Catherine's resolution of endeavouring to meet Miss Tilney again continued in full force the next morning;and till the usual moment of going to the Pump room,she felt some alarm from the dread of a second prevention.But nothing of that kind occurred,no visitors appeared to delay them,and they all three set off in good time for the Pump room,where the ordinary course of events and conversation took place;Mr Allen,after drinking his glass of water,joined some gentlemen to talk over the politics of the day and compare the accounts of their newspapers;and the ladies walked about together,noticing every new face,and almost every new bonnet in the room.The female part of the Thorpe family,attended by James Morland,appeared among the crowd in less than a quarter of an hour,and Catherine immediately took her usual place by the side of her friend.James,who was now in constant attendance,maintained a similar position,and separating themselves from the rest of their party,they walked in that manner for some time,till Catherine began to doubt the happiness of a situation which confining her entirely to her friend and brother,gave her very little share in the notice of either.They were always engaged in some sentimental discussion or lively dispute,but their sentiment was conveyed in such whispering voices,and their vivacity attended with so much laughter,that though Catherine's supporting opinion was not unfrequently called for by one or the other,she was never able to give any,from not having heard a word of the subject.At length however she was empowered to disengage herself from her friend,by the avowed necessity of speaking to Miss Tilney,whom she most joyfully saw just entering the room with Mrs Hughes,and whom she instantly joined,with a firmer determination to be acquainted,than she might have had courage to command,had she not been urged by the disappointment of the day before.Miss Tilney met her with great civility,returned her advances with equal good will,and they continued talking together as long as both parties remained in the room;and though in all probability not an observation was made,nor an expression used by either which had not been made and used some thousands of times before,under that roof,in every Bath season,yet the merit of their being spoken with simplicity and truth,and without personal conceit,might be something uncommon.
‘How well your brother dances!’was an artless exclamation of Catherine's towards the close of their conversation,which at once surprised and amused her companion.
‘Henry!’she replied with a smile.‘Yes,he does dance very well.’
‘He must have thought it very odd to hear me say I was engaged the other evening,when he saw me sitting down.But I really had been engaged the whole day to Mr Thorpe.’Miss Tilney could only bow.‘You cannot think,’added Catherine after a moment's silence,‘how surprised I was to see him again.I felt so sure of his being quite gone away.’
‘When Henry had the pleasure of seeing you before,he was in Bath but for a couple of days.He came only to engage lodgings for us.’
‘That never occurred to me;and of course,not seeing him anywhere,I thought he must be gone.Was not the young lady he danced with on Monday a Miss Smith?’
‘Yes,an acquaintance of Mrs Hughes.’
‘I dare say she was very glad to dance.Do you think her pretty?’
‘Not very.’
‘He never comes to the Pump room,I suppose?’
‘Yes,sometimes;but he has rid out this morning with my father.’
Mrs Hughes now joined them,and asked Miss Tilney if she was ready to go.‘I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you again soon,’said Catherine.‘Shall you be at the cotillion ball tomorrow?’
‘Perhaps we yes,I think we certainly shall.’
‘I am glad of it,for we shall all be there.’This civility was duly returned;and they parted on Miss Tilney's side with some knowledge of her new acquaintance's feelings,and on Catherine's,without the smallest consciousness of having explained them.
She went home very happy.The morning had answered all her hopes,and the evening of the following day was now the object of expectation,the future good.What gown and what head dress she should wear on the occasion became her chief concern.She cannot be justified in it.Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction,and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim.Catherine knew all this very well;her great aunt had read her a lecture on the subject only the Christmas before;and yet she lay awake ten minutes on Wednesday night debating between her spotted and her tamboured muslin,and nothing but the shortness of the time prevented her buying a new one for the evening.This would have been an error in judgment,great though not uncommon,from which one of the other sex rather than her own,a brother rather than a great aunt might have warned her,for man only can be aware of the insensibility of man towards a new gown.It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies,could they be made to understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire;how little it is biased by the texture of their muslin,and how unsusceptible of peculiar tenderness towards the spotted,the sprigged,the mull or the jackonet.Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone.No man will admire her the more,no woman will like her the better for it.Neatness and fashion are enough for the former,and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter. But not one of these grave reflections troubled the tranquillity of Catherine.
