Page:Jane Austen (Sarah Fanny Malden 1889).djvu/201

 comes near. Mrs. Charles quite swears by her, I know; but I just give you this hint that you may be upon the watch, because, if you see anything amiss, you need not be afraid of mentioning it.'

"How was Anne to set all these matters to rights? She could do little more than listen patiently, soften every grievance, and excuse each to the other; give them all hints of the forbearance necessary between such near neighbours, and make those hints broadest which were meant for her sister's benefit."

The Crofts take possession of Kellynch Hall; and Captain Wentworth comes there to visit his sister. Mr. Musgrove calls upon him at Kellynch; he is invited to dine at Uppercross, and Anne can no longer avoid meeting him. None of the Musgroves know anything of the former passages between her and Captain Wentworth, so no one thinks of screening her, and Anne can only struggle to keep her feelings to herself. Whether Captain Wentworth remembers the past as she does, she has no means of discovering, but she has soon reason to believe that he is in no way anxious to recall it.

She keeps herself in the background, prepared to hear at any moment of her former lover being now engaged to a Miss Musgrove; and the struggle in her mind is all the more severe because, in the first place, Frederick Wentworth has deteriorated neither in mind nor person since the days of their early attachment, and, in the second place, she cannot help continually feeling throughout their intercourse how much better she can understand and appreciate him than either Henrietta or Louisa Musgrove can. He, on his side, is not at all anxious to renew the feeling which he believes he has completely conquered. He