiie same walks to frequent the same library to choose from the same people to look at the same horse to ride very true yes dear old gray pony ah cousin when i remember how much i used to dread riding what terrors it gave me to hear it talked of as likely to do me good oh how i have trembled at my uncle s opening his lips if horses were talked of and then think of the kind pains you took to reason and persuade me out of my fears and	26
convince me that i should like it after a little while and feel how right you proved to be i am inclined to hope you may always as well and i am quite convinced that your being with mrs will be as good for your mind as riding has been for your health and as much for your ultimate happiness too so ended their discourse which for any very appropriate service it could render might as well have been spared for mrs had not the smallest intention of taking her it had never occurred to her on the present occasion but as a thing to be carefully avoided to prevent its being expected she had fixed on the smallest which could rank as genteel among the buildings of parish the white house being only just large enough to receive herself and her servants and allow a spare room for a friend of which she made a very particular point the spare rooms at the had never been wanted but the absolute necessity of a spare room for a friend was now never forgotten not all her precautions however could save her from being suspected of something better or perhaps her very display of the importance of a spare room might have sir thomas to suppose it really intended for soon brought the matter to a by carelessly observing to mrs think sister we need not keep miss lee any longer when goes to live with you mrs almost started live with me dear lady i what do you mean is not she to live with you i thought you had settled it with sir thomas me never i never spoke a syllable about it to sir thomas nor he to me live with me the last thing in the world for me to think of or for anybody to wish that really knows us both good heaven what could i do with me a poor helpless forlorn widow unfit for anything my spirits quite broken down what could i do with a girl at her time of life a girl of fifteen the very age of all others to need most attention and care and put the spirits to the test sure sir thomas could not seriously expect such a thing sir thomas is too much my friend nobody that wishes me well i am sure would propose it how came sir thomas to speak to you about it indeed i do not know i suppose he thought it best but what did he say he could not say he wished me to take i am sure in his heart he could not wish me to do it no he only said he thought it very likely and i thought so too we both thought it would be a comfort to you but if you do not like it there is no more to be said she is no here dear sister if you consider my unhappy state how can she be any comfort to me here am i a poor desolate widow deprived of the best of husbands my health gone in attending and nursing him my spirits still worse all my peace in this world destroyed with barely enough to support me in the rank of a and enable me to live so as not to disgrace the memory of the dear departed what possible comfort could i have in taking such a charge upon me as if i could wish it for my own sake i would not do so unjust a thing by the poor girl she is in good hands and sure of doing well i must struggle through my sorrows and difficulties as i can then you will not mind living by yourself quite alone dear lady what am i fit for but solitude now and then i shall hope to have a friend in my little cottage i shall always have a bed for a friend but the most part of my future days will be spent in utter seclusion if i can but make both ends meet that s all i ask for i hope sister things are not so very bad with you neither considering sir thomas says you will have six hundred a year lady i do not complain i know i cannot live as i have done but i must where i can and learn to be a better manager i have been a liberal housekeeper enough but i shall not be ashamed to practise economy now my situation is as much altered as my income a great many things were due from poor mr as clergyman of the parish that cannot be expected fi om me it is unknown how much was consumed in our kitchen by odd comers and at the white house matters must be better looked after i must live within my income or i shall be miserable and i own it would give me great satisfaction to be able to do rather more to lay by a little at the end of the year i dare say you will you always do don t you my object lady is to be of use to those that come after me it is for your children s good that i wish to be richer i have nobody else to care for but i should be very glad to think i could leave a little trifle among them worth their having you are very good but do not trouble yourself about them they are sure of being well provided for sir thomas will take care of that why you know sir thomas s means will be rather if the estate is to make such poor returns oh that will soon be settled sir thomas has been writing about it i know well lady said mrs moving to go i can only say that my sole desire is to be	26
much like his sister at ten she cried bitterly over this reflection when her uncle was gone and her cousins on seeing her with red eyes set her down as a chapter iv tom bad of late spent so little of big time at borne tbat be could be only missed and lady was soon to find bow very well tbey did even bis bow well could supply bis place in carving talking to tbe steward writing to tbe attorney settling witb tbe servants and equally saving ber from all possible fatigue or exertion in every particular but tbat of directing ber letters the earliest intelligence of the travellers safe arrival in after a favorable voyage was received though not before mrs had been indulging in very dreadful fears and trying to make them whenever she could get him alone and as she depended on being tbe first person made acquainted witb any fatal catastrophe she had already arranged tbe manner of breaking it to all the others when sir thomas s assurances of their both being alive and well made it necessary to lay by ber agitation and preparatory speeches for a while tbe winter came and passed their being called for the accounts continued perfectly good and mrs in for ber assisting their displaying their park who was walking all day thinking ought to walk as much was absent at this time or the evil would have been earlier when he returned to understand how was situated and perceived its ill effects there seemed with him but one thing to be done and that must have a horse was the resolute declaration with which he opposed whatever could be urged by the of his mother or the economy of his aunt to make it appear unimportant mrs could not help thinking that some steady old thing might be found among the numbers belonging to the park that would do vastly well or that one might be borrowed of the steward or that perhaps dr grant might now and then lend them the pony he sent to the post she could not but consider it as absolutely unnecessary and even improper that should have a regular lady s horse of her own in the style of her cousins she was sure sir thomas had never intended it and she must say that to be making such a purchase in his absence and adding to the great expenses of his stable at a time when a large part of his income was unsettled seemed to her very must have a horse was s only reply mrs could not see it in the same light lady did she entirely agreed with her son as to the necessity of it and as to its being considered necessary by his father she only pleaded against there being any hurry she only wanted him to wait till sir thomas s return and then sir thomas might settle it all himself he would be at home in september and where would be the harm of only waiting till september though was much more displeased with his aunt than with his mother as least regard for her niece he could not help paying more attention to what she said and at length determined on a method of proceeding which would the risk of his father s thinking he had done too and at the same time procure for the immediate means of exercise which he could not bear she should be without he had three horses of his own but not one that would carry a woman two of them were hunters the third a useful road horse this third he resolved to exchange for one that his cousin might ride he knew where such a one was to be met with and having once made up his mind the whole business was soon completed the new mare proved a treasure with a very little trouble she became exactly calculated for the purpose and was then put in almost full possession of her she had not supposed before that anything could ever suit her like the old gray pony but her delight in s mare was far beyond any former pleasure of the sort and the addition it was ever receiving in the consideration of that kindness from which her pleasure sprung was beyond all her words to express she regarded her cousin as an example of everything good and great as possessing worth which no one but herself could ever appreciate and as entitled to such gratitude from her as no i could be strong enough to pay her sentiments towards him were vol i park of all that was respectful grateful confiding and tender as the horse continued in name as well as fact the property of mrs could its being for s use and had lady ever thought about her own objection again he might have been excused in her eyes for not waiting till sir thomas s return in september for when september came sir thomas was still abroad and without any near prospect of finishing his business circumstances had suddenly arisen at a moment when he was beginning to turn all his thoughts towards england and the very great uncertainty in which everything was then involved determined him on sending home his son and waiting the final arrangement by himself tom arrived safely bringing an excellent account of his father s health but to very little purpose as far as mrs was concerned sir thomas s sending away his son seemed to her so like a parent s care under the influence of a of evil to himself that she could not help feeling dreadful and as the long evenings of autumn came on was so terribly haunted by these ideas in the sad of her cottage as to be obliged to take daily refuge in the of the park the return of winter engagements however was not	26
without its effect and in the course of their progress her mind became so pleasantly occupied in the fortunes of her eldest niece as tolerably to quiet her nerves if poor sir thomas were fated park never to it would be peculiarly to see their dear maria well married she very often thought always they were in the company of men of fortune and particularly on the introduction of a young man who had recently succeeded to one of the largest estates and finest places in the country mr was from the first struck with the beauty of miss and being inclined to marry soon fancied himself in love he was a heavy young man with not more than common sense but as there was nothing disagreeable in his figure or address the young lady was well pleased with her conquest being now in her twenty first year maria was beginning to think matrimony a duty and as a marriage with mr would give her the enjoyment of a larger income than her father s as well as her the house in town which was now a prime object it became by the same rule of moral obligation her evident duty to marry mr if she could mrs was most zealous in the match by every suggestion and contrivance likely to its to either party and among other means by seeking an intimacy with the gentleman s mother who at present lived with him and to whom she even forced lady to go through ten miles of indifferent road to pay a morning visit it was not long before a good understanding took place between this lady and herself mrs rush worth acknowledged herself very desirous that her son should marry and declared park that a all the ladies she had even seen miss seemed bj her amiable qualities and accomplishments the best adapted to make him happy mrs accepted the compliment and admired the nice of character which could so well distinguish merit maria was indeed the pride and delight of them all perfectly an angel and of course so surrounded by admirers must be difficult in her choice but yet as far as mrs could allow herself to decide on so short an acquaintance mr appeared precisely the young man to deserve and attach her after dancing with each other at a proper number of balls the young people justified these opinions and an engagement with a due reference to the absent sir thomas was entered into much to the satisfaction of their respective families and of the general on of the neighborhood who had for many weeks past felt the of mr s marrying miss it was some months before sir thomas s consent could be received but in the mean while as no one felt a doubt of his most cordial pleasure in the connection the intercourse of the two families was carried on without restraint and no other attempt made at secrecy than mrs s talking of it everywhere as a matter not to be talked of at present was the only one of the family who could see a fault in the business but no r of his aunt s could induce him ta find mr a companion he could allow his to be the best judge of ber own happiness but he was not pleased th her should centre in a large income nor could he refrain from often saying to himself in mr s company if this man had not twelve thousand a year he would be a very stupid fellow sir thomas however was truly hi in the prospect of an alliance so unquestionably advantageous and of which he heard nothing but the perfectly good and agreeable it was a connection exactly of the right sort in the same county and the same interest and his most hearty was conveyed as soon as possible he only that the marriage should not take place before his return which he was again looking eagerly forward to he wrote in april and had strong hopes of settling everything to his entire satisfaction and leaving before the end of the summer such was the state of affairs in the month of july and had just reached her year when the society of the village received an addition in the brother and sister of mrs grant a mr and miss the children of her mother by a second marriage they were young people of fortune the son had a good estate in the daughter twenty thousand pounds as children their sister had always been very fond of them but as her own marriage had been soon followed by the death of their common parent which left them to the care of a brother of their father of whom mrs grant knew nothing she had scarcely seen them since in their uncle s park house they had found a kind home admiral and mrs though agreeing in nothing else were united in affection for these children or at least were no further adverse in their feelings than that each had their favorite to whom they showed the greatest fondness of the two the admiral delighted in the boy mrs on the girl and it was the lady s death which now obliged her after some months further trial at her uncle s house to find another home admiral was a man of vicious conduct who chose instead of retaining his niece to bring his mistress under his own roof and to this mrs grant was indebted for her sister s proposal of coming to her a measure quite as welcome on one side as it could be expedient on the other for mrs grant having by this time run through the usual resources of ladies in the country without a family of children having more than filled her favorite sitting room with pretty furniture and made a choice collection of plants	26
and poultry was very much in want of some variety at home the arrival therefore of a sister whom she had always loved and now hoped to retain with her as long as she remained single was highly agreeable and her chief anxiety was lest should not satisfy the habits of a young woman who had been mostly used to london miss was not entirely free from similar apprehensions though they arose principally from doubts of her sister s style of living and tone of society and it was not till after she had tried in vain to persuade her brother to settle with her at park his own country house that she could resolve to hazard herself among her other relations to anything like a of or of society henry had a great dislike he could not accommodate his sister in an article of such importance hut he escorted her with the utmost kindness into and as readily engaged to fetch her away again at half an hour s notice whenever she were weary of the place the meeting was very satisfactory on each side miss found a sister without or a sister s who looked the gentleman and a house and well fitted up and mrs grant received in those whom she hoped to love than ever a young man and woman of very appearance mary was pretty henry though not handsome had air and countenance the manners of were lively and pleasant and mrs grant immediately gave them credit for everything else she was delighted with each but mary was her dearest object and having never been able to glory in beauty of her own she thoroughly enjoyed the power of being proud of her sister s she had not waited her arrival to look out for a suitable match for her she had fixed on tom the eldest son of a was not too good for a girl of twenty thousand pounds with all the elegance and accomplishments which mrs grant foresaw in her and being a warm hearted woman mary had not been three hours in the house before she told her what she had planned miss was glad to find a family of such consequence so very near them and not at all displeased either at her sister s early care or the choice it had fallen on matrimony was her object provided she could marry well and seen mr in town she knew that objection could no more be made to his person than to his situation in life while she treated it as a joke therefore she did not forget to think of it seriously the scheme was soon repeated to henry and now added mrs i have thought of something to make it quite complete i should dearly love to settle you both in this country and therefore henry you shall marry the youngest miss a nice handsome good accomplished girl who will make you very happy henry bowed and thanked her my dear sister said mary if you can persuade him into anything of the sort it will be a fresh matter of delight to me to find myself allied to anybody so clever and i shall only regret that you have not half a dozen daughters to dispose of if you can persuade henry to marry you must have the address of a all that english abilities can do has been tried already i have three very particular friends who have been all dying for him in their turn and the pains which they their mothers very clever women as well as my dear aunt and myself have taken to reason or trick him into marrying is inconceivable he is the most horrible that can be imagined if your miss do not park like to have their hearts broke let them avoid henry my dear brother i will not believe this of you no i am sure you are too good you will be kinder than mary you will allow for the doubts of youth and i am of a temper and unwilling to risk my happiness in a hurry can think more highly of the matrimonial state than myself i consider the blessing of a wife as most justly described in those discreet lines of the poet heaven s last best gift there mrs grant you see how he dwells on one word and only look at his smile i i assure you he is very detestable the admiral s lessons have quite spoiled him i pay very little regard said mrs grant to what any young person says on the subject of marriage if they profess a for it i only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person dr grant congratulated miss on feeling no to the state herself oh yes i am not at all ashamed of it i would have everybody marry if they can do it properly i do not like to have people throw themselves away but everybody should marry as soon as they can do it to advantage chapter v the young people were pleased with each other from the first on each side there was much to attract and their acquaintance soon promised as early an intimacy as good manners would warrant miss s beauty did her no with the miss they were too handsome themselves to dislike any woman for being so too and were almost as much charmed as their brothers with her lively dark eye clear brown complexion and general had she been tall full formed and fair it might have been more of a trial but as it was there could be no comparison and she was most a sweet pretty girl while they were the finest young women in the country her brother was not handsome no when they first saw him he was absolutely plain black and plain but still he was the gentleman with a	26
pleasing address the second meeting proved him not so very plain he was plain to be sure but then he had so much countenance and his teeth were so good and he was so well made that one soon forgot he was plain and after a third interview after dining in company with him at the he was no longer allowed to be called so by anybody he was in fact the most agreeable young man the sisters had ever known park and they were equally delighted with him miss s engagement made him in the property of of which was fully aware and before he had been at a week she was quite ready to be fallen in love with maria s notions on the subject were more confused and indistinct she did not want to see or understand there could be no harm in her liking an agreeable man everybody knew her situation mr must take care of himself mr did not mean to be in any danger the miss were worth pleasing and were ready to be pleased and he began with no object but of making them like him he did not want them to die of love but with sense and temper which ought to have made him judge and feel better he allowed himself great latitude on such points i like your miss exceedingly sister said he as he returned from attending them to their carriage after the said dinner visit they are very elegant agreeable girls so they are indeed and i am delighted to hear you say it but you like best oh yes i like best but do you really for miss is in general thought the so i should suppose she has the advantage in every feature and i prefer her countenance but i like best miss is certainly the and i have found her the most agreeable but i shall always like best because you order me i shall not talk to you henry but i know yon will like her best at last do not i tell yon that i like her at first and besides miss is engaged remember that my dear brother her ice is made yes and i like her the better for it an engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged she is satisfied with herself her cares are over and she feels that she may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion all is safe with a lady engaged no harm can be done why as to that mr worth is a very good sort of young man and it is a great match for her but miss does not care three for him that is your opinion of your intimate friend i do not to it i am sure miss is very much attached to mr i could see it in her eyes when he was mentioned i think too well of miss to suppose she would ever give her hand without her heart mary how shall we manage him we must leave him to himself i believe talking does no good he will be taken in at last but i would not have him taken in i would not have him i would have it all fair and honorable oh dear let him stand his chance and be taken in it will do just as well everybody is taken in at some period or other always in marriage dear mary in marriage especially with all due to of the present company as chance to be my dear mrs there is not one in a hundred o either sex who is not taken in when they marry look where i will i see that it is so and i feel that it must he so when i consider that it is of all transactions the one in which people most from others and are least honest themselves ah you have been in a bad school for matrimony in hill street my poor aunt had certainly little cause to the state but however speaking from my own observation it is a business i know so many who have married in the full expectation and confidence of some one particular advantage in the connection or accomplishment or good quality in the person who have found themselves entirely deceived and been obliged to put up with exactly the reverse what is this but a take in my dear child there must be a little imagination here i beg your pardon but i cannot quite believe you depend upon it you see but half you see the evil but you do not the consolation there will be little and disappointments everywhere and we are all apt to expect too much but then if one scheme of happiness fails human nature turns to another if the first calculation is wrong we make a second better we find comfort somewhere and those evil minded dearest mary who make much of a little are more taken in and deceived than the parties themselves well done sister i honor your du corps when i am a wife i mean to be just as myself and i wish my friends in general would be so too it would save me many a heart ache you are as bad as your brother mary but we will cure you both shall cure you both and without any taking in stay with us and we will cure you the without wanting to be cured were very willing to stay mary was satisfied with the as a present home and henry equally ready to his visit he had come intending to spend only a few days with them but promised well and there was nothing to call him elsewhere it delighted mrs grant to keep them both with her and dr grant was exceedingly well contented to have it so a talking pretty young woman like miss is	26
always pleasant society to an indolent stay man and mr s being his guest was an excuse for drinking every day the miss admiration of mr was more than anything which miss s habits made her likely to feel she acknowledged however that the mr were very fine young men that two such young men were not often seen together even in london and that their manners particularly those of the eldest were very good he had been much in london and had more and gallantry park than and must therefore he preferred and indeed his the eldest was another strong claim she had felt an early that she should like the eldest she knew it was her way tom must have heen thought pleasant indeed at any rate he was the sort of young man to he generally liked his was of the kind to he oftener found than some of a higher stamp for he had easy manners excellent spirits a large acquaintance and a great deal to say and the of park and a did no harm to all this miss soon felt that he and his situation might do she looked her with due consideration and found almost everything in his favor a park a real park five miles round a spacious modern house so well placed and well as to deserve to he in any collection of of gentlemen s seats in the kingdom and wanting only to he completely new furnished pleasant sisters a quiet mother and an man himself with the advantage of tied up from much at present hy a promise to his father and of sir thomas hereafter it might do very well she she should accept him and she accordingly to interest herself a little the horse which he had ta run at the b races these races were to call him away not long after their acquaintance and as it appeared that the family did not from his usual on expect him hack again for many weeks it would bring his passion to an early proof was said on his side to her to attend the and schemes were made for a large party to them with all the eagerness of inclination bat it would only do to be talked of and what was she doing and thinking all this while and what was her opinion of the new comers few young ladies of eighteen could be less called on to speak their opinion than in a quiet way very little attended to she paid her tribute of admiration to miss s beauty but as she still continued to think mr very plain in spite of her two cousins having repeatedly proved the contrary she never mentioned him the notice which she excited herself was to this effect i begin now to understand you all except miss price said miss as she was walking with the mr pray is she out or is she not i am puzzled she dined at the with the rest of you which seemed like being out and yet she says so little that i can hardly suppose she is to whom this was chiefly addressed relied i believe i know what you mean but i will not undertake to answer the question my cousin is grown up she has the age and sense of a woman but the and not are beyond me and yet in general nothing can be more easily ascertained the distinction is so broad manners as well as appearance are generally so totally different till now i park not have supposed it possible to be mistaken as to a girl s being out or not a girl not out has always the same sort of dress a close bonnet for instance looks very and never says a word you may smile but it is so i assure you and except that it is sometimes carried a little too far it is all very proper girls should be quiet and modest the most objectionable part is that the alteration of manners on being introduced into company is frequently too sudden they sometimes pass in such very little time from reserve to quite the opposite to confidence that is the part of the present system one does not like to see a girl of eighteen or nineteen so immediately up to everything and perhaps when one has seen her hardly able to speak the year before mr i dare say you have sometimes met with such changes i believe i have but this is hardly fair i see what you are at you are me and miss no indeed miss i i do not know who or what you mean i am quite in the dark but i will you with a great deal of pleasure if you will tell me what about ah you carry it off very well but i cannot be quite so far imposed on you must have had miss in your eye in describing an altered young lady you paint too accurately for mistake it was exactly so the of baker street we were speaking of them the other day you know you have heard me mention charles the circumstance vol i if was precisely as this lady has represented it when first introduced me to his about two years ago his sister was not out and i could not get her to speak to me i sat there an hour one morning waiting for with only her and a little girl or two in the room the being sick or run away and the mother in and out every moment with letters of business and i could hardly get a word or a look from the young lady nothing like a civil answer she np her mouth and turned from me with such an air i did not see her again for a she was	26
then out i met her at mrs s and did not recollect her she came up to me claimed me as an acquaintance stared me out of countenance and talked and laughed till i did not know which way to look i felt that i must be the jest of the room at the time and miss it is plain has heard the story and a very pretty story it is and with more truth in it i dare say than does credit to miss it is too common a fault mothers certainly have not yet got quite the right way of managing their daughters i do not know where the error lies i do not pretend to set people right but i do see that they are often wrong those who are showing the world what female manners should be said mr gallantly are doing a great deal to set them right the error is plain enough said the less courteous such girls are ill brought up they are given wrong notions from the be park they are always acting npon of vanity and there is no more real modesty in their behavior before they appear in public than afterwards i do not know replied miss hesitatingly yes i cannot agree with you there it is certainly the part of the business it is much worse to have girls not out give themselves the same airs and take the same liberties as if they were which i have seen done that is worse than anything quite disgusting i yes that is very inconvenient indeed said mr it leads one astray one does not know what to do the close bonnet and air you describe so well and nothing was ever tell one what is expected but i got into a dreadful scrape last year from the want of them i went down to for a week with a friend last september just after my return from the west indies my friend you have heard me speak of his father and mother and sisters were there all new to me when we reached place they were out we went after them and found them on the pier mrs and the two miss with others of their acquaintance i made my bow in form and as mrs was surrounded by men attached myself to one of her daughters walked by her side all the way home and made myself as agreeable as i could the young lady perfectly easy in her manners and as ready to talk as to listen i had not a suspicion that i could be doing anything wrong they looked just the same both well park dressed with and like other g but i afterwards found that i had been giving all my attention to the youngest who was not out and had most excessively offended the eldest miss ought not to have been noticed for the next six months and miss i believe has never forgiven me that was bad indeed poor miss though i have no younger sister i feel for her to be neglected before one s time must be very but it was entirely the mother s fault miss should have been with her such half and half doings never prosper but now i must be satisfied about miss price does she go to balls does she dine out everywhere as well as at my sister s no replied i do not think she has ever been to a ball my mother seldom goes into company herself and nowhere but with mrs grant and stays at home with her oh then the point is clear miss price is not out vi mb set off for and miss was prepared to find a great chasm in their society and to miss him decidedly in the meetings which were now almost daily between the families and on their all dining together at the park soon after his going she her chosen place near the bottom of the table fully expecting to feel a most melancholy difference in the change of masters it would be a very business she was sure in comparison with his brother would have nothing to say the soup would be sent round in a most manner wine drank without any smiles or agreeable and the cut up without supplying one pleasant anecdote of any former or a single entertaining story about my friend such a one she must try to find amusement in what was passing at the upper end of the table and in observing mr who was now making his appearance at for the first time since the arrival he had been visiting a friend in a neighboring county and that having recently had his grounds laid out by an mr was returned with his head full of the subject and very eager to be improving his own place in the same way and though not saying much to the purpose could talk of nothing else the subject had been already handled in the drawing room it was in the dining parlor miss s attention and opinion was evidently his chief aim and though her showed rather conscious superiority than any solicitude to oblige him the mention of court and the ideas attached to it gave her a feeling of complacency which prevented her from being very i wish you could see said he it is the most complete thing i never saw a place so altered in my life i told smith i did not know where i was the approach now is one of the finest things in the country you see the house in the most surprising manner i declare when i got back to yesterday it looked like a prison quite a dismal old prison oh for shame cried mrs a prison indeed court is the noblest old place in the world it wants improvement ma	26
am beyond anything i never saw a place that wanted so much improvement in my life and it is so forlorn that i do not know what can be done with it no wonder that mr should think so at present said mrs grant to mrs with a smile but depend upon it will have every improvement in time which his heart can desire i must try to do something with it said mr but i do not know what i hope i shall have some good friend to help me park your best friend upon such an occasion said miss calmly would be mr i imagine that is what i was thinking of as he has done so well by smith i think i had better have him at once his terms are five guineas a day well and if they were ten cried mrs i am sure you need not regard it the expense need not be any if i were you i should not think of the expense i would have everything done in the best style and made as nice as possible such a place as court deserves everything that taste and money can do you have space to work upon there and grounds that will well reward you for my own part if i had anything within the part of the size of i should be always planting and improving for naturally i am excessively fond of it it would be too ridiculous for me to attempt anything where i am now with my little half acre it would be quite a but if i had more room i should take a prodigious delight in improving and planting we did a vast deal in that way at the we made it quite a different place from what it was when we first had it you young ones do not remember much about it perhaps but if dear sir thomas were here he could tell you what improvements we made and a great deal more would have been done but for poor mr s sad state of health he could hardly ever get out poor man to enjoy anything and that me from doing several things that sir thomas and i used to talk of if it had not been park for that we should have carried on the garden wall and made the plantation to shut out the churchyard just as dr grant has done we were always doing something as it was it was only the spring mr s death that we put in the against the wall which is now grown such a tree and getting to such perfection sir addressing herself then to dr grant the tree well a madam replied dr grant the soil is good and i never pass it without that the fruit should be so little worth the trouble of gathering sir it is a park we bought it as a park and it cost us that is it was a present from sir thomas but i saw the bill and i know it cost seven shillings and was charged as a park you were imposed on ma am replied dr grant these potatoes have as much the flavor of a park as the fruit from that tree it is an fruit at the best but a good is which none from my garden are the truth is ma am said mrs grant pretending to whisper across the table to mrs that dr grant hardly knows what the natural taste of our is he is scarcely ever indulged with one for it is so valuable a fruit with a little assistance and ours is such a remarkably large fair sort that what with early and preserves my cook to get them all mrs who had begun to was appeased and for a little while other subjects took park place of the improvements of dr grant and mrs were seldom good friends their acquaintance had begun in and their habits were totally after a short interruption mr began again smith s place is the admiration of all the country and it was a mere nothing before took it in hand i think i shall have mr said lady if i were you i would have a very pretty one likes to get out into a in fine weather mr was eager to assure her of his acquiescence and tried to make out something complimentary but between his submission to her taste and his having always intended the same himself with the objects of attention to the comfort of ladies in general and of that there was one only whom he was anxious to please he grew puzzled and was glad to put an end to his speech by a proposal of wine mr however though not usually a great had still more to say on the subject next his heart smith has not much above a hundred acres altogether in his grounds which is little enough and makes it more surprising that the place can have been so improved now at we have a good seven hundred without reckoning the water meadows so that i think if so much could be done at we need not despair there have been two or three fine old trees cut down that grew too near the house and it opens the prospect which makes mo think that or anybody of that sort would certainly have the avenue at down the that leads from the west front to the top of the hill you know turning to miss particularly as he spoke but miss thought it most becoming to reply the avenue oh i do not recollect it i really know very little of who was sitting on the other side of exactly opposite miss and who had been attentively listening now looked at him and said in a low voice cut down an avenue i what a pity	26
