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1As soon as breakfast was over, she sat down to fulfil her promise to Miss Tilney, whose trust in the effect of time and
2distance on her friend's disposition was already justified, for already did Catherine reproach herself with having
3parted from Eleanor coldly, with having never enough valued her merits or kindness, and never enough commiserated her
4for what she had been yesterday left to endure. The strength of these feelings, however, was far from assisting her pen;
5and never had it been harder for her to write than in addressing Eleanor Tilney. To compose a letter which might at once
6do justice to her sentiments and her situation, convey gratitude without servile regret, be guarded without coldness,
7and honest without resentment--a letter which Eleanor might not be pained by the perusal of--and, above all, which she
8might not blush herself, if Henry should chance to see, was an undertaking to frighten away all her powers of
9performance; and, after long thought and much perplexity, to be very brief was all that she could determine on with any
10confidence of safety. The money therefore which Eleanor had advanced was enclosed with little more than grateful thanks,
11and the thousand good wishes of a most affectionate heart. "This has been a strange acquaintance," observed Mrs.
12Morland, as the letter was finished; "soon made and soon ended. I am sorry it happens so, for Mrs. Allen thought them
13very pretty kind of young people; and you were sadly out of luck too in your Isabella. Ah! poor James! well, we must
14live and learn; and the next new friends you make I hope will be better worth keeping." Catherine coloured as she warmly
15answered, "No friend can be better worth keeping than Eleanor." "If so, my dear, I dare say you will meet again some
16time or other; do not be uneasy. It is ten to one but you are thrown together again in the course of a few years; and
17then what a pleasure it will be!" Mrs. Morland was not happy in her attempt at consolation. The hope of meeting again in
18the course of a few years could only put into Catherine's head what might happen within that time to make a meeting
19dreadful to her. She could never forget Henry Tilney, or think of him with less tenderness than she did at that moment;
20but he might forget her; and in that case, to meet--! her eyes filled with tears as she pictured her acquaintance so
21renewed; and her mother, perceiving her comfortable suggestions to have had no good effect, proposed, as another
22expedient for restoring her spirits, that they should call on Mrs. Allen. The two houses were only a quarter of a mile
23apart; and, as they walked, Mrs. Morland quickly dispatched all that she felt on the score of James's disappointment.
24"We are sorry for him," said she; "but otherwise there is no harm done in the match going off; for it could not be a
25desirable thing to have him engaged to a girl whom we had not the smallest acquaintance with, and who was so entirely
26without fortune; and now, after such behaviour, we cannot think at all well of her. Just at present it comes hard to
27poor James; but that will not last forever; and I dare say he will be a discreeter man all his life, for the foolishness
28of his first choice." This was just such a summary view of the affair as Catherine could listen to; another sentence
29might have endangered her complaisance, and made her reply less rational; for soon were all her thinking powers
30swallowed up in the reflection of her own change of feelings and spirits since last she had trodden that well-known
31road. It was not three months ago since, wild with joyful expectation, she had there run backwards and forwards some ten
32times a day, with an heart light, gay, and independent; looking forward to pleasures untasted and unalloyed, and free
33from the apprehension of evil as from the knowledge of it. Three months ago had seen her all this; and now, how altered
34a being did she return! She was received by the Allens with all the kindness which her unlooked-for appearance, acting
35on a steady affection, would naturally call forth; and great was their surprise, and warm their displeasure, on hearing
36how she had been treated--though Mrs. Morland's account of it was no inflated representation, no studied appeal to their
37passions. "Catherine took us quite by surprise yesterday evening," said she. "She travelled all the way post by herself,
38and knew nothing of coming till Saturday night; for General Tilney, from some odd fancy or other, all of a sudden grew
39tired of having her there, and almost turned her out of the house. Very unfriendly, certainly; and he must be a very odd
40man; but we are so glad to have her amongst us again! and it is a great comfort to find that she is not a poor helpless
41creature, but can shift very well for herself." Mr. Allen expressed himself on the occasion with the reasonable
42resentment of a sensible friend; and Mrs. Allen thought his expressions quite good enough to be immediately made use of
43again by herself. His wonder, his conjectures, and his explanations became in succession hers, with the addition of this
44single remark--"I really have not patience with the General"--to fill up every accidental pause. And, "I really have not
45patience with the General," was uttered twice after Mr. Allen left the room, without any relaxation of anger, or any
46material digression of thought. A more considerable degree of wandering attended the third repetition; and, after
47completing the fourth, she immediately added, "Only think, my dear, of my having got that frightful great rent in my
48best Mechlin so charmingly mended, before I left Bath, that one can hardly see where it was. I must show it you some day
49or other. Bath is a nice place, Catherine, after all. I assure you I did not above half like coming away. Mrs. Thorpe's
50being there was such a comfort to us, was not it? You know, you and I were quite forlorn at first." "Yes, but that did
51not last long," said Catherine, her eyes brightening at the recollection of what had first given spirit to her existence
52there. "Very true: we soon met with Mrs. Thorpe, and then we wanted for nothing. My dear, do not you think these silk
53gloves wear very well? I put them on new the first time of our going to the Lower Rooms, you know, and I have worn them
54a great deal since. Do you remember that evening?" "Do I! oh! perfectly." "It was very agreeable, was not it? Mr. Tilney
55drank tea with us, and I always thought him a great addition, he is so very agreeable. I have a notion you danced with
56him, but am not quite sure. I remember I had my favourite gown on." Catherine could not answer; and, after a short trial
57of other subjects, Mrs. Allen again returned to--"I really have not patience with the General! such an agreeable, worthy
58man as he seemed to be! i do not suppose, Mrs. Morland, you ever saw a better-bred man in your life. His lodgings were
59taken the very day after he left them, Catherine. But no wonder; Milsom Street, you know." As they walked home again,
60Mrs. Morland endeavoured to impress on her daughter's mind the happiness of having such steady well-wishers as Mr. and
61Mrs. Allen, and the very little consideration which the neglect or unkindness of slight acquaintance like the Tilneys
62ought to have with her, while she could preserve the good opinion and affection of her earliest friends. There was a
63great deal of good sense in all this; but there are some situations of the human mind in which good sense has very
64little power; and Catherine's feelings contradicted almost every position her mother advanced. It was upon the behaviour
65of these very slight acquaintance that all her present happiness depended; and while Mrs. Morland was successfully
66confirming her own opinions by the justness of her own representations, Catherine was silently reflecting that now Henry
67must have arrived at Northanger; now he must have heard of her departure; and now, perhaps, they were all setting off
68for Hereford. CHAPTER 30
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