Page:A memoir of Jane Austen (Fourth Edition).pdf/332

 ‘I daresay he would, sir; and I wish, with all my heart, he were equal to it.’

‘Your club would be better fitted for an invalid, said Mrs. Edwards, ‘if you did not keep it up so late.' This was an old grievance.

‘So late, my dear! What are you talking of?’ cried the husband, with sturdy pleasantry. ‘ We are always at home before midnight. They would laugh at Osborne Castle to hear you call that late; they are but just rising from dinner at midnight.’

‘That is nothing to the purpose,’ retorted the lady, calmly. ‘The Osbornes are to be no mile for us, You had better meet every night, and break up two hours sooner.

So far the subject was very often carried; but Mr. and Mrs. Edwards were so wise as never to pass that. point; and Mr, Edwards now turned to something else. He had lived long enough in the idleness of a town to become a little of a gossip, and having some anxiety to know more of the circumstances of his young guest than had yet reached him, he began with—

‘I think, Miss Emma, I remember your aunt very well, about thirty years ago; I am pretty sure I danced with her in the old rooms at Bath the year before I married. She was a very fine woman then, but like other people, I suppose, she is grown some- what older since that time, I hope she is likely to be happy in her second choice.’

‘I hope so; I believe so, sir,’ said Emma, in some agitation.