i does not it make you think of ye fallen avenues once more i mourn your fate he smiled as he answered i am afraid the avenue stands a bad chance i should like to see before it is cut down to see the place as it is now in its old state but i do not suppose i shall have you never been there no you never can and it is out of distance for a ride i wish we could contrive it oh it does not signify whenever i do see it you will tell me how it has been altered i collect said miss that ton is an old place and a place of some grandeur in any particular style of building the house was built in elizabeth s time and is a large regular brick building heavy but respectable looking and has many good rooms it is ill placed it stands in one of the lowest spots of the park in that respect for im but the woods are fine and is stream which i dare say might he made a good deal of mr is quite right i think in meaning to give it a modern dress and i have no that it will he all done extremely well miss listened with and said to herself he is a well man he makes the of it i do not wish to influence mr he continued hut had i a place to new fashion i should not put myself into the hands of an i would rather have an inferior degree of beauty of my own choice and acquired i would rather hy my own than hy his you would know what you were of course hut that would not suit me i have no eye or ingenuity for such matters but as they are before me and had i a place of my own in the country i should be most thankful to any mr who would undertake it and give me as much beauty as he could for my money and i should never look at it till it was complete it would be delightful to me to see the progress of it all said ay you have been brought up to it it was no part of my education and the only dose i ever had being administered by not the first favorite in the world has made me consider improvements in hand as the greatest of three years ago the admiral my honored uncle bought a cottage at for us all to spend in and my aunt and i went down to it quite in but it being excessively pretty it was soon found necessary to be improved and for three months we were all dirt and confusion without a gravel walk to step on or a bench fit for use i would have everything as complete as possible in the country and gardens and rustic seats innumerable but it must be all done without my care henry is different he loves to be doing was sorry to hear miss whom he was much disposed to admire speak so freely of her uncle it did not suit his sense of propriety and he was silenced till induced by further smiles and to put the matter by for the present mr said she i have tidings of my harp at last i am assured that it is safe at and there it has probably been these ten days in spite of the solemn assurances we have so often received to the contrary expressed his pleasure and surprise the truth is that our inquiries were too direct we sent a servant we went ourselves this will not do seventy miles from london but this morning we heard of it in the right way it was seen by some farmer and he told the miller and the miller told the butcher and the butcher s son in law left word at the shop i am very glad that you have heard of it by whatever means and hope there will be no further delay i am to have it to morrow but how do yon think it is to be conveyed not by a wagon or park cart oh no nothing of that kind could be hired in the village i might as well have asked for and a hand you would find it difficult i dare say just now in the middle of a very late hay harvest to hire a horse and cart i was astonished to find what a piece of work was made of it to want a horse and cart in the country seemed impossible so i told my maid to speak for one directly and as i cannot look out of my dressing closet without seeing one nor walk in the without passing another i thought it would be only ask and have and was rather grieved that i could not give the advantage to all guess my surprise when i found that i had been asking the most unreasonable most impossible thing in the world had offended all the farmers all the all the hay in the parish as for dr grant s i believe i had better keep out of his way and my brother in law himself who is all kindness in general looked rather black upon me when he found what i had been at you could not be expected to have thought on the subject before but when you do think of it you must see the importance of getting in the grass the hire of a cart at any time might not be so easy as you suppose our farmers are not in the habit of letting them out but in harvest it must be quite out of their power to spare a horse i shall understand all ways in time but coming down with the	26
true london that park everything is to be got with money i was a embarrassed at first by the sturdy independence of your country customs however i am to have my harp fetched to morrow henry who is itself has offered to fetch it in his will it not be conveyed spoke of the harp as his favorite instrument and hoped to be soon allowed to hear her had never heard the harp at all and wished for it very much i shall be most happy to play to you both said miss at least as long as you can like to listen probably much longer dearly love music myself and where the natural taste is equal the player must always be best off for she is gratified in more ways than one now mr if you write to your brother i entreat you to tell him that my ha is come he heard so much of my misery without it and you may say if you please that i shall prepare my most plaintive airs against his return in compassion to his feelings as i know his horse will lose if i write i will say whatever you wish me but i do not at present foresee any occasion for writing no i dare say nor if he were to be a would you ever write to him he to you if it could be helped the occasion would never be foreseen what strange creatures brothers are i you would not write to each other but upon the most urgent necessity in the world and when obliged to take up the pen to say that such a horse is ill or such a relation dead it is done in tiie park possible words you have but one style among you i know it perfectly henry who is in every other respect exactly what a brother should be who loves me me in me and will talk to me by the hour together has never yet turned the page in a letter and very often it is nothing more than dear i am just arrived bath seems full and everything as usual yours sincerely that is the true manly style that is a complete brother s letter when they are at a distance from all their family said for william s sake they can write long letters miss price has a brother at sea said whose excellence as a correspondent makes her think you too severe upon us at sea has she in the king s service of course would rather have had tell the story but his determined silence obliged her to relate her brother s situation her voice was animated in speaking of his profession and the foreign stations he had been on but she could not mention the number of years that he had been absent without tears in her eyes miss wished him an early promotion do you know anything of my cousin s captain said captain you have a large acquaintance in the navy i conclude among large enough but with park an air of we know very little of the inferior ranks post captains may be very good sort of men but they do not belong to us of various i could tell you a great deal of them and their flags and the of their pay and their and but in general i can assure you that they are all passed over and all very ill used certainly my home at my uncle s brought me acquainted with a circle of of hears and vices i saw enough now do not be suspecting me of a i entreat again felt grave and only replied it is a noble profession yes the profession is well enough under two circumstances if it make the fortune and there be discretion in spending it but in short it is not a favorite profession of mine it has never worn an amiable form to me to the harp and was again very happy in the prospect of hearing her play the subject of improving grounds meanwhile was still under consideration among the others and mrs grant could not help addressing her brother though it was calling his attention from miss my dear henry have you nothing to say you have been an yourself and from what i hear of it may with any place in england its natural beauties i am sure are great as it used to be was perfect in my estimation such a happy fall of ground and such timber i what would not i give to see it again park nothing could be so gratifying to me as to hear your opinion of it was his answer but i fear there would be some disappointment you would not find it equal to your present ideas in extent it is a mere nothing you would be surprised at its and as for improvement there was very little for me to do too little i should like to have been busy much longer you are fond of the sort of thing said excessively but what with the natural advantages of the ground which pointed out even to a very young eye what little remained to be done and my own consequent resolutions i had not been of age three months before was all that it is now my plan was laid at westminster a little altered perhaps at cambridge and at one and twenty executed i am inclined to envy mr for having so much happiness yet before him i have been a of my own those who see quickly will resolve quickly and act quickly said you can never want employment instead of mr you should assist him with your opinion mrs grant hearing the latter part of this speech enforced it warmly persuaded that no judgment could be equal to her brother	26
s and as miss caught at the idea likewise and gave it her full support declaring that in her opinion it was infinitely better to consult vol i park with friends and disinterested than im to throw the business into the hands of a professional man mr was very ready to request the favor of mr s assistance and mr after properly his own abilities was quite at his service in any way that could be useful mr then began to propose mr s doing him the honor of coming over to and taking a bed there when mrs as if reading in her two minds their little approbation of a plan which was to take mr away interposed with an there can be no doubt of mr s but why should not more of us go why should not we make a little party here are many that would be interested in your improvements my dear mr and that would like to hear mr s opinion on the spot and that might be of some small use to you with their opinions and for my own part i have been long wishing to wait upon your good mother again nothing but having no horses of my own could have made me so but now i could go and sit a few hours with mrs while the rest of you walked about and settled things and then we could all return to a late dinner here or dine at just as might be most agreeable to your mother and have a pleasant drive home by moonlight i dare say mr would take my two and me in his and can go on horseback you know sister and will stay at home with you lady made no objection and every one concerned in the going was forward in expressing their ready excepting who heard it all and said nothing well and how do you like miss now said the next day after thinking some time on the subject himself how did you like her yesterday very well very much i like to hear her talk she me and she is so extremely pretty that i have great pleasure in looking at her it is her countenance that is so attractive she has a wonderful play of feature but was there nothing in her conversation that struck you as not quite right oh yes she ought not to have spoken of her uncle as she did i was quite astonished an uncle with whom she has been living so many years and who whatever his faults may be is so very fond of her brother treating him they say quite like a son i could not have believed it i thought you would be struck it was very wrong very and very ungrateful i think ungrateful is a strong word i do not know that her uncle has any claim to her gratitude his wife certainly had and it is the warmth of her respect for her aunt s memory which her here she is awkwardly with park such warm feelings and lively spirits it must be difficult to do justice to her affection for mrs without throwing a shade on the admiral i do not pretend to know which was most to blame in their though the admiral s present conduct might incline one to the side of his wife but it is natural and amiable that miss should her aunt entirely i do not censure her opinions but there certainly is in making them public do not you think said after a little consideration that this is a reflection itself upon mrs as her niece has been entirely brought up by her she cannot have given her right notions of what was due to the admiral that is a fair remark yes we must suppose the faults of the niece to have been those of the aunt and it makes one more sensible of the she has been under but i think her present home must do her good mrs grant s manners are just what they ought to be she speaks of her brother with a very pleasing affection yes except as to his writing her such short letters she made me almost laugh but i cannot rate so very highly the love or good nature of a brother who will not give himself the trouble of writing anything worth reading to his sisters when they are separated i am sure william would never have used me so under any circumstances and what right had she to suppose that you would not write long letters when you were absent park the right of a lively mind seizing whatever may contribute to its own amusement or that of others perfectly when by ill humor or and there is not a shadow of either in the countenance or manner of miss nothing sharp or loud or coarse she is perfectly feminine except in the instances we have been speaking of there she cannot be justified i am glad you saw it all as i did having formed her mind and gained her affections he had a good chance of her thinking like him though at this period and on this subject there began now to be some danger of for he was in a line of admiration of miss which lead him where could not follow miss s attractions did not lessen the harp arrived and rather added to her beauty wit and good humor for she played with the greatest with an expression and taste which were peculiarly becoming and there was something clever to be said at the close of every air was at the every day to be indulged with his favorite instrument one morning secured an invitation for the next for the lady could not be unwilling to have a listener and everything was soon in a fair train a young woman pretty	26
lively with a harp as elegant as herself and both placed near a window cut down to the ground and opening on a little lawn surrounded by shrubs in the rich foliage of summer was enough to catch any man s heart the season the scene the air were all favorable to tenderness and sentiment mrs grant and her frame were not without their use it was all in harmony and as everything will turn to account when love is once set going even the tray and dr grant doing the honors of it were worth looking at without studying the business however or knowing what he was about was beginning at the end of a week of such intercourse to be a good deal in love and to the credit of the lady it may be added that without his being a man of the world or an elder brother without any of the arts of flattery or the of small talk he began to be agreeable to her she felt it to be so though she had not foreseen and could hardly understand it for he was not pleasant by any common rule he talked no nonsense he paid no compliments his opinions were his attentions tranquil and simple there was a charm perhaps in his sincerity his his integrity which miss might be equal to feel though not equal to discuss with herself she did not think very much about it however he pleased her for the present she liked to have him near her it was enough could not wonder that was at the every morning she would gladly have been there too might she have gone in and unnoticed to hear the harp neither could she wonder that when the evening stroll was over and the two families parted again he should think it right to attend mrs grant and her sister to their home while mr was devoted to the ladies of the park but she thought it a very bad exchange and if were not park there to mix the wine and water for her would rather go without it than not she was a little surprised that he could spend so many hours with miss and not see more of the sort of fault which he had already observed and of which she was almost always reminded by a something of the same nature whenever she was in her company but so it was was fond of speaking to her of miss but he seemed to think it enough that the admiral had since been spared and she to point out her own remarks to him lest it should appear like ill nature the first actual pain which miss occasioned her was the consequence of an inclination to learn to ride which the former caught soon after her being settled at from the example of the young ladies at the park and which when s acquaintance with her increased led to his encouraging the wish and the offer of his own quiet mare for the purpose of her first attempts ae the best fitted for a that either stable could furnish no pain no injury however was designed by him to his cousin in this offer she was not to lose a day s exercise by it the mare was only to be taken down to the half an hour before her rides were to begin and on its being first proposed so far from feeling was almost overpowered with gratitude that he should be asking her leave for it miss made her first essay with great credit to herself and no inconvenience to who had taken down the mare and pre sided at the whole returned with it in park time before either or the steady old coachman who always attended her when she rode without her cousins was ready to set forward the second day s trial was not so miss s enjoyment of riding was such that she did not know how to leave off active and fearless and though rather small strongly made she seemed formed for a and to the pure genuine pleasure of the exercise something was probably added in s attendance and instructions and something more in the conviction of very much surpassing her sex in general by her early progress to make her unwilling to was ready and waiting and mrs was beginning to her for not being gone and still no horse was announced no appeared to avoid her aunt and look for him she went out the houses though scarcely half a mile apart were not within sight of each other but by walking fifty yards from the hall door she could look down the park and command a view of the and all its gently rising beyond the village road and in dr grant s meadow she immediately saw the group and miss both on horseback riding side by side dr and mrs grant and mr with two or three standing about and looking on a happy party it appeared to her all interested in one object cheerful beyond a doubt for the sound of merriment ascended even to her it was a sound which did not make her cheerful she wondered that should forget her and felt a pang she could not turn her eyes from the meadow she could not help watching all that passed at first miss and her companion made the circuit of the field which was not small at a foot s pace then at her apparent suggestion they rose into a and to s timid nature it was most astonishing to see how well she sat after a few minutes they stopped entirely was close to her he was speaking to her he was evidently directing her management of the bridle he had hold of her hand she saw it or the imagination supplied what the eye could not reach she	26
must not wonder at all this what could be more natural than that should be making himself useful and proving his good nature by any one she could not but think indeed that mr might as well have saved him the trouble that it would have been particularly proper and becoming in a brother to have done it himself but mr with all his boasted good nature and all his probably knew nothing of the matter and had no active kindness in comparison of she began to think it rather hard upon the mare to have such double duty if she were forgotten the poor mare should be remembered her feelings for one and the other were soon a little by seeing the party in the meadow and miss still on horseback but attended by on foot pass through a gate into the lane and so into the park and make towards the spot where she stood she began then to be afraid of appearing rude and im park patient and walked to meet them with a great anxiety to avoid the suspicion my dear miss price said miss as soon as she was at all within hearing lam come to make my own apologies for keeping you waiting but i have nothing in the world to say for myself i knew it was very late and that i was extremely ill i and therefore if you please you must forgive me selfishness must always be forgiven you know because there is no hope of a cure s answer was extremely civil and added his conviction that she could be in no hurry for there is more than time enough for my cousin to ride twice as far ever goes said he and you have been her comfort by preventing her from setting off half an hour sooner clouds are now coming up and she will not suffer from the heat as she would have done then i wish you may not be fatigued by so much exercise i wish you had saved yourself this walk home ko part of it me but getting off this horse i assure you said she as she sprang down with his help i am very strong nothing ever me but doing what i do not like miss price i give way to you with a very bad grace but i sincerely hope you will have a pleasant ride and that i may have nothing but good to hear of this dear delightful beautiful animal the old coachman who had been waiting about with his own horse now joining them was lifted on hers and they set off across another part of the park her feelings of discomfort not lightened by seeing as she looked back that the others were walking down the hill together to the nor did her attendant do her much good by his comments on miss s great cleverness as a which he had been watching with an interest almost equal to her own it is a pleasure to see a lady with such a good heart for riding said he i never see one sit a horse better she did not seem to have a thought of fear very different from you miss when you first began six years ago come next lord bless me how you did tremble when sir thomas first had you put on in the drawing room miss was also celebrated her merit in being gifted by nature with strength and courage was fully appreciated by the miss her delight in riding was like their own her early excellence in it was like their own and they had great pleasure in it i was sure she would ride well said she has the make for it her figure is as neat as her brother s yes added maria and her spirits are as good and she has the same energy of character i cannot but think that good has a great deal to do with the mind when they parted at night asked whether she meant to ride the next day ko i do not know not if you want the mare was her answer i do not want her at all for myself said he but whenever you are next inclined to stay at home i think miss would be glad to have her for a longer time for a whole morning in short she has a great desire to get as far as common mrs grant has been telling her of its fine views and i have no doubt of her being perfectly equal to it but any morning will do for this she would be extremely sorry to interfere with you it would be very wrong if she did she rides only for pleasure you for health i shall not ride to morrow certainly said i have been out very often lately and would rather stay at home you know i am strong enough now to walk very well looked pleased which must be s comfort and the ride to common took place the next morning the party included all the young people but herself and was much enjoyed at the time and doubly enjoyed again in the evening discussion a successful scheme of this sort generally brings on another and the having been to common disposed them all for going somewhere else the day after there were many other views to be shown and though the weather was hot there were shady lanes wherever they wanted to go a young party is always provided with a shady lane four fine mornings were spent in this manner in showing the the country and doing the honors of its finest spots everything answered it was all and good humor the heat only supplying inconvenience enough to be talked of with pleasure till the fourth day when the happiness of one of the party was exceedingly clouded miss was the one	26
and were invited to dine at the and she was excluded it was meant and done by mrs grant with perfect good humor on mr s account who was partly expected at the park that day but it was felt as a very grievous injury and her good manners were severely to conceal her vexation and anger till she reached home as mr did not come the injury was increased and she had not even the relief of showing her power over him she could only be sullen to her mother aunt and cousin and throw as great a gloom as possible over their dinner and between ten and eleven and walked into the drawing room fresh with the evening air glowing and cheerful the very reverse of what they found in the three ladies sitting there for maria would scarcely raise her eyes from her book and lady was half asleep and even mrs by her niece s ill humor and having asked one or two questions about the dinner which were not immediately attended to seemed almost determined to say no more for a few minutes the brother and sister were too eager in their praise of the night and their remarks on the stars to think beyond themselves but when the first pause came looking around said but where is is she gone to bed no not that i know of replied mrs she was here a moment ago her own gentle voice speaking from the other end of the room which was a very long one told them that she was on the sofa mrs began scolding that is a very foolish trick to be away all the evening upon a sofa why cannot you come and sit here and employ yourself as we do if you have no work of your own i can supply you from the poor basket there is all the new that was bought last week not touched yet i am sure i almost broke my back by cutting it out you should learn to think of other people and take my word for it it is a shocking trick for a young person to be always upon a sofa before half this was said was returned to her seat at the table and had taken up her work again and who was in high good humor from the pleasures of the day did her the justice of exclaiming i must say ma am that is as little upon the sofa as anybody in the house said after looking at her attentively i am sure you have the headache she could not deny it but said it was not very bad i can hardly believe you he replied i know your looks too well how long have you had it since a little before dinner it is nothing but the heat did you go out in the heat go out to be sure she did said mrs would you have her stay within such a fine day as this were not we all out even your mother was out to day for above an hour park yes indeed added her who had been thoroughly awakened by mrs s sharp to i was out above an hour i sat three quarters of ui hour in the flower garden while cut the roses and very pleasant it was i assure you but very hot it was shady enough in the but i i quite dreaded the coming home again has been cutting roses has she yes and i am afraid they will be the last this year poor thing she found it hot enough but they were so full blown that one could not wait there was no help for it certainly rejoined mrs in a rather softened voice but i question whether her headache might not be caught then sister there is nothing so likely to give it as standing and stooping in a hot sun but i dare say it will be well to morrow suppose you let her have your i always forget to have mine filled she has got it said lady she has had it ever since she came back from your house the second time what i cried has she been walking as well as cutting roses walking across the hot park to your house and doing it twice ma am so wonder her head mrs was talking to and did not hear i was afraid it would be too much for her said lady but when the roses were gathered your aunt wished to have them and then you know they must be taken home park but were there roses enough to her to go twice no but they were to be put into the spare room to dry and forgot to lock the door of the room and bring away the key so she was obliged to go again got up and walked about the room saying could nobody be employed on such an errand but upon my word ma am it has been a very ill managed business i am sure i do not know how it was to have been done better cried mrs unable to be longer deaf unless i had gone myself indeed but i cannot be in two places at once and i was talking to mr at that very time about your mother s by her desire and had promised john groom to write to mrs about his son and the poor fellow was waiting for me half an hour i think nobody can justly accuse me of myself upon any occasion but really i cannot do everything at once and as for s just stepping down to my house for me it is not much above a quarter of a mile i cannot think i was unreasonable to ask it how often do i pace it three times a day early and late ay	26
and in all too and say nothing about it i wish had half your strength ma am if would be more regular in her exercise she would not be knocked up so soon she has not been out on horseback now this long while and i am persuaded that when she does not ride she ought to walk if she had been riding before vol i i should not have asked it of her but i thought it would rather do her good after being stooping among the roses for there is nothing ao refreshing as a walk after a fatigue of that kind and though the sun was strong it was not so very hot between ourselves nodding significantly at his mother it was cutting the roses and about in the flower garden that did the mischief i am afraid it was indeed said the more candid lady who had overheard her i am very much afraid she caught the headache there for the heat was enough to kill anybody it was as much as i could bear myself sitting and calling to and trying to keep him from the flower beds was almost too much for me said no more to either lady but going quietly to another table on which the supper tray yet remained brought a glass of to and obliged her to drink the greater part she wished to be able to decline it but the tears which a variety of feelings created made it easier to swallow than to speak vexed as was with his mother and aunt he was still more angry with himself his own forgetfulness of her was worse than anything which they had done nothing o this would have happened had she been properly considered but she had been left four days together without any choice of companions or exercise and without any excuse for avoiding whatever her unreasonable might require he was ashamed to think that for four days together she had not had the park power of riding and very seriously resolved however unwilling he must be to check a pleasure of miss s that it should never happen again went to bed with her heart as full as on the first evening of her arrival at the park the state of her spirits had probably had its share in her for she had been feeling neglected and been struggling against discontent and envy for some days past as she leaned on the sofa to which she had retreated that she might not be seen the pain of her mind had been much beyond that in her head and the sudden change which s kindness had then occasioned made her hardly know how to support herself s rides the very next day and as it was a pleasant fresh feeling morning less hot than the weather had lately been trusted that her losses both of health and pleasure would be soon made good while she was gone mr arrived his mother who came to be civil and to show her civility especially in urging the execution of the plan for visiting which had been started a fortnight before and which in consequence of her subsequent absence from home had since lain mrs and her were all well pleased with its revival and an early day was named and agreed to provided mr should be disengaged the young ladies did not forget that and though mrs would willingly have answered for his being so they would neither the liberty nor run the risk and at last on a hint from miss mr discovered that the thing to be done was for him to walk down to the directly and call on mr and inquire whether wednesday would suit him or not before his return mrs grant and miss came in having been out some time and park taken a different route to the house they had not met him comfortable hopes however were given that he would find mr at home the scheme was mentioned of course it was hardly possible indeed that anything else should be talked of for mrs was in high spirits about it and mrs a civil woman who thought nothing of consequence but as it related to her own and her son s concerns had not yet given over pressing lady to be of the party lady constantly declined it but her placid manner of refusal made mrs still think she wished to come till mrs s more numerous words and louder tone convinced her of the truth the fatigue would be too much for my sister a great deal too much i assure you my dear mrs ten miles there and ten back you know you must excuse my sister on this occasion and accept of our two dear girls and myself without her is the only place that could give her a wish to go so far but it cannot be indeed she will have a companion in price you know so it will all do very well and as for as he is not here to speak for himself i will answer for his being most happy to join the party he can go on horseback you know mrs being obliged to yield to lady s staying at home could only be sorry the loss of her s company would be a great and she should have been ex happy to have seen the young lady too miss price who had never heen at yet and it was a pity she should not see the place you are very kind you are all kindness my dear madam cried mrs but as to she will have opportunities in plenty of seeing she has time enough i her and her going now is quite out of the question lady could not possibly spare her oh no i cannot do without mrs proceeded next under the conviction that everybody must be wanting	26
to see to include miss in the invitation and though mrs grant who had not been at the trouble of visiting mrs on her coming into the neighborhood declined it on her own account she was glad to secure any pleasure for her sister and mary properly pressed and persuaded was not long in accepting her share of the civility mr worth came back from the successful and made his appearance just in time to learn what had been settled for wednesday to attend mrs to her carriage and walk half way down the park with the two other ladies on his return to the breakfast room he found mrs trying to make up her mind as to whether miss s being of the party were desirable or not or whether her brother s would not be full without her the miss park laughed at the idea assuring her that the would hold four perfectly well independent of the box on which one might go with him but why is it necessary said that s carriage or his only should be employed why is no use to be made of my mother s chaise i could not when the scheme was first mentioned the other day understand why a visit from the family were not to be made in the carriage of the family what cried go up three in a in this weather when we may have seats in a ko my dear that will not quite do besides said maria i know that mr depends upon taking us after what passed at first he would claim it as a promise and my dear added mrs taking out two carriages when one will do would be trouble for nothing and between ourselves coachman is not very fond of the roads between this and he always bitterly of the narrow lanes scratching his carriage and you know one should not like to have dear sir thomas when he comes home find all the scratched off that would not be a very handsome reason for using mr s said maria but the truth is that is a stupid old fellow and does not know how to drive i will answer for it that we shall find no inconvenience from narrow roads on wednesday there ia no hardship i suppose nothing unpleasant said in going on the box unpleasant cried maria oh dear i believe it would be generally thought the seat there can be no comparison as to one s view of the country probably miss will choose the box herself there can be no objection then to s going with you there can be no doubt of your having room for her repeated mrs my dear there is no idea of her going with us she stays with her aunt i told mrs so she is not expected you can have no reason i imagine madam said he addressing his mother for wishing not to be of the party but as it relates to yourself to your own comfort if you could do without her you would not wish to keep her at home to be sure not but i cannot do without her you can if i stay at home with you as i mean to do there was a general cry out at this yes he continued there is no necessity for my going and i mean to stay at home has a great desire to see i know she wishes it very much she has not often a gratification of the kind and i am sure ma am you would be glad to give her the pleasure now oh yes very glad if your aunt sees no objection park mrs was very ready with the only objection which could remain their having positively assured mrs that could not go and the very strange appearance there would consequently be in taking her which seemed to her a difficulty quite impossible to be got over it must have the strangest appearance it would be something so very so on for mrs whose own manners were such a pattern of good breeding and attention that she really did not feel equal to it mrs had no affection for and no wish of her pleasure at any time but her opposition to now arose more from partiality for her own scheme because it was her own than from anything else she felt that she had arranged everything extremely well and that any alteration must be for the worse when therefore told her in reply as he did when she would give him the hearing that she need not distress herself on mrs s account because he had taken the opportunity as he walked with her through the hall of mentioning miss price as one who would probably be of the party and had directly received a very sufficient invitation for his cousin mrs was too much vexed to submit with a very good grace and would only say very well very well just as you choose settle it your own way i am sure i do not care about it it seems very odd said maria that you should be staying at home instead of i am sure she ought to be very much obliged to you added hastily leaving the room as she park from a that she ought to offer to at home herself will feel quite as grateful as the sion requires was s only reply and the subject dropped s gratitude when she heard the plan was in fact much greater than her pleasure she felt s kindness with all and more than all the sensibility which he of her fond attachment could be aware of but that he should forego any enjoyment on her account gave her pain and her own satisfaction in seeing would be nothing without him the next meeting of the two families produced another alteration in the plan and one that	26
