"Well, it is too late for such reflections now to be of any use, so tell me what I had better do, and I will try and obey you."
"Do nothing at all then, love; depend upon it, any opposition will only make your brother more decidedly bent on his own way, which you have no means of preventing him from following. Let him come, and trust to the evident partiality of your friend, Howard, as the safeguard of your brother."
Lady Gordon had speedily the opportunity of exercising the forbearance which her husband advised; as, punctual to his promise, her brother arrived that afternoon. The two young ladies were sitting together when he walked into the room; and she bore, with as much composure as she could, the evident warmth and eagerness with which he paid his compliments to Emma. He seated himself by her side, and after looking intently at her for a minute in the way for which he had been formerly remarkable, exclaimed with great energy:
"Upon my honour, Miss Watson, for all it's so very long since we met, you are looking uncommonly well and blooming!"
Emma felt excessively tempted to ask him whether he had expected she would have pined at his absence, or grown old in the last six months. She did not, however, because she thought he would not understand her, as he had never appeared at all ready to comprehend a jest.
"Croydon must have agreed famously with you," he continued, "I was there once, and had a great inclination to ride over and pay you a visit at Burton; but not knowing the people you were with I felt awkward, and did not like to do it; it is such a horrid thing going entirely amongst strangers."
"I am much honoured by your lordship thinking of me at all; but I should say you were quite right in not coming there; we should have been overpowered by the sudden apparition of a man of your rank."
"I dare say you created a great sensation in Croydon, did you not?"
"Not that I am aware of, my lord; I never wished to be conspicuous, and I trust, I did not do any thing whilst there, to excite observation amongst my acquaintance."
"You must have done one thing, which you could not help, at any time," replied he, in a very low voice, as if ashamed of himself. "You must have looked pretty; they must all have noticed that."