第52章

No man is offended by another man's admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment."Catherine blushed for her friend, and said, "Isabella is wrong. But I am sure she cannot mean to torment, for she is very much attached to my brother.

She has been in love with him ever since they first met, and while my father's consent was uncertain, she fretted herself almost into a fever. You know she must be attached to him.""I understand: she is in love with James, and flirts with Frederick.""Oh! no, not flirts. A woman in love with one man cannot flirt with another.""It is probable that she will neither love so well, nor flirt so well, as she might do either singly.

The gentlemen must each give up a little."After a short pause, Catherine resumed with, "Then you do not believe Isabella so very much attached to my brother?""I can have no opinion on that subject."

"But what can your brother mean? If he knows her engagement, what can he mean by his behaviour?""You are a very close questioner."

"Am I? I only ask what I want to be told.""But do you only ask what I can be expected to tell?""Yes, I think so; for you must know your brother's heart.""My brother's heart, as you term it, on the present occasion, I assure you I can only guess at.""Well?"

"Well! Nay, if it is to be guesswork, let us all guess for ourselves. To be guided by second-hand conjecture is pitiful. The premises are before you. My brother is a lively and perhaps sometimes a thoughtless young man;he has had about a week's acquaintance with your friend, and he has known her engagement almost as long as he has known her.""Well," said Catherine, after some moments' consideration, "you may be able to guess at your brother's intentions from all this; but I am sure I cannot. But is not your father uncomfortable about it? Does not he want Captain Tilney to go away? Sure, if your father were to speak to him, he would go.""My dear Miss Morland," said Henry, "in this amiable solicitude for your brother's comfort, may you not be a little mistaken? Are you not carried a little too far?

Would he thank you, either on his own account or Miss Thorpe's, for supposing that her affection, or at least her good behaviour, is only to be secured by her seeing nothing of Captain Tilney? Is he safe only in solitude?

Or is her heart constant to him only when unsolicited by anyone else? He cannot think this--and you may be sure that he would not have you think it. I will not say, 'Do not be uneasy,' because I know that you are so, at this moment; but be as little uneasy as you can.

You have no doubt of the mutual attachment of your brother and your friend; depend upon it, therefore, that real jealousy never can exist between them; depend upon it that no disagreement between them can be of any duration.

Their hearts are open to each other, as neither heart can be to you; they know exactly what is required and what can be borne; and you may be certain that one will never tease the other beyond what is known to be pleasant."Perceiving her still to look doubtful and grave, he added, "Though Frederick does not leave Bath with us, he will probably remain but a very short time, perhaps only a few days behind us. His leave of absence will soon expire, and he must return to his regiment.

And what will then be their acquaintance? The mess-room will drink Isabella Thorpe for a fortnight, and she will laugh with your brother over poor Tilney's passion for a month."Catherine would contend no longer against comfort.

She had resisted its approaches during the whole length of a speech, but it now carried her captive. Henry Tilney must know best. She blamed herself for the extent of her fears, and resolved never to think so seriously on the subject again.

Her resolution was supported by Isabella's behaviour in their parting interview. The Thorpes spent the last evening of Catherine's stay in Pulteney Street, and nothing passed between the lovers to excite her uneasiness, or make her quit them in apprehension. James was in excellent spirits, and Isabella most engagingly placid.

Her tenderness for her friend seemed rather the first feeling of her heart; but that at such a moment was allowable;and once she gave her lover a flat contradiction, and once she drew back her hand; but Catherine remembered Henry's instructions, and placed it all to judicious affection.

The embraces, tears, and promises of the parting fair ones may be fancied.