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 moment. I shall find her in the tea-room, That stiff old Mrs. Edwards has never done tea.’

Away he went, Lord Osborne after him; and Emma lost no time in hurrying from her corner exactly the other way, forgetting in her haste that she left Mrs. Edwards behind.

‘We had quite lost you, said Mrs, Edwards, who followed her with Mary in less than five minutes. ‘If you prefer this room to the other there is no reason why you should not be here, but we had better all be together.’

Emma was saved the trouble of apologising, by their being joined at the moment by Tom Musgrave, who requesting Mrs. Edwards aloud te do him the honour of presenting him to Miss Emma Watson, left that good lady without any choice in the busi- ness, but that of testifying by the coldness of her manner that she did it unwillingly. The honour of dancing with her was solicited without loss of time, and Emma, however she might like to be thought a beautiful girl by lord or commoner, was so little disposed to favour Tom Musgrave himself that she had considerable satisfaction in avowing her previous engagement. He was evidently surprised and discomposed. The style of her last partner had probably led him to believe her not overpowered with applications.

‘My little friend, Charles Blake, he cried, ‘must not expect to engross you the whole evening. We can never suffer this. It is against the rules of the assembly, and I am sure it will never be patronised