Page:A memoir of Jane Austen (Fourth Edition).pdf/379

 Emma. Were not you rather warm last Saturday about nine or ten o'clock in the evening? I will tell you how it was—I see you are dying to know. Says Howard to Lord Osborne-'

At this interesting moment he was called on by the others to regulate the game, and determine some disputable point ; and his attention was so totally engaged in the business, and afterwards by the course of the game, as never to revert to what he had been saying before; and Emma, though suffering a good deal from curiosity, dared not remind him.

He proved a very useful addition at their table. Without him it would have becn a party of such very near relations as could have felt little interest, and perhaps maintained little complaisance, but his presence gave variety and secured good manners. He was, in fact, excellently qualified to shine at a round game, and few situations made him appear to sreater advantage. He played with spirit, and had a great deal to say; and though no wit himself, could sometimes make use of the wit of an absent fricnd, and had a lively way of retailing a common-place, or saying a mere nothing, that had great effect at a card-table. The ways and good jokes of Osbarne Castle were now added to his ordinary means of entertainment. He repeated the smart sayings of one lady, detailed the oversights of another, and indulged them even with a copy of Lord Osborne's overdrawing himself on both cards.

The clock struck nine while he was thus agreeably occupied; and when Nanny came in with her master’s