Page:Austen Sanditon and other miscellanea.djvu/140

 110 done it myself He seemed so eager to fetch you, that I could not say no, though it rather went against me to be throwing you together, so well as I knew his Tricks; but I did long to see you, and it was a clever way of getting you home. Besides, it won’t do to be too nice. Nobody could have thought of the Edwardeses letting you have their Coach, after the Horses being out so late. But what am I to say to Sam?’ ‘If you are guided by me, you will not encourage him to think of Miss Edwardes. The Father is decidedly against him, the Mother shews him no favour, and I doubt his having any interest with Mary. She danced twice with Captain Hunter, and I think shews him in general as much Encouragement as is consistent with her disposition, and the circumstances she is placed in. She once mentioned Sam, and certainly with a little confusion, but that was perhaps merely owing to the consciousness of his liking her, which may very probably have come to her knowledge.’ ‘Oh! dear. Yes, she has heard enough of that from us all. Poor Sam! He is out of luck as well as other people. For the life of me, Emma, I cannot help feeling for those that are cross’d in Love. Well, now begin, and give me an account of everything as it happened.’ Emma obeyed her, and Elizabeth listened with very little interruption till she heard of Mr. Howard as a partner. ‘Dance with Mr. Howard! Good Heavens! You don’t say so! Why, he is quite one of the great and Grand ones. Did not you find him very high?’ ‘His manners are of a kind to give me much more Ease and confidence than Tom Musgrave’s.’ ‘Well, go on. I should have been frightened out of my wits, to have had anything to do with the Osbornes’ set.’ Emma concluded her narration. ‘And so you really did not dance with Tom Musgrave at all? But you must have liked him, you must have been struck with him altogether.’ ‘I do not like him, Elizabeth. I allow his person