Austen Said:

Patterns of Diction in Jane Austen's Major Novels

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"You will not find her there. Quite worn out and broken up. I was the last man who commanded her. Hardly fit for service then. Reported fit for home service for a year or two, and so I was sent off to the West Indies."
"The Admiralty,"
"entertain themselves now and then, with sending a few hundred men to sea, in a ship not fit to be employed. But they have a great many to provide for; and among the thousands that may just as well go to the bottom as not, it is impossible for them to distinguish the very set who may be least missed."
"I felt my luck, Admiral, I assure you;"
"I was as well satisfied with my appointment as you can desire. It was a great object with me at that time to be at sea; a very great object, I wanted to be doing something."
"I knew pretty well what she was before that day;"
"I had no more discoveries to make than you would have as to the fashion and strength of any old pelisse, which you had seen lent about among half your acquaintance ever since you could remember, and which at last, on some very wet day, is lent to yourself. Ah! she was a dear old Asp to me. She did all that I wanted. I knew she would. I knew that we should either go to the bottom together, or that she would be the making of me; and I never had two days of foul weather all the time I was at sea in her; and after taking privateers enough to be very entertaining, I had the good luck in my passage home the next autumn, to fall in with the very French frigate I wanted. I brought her into Plymouth; and here another instance of luck. We had not been six hours in the Sound, when a gale came on, which lasted four days and nights, and which would have done for poor old Asp in half the time; our touch with the Great Nation not having much improved our condition. Four-and-twenty hours later, and I should only have been a gallant Captain Wentworth, in a small paragraph at one corner of the newspapers; and being lost in only a sloop, nobody would have thought about me."
she too had been one of the best friends man ever had.
"Ah! those were pleasant days when I had the Laconia! How fast I made money in her. A friend of mine and I had such a lovely cruise together off the Western Islands. Poor Harville, sister! You know how much he wanted money: worse than myself. He had a wife. Excellent fellow. I shall never forget his happiness. He felt it all, so much for her sake. I wished for him again the next summer, when I had still the same luck in the Mediterranean."
"My brother,"
"mamma is thinking of poor Richard."
instead of sharing in Mrs Musgrove's kind wishes, as to her son, he had probably been at some pains to get rid of him;
They were actually on the same sofa, for Mrs Musgrove had most readily made room for him; they were divided only by Mrs Musgrove.
"Should I? I am glad I was not a week later then."
he would never willingly admit any ladies on board a ship of his, excepting for a ball, or a visit, which a few hours might comprehend.
"But, if I know myself,"
"this is from no want of gallantry towards them. It is rather from feeling how impossible it is, with all one's efforts, and all one's sacrifices, to make the accommodations on board such as women ought to have. There can be no want of gallantry, Admiral, in rating the claims of women to every personal comfort high, and this is what I do. I hate to hear of women on board, or to see them on board; and no ship under my command shall ever convey a family of ladies anywhere, if I can help it."
"Nothing to the purpose,"
"You were living with your husband, and were the only woman on board."
"All merged in my friendship, Sophia. I would assist any brother officer's wife that I could, and I would bring anything of Harville's from the world's end, if he wanted it. But do not imagine that I did not feel it an evil in itself."
"I might not like them the better for that perhaps. Such a number of women and children have no right to be comfortable on board."
"My feelings, you see, did not prevent my taking Mrs Harville and all her family to Plymouth."
"Now I have done,"
"When once married people begin to attack me with --
I can only say, 'No, I shall not;' and then they say again,
and there is an end of it."
he had every thing to elevate him which general attention and deference, and especially the attention of all the young women, could do. The Miss Hayters, the females of the family of cousins already mentioned, were apparently admitted to the honour of being in love with him; and as for Henrietta and Louisa, they both seemed so entirely occupied by him, that nothing but the continued appearance of the most perfect good-will between themselves could have made it credible that they were not decided rivals.
If he were a little spoilt by such universal, such eager admiration, who could wonder?
perhaps, trying to trace in them the ruins of the face which had once charmed him;
"Oh, no; never; she has quite given up dancing. She had rather play. She is never tired of playing."
  • Novel: Persuasion
  • Character: Speaking together Miss Louisa Musgrove and MissHenriettaMusgrove
  • Link to text in chapter 8
  • Text ID: 00826
"I beg your pardon, madam, this is your seat;"
His cold politeness, his ceremonious grace, were worse than anything.
resolve to remain where he was, and take all the charms and perfections of Edward's wife upon credit a little longer.
"It would not be a great match for her; but if Henrietta liked him,"
  • Novel: Persuasion
  • Character: Speaking together Miss Louisa Musgrove and MissHenriettaMusgrove
  • Link to text in chapter 9
  • Text ID: 00844
Henrietta was perhaps the prettiest, Louisa had the higher spirits;
she knew not now, whether the more gentle or the more lively character were most likely to attract him.
As to Captain Wentworth's views, she deemed it of more consequence that he should know his own mind early enough not to be endangering the happiness of either sister, or impeaching his own honour, than that he should prefer Henrietta to Louisa, or Louisa to Henrietta. Either of them would, in all probability, make him an affectionate, good-humoured wife.
With regard to Charles Hayter, she had delicacy which must be pained by any lightness of conduct in a well-meaning young woman, and a heart to sympathize in any of the sufferings it occasioned; but if Henrietta found herself mistaken in the nature of her feelings, the alternation could not be understood too soon.
"Well, I am very glad indeed: but I always thought you would have it; I always thought you sure. It did not appear to me that -- in short, you know, Dr Shirley must have a curate, and you had secured his promise. Is he coming, Louisa?"
"I thought the Miss Musgroves had been here: Mrs Musgrove told me I should find them here,"
"I hope the little boy is better,"
His kindness in stepping forward to her relief, the manner, the silence in which it had passed, the little particulars of the circumstance,
that he meant to avoid hearing her thanks, and rather sought to testify that her conversation was the last of his wants,
It was evident that Charles Hayter was not well inclined towards Captain Wentworth.
She was ashamed of herself, quite ashamed of being so nervous, so overcome by such a trifle;
it would have satisfied neither husband nor wife; for while she considered Louisa to be rather the favourite, she could not but think, as far as she might dare to judge from memory and experience, that Captain Wentworth was not in love with either.
They were more in love with him; yet there it was not love. It was a little fever of admiration; but it might, probably must, end in love with some. Charles Hayter seemed aware of being slighted, and yet Henrietta had sometimes the air of being divided between them.
There was no triumph, no pitiful triumph in his manner. He had, probably, never heard, and never thought of any claims of Charles Hayter. He was only wrong in accepting the attentions (for accepting must be the word) of two young women at once.
Charles Hayter was wise.
they were going to take a long walk,