eye was eagerly taking in everything within her reach and after being at some pains to get a view of the house and observing that it was a sort of building which she could not look at but with respect she added now where is the avenue the house fronts the east i perceive the avenue therefore must be at the back of it mr talked of the west front yes it is exactly behind the house begins at a little distance and for half a mile to the extremity of the grounds you may see something of it here something of the more distant trees it is oak entirely miss could now speak with decided information of what she had known nothing about when mr had asked her opinion and her spirits were in as happy a flutter as vanity and pride could furnish when they drove up to the spacious stone steps before the principal entrance chapter ix mb was at the door to receive his fair lady and the whole party were welcomed by him with due attention in the drawing room they were met with equal cordiality by the mother and miss had all the distinction with each that she could wish after the business of arriving was over it was first necessary to eat the doors were thrown open to admit them through one or two rooms into the appointed dining parlor where a was prepared with abundance and elegance much was said and much was ate and all went well the particular object of the day was then considered how would mr like in what manner would he choose to take a survey of the grounds mr mentioned his mr suggested the greater of some carriage which might convey more than two to be themselves of the advantage of other eyes and other judgments might be an evil even beyond the loss of present pleasure mrs proposed that the chaise should be taken also but this was scarcely received as an the young ladies neither smiled nor spoke her next proposition of showing the park house to such of them as had not been there before was more acceptable for miss was pleased to have its size displayed and all were glad to be doing something the whole party rose accordingly and under mrs s guidance were shown through a number of rooms all lofty and many large and amply furnished in the taste of fifty years back with shining floors solid mahogany rich marble and carving each handsome in its way of pictures there were abundance and some few good but the larger part were family portraits no longer anything to anybody but mrs who had been at great pains to learn all that the housekeeper could teach and was now almost equally well qualified to show the house on the present occasion she addressed herself chiefly to miss and but there was no comparison in the of their attention for miss who had seen scores of great houses and cared for none of them had only the appearance of listening while to whom everything was almost as interesting as it was new attended with unaffected earnestness to all that mrs could relate of the family in former times its rise and grandeur visits and loyal efforts delighted to connect anything with history already known or warm her imagination with scenes of the past the situation of the house excluded the possibility of much prospect from any of the rooms and while and some of the others were attending mrs henry was park looking grave and his head at the windows every room on the west front looked across a lawn to the beginning of the avenue immediately beyond tall iron and gates having visited many more rooms than could be supposed to be of any other use than to contribute to the window tax and find employment for now said mrs we are coming to the chapel which probably we ought to enter from above and look down upon but as we are quite among friends i will take you in this way if you will excuse me they entered s imagination had prepared her for something than a mere spacious room fitted up for the purpose of devotion with nothing more striking or more solemn than the profusion of mahogany and the crimson velvet cushions appearing over the ledge of the family gallery above i am disappointed said she in a low voice to this is not my idea of a chapel there is nothing awful here nothing melancholy nothing grand here are no no arches no no no cousin to be blown by the night wind of heaven no signs that a monarch sleeps below you forget how lately all this has been built and for how confined a purpose compared with the old of castles and it was only for the private use of the family they have been buried t suppose in the parish church there you must look for the and the achievements vol i park it was foolish of me not to think of all that but i am disappointed mrs began her relation this chapel was fitted up as you see it in james the second s time before that period as i understand the were only and there is some reason to think that the and cushions of the pulpit and family seat were only purple cloth but this is not quite certain it is a handsome chapel and was formerly in constant use both morning and evening prayers were always read in it by the domestic within the memory of many but the late mr left it off every generation has its improvements said miss with a smile to mrs was gone to repeat her lesson to mr and and miss remained in a cluster together it is a pity cried that the custom should have been it was a	26
valuable part of former times there is something in a chapel and so much in character with a great house with one s ideas of what such a household should be a whole family regularly for the purpose of prayer is fine very fine indeed i said miss laughing it must do the heads of the family a great deal of good to force all the poor and to leave business and pleasure and say their prayers here twice a day while they are excuses themselves for staying away that is hardly s idea of a family said if the master and park mistress do not attend themselves there must be more harm than good in the custom at any rate it is safer to leave people to their own devices on such subjects everybody likes to go their own way to choose their own time and manner of devotion the obligation of attendance the formality the restraint the length of time altogether it is a formidable thing and what nobody likes and if the good people who used to kneel and in that gallery could have foreseen that the time would ever come when men and women might lie another ten minutes in bed when they woke with a headache without danger of because chapel was missed they would have jumped with joy and envy cannot you imagine with what unwilling feelings the former of the house of did many a time repair to this chapel the young mrs and mrs up into seeming piety but with heads full of something very different especially if the poor were not worth looking at and in those days i fancy were very inferior even to what they are now for a few moments she was colored and looked at but felt too angry for speech and he needed a little recollection before he could say your lively mind can hardly be serious even on serious subjects you have given us an amusing sketch and human nature cannot say it was not so we must all feel at times the difficulty of fixing our thoughts as we could wish but if you are supposing it a frequent park thing that is to say a weakness grown into a habit from neglect what could be expected from the private of such persons do yon think the minds which are suffered which are indulged in wanderings in a chapel would be more collected in a closet yes very likely they would have two chances at least in their favor there would be less to the attention from without and it would not be tried so long the mind which does not struggle against itself under one circumstance would find objects to it in the other i believe and the influence of the place and of example may often rouse better feelings than are begun with the greater length of the service however i admit to be sometimes too hard a stretch upon the mind one wishes it were not so but i have not yet left oxford long enough to forget what chapel prayers are while this was passing the rest of the party being scattered about the chapel called mr s attention to her sister by saying do look at mr and maria standing side by side exactly as if the ceremony were going to be performed have not they completely the air of it mr smiled his acquiescence and stepping forward to maria said in a voice which she only could hear i do not like to see miss so near the altar starting the lady instinctively moved a step or two but recovering herself in a moment affected park to laugh and asked him in a tone not much louder if he would give her away i am afraid i should do it very awkwardly was his reply with a look of meaning joining them at the moment carried on the joke upon my word it is really a pity that it should not take place directly if we had but a proper license for here we are all together and nothing in the world could be more snug and pleasant and she talked and laughed about it with so little caution as to catch the comprehension of mr and his mother and expose her sister to the whispered of her lover while mrs spoke with proper smiles and dignity of its being a most happy event to her whenever it took place if were but in orders cried and running to where he stood with miss and my dear if you were but in orders now you might perform the ceremony directly how unlucky that you are not ordained mr and maria are quite ready miss s countenance as spoke might have amused a disinterested observer she looked almost aghast under the new idea she was receiving pitied her how distressed she will be at what she said just now passed across her mind ordained said miss what are you to be a clergyman yes i shall take orders soon after my father s return probably at christmas miss her spirits and recovering her complexion replied only if i had known this before i would have spoken of the cloth with more respect and tamed the subject the chapel was soon afterwards left to the silence and stillness which reigned in it with few throughout the year miss displeased with her sister led the way and all seemed to feel that they had been there long enough the lower part of the house had been now entirely shown and mrs never weary in the cause would have proceeded towards the principal staircase and taken them through all the rooms above if her son had not interposed with a doubt of there being time enough for if said he with the sort of self evident proposition which many a clearer head does not always avoid	26
we are too long going over the house we shall not have time for what is to be done out of doors it is past two and we are to dine at five mrs submitted and the question for surveying the grounds with the who and the how was likely to be more fully agitated and mrs n was beginning to arrange by what of carriages and horses most could be done when the young people meeting with an outward door open on a flight of steps which led immediately to turf and shrubs and all the sweets of pleasure grounds as by one impulse one wish for air and liberty all walked out suppose we turn down here for the present park mrs taking the hint and following them here are the greatest number of our plants and here are the curious said mr looking round him whether we may not find something to employ us here before we go farther i see walls of great promise mr shall we summon a council on this lawn james said mrs to her son i believe the wilderness will be new to all the party the miss have never seen the wilderness yet no objection was made but for some time there seemed no inclination to move in any plan or to any distance all were attracted at first by the plants or the and all dispersed about in happy independence mr was the first to move forward to examine the of that end of the house the lawn bounded on each side by a high wall contained beyond the first planted area a green and beyond the green a long terrace walk backed by iron and commanding a view over them into the tops of the trees of the wilderness immediately adjoining it was a good spot for mr was soon followed by miss and mr and when after a little time the others began to form into parties these three were found in busy consultation on the terrace by miss and who seemed as naturally to unite and who after a short of their regrets and difficulties left them and walked on the remaining three mrs mrs and were still far behind for whose happy star no longer prevailed was obliged to keep by the side of mrs and restrain her impatient that lady s slow pace while her aunt fallen in with the housekeeper who was come out to feed the was lingering behind in gossip with her poor the only one out of the nine not tolerably satisfied with their lot was now in a state of complete penance and as different from the of the box as could well be imagined the politeness which she had been brought up to practise as a duty made it impossible for her to while the want of that higher species of that just consideration of others that knowledge of her own heart that principle of right which had not formed any essential part of her education made her miserable under it this is hot said miss when they had taken one turn on the terrace and were drawing a second time to the door in the middle which opened to the wilderness shall any of us object to being comfortable here is a nice little wood if one can but get into it what happiness if the door should not be locked but of course it is for in these great places the are the only people who can go where they like the door however proved not to be locked and they were all agreed in turning joyfully through it and leaving the glare of day behind a considerable flight of steps landed them in the wilderness which was a planted wood o about two acres and though chiefly of and laurel and cut down and though laid out with too much regularity was darkness and shade and natural beauty compared with the and the terrace they all felt the refreshment of it and for some time could only walk and admire at length after a short pause miss began with so you are to be a clergyman mr this is rather a surprise to me why should it surprise you you must suppose me designed for some profession and might perceive that i am neither a lawyer nor a soldier nor a sailor very true but in short it had not occurred to me and you know there is generally an uncle or a grandfather to leave a fortune to the second son a very practice said but not quite universal i am one of the exceptions and being one must do something for myself but why are you to be a clergyman i thought that was always the lot of the youngest where there were many to choose before him do you think the church itself never chosen then is a black word but yes in the never of conversation which means not very often i do think it for what is to be done in the church men love to distinguish themselves and in either of the other lines distinction may be gained but not in the church a clergyman is nothing the nothing of conversation has its i hope as well as the never a clergyman cannot be high in state or fashion he must not head or set the ton in dress but i cannot call that situation nothing which has the charge of all that is of the first importance to mankind or considered and which has the of religion and morals and consequently of the manners which result from their influence no one here can call the office nothing if the man who holds it is so it is by the neglect of his duty by foregoing its just importance and stepping out of his place to appear what he ought not to appear you greater consequence	26
other people think improved i have no doubt that you will i am afraid i am not quite so much the man of the world as might be good for me in some points my feelings are not quite so nor my memory of the past under such easy dominion as one finds to be the case with men of the world this was followed by a short silence miss began again you seemed to enjoy your drive here very much this morning i was glad to see you so well entertained you and were laughing the whole way were we yes i believe we were but i have not the least recollection at what oh i believe i was relating to her some ridiculous stories of an old irish groom of my uncle s your sister loves to laugh you think her more light hearted than i am more easily amused he replied consequently you know smiling better company i could not have hoped to entertain you with irish anecdotes during a ten miles drive naturally i believe i am as lively as but i have more to think of now you have undoubtedly and there are park tions in which very high spirits would your prospects however are too fair to justify want of spirits you have a very smiling scene before you do you mean literally or literally i conclude yes certainly the sun shines and the park looks very cheerful but that gate that ha ha give me a feeling of restraint and hardship i cannot get out as the said as she spoke and it was with expression she walked to the gate he followed her mr is so long this key and for the world you would not get out without the key and without mr s authority and protection or i think you might with little difficulty pass round the edge of the gate here with my assistance i think it might be done if you really wished to be more at large and could allow yourself to think it not nonsense i certainly can get out that way and i will mr will be here in a moment you know we shall not be out of sight or if we are miss price will be so good as to tell him that he will find us near that the grove of oak on the feeling all this to be wrong could not help making an effort to prevent it you will hurt yourself miss she cried you will certainly hurt yourself against those you will tear your gown you will be in danger of slipping into the ha ha you had better not go park her cousin was safe on the other side while these words were spoken and smiling with all the good humor of success she said thank you my dear hut i and my gown are alive and well and so good hy was again left to her solitude and with no increase of pleasant feelings for she was sorry for almost all that she had seen and heard astonished ap miss and angry with mr by taking a and as it appeared to her very direction to the they were soon her eye and for some minutes longer she remained without sight or sound of any companion she seemed to have the little wood all to herself she could almost have thought that and miss had left it hut that it was impossible for to forget her so entirely she was again roused from disagreeable by sudden footsteps somebody was coming at a quick pace down the principal walk she expected mr but it was who hot and out of breath and with a look of disappointment cried out on seeing her where are the others i thought maria and mr were with you explained a pretty trick upon my word i cannot see them anywhere looking eagerly into the park but they cannot be very far off and i think i am equal to as much as even without help but mr will be here park in a moment with the key do wait for mr not i indeed i have had enough of the family for one morning why child i have but this moment escaped from his horrible mother such a penance as i have been enduring while you were sitting here so composed and so happy it might have been as well perhaps if you had been in my place but you always contrive to keep out of these this was a most unjust reflection but could allow for it and let it pass was vexed and her temper was hasty but she felt that it would not last and therefore taking no notice only asked her if she had not seen mr yes yes we saw him he was away as if upon life and death and could but just spare time to tell us his errand and where you all were it is a pity that he should have so much trouble for nothing that is miss maria s concern i am not obliged to punish myself for her sins the mother i could not avoid as long as my tiresome aunt was dancing about with the housekeeper but the son i can get away from and she immediately scrambled across the fence and walked away not attending to s last question of whether she had seen anything of miss and the sort of dread in which now sat of seeing mr prevented her thinking so much of their absence however as she might have done she felt that he had been ill used and was quite unhappy in having to communicate what had passed he joined her within five minutes after s exit and though she made the best of the story he was evidently and displeased in no common degree at first he scarcely said anything his	26
looks only expressed his extreme surprise and vexation and he walked to the gate and stood there without seeming to know what to do they desired me to stay my cousin maria charged me to say that you would find them at that or i do not believe i shall go any farther said he sullenly i see nothing of them by the time i get to the they may be gone somewhere else i have had walking enough and he sat down with a most gloomy countenance by i am very sorry said she it is very unlucky and she longed to be able to say something more to the purpose after an interval of silence i think they might as well have stayed for me said he miss thought you would follow her i should not have had to follow her if she had stayed this could not be denied and was silenced after another pause he went on pray miss price are you such a great admirer of this mr as some people are for my part i can see nothing in him park i do not think him at all handsome handsome can call such an man handsome he is not five foot nine i should not wonder if he was not more than five foot eight i think he is an ill looking fellow in my opinion these are no addition at all we did very well without them a small sigh escaped here and she did not know how to contradict him if i had made any difficulty about the key there might have been some excuse but i went the very moment she said she wanted it nothing could be more obliging than your manner i am sure and i dare say you walked as fast as you could but still it is some distance you know from this spot to the house quite into the house and when people are waiting they are bad judges of time and every half minute seems like five he got up and walked to the gate again and wished he had had the key about him at the time thought she discerned in his standing there an indication of which encouraged her to another attempt and she said therefore it is a pity you should not join them they expected to have a better view of the house that part of the park and will be thinking how it may be improved and nothing of that sort you know can be settled without you she found herself more successful in sending away than in retaining a companion mr was worked on well said he if you really think i had better go it would be park foolish to bring the key for nothing and letting himself out he walked off without further ceremony s thoughts were now all engrossed by the two who had left her so long ago and getting quite impatient she resolved to go in search of them she followed their steps along the bottom walk and had just turned up into another when the voice and the laugh of miss once more caught her ear the sound approached and a few more brought them before her they were just returned into the wilderness from the park to which a side gate not fastened had tempted them very soon after their leaving her and they had been across a portion of the park into the very avenue which had been hoping the whole morning to reach at last and had been sitting down under one of the trees this was their history it was evident that they had been spending their time pleasantly and were not aware of the length of their absence s best consolation was in being assured that had wished for her very much and that he should certainly have come back for her had she not been tired already but this was not quite sufficient to do away the pain of having been left a whole hour when he had talked of only a few minutes nor to banish the sort of curiosity she felt to know what they had been conversing about all that time and the result of the whole was to her disappointment and depression as they prepared by general agreement to return to the house on reaching the bottom of the steps to the ter park race mrs and mrs presented themselves at the top just ready for the wilderness at the end of an hour and a half from their leaving the house mrs had been too well employed to move faster whatever cross accidents had occurred to the pleasures of her she had found a morning of complete enjoyment for the housekeeper after a great many on the subject of had taken her to the told her all about their cows and given her the receipt for a famous cream cheese and since s leaving them they had been met by the gardener with whom she had made a most satisfactory acquaintance for she had set him right as to his s illness convinced him it was an and promised him a charm for it and he in return had showed her all his nursery of plants and actually presented her with a very curious specimen of heath on this they all returned to the house together there to away the time as they could with and chat and till the return of the others and the arrival of dinner it was late before the miss and the two gentlemen came in and their did not appear to have been more than partially agreeable or at all productive of anything useful with regard to the object of the day by their own accounts they had been all walking after each other and the which had taken place at last seemed to s observation to have been as much too late for	26
re park establishing harmony as it had been for on any alteration she felt as she looked at and mr that hers was not the only dissatisfied bosom amongst them there was gloom on the face of each mr and miss were much more gay and she thought that he was taking particular pains during dinner to do away any little resentment of the other two and restore general good humor dinner was soon followed by tea and a ten miles drive home allowed no waste of hours and from the time of their sitting down to table it was a quick succession of busy till the carriage came to the door and mrs having about and obtained a few eggs and a cream cheese from the housekeeper and made abundance of civil speeches to mrs was ready to lead the way at the same moment mr approaching said i hope i am not to lose my companion unless she is afraid of the evening air in so exposed a seat the request had not been foreseen but was very graciously received and s day was likely to end almost as well as it began miss had made up her mind to something and was a little disappointed but her conviction of being really the one preferred comforted her under it and enabled her to receive mr s parting attentions as she ought he was certainly better pleased to hand her into the than to assist her in ascending the box and his complacency seemed confirmed by the arrangement well this has been a fine day for you upon my word said mrs as they drove through the park nothing but pleasure from beginning to end i am sure you ought to be very much obliged to your aunt and me for to let you go a pretty good day s amusement you have had maria was just discontented enough to say directly i think you have done pretty well yourself ma am your lap seems full of good things and here is a basket of something between us which has been knocking my elbow my dear it is only a beautiful little heath which that nice old gardener would make me take but if it is in your way i will have it in my lap directly there you shall carry that parcel for me take great care of it do not let it fall it is a cream cheese just like the excellent one we had at dinner nothing would satisfy that good old mrs but my taking one of the i stood out as long as i could till the tears almost came into her eyes and i knew it was just the sort that my sister would be delighted with that mrs is a treasure she was quite shocked when i asked her whether wine was allowed at the second table and she has turned away two for wearing white gowns take care of the cheese now i can manage the other parcel and the basket very well what else have you been said maria half pleased that should be so my dear it is nothing but four task of those eggs which mrs would quite force upon me she would not take a denial she said it must he such an amusement to me as she understood i lived quite alone to have a few living creatures of that sort and so to he sure it will i shall get the to set them under the first spare hen and if they come to good i can have them moved to my own house and a and it be a great delight to me in my lonely hours to attend to them and if i have good luck your mother shall have some it was a beautiful evening mild and still and the drive was as pleasant as the serenity of nature could make it but when mrs ceased speaking it was altogether a silent drive to those within their spirits were in general exhausted and to determine whether the day had afforded most pleasure or pain might occupy the meditations of almost all chapter xi the day at with all its afforded the miss much more agreeable feelings than were derived from the letters from which soon afterwards reached it was much pleasanter to think of henry than of their father and to think of their father in england again within a certain period which these letters obliged them to do was a most unwelcome exercise november was the black month fixed for his return sir thomas wrote of it with as much decision as experience and anxiety could his business was so nearly concluded as to justify him in proposing to take his passage in the september packet and he consequently looked forward with the hope of being with his beloved family again early in november maria was more to be pitied than for to her the father brought a husband and the return of the friend most for her happiness would unite her to the lover on whom she had chosen that happiness should depend it was a gloomy prospect and all that she could do was to throw a mist over it and hope when the mist cleared away she should see something else it would hardly be early in november there were park generally a bad passage or something that something which everybody who their eyes while they look or their while they reason feels the comfort of it would probably be the middle of november at least the middle of november was three months off three months thirteen weeks much might happen in thirteen weeks sir thomas would have been deeply by a suspicion of half that his daughters felt on the subject of his return and would hardly have found consolation in a knowledge of the interest it excited in the breast of	26
another young lady miss on walking up with her brother to spend the evening at park heard the good news and though seeming to have no concern in the affair beyond politeness and to have all her feelings in a quiet heard it with an attention not so easily satisfied mrs gave the particulars of the letters and the subject was dropped but after tea as miss was standing at an open window with and looking out on a twilight scene while the miss mr and henry were all busy with candles at the she suddenly revived it by turning round towards the group and saying how happy mr looks i he is thinking of november looked round at mr too but had nothing to say your father s return will be a very interesting event it will indeed after such an absence an park absence not only long but including so many dangers it will be the also of other interesting events your sister s marriage and your taking orders yes don t be said she laughing but it does put me in mind of some of the old heathen heroes who after performing great exploits in a foreign land offered sacrifices to the gods on their safe return there is no sacrifice in the case replied with a serious smile and glancing at the again it is entirely her own doing oh yes i know it is i was merely joking she has done no more than what every young woman would do and i have no doubt of her being extremely happy my other sacrifice of course you do not understand my taking orders i assure you is quite as voluntary as maria s marrying it is fortunate that your inclination and your father s convenience should accord so well there is a very good living kept for you i understand which you suppose has me but that i am sure it has not cried thank you for your good word but it is more than i would affirm myself on the contrary the knowing that there was such a provision for me probably did bias me nor can i think it wrong that it should there was no natural dis park inclination to be overcome and i see no reason why a man should make a worse clergyman for knowing that he will have a early in life i was in safe hands i hope i should not have been influenced myself in wrong way and i am sure my father was too conscientious to have allowed it i have no doubt that i was but i think it was it is the same sort of thing said after a short pause as for the son of an admiral to go into the navy or the son of a general to be in the army and nobody sees anything wrong in that nobody wonders that they should prefer the line where their friends can serve them best or them to be less in earnest in it than they appear no my dear miss price and for reasons good the profession either navy or army is its own justification it has everything in its favor heroism danger bustle fashion soldiers and sailors are always acceptable in society nobody can wonder that men are soldiers and sailors but the motives of a man who takes orders with the certainty of may be fairly suspected you think said to be justified in your eyes he must do it in the most complete uncertainty of any provision what i take orders without a living i no that is madness indeed absolute madness shall i ask you how the church is to be filled if a man is neither to take orders with a living nor without no for you certainly would not know what to say but i must beg some park to the clergyman from your own argument as he cannot be influenced by those feelings which you rank highly as temptation and reward to the soldier and sailor in their choice of a profession as heroism and noise and fashion are all against him he ought to be less liable to the suspicion of wanting sincerity or good intentions in the choice of his oh no doubt he is very sincere in preferring an income ready made to the trouble of working for one and has the best intentions of doing nothing all the rest of his days but eat drink and grow fat it is mr indeed and love of ease a want of all ambition of taste for good company or of inclination to take the trouble of being agreeable which make men a clergyman has nothing to do but to be and selfish read the newspaper watch the weather and quarrel with his wife his does all the work and the business of his own life is to dine there are such no doubt but i think they are not so common as to justify miss in it their general character i suspect that in this comprehensive and may i say commonplace censure you are not judging from yourself but from prejudiced persons whose opinions you have been in the habit of hearing it is impossible that your own observation can have given you much knowledge of the clergy you can have been personally acquainted with very few of a set of men you condemn so you are speaking what you have been told at your uncle s table vol i park i what appears to me the general opinion and where an opinion is general it is usually correct though i have not seen much of the domestic lives of it is seen by too many to leave any deficiency of information where any one body of educated men of whatever are condemned there must be a deficiency of information or smiling of something else your uncle	26
and his brother perhaps knew little of beyond the whom good or bad they were always wishing away poor william he has met with great kindness from the of the was a tender of s very much to the purpose of her own feelings if not of the conversation i have been so little to take my opinions from my uncle said miss that i can hardly suppose and since you push me so hard i must observe that i am not entirely without the means of seeing what are being at this present time the guest of my own brother dr grant and though dr grant is most kind and obliging to me and though he is really a gentleman and i dare say a good scholar and clever and often good sermons and is very respectable i see him to be an indolent selfish hon who must have his consulted in everything who will not stir a finger for the convenience of any one and who moreover if the cook makes a blunder is out of humor with his excellent wife to own the truth henry park and i were partly driven out this very evening by a disappointment about a green goose which he could not get the better of my poor sister was forced to stay and bear it i do not wonder at your upon my word it is a great defect of temper made worse by a very habit of self indulgence and to see your sister suffering from it must be exceedingly painful to such feelings as yours it goes against us we cannot attempt to defend dr grant no replied but we need not give up his profession for all that because whatever profession dr grant had chosen he would have taken a not a good temper into it and as he must either in the navy or army have had a great many more people under his command than he has now i think more would have been made unhappy by him as a sailor or soldier than as a clergyman besides i cannot but suppose that whatever there may be to wish otherwise in dr grant would have been in a greater danger of becoming worse in a more active and worldly profession where he would have had less time and obligation where he might have escaped that knowledge of himself the at least of that knowledge which it is impossible he should escape as he is now a man a sensible man like dr grant cannot be in the habit of teaching others their duty every week cannot go to church twice every sunday and preach such very good sermons in so good a manner as he does without being the better for it himself it must make him think and i have no doubt that he oftener to restrain himself than he would if he had been anything but a clergyman we cannot prove the contrary to be sure but i wish you a better fate miss price than to be the wife of a man whose depends upon his own sermons for though he may preach himself into a good humor every sunday it will be bad enough to have him quarrelling about green from monday morning till saturday night i think the man who could often quarrel with said affectionately must be beyond the reach of any sermons turned farther into the window and miss had only time to say in a pleasant manner i fancy miss price has been more used to deserve praise than to hear it when being earnestly invited by the miss to join in a glee she tripped o e to the instrument leaving looking after her in an ecstasy of admiration of all her many virtues from her obliging manners down to her light and graceful tread there goes good humor i am sure said he presently there goes a temper which would never give pain how well she walks and how readily she falls in with the inclination of others joining them the moment she is asked what a pity he added after an instant s reflection that should have been in such hands agreed to it and had the pleasure of seeing him continue at the window with her in spite of the expected glee and of having his eyes park soon turned like hers towards the scene without where all that was solemn and soothing and lovely appeared in the of an night and the contrast of the deep shade of the woods spoke her feelings here s harmony said she here s repose here s what may leave all painting and all music behind and what poetry only can attempt to describe here s what may every care and lift the heart to rapture when i look out on such a night as this i feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world and there certainly would be less of both if the of nature were more attended to and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene i like to hear your enthusiasm it is a lovely night and they are much to be pitied who have not been taught to feel in some degree as you do who have not at least been given a taste for nature in early life they lose a great deal you taught me to think and feel on the subject cousin i had a very apt scholar there s looking very bright yes and the bear i wish i could see we must go out on the lawn for that should you be afraid not in the least it is a great while since we have had any star gazing yes i do not know how it has happened the glee began we will stay till is finished said be turning bis back on the	26
