must teach herself to be insensible on such points.
And not only did it appear that he was expected,
and speedily, but the Musgroves, in their warm gratitude
for the kindness he had shewn poor Dick, and very high
respect for his character, stamped as it was by poor
Dick’s having been six months under his care,
and mentioning him in strong, though not perfectly
well-spelt praise, as “a fine dashing felow,
only two perticular about the schoolmaster,”
were bent on introducing themselves, and seeking his
acquaintance, as soon as they could hear of his arrival.
The resolution of doing so helped to form the comfort
of their evening.
A very few days more, and Captain Wentworth was known
to be at Kellynch, and Mr Musgrove had called on him,
and come back warm in his praise, and he was engaged
with the Crofts to dine at Uppercross, by the end
of another week. It had been a great disappointment
to Mr Musgrove to find that no earlier day could be
fixed, so impatient was he to shew his gratitude,
by seeing Captain Wentworth under his own roof, and
welcoming him to all that was strongest and best in
his cellars. But a week must pass; only a week,
in Anne’s reckoning, and then, she supposed,
they must meet; and soon she began to wish that she
could feel secure even for a week.
Captain Wentworth made a very early return to Mr Musgrove’s
civility, and she was all but calling there in the
same half hour. She and Mary were actually setting
forward for the Great House, where, as she afterwards
learnt, they must inevitably have found him, when
they were stopped by the eldest boy’s being at
that moment brought home in consequence of a bad fall.
The child’s situation put the visit entirely
aside; but she could not hear of her escape with indifference,
even in the midst of the serious anxiety which they
afterwards felt on his account.
His collar-bone was found to be dislocated, and such
injury received in the back, as roused the most alarming
ideas. It was an afternoon of distress, and Anne
had every thing to do at once; the apothecary to send
for, the father to have pursued and informed, the
mother to support and keep from hysterics, the servants
to control, the youngest child to banish, and the
poor suffering one to attend and soothe; besides sending,
as soon as she recollected it, proper notice to the
other house, which brought her an accession rather
of frightened, enquiring companions, than of very useful
assistants.
Her brother’s return was the first comfort;
he could take best care of his wife; and the second
blessing was the arrival of the apothecary. Till
he came and had examined the child, their apprehensions
were the worse for being vague; they suspected great
injury, but knew not where; but now the collar-bone
was soon replaced, and though Mr Robinson felt and
felt, and rubbed, and looked grave, and spoke low words
both to the father and the aunt, still they were all
