Northanger Abbey

ppeared first in a general dissatisfaction with everybody about her, while she remained in

for secret discourses and unlimited confidence, that she was most reasonably encouraged to expect another friend from within its walls. Her plan for the morning thus settled, she sat quietly down to her book after breakfast, resolving to remain in the same place and the same employment till the clock struck one; and from habitude very little incommoded by the remarks and ejaculations of Mrs. Allen, whose vacancy of mind and incapacity for thinking were such, that as she never talked a great deal, so she could never be entirely silent; and, therefore, while she sat at her work, if she lost her needle or broke her thread, if she heard a carriage in the street, or saw a speck upon her gown, she must observe it aloud, whether there were anyone at leisure to answ

aid Catherine. "Where

d not we agree together to take a drive this morning?

aid Catherine, looking at Mrs. Allen for her

one! And what a dust you would

er intended by anybody else; and Catherine, whose desire of seeing Miss Tilney again could at that moment bear a short delay in favour of a drive, and who thought there could be no impropriety in her

t sentences in her praise, after Thorpe had procured Mrs. Allen's admiration of his gig; and then receiving her friend's parting good wishes, they both hurried downstairs. "My dearest creature," cried Isabella, to whom the duty of friendship immediately ca

not too soon to hear her friend exclaim aloud to Ja

a little at first setting off. He will, most likely, give a plunge or two, and perhaps take the rest for a min

ful surprise; and her companion immediately made the matter perfectly simple by assuring her that it was entirely owing to the peculiarly judicious manner in which he had then held the reins, and the singular discernment and dexterity with which he had directed his whip. Catherine, though she could not help wondering that with such perfect command of his horse, he should think it necessary to alarm her with a relation of its tricks, congratulated herself sincerely on being under the care of so excellent a coachman; and perceiving that the animal continued to go on in the same quiet manner

mean. Yes, I belie

children

not

next heirs. He is your

dfathe

always very m

very

w enough, and has lived very well in his time, I dare say; he

such a thing? He is a very temperate man, and

is overset by a bottle? I am sure of this-that if everybody was to drink their bottle a day, there w

ot beli

not the hundredth part of the wine consumed in this kingd

at there is a great deal

eckoned a remarkable thing, at the last party in my rooms, that upon an average we cleared about five pints a head. It was looked upon as something out of the common way. Mine is famous

at is, that you all drink a great deal more wine than I thou

tions, amounting almost to oaths, which adorned it, and Catherine was left, when it ended, with rather a strengthened beli

d him was impossible. His knowledge and her ignorance of the subject, his rapidity of expression, and her diffidence of herself put that out of her power; she could strike out nothing new in commendation, but she readily echoed whatever he chose to assert, and it was finally settled between them without any difficulty that his equipage was al

n fairly worn out these ten years at least-and as for the body! Upon my soul, you might shake it to pieces yourself with a touch. It is the most de

; they will certainly meet with an accident if we go on. Do let us turn back,

alling. Oh, curse it! The carriage is safe enough, if a man knows how to drive it; a thing of that sort in good hands will last above twenty y

n the point of requesting from Mr. Thorpe a clearer insight into his real opinion on the subject; but she checked herself, because it appeared to her that he did not excel in giving those clearer insights, in making those things plain which he had before made ambiguous; and, joining to this, the consideration that he would not really suffer his sister and his friend to be exposed to a danger from which he might easily preserve them, she concluded at last that he must know the carriage to be in fact perfectly safe, and therefore would alarm herself no longer. By him the whole matter seemed entirely forgotten; and all the rest of his conversation, or rather talk, began and ended with himself a

er completely agreeable. It was a bold surmise, for he was Isabella's brother; and she had been assured by James that his manners would recommend him to all her sex; but in spite of this, the extreme weariness of his company, which crept over he

scertained the fact; to have doubted a moment longer then would have been equally inconceivable, incredible, and impossible; and she could only protest, over and over again, that no two hours and a half had ever gone off so swiftly before, as Catherine was called on to confirm; Catherine could not tell a falsehood even to please Isabella; but the latter was spared the misery of her friend's dissenting voice, by not waiting for her answer.

was immediately greeted with, "Well, my dear, here you are," a truth which she had no

you; we could not h

she was vastly pleas

een Mrs. Th

her, and we had a great deal of talk together. She says there was hardly

ybody else of o

escent, and there we met Mrs. Hughes, an

d? And did the

le. Miss Tilney was in a very pretty spotted muslin, and I fancy, by what I can learn, that

d she tell y

eed; she hardly talk

t part of Gloucesters

nd she and Mrs. Hughes were schoolfellows; and Miss Drummond had a very large fortune; and, when she married, her father gave her t

and Mrs. Ti

mother is; yes, I am sure Mrs. Tilney is dead, because Mrs. Hughes told me there was a very beautiful set of pearls that Mr. Dr

ney, my partner

e some idea he is; but, however, he is a very fine you

such a meeting with both brother and sister. Could she have foreseen such a circumstance, nothing should have persuaded her to go out with the others; and, as it was, she could only