Austen Said:

"Did you go then? I have made no enquiries, because I concluded you must have been obliged to give up the party."

"I am very glad you were well enough, and I hope you had a pleasant party."

"I have not the smallest objection on that account,"

I should never think of standing on such ceremony with people I know so well as Mrs and the Miss Musgroves."

though there were on each side continual subjects of offence, neither family could now do without it.

other Elliots could have her advantage in seeing how unknown, or unconsidered there, were the affairs which at Kellynch Hall were treated as of such general publicity and pervading interest;

she must now submit to feel that another lesson, in the art of knowing our own nothingness beyond our own circle, was become necessary for her;

to avoid such self-delusion in future,

of the extraordinary blessing of having one such truly sympathising friend as Lady Russell.

it to be very fitting, that every little social commonwealth should dictate its own matters of discourse;

ere long, to become a not unworthy member of the one she was now transplanted into.

no dread of these two months. Mary was not so repulsive and unsisterly as Elizabeth, nor so inaccessible to all influence of hers; neither was there anything among the other component parts of the cottage inimical to comfort. She was always on friendly terms with her brother-in-law; and in the children, who loved her nearly as well, and respected her a great deal more than their mother,

interest, amusement, and wholesome exertion.

As it was, he did nothing with much zeal, but sport; and his time was otherwise trifled away, without benefit from books or anything else. He had very good spirits, which never seemed much affected by his wife's occasional lowness, bore with her unreasonableness sometimes to Anne's admiration, and upon the whole, though there was very often a little disagreement (in which she had sometimes more share than she wished, being appealed to by both parties), they might pass for a happy couple. They were always perfectly agreed in the want of more money, and a strong inclination for a handsome present from his father; but here, as on most topics, he had the superiority, for while Mary thought

he always contended

"Very true."

"I have no scruple of observing to you, how nonsensical some persons are about their place, because all the world knows how easy and indifferent you are about it; but I wish anybody could give Mary a hint that it would be a great deal better if she were not so very tenacious, especially if she would not be always putting herself forward to take place of mamma. Nobody doubts her right to have precedence of mamma, but it would be more becoming in her not to be always insisting on it. It is not that mamma cares about it the least in the world, but I know it is taken notice of by many persons."

they should not have done so well without the sight of Mr and Mrs Musgrove's respectable forms in the usual places, or without the talking, laughing, and singing of their daughters.

when she played she was giving pleasure only to herself;

A beloved home made over to others; all the precious rooms and furniture, groves, and prospects, beginning to own other eyes and other limbs!

for feelings of great consideration towards herself, in all that related to Kellynch,

she had said nothing which might not do for either brother.

reasonable it was, that Mrs Croft should be thinking and speaking of Edward, and not of Frederick;

the same brother must still be in question.

she only came on foot, to leave more room for the harp, which was bringing in the carriage.

"And I will tell you our reason,"

"and all about it. I am come on to give you notice, that papa and mamma are out of spirits this evening, especially mamma; she is thinking so much of poor Richard! And we agreed it would be best to have the harp, for it seems to amuse her more than the piano-forte. I will tell you why she is out of spirits. When the Crofts called this morning, (they called here afterwards, did not they?),

they happened to say, that

and most unluckily it came into mamma's head, when they were gone, that Wentworth, or something very like it, was the name of poor Richard's captain at one time; I do not know when or where, but a great while before he died, poor fellow! And upon looking over his letters and things, she found it was so, and is perfectly sure that this must be the very man, and her head is quite full of it, and of poor Richard! So we must be as merry as we can, that she may not be dwelling upon such gloomy things."

Since he actually was expected in the country, she must teach herself to be insensible on such points.

"a fine dashing felow, only two perticular about the schoolmaster,"

only a week,

and then,

they must meet;

she could feel secure even for a week.

she was all but calling there in the same half hour.

She and Mary were actually setting forward for the Great House, where,

they must inevitably have found him, when they were stopped by the eldest boy's being at that moment brought home in consequence of a bad fall.

how perfectly delighted they were with him, how much handsomer, how infinitely more agreeable they thought him than any individual among their male acquaintance,

How glad they had been to hear papa invite him to stay dinner, how sorry when he said it was quite out of his power, and how glad again when he had promised in reply to papa and mamma's farther pressing invitations to come and dine with them on the morrow -- actually on the morrow; and he had promised it in so pleasant a manner, as if he felt all the motive of their attention just as he ought. And in short, he had looked and said everything with such exquisite grace, that they could assure them all, their heads were both turned by him;

"But that was only the effect of the suddenness of your alarm -- of the shock. You will not be hysterical again. I dare say we shall have nothing to distress us. I perfectly understand Mr Robinson's directions, and have no fears; and indeed, Mary, I cannot wonder at your husband. Nursing does not belong to a man; it is not his province. A sick child is always the mother's property: her own feelings generally make it so."

"But, could you be comfortable yourself, to be spending the whole evening away from the poor boy?"

"Well, if you do not think it too late to give notice for yourself, suppose you were to go, as well as your husband. Leave little Charles to my care. Mr and Mrs Musgrove cannot think it wrong while I remain with him."

They were gone,

to be happy, however oddly constructed such happiness might seem; as for herself, she was left with as many sensations of comfort, as were, perhaps, ever likely to be hers.

what was it to her if Frederick Wentworth were only half a mile distant, making himself agreeable to others?

Perhaps indifferent, if indifference could exist under such circumstances. He must be either indifferent or unwilling. Had he wished ever to see her again, he need not have waited till this time; he would have done what she could not but believe that in his place she should have done long ago, when events had been early giving him the independence which alone had been wanting.

He wished to avoid seeing her.

He had inquired after her,

slightly, as might suit a former slight acquaintance, seeming to acknowledge such as she had acknowledged, actuated, perhaps, by the same view of escaping introduction when they were to meet.