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1"Was she a very charming woman? Was she handsome? Was there any picture of her in the abbey? And why had she been so
2partial to that grove? Was it from dejection of spirits?"--were questions now eagerly poured forth; the first three
3received a ready affirmative, the two others were passed by; and Catherine's interest in the deceased Mrs. Tilney
4augmented with every question, whether answered or not. Of her unhappiness in marriage, she felt persuaded. The General
5certainly had been an unkind husband. He did not love her walk: could he therefore have loved her? And besides, handsome
6as he was, there was a something in the turn of his features which spoke his not having behaved well to her. "Her
7picture, I suppose," blushing at the consummate art of her own question, "hangs in your father's room?" "No; it was
8intended for the drawing-room; but my father was dissatisfied with the painting, and for some time it had no place. Soon
9after her death I obtained it for my own, and hung it in my bed-chamber--where I shall be happy to show it you; it is
10very like." Here was another proof. A portrait--very like--of a departed wife, not valued by the husband! he must have
11been dreadfully cruel to her! Catherine attempted no longer to hide from herself the nature of the feelings which, in
12spite of all his attentions, he had previously excited; and what had been terror and dislike before, was now absolute
13aversion. Yes, aversion! his cruelty to such a charming woman made him odious to her. She had often read of such
14characters, characters which Mr. Allen had been used to call unnatural and overdrawn; but here was proof positive of the
15contrary. She had just settled this point when the end of the path brought them directly upon the General; and in spite
16of all her virtuous indignation, she found herself again obliged to walk with him, listen to him, and even to smile when
17he smiled. Being no longer able, however, to receive pleasure from the surrounding objects, she soon began to walk with
18lassitude; the General perceived it, and with a concern for her health, which seemed to reproach her for her opinion of
19him, was most urgent for returning with his daughter to the house. He would follow them in a quarter of an hour. Again
20they parted--but Eleanor was called back in half a minute to receive a strict charge against taking her friend round the
21abbey till his return. This second instance of his anxiety to delay what she so much wished for struck Catherine as very
22remarkable. CHAPTER 23 An hour passed away before the General came in, spent, on the part of his young guest, in no very
23favourable consideration of his character. "This lengthened absence, these solitary rambles, did not speak a mind at
24ease, or a conscience void of reproach." At length he appeared; and, whatever might have been the gloom of his
25meditations, he could still smile with them. Miss Tilney, understanding in part her friend's curiosity to see the house,
26soon revived the subject; and her father being, contrary to Catherine's expectations, unprovided with any pretence for
27further delay, beyond that of stopping five minutes to order refreshments to be in the room by their return, was at last
28ready to escort them. They set forward; and, with a grandeur of air, a dignified step, which caught the eye, but could
29not shake the doubts of the well-read Catherine, he led the way across the hall, through the common drawing-room and one
30useless antechamber, into a room magnificent both in size and furniture--the real drawing-room, used only with company
31of consequence. It was very noble--very grand--very charming!--was all that Catherine had to say, for her
32indiscriminating eye scarcely discerned the colour of the satin; and all minuteness of praise, all praise that had much
33meaning, was supplied by the General: the costliness or elegance of any room's fitting-up could be nothing to her; she
34cared for no furniture of a more modern date than the fifteenth century. When the General had satisfied his own
35curiosity, in a close examination of every well-known ornament, they proceeded into the library, an apartment, in its
36way, of equal magnificence, exhibiting a collection of books, on which an humble man might have looked with pride.
37Catherine heard, admired, and wondered with more genuine feeling than before--gathered all that she could from this
38storehouse of knowledge, by running over the titles of half a shelf, and was ready to proceed. But suites of apartments
39did not spring up with her wishes. Large as was the building, she had already visited the greatest part; though, on
40being told that, with the addition of the kitchen, the six or seven rooms she had now seen surrounded three sides of the
41court, she could scarcely believe it, or overcome the suspicion of there being many chambers secreted. It was some
42relief, however, that they were to return to the rooms in common use, by passing through a few of less importance,
43looking into the court, which, with occasional passages, not wholly unintricate, connected the different sides; and she
44was further soothed in her progress by being told that she was treading what had once been a cloister, having traces of
45cells pointed out, and observing several doors that were neither opened nor explained to her--by finding herself
46successively in a billiard-room, and in the General's private apartment, without comprehending their connection, or
47being able to turn aright when she left them; and lastly, by passing through a dark little room, owning Henry's
48authority, and strewed with his litter of books, guns, and greatcoats. From the dining-room, of which, though already
49seen, and always to be seen at five o'clock, the General could not forgo the pleasure of pacing out the length, for the
50more certain information of Miss Morland, as to what she neither doubted nor cared for, they proceeded by quick
51communication to the kitchen--the ancient kitchen of the convent, rich in the massy walls and smoke of former days, and
52in the stoves and hot closets of the present. The General's improving hand had not loitered here: every modern invention
53to facilitate the labour of the cooks had been adopted within this, their spacious theatre; and, when the genius of
54others had failed, his own had often produced the perfection wanted. His endowments of this spot alone might at any time
55have placed him high among the benefactors of the convent. With the walls of the kitchen ended all the antiquity of the
56abbey; the fourth side of the quadrangle having, on account of its decaying state, been removed by the General's father,
57and the present erected in its place. All that was venerable ceased here. The new building was not only new, but
58declared itself to be so; intended only for offices, and enclosed behind by stable-yards, no uniformity of architecture
59had been thought necessary. Catherine could have raved at the hand which had swept away what must have been beyond the
60value of all the rest, for the purposes of mere domestic economy; and would willingly have been spared the mortification
61of a walk through scenes so fallen, had the General allowed it; but if he had a vanity, it was in the arrangement of his
62offices; and as he was convinced that, to a mind like Miss Morland's, a view of the accommodations and comforts by which
63the labours of her inferiors were softened, must always be gratifying, he should make no apology for leading her on.
64They took a slight survey of all; and Catherine was impressed, beyond her expectation, by their multiplicity and their
65convenience. The purposes for which a few shapeless pantries and a comfortless scullery were deemed sufficient at
66Fullerton, were here carried on in appropriate divisions, commodious and roomy. The number of servants continually
67appearing did not strike her less than the number of their offices. Wherever they went, some pattened girl stopped to
68curtsy, or some footman in dishabille sneaked off. Yet this was an abbey! how inexpressibly different in these domestic
69arrangements from such as she had read about--from abbeys and castles, in which, though certainly larger than
70Northanger, all the dirty work of the house was to be done by two pair of female hands at the utmost. How they could get
71through it all had often amazed Mrs. Allen; and, when Catherine saw what was necessary here, she began to be amazed
72herself.
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