But the detestation—though so just, is of short duration, for she looks again and exclaims, “Delightful! Mr. Morland and my brother!”
James Morland, a steady, amiable young man, had fallen a victim to Isabella’s charms. Two results which had followed his subjection were his own forced alliance with Isabella’s brother, John, and Isabella’s violent friendship with James’s sister, Catherine.
James and Catherine Morland, an affectionate brother and sister, are very happy to meet each other—quite unexpectedly on Catherine’s part. But little leisure is left for fraternal greetings, since the bright eyes of Miss Thorpe are incessantly challenging Mr. Morland’s notice.
John Thorpe, who has only slightly and carelessly touched his sister’s hand, is sufficiently impressed by Catherine to grant her a whole scrape, and half a short bow.
John Thorpe is one of Jane Austen’s finished and unsurpassable portraits. He is the “buck” of the period, the slangy, horsey, blustering, bragging young fellow of all time.
“He was a stout young man of middling height, who, with a plain face and ungraceful form, seemed fearful of being too handsome unless he wore the dress of a groom, and too much like a gentleman unless he were easy where he ought to be civil, and impudent where he might be allowed to be easy.”
I am not able to afford space for much of his highly characteristic talk, but here is a specimen. “He took out his watch. ‘How long do you think we have been running it from Tetbury, Miss Morland?’
“‘I do not know the distance.’
“Her brother told her that it was twenty-three miles.
“‘Three-and-twenty!’ cried Thorpe; ‘five-and-twenty, if it is an inch.’