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No man is offended by another man`s admiration of the

woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it

a torment. "

Catherine blushed for her friend, and said,

" Isabella is wrong. But I am sure she cannot mean

to torment, for she is very much attached to my brother.

She has been in love with him ever since they first met,

and while my father`s consent was uncertain, she fretted

herself almost into a fever. You know she must be attached

to him. "

" I understand: she is in love with James, and flirts

with Frederick. "

" Oh! no, not flirts. A woman in love with one man

cannot flirt with another. "

" It is probable that she will neither love so well,

nor flirt so well, as she might do either singly.

The gentlemen must each give up a little. "

After a short pause, Catherine resumed with,

" Then you do not believe Isabella so very much attached

to my brother? "

" I can have no opinion on that subject. "

" But what can your brother mean? If he knows

her engagement, what can he mean by his behaviour? "

" You are a very close questioner. "

" Am I? I only ask what I want to be told. "

" But do you only ask what I can be expected to tell? "

" Yes, I think so; for you must know your brother`s heart. "

" My brother`s heart, as you term it, on the

present occasion, I assure you I can only guess at. "

" Well? "

" Well! Nay, if it is to be guesswork, let us all guess

for ourselves. To be guided by second-hand conjecture

is pitiful. The premises are before you. My brother is

a lively and perhaps sometimes a thoughtless young man;

he has had about a week`s acquaintance with your friend,

and he has known her engagement almost as long as he has

known her. "

" Well, " said Catherine, after some moments` consideration,

" you may be able to guess at your brother`s intentions from

all this; but I am sure I cannot. But is not your father

uncomfortable about it? Does not he want Captain Tilney

to go away? Sure, if your father were to speak to him,

he would go. "

" My dear Miss Morland, " said Henry, " in this amiable

solicitude for your brother`s comfort, may you not be

a little mistaken? Are you not carried a little too far?

Would he thank you, either on his own account or Miss

Thorpe`s, for supposing that her affection, or at least

her good behaviour, is only to be secured by her seeing

nothing of Captain Tilney? Is he safe only in solitude?

Or is her heart constant to him only when unsolicited

by anyone else? He cannot think this--and you may be sure

that he would not have you think it. I will not say,

`Do not be uneasy, ` because I know that you are so,

at this moment; but be as little uneasy as you can.

You have no doubt of the mutual attachment of your brother

and your friend; depend upon it, therefore, that real

jealousy never can exist between them; depend upon it

that no disagreement between them can be of any duration.

Their hearts are open to each other, as neither heart can

be to you; they know exactly what is required and what can

be borne; and you may be certain that one will never tease

the other beyond what is known to be pleasant. "

Perceiving her still to look doubtful and grave,

he added, " Though Frederick does not leave Bath with us,

he will probably remain but a very short time,

perhaps only a few days behind us. His leave of absence

will soon expire, and he must return to his regiment.

And what will then be their acquaintance? The mess-room

will drink Isabella Thorpe for a fortnight, and she will

laugh with your brother over poor Tilney`s passion for

a month. "

Catherine would contend no longer against comfort.

She had resisted its approaches during the whole length

of a speech, but it now carried her captive. Henry Tilney

must know best. She blamed herself for the extent

of her fears, and resolved never to think so seriously

on the subject again.

Her resolution was supported by Isabella`s behaviour

in their parting interview. The Thorpes spent the last

evening of Catherine`s stay in Pulteney Street, and nothing

passed between the lovers to excite her uneasiness,

or make her quit them in apprehension. James was in

excellent spirits, and Isabella most engagingly placid.

Her tenderness for her friend seemed rather the first feeling

of her heart; but that at such a moment was allowable;

and once she gave her lover a flat contradiction, and once

she drew back her hand; but Catherine remembered Henry`s

instructions, and placed it all to judicious affection.

The embraces, tears, and promises of the parting fair

ones may be fancied.

