‘Then please do not tell me, Jane, I ought not to hear it.’
‘Little Mrs. Propriety,’ said Jane, ‘you are already assuming all the dignity of my Aunt Marianne, and William’s Aunt Marianne—oh! and of little Henry’s Great-aunt Marianne. Now,’ she added, laughing, ‘can you guess the secret?’
Marianne stood still in amazement for a moment, and then exclaimed, ‘Jane, Jane! you do not mean it, you are only trying to tease me.’
‘I am quite serious,’ said Jane. ‘You will see that I am right.’
Here they were interrupted, and as soon as she returned from her walk Marianne, perplexed and amazed, went to her mother, and told her all that Jane had said.
‘How can she be so silly?’ said Mrs. Weston.
‘Then it is all nonsense, as I thought,’ said Marianne, joyfully. ‘I should not like Alethea to marry an old man.’
‘Mr. Mohun is very unlikely to make himself ridiculous,’ said Mrs. Weston. ‘Do not say anything of it to Alethea; it would only make her uncomfortable.’
‘If it had been Captain Mohun, now—’ Marianne stopped, and blushed, finding her speech unanswered.
A few days after, Mr. Mohun overtook Marianne and her mother, as he was riding home from Raynham, and dismounting, led his horse, and walked on with them. Either not perceiving Marianne, or not caring whether she heard him, he said,