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Chapter 10 The Allens,
Thorpes and Morlands all met in the evening at the theatre,
And as Catherine and Isabella sat together,
There was an opportunity for the latter to utter some few of the many thousand things which had been collecting within her for communication in the immeasurable length of time which had divided them.
Oh,
Heavens,
My beloved Catherine,
Have I got you at last,
Was her address on Catherine's entering the box and sitting by her.
Now,
Mr.
Morland,
For he was close to her on the other side,
I shall not speak another word to you all the rest of the evening,
So I charge you not to expect it.
My sweetest Catherine,
How have you been this long age?
But I need not ask you,
For you look delightfully.
You really have done your hair in a most heavenly style.
You mischievous creature,
Do you want to attract everybody?
I assure you my brother is quite in love with you already,
And as for Mr.
Tilney,
But that is a settled thing.
Even your modesty cannot doubt his attachment now.
His coming back to Bath makes it too plain.
Oh,
What I would not give to see him,
I really am quite wild with impatience.
My mother says he's the most delightful young man in the world.
She saw him this morning,
You know.
You must introduce him to me.
Is he in the house now?
Look about,
For heaven's sake.
I assure you I can hardly exist until I see him.
No,
Said Catherine,
He's not here.
I cannot see him anywhere.
Oh,
Horrid,
Am I never to be acquainted with him?
How do you like my gown?
I think it does not look amiss.
The sleeves were entirely my own thought.
Do you know I get so immodestly sick of Bath?
Your brother and I were agreeing this morning that,
Though it is vastly well to be here for a few weeks,
We would not live here for millions.
We soon found out our tastes were exactly alike in preferring the country to every other place.
Really,
Our opinions were so exactly the same it was quite ridiculous.
There was not a single point which we differed.
I would not have had you by for all the world.
You are such a sly thing.
I'm sure you would have made some droll remark or another about it.
No,
Indeed I should not.
Oh,
Yes,
You would indeed.
I know you better than you know yourself,
Catherine.
You would have told us we seemed born for each other,
Or some nonsense of that kind,
Which would have distressed me beyond conception.
My cheeks would have been as red as your roses.
I would not have had you by for the world.
Indeed you do me justice,
Isabella.
I would not have made so improper a remark upon any account.
Besides,
I'm sure it would never have entered my head.
Isabella smiled incredulously and talked the rest of the evening to James.
Catherine's resolution of endeavouring to meet Miss Tilney again continued in full force the next morning.
Until the usual moment of going to the pump room,
She felt some alarm from the dread of a second prevention.
But nothing of the kind occurred.
No visitors appeared to delay them,
And they all three set off in good time,
Where the ordinary course of events and conversation took place.
Mr.
Allan,
After drinking his glass of water,
Joined some gentlemen to talk over the politics of the day and compare the accounts of their newspapers.
The ladies walked about together,
Noticing every new face and almost every new bonnet in the room.
The female part of the Thorpe family,
Attended by James Moreland,
Appeared across the crowd in less than a quarter of an hour,
And Catherine immediately took her usual place by the side of her friend.
James,
Who was now in constant attendance,
Maintained a similar position,
And separating themselves from the rest of their party,
They walked in that manner for some time,
Till Catherine began to doubt the happiness of a situation which,
Confining her entirely to her friend and brother,
Gave her very little share in the notice of either.
They were always engaged in some sentimental discussion or lively dispute,
But their sentiment was conveyed in such whispering voices,
And their vivacity attended with so much laughter,
That though Catherine's supporting opinion was not unfrequently called for by one or the other,
She was never able to give any,
From not having heard a word of the subject.
At length,
However,
She was empowered to disengage herself from her friend by the avowed necessity of speaking to Miss Tilney,
Whom she most joyfully saw just entering the room with Mrs Hughes,
And whom she instantly joined,
With a firmer determination to be acquainted than she might have had the day before.
Miss Tilney met her with great civility,
Returned her advances with equal goodwill,
And they continued talking together as long as both parties remained in the room.
Though in all probability not an observation was made,
Nor an expression used by either,
Which had not been made and used some thousands of times before under that roof in every bath season,
Yet the merit of their being spoken with simplicity and truth,
And without personal conceit,
Might be something uncommon.
"'How well your brother dances!
' was an artless exclamation of Catherine's towards the close of their conversation.
This surprised and at once amused her companion.
"'Henry!
' she replied with a smile.
"'Yes,
He does dance very well.
' "'You must have thought it very odd to hear me say "'I was engaged the other evening when he saw me sitting down,
"'but I really had been engaged the whole day to Mr Thorpe.
'" Miss Tilney could only bow at this.
"'You cannot think,
' added Catherine after a moment's silence,
"'how surprised I was to see him again.
"'I felt so sure of his being quite gone away.
' "'When Henry had the pleasure of seeing you before,
"'he was in bath,
' said Miss Tilney,
"'but for a couple of days.
"'He only came to engage lodgings for us.
' "'That never occurred to me,
' said Catherine,
"'and of course not seeing him anywhere,
I thought he must be gone.
"'Was not the young lady he danced with on Monday a Miss Smith?
' "'Yes,
An acquaintance of Mrs Hughes.
' "'I dare say she was very glad to dance.
"'Do you think her pretty?
' "'Not very.
' "'He never comes to the pump room,
I suppose?
' "'Sometimes,
Yes,
"'but he had a ride out this morning with my father.
' "'Mrs Hughes now joined them and asked Miss Tilney if she was ready to go.
"'I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you again soon,
' said Catherine.
"'Shall you be at the Cortillion Ball tomorrow?
' "'Perhaps we.
.
.
Yes,
I think we certainly shall.
' "'I am glad of it,
For we shall all be there.
' "'This civility was duly returned and they parted,
"'on Miss Tilney's side with some knowledge of her new acquaintance's feelings,
"'and on Catherine's without the smallest consciousness of having explained them.
"'She went home very happy.
"'The morning had answered all her hopes "'and the evening of the following day was now the object of expectation,
"'the future good.
"'What gown and what headdress she should wear on the occasion "'became her chief concern.
"'She cannot be justified in it.
"'Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction "'and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim.
"'Catherine knew this all very well.
"'Her great-aunt had read her a lecture on the subject only the Christmas before,
"'and yet she lay awake ten minutes on Wednesday night "'debating between her spotted and her tampered muslin,
"'and nothing but the shortness of the time prevented her "'from buying a new one for the evening.
"'This would have been an error in judgment,
"'great though not uncommon,
"'from which one of the other sex rather than her own,
"'a brother rather than a great-aunt,
"'might have warned her.
"'For man can only be aware of the insensibility of man "'towards a new gown.
"'It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies,
"'could they be made to understand how little the heart of a man is affected "'by what is costly or new in their attire,
"'how little it is biased by the texture of their muslin,
"'and how unsusceptible of peculiar tenderness "'towards the spotted,
The sprigged,
The mull or the jacquenette.
"'Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone.
"'No man will admire her the more,
"'no woman will like her the better for it.
"'Neatness and fashion are enough for the former,
"'and a something of shabbiness or impropriety "'will be most endearing to the latter.
"'But not one of these grave reflections "'troubled the tranquillity of Catherine that night.
'"