window and as it advanced she bad the mortification of seeing bim advance too moving forward hy gentle degrees towards the instrument and when it ceased be was close by the singers among the most urgent in to bear the glee again sighed alone at the window till away hy mrs s threats of catching cold chapter ib thomas was to return in november and his eldest son had duties to call him earlier home the approach of september brought tidings of mr first in a letter to the and then in a letter to and by the end of august he arrived himself to be gay agreeable and gallant again as occasion served or miss demanded to tell of races and and parties and friends to which she might have listened six weeks before with some interest and altogether to give her the fullest conviction by the power of actual comparison of her preferring his younger brother it was very and she was heartily sorry for it but so it was and so far from now meaning to marry the elder she did not even want to attract him beyond what the simplest claims of conscious beauty required his lengthened absence from without anything but pleasure in view and his own will to consult made it perfectly clear that he did not care about her and bis indifference was so much more than equalled by her own that were he now to step forth the owner of park the sir thomas complete which he was to be in time she did not believe she could accept him the season and duties which brought mr back to took mr into could not do without him in the beginning of september he went for a fortnight a fortnight of such to the miss as ought to have put them both on their guard and made even admit in her jealousy of her sister the absolute necessity of his attentions and wishing him not to return and a fortnight of sufficient leisure in the intervals of shooting and sleeping to have convinced the gentleman that he ought to keep longer away had he been more in the habit of examining his own motives and of reflecting to what the indulgence of his idle vanity was tending but thoughtless and selfish from prosperity and bad example he would not look beyond the present moment the sisters handsome clever and encouraging were an amusement to his mind and finding nothing in to equal the social pleasures of he gladly returned to it at the time appointed and was welcomed thither quite as gladly by those whom he came to trifle with further maria with only mr to attend to her and doomed to the repeated details of his day s sport good or bad his boast of his dogs his jealousy of his neighbors his doubts of their and his zeal after subjects which will not find their way to female feelings without some talent on one side or some attachment on the other had missed mr and and park felt all the right of missing him much more each sister herself the favorite might he justified in so doing hy the hints of mrs grant inclined to credit what she wished and maria by the hints of mr himself everything returned into the same channel as before his absence his manners being to each so animated and agreeable as to lose no ground with either and just stopping short of the the the solicitude and the warmth which might excite general notice was the only one of the party who found anything to dislike but since the day at she could never see mr with either sister without observation and seldom without wonder or censure and had her confidence in her own judgment been equal to her exercise of it in every other respect had she been sure that she was seeing clearly and judging candidly would probably have made some important communications to her usual as it was however she only a hint and the hint was lost i am rather surprised said she that mr should come back again so soon after being here so long before full seven weeks for i had understood he was so very fond of change and moving about that i thought something would certainly occur when he was once gone to take him elsewhere he is used to much places than it is to his credit was s answer and i dare say it gives his sister pleasure she does not like his unsettled habits what a favorite he is with my yes his to women are such as must please mrs i him of a preference for i hare seen much symptom of it but i wish it may be so he has no faults but what a serious attachment would remove if miss were not engaged said cautiously i could sometimes almost think that he admired her more than which is perhaps more in favor of his liking best than you may be aware for i believe it often happens that a man before he has quite made up his own mind will distinguish the sister or intimate friend of the woman he is really thinking of more than the woman herself has too much sense to stay here if he found himself any danger from maria and i am not at all afraid for her after such a proof as she has given that her feelings are not strong supposed she must have been mistaken and meant to think differently in future but with all that submission to could do and all the help of the looks and hints which she occasionally noticed in some of the others and which seemed to say that was mr s choice she knew not always what to think she was one evening fo the hopes of her aunt on this subject	26
happy replied he aloud and jumping up with alacrity it would give me the greatest pleasure but that i am this moment going to dance taking her hand do not be any longer or the dance will be over was led off very willingly though it was impossible for her to feel much gratitude towards her cousin or distinguish as he certainly did between the selfishness of another person and his own a pretty modest request upon my word he indignantly exclaimed as they walked away to want to nail me to a card table for the next two hours with herself and dr grant who are always quarrelling and that old woman who knows no more of than of i wish my good aunt would be a little less busy i and to ask me in such a way tool without ceremony before them all so as to leave me no possibility of refusing that is what i dislike most particularly it raises my more than anything to have the pretence of being asked of being given a choice and at the same time addressed in such a way as to oblige one to do the very thing whatever it be if i had not luckily thought of standing up with you i could not have got out of it it is a great deal too bad but when my aunt has got a fancy in her head nothing can stop her chapter the honorable this new friend had not much to recommend him beyond habits of fashion and expense and being the younger son of a lord with a tolerable independence and sir thomas would probably have thought his introduction at by no means desirable mr s acquaintance with him had begun at where they had spent ten days together in the same society and the friendship if friendship it might be called had been proved and by mr s being invited to take in his way whenever he could and by his promising to come and he did come rather earlier than had been expected in consequence of the sudden breaking up of a large party assembled for at the house of another friend which he had left to join he came on the wings of disappointment and with his head full of acting for it had been a theatrical party and the play in which he had borne a part was within two days of representation when the sudden death of one of the nearest connections of the family had destroyed the scheme and dispersed the to be so near happiness so near fame so near the long paragraph in praise of the private at the seat of the hon lord park in which would of course have the whole party for at least a and so near to lose it all was an injury to he keenly felt and mr could talk of nothing else and its theatre with its arrangements and dresses and jokes was his never failing and to of the past his only consolation happily for him a love of the theatre is so general an for acting so strong among young people that he could hardly out talk the interest of his hearers from the first casting of the parts to the it was all and there were few who did not wish to have heen a party concerned or would have hesitated to try their skill the play had heen lovers vows and mr was to have heen count a trifling part said he and not at all to my taste and such a one as i certainly would not accept again hut i was determined to make no difficulties lord and the duke had appropriated the only two characters worth playing reached and though lord offered to resign his to me it was impossible to take it you know i was sorry for him that he should have so mistaken his powers for he was no more equal to the baron a little man with a weak voice always hoarse after the first ten minutes it must have injured the piece materially hut i was resolved to make no difficulties sir henry thought the duke not equal to but that was because sir henry wanted the part himself whereas it was certainly in the best vol i hands of the two i was surprised to see sir henry such a stick luckily the strength of the piece did not depend upon him our was and the duke was thought very great by many and upon the whole it would certainly have gone off wonderfully it was a hard case upon my word and i do think you were very much to be pitied were the kind of listening sympathy it is not worth complaining about but to be sure the poor old could not have died at a worse time and it is impossible to help wishing that the news could have been suppressed for just the three days we wanted it was but three days and being only a grandmother and all happening two hundred miles off i think there would have been no great harm and it was suggested i know but lord who i suppose is one of the most correct men in england would not hear of it an after piece instead of a comedy said mr lovers vows were at an end and lord and lady left to act my grandmother by themselves well the may comfort him and perhaps between friends he began to tremble for his credit and his lungs in the baron and was not sorry to withdraw and to make you amends i think we must raise a little theatre at and ask you to be our manager this though the thought of the moment did not end with the moment for the inclination to act was awakened and in no one more strongly than park in	26
him who was now of the house and who having so much leisure as to make almost any novelty a certain good had likewise such a degree of lively talents and comic taste as were exactly adapted to the novelty of acting the thought returned again and again oh for the theatre and scenery to try something with each sister could echo the wish and henry to whom in all the riot of his it was yet an pleasure was quite alive at the idea i really believe said he i could be fool enough at this moment to undertake any character that ever was written from or richard iii down to the singing hero of a farce in his scarlet coat and cocked hat i feel as if i could be anything or everything as if i could and storm or sigh or cut in any tragedy or comedy in the english language let us be doing something be it only half a play an act a scene what should prevent us not these countenances i am sure looking towards the miss and for a theatre what a theatre we shall be only amusing ourselves any room in this house might suffice we must have a curtain said tom a few yards of green for a curtain and perhaps that may be enough h quite enough cried mr with only just a side wing or two run up doors in flat and three or four scenes to be let down nothing more would be necessary on such a plan as this for mere amusement among ourselves we should want nothing more i we must be satisfied with less said maria there would not be time and other difficulties would arise we must rather adopt mr s views and make the performance not the theatre our object many parts of best plays are independent of scenery nay said who began to listen with alarm let us do nothing by if we are to act let it be in a theatre completely fitted up with pit box and gallery and let us have a play entire from beginning to end so as it be a german play no matter what with a good shifting after piece and a figure dance and a and a song between the acts if we do not we do nothing now do not be disagreeable said nobody loves a play better than you do or can have gone much farther to see one true to see real acting good hardened real acting but i would hardly walk from this room to the next to look at the raw efforts of those who have not been bred to the trade a set of gentlemen and ladies who have all the of education and decorum to struggle through after a short pause however the subject still continued and was discussed with eagerness every one s inclination increasing by the discussion and a knowledge of the inclination of the rest and though nothing was settled but that tom would prefer a comedy and his sisters and henry a tragedy and that nothing in the world could be easier than to find a piece which would please them all the resolution to act something or other seemed so decided as to make quite he was determined to prevent it if though his mother who equally heard the conversation which passed at did not the least the same evening him an opportunity of trying his strength maria henry and mr were in the room tom returning from them into the drawing room where was standing thoughtfully by the fire while lady was on the sofa at a little distance and close beside her arranging her work thus began as he entered such a horribly vile table as ours is not to be met with i believe above ground i can stand it no longer and i think i may say that nothing shall ever tempt me to it again but one good thing i have just ascertained it is the very room for a theatre precisely the shape and length for it and the doors at the farther end communicating with each other as th may be made to do in five minutes by merely moving the in my father s room is the very thing we could have desired if we had set down to wish for it and my father s room will be an excellent it seems to join the room on purpose you are not serious tom in meaning to act said in a low voice as his brother approached the fire serious more so i assure you is there to surprise you in it i think it would be very wrong in a park light are open to some objections but as we are i must think it would be highly and more than to attempt of the kind it would show great want of feeling on my father s account absent as he is and in some degree of constant danger and it would be i think with regard to maria whose situation is a very delicate one considering everything extremely delicate you take up a thing so seriously i as if we were going to act three times a week till my father s return and invite all the country but it is not to be a display of that sort we mean nothing but a little amusement among ourselves just to vary the scene and exercise our powers in something new we want no audience no we may be trusted i think in choosing some play most perfectly and i can conceive no greater harm or danger to any of us in conversing in the elegant language of some respectable author than in chattering in words of our own i have no fears and no scruples and as to my father s being absent it is so far from	26
an objection that i consider it rather as a motive for the expectation of his return must be a very anxious period to my mother and if we can be the means of amusing that anxiety and keeping up her spirits for the next few weeks i shall think our time very well spent and so i am sure will he it is a very anxious period for her as he said this each looked towards their park mother lady sunk back in one corner of the sofa the picture of health wealth ease and tranquillity was just falling into a gentle dose while was getting through the few difficulties of her work for her smiled and shook his head by jove this won t do cried tom throwing himself into a chair with a hearty laugh to be sure my dear mother your anxiety i was unlucky there what is the matter asked her in the heavy tone of one half roused i was not asleep oh dear no ma am nobody suspected you well he continued returning to the former subject posture and voice as soon as lady began to nod again but this i will maintain that we shall be doing no harm i cannot agree with you i am convinced that my father would totally it and i am convinced to the contrary is of the exercise of talent in young people or it more than my father and for anything of the acting kind i think he has always a decided taste i am sure be encouraged it in as boys how many a time have we mourned over the dead body of and to he d and not to be d in this very room for his amusement and i am sure my name was every evening of my life through one christmas holidays it was a very different thing you must see the difference yourself my father wished us as to speak well but he would never wish his grown up daughters to be acting plays his sense of decorum is strict i know all that said tom displeased i know my father as well as you do and i take care that his daughters do nothing to distress him manage your own concerns and i ll take care of the rest of the family if you are resolved on acting replied the i must hope it will be in a very small and quiet way and i think a theatre ought not to be attempted it would be taking liberties with my father s house in his absence which could not be justified for everything of that nature i will be said tom in a decided tone his house shall not be hurt i have quite as great an interest in being careful of his house as you can have and as to such alterations as i was suggesting just now such as moving a or a door or even as using the room for the space of a week without playing at in it you might just as well suppose he would object to our sitting more in this room and less in the breakfast room than we did before he went away or to my sister s being moved from one side of the room to the other absolute nonsense the if not wrong as an will be wrong as an expense yes the expense of such an undertaking would be prodigious perhaps it might cost a whole i twenty pounds something of a theatre we must have undoubtedly but it will be on the simplest plan a green curtain and a little carpenter s work and that s all and as the carpenter s work may be all done at home by himself it will be too absurd to talk of expense and as long as is employed everything will be right with sir thomas don t imagine that nobody in this house can see or judge but yourself don t act yourself if you do not like it but don t expect to govern everybody else no as to acting myself said that i absolutely protest against tom walked out of the room as he said it and was left to sit down and stir the fire in thoughtful vexation who had heard it all and borne company in every feeling throughout the whole now ventured to say in her anxiety to suggest some comfort perhaps they may not be able to find any play to suit them your brother s taste and your sisters seem very different t have no hope there if they persist in the scheme they will find something i shall speak to my sisters and try to them and that is all i can do i should think my aunt n would be on your side i dare say she would but she has no influence with either tom or my sisters that could be of any use and if i cannot convince them myself i shall let things take their course without attempting it through her family is the greatest evil of ally and we had better do anything than be altogether by the ears his sisters to whom he had an opportunity of speaking the next morning were quite as impatient of his advice quite as to his representation quite as determined in the cause of pleasure as tom their mother had no objection to the plan and they were not in the least afraid of their father s there could be no harm in what had been done in so many respectable families and by so many women of the first consideration and it must be run mad that could see anything to censure in a plan like theirs only brothers and sisters and intimate friends and which would never be heard of beyond themselves did seem inclined to admit that maria	26
s situation might require particular caution and delicacy but that could not extend to her she was at liberty and maria evidently considered her engagement as only raising her so much more above restraint and leaving her less occasion than to consult either father or mother had little to hope but he was still urging the subject when henry entered the room fresh from the calling out ko want of hands in our theatre miss no want of under my sister desires her love and hopes to be admitted into the company and will be happy to take the part of any old or tame that you may not like to do yourselves maria gave a glance which meant what say you now can we be wrong if mary park feels the same and silenced was obliged to acknowledge that the charm of acting might well fascination to the mind of genius and with the ingenuity of love to dwell more on the obliging purport of the message than on anything else the scheme advanced opposition was vain and as to mrs l he was mistaken in supposing she would wish to make any she started no difficulties that were not talked down in five minutes by her eldest nephew and niece who were all powerful with her and as the whole arrangement was to bring very little expense to anybody and none at all to herself as she foresaw in it all the comforts of hurry bustle and importance and derived the immediate advantage of herself obliged to leave her own house where she had been living a month at her own cost and take up her abode in theirs that every hour might be spent in their service she was in fact exceedingly delighted with the project chapter xiv seemed nearer being right than had supposed the business of finding a play that would suit everybody proved to be no trifle and the carpenter had received his orders and taken his had suggested and removed at least two sets of difficulties and having made the necessity of an of plan and expense fully evident was already at work while a play was still to seek other preparations were also in hand an enormous roll of green had arrived from and been cut out by mrs with a saving by her good management of full three quarters of a yard and was actually forming into a curtain by the and still the play was wanting and as two or three days passed away in this manner began almost to hope that none might ever be found there were in fact so many things to be attended to so many people to be pleased so many best characters required and above all such a need that the play should be at once both tragedy and comedy that there did seem as little chance of a decision as anything pursued by youth and zeal could hold out on the tragic side were the miss henry and mr on the park tom not quite alone because it was evident that mary s wishes though politely kept back inclined the same way but his and his power seemed to make unnecessary and independent of this great difference they wanted a piece containing very few characters in the whole but every character first rate and three principal women all the best plays were run over in vain neither hamlet nor nor nor nor the presented anything that could satisfy even the and the rivals the school for scandal wheel of fortune heir at law and a long et were dismissed with yet warmer objections no piece could be proposed that did not supply somebody with a difficulty and on one side or the other it was a continual repetition of oh no that will never do let us have no too many characters not a tolerable woman s part in the play anything but that my dear tom it would be impossible to fill it up one could not expect anybody to take such a part nothing but from beginning to end that might do perhaps but for the low parts if i must give my opinion i have always thought it the most play in the english language i do not wish to make objections i shall be happy to be of any use but i think we could not choose worse looked on and listened not to observe the selfishness which more or less disguised seemed to govern them all and wondering how it would end for her own gratification she park could have wished that something might be acted for she had never seen even half a play but everything of higher consequence was against it this will never do said tom at last we are wasting time most something must be fixed on no matter what so that something is chosen we must not be so nice a few characters too many must not frighten us we must double them we must descend a little if a part is insignificant the greater our credit in making anything of it from this moment make no difficulties i take any part you choose to give me so as it be comic let it but be comic i condition for nothing more for about the fifth time he then proposed the heir at law doubting only whether to prefer lord or dr for himself and very earnestly but very trying to persuade the others that there were some fine tragic parts in the rest of the the pause which followed this fruitless effort was ended by the same speaker who taking up one of the many volumes of plays that lay on the table and turning it over suddenly exclaimed lovers vows i and why should not lovers vows do for us as well as for the how came it never to be thought of before it strikes me as if it	26
would do exactly what say you all here are two capital tragic parts for and and here is the butler for me if nobody else wants it a trifling part but the sort of thing i should not dislike and as i said before i am determined to take anything and do my best and park as for the rest they may he filled up hy it is only count and the suggestion was generally welcome was growing weary of and the first idea with was that nothing had heen proposed so likely to suit them all mr was particularly pleased he had heen sighing and longing to do the baron at had every of lord s and heen forced to re it all in his own room the storm through baron was the height of his theatrical and with the advantage of knowing half the scenes hy heart already he did now with the greatest alacrity offer his services for the part to do him justice however he did not resolve to appropriate it for that there was some very good ground in he professed an equal for that henry was ready to take either whichever mr did not choose would perfectly satisfy him and a short of compliment ensued miss feeling all the interest of an in the question took on her to decide it hy observing to mr that this was a point in which height and figure ought to be considered and that his being the seemed to fit him peculiarly for the baron she was acknowledged to be quite right and the two parts being accepted accordingly she was certain of the proper three of the characters were now cast besides mr who was always answered for by maria as willing to do anything when meaning like her sister park to be began to be scrupulous on miss s account this is not well by the absent said she here are not women enough and may do for maria and me but there is nothing for your sister mr mr desired that might not be thought of he was very sure his sister had no wish of acting but as she might be useful and that she would not allow herself to be considered in the present case but this was immediately opposed by tom who asserted the part of to be in every respect the property of miss if she would accept it it falls as naturally as necessarily to her said he as does to one or other of my sisters it can be no sacrifice on their side for it is highly comic a short silence followed each sister looked anxious for each felt the best claim to and was hoping to have it pressed on her by the rest henry who meanwhile had taken up the play and with seeming carelessness was turning over the first act soon settled the business i must entreat miss said he not to engage in the part of or it will be the ruin of all my solemnity you must not indeed you must not turning to her i could not stand your countenance dressed up in woe and the many laughs we have had together would come across me and and his would be obliged to run away pleasantly courteously it was spoken but the park manner was lost in the matter to s feelings she saw a glance at maria which confirmed the injury to herself it was a scheme a trick she was maria was preferred the smile of triumph which maria was trying to suppress showed how well it was understood and before could command herself enough to speak her brother gave his weight against her too by saying oh yes maria must be maria will be the best though fancies she prefers tragedy i would not trust her in it there is nothing of tragedy about her she has not the look of it her features are not tragic features and she walks too quick and speaks too quick and would not keep her countenance she had better do the old the s wife you had indeed s wife is a very pretty part i assure you the old lady the high flown benevolence of her husband with a good deal of spirit you shall be s wife s cried mr what are you talking of the most trivial paltry insignificant part the merest commonplace not a tolerable speech in the whole your sister do that it is an insult to propose it at the was to have done it we all agreed that it could not be offered to anybody else a little more justice mr manager if you please you do not deserve the office if you cannot appreciate the talents of your company a little better why as to that my good friend till i and my company have really acted there must be some vol i park but i mean no to we cannot have two and we must have one s wife and i am sure i set her the example of moderation myself in being satisfied with the old butler if the part is trifling she will have more credit in making something of it and if she is so desperately bent against everything humorous let her take s speeches instead of s wife s and so change the parts all through he is solemn and pathetic enough i am sure it could make no difference in the play and as for himself when he has got his wife s speeches i would undertake him with all my heart with all your partiality for s wife said henry it will be impossible to make anything of it fit for your sister and we must not suffer her good nature to be imposed on we must not allow her to accept the part she must not be left to her	26
own her talents will be wanted in is a character more difficult to be well represented than even i consider as the most difficult character in the whole piece it requires great powers great to give her and simplicity without extravagance i have seen good fail in the part simplicity indeed is beyond the reach of almost every by profession it requires a delicacy of feeling which they have not it requires a a you will undertake it i hope turning to her with a look of anxious entreaty which softened her a little but while she park hesitated what to say her brother again interposed with miss s better claim no no must not be it is not at all the part for her she would not like it she would not do well she is too tall and robust should be a small light girlish figure it is fit for miss and miss only she looks the part and i am persuaded will do it admirably without attending to this henry continued his you must oblige us said he indeed you must when you have studied the character i am sure you will feel it suit you tragedy may be your choice but it will certainly appear that comedy chooses you you will be to visit me in prison with a basket of provisions you will not refuse to visit me in prison i think i see you coming in with your basket the influence of his voice was felt wavered but was he only trying to soothe and her and make her overlook the previous she him the slight had been most determined he was perhaps but at treacherous play with her she looked suspiciously at her sister maria s countenance was to decide it if she were vexed and alarmed but maria looked all serenity and satisfaction and well knew that on this ground maria could not be happy but at her expense with hasty indignation therefore and a tremulous voice she said to him you do not seem afraid of not keeping your countenance when i come in with a basket of provisions though one might have supposed but it is only as that i was to be so she stopped looked rather foolish and as if he did not know what to say tom began again miss must be will be an excellent do not be afraid of my wanting character cried with angry quickness i am not to be and i am sure i will do nothing else and as to it is of all parts in the world the most disgusting to me i quite her an odious little unnatural impudent girl i have always protested against comedy and this is comedy in its worst form and so saying she walked hastily out of the room leaving awkward feelings to more than one but exciting small compassion in any except who had been a quiet of the whole and who could not think of her as under the of jealousy without great pity a short silence succeeded her leaving them but her brother soon returned to business and lovers vows and was eagerly looking over the play with mr s help to ascertain what scenery would be necessary while maria and henry conversed together in an under voice and the declaration with which she began of i am sure i would give up the part to most willingly but that though i shall probably do it very ill i feel persuaded she would do it worse was doubtless receiving all the compliments it called for when this had lasted some time the division park of the party was completed by tom and mr walking off together to consult further in the room now beginning to be called the theatre and miss s to go down to the herself with the offer of to miss and remained alone the first use she made of her solitude was to take up the volume which had been left on the and begin to herself with the play of which she had heard so much her curiosity was all awake and she ran through it with an eagerness which was suspended only by intervals of astonishment that it could be chosen in the present instance that it could be proposed and accepted in a private theatre and appeared to her in their different ways so totally improper for home representation the situation of one and the language of the other so unfit to be expressed by any woman of modesty that she could hardly suppose her cousins could be aware of what they were engaging in and longed to have them roused as soon as possible by the remonstrance which would certainly make chapter xv miss accepted the part readily and soon after miss s return from the mr arrived and another character was consequently cast he had the of count and and at first did not know which to choose and wanted miss to direct him hut upon being made to understand the different style of the characters and which was which and that he had once seen the play in london and had thought a very stupid fellow he soon decided for the count miss approved the decision for the less he had to learn the better and though she could not in his wish that the count and might be to act together nor wait very patiently while he was slowly turning over the leaves with the hope of still discovering such a scene she very kindly took his part in hand and every speech that admitted being besides pointing out the necessity of his being very much dressed and choosing his colors mr liked the idea of his finery very well though affecting to despise it and was too much engaged with what his own appearance would be to think of the others	26
or draw any of those conclusions or feel any of that displeasure which maria had been half prepared for park thus much was settled who had been out all the morning knew anything of the matter hut when he entered the drawing room before dinner the of discussion was high between tom maria and mr and mr stepped forward with great alacrity to tell him the agreeable news we have got a play said he it is to be lovers vows and i am to be count and am to come in first with a blue dress and a pink satin cloak and afterwards am to have another fine fancy suit by way of a shooting dress i do not know how i shall like it s eyes followed and her heart beat for him as she heard this speech and saw his look and felt what his sensations must be lovers vows in a tone of the greatest amazement was his only reply to mr and he turned towards his brother and sisters as if hardly doubting a contradiction yes cried mr after all our and difficulties we find there is nothing that will suit us altogether so well nothing so as lovers vows the wonder is that it should not have been thought of before my stupidity was abominable for here we have all the advantage of what i saw at and it is so useful to have anything of a model we have cast almost every part but what do you do for women said gravely and looking at maria maria blushed in spite of herself as she answered i take the part which lady park was to have done and with a bolder eye miss is to be i should not have thought it the sort of play to be so easily filled up with ms replied turning away to the fire where sat his mother aunt and and himself with a look of great vexation mr rush worth followed him to say i come in three times and have two and forty speeches that s something is not it but i do not much like the idea of being so fine i shall hardly know myself in a blue dress and a pink satin could not answer him in a few minutes mr was called out of the room to satisfy some doubts of the carpenter and being accompanied by mr and followed soon afterwards by mr almost immediately took the opportunity of saying i cannot before mr speak what i feel as to this play without reflecting on his friends at but i must now my dear maria tell you that i think it exceedingly unfit for private representation and that i hope you will give it up i cannot but suppose you will when you have read it carefully over read only the first act aloud to either your mother or aunt and see how you can approve it it will not be necessary to send you to your father s judgment i am convinced we see things very cried maria i am perfectly acquainted with the play i assure you and with a very few and so forth which will be made o i can see nothing objectionable in it and i am not the only young woman you find who thinks it very fit for private representation i am sorry for it was his answer but in this matter it is you who are to lead you must set the example k others have it is your place to put them right and show them what true delicacy is in all points of decorum your conduct must be law to the rest of the party this picture of her consequence had some effect for no one loved better to lead than maria and with far more good humor she answered i am much obliged to you you mean very well i am sure but i still think you see things too strongly and i really cannot undertake ta au the rest upon a subject of this kind there would be the greatest i think do you imagine that i could have such an idea in my head no let your conduct be the only say that on examining the part you feel yourself unequal to it that you find it requiring more exertion and confidence than you can be supposed to have say this with firmness and it will be quite enough all who can distinguish will understand your motive the play will be given up and your delicacy honored as it ought do not act anything improper my dear said lady sir thomas would not like it ring the bell i must have my dinner to be sure is dressed by this time i am madam said that sir thomas would not like iv there my dear do jou hear what says k i were to decline the part said maria with renewed zeal would certainly take it what cried if she knew your reasons oh she might think the difference between us the difference in our situations that she need not be so scrupulous as i might feel necessary i am sure she would argue so no you must excuse me i cannot my consent it is too far settled everybody would be so disappointed tom would be quite angry and if we are so very nice we shall never act anything i was just going to say the very same thing said mrs if every play is to be objected to you will act nothing and the preparations will be all so much money thrown away and i am sure that would be a to us all i do not know the play but as maria says if there is anything a little too warm and it is so with most of them it can be easily left out we must not be over precise as	26
mr is to act too there can be no harm i only wish tom had known his own mind when the began for there was the loss of half a day s work about those side doors the curtain will be a good job however the maids do their work very well and i think we shall be park able to send back some of tbe rings there is no occasion to put them so very close together i am of use i hope in preventing waste and making the most of things there should always be one steady head to so many young ones i forgot to tell tom of something that happened to me this very day i had been looking about me in the poultry yard and was just coming out when who should i see but dick making up to the servants hall door with two bits of deal board in his hand bringing them to father you may be sure mother had chanced to send him of a message to father and then father had bid him bring up them two bits of board for he could not do without them i knew what all this meant for the servants dinner bell was ringing at the very moment over our heads and as i hate such people the are very i have always said so just the sort of people to get all they can i said to the boy directly a great fellow of ten years old you know who ought to be ashamed of himself i take the boards to your father dick so get you home again as fast as you can the boy looked very silly and turned away without offering a word for i believe i might speak pretty sharp and i dare say it will cure him of coming about the house for one while i hate such so good as your father is to the family the man all the year round nobody was at the trouble of an answer the others soon returned and found that to park have endeavored to set them right most be his only satisfaction dinner passed mrs related again her triumph over dick but neither play nor preparation was otherwise much talked of for s was felt even by his brother though he would not have owned it maria wanting henry s support thought the subject better avoided mr who was trying to make himself agreeable to found her gloom less impenetrable on any topic than that of his regret at her from their company and mr having only his own part and hie own dress in his head had soon talked away all that could be said of either but the concerns of the theatre were suspended only for an hour or two there was still a great deal to be settled and the spirits of evening giving fresh courage tom maria and mr soon after their being re assembled in the drawing room seated themselves in committee at a separate table with the play open before them and were just getting deep in the subject when a most welcome interruption was given by the entrance of mr and miss who late and dark and dirty as it was could not help coming and were received with the most grateful joy well how do you and what have you settled and oh we can do nothing without you followed the first and henry was soon seated with the other three at the table while his sister made her way to lady and with pleasant attention park was her i must really congratulate your said she on the play being chosen for though you have borne it with patience i am sure you must be sick of all our noise and difficulties the actors may be glad but the must be infinitely more thankful for a decision and i do sincerely give you joy madam as well as mrs and everybody else who is in the same glancing half fearfully half beyond to she was very answered by lady but said nothing his being only a was not after continuing in chat with the party round the fire a few minutes miss returned to the party round the table and standing by them seemed to interest herself in their arrangements till as if struck by a sudden recollection she exclaimed my good friends you are most at work upon these cottages and inside and out but pray let me know my fate in the mean while who is to be what gentleman among you am i to have the pleasure of making love to for a moment no one spoke and then many spoke together to tell the same melancholy truth that they had not yet got any mr was to be count but no one had yet undertaken i had my choice of the parts said mr but i thought i should like the count best though i do not much relish the finery i am to have park you chose very wisely i am sure replied miss with a brightened look is a heavy part the count has two and forty speeches returned mr worth which is no trifle i am not at all surprised said miss after a short pause at this want of an deserves no better such a forward young lady may well frighten the men i should be but too happy in taking the part if it were possible cried tom but the butler and are in together i will not entirely give it up however i will try what can be done i will look it over again your brother should take the part said mr in a low voice do not you think he would i shall not ask him replied tom in a cold determined manner miss talked of something else and soon afterwards rejoined the party	26