CHAPTER 20

Mr. and Mrs. Allen were sorry to lose their young friend,

whose good humour and cheerfulness had made her a

valuable companion, and in the promotion of whose enjoyment

their own had been gently increased. Her happiness in

going with Miss Tilney, however, prevented their wishing

it otherwise; and, as they were to remain only one more

week in Bath themselves, her quitting them now would not

long be felt. Mr. Allen attended her to Milsom Street,

where she was to breakfast, and saw her seated with the

kindest welcome among her new friends; but so great was

her agitation in finding herself as one of the family,

and so fearful was she of not doing exactly what was right,

and of not being able to preserve their good opinion,

that, in the embarrassment of the first five minutes,

she could almost have wished to return with him to

Pulteney Street.

Miss Tilney`s manners and Henry`s smile soon did

away some of her unpleasant feelings; but still she

was far from being at ease; nor could the incessant

attentions of the general himself entirely reassure her.

Nay, perverse as it seemed, she doubted whether she

might not have felt less, had she been less attended to.

His anxiety for her comfort--his continual solicitations

that she would eat, and his often-expressed fears of her

seeing nothing to her taste--though never in her life before

had she beheld half such variety on a breakfast-table--made

it impossible for her to forget for a moment that she

was a visitor. She felt utterly unworthy of such respect,

and knew not how to reply to it. Her tranquillity was not

improved by the general`s impatience for the appearance

of his eldest son, nor by the displeasure he expressed

at his laziness when Captain Tilney at last came down.

She was quite pained by the severity of his father`s reproof,

which seemed disproportionate to the offence; and much

was her concern increased when she found herself the

principal cause of the lecture, and that his tardiness

was chiefly resented from being disrespectful to her.

This was placing her in a very uncomfortable situation,

and she felt great compassion for Captain Tilney,

without being able to hope for his goodwill.

He listened to his father in silence, and attempted

not any defence, which confirmed her in fearing that the

inquietude of his mind, on Isabella`s account, might,

by keeping him long sleepless, have been the real cause

of his rising late. It was the first time of her being

decidedly in his company, and she had hoped to be now

able to form her opinion of him; but she scarcely

heard his voice while his father remained in the room;

and even afterwards, so much were his spirits affected,

she could distinguish nothing but these words, in a whisper

to Eleanor, " How glad I shall be when you are all off. "

The bustle of going was not pleasant. The clock

struck ten while the trunks were carrying down, and the

general had fixed to be out of Milsom Street by that hour.

His greatcoat, instead of being brought for him to put

on directly, was spread out in the curricle in which he

was to accompany his son. The middle seat of the chaise was

not drawn out, though there were three people to go in it,

and his daughter`s maid had so crowded it with parcels

that Miss Morland would not have room to sit; and, so much

was he influenced by this apprehension when he handed

her in, that she had some difficulty in saving her own

new writing-desk from being thrown out into the street.

At last, however, the door was closed upon the three females,

and they set off at the sober pace in which the handsome,

highly fed four horses of a gentleman usually perform a

journey of thirty miles: such was the distance of Northanger

from Bath, to be now divided into two equal stages.

Catherine`s spirits revived as they drove from the door;

for with Miss Tilney she felt no restraint; and, with the

interest of a road entirely new to her, of an abbey before,

and a curricle behind, she caught the last view of Bath

without any regret, and met with every milestone before

she expected it. The tediousness of a two hours`

wait at Petty France, in which there was nothing to be done

but to eat without being hungry, and loiter about without

anything to see, next followed--and her admiration of the

style in which they travelled, of the fashionable chaise

and four--postilions handsomely liveried, rising so regularly

in their stirrups, and numerous outriders properly mounted,

sunk a little under this consequent inconvenience.

Had their party been perfectly agreeable, the delay would

have been nothing; but General Tilney, though so charming

a man, seemed always a check upon his children`s spirits,

and scarcely anything was said but by himself;

the observation of which, with his discontent at whatever

the inn afforded, and his angry impatience at the waiters,

made Catherine grow every moment more in awe of him,

and appeared to lengthen the two hours into four.

