window and as it advanced she bad the mortification of seeing bim advance too moving forward hy gentle degrees towards the instrument and when it ceased be was close by the singers among the most urgent in to bear the glee again sighed alone at the window till away hy mrs s threats of catching cold chapter ib thomas was to return in november and his eldest son had duties to call him earlier home the approach of september brought tidings of mr first in a letter to the and then in a letter to and by the end of august he arrived himself to be gay agreeable and gallant again as occasion served or miss demanded � to tell of races and and parties and friends to which she might have listened six weeks before with some interest and altogether to give her the fullest conviction by the power of actual comparison of her preferring his younger brother it was very and she was heartily sorry for it but so it was and so far from now meaning to marry the elder she did not even want to attract him beyond what the simplest claims of conscious beauty required his lengthened absence from without anything but pleasure in view and his own will to consult made it perfectly clear that he did not care about her and bis indifference was so much more than equalled by her own that were he now to step forth the owner of park the sir thomas complete which he was to be in time she did not believe she could accept him the season and duties which brought mr back to took mr into could not do without him in the beginning of september he went for a fortnight � a fortnight of such to the miss as ought to have put them both on their guard and made even admit in her jealousy of her sister the absolute necessity of his attentions and wishing him not to return and a fortnight of sufficient leisure in the intervals of shooting and sleeping to have convinced the gentleman that he ought to keep longer away had he been more in the habit of examining his own motives and of reflecting to what the indulgence of his idle vanity was tending but thoughtless and selfish from prosperity and bad example he would not look beyond the present moment the sisters handsome clever and encouraging were an amusement to his mind and finding nothing in to equal the social pleasures of he gladly returned to it at the time appointed and was welcomed thither quite as gladly by those whom he came to trifle with further maria with only mr to attend to her and doomed to the repeated details of his day s sport good or bad his boast of his dogs his jealousy of his neighbors his doubts of their and his zeal after � subjects which will not find their way to female feelings without some talent on one side or some attachment on the other � had missed mr and and park felt all the right of missing him much more each sister herself the favorite might he justified in so doing hy the hints of mrs grant inclined to credit what she wished and maria by the hints of mr himself everything returned into the same channel as before his absence his manners being to each so animated and agreeable as to lose no ground with either and just stopping short of the the the solicitude and the warmth which might excite general notice was the only one of the party who found anything to dislike but since the day at she could never see mr with either sister without observation and seldom without wonder or censure and had her confidence in her own judgment been equal to her exercise of it in every other respect had she been sure that she was seeing clearly and judging candidly would probably have made some important communications to her usual as it was however she only a hint and the hint was lost i am rather surprised said she that mr should come back again so soon after being here so long before full seven weeks for i had understood he was so very fond of change and moving about that i thought something would certainly occur when he was once gone to take him elsewhere he is used to much places than it is to his credit was s answer and i dare say it gives his sister pleasure she does not like his unsettled habits what a favorite he is with my yes his to women are such as must please mrs i him of a preference for i hare seen much symptom of it but i wish it may be so he has no faults but what a serious attachment would remove if miss were not engaged said cautiously i could sometimes almost think that he admired her more than which is perhaps more in favor of his liking best than you may be aware for i believe it often happens that a man before he has quite made up his own mind will distinguish the sister or intimate friend of the woman he is really thinking of more than the woman herself has too much sense to stay here if he found himself any danger from maria and i am not at all afraid for her after such a proof as she has given that her feelings are not strong supposed she must have been mistaken and meant to think differently in future but with all that submission to could do and all the help of the looks and hints which she occasionally noticed in some of the others and which seemed to say that was mr s choice she knew not always what to think she was one evening fo the hopes of her aunt on this subject 