endeavor to raise her spirits in spite of being out of spirits herself by a look at her brother she prevented any further entreaty from the theatrical board and the really good feelings by which she was almost purely governed were rapidly restoring her to all the little she had lost in s favor did not love miss but she felt very much obliged to her for her present kindness and when from taking notice of her work and wishing she could work as well and begging for the pattern and supposing was now preparing for her appearance as of course she would come out when her cousin was married miss proceeded to inquire if she had heard lately from her brother at sea and said that she had quite a curiosity to see him and imagined him a very fine young man and advised to get his picture drawn before he went to sea again she not help admitting it to be very agreeable flattery or help listening and answering with more animation than she had intended the consultation upon the play still went on and miss s attention was first called from by tom s telling her with infinite regret that he found it absolutely impossible for him to undertake the part of in addition to the butler be had been most anxiously trying to make it out to be but it would not do he must give it up but there will not be the smallest difficulty in filling it he added we have but to speak the word we may pick and choose i could name at this moment at least six young men within six miles of us who are wild to be admitted into our company and there are one or two that would not disgrace us i should not be afraid to trust either of the or charles tom is a very clever fellow and charles is as a man as you will see anywhere so i will take my horse early to morrow morning and ride over to and settle with one of them while he spoke maria was looking round at in full expectation that he must oppose such an of the plan as this so contrary to all their first but said nothing after a moment s thought miss calmly replied as far as i am concerned i can have no objection to anything that you all think eligible have i ever seen either of the gentlemen yes mr charles dined at my sister s one day man field park did not he henry a quiet looking i an i remember him let him be applied to if yon please for it will be less unpleasant to me than to have a perfect stranger charles was to be the man tom repeated his resolution of going to him early on the morrow and though who had scarcely opened her lips before observed in a sarcastic manner and with a glance first at maria and then at that the would the whole neighborhood exceedingly still held his peace and showed his feelings only by a determined gravity i am not very sanguine as to our play said miss in an under voice to after some consideration and i can tell mr that i shall some of his speeches and a great many of my own before we together it will be very disagreeable and by no means what i expected chapter xvi it was not in miss s power to talk into any real forgetfulness of what bad when the evening was over she went to bed full of it her nerves still agitated by the shock of an attack from her cousin tom so public and so in and her spirits sinking under her aunt s unkind reflection and reproach to be called into notice in such a manner to hear that it was but the to something so infinitely worse to be told that she must do what was so impossible as to act and then to have the charge of obstinacy and ingratitude follow it enforced with such a hint at the dependence of her situation had been too distressing at the time to make the remembrance when she was alone much less so especially with the dread of what the morrow might produce in of the subject miss had protected her only for the time and if she were applied to again among themselves with all the that tom and maria were capable of and perhaps away what should she do she fell asleep before she could answer the question and found it quite as when she awoke the next morning the little white which had continued her sleeping room ever since her first park entering the family proving to suggest any reply she had recourse as soon as she was dressed to another apartment more spacious and more meet for walking about in and thinking and of which she had now for some time been almost equally mistress it had been their so called till the miss would not allow it to be called so any longer and inhabited as such to a later period there miss lee had lived and there they had read and written and talked and laughed till within the last three years when she had quitted them the room had then become useless and for some time was quite deserted except by when she visited her plants or wanted one of the books which she was still glad to keep there from the deficiency of space and accommodation in her little chamber above but gradually as her value for the comforts of it increased she had added to her possessions and spent more of her time there and having nothing to oppose her had so naturally and so worked herself into it that it was now generally admitted to be hers the east room as it	26
take myself i am well aware that nothing else will quiet tom could not answer him it is not at all what i like he continued no man can like being driven into the appearance of such after being known to oppose the scheme from the beginning there is absurdity in the face of my joining them now when they are exceeding their first plan in every respect but i can think of no other alternative can you no said slowly not immediately but what i see your judgment is not with me think it a little over perhaps you are not so much aware as i am of the mischief that may of the that must arise from a young man s being received in this manner among us to come at all hours and placed suddenly on a footing which must do away all to think only of the license which every must tend to create it is all very had put yourself in miss s place consider what it would be to act with a stranger she has a right to be felt for because she evidently feels for herself i heard enough of what she said to you last night to understand her to be acting with a stranger and as she probably engaged in the part with different expectations perhaps without considering the subject enough to know what was likely to be it would be it would be really wrong to expose her to it her feelings ought to be respected does it not strike you so you hesitate m am sorry for miss but i am more sorry to see you drawn in to do what you have resolved against and what you are known to think will be disagreeable to my uncle it will be such a triumph to the others they will not have much cause of triumph when they see how i act but how ever triumph there certainly will be and i must brave it but if i can be the means of the of the business of the exhibition of our folly i shall be well repaid as i am now i have no influence i can do nothing i have offended them and they will not hear me but when i have put them in good humor by this concession i am not without hopes of persuading them to confine the representation within a much smaller circle than they are now in park the high road for this will be a material gain my object is to confine it to mrs and the will not this be worth gaining yes it will be a great point but still it has not your approbation can you mention any other measure by which i have a chance of doing equal good no i cannot think of anything else give me your approbation then i am not comfortable without it h cousin if you are against me i ought to distrust myself and yet but it is absolutely impossible to let tom go on in way riding about the country in quest of anybody who can be persuaded to act no matter whom the look of a gentleman is to be enough i thought you would have entered more into miss s feelings doubt she will be very glad it must be a great relief to her said trying for greater warmth of manner she never appeared more amiable than in her behavior to you last night it gave her a very strong claim on my good will she was very kind indeed and i am glad to have her spared she could not finish the generous her conscience stopped her in the middle but was satisfied i shall walk down immediately after breakfast said he and am sure of giving pleasure there and now dear i will not you any longer you want to be reading but i park could not be easy till i had spoken to you and come to a decision sleeping or waking my head has been full of this matter all night it is an evil but i am certainly making it less than it might be if tom is up i shall go to him directly and get it over and when we meet at breakfast we shall be all in high good humor at the prospect of acting the fool together with such you in the mean while will be taking a trip into china i suppose how does lord go on opening a volume on the table and then taking up some others and here are s tales and the at hand to relieve you if you tire of your great book i admire your little establishment exceedingly and as soon as i am gone you will empty your head of all this nonsense of acting and sit comfortably down to your table but do not stay here to be cold he went but there was no reading no china no composure for he had told her the most extraordinary the most inconceivable the most unwelcome news and she could think of nothing else to be acting after all his objections objections so just and so public after all that she had heard him say and seen him look and known him to be feeling could it be possible so inconsistent was he not deceiving himself was he not wrong alas i it was all miss s doing she had seen her influence in every speech and was miserable the doubts and as to her own conduct which had previously distressed her and which had all slept while she listened to him were become of little consequence now deeper anxiety them up things should take their course she cared not how it ended her cousins might attack but could hardly her she was beyond their reach and if at last obliged to yield no matter	26
it was all misery now chapter it was indeed a triumphant day to mr and maria such a victory over s discretion had been beyond their hopes and was most delightful there was no longer anything to disturb them in their darling project and they congratulated each other in private on the jealous weakness to which they attributed the change with all the glee of feelings gratified in every way might still look grave and say he did not like the scheme in general and must the play in particular their point was gained he was to act and he was driven to it by the force of selfish inclinations only had descended from that moral elevation which he had maintained before and they were both as much the better as the happier for the descent they behaved very well however to him on the occasion betraying no exultation beyond the lines about the comers of the mouth and seemed to think it as great an escape to be quit of the intrusion of charles as if they had been forced into admitting him against their inclination to have it quite in their own family circle was what they had particularly wished a stranger among them would have been the destruction of all their comfort and when pursuing that idea gave a hint of his hope as to the of the audience they were ready in the of the moment to promise anything it was all good humor and encouragement mrs offered to contrive his dress mr assured him that s last scene with the baron admitted a good deal of action and emphasis and mr undertook to count his speeches perhaps said tom may be more disposed to oblige us now perhaps you may persuade her ko she is quite determined she certainly will not act oh very well and not another word was said but felt herself again in danger and her indifference to the danger was beginning to fail her already there were not fewer smiles at the than at the park on this change in miss looked very lovely in hers and entered with such an renewal of cheerfulness into the whole affair as could have but one effect on him he was certainly right in respecting such feelings he was glad he had determined on it and the morning wore away in very sweet if not very sound one advantage resulted from it to at the earnest request of miss mrs grant had with her usual good humor agreed to undertake the part for which had been wanted and this was all that occurred to her heart during the day and even this when imparted by brought park a pang with it for it was miss to whom she was obliged it was miss whose kind exertions were to excite her gratitude and whose merit in making them was spoken of with a glow of admiration she was safe but peace and safety were here her mind had been never farther from peace she could not feel that she had done wrong herself but she was in every other way her heart and her judgment were equally against s decision she could not his and his happiness under it made her wretched she was full of jealousy and agitation miss came with looks of which seemed an insult with friendly expressions towards herself which she could hardly answer calmly everybody around her was gay and busy prosperous and important each had their object of interest their part their dress their favorite scene their friends and all were finding employment in and or diversion in the playful they suggested she alone was sad and insignificant she had no share in anything she might go or stay she might be in the midst of their noise or retreat from it to the solitude of the east room without being seen or missed she could almost think anything would have been to this mrs grant was of consequence her good nature had honorable mention her taste and her time were considered her presence was wanted she was sought for and attended and praised and was at first in some danger of her the character she had accepted but reflection vol i brought better feelings and showed her that mrs grant was entitled to respect which could never have belonged to her and that had she received even the greatest she could never have been easy in joining a scheme which considering only her uncle she must condemn altogether s heart was not absolutely the only one amongst them as she soon began to acknowledge herself was a sufferer too though not quite so henry had with her feelings but she had very long allowed and even sought his attentions with a jealousy of her sister so reasonable as ought to have been their cure and now that the conviction of his preference for maria had been forced on her she submitted to it without any alarm for maria s situation or any endeavor at rational tranquillity for herself she either sat in gloomy silence wrapped in such gravity as nothing could subdue no curiosity touch no wit amuse or allowing the attentions of mr was talking with forced to him alone and the acting of the others for a day or two after the was given henry had endeavored to do it away by the usual attack of gallantry and compliment but he had not cared enough about it to against a few and becoming soon too busy with his play to have time for more than one he grew indifferent to the quarrel or rather thought it a lucky occurrence as quietly putting an end to what might have raised expectations in more than mrs grant she was not pleased to see excluded from the play and sitting by disregarded but as it was not a matter which really involved her happiness as henry must	26
be the best judge of his own and as he did assure her with a most smile that neither he nor had ever had a serious thought of each other she could only renew her former caution as to the elder sister entreat him not to risk his tranquillity by too much admiration there and then gladly take her share in anything that brought cheerfulness to the young people in general and that did so particularly promote the pleasure of the two so dear to her i rather wonder is not in love with henry was her observation to mary i dare say she is replied mary coldly i imagine both sisters are both no no that must not be do not give him a hint of it think of mr you had better tell miss to think of mr it may do her some good i often think of mr s property and independence and wish them in other hands but i never think of him a man might represent the county with such an estate a man might escape a profession and represent the county i dare say he will be in parliament soon when sir thomas comes i dare say he will be in for some but there has been nobody to put him in the way of doing anything yet sir thomas is to achieve mighty things when he comes home said mary after a pause do park you remember s address to tobacco in imitation of pope leaf whose to modesty to sense i will knight i whose looks dispense to children to sense will not that do mrs grant seems to depend upon sir s return you will find his consequence very just and reasonable you see him in his family i assure you i do not think we do so well without him he has a fine dignified manner which suits the head of such a house and keeps everybody in their lady seems more of a now than when he is at home and nobody else can keep mrs in order but mary do not fancy that maria cares for henry i am sure does not or she would not have as she did last night with mr and though he and maria are very good friends i think she likes too well to be i would not give much for mr s chance if henry stepped in before the articles were signed if you have such a suspicion something must be done and as soon as the play is all over we will talk to him seriously and make him know his own mind and if he means nothing we will send him oft though he is henry for a time did suffer however though mrs grant discerned it not and though it escaped the notice of many of own family likewise she had loved she did love still and she had all the which a warm temper and a high spirit were likely to under the disappointment of a dear though hope with a strong sense of ill usage her heart was sore and angry and she was capable only of angry the sister with whom she was used to be on easy terms was now become her greatest enemy they were from each other and was not superior to the hope of some distressing end to the attentions which were still carrying on there some punishment to maria for conduct so shameful towards herself as well as towards mr with no material fault of temper or difference of opinion to prevent their being very good friends while their interests were the same the sisters under such a trial as this had not affection or principle enough to make them merciful or just to give them honor or compassion maria felt her triumph and pursued her purpose careless of and could never see maria distinguished by henry without trusting that it would create jealousy and bring a public disturbance at last saw and pitied much of this in but there was no outward fellowship between them made no communication and took no liberties they were two solitary or connected only by s consciousness the of the two brothers and the aunt to s and their blindness to its true cause must be to the fulness of their own minds they were totally tom was engrossed by the concerns of his theatre and saw nothing that did not immediately relate to it between his theatrical and his real part between miss s claims and his own conduct between love and was equally and mrs was too busy in and directing the general little matters of the company their various dresses with economical expedient for which nobody thanked her and saving with delighted integrity half a crown here and there to the absent sir thomas to have leisure for watching the behavior or guarding the happiness of his daughters chapter was now in a regular train theatre actors and dresses were all getting forward but though no other great arose found before many days were past that it was not all enjoyment to the party themselves and that she had not to witness the continuance of such and delight as had been almost too much for her at first everybody began to have their vexation had many entirely against his judgment a scene painter arrived from town and was at work much to the increase of the expenses and what was worse of the of their proceedings and his brother instead of being really guided by him as to the privacy of the representation was giving an invitation to every family who came in his way tom himself began to fret over the scene painter s slow progress and to feel the miseries of waiting he had learned his part all his parts for he took every trifling one that could be united with the butler and	26
began to be impatient to be acting and every day thus was tending to increase his sense of the of all his parts together and make him more ready to regret that some other play had not been chosen being always a veiy courteous listener and often the only listener at hand came in for the complaints and of most of them she knew that mr was in general thought to dreadfully that mr was disappointed in henry that tom spoke so quick he would be unintelligible that mrs grant spoiled everything by laughing that was with his part and that it was misery to have anything to do with mr who was wanting a through every speech she knew also that poor mr could seldom get anybody to with him his complaint came before her as well as the rest and so decided to her eye was her cousin maria s of him and so often the of the first scene between her and mr that she had soon all the terror of other complaints from him so far from being all satisfied and all enjoying she found everybody requiring something they had not and giving occasion of discontent to the others everybody had a part either too long or too short nobody would attend as they ought nobody would remember on which side they were to come in nobody but the would observe any directions believed herself to derive as much innocent enjoyment from the play as any of them henry acted well and it was a pleasure to her to creep into the theatre and attend the of the first act in spite of the feelings it excited in some speeches for maria maria she also thought acted well too well and after the first or two began to be their only audience and sometimes as sometimes as spectator was often very useful as far as she could judge mr was considerably the best actor of all he had more confidence than more judgment than tom more talent and taste than mr she did not like him as a man but she must admit him to be the best actor and on this point there were not many who differed from her mr indeed exclaimed against his and and the day came at last when mr turned to her with a black look and said do you think there is anything so very fine in all this for the life and soul of me i cannot admire him and between ourselves to see such an little mean looking man set up for a fine actor is very ridiculous in my opinion from this moment there was a return of his former jealousy which maria from increasing hopes of was at little pains to remove and the chances of mr s ever to the knowledge of his two and forty speeches became much less as to his ever making anything tolerable of them nobody had the smallest idea of that except his mother she indeed regretted that his part was not more considerable and deferred coming over to till they were forward enough in their to comprehend all his scenes but the others at nothing beyond his remembering the and the first line of his speech and being able to follow the i through the rest in her pity and was at great pains to teach him how to learn giving him all the helps and directions in her power trying to make an artificial memory for him and learning every word of his part herself but without his being much the many uncomfortable anxious apprehensive feelings she certainly had but with all these and other claims on her time and attention she was as far from finding herself without employment or utility amongst them as without a companion in uneasiness quite as far from having no demand on her leisure as on her compassion the gloom of her first was proved to have been she was occasionally useful to all she was perhaps as much at peace as any there was a great deal of to be done moreover in which her help was wanted and that mrs thought her quite as well oft as the rest was evident by the manner in which she claimed it come she cried these are fine times for you but you must not be always walking from one room to the other and doing the on at your ease in this way i want you here i have been myself till i can hardly stand to contrive mr s cloak without sending for any more satin and now i think you may give me your help in putting it together there are but three you may do them in a it would be lucky for me if i had nothing but the part to do you are best off i can tell you but if nobody did more than you we should not get on very fast park took the work very quietly without attempting any defence but her kinder aunt observed on her behalf one cannot wonder sister that should be delighted it is all new to her you know you and i used to be very fond of a play ourselves and so am i still and as soon as i am a little more at leisure i mean to look in at their too what is the play about you have never told me h sister pray do not ask her now for is not one of those who can talk and work at the same time it is about lovers vows i believe said to her aunt there will be three acts to morrow evening and that will give you an opportunity of seeing au the actors at once you had better stay till the curtain is hung interposed mrs the curtain will be hung in a day or two there	26
is very little sense in a play without a curtain and i am much mistaken if you do not find it draw up into very handsome lady seemed quite resigned to waiting did not share her aunt s composure she thought of the morrow a great deal for if the three acts were and miss would then be acting together for the first time the third act would bring a scene between them which interested her most particularly and which she was longing and to see how they would perform the whole subject of it was love a marriage of love was to be described by park the gentleman and very little short of a declaration of love be made by the lady she had read and read the scene again with many painful many wondering emotions and looked forward to their representation of it as a circumstance almost too interesting she did not believe they had yet it even in private the morrow came the plan for the evening continued and s consideration of it did not become less agitated she worked very diligently under her aunt s directions but her diligence and her silence concealed a very absent anxious mind and about noon she made her escape with her work to the east room that she might have no concern in another and as she deemed it most unnecessary of the first act which henry was just proposing desirous at once of having her time to herself and of avoiding the sight of mr a glimpse as she passed through the hall of the two ladies walking up from the made no change in her wish of retreat and she worked and meditated in the east room undisturbed for a quarter of an hour when a gentle tap at the door was followed by the entrance of miss am i right yes this is the east room my dear miss price i beg your pardon but i have made my way to you on purpose to entreat your help quite surprised endeavored to show herself mistress of the room by her and looked at the bright bars of her empty grate with concern park thank you i am quite warm very warm allow me to stay a little while and do have the goodness to hear me my third act i have brought my book and if you would but it with me i should be so obliged i came here today intending to it with by ourselves against the evening but he is not in the way and if he were x do not think i could go through it with him till i have hardened myself a little for really there is a speech or two you will be so good won t you was most civil in her assurances though she could not give them in a very steady voice have you ever happened to look at the part i mean continued miss opening her book here it is i did not think much of it first but upon my word there look at that speech and that and that how am i ever to look him in the face and say such things you do it but then he is your cousin which makes all the difference you must it with me that i may fancy you him and get on by degrees you have a look of his sometimes have i i will do my best with the greatest readiness but i must read the part for i can say very little of it none of it i suppose you are to have the book of course now for it we must have two chairs at hand for you to bring forward to the front of the stage there very good school room chairs not made for a theatre i dare say much more fitted for little girls to sit and kick their feet against when they are learning a lesson what would your and your uncle say to see them used for such a purpose could sir thomas look in upon us just now he would bless himself for we are all over the house is away in the dining room i heard him as i came upstairs and the theatre is engaged of course by those and if they are not perfect i shall be surprised by the by i looked in upon them five minutes ago and it happened to be exactly at one of the times when they were trying not to embrace and mr was with me i thought he began to look a little queer so i turned it o e as well as i could by whispering to him we shall have an excellent there is something so maternal in her manner so completely maternal in her voice and countenance was not that well done of me he brightened up directly now for my she began and joined in with all the modest feeling which the idea of representing was so strongly calculated to inspire but with looks and voice so truly feminine as to be no very good picture of a man with such an however miss had courage enough and they had got through half the scene when a tap at the door brought a pause and the entrance of the next moment suspended it all surprise consciousness and pleasure appeared in each of the three on this unexpected meeting and as was come on the very same business that had brought miss consciousness and pleasure were likely to be more than park in them he too had his book and was seeking to ask her to with him and help him to prepare for the evening without knowing miss to be in the house and great was the joy and animation of being thus thrown together of comparing schemes and in praise of s	26
bitterness had been suspended selfishness was lost in the common cause but at the moment of her appearance was listening with looks of devotion to s park and pressing her hand to his heart and as soon as she could notice this and see that in spite of the shock of her words he still kept his station and retained her sister s hand her wounded heart swelled again with injury and looking as red as she had been white before she turned out of the room saying i need not be afraid of appearing before him her going roused the rest and at the same moment the two brothers stepped forward feeling the necessity of doing something a very few words between them were sufficient the case admitted no difference of opinion they must go to the drawing room directly maria joined them with the same intent just then the of the three for the very circumstance which had driven away was to her the sweetest support henry s retaining her hand at such a moment a moment of such peculiar proof and importance was worth ages of doubt and anxiety she hailed it as an earnest of the most serious determination and was equal even to encounter her father they walked off utterly heedless of mr s repeated question of shall i go too had not i better go too will not it be right for me to go too but they were no sooner through the door than henry undertook to answer the anxious inquiry and encouraging him by all means to pay his respects to sir thomas without delay sent him after the others with delighted haste was left with only the and mr she had been quite overlooked by her and as her own opinion of her claims on sir thomas s a was much too humble to give her any idea of herself with his children she was glad to remain behind and gain a little breathing time her agitation and alarm exceeded all that was endured by the rest by the right of a disposition which not even innocence could keep from suffering she was nearly fainting all her former habitual dread of her uncle was returning and with it compassion for him and almost every one of the party on the development before him with solicitude on s account indescribable she had found a seat where in trembling she was enduring all these fearful thoughts while the other three no longer under any restraint were giving vent to their feelings of vexation over such an for premature arrival as a most event and without mercy wishing poor sir thomas had been twice as long on his passage or were still in the were more warm on the subject than mr from better understanding the family and judging more clearly of the mischief that must the ruin of the play was to them a certainty they felt the total destruction of the scheme to be inevitably at hand while mr considered it only as a temporary interruption a disaster for the evening and could even suggest the possibility of the being renewed after tea when the bustle of receiving sir thomas were over and he might be at leisure to be amused by it the laughed at the idea and having soon agreed on the propriety of their walking quietly home and leaving the family to themselves proposed mr s accompanying them and spending the evening at the but mr having never been with those who thought much of parental claims or family confidence could not perceive that anything of the kind was necessary and therefore thanking them said he preferred remaining where he was that he might pay his respects to the old gentleman handsomely since he was come and besides he did not think it would be fair by the others to have everybody run away was just beginning to collect herself and to feel that if she stayed longer behind it might seem when this point was settled and being with the brother and sister s apology saw them preparing to go as she quitted the room herself to perform the dreadful duty of appearing before her uncle too soon did she find herself at the door and after pausing a moment for what she knew would not come for a courage which the outside of no door had ever supplied to her she turned the lock in desperation and the lights of the drawing room and all the collected family were before her as she entered her own name caught her ear sir thomas was at that moment looking round him and saying but where is why do not i see my little and on perceiving her came forward with a kindness which astonished and penetrated her calling her his dear park kissing her and observing with decided pleasure how much she was grown knew not how to feel nor where to look she was quite oppressed he had never been so kind so very kind to her in his life his manner seemed changed his voice was quick from the agitation of joy and all that had been awful in his dignity seemed lost in tenderness he led her nearer the light and looked at her again inquired particularly after her health and then himself observed that he need not inquire for her appearance spoke sufficiently on that point a fine blush having succeeded the previous of her face he was justified in his belief of her equal improvement in health and beauty he inquired next after her family especially william and his kindness altogether was such as made her reproach herself for loving him so little and thinking his return a misfortune and when on having courage to lift her eyes to his face she saw that he was grown thinner and had the burnt worn look of fatigue and a hot climate every tender	26
feeling was increased and she was miserable in considering how much vexation was probably ready to burst on him sir thomas was indeed the life of the party who at his suggestion now seated themselves round the fire he had the best right to be the and the delight of his sensations in being again in his own house in the centre of his family after such a separation made him and in a very unusual degree and he was ready to give every information as to his voyage park and answer question of his two sons almost before it was put his business in had been rapid and he came from liverpool having had an opportunity of making his passage thither in a private vessel instead of waiting for the packet and all the little particulars of his proceedings and events his and were most promptly delivered as he sat by lady and looked with satisfaction on the faces around him interrupting himself more than once however to remark on his good fortune in finding them all at home coming unexpectedly as he did all collected together exactly as he could have wished but dared not depend on mr not forgotten a most friendly reception and warmth of hand shaking had already met him and with pointed attention he was now included in the objects most intimately connected with there was nothing disagreeable in mr s appearance and sir thomas was liking him already by not one of the circle was he listened to with such unbroken enjoyment as by his wife who was really extremely happy to see him and whose feelings were so warmed by his sudden arrival as to place her nearer agitation than she had been for t e last twenty years she had been almost fluttered for a few minutes and still remained so sensibly animated as to put away her work move from her side and give all her attention and all the rest of her sofa to her husband she had no anxieties for anybody to cloud park pleasure her own had been spent daring his absence she had done a great deal of carpet work and made many yards ot fringe and she would have answered as freely for the good conduct and useful pursuits of all the young people for her own it was so agreeable to h to see him again and hear him talk to have her ear amused and her whole filled by his that she began particularly to feel how dreadfully she mu t have missed him and how impossible it would have been for her to bear a lengthened absence mrs was by no means to be compared in happiness to her sister that she was by many fears of sir thomas s tion when the present state of his house should be known for her judgment had been so blinded that by the instinctive caution with which she had away mr s pink satin cloak as her brother in law entered she could hardly be said to show any sign of alarm but she was vexed by the manner of his return it had left her nothing to do instead of being sent for out of the room and seeing him first and having to spread the happy news through the house sir thomas with a very reasonable dependence perhaps on the nerves of his wife and children had sought no but the butler and had been following him almost into the drawing room mrs felt herself of an office on which she had always depended whether his arrival or his death were to be the thing unfolded and was now trying to b in a bustle without having anything to bustle about and laboring to be important where nothing was wanted but tranquillity and silence would sir thomas have consented to eat she might have gone to the housekeeper with troublesome directions and insulted the with of despatch but sir thomas resolutely declined all dinner he would take nothing nothing till tea came he would rather wait for tea still mrs was at intervals urging something different and in the most interesting moment of his passage to england when the alarm of a french was at the height she burst through his recital with the proposal of soup sure my dear sir thomas a basin of soup would be a much better thing for you than tea do have a basin of soup sir thomas could not be provoked still the same anxiety for everybody s comfort my dear mrs was his answer but indeed i would rather have nothing but tea well then lady suppose you speak for tea directly suppose you hurry a little to night she carried this point and sir thomas s narrative proceeded at length there was a pause his immediate communications were exhausted and it seemed enough to be looking joyfully around him now at one now at another of the beloved circle but the pause was not long in the of her spirits lady became and what were the sensations of her children upon hearing her say how do you think the young people have been park amusing lately sir thomas they have been acting we have been all alive with acting indeed and what have you been acting oh they tell you all about it the all will be soon told cried tom hastily and with affected but it is not worth while to bore my father with it now you will hear enough of it to morrow sir we have just been trying by way of doing something and amusing my mother just within the last week to get up a few scenes a mere trifle we have had such incessant rains almost since october began that we have been nearly confined to the house for days together i have hardly taken out a gun since the d tolerable	26
