Austen Said:

the limited remnant of the earliest patents;

the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy;

remaining single for his dear daughters' sake.

His two other children were of very inferior value. Mary had acquired a little artificial importance, by becoming Mrs Charles Musgrove;

Anne,

was nobody

ever reading her name in any other page of his favourite work.

All equality of alliance must rest with Elizabeth, for Mary had merely connected herself with an old country family of respectability and large fortune, and had therefore given all the honour and received none: Elizabeth would, one day or other, marry suitably.

himself and Elizabeth as blooming as ever, amidst the wreck of the good looks of everybody else;

how old all the rest of his family and acquaintance were growing. Anne haggard, Mary coarse, every face in the neighbourhood worsting,

the modest drawing-back of youth;

he ought to have been consulted, especially after taking the young man so publicly by the hand;

It had not been possible for him to spend less; he had done nothing but what Sir Walter Elliot was imperiously called on to do;

No; he would never disgrace his name so far. The Kellynch estate should be transmitted whole and entire, as he had received it.

could not be put up with, were not to be borne.

spurned the idea of its being offered in any manner; forbad the slightest hint being dropped of his having such an intention; and it was only on the supposition of his being spontaneously solicited by some most unexceptionable applicant, on his own terms, and as a great favour, that he would let it at all.

a more unobjectionable tenant, in all essentials, than Admiral Croft bid fair to be, could hardly offer.

"I have let my house to Admiral Croft," would sound extremely well; very much better than to any mere Mr -- a Mr (save, perhaps, some half dozen in the nation,) always needs a note of explanation. An admiral speaks his own consequence, and, at the same time, can never make a baronet look small. In all their dealings and intercourse, Sir Walter Elliot must ever have the precedence.

a very degrading alliance;

the Admiral to be the best-looking sailor he had ever met with,

if his own man might have had the arranging of his hair, he should not be ashamed of being seen with him any where;

He had never had an idea of throwing himself off; he had feared that he was thrown off, but knew not why, and delicacy had kept him silent.

He, who had ever boasted of being an Elliot, and whose feelings, as to connection, were only too strict to suit the unfeudal tone of the present day. He was astonished, indeed, but his character and general conduct must refute it. He could refer Sir Walter to all who knew him;

(and not an ill-looking man,

A very fine woman with a large fortune, in love with him!

his very gentlemanlike appearance, his air of elegance and fashion, his good shaped face, his sensible eye; but, at the same time,

but Sir Walter had

"a most charming woman, quite worthy of being known in Camden Place,"

she was said to be an excessively pretty woman, beautiful.

his apologies for calling at so unusual an hour,

"he could not be so near without wishing to know that neither she nor her friend had taken cold the day before, &c. &c;"

be received as an acquaintance already.

He had spent his whole solitary evening in the room adjoining theirs; had heard voices, mirth continually; thought they must be a most delightful set of people, longed to be with them, but certainly without the smallest suspicion of his possessing the shadow of a right to introduce himself. If he had but asked who the party were! The name of Musgrove would have told him enough.

"Well, it would serve to cure him of an absurd practice of never asking a question at an inn, which he had adopted, when quite a young man, on the principal of its being very ungenteel to be curious.

"The notions of a young man of one or two and twenty,"

"as to what is necessary in manners to make him quite the thing, are more absurd, I believe, than those of any other set of beings in the world. The folly of the means they often employ is only to be equalled by the folly of what they have in view."

But he must not be addressing his reflections to Anne alone:

he was soon diffused again among the others, and it was only at intervals that he could return to Lyme.

Having alluded to

he must hear the whole.

he had looked at her with some earnestness.

their being nothing in themselves,

as a family connexion, as good company, as those who would collect good company around them, they had their value.

"You are mistaken,"

"that is not good company; that is the best. Good company requires only birth, education, and manners, and with regard to education is not very nice. Birth and good manners are essential; but a little learning is by no means a dangerous thing in good company; on the contrary, it will do very well. My cousin Anne shakes her head. She is not satisfied. She is fastidious. My dear cousin"

"you have a better right to be fastidious than almost any other woman I know; but will it answer? Will it make you happy? Will it not be wiser to accept the society of those good ladies in Laura Place, and enjoy all the advantages of the connexion as far as possible? You may depend upon it, that they will move in the first set in Bath this winter, and as rank is rank, your being known to be related to them will have its use in fixing your family (our family let me say) in that degree of consideration which we must all wish for."

"Pardon me, dear cousin, you are unjust in your own claims. In London, perhaps, in your present quiet style of living, it might be as you say: but in Bath; Sir Walter Elliot and his family will always be worth knowing: always acceptable as acquaintance."

"I love your indignation,"

"it is very natural. But here you are in Bath, and the object is to be established here with all the credit and dignity which ought to belong to Sir Walter Elliot. You talk of being proud; I am called proud, I know, and I shall not wish to believe myself otherwise; for our pride, if investigated, would have the same object, I have no doubt, though the kind may seem a little different. In one point, I am sure, my dear cousin,"

"in one point, I am sure, we must feel alike. We must feel that every addition to your father's society, among his equals or superiors, may be of use in diverting his thoughts from those who are beneath him."