Austen Said:

have reason to reproach her for giving no warning.

"There is hardly any personal defect,"

"which an agreeable manner might not gradually reconcile one to."

"I am sorry to find you unwell,"

"You sent me such a good account of yourself on Thursday!"

"You have had your little boys with you?"

"Well, you will soon be better now,"

"You know I always cure you when I come. How are your neighbours at the Great House?"

"You will see them yet, perhaps, before the morning is gone. It is early."

"My dear Mary, recollect what a comfortable account you sent me of yourself! You wrote in the cheerfullest manner, and said you were perfectly well, and in no hurry for me; and that being the case, you must be aware that my wish would be to remain with Lady Russell to the last: and besides what I felt on her account, I have really been so busy, have had so much to do, that I could not very conveniently have left Kellynch sooner."

"A great many things, I assure you. More than I can recollect in a moment; but I can tell you some. I have been making a duplicate of the catalogue of my father's books and pictures. I have been several times in the garden with Mackenzie, trying to understand, and make him understand, which of Elizabeth's plants are for Lady Russell. I have had all my own little concerns to arrange, books and music to divide, and all my trunks to repack, from not having understood in time what was intended as to the waggons: and one thing I have had to do, Mary, of a more trying nature: going to almost every house in the parish, as a sort of take-leave. I was told that they wished it. But all these things took up a great deal of time."

"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.

a more equal match might have greatly improved him;

a woman of real understanding might have given more consequence to his character, and more usefulness, rationality, and elegance to his habits and pursuits.

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."

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.

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

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.

"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?