sport the first three days but there has been no attempting anything since the first day i went over wood and took the beyond and we brought home six brace between us and might each have killed six times as many but we respect your sir i assure you as much as you could desire i do not think you will find your woods by any means worse than they were i never saw wood so full of in my life as this year i hope you will take a day s sport there yourself sir soon for the present the danger was over and s sick feelings subsided but when tea was soon afterwards brought in and sir thomas getting up said that he found he could not be any longer in the house without just looking into his own dear room every agitation was returning he was gone park before anything had been said to prepare him for the change he must find there and a of alarm followed his disappearance was the first to speak something must be done said he it is time to think of our said maria still feeling her hand pressed to henry s hearty and caring little for anything else where did you leave miss told of their departure and their message then poor is all alone cried tom i will go and fetch him he will be no bad assistant when it all comes out to the theatre he went and reached it just in time to witness the first meeting of his father and his friend sir thomas had been a good deal surprised to find candles burning in his room and on casting his eye round it to see other symptoms of recent habitation and a general air of confusion in the furniture the removal of the from before the room door struck him especially but he had scarcely more than time to feel astonished at all this before there were sounds from the to astonish him still further some one was talking there in a very loud accent he did not know the voice more than talking almost he stepped to the door rejoicing at that moment in having the means at immediate communication and opening it found himself on the stage of the theatre and opposed to a young man who appeared likely to knock him down backwards at the very moment of sir thomas and giving perhaps the very best start he had ever given in the whole course of his tom entered at the other end of the room and never had he found greater difficulty in keeping his countenance his s looks of solemnity and amazement on this his first appearance on any stage and the gradual of the impassioned baron into the well bred and easy mr making his bow and apology to sir thomas was such an exhibition such a piece of true acting as he would not have lost upon any account it would be the last in all probability the last scene on that stage but he was sure there could not be a finer the house would close with the greatest there was little time however for the indulgence of any images of merriment it was necessary for him to step forward too and assist the introduction and with many awkward sensations he did his best sir thomas received mr with all the appearance of cordiality which was due to his own character but was really as far from pleased with the necessity of the acquaintance as with the manner of its commencement mr s family and connections were sufficiently known to him to render his introduction as the particular friend another of the hundred particular friends of his son exceedingly unwelcome and it needed all the felicity of being again at home and all the forbearance it could supply to save sir thomas from anger on finding himself thus bewildered in his own house making part of a park ridiculous exhibition in the midst of theatrical nonsense and forced in so a moment to admit the acquaintance of a young man whom he felt sure of and whose easy indifference and in the course of the first five minutes seemed to mark him the more at home of the two tom understood his father s thoughts and heartily wishing he might be always as well disposed to give them but partial expression began to see more clearly than he had ever done before that there might be some ground of offence that there might be some reason for the glance his father gave towards the ceiling and of the room and that when he inquired with mild gravity after the fate of the table he was not proceeding beyond a very curiosity a few minutes were enough for such unsatisfactory sensations on each side and sir thomas having exerted himself so far as to speak a few words of calm approbation in reply to an eager appeal of mr as to the happiness of the arrangement the three gentlemen returned to the drawing room together sir thomas with an increase of gravity which was not lost on all i come from your theatre said he as he sat down i found myself in it rather unexpectedly its vicinity to my own room but in every respect indeed it took me by surprise as i had not the smallest suspicion of your acting having assumed so serious a character it appears a neat job however as far as i could judge by candle light and does my friend credit and then he would have changed park the subject and his coffee in peace over domestic matters of a calmer hue but mr without to catch sir thomas s mean ing or or delicacy or discretion enough to allow him to lead the discourse while he mingled among the others with the least himself would	26
keep him on the topic of the theatre would torment him with questions and remarks relative to it and finally would make him hear the whole history of his disappointment at sir thomas listened most politely but found much to offend his ideas of decorum and confirm his ill opinion of mr s habits of thinking from the beginning to the end of the story and when it was over could give him no other assurance of sympathy than what a slight bow conveyed this was in fact the origin of our acting said tom after a moment s thought my friend brought the from and it spread as those things always spread you know sir the faster probably from your having so often encouraged the sort of thing in us formerly it was like treading old ground again mr took the subject from his friend as soon as possible and immediately gave sir thomas an account of what they had done and were doing told him of the gradual increase of their views the happy conclusion of their first difficulties and present promising state of affairs relating everything with so blind an interest as made him not only totally unconscious of the uneasy movements of many of his friends as they sat the change of countenance the the hem of l at prevented him eve from seeing the expression oi the face on which his own eyes were fixed from seeing sir thomas s dark brow contract as he looked with inquiring earnestness at his daughters and dwelling particularly on the latter and speaking a language a remonstrance a reproof which he felt at his heart not less was it fe t by who had edged back her chair behind h aunt s end of the sofa and from notice herself saw all that was passing before her such a look of reproach at from his father she could never have expected to witness and to feel that it was in any degree deserved was an indeed sir thomas s look implied on your judgment i depended what have you been about she knelt in spirit to her uncle and her bosom swelled to utter oh not to look so to all the others but not to him i mr was still talking to own the truth sir thomas we were in the middle of a when you arrived this evening we were going through the three first acts and not upon the whole our company is now so dispersed from the being gone home that nothing more can be done to night but if you will give us the honor of your company to morrow evening i should not be afraid of the result we your indulgence you under as young we your indulgence my indulgence shall be given sir replied sir thomas gravely but without any other and with a smile he added i come home to be happy and indulgent then turning away towards any or all of the rest he said mr and miss were mentioned in my last letters from do you find them agreeable acquaintance tom was the only one at all ready with an answer but he being entirely without particular regard for either without jealousy either in love or acting could speak very handsomely of both mr was a most pleasant man his sister a pretty elegant lively girl mr could be silent no longer i do not say he is not considering but you should tell your father he is not above five feet eight or he will be expecting a man sir thomas did not quite understand this and looked with some surprise at the speaker if i must say what i think continued mr in my opinion it is very disagreeable to be always it is having too much of a good thing i am not so fond of acting as i was at first i think we are a great deal better employed sitting comfortably here among ourselves and doing nothing sir thomas looked again and then replied with an smile i am happy to find our sentiments on this subject so much the same it gives me sincere satisfaction that i should be cautious and quick sighted and feel many vol i which my children do not feel is perfectly natural and equally so that my value for domestic tranquillity for a home which out noisy pleasures should much exceed theirs but at your time of life to feel all this is a most favorable circumstance for yourself and for everybody connected with you and i am sensible of the importance of having an ally of such weight sir thomas meant to be giving mr s opinion in better words than he could find himself he was aware that he must not expect a genius in mr but as a well judging steady young man with better notions than his would do justice to he intended to value him very highly it was impossible for many of the others not to smile mr hardly knew what to do with so much meaning but by looking as he really felt most exceedingly pleased with sir thomas s good opinion and saying scarcely anything he did his best towards preserving that good opinion a little longer xx s first object the next morning was to see his father alone and give him a fair statement of the whole acting scheme defending his own share in it as far only as he could then in a moment feel his motives to deserve and acknowledging with perfect that his concession had been attended with such partial good as to make his judgment in it very doubtful he was anxious while himself to say nothing unkind of the others but there was only one amongst them whose conduct he could mention without some necessity of defence or we have all been more or less to blame said	26
he every one of us excepting is the only one who has judged rightly throughout who has been consistent her feelings have been steadily against it from first to last she never ceased to think of what was due to you you will find everything you could wish sir thomas saw all the of such a scheme among such a party and at such a time as strongly as his son had ever supposed he must he felt it too much indeed for many words and having shaken hands with meant to try to lose the disagreeable impression and forget how much he had been forgotten himself as soon as he could after the house had been cleared of every object the remembrance and restored to its proper state he did not enter into any remonstrance with his other children he was more willing to believe they felt their error than to run the risk of investigation the reproof of an immediate conclusion of everything the sweep of every preparation would be sufficient there was one person however in the house whom he could not leave to learn his sentiments merely through his conduct he could not help merely giving mrs a hint of his having hoped that her advice might have been interposed to prevent what her judgment must certainly have the young people had been very in forming the plan they ought to have been capable of a better decision themselves but they were young and excepting he believed of unsteady characters and with greater surprise therefore he must regard her acquiescence in their wrong measures her countenance of their amusements than that such measures and such amusements should have been suggested mrs was a little confounded and as nearly being silenced as ever she had been in her life for she was ashamed to confess having never seen any of the which was so glaring to sir thomas and would not have admitted that her influence was insufficient that she might have talked in vain her only resource was to get out of the subject as fast as possible and turn the current of sir thomas s ideas into a happier channel she had a great deal to in her own praise as to general attention to the interest and comfort of his family much exertion and many sacrifices to glance at in the form of hurried walks and sudden from her own fireside and many excellent hints of distrust and economy to lady and to detail a most considerable saving had always arisen and more than one bad servant been detected but her chief strength lay in her greatest support and glory was in having formed the connection with the there she was she took to herself all the credit of bringing mr s admiration of maria to any effect if i had not been active said she and made a point of being introduced to his mother and then prevailed on my sister to pay the first visit i am as certain as i sit here that nothing would have come of it for mr is the sort of amiable modest young man who wants a great deal of encouragement and there were girls enough on the catch for him if we had been idle but i left no stone i was ready to move heaven and earth to persuade my sister and at last i did persuade her you know the distance to it was in the middle of winter and the roads almost but i did persuade her i know how great how justly great your influence is with lady and her children and am the more concerned that it should not have been my dear sir thomas if you had seen the state of the roads that i thought we should never have got through them though we h d the four horses of course and poor old coachman would attend us out of his great love and kindness though he was hardly able to sit the box on account of the which i had been him for ever since i cured him at last but he was very bad all the winter and this was such a day i could not help going to him up in his room before we set off to advise him not to venture he was putting on his wig so i said coachman you had much better not go your and i shall be very safe you know how steady is and charles has been upon the leaders so often now that i am sure there is no fear but however i soon found it would not do he was bent upon going and as i hate to be worrying and i said no more but my heart quite ached for him at every and when we got into the rough lanes about where what with frost and snow upon beds of stones it was worse than anything you can imagine i was quite in an agony about him and then the poor horses tool to see them straining away you know how i always feel for the horses and when we got to the bottom of hill what do you think i did you will laugh at me but i got out and walked up i did indeed it might not be saving them much but it was something and i could not bear to sit at my ease and be dragged up at the expense of those noble animals i caught a dreadful cold but that i did not regard my object was accomplished in the visit i hope we shall always think the acquaintance park worth any trouble that might be taken to establish it there is nothing very striking in mr s manners but i was pleased last night with what appeared to be his opinion on one subject his decided preference of a quiet	26
to the bustle and confusion of acting he seemed to feel exactly as one could wish yes indeed and the more you know of him the better you will like him he is not a shining character but he has a thousand good qualities and is so disposed to look up to you that i am quite laughed at about it for everybody considers it as my doing upon my word mrs said mrs grant the other day if mr were a son of your own he could not hold sir thomas in greater respect sir thomas gave up the point by her by her flattery and was obliged to rest satisfied with the conviction that where the present pleasure of those she loved was at stake her kindness did sometimes her judgment it was a busy morning with him conversation with any of them occupied but a small part of it he had to himself in all the concerns of his life to see his steward and his to examine and and in the intervals of business to walk into his stables and his gardens and nearest but active and he had not only done all this before he resumed his seat as master of the house at dinner he had also set the carpenter to work in pulling down what had been so lately put up in the and given the his dismissal long enough to justify the pleasing belief of his being then at least as off as the scene painter was gone having spoiled only the floor of one room ruined all the coachman s and made five of the under idle and dissatisfied and sir thomas was in hopes that another day or two would suffice to wipe away every outward of what had been even to the destruction of every copy of lovers vows in the house for he was burning all that met his eye mr was beginning now to understand sir thomas s intentions though as far as ever m understanding their source he and his friend had been out with their guns the chief of the morning and tom had taken the opportunity of explaining with proper apologies for his father s what was to be expected mr felt it as as might be supposed to be a second time disappointed in the same way was an instance of very severe ill luck and his indignation was such that had it not been for delicacy towards his friend and his friend s youngest sister he believed he should certainly attack the on the absurdity of his proceedings and argue him into a little more he believed this very stoutly while he was in wood and all the way home but there was a something in sir thomas when they sat round the same table which made mr think it wiser to let him pursue his own way and feel the folly of it without opposition he had known park many disagreeable fathers before and often been struck with the they occasioned but never in the whole course of his life had he seen one of that class so moral so as sir thomas he was not a man to be endured but for his children s sake and he might be thankful to his fair daughter that mr did yet mean to stay a few days longer under his roof the evening passed with external though almost every mind was ruffled and the music which sir thomas called for from his daughters helped to conceal the want of real harmony maria was in a good deal of agitation it was of the utmost consequence to her that should now lose no time in declaring himself and she was disturbed that even a day should be gone by without seeming to advance that point she had been expecting to see him the whole morning and all the evening too was still expecting him mr had set o e early with the great news for and she had fondly hoped for such an immediate as might save him the trouble of ever coming back again but they had seen no one from the not a creature and had heard no tidings beyond a friendly note of and inquiry from mrs grant to lady it was the first day for many many weeks in which the families had been wholly divided four hours had never passed before since august began without bringing them together in some way or other it was a sad anxious day and tbe morrow though in the sort of evil did by no means bring less a few moments of feverish enjoyment were followed by hours of acute suffering henry was again in the house he walked up with dr who was anxious to pay his respects to sir thomas and at rather an early hour they were ushered into the breakfast room where were most of the family sir thomas soon appeared and maria saw with delight and agitation the introduction of the man she loved to her father her sensations were and so were they a few minutes afterwards upon hearing henry who had a chair between herself and tom ask the latter in an under voice whether there were any plan for the play after the present happy interruption with a courteous glance at sir thomas because in that case he should make a point of returning to at any time required by the party he was going away immediately being to meet his uncle at bath without delay but if there were any prospect of a renewal of lovers vows he should hold himself positively engaged he should break through every other claim he should absolutely condition with his uncle for attending them whenever he might be wanted the play should not be lost by his absence from bath london york wherever i may be said he i will attend	26
you from any place in england at an hour s notice it was well at that moment that tom had to speak and not his sister he could immediately say with easy i am sorry you are going but as to oar play that is all over entirely at an end looking significantly at his father the painter was sent o e yesterday and very little will remain of the theatre to morrow i knew how that would be from the first it is early for bath you will find nobody there it is about my uncle s usual time when do you think of going i may perhaps get as far as to day whose stables do you use at bath was the next question and while this branch of the subject was under discussion maria who wanted neither pride nor resolution was preparing to encounter her share of it with tolerable calmness to her he soon turned repeating much of what he had already said with only a softened air and stronger expressions of regret but what availed his expressions or his air he was going and if not voluntarily going voluntarily intending to stay away for excepting what might be due to his uncle his engagements were all self imposed he might talk of necessity but she knew his independence the hand which had so pressed hers to his heart the hand and the heart were alike motionless and passive now her spirit supported her but the agony of her mind was severe she had not long to endure what arose from listening to language which his actions contradicted or to bury the tumult of her feelings under the restraint of society for general soon called his notice from her and the farewell visit as it then came openly acknowledged was a very short one he was gone he had touched her hand for the last time he had made his parting how and she might seek directly all that solitude could do for her henry was gone gone from the house and within two hours afterwards from the parish and so ended all the hopes his selfish vanity had raised in maria and could rejoice that he was gone his presence was to be odious to her and if maria gained him not she was now cool enough to dispense with any other revenge she did not want exposure to be added to desertion henry gone she could even pity her sister with a purer spirit did rejoice in the intelligence she heard it at dinner and felt it a blessing by all the others it was mentioned with regret and his merits honored with due of feeling from the sincerity of s too partial regard to the of his mother speaking entirely by mrs began to look about her and wonder that his falling in love with had come to nothing and could almost fear that she had been herself in it but with so many to care for how was it possible for even her activity to keep pace with her wishes another day or two and mr was gone likewise in his departure sir thomas felt the chief interest wanting to be alone with his family the presence of a stranger superior to mr must have been irksome but of him trifling and confident idle and expensive it was every way in himself he was wearisome but as the friend of tom and the admirer of he became offensive sir thomas had been quite to mr s going or staying but his good wishes for mr s having a pleasant journey as he walked with him to the hall door were given with genuine satisfaction mr had stayed to see the destruction of every theatrical preparation at the removal of everything to the play he left the house in all the of its general character and sir thomas hoped in seeing him out of it to be rid of the worst object connected with the scheme and the last that must be inevitably reminding him of its existence mrs contrived to remove one article from his sight that might have distressed him the curtain over which she had presided with such talent and such success went o e with her to her cottage where she happened to be particularly in want of green thomas s return made a striking change in the ways of the family independent of lovers vows under his government was an altered place some members of their society sent away and the spirits of many others it was all and gloom compared with the past a sombre family party rarely there was little intercourse with the sir thomas drawing back from in general was particularly at this time for any engagements but in one quarter the were the only addition to his own domestic circle which he could did not wonder that such should be his father s feelings nor could he regret anything but the of the but they he observed to have a claim they seem to belong to us they seem to be part of ourselves i could wish my father were more sensible of their very great attention to my mother and sisters while he was away i am afraid they may feel themselves neglected but the truth is that my father hardly knows them they had not been here a when he left england if he knew them better he would value their society as it deserves for they are in fact exactly the sort of park people he would like we are sometimes a little in want of animation among ourselves my sisters seem ont of spirits and tom is certainly not at his ease dr and mrs grant would us and make our evenings pass away with more enjoyment even to my father do you think so said in my opinion my uncle would not	26
like any addition i think he the very you speak of and that the repose of his own family circle is all he wants and it does not appear to me that we are more serious than we used to be i mean before my uncle went abroad as well as i can recollect it was always much the same there was never much laughing in his presence or if there is any difference it is not more i think than such an absence has a tendency to produce at first there must be a sort of shyness but i cannot recollect that our evenings formerly were ever merry except when my uncle was in town no young people s are i suppose when those they look up to are at home i believe you are right was his reply after a short consideration i believe our evenings are rather returned to what they were than assuming a new character the novelty was in their being lively yet how strong the im that only a few weeks will give i have been feeling as if we had never lived so before i suppose i am graver than other people said the evenings do not appear long to me i love to hear my uncle talk of the west indies i could listen to him for an hour together it me more than many other things have done hut then i am unlike other people i dare say why should you dare say that smiling do you want to he told that you are only unlike other people in more wise and discreet but when did you or ever get a compliment from me go to my father if you want to he he will satisfy you ask your uncle what he thinks and you will hear compliments enough and though they may he chiefly on your person you must put up with it and trust to his seeing as much of mind in time such language was so new to that it quite her your uncle thinks you very pretty dear and that is the long and the short of the matter hut myself would have made something more of it and hut you would resent that you had not heen thought very pretty hut the truth is that your uncle never did admire you till now and now he does your complexion is so improved and you have gained so much countenance i and your figure nay do not turn away it it is hut an uncle if you cannot hear an uncle s admiration what is to of you you must really to yourself to the idea of worth looking at you must try not to mind growing up into a pretty woman oh don t talk so don t talk cried park distressed by more feelings than he was aware of but seeing that she was distressed he had done with the subject and only added more seriously your uncle is disposed to be pleased with you in every respect and i only wish you would talk to him more you are one of those who are too silent in the evening circle but i do talk to him more than i used i am sure i do did not you hear me ask him about the slave trade last night i did and was in hopes the question would be followed up by others it would have pleased your uncle to be inquired of further and i longed to do it but there was such a dead silence and while my cousins were sitting by without speaking a word or seeming at all interested in the subject i did not like i thought it would appear as if i wanted to set myself off at their expense by showing a curiosity and pleasure in his information which he must wish his own daughters to feel miss was very right in what she said of you the other day that you seemed almost as fearful of notice and praise as other women were of neglect we were talking of you at the and those were her words she has great i know nobody who characters better for so young a woman it is remarkable she certainly understands you better than you are understood by the greater part of those who have known you so long and with regard to some others i can perceive m i lively hints the expressions of the moment that she could define many as accurately did not delicacy it i wonder what she thinks of my father she must admire him as a fine looking man with most dignified consistent manners hut perhaps seen him so seldom his reserve may he a little repulsive could they be much together i feel sure of their liking each other he would enjoy her and she has talents to value his powers i wish they met more frequently i hope she does not suppose there is any dislike on his side she must know herself too secure of the regard of all the rest of you said with half a sigh to have any such apprehension and sir thomas s wishing just at first to be only with his family is so very natural that she can argue nothing from that after a little while i dare say we shall be meeting again in the same sort of way allowing for the difference of the time of year this is the first october that she has passed in the country since her infancy i do not call or the country and november is a still more serious month and i can see that mrs grant is very anxious for her not finding dull as winter comes on could have said a great deal but it was safer to say nothing and leave untouched all miss	26
s resources her accomplishments her spirits her importance her friends lest it should betray her into any observations seemingly un park handsome miss s kind opinion of herself deserved at least a grateful forbearance and she began to talk of something else to morrow i think my uncle at and you and mr too we shall be quite a small party at home i hope my uncle may continue to like mr that is impossible he must like him less after to morrow s visit for we shall be five hours in his company i should dread the stupidity of the day if there were not a much greater evil to follow the impression it must leave on sir thomas he cannot much longer deceive himself i am sorry for them all and would give something that and maria had never met in this quarter indeed disappointment was impending over sir thomas not all his for mr not all mr s deference for him could prevent him from soon some part of the truth that mr was an inferior young man as ignorant in business as in books with opinions in general and without seeming much aware of it himself he had expected a very different son in law and beginning to feel grave on maria s account tried to understand her feelings little observation there was necessary to tell him that indifference was the most favorable state they could be in her behavior to mr was careless and cold she could not did not like him sir thomas resolved to speak seriously to her ad as would be the alliance and long standing and as was the engagement her happiness must not be sacrificed to it mr had perhaps been accepted on too short an acquaintance and on knowing him better she was with solemn kindness sir thomas addressed her told her his fears inquired into her wishes entreated her to be open and sincere and assured her that every inconvenience should be and the connection entirely given up if she felt herself unhappy in the prospect of it he would act for her and release her maria had a moment s struggle as she listened and only a moment s when her father ceased she was able to give her answer immediately decidedly and with no apparent agitation she thanked him for his great attention his paternal kindness but he was quite mistaken in supposing she had the smallest desire of breaking through her engagement or was sensible of any change of opinion or inclination since her forming it she had the highest esteem for mr s character and disposition and could not have a doubt of her happiness with him sir thomas was satisfied too glad to be satisfied perhaps to urge the matter quite so far as his judgment might have dictated to others it was an alliance which he could not have without pain and thus he reasoned mr was young enough to improve mr must and would improve in good society and if maria could now speak so securely of her park happiness with him speaking certainly without the prejudice the blindness of love she ought to be believed her feelings probably were not acute he had never supposed them to be so but her comforts might not be less on that account and if she could dispense with seeing her husband a leading shining character there would certainly be everything else in her favor a well disposed young woman who did not marry for love was in general but the more attached to her own family and the of to must naturally hold out the greatest temptation and would in all probability be a continual supply of the most amiable and innocent such and such like were the of sir thomas happy to escape the embarrassing evils of a the wonder the reflections the reproach that must attend it happy to secure a marriage which would bring him such an addition of respectability and influence and very happy to think anything of his daughter s disposition that was most favorable for the purpose to her the conference closed as satisfactorily as to him she was in a state of mind to be glad that she had secured her fate beyond recall that she had pledged herself anew to that she was safe from the possibility of giving the triumph of governing her actions and destroying her prospects and retired in proud resolve determined only to behave more cautiously to mr in future that her father might not be again suspecting her had sir thomas applied to his daughter within park the first three or four days after henry s leaving before her feelings were at all before she had given up every hope of him or absolutely resolved on enduring his rival her answer might have been different but after another three or four days when there was no return no letter no message no symptom of a softened heart no hope of advantage from separation her mind became cool enough to seek all the comfort that pride and self revenge could give henry had destroyed her happiness but he should not know that he had done it he should not destroy her credit her appearance her prosperity too he should not have to think of her as in the retirement of for him and london independence and splendor for his sake independence was more needful than ever the want of it at more sensibly felt she was less and less able to endure the restraint which her father imposed the liberty which his absence had given was now become absolutely necessary she must escape from him and as soon as possible and find consolation in fortune and consequence bustle and the world for a wounded spirit her mind was quite determined and varied not to such feelings delay even the delay of much	26
preparation would have been an evil and mr could hardly be more impatient for the marriage than herself in all the important preparations of the mind she was complete being prepared for matrimony by a hatred of home restraint and tranquillity by the misery of disappointed park affection and contempt of the man she was to many the rest might wait the preparations of new carriages and furniture might wait for london and spring when her own taste could have fairer play the being all agreed in this respect it soon appeared that a very few weeks would be sufficient for such arrangements as must the wedding mrs was quite ready to retire and make way for the fortunate young woman whom her dear son had selected and very early in november removed herself her maid her footman and her chariot with true propriety to bath there to parade over the of in her evening parties enjoying them as thoroughly perhaps in the animation of a as she had ever done on the spot and before the middle of the same month the ceremony had taken place which gave another mistress it was a very proper wedding the bride was dressed the two were duly inferior her father gave her away her mother stood with in her hand expecting to be agitated her aunt tried to cry and the service was read by dr grant nothing could be objected to when it came under the discussion of the neighborhood except that the carriage which conveyed the bride and bridegroom and from the church door to was the same chaise which mr had used for a before in everything else the park etiquette of the day might stand the it was done and they were gone sir thomas felt as an anxious father must feel and was indeed much of the agitation which his wife had been apprehensive of for herself but had fortunately escaped mrs most happy to assist in the duties of the day by spending it at the park to support her sister s spirits and drinking the health of mr and mrs in a glass or two was all joyous delight for she had made the match she had done everything and no one would have supposed from her confident triumph that she had ever heard of in her life or could have the smallest insight into the disposition of the niece who had been brought up under her eye the plan of the young couple was to proceed after a few days to and take a house there for some weeks every public place was new to maria and is almost as gay in winter as in summer when the novelty of amusement there was over it would be time for the wider range of london was to go with them to since between the sisters had ceased they had been gradually recovering much of their former good understanding and were at least sufficiently friends to make each of them exceedingly glad to be with the other at such a time some other companion than mr was of the first consequence to his lady and was quite as eager for novelty and pleasure as maria though she park might not have struggled through so much to obtain them and could better bear a subordinate situation their departure made another material change at a chasm which required some time to fill up the family circle became greatly contracted and though the miss had added little to its they could not but be missed even their mother missed them and how much more their tender hearted cousin who wandered about the house and thought of them and felt for them with a degree of affectionate regret which they had never done much to deserve chapter s consequence increased on the departure of her cousins becoming as she then did the only young woman in the drawing room the only of that interesting division of a family in which she had hitherto held so humble a third it was impossible for her not to be more looked at more thought of and attended to than she had ever been before and where is became no uncommon question even without her being wanted for any one s convenience not only at home did her value increase but at the too in that house which she had hardly entered twice a year since mr s death she became a welcome an invited guest and in the gloom and dirt of a november day most acceptable to mary her visits there beginning by chance were continued by mrs grant really eager to get any change for her sister could by the easiest self deceit persuade herself that she was doing the kindest thing by and giving her the most important opportunities of improvement in pressing her frequent calls having been sent into the village on some errand by her aunt was overtaken by a heavy shower close to the and being from one of the windows to find shelter under the branches and lingering leaves of an oak just beyond their premises was forced though not without some modest reluctance on her part to come in a civil servant she had but when dr grant himself went out with an umbrella there was nothing to be done but to be very much ashamed and to get into the house as fast as possible and to poor miss who had just been contemplating the dismal rain in a very state of mind sighing over the ruin of all her plan of exercise for that morning and of every chance of seeing a single creature beyond themselves for the next hours the sound of a little bustle at the front door and the sight of miss price dripping with wet in the was delightful the value of an event on a wet day in the country was most forcibly brought	26
