Austen Said:

"Did you say that you had something to tell me, sir?"

"Louisa."

"A little. I am a little acquainted with Captain Benwick."

"I thought Captain Benwick a very pleasing young man,"

"and I understand that he bears an excellent character."

"Indeed you are mistaken there, sir; I should never augur want of spirit from Captain Benwick's manners. I thought them particularly pleasing, and I will answer for it, they would generally please."

"I was not entering into any comparison of the two friends,"

"I hope, Admiral, I hope there is nothing in the style of Captain Wentworth's letter to make you and Mrs Croft particularly uneasy. It did seem, last autumn, as if there were an attachment between him and Louisa Musgrove; but I hope it may be understood to have worn out on each side equally, and without violence. I hope his letter does not breathe the spirit of an ill-used man."

"Certainly. But what I mean is, that I hope there is nothing in Captain Wentworth's manner of writing to make you suppose he thinks himself ill-used by his friend, which might appear, you know, without its being absolutely said. I should be very sorry that such a friendship as has subsisted between him and Captain Benwick should be destroyed, or even wounded, by a circumstance of this sort."

"I am much obliged to you,"

"but I am not going with them. The carriage would not accommodate so many. I walk: I prefer walking."

"Oh! very little, Nothing that I regard."

"I am only waiting for Mr Elliot. He will be here in a moment, I am sure."

"Good morning to you!"

"Now, how would she speak of him?"

"You will wonder,"

"what has been fixing my eye so long; but I was looking after some window-curtains, which Lady Alicia and Mrs Frankland were telling me of last night. They described the drawing-room window-curtains of one of the houses on this side of the way, and this part of the street, as being the handsomest and best hung of any in Bath, but could not recollect the exact number, and I have been trying to find out which it could be; but I confess I can see no curtains hereabouts that answer their description."

"Certainly I could have none. But it appears -- I should hope it would be a very happy match. There are on both sides good principles and good temper."

"You were a good while at Lyme, I think?"

"I should very much like to see Lyme again,"

"The last hours were certainly very painful,"

"but when pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure. One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering, which was by no means the case at Lyme. We were only in anxiety and distress during the last two hours, and previously there had been a great deal of enjoyment. So much novelty and beauty! I have travelled so little, that every fresh place would be interesting to me; but there is real beauty at Lyme; and in short"

"altogether my impressions of the place are very agreeable."

"they should meet again. He would look for her, he would find her out before the evening were over, and at present, perhaps, it was as well to be asunder. She was in need of a little interval for recollection."

"This,"

"is nearly the sense, or rather the meaning of the words, for certainly the sense of an Italian love-song must not be talked of, but it is as nearly the meaning as I can give; for I do not pretend to understand the language. I am a very poor Italian scholar."

"I will not oppose such kind politeness; but I should be sorry to be examined by a real proficient."

"For shame! for shame! this is too much flattery. I forget what we are to have next," turning to the bill.

"Indeed! How so? You can have been acquainted with it only since I came to Bath, excepting as you might hear me previously spoken of in my own family."

"Is not this song worth staying for?"

"Yes; I did not see them myself, but I heard Mr Elliot say they were in the room."

"I do not know. I do not think they were."

"No, that was what I dreaded. It would have been very unpleasant to me in every respect. But happily Lady Dalrymple always chooses to be farther off; and we were exceedingly well placed, that is, for hearing; I must not say for seeing, because I appear to have seen very little."

"But I ought to have looked about me more,"

"Do you see that in my eye?"

"Mr Elliot!"

"Are you acquainted with Mr Elliot?"

"I was not at all aware of this. You never mentioned it before. Had I known it, I would have had the pleasure of talking to him about you."

"I should be extremely happy; I hope you cannot doubt my willingness to be of even the slightest use to you,"

"but I suspect that you are considering me as having a higher claim on Mr Elliot, a greater right to influence him, than is really the case. I am sure you have, somehow or other, imbibed such a notion. You must consider me only as Mr Elliot's relation. If in that light there is anything which you suppose his cousin might fairly ask of him, I beg you would not hesitate to employ me."

"No,"

"nor next week, nor next, nor next. I assure you that nothing of the sort you are thinking of will be settled any week. I am not going to marry Mr Elliot. I should like to know why you imagine I am?"

"My dear Mrs Smith, Mr Elliot's wife has not been dead much above half a year. He ought not to be supposed to be paying his addresses to any one."

"No,"

I can readily believe all that of my cousin. He seems to have a calm decided temper, not at all open to dangerous impressions. I consider him with great respect. I have no reason, from any thing that has fallen within my observation, to do otherwise. But I have not known him long; and he is not a man, I think, to be known intimately soon. Will not this manner of speaking of him, Mrs Smith, convince you that he is nothing to me? Surely this must be calm enough. And, upon my word, he is nothing to me. Should he ever propose to me (which I have very little reason to imagine he has any thought of doing), I shall not accept him. I assure you I shall not. I assure you, Mr Elliot had not the share which you have been supposing, in whatever pleasure the concert of last night might afford: not Mr Elliot; it is not Mr Elliot that --"

"Do tell me how it first came into your head."

"And has it indeed been spoken of?"

"No. Was not it Mrs Speed, as usual, or the maid? I observed no one in particular."

"The whole history,"

"She could not make a very long history, I think, of one such little article of unfounded news."