“Poor Frederick!” said he at last.
“Now he must begin all over again with somebody
else. I think we must get him to Bath.
Sophy must write, and beg him to come to Bath.
Here are pretty girls enough, I am sure. It
would be of no use to go to Uppercross again, for that
other Miss Musgrove, I find, is bespoke by her cousin,
the young parson. Do not you think, Miss Elliot,
we had better try to get him to Bath?”
While Admiral Croft was taking this walk with Anne,
and expressing his wish of getting Captain Wentworth
to Bath, Captain Wentworth was already on his way
thither. Before Mrs Croft had written, he was
arrived, and the very next time Anne walked out, she
saw him.
Mr Elliot was attending his two cousins and Mrs Clay.
They were in Milsom Street. It began to rain,
not much, but enough to make shelter desirable for
women, and quite enough to make it very desirable
for Miss Elliot to have the advantage of being conveyed
home in Lady Dalrymple’s carriage, which was
seen waiting at a little distance; she, Anne, and
Mrs Clay, therefore, turned into Molland’s,
while Mr Elliot stepped to Lady Dalrymple, to request
her assistance. He soon joined them again, successful,
of course; Lady Dalrymple would be most happy to take
them home, and would call for them in a few minutes.
Her ladyship’s carriage was a barouche, and
did not hold more than four with any comfort.
Miss Carteret was with her mother; consequently it
was not reasonable to expect accommodation for all
the three Camden Place ladies. There could be
no doubt as to Miss Elliot. Whoever suffered
inconvenience, she must suffer none, but it occupied
a little time to settle the point of civility between
the other two. The rain was a mere trifle, and
Anne was most sincere in preferring a walk with Mr
Elliot. But the rain was also a mere trifle
to Mrs Clay; she would hardly allow it even to drop
at all, and her boots were so thick! much thicker
than Miss Anne’s; and, in short, her civility
rendered her quite as anxious to be left to walk with
Mr Elliot as Anne could be, and it was discussed between
them with a generosity so polite and so determined,
that the others were obliged to settle it for them;
Miss Elliot maintaining that Mrs Clay had a little
cold already, and Mr Elliot deciding on appeal, that
his cousin Anne’s boots were rather the thickest.
It was fixed accordingly, that Mrs Clay should be
of the party in the carriage; and they had just reached
this point, when Anne, as she sat near the window,
descried, most decidedly and distinctly, Captain Wentworth
walking down the street.
Her start was perceptible only to herself; but she
instantly felt that she was the greatest simpleton
in the world, the most unaccountable and absurd!
For a few minutes she saw nothing before her; it
was all confusion. She was lost, and when she
had scolded back her senses, she found the others
still waiting for the carriage, and Mr Elliot (always
obliging) just setting off for Union Street on a commission
of Mrs Clay’s.
