Austen Said:

“She has nothing, in short, to recommend her, but being an excellent walker. I shall never forget her appearance this morning. She really looked almost wild.”

“Yes, and her petticoat; I hope you saw her petticoat, six inches deep in mud, I am absolutely certain; and the gown which had been let down to hide it not doing its office.”

“I have an excessive regard for Miss Jane Bennet, she is really a very sweet girl, and I wish with all my heart she were well settled. But with such a father and mother, and such low connections, I am afraid there is no chance of it.”

“Yes; and they have another, who lives somewhere near Cheapside.”

“Do you prefer reading to cards?”

“that is rather singular.”

“I shall insist on their giving one also. I shall tell Colonel Forster it will be quite a shame if he does not.”

“You used us abominably ill,”

“running away without telling us that you were coming out.”

she should not have a day's health all the autumn,

"I cannot possibly do without Anne,"

"So, you are come at last! I began to think I should never see you. I am so ill I can hardly speak. I have not seen a creature the whole morning!"

"Yes, I made the best of it; I always do: but I was very far from well at the time; and I do not think I ever was so ill in my life as I have been all this morning: very unfit to be left alone, I am sure. Suppose I were to be seized of a sudden in some dreadful way, and not able to ring the bell! So, Lady Russell would not get out. I do not think she has been in this house three times this summer."

"Oh! Charles is out shooting. I have not seen him since seven o'clock. He would go, though I told him how ill I was.

He said

he should not stay out long;

but he has never come back, and now it is almost one. I assure you, I have not seen a soul this whole long morning."

"Yes, as long as I could bear their noise; but they are so unmanageable that they do me more harm than good. Little Charles does not mind a word I say, and Walter is growing quite as bad."

"I can give you no account of them. I have not seen one of them to-day, except Mr Musgrove, who just stopped and spoke through the window, but without getting off his horse; and though I told him how ill I was, not one of them have been near me. It did not happen to suit the Miss Musgroves, I suppose, and they never put themselves out of their way."

"I never want them, I assure you. They talk and laugh a great deal too much for me. Oh! Anne, I am so very unwell! It was quite unkind of you not to come on Thursday."

"Dear me! what can you possibly have to do?"

"Oh! well!"

"but you have never asked me one word about our dinner at the Pooles yesterday."

"Oh yes! I went. I was very well yesterday; nothing at all the matter with me till this morning. It would have been strange if I had not gone."

"Nothing remarkable. One always knows beforehand what the dinner will be, and who will be there; and it is so very uncomfortable not having a carriage of one's own. Mr and Mrs Musgrove took me, and we were so crowded! They are both so very large, and take up so much room; and Mr Musgrove always sits forward. So, there was I, crowded into the back seat with Henrietta and Louise; and I think it very likely that my illness to-day may be owing to it."

she might be able to leave it by dinner-time.

"Where shall we go?"

"I suppose you will not like to call at the Great House before they have been to see you?"

"Oh! but they ought to call upon you as soon as possible. They ought to feel what is due to you as my sister. However, we may as well go and sit with them a little while, and when we have that over, we can enjoy our walk."

it a great shame that such a present was not made,

for his father's having many other uses for his money, and a right to spend it as he liked.

"I could manage them very well, if it were not for Mary's interference,"

"Charles spoils the children so that I cannot get them into any order,"

"I wish you could persuade Mary not to be always fancying herself ill,"

"I do believe if Charles were to see me dying, he would not think there was anything the matter with me. I am sure, Anne, if you would, you might persuade him that I really am very ill -- a great deal worse than I ever own."

"I hate sending the children to the Great House, though their grandmamma is always wanting to see them, for she humours and indulges them to such a degree, and gives them so much trash and sweet things, that they are sure to come back sick and cross for the rest of the day."

"Mrs Musgrove thinks all her servants so steady, that it would be high treason to call it in question; but I am sure, without exaggeration, that her upper house-maid and laundry-maid, instead of being in their business, are gadding about the village, all day long. I meet them wherever I go; and I declare, I never go twice into my nursery without seeing something of them. If Jemima were not the trustiest, steadiest creature in the world, it would be enough to spoil her; for

she tells me,

Mrs Musgrove was very apt not to give her the precedence that was her due, when they dined at the Great House with other families;

did not see any reason why she was to be considered so much at home as to lose her place.

"Dear me, is not this the day the Crofts were to come to Kellynch? I am glad I did not think of it before. How low it makes me!"

"Nobody knew how much she should suffer. She should put it off as long as she could;"

That she was coming to apologize, and that they should have to spend the evening by themselves,

"Oh no; as to leaving the little boy,"

"the child was going on so well, and he wished so much to be introduced to Captain Wentworth, that, perhaps, he might join them in the evening; he would not dine from home, but he might walk in for half an hour."

"Oh! no, indeed, Charles, I cannot bear to have you go away. Only think if anything should happen?"

The child was to be kept in bed and amused as quietly as possible; but what was there for a father to do? This was quite a female case, and it would be highly absurd in him, who could be of no use at home, to shut himself up. His father very much wished him to meet Captain Wentworth, and there being no sufficient reason against it, he ought to go;

his meaning to dress directly, and dine at the other house.

"Nothing can be going on better than the child,"

"so I told my father, just now, that I would come, and he thought me quite right. Your sister being with you, my love, I have no scruple at all. You would not like to leave him yourself, but you see I can be of no use. Anne will send for me if anything is the matter."