Old friends and new fancies

by Sybil G. Brinton

"I do not believe it is that," answered Darcy; "she is, and always was, a tool in the hands of unscrupulous flatterers. If it were worthwhile, Elizabeth and I would rush to the rescue; but there is sure to be a tremendous explosion before long; they will all quarrel violently, she will come and tell us that they are ungrateful vipers, or something like that, and next year it will begin all over again with someone else."

"Well!" cried Elizabeth, as they opened the door, "did Aunt Catherine mind?"

"No, he has got off with a whole skin this time," replied her husband, "or rather, not quite a whole one, for he has had to pledge himself to join the expedition to Clifton to-morrow instead."

"I had forgotten that expedition to Clifton," Elizabeth exclaimed in dismay; "I wish it would rain! But if it did, we should only have to go another day. Mr. Morland, have you been to Clifton? Oh, do say it will be quite new to you! You can't? Is there no one who has never been there? My aunt makes up a party every year, for her newest friends, and we always do the same things and make the same remarks."

Elizabeth's forecast created much amusement, and Miss Crawford said: "Everything I hear beforehand of Lady Catherine is very alarming to a stranger like myself. I shall have to have caught a bad cold before her reception next week, for I shall not have the courage to appear and play."

"Oh, no, Miss Crawford, you must appear," said Darcy. "We are all too bad, with our jokes about her, for really she means to be very kind. But we have got into shocking ways since my wife married into the family."

"On the contrary, I think I have educated you all admirably."

"You are a privileged person, you see," said Colonel Fitzwilliam. "Miss Crawford, will you do us the kindness of playing again? I want to reap the advantage of the present moment, as the reception is a long way off."

The lady acceded with willingness, and at the conclusion of her piece Colonel Fitzwilliam sat down near her and found himself soon conversing with more ease and enjoyment than he had done for many months. Their talk was only of the most ordinary subjects; but the Colonel's simplicity and culture appealed to the best that was in Mary, and he found in her a ready sympathy, felt rather than expressed. His views of London life—so pleasant, so stimulating for the greater part of the year, but the country was better for a permanent home—exactly coincided with Mary's; and almost to her surprise, she heard herself vehemently asserting that town might be the place to make friends, but the country was the place to enjoy them. "You are a lover of country sports?" questioned the Colonel; "of riding and driving?" Mary answered enthusiastically, though repressing a sigh at the recollection of her first riding lessons. Did she ride at Bath? He could recommend her some good livery stables. His cousin, Mrs. Darcy, did not care for it, else some agreeable plans might have been made.

Meantime, the conversation was quite as animated in the other group. James Morland was asking if the ladies were those whom General Tilney and his son had lately met at dinner in Pulteney Street.