the rest i do think it is memory there seems something more incomprehensible in the powers the failures the of memory than in any other of our the memory is sometimes so so serviceable so obedient at others so bewildered and so weak and at others again so so beyond control we are to be sure a miracle every way but our powers of and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out miss untouched and had nothing to say and perceiving it brought back her own mind to what she thought must interest it may seem impertinent in me to praise but i must admire the taste mrs grant has shown in all this there is such a quiet simplicity in the plan of the walk not too much attempted yes replied miss carelessly it does very well for a place of this sort one does not think of extent here and between ourselves till i came to i had not imagined a country parson ever to a or anything of the kind i am so glad to see the said in reply my uncle s gardener always says the soil here is better than his own and so it appears from the growth of the and in general the i how beautiful how welcome how wonderful the i when one thinks of it how astonishing a variety of nature in some countries we know the tree that sheds its leaf is the variety but that does not make it less amazing that the same soil and the same sun should plants in the first rule and law of their existence you will think me but when i am out of doors especially when i am sitting out of doors i am very apt to get into this sort of wondering strain one cannot fix one s eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy to say the truth replied miss i am something like the famous at the court of louis xiv and may declare that i see no wonder in this equal to seeing myself in it if anybody had told me a year ago that this place would be my home that i should be spending month after month here as i have done i certainly should not have believed them i have now been here nearly five months and moreover the five months i ever passed too quiet for you i believe i should have thought so myself but and her eyes brightened as she spoke take it all and all i never spent so happy a summer but then with a more thoughtful air and lowered there is no saying what it may lead to s heart beat quick and she felt quite unequal to or anything more miss however with renewed animation soon went on i am conscious of being far better reconciled to a country residence than i had ever expected to be i can even suppose it pleasant to spend half the year in the country under certain circumstances very pleasant an elegant moderate sized house in the centre of family connections continual engagements among them commanding the first society in the neighborhood looked up to perhaps as leading it even more than those of larger fortune and turning from the cheerful round of such amusements to nothing worse than a a with the person one feels most agreeable in the world there is nothing frightful in such a picture is there miss price one need not envy the new mrs with such a home as that envy mrs was all that attempted to say come come it would be very to be severe on mrs for i look forward to our owing her a great many gay brilliant happy hours i expect we shall be all very much at another year such a match as miss has made is a public blessing for the first pleasures of mr s wife must be vol i to fill her house and the best balls in the country was silent and miss into till suddenly looking up at the end of a few minutes she exclaimed here he is it was not mr however but who then appeared walking towards them with mrs grant my sister and mr i am so glad your eldest cousin is gone that he may be mr again there is something in the sound of mr so formal so pitiful so younger brother like that i it how differently we feel cried to me the sound of mr is so cold and nothing meaning so entirely without warmth or character i it just stands for a gentleman and that s all but there is in the name of it is a name of heroism and renown of kings princes and knights and seems to breathe the spirit of chivalry and warm affections a grant you the name is good in itself and lord or sir sounds delightfully but sink it under the chill the of a mr and mr is no more than mr john or mr thomas well shall we join and disappoint them of half their lecture upon sitting down out of doors at this time of year by being up before they can begin met them with particular pleasure it was the first time of his seeing them together since the beginning of that better acquaintance park which he had heen hearing of with great satisfaction a friendship between two so very dear to him was exactly what he could have wished and to the credit of the lover s understanding be it stated that he did not by any means consider as the only or even as the greater by such a friendship well said miss and do not you us for our what do you think we have been sitting down for but to be talked to about it and entreated and never	26
to do so again perhaps i might have said if either of you had been sitting down alone but while you do wrong together i can overlook a great deal they cannot have been sitting long cried mrs grant for when i went up for my shawl i saw them from the staircase window and then they were walking and really added the day is so mild that your sitting down for a few minutes can be hardly thought our weather must not always be judged by the we may sometimes take greater liberties in november than in may upon my word cried miss you are two of the most and kind friends i ever met with there is no giving you a moment s uneasiness you do not know how much we have been suffering nor what we have felt but i have long thought mr one of the worst subjects to work on in any little against sense tbat a woman could be with i had veiy little hope of him from the first but you mrs grant my sister my own sister i think i had a right to alarm you a little do not flatter yourself my dearest mary tou have not the smallest chance of moving me i have my but they are quite in a different quarter and if i could haye altered the weather you would haye had a good sharp east wind blow ing on you the whole time for here are some of my plants which will out because the nights are so mild and i know the end of it will be that we shall have a sudden change of weather a hard frost setting in all at once taking everybody at least by surprise and i shall lose every one and what is worse cook has just been telling me that the turkey which i particularly wished not to be dressed till sunday because i know how much more dr grant would enjoy it on sunday after the of the day will not keep beyond to morrow these are something like and make me think the weather most close the sweets of housekeeping in a country said miss commend me to the and the my dear child commend d grant to the of westminster or st paul s and i should be as glad of your er and as you could be but we have no such people in field what would you have me do oh you can do nothing but what you do park re y be often and lose your temper thank you but there is no escaping these little mary where we may and when you are settled in town and i come to see you i dare say i shall find you with yours in spite of the and the or perhaps on their very account their and or their charges and will be drawing forth bitter i mean to be too rich to lament or to feel anything of the sort a large income is the best for happiness i ever heard of it certainly may secure all the and turkey part of it you intend to be very rich said with a look which to s eye had a great deal of serious meaning to be sure do not you do not we all i cannot intend anything which it must be so completely beyond my power to command miss may choose her degree of wealth she has only to fix on her number of thousands a year and there can be no doubt of their coming my intentions are only not to be poor by moderation and economy and bringing down your wants to your income and all that i understand you and a very proper plan it is for a person at your time of life with such limited means and indifferent connections what can you want but a decent maintenance you have not much time before you and your relations are in no situation to do anything for you or to you by the contrast of their own wealth and consequence be honest and poor by all means but i shall not envy you i do not much think i shall even respect you i have a much greater respect for those that are honest and rich your degree of respect for honesty rich or poor is precisely what i have no manner of concern with i do not mean to be poor poverty is exactly what i have determined against honesty in the something between in the middle state of worldly circumstances is all that i am anxious for your not looking down on but i do look down upon it if it might have been higher i must look down upon anything contented with obscurity when it might rise to distinction but how may it rise how may my honesty at least rise to any distinction this was not so very easy a question to answer and occasioned an of some length from the fair lady before she could add you ought to be in parliament or you should have gone into the army ten years ago that is not much to the purpose now and as to my being in parliament i believe i must wait till there is an especial assembly for the representation of younger sons who have little to live on ko miss he added in a more serious tone there are distinctions which i should be miserable if i thought myself without any chance absolutely without chance or possibility of obtaining but they are of a different character park a look of consciousness as he spoke and what seemed a consciousness of manner on miss s side as she made some laughing answer was sorrowful food for s observation and finding herself quite unable to attend as she ought to mrs grant by whose	26
side she was now following the others she had nearly resolved on going home immediately and only waited for courage to say so when the sound of the great clock at park striking three made her feel that she had really been much longer absent than usual and brought the previous self inquiry of whether she should take leave or not just then and how to a very speedy issue with decision she directly began her and began at the same time to recollect that his mother had been inquiring for her and that he had walked down to the on purpose to bring her back s hurry increased and without in the least expecting s attendance she would have hastened away alone but the general pace was quickened and they all accompanied her into the house through which it was necessary to pass dr grant was in the and as they stopped to k to him she found from s manner that he did mean to go with her he too was taking leave she could not but be thankful in the moment of parting was invited by dr grant to eat his mutton with him the next day and had barely time for an unpleasant feeling on the occasion when mrs grant with sudden recollection turned to her and asked for the pleasure of her company too this was so new an attention bo perfectly new a circumstance in the events of s life that she was all surprise and embarrassment and while out her great obligation and her but she did not suppose it would be in her power was looking at for his opinion and help but delighted with her having such a happiness offered and with half a look and half a sentence that she had no objection but on her aunt a account could not imagine that his mother would make any difficulty of her and therefore gave his decided open advice that the invitation should be accepted and though would not venture even on his encouragement to such a flight of audacious independence it was soon settled that if nothing were heard to the contrary mrs grant might expect her and you know what your dinner will be said mrs grant smiling the turkey and i assure you a very fine one for my dear turning to her husband cook upon the turkey s being dressed to morrow very well very well cried dr grant all the better i am glad to hear you have anything so good in the house but miss price and mr i dare say would take their chance we none ot us want to hear the bill of fare a friendly meeting and not a fine dinner is all we have in view a turkey or a goose or a leg of mutton or whatever you and your cook choose to give us the two cousins walked home together and except in the immediate discussion of this engage park ment which spoke of with the warmest satisfaction as so particularly desirable for her in the intimacy which he saw with so much pleasure established it was a silent walk for having finished that subject he grew thoughtful and for any other but why should mrs grant ask said lady how came she to think of asking never there you know in this sort of way i cannot spare her and i am sure she does not want to go you do not want to go do you if you put such a question to her cried preventing his cousin s speaking will immediately say no but i am sure my dear mother she would like to go and i can see no reason why she should not i cannot imagine why mrs grant should think of asking her she never did before she used to ask your sisters now and then but she never asked if you cannot do without me ma am said in a self denying tone but my mother wiu have my father with her all the evening to be sure so i shall suppose you take my father s opinion ma am that s well thought of so i will i will ask sir thomas as soon as he comes in whether i can do without her as you please ma am on that head but i meant my father s opinion as to the propriety of park the invitation s being accepted or not and i think he will consider it a right thing by mrs grant as well as by that being the first invitation it should be accepted i do not know we will ask him but he will be very much surprised that mrs grant should ask at all there was nothing more to be said or that could be said to any purpose till sir thomas were present but the subject as it did her own evening s comfort for the morrow was so much uppermost in lady s mind that half an hour afterwards on his looking in for a minute in his way from his plantation to his dressing room she called him back again when he had almost closed the door with sir thomas stop a moment i have something to say to you her tone of calm languor for she never took the trouble of raising her voice was always heard and attended to and sir thomas came back her story began and immediately slipped out of the room for to hear herself the subject of any discussion with her uncle was more than her nerves could bear she was anxious she knew more anxious perhaps than she ought to be for what was it after all whether she went or stayed but if her uncle were to be a great while considering and deciding and with very grave looks and those grave looks directed to her and at last	26
decide against her she might not be able to appear properly and indifferent her cause meanwhile went on well it began on lady s part with i have something to tell you that park will surprise you mrs grant has asked to dinner said sir thomas as if waiting more to accomplish the surprise wants her to go but how can i spare her she will be late said thomas taking out his watch but what is your difficulty found himself obliged to speak and fill up the in his mother s story he told the whole and she had only to add so strange for mrs grant never used to ask her but is not it very natural observed that mrs grant should wish to procure so agree able a visitor for her sister nothing can be more natural said sir thomas after a short deliberation nor were there no sister in the case could anything in my opinion be more natural mrs grant s showing civility to miss price to lady s niece could never want explanation the only surprise i can feel is that this should be the first time of its being paid was perfectly right in giving only a answer she appears to feel as she ought but as i conclude that she must wish to go since all young people like to be together i can see no reason why she should be denied the indulgence but can i do without her sir thomas indeed i think you may she always makes tea you know when my sister is not here your sister perhaps may be prevailed on to spend the day with ue and i shall certainly he at home very well then m y go the good news soon followed her knocked at her door in his way to his own well it is all happily settled and without the smallest hesitation on your side he had hut one opinion you are to go thank you i am so glad was s in reply though when she had turned from him and shut the door she could not help feeling and yet why should i he glad for am i not certain of seeing or hearing something there to pain me in spite of this conviction however she was glad simple as such an engagement might appear in other eyes it had novelty and importance in hers for excepting the day at she had scarcely ever dined out before and though now going only half a mile and only to three people still it was dining out and au the little interests of preparation were in themselves she had neither sympathy nor assistance from those who ought to have entered into her feelings and directed her taste for lady never thought of being useful to anybody and mrs when she came on the morrow in consequence of an early call and invitation from sir thomas was in a very ill humor and seemed intent only on her niece s pleasure both present and future as much as possible upon my word you are in high luck to meet with such attention and indulgence you ought to be veiy much obliged to mrs grant for thinking of you and to your aunt for letting you go and you ought to look upon it as something extraordinary for i hope you are aware that there is no real occasion for your going into company in this sort of way or ever dining out at all and it is what you must not depend upon ever being repeated must you be that the invitation is meant as any particular compliment to you the compliment is intended to your uncle and aunt and me mrs grant thinks it a civility due to us to take a little notice of you or else it would never have come into her head and you may be very certain that if your cousin had been at home you would not have been asked at all mrs had now so done away all mrs grant s part of the favor that who found herself expected to speak could only say that she was very much obliged to her aunt for her and that she was to put her aunt s evening work in such a state as to prevent her being missed oh depend upon it your aunt can do very well without you or you would not be allowed to go i shall be here so you may be quite easy about your aunt and i hope you will have a very agreeable day and find it all mighty delightful but i must observe that five is the very of all possible numbers to sit down to table and i cannot but be surprised that such an elegant lady as mrs grant should not contrive better and round their enormous great wide table too park which fills up the room so dreadfully had the doctor contented to take my dining table when i came away as anybody in their senses would have done instead of having that absurd new one of his own which is wider literally wider than the dinner table here how infinitely better it would have been and how much more he would have been respected for people are never respected when they step out of their proper sphere that five only five to be sitting round that table however you will have dinner enough on it for ten i dare say mrs fetched breath and went on again the nonsense and folly of people s stepping out of their rank and trying to appear above themselves makes me think it right to give you a hint now that you are going into company without any of us and i do and entreat you not to be putting yourself forward and talking and giving your opinion as if you were one of your cousins	26
as if you were dear mrs or that will never do believe me wherever you are you must be the lowest and last and though miss is in a manner at home at the you are not to be taking place of her as to coming away at night you are to stay just as long as chooses leave him to settle that yes ma am i should not think of anything else and if it should rain which i think exceedingly likely for i never saw it more threatening for a wet evening in my life you must manage as well as you and not be expecting the carriage to be sent for you i certainly do not go home to night and therefore the carriage will not be out on my account so you must make up your mind to what may happen and take your things accordingly her niece thought it perfectly reasonable she her own claims to comfort as low even as mrs could and when sir thomas soon afterwards just opening the door said at what time would you the carriage come round she felt a degree of astonishment which made it impossible for her to speak my dear sir thomas cried mrs red with anger can walk walk i repeated sir thomas in a tone of most dignity and coming farther into the room my niece walk to a dinner engagement at this time of the year i will twenty minutes after four suit you yes sir was s humble answer given with the feelings almost of a criminal towards mrs and not bearing to remain with her in what might seem a state of triumph she followed her uncle out of the room having stayed behind him only long enough to hear these words spoken in angry agitation quite unnecessary a great deal too but goes true it is upon s account i observed he was hoarse on thursday night but this could not impose on she felt that the carriage was for herself and herself alone park and her uncle s consideration of her coming immediately after such representations from her aunt cost her some tears of gratitude when she was alone the coachman drove round to a minute another minute brought down the gentleman and as the lady had with a most scrupulous fear of being late been many minutes seated in the sir thomas saw them o e in as good time as his own correctly punctual habits required now i must look at you said ed with the kind smile of an affectionate brother and tell you how i like you and as well as i can judge by this light you look very nicely indeed what have you got on i the new dress that my uncle was so good as i to give me on my cousin s marriage i hope it is i not too fine but i thought i ought to wear it as it soon as i could and that i might not have such another opportunity all the winter i hope you e do not think me too fine i a woman can never be too fine while she is all e in white no i see no finery about you nothing i but what is perfectly proper your gown seems i very pretty i like these glossy spots has not i miss a gown something the same in approaching the they passed close by the stable yard and coach house s hey day i said here s company f here s a carriage who have they got to meet us and letting down the side glass to distinguish i tis s s i protest i there are his own two men pushing it back into vol i its old quarters he is here of course this is quite a surprise i shall be very glad to see him there was no occasion there was no time for to say how very differently she felt but the idea of having such another to observe her was a great increase of the with which she performed the very awful ceremony of walking into the drawing room in the drawing room mr certainly was having been just long enough arrived to be ready for dinner and the smiles and pleased looks of the three others standing round him showed how welcome was his sudden resolution of coming to them for a few days on leaving bath a very cordial meeting passed between him and and with the exception of the pleasure was general and even to her there might be some advantage in his presence since every addition to the party must rather forward her favorite indulgence of being suffered to sit silent and to she was soon aware of this herself for though she must submit as her own propriety of mind directed in spite of her aunt s opinion to being the principal lady in company and to all the little distinctions consequent she found while they were at table such a happy flow of conversation prevailing in which she was not required to take any part there was so much to be said between the brother and sister about bath so much between the two young men about hunting so much of politics between mr and dr and of everything and altogether park between mr and mrs grant as to leave her the fairest prospect of having only to listen in quiet and of passing a very agreeable day she could not compliment the newly arrived gentleman however with any appearance of interest in a scheme for extending his stay at and sending for his hunters from which suggested by dr grant advised by and warmly urged by the two sisters was soon in possession of his mind and which he seemed to want to be encouraged even by her to resolve on her opinion was	26
you know is entirely comparative and habit must settle the business is certainly well off for a of even a s family by the time he is four or five and twenty he will have seven hundred a year and nothing to do for it miss could have said that there would be a something to do and to suffer for it which she could not think lightly of but she checked herself and let it pass and tried to look calm and when the two gentlemen shortly afterwards joined them said henry i shall make a point of coming to to hear you preach your first sermon i shall come on purpose to encourage a young when is it to be miss price will not you join me in encouraging your cousin will not you engage to attend with your eyes steadily fixed on him the whole time as i shall do not to lose a word or only looking off just to note down any sentence pre eminently beautiful we will provide ourselves with and a pencil when will it be you must preach at you know that sir thomas and lady may hear you i shall keep clear of you as long as i can said for you would be more likely to me and i should be more sorry to see you trying at it than almost any other man park will he not feel this thought no he can feel nothing as he ought the party being now all united and the chief each other she remained in tranquillity and as a table was formed after te formed really for the amusement of dr grant by his attentive wife though it was not to be supposed so and miss took her harp she had nothing to do but to listen and her tranquillity remained undisturbed the rest of the evening except when mr now and then addressed to her a question or observation which she could not avoid answering miss was too much vexed by what had passed to be in a humor for anything but music with that she soothed herself and amused her friend the assurance of s being so soon to take orders coming upon her like a blow that had been suspended and still hoped uncertain and at a dis was felt with resentment and mortification she was very angry with him she had thought her influence more she had begun to think of him she felt that she had with great regard with almost decided intentions but she would now meet him with his own cool feelings it was plain that he could have no serious views no true attachment by fixing himself in a situation which he must know she would never stoop to she would learn to match him in his indifference she would henceforth admit his attentions without any idea beyond immediate amusement if he could so command his affections hers should do her no harm chapter xxiv had quite made up his mind by the next morning to give another fortnight to and having sent for his hunters and written a few lines of explanation to the admiral he looked round at his sister as he sealed and threw the letter from him and seeing the coast clear of the rest of the family said with a smile and how do you think i mean to amuse myself mary on the days that i do not hunt i am grown too old to go out more than three times a week but i have a plan for the days and what do you think it is to walk and ride with me to be sure not exactly though i shall be happy to do both but that would be exercise only to my body and i must take care of my mind besides that would be all and indulgence without the wholesome of labor and i do not like to eat the bread of idleness ko my plan is to make price in love with me price nonsense no no you ought to be satisfied with her two cousins but i cannot be satisfied without price without making a small hole in price s heart you do not seem properly aware of her claims to notice when we talked of her last night you none of you seemed sensible of the wonderful improvement that has taken place in her looks within the last six weeks tou see her every day and therefore do not notice it but i assure you she is quite a different creature from what she was in the autumn she was then merely a quiet modest not plain looking girl but she is now absolutely pretty i used to think she had neither complexion nor countenance but in that soft skin of hers so frequently tinged with a blush as it was yesterday there is decided beauty and from what i observed of her eyes and mouth i do not despair of their being capable of expression enough when she has anything to express and then her air her manner her is so improved she must be grown two inches at least since october this is only because there were no tall women to compare her with and because she has got a new gown and you never saw her so well dressed before she is just what she was in october believe me the truth is that she was the only girl in company for you to notice and you must have a somebody i have always thought her pretty not strikingly pretty but pretty enough as people say a sort of beauty that grows on one her eyes should be darker but she has a sweet smile but as for this wonderful of improvement i am sure it may all be resolved into a better style of dress and your having	26
have seen him and be seeing him perhaps daily his direct holidays might with justice be instantly given to the sister who had been his best correspondent through a period of seven years and the uncle who had done most for his support and advancement and accordingly the reply to her reply fixing a very early day for his arrival came as soon as possible and scarcely ten days had passed since had been in the agitation of her first dinner visit when she found herself in an agitation of a higher nature watching in the hall in the on the stairs for the first sound of the carriage which was to bring her a brother it came happily while she was thus waiting and there being neither ceremony nor to delay the moment of meeting she was with him park as lie entered the house and the first minutes of exquisite feeling had no interruption and no witnesses unless the servants chiefly intent upon opening the proper doors could be called such this was exactly what sir thomas and had been separately at as each proved to the other by the sympathetic alacrity with which they both advised mrs s continuing where she was instead of rushing out into the hall as soon as the noises of the arrival reached them william and soon showed themselves and sir thomas had the pleasure of receiving in his certainly a very different person from the one he had equipped seven years ago but a young man of an open pleasant countenance and frank but feeling and respectful manners and such as confirmed him his friend it was long before could recover from the happiness of such an hour as was formed by the last thirty minutes of expectation and the first of it was some time even before her happiness could be said to make her happy before the disappointment inseparable from the alteration of person had vanished and she could see in him the same william as before and talk to him as her heart had been yearning to do through many a past year that time however did gradually come forwarded by an affection on his side as warm as her own and much less by refinement or self distrust she was the first object of his love but it was a love which his stronger spirits and bolder temper made it as park natural for him to express as to feel on the morrow they were walking together with true enjoyment and every succeeding morrow renewed a a which sir thomas could not hut with complacency even before had pointed it out to him excepting the moments of peculiar delight which any marked or for instance of s consideration of her in the last few months had excited had known so much felicity in her life as in this equal fearless intercourse with the brother and friend who was opening all his heart to her telling her all his hopes and fears plans and respecting that long thought of dearly earned and justly valued blessing of promotion who could give her direct and minute information of the father and mother brothers and sisters of whom she very seldom heard who was interested in all the comforts and all the little hardships of her home at ready to think of every member of that home as she directed or only by a less scrupulous opinion and more noisy abuse of their aunt and with whom perhaps the dearest indulgence of the whole all the evil and good of their earliest years could be gone over again and every former united pain and pleasure with the recollection an advantage this a of love in which even the tie is beneath the children of the same family the same blood with the same first associations and habits have some means of enjoyment in their power which no subsequent connections can supply and it must be by a long and unnatural by a divorce which no subsequent connection can justify if such precious remains of the earliest are ever entirely too often alas it is so love sometimes almost everything is at others worse than nothing but with william and price it was still a sentiment in all its prime and freshness wounded by no opposition of interest cooled by no separate attachment and feeling the influence of time and absence only in its increase an affection so amiable was advancing each in the opinion of all who had hearts to value anything good henry was as much struck with it as any he honored the warm hearted blunt fondness of the young sailor which led him to say with his hand stretched towards s head do you know i begin to like that queer fashion already though when i first heard of such things being done in england i could not believe it and when mrs brown and the other women at the s at appeared in the same trim i thought they were mad but can reconcile me to anything and saw with lively admiration the glow of s cheek the brightness of her eye the deep interest the absorbed attention while her brother was describing any of the imminent or terrific scenes which such a period at sea must supply it was a picture which henry had moral taste enough to value s attractions increased increased for the sensibility vol i park which her complexion and her countenance was an attraction in itself he was no longer in doubt of the of her heart she had feelings genuine feeling it would be something to be loved by such a girl to excite the first of her young mind she interested him more than he had foreseen a fortnight was not enough his stay became indefinite william was often called on by his uncle to be the his were amusing in themselves to	26
thing like it in my history to din like this i ne er before have thunder and when i note the room is darkened my heart beats fast my poor head a p and i think the place for me is just behind the girls another lightning flash and thunder clap a cloud rises through floor in the midst of which enter and junior the chorus groan and rush to rear and junior make passes at them until they disappear through various means of exit gentle creatures avoid me while ye may ye all be mine i ve little doubt some day except ah me sweet the fair with naught that s false about her save her hair possession of that soul is this heart s one desire my love for her i find more ardent is than fire indeed if i could make my fires down below one half so as my love for her i think the average sinner would be slow their flames so often to and by the way i may observe just here if in the portions of the year you should desire to take for hire lo a pleasant home by no means dear just let me know my residence i gladly lease for very moderate rents the place is furnished with all the modem things never dreamed of by our folding beds you know a pocket weather to keep out cold and quite grotesque and and to scare away the flies and pretty that ring at dawn to warn a man to rise ah things indeed that modem thought has put together to make our lives more worth the living in this resort a man can have as soon as he arrives in very truth there s hardly need to mention things of this sort are satan s own invention all of this i say i rent to you for less than a goodly third of you would pay for dress the s made because down in that quarter t w v a ii the tenant has to pay so much for water but stop i i must for business now prepare t is time to lay my patent so that sweet i may and for my purpose is just the chap my scheme is this since i have noted that on has also this aged must be my tool to him the lovely maid doth go to school and so is the sage with her that when she s in the room his eyes scarce stir from off her face while she i m glad to say er he talks of love doth answer nay age says the girl i hold in veneration but i like youth best for a good a noise is heard without junior dear what is that noise walks to the door and looks out oh t is nothing but the boys they must not hear me thus they might betray me and create a fuss i ah dear bring hither my a or two i would i hope you ve packed sufficient lightning for we ve got to do a heap of fright i hands him he takes out a bunch of and a can ah here they are amid our other plunder j we ve fourteen of ai thunder likewise a gross of fine selected showers put up in to last for eighteen hours here junior throw this bolt down stairs strike only boys be careful of the chairs r the it goes crashing down the stairs and is followed by a shriek from the boys t is well they re hurt now if they come again open this can and them well with rain i do n t like children they re proof evil and i never take them down at but having noticed s foolish passion i m going to use it in this fashion s mother is a giddy creature a ij with not one single feature who pines for such solace in her declining days as naught but wealthy husbands can afford indeed unless a fortune he i even think she would decline a lord in short she d wed one from the if he had wealth and refuse a to be in love with her i shall pretend and seek s assistance to attain my end he will be flattered and for his kind assistance offer him his youth a new existence suggest that whilst i m with the dame he shall take fair and do the same then glorious i u mix the my boy please laugh for me roll on the floor and shake your sides with the kind of glee does as requested i d laugh myself if i ever smiled but i never grin unless i m and will make a handsome pair and i carry to my guarded there by this maid shall be the queen of the infernal a sup is heard without my ag d friend is coming i hear his feet on the staircase to who is about to a through the door hold fast to the bolt my boy do nt it if you do i take your tail and curl it with red hot irons t is that s coming ye and now begin your humming light the red lamps ye below in turn all the full upon the ladies t is necessary to begin our by making on a memorable impression a the stage becomes brilliant with red lights trumpets blow and thunder rolls as enters df maidens with at their head appears at rear and junior retire stands come to me take thou my heart never again my to part come take possession of thy throne come to me loved one ever mine own chorus hail to the monarch of love join in our chorus of joy enter the kingdom of bliss free from all earthly	27
