Austen Said:

"he seems very agreeable."

if they saw much of Mr. Willoughby at Cleveland, and whether they were intimately acquainted with him.

"Upon my word,"

"you know much more of the matter than I do, if you have any reason to expect such a match."

"My dear Mrs. Palmer!"

"You surprise me very much. Colonel Brandon tell you of it! Surely you must be mistaken. To give such intelligence to a person who could not be interested in it, even if it were true, is not what I should expect Colonel Brandon to do."

"And what did the Colonel say?"

"Mr. Brandon was very well I hope?"

"I am flattered by his commendation. He seems an excellent man; and I think him uncommonly pleasing."

"Is Mr. Willoughby much known in your part of Somersetshire?"

"You have been long acquainted with Colonel Brandon, have not you?"

"Did not Colonel Brandon know of Sir John's proposal to your mother before it was made? Had he never owned his affection to yourself?"

the sweetest girls in the world were to be met with in every part of England, under every possible variation of form, face, temper and understanding.

"Poor little creatures!"

"It might have been a very sad accident."

"Yet I hardly know how,"

"unless it had been under totally different circumstances. But this is the usual way of heightening alarm, where there is nothing to be alarmed at in reality."

"What a sweet woman Lady Middleton is!"

"And Sir John too,"

"what a charming man he is!"

he was perfectly good humoured and friendly.

"I should guess so,"

"from what I have witnessed this morning."

"I have a notion,"

"you think the little Middletons rather too much indulged; perhaps they may be the outside of enough; but it is so natural in Lady Middleton; and for my part, I love to see children full of life and spirits; I cannot bear them if they are tame and quiet."

"I confess,"

"that while I am at Barton Park, I never think of tame and quiet children with any abhorrence."

"And how do you like Devonshire, Miss Dashwood? I suppose you were very sorry to leave Sussex."

"Norland is a prodigious beautiful place, is not it?"

"We have heard Sir John admire it excessively,"

"I think every one MUST admire it,"

"who ever saw the place; though it is not to be supposed that any one can estimate its beauties as we do."

"And had you a great many smart beaux there? I suppose you have not so many in this part of the world; for my part, I think they are a vast addition always."

"But why should you think,"

"that there are not as many genteel young men in Devonshire as Sussex?"

"Nay, my dear, I'm sure I don't pretend to say that there an't. I'm sure there's a vast many smart beaux in Exeter; but you know, how could I tell what smart beaux there might be about Norland; and I was only afraid the Miss Dashwoods might find it dull at Barton, if they had not so many as they used to have. But perhaps you young ladies may not care about the beaux, and had as lief be without them as with them. For my part, I think they are vastly agreeable, provided they dress smart and behave civil. But I can't bear to see them dirty and nasty. Now there's Mr. Rose at Exeter, a prodigious smart young man, quite a beau, clerk to Mr. Simpson, you know, and yet if you do but meet him of a morning, he is not fit to be seen. — I suppose your brother was quite a beau, Miss Dashwood, before he married, as he was so rich?"

"Upon my word,"

"I cannot tell you, for I do not perfectly comprehend the meaning of the word. But this I can say, that if he ever was a beau before he married, he is one still for there is not the smallest alteration in him."

"Oh! dear! one never thinks of married men's being beaux — they have something else to do."

"Lord! Anne,"

"you can talk of nothing but beaux; — you will make Miss Dashwood believe you think of nothing else." And then to turn the discourse, she began admiring the house and the furniture.

the most beautiful, elegant, accomplished, and agreeable girls they had ever beheld, and with whom they were particularly anxious to be better acquainted. —

her joy on her sister's having been so lucky as to make a conquest of a very smart beau since she came to Barton.

"'Twill be a fine thing to have her married so young to be sure,"

"and I hear he is quite a beau, and prodigious handsome. And I hope you may have as good luck yourself soon, — but perhaps you may have a friend in the corner already."

"Ferrars!"

"Mr. Ferrars is the happy man, is he? What! your sister-in-law's brother, Miss Dashwood? a very agreeable young man to be sure; I know him very well."

"How can you say so, Anne?"

"Though we have seen him once or twice at my uncle's, it is rather too much to pretend to know him very well."

"And who was this uncle? Where did he live? How came they acquainted?"