Page:Austen Sanditon and other miscellanea.djvu/161

 Rh indulged them even with a copy of Lord Osborne’s style of overdrawing himself on both cards. The Clock struck nine, while he was thus agreeably occupied; and when Nanny came in with her Master’s Basin of Cruel, he had the pleasure of observing to Mr. Watson that he should leave him at supper, while he went home to dinner himself.’ The Carriage was ordered to the door, and no entreaties for his staying longer could now avail, for he well knew, that if he staid he must sit down to supper in less than ten minutes, which to a Man whose heart had been long fixed on calling his next meal a Dinner, was quite insupportable. On finding him determined to go, Margaret began to wink and nod at Elizabeth to ask him to dinner for the following day; and Elizabeth at last not able to resist hints, which her own hospitable, social temper more than half seconded, gave the invitation. ‘Would he give Robert the meeting, they should be very happy.’ ‘With the greatest pleasure,’ was his first reply. In a moment afterwards: ‘That is if I can possibly get here in time; but I shoot with Lord Osborne, and therefore must not engage. You will not think of me unless you see me.’ And so he departed, delighted with the uncertainty in which he had left it.

Margaret in the joy of her heart under circumstances, which she chose to consider as peculiarly propitious, would willingly have made a confidante of Emma when they were alone for a short time the next morning; and had proceeded so far as to say: ‘The young man who was here last night, my dear Emma, and returns today, is more interesting to me than perhaps you may be aware’ but Emma, pretending to understand nothing extraordinary in the words, made some very inapplicable reply, and jumping up, ran away from a subject which was odious to her feelings.