Austen Said:

she should like it,

not bear it;

“strange.”

he indulged himself a little too much with the foibles of others.

her eldest brother had lately formed an intimacy with a young man of his own college, of the name of Thorpe;

he had spent the last week of the Christmas vacation with his family, near London.

He must be gone from Bath. Yet he had not mentioned that his stay would be so short!

she need not be longer uneasy, as the gentlemen had just left the pump-room.

to remain in the same place and the same employment till the clock struck one;

seeing Miss Tilney again could at that moment bear a short delay in favour of a drive,

there could be no impropriety in her going with Mr. Thorpe, as Isabella was going at the same time with James,

he must know the carriage to be in fact perfectly safe,

her folly, in supposing that among such a crowd they should even meet with the Tilneys in any reasonable time,

To escape,

so narrowly escape John Thorpe, and to be asked, so immediately on his joining her, asked by Mr. Tilney, as if he had sought her on purpose! — it did not appear to her that life could supply any greater felicity.

she might find nobody to go with her,

it would not.

A bright morning so early in the year,

would generally turn to rain, but a cloudy one foretold improvement as the day advanced.

if it still kept on raining another five minutes, she would give up the matter as hopeless.

the Tilneys had acted quite well by her, in so readily giving up their engagement, without sending her any message of excuse. It was now but an hour later than the time fixed on for the beginning of their walk;

they might have gone with very little inconvenience.

her beloved Isabella and her dear family,

What could they have to say of her?

General Tilney did not like her appearance:

it was implied in his preventing her admittance to his daughter, rather than postpone his own walk a few minutes.

there was not one of the family whom she need now fear to meet.

The evening had done more, much more, for her than could have been expected.

was very sorry, but could not go. The engagement which ought to have kept her from joining in the former attempt would make it impossible for her to accompany them now. She had that moment settled with Miss Tilney to take their proposed walk tomorrow; it was quite determined, and she would not, upon any account, retract.

Was it the part of a friend thus to expose her feelings to the notice of others? Isabella appeared to her ungenerous and selfish, regardless of everything but her own gratification.

If they would only put off their scheme till Tuesday, which they might easily do, as it depended only on themselves, she could go with them, and everybody might then be satisfied.

Setting her own inclination apart, to have failed a second time in her engagement to Miss Tilney, to have retracted a promise voluntarily made only five minutes before, and on a false pretence too, must have been wrong. She had not been withstanding them on selfish principles alone, she had not consulted merely her own gratification; that might have been ensured in some degree by the excursion itself, by seeing Blaize Castle; no, she had attended to what was due to others, and to her own character in their opinion.

she must speak with Miss Tilney that moment,

he might be sometimes depended on.

was greatly obliged; but it was quite out of her power. Mr. and Mrs. Allen would expect her back every moment.

“Oh, no; Catherine was sure they would not have the least objection, and she should have great pleasure in coming.”

walking,

with great elasticity,

whether she had been perfectly right. A sacrifice was always noble; and if she had given way to their entreaties, she should have been spared the distressing idea of a friend displeased, a brother angry, and a scheme of great happiness to both destroyed, perhaps through her means.

whether it would not be both proper and kind in her to write to Miss Thorpe, and explain the indecorum of which she must be as insensible as herself; for she considered that Isabella might otherwise perhaps be going to Clifton the next day, in spite of what had passed.

what would the Tilneys have thought of her, if she had broken her promise to them in order to do what was wrong in itself, if she had been guilty of one breach of propriety, only to enable her to be guilty of another?

It seemed as if a good view were no longer to be taken from the top of an high hill, and that a clear blue sky was no longer a proof of a fine day.

she would give anything in the world to be able to draw;

Henry Tilney could never be wrong.

His manner might sometimes surprise, but his meaning must always be just:

the party had not been prevented by her refusing to join it,

it might be too pleasant to allow either James or Isabella to resent her resistance any longer.

Blaize Castle had never been thought of; and, as for all the rest, there was nothing to regret for half an instant.

Her brother and her friend engaged!

the power of love;