At last, however, the order of release was given;

and much was Catherine then surprised by the general`s

proposal of her taking his place in his son`s curricle

for the rest of the journey: " the day was fine,

and he was anxious for her seeing as much of the country

as possible. "

The remembrance of Mr. Allen`s opinion, respecting young

men`s open carriages, made her blush at the mention

of such a plan, and her first thought was to decline it;

but her second was of greater deference for General

Tilney`s judgment; he could not propose anything

improper for her; and, in the course of a few minutes,

she found herself with Henry in the curricle, as happy

a being as ever existed. A very short trial convinced her

that a curricle was the prettiest equipage in the world;

the chaise and four wheeled off with some grandeur,

to be sure, but it was a heavy and troublesome business,

and she could not easily forget its having stopped two hours

at Petty France. Half the time would have been enough

for the curricle, and so nimbly were the light horses

disposed to move, that, had not the general chosen to have

his own carriage lead the way, they could have passed it

with ease in half a minute. But the merit of the curricle

did not all belong to the horses; Henry drove so well--so

quietly--without making any disturbance, without parading

to her, or swearing at them: so different from the only

gentleman-coachman whom it was in her power to compare him

with! And then his hat sat so well, and the innumerable

capes of his greatcoat looked so becomingly important!

To be driven by him, next to being dancing with him,

was certainly the greatest happiness in the world.

In addition to every other delight, she had now that of

listening to her own praise; of being thanked at least,

on his sister`s account, for her kindness in thus becoming

her visitor; of hearing it ranked as real friendship,

and described as creating real gratitude. His sister,

he said, was uncomfortably circumstanced--she had no female

companion--and, in the frequent absence of her father,

was sometimes without any companion at all.

" But how can that be? " said Catherine. " Are not you

with her? "

" Northanger is not more than half my home;

I have an establishment at my own house in Woodston,

which is nearly twenty miles from my father`s, and some

of my time is necessarily spent there. "

" How sorry you must be for that! "

" I am always sorry to leave Eleanor. "

" Yes; but besides your affection for her, you must

be so fond of the abbey! After being used to such a home as

the abbey, an ordinary parsonage-house must be very disagreeable. "

He smiled, and said, " You have formed a very favourable

idea of the abbey. "

" To be sure, I have. Is not it a fine old place,

just like what one reads about? "

" And are you prepared to encounter all the horrors

that a building such as `what one reads about` may produce?

Have you a stout heart? Nerves fit for sliding panels

and tapestry? "

" Oh! yes--I do not think I should be easily frightened,

because there would be so many people in the house--and

besides, it has never been uninhabited and left deserted

for years, and then the family come back to it unawares,

without giving any notice, as generally happens. "

" No, certainly. We shall not have to explore our

way into a hall dimly lighted by the expiring embers

of a wood fire--nor be obliged to spread our beds on the

floor of a room without windows, doors, or furniture.

But you must be aware that when a young lady is (by

whatever means) introduced into a dwelling of this kind,

she is always lodged apart from the rest of the family.

While they snugly repair to their own end of the house,

she is formally conducted by Dorothy, the ancient housekeeper,

up a different staircase, and along many gloomy passages,

into an apartment never used since some cousin or kin

died in it about twenty years before. Can you stand

such a ceremony as this? Will not your mind misgive

you when you find yourself in this gloomy chamber--too

lofty and extensive for you, with only the feeble rays

of a single lamp to take in its size--its walls hung

with tapestry exhibiting figures as large as life,

and the bed, of dark green stuff or purple velvet,

presenting even a funereal appearance? Will not your heart

sink within you? "

" Oh! But this will not happen to me, I am sure. "

" How fearfully will you examine the furniture of

your apartment! And what will you discern? Not tables,

toilettes, wardrobes, or drawers, but on one side perhaps

the remains of a broken lute, on the other a ponderous

chest which no efforts can open, and over the fireplace

the portrait of some handsome warrior, whose features

will so incomprehensibly strike you, that you will not be

able to withdraw your eyes from it. Dorothy, meanwhile,

no less struck by your appearance, gazes on you in

great agitation, and drops a few unintelligible hints.

To raise your spirits, moreover, she gives you reason

to suppose that the part of the abbey you inhabit is

undoubtedly haunted, and informs you that you will not have

a single domestic within call. With this parting cordial

she curtsies off--you listen to the sound of her receding

footsteps as long as the last echo can reach you--and when,

with fainting spirits, you attempt to fasten your door,

you discover, with increased alarm, that it has no lock. "

" Oh! Mr. Tilney, how frightful! This is just like

a book! But it cannot really happen to me. I am sure

your housekeeper is not really Dorothy. Well, what then? "

" Nothing further to alarm perhaps may occur the

first night. After surmounting your unconquerable horror

of the bed, you will retire to rest, and get a few hours`

unquiet slumber. But on the second, or at farthest

the third night after your arrival, you will probably

have a violent storm. Peals of thunder so loud as to seem

to shake the edifice to its foundation will roll round

the neighbouring mountains--and during the frightful

gusts of wind which accompany it, you will probably think

you discern (for your lamp is not extinguished) one part

of the hanging more violently agitated than the rest.

