A day or two passed away and brought no tidings of Captain Tilney.His brother and sister knew not what to think.Sometimes it appeared to them as if his silence would be the natural result of the suspected engagement,and at others that it was wholly incompatible with it.The General,meanwhile,though offended every morning by Frederick's remissness in writing,was free from any real anxiety about him;and had no more pressing solicitude than that of making Miss Morland's time at Northanger pass pleasantly.He often expressed his uneasiness on this head,feared the sameness of every day's society and employments would disgust her with the place,wished the Lady Frasers had been in the country,talked every now and then of having a large party to dinner,and once or twice began even to calculate the number of young dancing people in the neighbourhood.But then it was such a dead time of year,no wild fowl,no game,and the Lady Frasers were not in the country.And it all ended,at last,in his telling Henry one morning,that when he next went to Woodston,they would take him by surprise there some day or other,and eat their mutton with him.Henry was greatly honoured and very happy,and Catherine was quite delighted with the scheme.‘And when do you think,sir,I may look forward to this pleasure? I must be at Woodston on Monday to attend the parish meeting,and shall probably be obliged to stay two or three days.’
‘Well,well,we will take our chance some one of those days.There is no need to fix.You are not to put yourself at all out of your way.Whatever you may happen to have in the house will be enough.I think I can answer for the young ladies making allowance for a bachelor's table.Let me see;Monday will be a busy day with you,we will not come on Monday;and Tuesday will be a busy one with me.I expect my surveyor from Brockham with his report in the morning;and afterwards I cannot in decency fail attending the club.I really could not face my acquaintance if I stayed away now;for,as I am known to be in the country,it would be taken exceedingly amiss;and it is a rule with me,Miss Morland,never to give offence to any of my neighbours,if a small sacrifice of time and attention can prevent it.They are a set of very worthy men.They have half a buck from Northanger twice a year;and I dine with them whenever I can.Tuesday,therefore,we may say is out of the question.But on Wednesday,I think,Henry,you may expect us;and we shall be with you early,that we may have time to look about us.Two hours and three quarters will carry us to Woodston,I suppose;we shall be in the carriage by ten;so,about a quarter before one on Wednesday,you may look for us.’
A ball itself could not have been more welcome to Catherine than this little excursion,so strong was her desire to be acquainted with Woodston;and her heart was still bounding with joy,when Henry,about an hour afterwards,came booted and great coated into the room where she and Eleanor were sitting,and said,‘I am come,young ladies,in a very moralising strain,to observe that our pleasures in this world are always to be paid for,and that we often purchase them at a great disadvantage,giving ready monied actual happiness for a draft on the future,that may not be honoured.Witness myself,at this present hour.Because I am to hope for the satisfaction of seeing you at Woodston on Wednesday,which bad weather,or twenty other causes may prevent,I must go away directly,two days before I intended it.’
‘Go away!’said Catherine,with a very long face;‘And why?’
‘Why! How can you ask the question? Because no time is to be lost in frightening my old housekeeper out of her wits, because I must go and prepare a dinner for you to be sure.’
‘Oh!not seriously!’
‘Aye,and sadly too for I had much rather stay.’
‘But how can you think of such a thing,after what the General said?When he so particularly desired you not to give yourself any trouble,because anything would do.’
Henry only smiled.‘I am sure it is quite unnecessary upon your sister's account and mine.You must know it to be so;and the General made such a point of your providing nothing extraordinary: besides,if he had not said half so much as he did,he has always such an excellent dinner at home,that sitting down to a middling one for one day could not signify.’
‘I wish I could reason like you,for his sake and my own.Good bye.As tomorrow is Sunday,Eleanor.I shall not return.’
He went;and,it being at any time a much simpler operation to Catherine to doubt her own judgment than Henry's ,she was very soon obliged to give him credit for being right,however disagreeable to her his going.But the inexplicability of the General's conduct dwelt much on her thoughts.That he was very particular in his eating,she had,by her own unassisted observation,already discovered;but why he should say one thing so positively,and mean another all the while,was most unaccountable!How were people,at that rate,to be understood?Who but Henry could have been aware of what his father was at?
