Austen Said:

Patterns of Diction in Jane Austen's Major Novels

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This would be a trial. He was no dancer in general. If he were to be very alert in engaging Jane Fairfax now, it might augur something. There was no immediate appearance. No; he was talking to Mrs. Cole— he was looking on unconcerned; Jane was asked by somebody else, and he was still talking to Mrs. Cole.
"Perhaps it is as well,"
"I must have asked Miss Fairfax, and her languid dancing would not have agreed with me, after yours."
She must have delighted the Coles— worthy people, who deserved to be made happy!—And left a name behind her that would not soon die away.
It was hardly right; but it had been so strong an idea, that it would escape her, and his submission to all that she told, was a compliment to her penetration, which made it difficult for her to be quite certain that she ought to have held her tongue.
"Oh! if I could but play as well as you and Miss Fairfax!"
"Don't class us together, Harriet. My playing is no more like her's, than a lamp is like sunshine."
"Oh! dear—I think you play the best of the two. I think you play quite as well as she does. I am sure I had much rather hear you. Every body last night said how well you played."
"Those who knew any thing about it, must have felt the difference. The truth is, Harriet, that my playing is just good enough to be praised, but Jane Fairfax's is much beyond it."
"Well, I always shall think that you play quite as well as she does, or that if there is any difference nobody would ever find it out.
Mr. Cole said
and
Mr. Frank Churchill
talked a great deal about your taste, and
that
he valued taste much more than execution."
"Ah! but Jane Fairfax has them both, Harriet."
"Are you sure? I saw she had execution, but I did not know she had any taste. Nobody talked about it. And I hate Italian singing.—There is no understanding a word of it. Besides, if she does play so very well, you know, it is no more than she is obliged to do, because she will have to teach.
The Coxes were wondering
last night
whether she would get into any great family.
How did you think the Coxes looked?"
"Just as they always do— very vulgar."
"They told me something,"
"but it is nothing of any consequence."
what they had told her,
"They told me—that Mr. Martin dined with them last Saturday."
"Oh!"
"He came to their father upon some business, and he asked him to stay to dinner."
"Oh!"
"They talked a great deal about him, especially Anne Cox. I do not know what she meant,but
she asked me
if I thought I should go and stay there again next summer."
"She meant to be impertinently curious, just as such an Anne Cox should be."
"She said
he was very agreeable the day he dined there. He sat by her at dinner.
Miss Nash thinks
either of the Coxes would be very glad to marry him."
"Very likely.—I think they are, without exception, the most vulgar girls in Highbury."
"And while Mrs. Weston pays her visit, I may be allowed, I hope,"
"to join your party and wait for her at Hartfield —if you are going home."
"Me! I should be quite in the way. But, perhaps —I may be equally in the way here. Miss Woodhouse looks as if she did not want me. My aunt always sends me off when she is shopping. She says I fidget her to death; and Miss Woodhouse looks as if she could almost say the same. What am I to do?"
"I am here on no business of my own,"
"I am only waiting for my friend. She will probably have soon done, and then we shall go home. But you had better go with Mrs. Weston and hear the instrument."
"Well —if you advise it.—But
if Colonel Campbell should have employed a careless friend, and if it should prove to have an indifferent tone— what shall I say? I shall be no support to Mrs. Weston. She might do very well by herself. A disagreeable truth would be palatable through her lips, but I am the wretchedest being in the world at a civil falsehood."
"I do not believe any such thing,"
"I am persuaded that you can be as insincere as your neighbours, when it is necessary; but there is no reason to suppose the instrument is indifferent. Quite otherwise indeed, if I understood Miss Fairfax's opinion last night."
if she wanted plain muslin it was of no use to look at figured; and
a blue ribbon, be it ever so beautiful, would still never match her yellow pattern.

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