Unable of course to repress your curiosity in so favourable

a moment for indulging it, you will instantly arise,

and throwing your dressing-gown around you, proceed to

examine this mystery. After a very short search,

you will discover a division in the tapestry so artfully

constructed as to defy the minutest inspection, and on

opening it, a door will immediately appear--which door,

being only secured by massy bars and a padlock, you will,

after a few efforts, succeed in opening--and, with your

lamp in your hand, will pass through it into a small

vaulted room. "

" No, indeed; I should be too much frightened to do

any such thing. "

" What! Not when Dorothy has given you to understand

that there is a secret subterraneous communication between

your apartment and the chapel of St. Anthony, scarcely two

miles off? Could you shrink from so simple an adventure?

No, no, you will proceed into this small vaulted room,

and through this into several others, without perceiving

anything very remarkable in either. In one perhaps

there may be a dagger, in another a few drops of blood,

and in a third the remains of some instrument of torture;

but there being nothing in all this out of the common way,

and your lamp being nearly exhausted, you will return

towards your own apartment. In repassing through the small

vaulted room, however, your eyes will be attracted towards

a large, old-fashioned cabinet of ebony and gold, which,

though narrowly examining the furniture before, you had

passed unnoticed. Impelled by an irresistible presentiment,

you will eagerly advance to it, unlock its folding doors,

and search into every drawer--but for some time without

discovering anything of importance--perhaps nothing

but a considerable hoard of diamonds. At last, however,

by touching a secret spring, an inner compartment will

open--a roll of paper appears--you seize it--it contains

many sheets of manuscript--you hasten with the precious

treasure into your own chamber, but scarcely have you been

able to decipher `Oh! Thou--whomsoever thou mayst be,

into whose hands these memoirs of the wretched Matilda

may fall`--when your lamp suddenly expires in the socket,

and leaves you in total darkness. "

" Oh! No, no--do not say so. Well, go on. "

But Henry was too much amused by the interest he

had raised to be able to carry it farther; he could

no longer command solemnity either of subject or voice,

and was obliged to entreat her to use her own fancy in the

perusal of Matilda`s woes. Catherine, recollecting herself,

grew ashamed of her eagerness, and began earnestly to assure

him that her attention had been fixed without the smallest

apprehension of really meeting with what he related.

" Miss Tilney, she was sure, would never put her into such

a chamber as he had described! She was not at all afraid. "

As they drew near the end of their journey, her impatience

for a sight of the abbey--for some time suspended by his

conversation on subjects very different--returned in full force,

and every bend in the road was expected with solemn awe

to afford a glimpse of its massy walls of grey stone,

rising amidst a grove of ancient oaks, with the last beams

of the sun playing in beautiful splendour on its high

Gothic windows. But so low did the building stand,

that she found herself passing through the great gates

of the lodge into the very grounds of Northanger,

without having discerned even an antique chimney.

She knew not that she had any right to be surprised,

but there was a something in this mode of approach

which she certainly had not expected. To pass between

lodges of a modern appearance, to find herself with such

ease in the very precincts of the abbey, and driven

so rapidly along a smooth, level road of fine gravel,

without obstacle, alarm, or solemnity of any kind,

struck her as odd and inconsistent. She was not

long at leisure, however, for such considerations.

A sudden scud of rain, driving full in her face, made it

impossible for her to observe anything further, and fixed

all her thoughts on the welfare of her new straw bonnet;

and she was actually under the abbey walls, was springing,

with Henry`s assistance, from the carriage, was beneath the

shelter of the old porch, and had even passed on to the hall,

where her friend and the general were waiting to welcome her,

without feeling one awful foreboding of future misery

to herself, or one moment`s suspicion of any past scenes

of horror being acted within the solemn edifice. The breeze

had not seemed to waft the sighs of the murdered to her;

it had wafted nothing worse than a thick mizzling rain;

and having given a good shake to her habit, she was ready

to be shown into the common drawing-room, and capable

of considering where she was.