free from annoy join in our joy enter the kingdom of bliss troubles and sorrows dismiss come to thy throne come to thine own join in our chorus of joy i steps toward them he is greeted with a mocking laugh as the stage is thrown into darkness light returning finds alone ye gods what fancies fill my brain to night such beauty ne er before hath met my sight it drives me almost mad to think that at the stream of love i ne er may drink i never yet have gazed on but that i for youth again that i might throw myself before her feet without a fear of her disdain alas vain hope such things can never be in all my reading i find no for giving aged their youth art can t a hair or tooth i m gray and gray must e er remain my back i can t renew my knees i ne er regain no known to man can take the wrinkles from my and no can be made to up my gait a the air is thick with the wave i judge from in the papers he a strange and streak of too and over in the comer the atmosphere is blue i d like to know what silly sinful trick those boys have put up now they make me sick with all their mischief and confounded fun for which there s nothing worse than boys beneath the sun er at recess they re let loose and i go out they raise the deuce and in the corner what s that you say my name you spoke starting up great scott what do i see the devil or a joke if it s a joke i relish not the fun if it s the devil t is time for me to run is tell me thou spirit in dressed art thou devil or art thou but a jest for be thou devil and i thee not but be thou i ii send thee straight to pot and scorn the truth sir i advise for satan being the prince of lies if thou should st claim to be no i d know at once thy ancestors were jokes peace thou i ne er had crossed thy had i supposed thee so a mortal i tell the truth to show the that e en the devil can be truthful once i am no joke nor am i mortal clay i am the deuce you say just so by vulgar folks i m called the deuce but when i lay my hands on such they cry a and address me by my proper name that is please note the same a ig except on provocation i m rarely cruel but those who call me deuce i use for fuel i catch your meaning sir and note your natural desire i do my best my lord t avoid your fire and my excellent friend dr dearest and best king of sin aside he has n t an idea he be aside i wonder who the devil let him in i m aware dear sir t is very late for making calls upon a oh not at all it is the fate that always the doctor i knew however you d excuse my coming when you heard my mission oh come dear sir er you choose and do not wait for my permission my excellent friend dr exalted and great lord of sin aside me this really makes me grin wonder who the devil let him in indeed i m touched by this reception aside i make him for his deception i ve always wished to meet s king aside i do believe i ve got him on a string the devil after all is not so smart but just the same i wish he would depart he his clothes with of not quite so sweet as club i think a indeed if this is usual smell i do my best to keep away from i believe you said the honor of your presence hath filled my soul with aside if he keeps on much longer thus i make his to what my friend may i attribute this most sudden strange and unexpected bliss dost wish some blocks of good intention to thy streets if so please mention the size you wish for in my school all good intent is measured off by rule i no more with resolutions good they can t stand fire as well as wood something more lasting i ve used of late i found the traffic grown so great my streets with patent are covered o er a t is of poisoned pins needles and white points and edges up and polished bright i find my subjects ne er abuse it in fact unless they re forced they never use it t is not for public works but private ones i come a chair indeed sit down pray make yourself at home thanks i do as much for you some day aside i guess you won t if i have aught to say down well let s to business it s growing late and i ve an appointment at half past eight my ship is due with a load of consigned to my abode i m ready quite to hear your plan what the deuce can the devil desire from man this much i ve watched you from the moment when your infant yell proclaimed you one of men a latent something in you made me pine to make your soul forever mine to add to my unique collection a which needs but this to reach perfection to give it me you ve surely no objection for you ve often said in public you believed in no thing hid from view that the mere idea of a hot hereafter filled	27
you up to the neck with laughter t is true enough i have at times at saints and devils in a manner rude but that was before i d met you you see if you come from why must be now do n t interrupt me stick to your belief you ve at and its chief that i don t mind such talk is all the fashion and it takes more than that to put me in a passion but if you were sincere in your words bout the future i ve a scheme to propose that can t fail to suit you sell me your soul i m so anxious to buy i u pay any price no matter how high there s nothing of risk from your own point of view and perhaps after all your notions are true but why do you wish my soul i d hear my dearest doctor i try to make that clear i need your soul to back me in a scheme to realize a dream i love a lady and fain would wed i need a mistress at head i can t control the and when i m called away they raise the very all the day last time i went from home they the and drank the from the they let the fires go down and the boiling lead over my table and fled up my bed i can t stand that so have come up here to and win the one i hold most dear i fail to see my friend how i can aid you i fear your visit sir has ill repaid you a j you know the dame i d have you introduce me introduce the devil pray excuse me if you are the being you are said to be go in and win you do n t need me t is plain you do not know me sir in love dear i m timid as a s as soft as a s when he gets to the point where his heart is gone you may think me guilty of a dreadful but the devil in love is eminently proper aside perhaps if i aid in this he be friendly to me aloud who is the miss she is a widow and where s her husband pray down there with you nodding he d like to get away i see to that my boy he won t interfere i have him translated to another sphere and may i inquire what is the lady s name it slips my mind but i ve a of the dame junior the of my heart s best joy hands the photograph thanks mr this is my boy he s quite a lad unlike most great men s sons he keeps his mouth shut and has no studying for the i suppose he might do worse sir goodness knows but there s her in surprise what yes that is the name well i must confess this and me i d no idea your love was she he no no my soul i u hold your scheme i would not aid for gold to hand her mother o er to you the devil her t would never do i scorn your horrid plan my lord not if were your reward a ye gods i what dread temptation this to the mrs for the miss i i cannot do it she d never take me unless the entirely me she my hairs of gray my age respects my way but for her a younger man she d choose and age like this forever would refuse i give thee youth and beauty too at twenty one place thee and see thee through i ll make thee so that should ye meet to night she love the ground thou on at sight go thou leave me i lest i assent to plans that i steps to rear and turns i go thou foolish sage if so thou say st refusing to to my request but ere i go i d say that ne er again wilt have the chance fair to win let the word be yes she s forever thine let the word be perhaps she s mine turns to go his face with his hands chorus at rear sing join in our chorus of joy etc watches during singing at conclusion of chorus springs to his feet come back come back i yield to thy desires thou hast aroused within me fires i can t subdue i u aid thee in thy scheme and thou shalt have my soul aside my dream is realized but say my lord to lose my soul just now i can t afford a man the maid would scorn you see can t i hold my as a sort of h m let us see i had n t thought of that the truth of what you say there s no denying to be without a soul would knock you which certainly d be somewhat trying i suppose a note on demand would a g though i despise a note do n t you tis quite a nuisance to have it down below for paper so easily you know tis true it ah i have here some poems of my early youth writ on one side they re somewhat in drawer and hands a bundle of papers but i can t but think them because had they been otherwise you know they d have been long years ago let s see the lines reads to mary jane oh dearest love by no means plain why trifle with thy lover true who thinks of nothing else but you when shines the sun or the rain illustrious man you re right were these not proof against all flame they d certainly ve been burned on sight but can use them just the	27
all right my boys i bum all your books up the slate i m ready now to plunge into the joy of worldly things without old time s with the fair to lead the way let s pipe our merry by the hand chorus and dance girls for our gay young friend handsome as the god may it be our aim and end such an one fore er to follow all the to this one bending with his beauty so and brothers studying his grace thus their awkwardness may the boys we won t for your gay young friend as the old i where will this scheme ever end if such an one we fellows follow j foolish to him are bending in a manner most heart and brothers studying his face fail to see therein much grace curtain act ii i street in church at r house at l inn at rear l street at rear r enter rear r are seen drinking at tables in front of the inn song i m moved by the strangest sensation that ever hath moved my soul a sense of supreme exaltation my heart doth seem to control i know not just what i should term it it reminds me most thoroughly of that passion denied to the but known to all others as love can it be i ve unto been pierced by his dart who ve always considered love stupid and bade him forever to depart how else then account for my how else for that feeling of joy that over my being now rushes and all of my senses doth i fear that indeed the young creature in secret hath my heart and i d mention this curious feature i d really not have him depart enter and at rear r sits down to knit on the church steps ah found at last go you to her now is your chance begin to her i wait for you my boy at yonder inn she loves you even now go in and win approaches she not to notice hint ye gods i m glad to have him leave me for a time he fills my soul with he don t like crime and what is worse the has no and pious my he d give points to a a turns away if i d supposed he d turn out such a i d not have changed the color of his wig but left him as he was in and devoted to the and scared to death by up his courage ah miss i ve searched for you all day indeed for me why should you pray since doctor sold out i ve left your school i really do not think you old enough to rule i loved the good old doctor much more than i can tell i don t like you one part as well but i say see here this will never do i bought the school and name because of you aside he s for me now it makes me jealous to see him do it but when i get him there points below i will allow it will be he and not myself t will it bought the school and name because of me oh dear you make me laugh i fail to see what title dr could have delivered aside i fear our little game is sadly shivered she smiles upon him for every smile he get a hundred lashes when i have him there points below for every time she calls him pet i roast him through ah beware young man had not a bit of in me he could so if you bought because of me you have been awfully you might have seen had you but eyes for no sort of would i be prize she rises and exit rear r in despair turns to i say old man there s been a big mistake let s end the compact the quest i a s she said she liked old much more t than me so change me back she did but jest with thee follow after her and breathe soft words into her ear about weather then of birds then of nature s beauty then of her then of yourself until her heart shall stir f she loves you but she ne er propose to you that part of the business you must do but satan dear she crushed me every time i spoke it s fun no doubt for you but i do n t like the joke oh don t get so blue remember when first they re maids seem december but if you will persist you find that by and by they re often may sometimes june but oftener july if doth crush you do n t sit and sigh for pain but pay the debt with interest and crush back again boldness is perhaps the part for me to play precisely so you re getting sense now haste away exit the man s so faint of heart i fear our scheme will fail t is very queer how shy some people are why years ago before i fell and went to live below at fifteen years of age i d won the hearts of maids in every sphere that s on the the first a little lived up in the prettiest girl i think in all the stars and then i loved a maid who lived in and would have wed her but another came between us that other was a dark eyed girl from she suited me whilst i was just her pattern we two and dwelt ten centuries together when she got in society that broke the a we were and she returned to and then left home to settle at she still is lovely i saw her there last sunday she s famous too you	27
know her mrs trumpets without great heavens here s the army coming back this affairs this must be enter and one word i pray i ask but courtesy from you to day permit me at least to call why certainly if that is really all you had to say you might have said it sooner to night mamma and i ll be glad to have you come and may we walk with no one by but you may if when i bid you you be dumb cloak get me a bid for this reception too ask her if your friend may come with you the deuce if thou dost not i call the note oh well i will stop on my coat miss i d like to bring a friend he knew your father well while in was with him when he met his end and with him later in that is why certainly sees is that he there all dressed in red from foot to hair he makes my blood run cold er i see him let him call on ma then you and i can flee him to that all is right dances with joy as soft music is heard without and the of enter cheering to rear j but here are the boys returning from the war a an a tion with floating in the wind and dear at their head i spy you know s captain of company i her and looks down the road confound the luck i wish i d thought of before i d have left him on the field all in i greatly fear that s just the man to put a small on our plan cheer enter company with at their head rushes in and throws her arms about him as soldiers sing chorus company back to the home of our joyous youth back from the glorious fight for truth our deeds are writ in letters of flame afar o er the sea and the land of the free is spreading our glorious name our heads we carry high glad the trumpets sound when company i upon the battle ground never a coward here never a single one to tremble with fear when the foe draws near or to run back to the home of our joyous youth back from the glorious fight for truth in letters of fire our glory is writ on history s pages where men of all ages may read of it ii country new enter with a sigh ah me i fear i m very much in love my heart is fluttering like a dove are known to flutter that mr is just too utter exit enter i thought i saw her walking here i think that satan s right the dear doth love me with a heart and it s safe to i do my part a g in distance exit after her enter it seemed to me i saw my daughter trip along the road a by a of a modern lad this thing never do i ii have to keep an eye on her so excuse the french exit enter in his hand ah there she great scott i m out of breath this miserable business will be my death i d like to meet the lady before this eve when she and are to receive t were well to rouse her kindly interest and with these jewels for assistance belt and of jewels from by e en t would be at once confessed she s like to offer slight resistance puts belt around his waist fills fingers with rings and places about his shoulders and off after enter and company single jo company halt shoulder arms tis queer i thought i saw the devil coming here and what was worst of all by far i thought the villain did pursue my ma carry arms now i submit that it were best for me at once his horrid schemes t arrest present arms and seek at once the and ask the fellow just what he s about carry arms conclusions with the man i d try particularly as i m backed by company i and chorus t is hard returning from the to find we still have got to fight that while we ve been far far away a putting alien foes to flight old satan has been on the scene a working plans quite against my ma more fearful far such are but with my gallant company a i fight the foe who e er he be and satan e en i soon will and put to flight his sinful majesty i thought i d have a rest from war when home to i d come to take up practice of the law and make the silent hum my one ambition was and now to plunge right in another row by much more is than bullets close by one s but with my gallant company i fight the foe who e er he be and satan e en i soon will put to flight and his sinful majesty and so my boys please carry arms present the same likewise i pray prepared be all for satan s charms right about face and let s away this instant march against the foe nor back return till lying low the the very dust his clothing his power bust for with my gallant company we meet the foe where er he be and we and put to flight his sinful majesty iii garden about s house house at l entrance to g at r tree its trunk enter at l while walking to day in the i met a young fellow in red sir who straightway set beating my fluttering heart completely a my head sir most taking his style with a smile and a glance that was truly his eye was as clear as	27
the blue atmosphere and a gait that was little but dancing ah me oh my i sigh if men were like him o then i think i might marry again a s he wore bout his shoulders the fairest of gems his waist was encircled with his garment was with ne er seen on our his cap on one side with two feathers an air of great gave him ah should he propose why i heaven knows would ne er have the courage to him ah me oh my i i sigh if men were like him o then i m sure i would marry again ah me i i wonder who he could have been the finest i have ever seen of men and jewels too in amount ten thousand worth and no the man without the jewels would have done but with them he doth simply i ll have to seek him out and learn his name t will never do to lose such splendid game j for however i must look out for should she first be seen by him there s hardly room for aught of doubt my chance of winning would be slim i fear that to a ma a handsome daughter s i hie me to her now and state she d better go to morrow on i hope it is n t now too late but here she comes in meditation enter my daughter why so deep in thought i fear you re studying harder than you ought no mother not at all indeed i think to school again i should proceed what boots it that my teacher s young he soon it perhaps he may but i can t have you here among the students gay of s academy i think t were best that thou go to for a year or so a change of air i deem the best for thee a for that of don t seem to agree interrupting why mother thou send me hence remember mother dear the great expense no words my dear you go to morrow exit into the house oh i could weep my heart s so full of sorrow to alas and leave dear behind do it not seek mamma and speak my mind exit into house enter and by gate glancing about him a pretty nest n est ce pas too pretty for such as we two are i wonder where the ladies went i heard their voices as we stood without a woman s voice is always evident there s truth in what you say beyond a doubt i ve often thought indeed a woman s soul to be a voice which when it s free hath lived its time on earth and borne its ills receives as its reward a place among the hills where as an echo forever more tis heard and mark you doth ever have the final word oh hush go ring the bell and have our names sent up rings aside thy fair maid appearing at window why there s my friend what can he want i have to send my daughter of at once to spend the night with o er the way what horrid fright was that within the window eh my bride that is to be well i must say your taste is hardly what i d suppose it would be considering your age a to account for tastes the saying goes there is no way so said the sage beauty my friend in the eye of the is and ne er before were eyes like mine i for if i but choose to see him so the beggar doth take on the robes of kings and kings become a spectacle of woe and not one of greatness to them do i but wish to see them thus a most convenient eye though dangerous to see things as they cannot be enough mine it me take care t is not too much for thee enter ah madame i have called to see why hath left her classes this gentleman who s here with me doth help instruct the lads and permit me madame if you to introduce the happiest moment madame of my days s aside what jolly luck he s lovely ways i m pleased to meet bat i much regret that s not come home yet from a little visit she went to pay to an old time friend across the way aside the doth lie for through the clap boards there i see the maid a weeping in her chair to what s got into the dame i wonder this tears our little scheme asunder aside i ve got her locked up safe and sound she not get out til i have him bound for men like him are very much too rare and i believe in love all means are fair i m very sorry that s away yes so am i perhaps some other day you call again and find her in aside she s just the wife for the of sin if he would have her aloud i see you re fond of flowers indeed i upon them passing hours right here within my little yard a carrying water to them day by day watching them grow and keeping guard lest they be or n away oh thou sweet and thing aloud a life dear madame to be envied by a king simplicity and grace and beauty all are here oh sir you sadly flatter me i fear and yonder i suppose a walk l for birds to within or lover s talk aside a hint like that i must not overlook whispering to stay you right here and read your book she ll soon invite us to look about the place stay you behind t will win for you the race for s within and your make the best of your	27
chance t is now or not at all if you would like to stroll within the wood do indeed dear madame you are so good wilt go or wilt remain behind i think to rest i feel much more inclined if madame will excuse i ll stay right here i m much too weary for a stroll aside to thus offend he need not fear i d rather have him stay upon my soul young man your re far than i vote for strolling in the woods hard by come madame let us leave the youth to sit behind and rest tis best f arm in arm starting up within shakes his fist at that lying she s satan s equal i m much afraid in her most great and proved capacity for worship of the god of but ill see the maid i stand beneath her and a song of love i chant her a i i stand thy leafy my feet on the cold wet grass on the wall hard by the cat is a to his his love for her s no greater than my love is for thee and sooner sweet or later his bride she surely be now thou be more cruel than yonder cat if so lean o er thy and whisper gently but if like her thou my words of love with glee come to thy dearest and smile once more on me appears at the window oh darling i stand the flowers and list to the cry their love for each other by hours alone in the garden am i the has n t a quarter the love for his bride that i have conceived for the daughter of a outside but if you ve decided to me as never have done please come to the window and wilt me a weed in the light of the sun or if you ve decided to love me to pretty appear at the above me and cry it his voice i heard just now there s some one there sweet is t thou t is i my gentle i heard thy voice and at its sound my heart did straight rejoice come down my love alas i cannot do it my chamber door is locked i can t get through it then release thee the key is in the door come up two flights i m on the second floor exit to house from the window enter and j a looking far aside good he has gone the scheme doth work the d one s a very however i shall her just the same so long as some one else doth win the game dear sir i feel as though i d always known you do n t you know how sometimes one doth meet a fellow man who seems to be i might say an oh yes indeed t is part of nature s plan in you i seem t have met divinity oh dear how can you speak such words such words so sweet to one who s but her weeds and thirds speech is my words are not ma am they re full of import for i am how shall i say it how best tell the love that in my heart doth dwell love aye love for thee doth fill my soul a love surpassing all control they ite l aside i m doing well if she were but more youthful my words would be a bit more truthful aside he loves me joy the jewels will be mine aloud oh can your words be true if thou wilt have me i am ever thine throwing herself into his arms that settles it i belong to you aside over s shoulder heavens she s heavy i fear i can t support her in just the style she think i ought to aloud sweet woman darling say just let me have my neck a moment pray aside she s nearly it i m glad of this there s but a little bit but here the other lovers are let s stroll again my dear wander off r enter and by far the loveliest of my pupils sweet i ve loved thee long in silence a one single word of hope i ask t is surely not a heavy task and d maid thou not see that i do love thee dearly it seems to me you re acting i come to you my love my treasure to ask of you this eve to take possession of all my heart in fullest measure and of my love to make confession to night i dare reveal my passion beneath yon bright and moon and ask of thee in fashion to grant to me one boon and what is it you ask me for thy heart my love no more thy love is all i seek my dear for that alone you find me here thy love is all for that i call upon my knee i fall for love means life for love means all thy words so sudden unexpected do fill my soul with a love like this i ve ne er suspected but i admire this new sensation to night i listen to your passion beneath yon bright and moon which you in fashion and maybe grant that boon the boon i pleaded for mar my heart to you i may give o er thy love is very great t is clear most sweet it is likewise to hear my love is all for that you call and on my knee do fall for love means life for love means all enter and and so as s come back a i think tis for the best that we straightway i u have a hack in half an hour down by the tree where but a moment since i stole a kiss and	27
learned at last the meaning full of bliss but my dear what shall i do with her leave her at home she never stir and when we re wed why we return oh poor distracted me what shall i do my cheeks with madly bum her face with her hands appears at gate aside ah there they are a precious pair i u his scheme right in the bud i hie me to the public square and call the neighbors then for blood exit regards for an instant and then his and places it about her neck looks at the jewels in surprise enough enough my i ll go with you i s ill run within and get my clothes together and don my for stormy weather all right my love you find me by the oak and you love wear s cloak now go embrace enters the house s which has been left hanging on back of i hope that has done his work the hour has come he must not i ve got to act with most care or fall myself within my little i rather think that in this cloak disguised fair will think me then i despised with all her pure and innocent young heart will seize upon her and at once depart and once the maid i get within my power i have her down in in half an hour a for thee my i ll leave the ag d dame i not be jealous when she takes thy name by gate enter and the only thing to do my bless d heart is at once to fly come i let us start oh i dread my mother s ire for that break a heart like mine for her wrath however dire leave me in sorrow to ah no my lover never that i go at once and get my hat i won t be longer than a moment gone a moment sweetheart of all gladness exit enter sits dawn and lights a he sits and he must n t see my dress t would affairs i guess i hang the cloak up on this tree al md well how goes the game with thee remaining seated you here i thought you d long since gone with or has the lady left you if so you hardly look so wan as one would think if luck hath so you no she s mine but how she flies with me with willing feet i have a priest without the town who ll make us one ere the moon goes down enter dressed in s hat and cloak aside oh dear i wish i hadn t started i feel so faint and chicken hearted and in my haste i my daughter s cloak i trust dear will know me at the oak aside t is and ready to depart now to play my hand sit still my heart he s cloak and into the dark ness at rear aloud weu i think i u take a stroll a off through the woods around the and back without moving good bye au i see you later friend ta ta aside this cloak will make me right with her he s arm all speech my sweetheart please and now o kindly dusk me as o er my path i me my darling come we must at once depart aside of he is the very they start to go pauses at the gate pushing out enters from house dressed as and chorus of ers and soldiers appear from woods at i and chorus the widow comes at last i must be going fast for danger is n t past by any means who was it spoke why she so long i have a feeling strong that there is something wrong behind the scenes chorus there s some one in the park a in the dark upon some silly lark beyond a doubt the widow here s a the dame will raise a fuss if she us a starting out why starts he back excuse me if i smile the widow s not his style oh my i m full of both in and out chorus the man s a his latest statement he can t be while in and out a the outlook s full of gloom i m than the tomb i ve lost my little boom the game is done fails to recognize me in my mother s guise but when he sees my eyes he ll know it si but stay t is the maid is most discreet to hide her person sweet in s cloak hia outlook s full of gloom with for bis doom he d best i think assume his and run the clouds now seem to i get a fuller scope i think that to they wish to try but i must haste away i d like to stay a witness to the beneath the oak exit i thought you d recognize me in my mother s guise when looked you in my eyes my lover true i stop the thing right here my mother s much too dear she s somewhat queer and too thy game is discovered thy plan is my mother beloved by thee shan t be thy plans now or have thee arrested thy mother thy sister hath me interested what this the lady s thy sister then why this deceit and why have you kissed her i came hither a thy sister who s dearer than riches to me when a moment sir i kissed her she promised my sweetheart to be at last i ve succeeded in the quest upon which i am bent her hand and her heart are all i lack is thy kindly consent she loves me with passionate has sworn that she wed me ere dawn she needs one to cherish and guard her for thy mother with satan is	27
much faster because once more unto thy nest thou hast returned oh give us a rest t is queer about my lovely bride she wed me on the mountain side and seemed most w to do it too i d feared she d raise a she must have loved me secretly indeed unto my wish was as a reed save that she did decline while in the to take from off her face that heavy veil g turns and fondly at her to think that she is here my i order up an one with corps of graceful dancers and who banish care and ruin my t a aloud l my darling come and rest thee on this i show thee that which will delight thy soul what ho within bring out those merry boys that sing and dance for us and make our joys enter and dancers throws himself at s feet where he remains while the and dancers perform at conclusion of music and dancing continues i thank you gentle subjects for thy measures whereby thou much unto my pleasures and now to make our happiness complete i introduce your queen my bride most sweet she is and good as time is long young rich and healthy wise and strong come now my dear take off thy veil and cloak he turns toward the behold thy queen and devils burst forth into a torrent of and laughter starts they what is the joke what can this mean he turns and sees she falls backward in a what you thou homely fat i thought twas thou i m wed to that ye devils blue i m lost with anger but ha ha my lad i ll have thy soul in ere another day shall roll this note will fix all that takes note from pocket and as for why she ll live on and die a rushes to gate attempts to follow stand back thou instrument of my most great and dire disaster t will be thy fate ever to stay within this hideous place a with face to face steps back in horror i must away to town full pack to morrow eve at six expect me back exit throws herself on in despair and devils dance about her and sing as appears in red cloud far above chorus little mrs satan playing fast and loose with her lord and master the deuce rise rise never mind if he has left t is only for one day ma am that you re to be a day away t is not so very long so why dost cry brace up ma am and be strong do n t you be afraid ma am we treat you here in with all the kind consideration due to lovely ladies curtain act iv same a scene i act ii wedding march as procession headed by choir boys and priests followed by in full wedding dress leaning on arm of enter also and the they march across stage into church the door behind them organ music throughout scene enter apparently in haste looking at watch i m somewhat late but i see no trace of the people yet in the market place at noon they wed my watch says ten by twelve i have the groom within my den the villain has done his work too well he suffer for it in a cell but all s not lost by any means if they had wed last night or e en this mom a there would have been some shifting of the scenes and i indeed would be forlorn for do n t you see her right in him would leave for me a margin pretty slim in spite of this small paper here the law of is queer he hears the music in the church but what s that sound tis in the church ye and the clock above says noon and fifteen minutes more i m in the and hark there sounds the joyous tune that tells of two made into one ye solemn i am undone the church door open the people pour out and pass and appear arm in arm the people cheer and the church bells and back the devil here i d hoped he would not grace this glad occasion with his evil face go approaches what now my husband why look st so white t is well thou madame why his fright aside that is the man i saw last night with ma not a great success as a substitute for pa i seek his soul he owes that same to me and i demand it now he s cause you see to tremble as he does and with fear thou shalt not have it thy claim s not clear this note will make it so hands note to who reads it aloud alas i m lost i will not give him up unless i m forced the laws of sir provide that man s the property of his bride if thou take the soul and leave the man just do it i doubt much if you can a pi and i ve a small account to settle sir with you what with my ag d mother thou do a noise is heard without and s voice my son my daughter how came she here i wonder i must retreat until she and leaves me to my schemes dame fortune s down on me to day it seems attempts out r is met by who enters at r dressed in full costume and followed by a body of and back ah here you are my pretty little lord you thought to leave me home whilst you abroad were about and enjoying life hereafter when you go you take your wife but what s this why dressed in orange blossoms and your sunday best she s just been wed dear mother	27
were not invited what is the average weight op a copy op punch v ar shakespeare as a resident sees a life size statue of the op a new kind op a beautiful head of pale with fear rises to speak s camp chair from under him i d like to have you ex plain statement mr bar papa is right about that mr bar said the fair it was captain and his crew a house boat on the makes a discovery the of renown was slowly along the one pleasant friday morning not long ago and as he idly on he chuckled mildly to himself as he thought of the in which in the course of years he had managed to build up it s a great thing he said with a of satisfaction it s a great thing to be the go between between two states of being to have the exclusive a house boat on the to and import shades from one state to the other and withal to have had as clean a record as mine has been valuable as is my i never a public official in my life and here stopped his and his boat simultaneously as he rounded one of the many turns in the river a singular object met his gaze and one too that filled him with it was another craft and that was a thing not to be had he owned the exclusive right of way on the all these years to have it disputed here in the closing of the nineteenth century had not he dealt satisfactorily with all whether it was in the line of or in the providing of boats for pleasure up the river had he not received expressions of satisfaction indeed from the most exclusive families of with the very select series of he had given at s island no wonder then that the queer looking boat that met his gaze in a shady nook on the k to to to to to t to to to makes a discovery dark side of the river filled bim with dismay blow me for a if i like that be said in a hardly audible whisper and shiver my if i don t find out what she s there for if anybody thinks he can run an opposition line to mine on this river he s mistaken if it comes to competition i can carry shades for nothing and still the b g yellow three times a day without a financial panic i ll show em a thing or two if they attempt to rival me and what a boat it looks for all the world like a barn on a canal boat up to the side of tlie craft and standing up in the middle of his boat cried out ship there was no answer and the hailed her again receiving no response to his second call he resolved to investigate for himself so his own boat to the stern post of the stranger he a house boat on thb on board if he was astonished as he sat in his boat he was when he cast his eye over the unwelcome vessel he had he stood for at least two minutes rooted to the spot his eye swept over a long broad deck the polish of which resembled that of a ball room floor running from aft to three quarters forward stood a structure that in its lines resembled as had intimated a barn designed by an of simplicity but in its construction the richest of woods had been used and in its interior arrangement and nothing more could be conceived what s the blooming thing for said more dismayed than ever if they start another line with a craft like this i m very much afraid i m done for after all i wouldn t take a boat like mine myself if there was a floating palace like this going the same way i ll have to see the about this and find out what it all means i suppose makes a discovery it ll cost me a pretty penny too confound them a prey to these unhappy reflections further and the more he saw the less he liked it he was about to encounter opposition and an opposition which was apparently backed by persons of great wealth perhaps the themselves it was a thought that he had saved enough money in the course of his career to enable him to live in comfort all his days but this was not really what was after he wished to acquire enough to retire and become one of the smart set it had been done in that section of the universe which lay on the bright side of the why not therefore on the other he asked i m pretty well connected even if i am a he had been known to say with chaos for a grandfather and and for parents i ve just as good blood in my veins as anybody in the are a mighty fine family not as bright as the days but older and we re g a house boat on the poor that s it poor and it s money makes caste these days if i had millions and owned a railroad they d call me a as i haven t i m only a wait and see i ll be giving swell functions myself some day and these will be on their knees before me begging to be asked then i ll get up a little aristocracy of my own and i won t let a soul into it whose name isn t mentioned in the mention in s and the of america won t admit anybody to s house unless there s some other mighty good reason for	27

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