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1Such was the permission upon which he had now offered her his hand. The affrighted Catherine, amidst all the terrors of
2expectation, as she listened to this account, could not but rejoice in the kind caution with which Henry had saved her
3from the necessity of a conscientious rejection, by engaging her faith before he mentioned the subject; and as he
4proceeded to give the particulars, and explain the motives of his father's conduct, her feelings soon hardened into even
5a triumphant delight. The General had had nothing to accuse her of, nothing to lay to her charge, but her being the
6involuntary, unconscious object of a deception which his pride could not pardon, and which a better pride would have
7been ashamed to own. She was guilty only of being less rich than he had supposed her to be. Under a mistaken persuasion
8of her possessions and claims, he had courted her acquaintance in Bath, solicited her company at Northanger, and
9designed her for his daughter-in-law. On discovering his error, to turn her from the house seemed the best, though to
10his feelings an inadequate proof of his resentment towards herself, and his contempt of her family. John Thorpe had
11first misled him. The General, perceiving his son one night at the theatre to be paying considerable attention to Miss
12Morland, had accidentally inquired of Thorpe if he knew more of her than her name. Thorpe, most happy to be on speaking
13terms with a man of General Tilney's importance, had been joyfully and proudly communicative; and being at that time not
14only in daily expectation of Morland's engaging Isabella, but likewise pretty well resolved upon marrying Catherine
15himself, his vanity induced him to represent the family as yet more wealthy than his vanity and avarice had made him
16believe them. With whomsoever he was, or was likely to be connected, his own consequence always required that theirs
17should be great, and as his intimacy with any acquaintance grew, so regularly grew their fortune. The expectations of
18his friend Morland, therefore, from the first overrated, had ever since his introduction to Isabella been gradually
19increasing; and by merely adding twice as much for the grandeur of the moment, by doubling what he chose to think the
20amount of Mr. Morland's preferment, trebling his private fortune, bestowing a rich aunt, and sinking half the children,
21he was able to represent the whole family to the General in a most respectable light. For Catherine, however, the
22peculiar object of the General's curiosity, and his own speculations, he had yet something more in reserve, and the ten
23or fifteen thousand pounds which her father could give her would be a pretty addition to Mr. Allen's estate. Her
24intimacy there had made him seriously determine on her being handsomely legacied hereafter; and to speak of her
25therefore as the almost acknowledged future heiress of Fullerton naturally followed. Upon such intelligence the General
26had proceeded; for never had it occurred to him to doubt its authority. Thorpe's interest in the family, by his sister's
27approaching connection with one of its members, and his own views on another (circumstances of which he boasted with
28almost equal openness), seemed sufficient vouchers for his truth; and to these were added the absolute facts of the
29Allens being wealthy and childless, of Miss Morland's being under their care, and--as soon as his acquaintance allowed
30him to judge--of their treating her with parental kindness. His resolution was soon formed. Already had he discerned a
31liking towards Miss Morland in the countenance of his son; and thankful for Mr. Thorpe's communication, he almost
32instantly determined to spare no pains in weakening his boasted interest and ruining his dearest hopes. Catherine
33herself could not be more ignorant at the time of all this, than his own children. Henry and Eleanor, perceiving nothing
34in her situation likely to engage their father's particular respect, had seen with astonishment the suddenness,
35continuance, and extent of his attention; and though latterly, from some hints which had accompanied an almost positive
36command to his son of doing everything in his power to attach her, Henry was convinced of his father's believing it to
37be an advantageous connection, it was not till the late explanation at Northanger that they had the smallest idea of the
38false calculations which had hurried him on. That they were false, the General had learnt from the very person who had
39suggested them, from Thorpe himself, whom he had chanced to meet again in town, and who, under the influence of exactly
40opposite feelings, irritated by Catherine's refusal, and yet more by the failure of a very recent endeavour to
41accomplish a reconciliation between Morland and Isabella, convinced that they were separated forever, and spurning a
42friendship which could be no longer serviceable, hastened to contradict all that he had said before to the advantage of
43the Morlands--confessed himself to have been totally mistaken in his opinion of their circumstances and character,
44misled by the rhodomontade of his friend to believe his father a man of substance and credit, whereas the transactions
45of the two or three last weeks proved him to be neither; for after coming eagerly forward on the first overture of a
46marriage between the families, with the most liberal proposals, he had, on being brought to the point by the shrewdness
47of the relator, been constrained to acknowledge himself incapable of giving the young people even a decent support. They
48were, in fact, a necessitous family; numerous, too, almost beyond example; by no means respected in their own
49neighbourhood, as he had lately had particular opportunities of discovering; aiming at a style of life which their
50fortune could not warrant; seeking to better themselves by wealthy connections; a forward, bragging, scheming race. The
51terrified General pronounced the name of Allen with an inquiring look; and here too Thorpe had learnt his error. The
52Allens, he believed, had lived near them too long, and he knew the young man on whom the Fullerton estate must devolve.
53The General needed no more. Enraged with almost everybody in the world but himself, he set out the next day for the
54abbey, where his performances have been seen. I leave it to my reader's sagacity to determine how much of all this it
55was possible for Henry to communicate at this time to Catherine, how much of it he could have learnt from his father, in
56what points his own conjectures might assist him, and what portion must yet remain to be told in a letter from James. I
57have united for their ease what they must divide for mine. Catherine, at any rate, heard enough to feel that in
58suspecting General Tilney of either murdering or shutting up his wife, she had scarcely sinned against his character, or
59magnified his cruelty. Henry, in having such things to relate of his father, was almost as pitiable as in their first
60avowal to himself. He blushed for the narrow-minded counsel which he was obliged to expose. The conversation between
61them at Northanger had been of the most unfriendly kind. Henry's indignation on hearing how Catherine had been treated,
62on comprehending his father's views, and being ordered to acquiesce in them, had been open and bold. The General,
63accustomed on every ordinary occasion to give the law in his family, prepared for no reluctance but of feeling, no
64opposing desire that should dare to clothe itself in words, could ill brook the opposition of his son, steady as the
65sanction of reason and the dictate of conscience could make it. But, in such a cause, his anger, though it must shock,
66could not intimidate Henry, who was sustained in his purpose by a conviction of its justice. He felt himself bound as
67much in honour as in affection to Miss Morland, and believing that heart to be his own which he had been directed to
68gain, no unworthy retraction of a tacit consent, no reversing decree of unjustifiable anger, could shake his fidelity,
69or influence the resolutions it prompted. He steadily refused to accompany his father into Herefordshire, an engagement
70formed almost at the moment to promote the dismissal of Catherine, and as steadily declared his intention of offering
71her his hand. The General was furious in his anger, and they parted in dreadful disagreement. Henry, in an agitation of
72mind which many solitary hours were required to compose, had returned almost instantly to Woodston, and, on the
73afternoon of the following day, had begun his journey to Fullerton. CHAPTER 31
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