An abbey! Yes, it was delightful to be really

in an abbey! But she doubted, as she looked round

the room, whether anything within her observation would

have given her the consciousness. The furniture was

in all the profusion and elegance of modern taste.

The fireplace, where she had expected the ample width

and ponderous carving of former times, was contracted

to a Rumford, with slabs of plain though handsome marble,

and ornaments over it of the prettiest English china.

The windows, to which she looked with peculiar dependence,

from having heard the general talk of his preserving them

in their Gothic form with reverential care, were yet less

what her fancy had portrayed. To be sure, the pointed

arch was preserved--the form of them was Gothic--they

might be even casements--but every pane was so large,

so clear, so light! To an imagination which had hoped

for the smallest divisions, and the heaviest stone-work,

for painted glass, dirt, and cobwebs, the difference was

very distressing.

The general, perceiving how her eye was employed,

began to talk of the smallness of the room and simplicity

of the furniture, where everything, being for daily use,

pretended only to comfort, etc.; flattering himself, however,

that there were some apartments in the Abbey not unworthy

her notice--and was proceeding to mention the costly

gilding of one in particular, when, taking out his watch,

he stopped short to pronounce it with surprise within

twenty minutes of five! This seemed the word of separation,

and Catherine found herself hurried away by Miss Tilney

in such a manner as convinced her that the strictest

punctuality to the family hours would be expected at Northanger.

Returning through the large and lofty hall,

they ascended a broad staircase of shining oak, which,

after many flights and many landing-places, brought them

upon a long, wide gallery. On one side it had a range

of doors, and it was lighted on the other by windows

which Catherine had only time to discover looked

into a quadrangle, before Miss Tilney led the way

into a chamber, and scarcely staying to hope she would

find it comfortable, left her with an anxious entreaty

that she would make as little alteration as possible

in her dress.

CHAPTER 21

A moment`s glance was enough to satisfy Catherine

that her apartment was very unlike the one which Henry

had endeavoured to alarm her by the description of.

It was by no means unreasonably large, and contained neither

tapestry nor velvet. The walls were papered, the floor

was carpeted; the windows were neither less perfect nor more

dim than those of the drawing-room below; the furniture,

though not of the latest fashion, was handsome and comfortable,

and the air of the room altogether far from uncheerful.

Her heart instantaneously at ease on this point, she resolved

to lose no time in particular examination of anything,

as she greatly dreaded disobliging the general by any delay.

Her habit therefore was thrown off with all possible haste,

and she was preparing to unpin the linen package, which the

chaise-seat had conveyed for her immediate accommodation,

when her eye suddenly fell on a large high chest,

standing back in a deep recess on one side of the fireplace.

The sight of it made her start; and, forgetting everything

else, she stood gazing on it in motionless wonder,

while these thoughts crossed her:

" This is strange indeed! I did not expect such a sight

as this! An immense heavy chest! What can it hold? Why

should it be placed here? Pushed back too, as if meant to

be out of sight! I will look into it--cost me what it may,

I will look into it--and directly too--by daylight.

If I stay till evening my candle may go out. "

She advanced and examined it closely: it was of cedar,

curiously inlaid with some darker wood, and raised,

about a foot from the ground, on a carved stand of the same.

The lock was silver, though tarnished from age; at each

end were the imperfect remains of handles also of silver,

broken perhaps prematurely by some strange violence;

and, on the centre of the lid, was a mysterious cipher,

in the same metal. Catherine bent over it intently,

but without being able to distinguish anything with certainty.

She could not, in whatever direction she took it,

believe the last letter to be a T; and yet that it should

be anything else in that house was a circumstance to raise

no common degree of astonishment. If not originally theirs,

by what strange events could it have fallen into the Tilney

family?

Her fearful curiosity was every moment growing greater;

and seizing, with trembling hands, the hasp of the lock,

she resolved at all hazards to satisfy herself at least

as to its contents. With difficulty, for something seemed

to resist her efforts, she raised the lid a few inches;

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