‘My heart,indeed!What can you have to do with hearts?You men have none of you any hearts.’
‘If we have not hearts,we have eyes;and they give us torment enough.’
‘Do they?I am sorry for it;I am sorry they find anything so disagreeable in me.I will look another way.I hope this pleases you,(turning her back on him,)I hope your eyes are not tormented now.’
‘Never more so;for the edge of a blooming cheek is still in view at once too much and too little.’
Catherine heard all this,and quite out of countenance could listen no longer.Amazed that Isabella could endure it,and jealous for her brother,she rose up,and saying she should join Mrs Allen,proposed their walking.But for this Isabella showed no inclination.She was so amazingly tired,and it was so odious to parade about the Pump room,and if she moved from her seat she should miss her sisters,she was expecting her sisters every moment;so that her dearest Catherine must excuse her,and must sit quietly down again.But Catherine could be stubborn too;and Mrs Allen just then coming up to propose their returning home,she joined her and walked out of the Pump room,leaving Isabella still sitting with Captain Tilney.With much uneasiness did she thus leave them.It seemed to her that Captain Tilney was falling in love with Isabella,and Isabella unconsciously encouraging him;unconsciously it must be,for Isabella's attachment to James was as certain and well acknowledged as her engagement.To doubt her truth or good intentions was impossible;and yet,during the whole of their conversation her manner had been odd.She wished Isabella had talked more like her usual self,and not so much about money;and had not looked so well pleased at the sight of Captain Tilney.How strange that she should not perceive his admiration!Catherine longed to give her a hint of it,to put her on her guard,and prevent all the pain which her too lively behaviour might otherwise create both for him and her brother.
The compliment of John Thorpe's affection did not make amends for this thoughtlessness in his sister.She was almost as far from believing as from wishing it to be sincere;for she had not forgotten that he could mistake,and his assertion of the offer and of her encouragement convinced her that his mistakes could sometimes be very egregious.In vanity therefore she gained but little,her chief profit was in wonder.That he should think it worth his while to fancy himself in love with her,was a matter of lively astonishment.Isabella talked of his attentions;she had never been sensible of any;but Isabella had said many things which she hoped had been spoken in haste,and would never be said again;and upon this she was glad to rest altogether for present ease and comfort.
Chapter 19
A few days passed away,and Catherine,though not allowing herself to suspect her friend,could not help watching her closely.The result of her observations was not agreeable.Isabella seemed an altered creature.When she saw her indeed surrounded only by their immediate friends in Edgar's Buildings or Pulteney Street,her change of manners was so trifling that,had it gone no farther,it might have passed unnoticed.A something of languid indifference,or of that boasted absence of mind which Catherine had never heard of before,would occasionally come across her;but had nothing worse appeared,that might only have spread a new grace and inspired a warmer interest.But when Catherine saw her in public,admitting Captain Tilney's attentions as readily as they were offered,and allowing him almost an equal share with James in her notice and smiles,the alteration became too positive to be passed over.What could be meant by such unsteady conduct,what her friend could be at,was beyond her comprehension.Isabella could not be aware of the pain she was inflicting;but it was a degree of wilful thoughtlessness which Catherine could not but resent.James was the sufferer.She saw him grave and uneasy;and however careless of his present comfort the woman might be who had given him her heart,to her it was always an object.For poor Captain Tilney too she was greatly concerned.Though his looks did not please her,his name was a passport to her good will,and she thought with sincere compassion of his approaching disappointment;for,in spite of what she had believed herself to overhear in the Pump room,his behaviour was so incompatible with a knowledge of Isabella's engagement,that she could not,upon reflection,imagine him aware of it.He might be jealous of her brother as a rival,but if more had seemed implied,the fault must have been in her misapprehension.She wished,by a gentle remonstrance,to remind Isabella of her situation,and make her aware of this double unkindness;but for remonstrance,either opportunity or comprehension was always against her.If able to suggest a hint,Isabella could never understand it.In this distress,the intended departure of the Tilney family became her chief consolation;their journey into Gloucestershire was to take place within a few days,and Captain Tilney's removal would at least restore peace to every heart but his own.But Captain Tilney had at present no intention of removing;he was not to be of the party to Northanger,he was to continue at Bath.When Catherine knew this,her resolution was directly made.She spoke to Henry Tilney on the subject,regretting his brother's evident partiality for Miss Thorpe,and entreating him to make known her prior engagement.
‘My brother does know it,’was Henry's answer.
‘Does he? then why does he stay here?’
