till her head was stronger he had talked of going down to for a week and wanted to persuade captain to go with him but as charles maintained to the last captain seemed much more disposed to ride over to there can be no doubt that lady and anne were both occasionally thinking of captain from this time lady could not hear the door bell without feeling that it might be his herald nor could anne return from any stroll of solitary in persuasion diligence in her father s grounds or any of charity in the village without wondering whether she might see him or hear of him captain came not however he was either less disposed for it than charles had imagined or he was too shy and after giving him a week s indulgence lady determined him to be unworthy of the interest which he had been beginning to excite the came back to receive their happy boys and girls from school bringing with them mrs s little children to improve the noise of and lessen that of remained with but all the rest of the family were again in their usual quarters lady and anne paid their compliments to them once when anne could not but feel that was already quite alive again though neither nor nor charles nor captain were there the room presented as strong a contrast as could be wished to the last state she had seen it in immediately surrounding mrs were the little whom she was guarding from the tyranny of the two children from the cottage expressly arrived to amuse them on one side was a table occupied by some chattering girls cutting up silk and gold paper and on the other were and bending under the weight of and cold where boys were holding high the whole completed by a roaring christmas fire which seemed determined to be heard in spite of all the noise of the others charles and mary also came in of course during their visit and mr made a point of paying his respects to lady and sat down close to her for ten minutes talking with a very raised voice but from the of the children on his persuasion knees generally in vain it was a fine anne judging from her own temperament would have deemed such a domestic a bad of the nerves which s illness must have so greatly shaken but mrs who got anne near her on purpose to thank her most cordially again and again for all her attentions to them concluded a short of what she had suffered herself by observing with a happy glance round the room that after all she had gone through nothing was so likely to do her good as a little quiet cheerfulness at home was now recovering her mother could even think of her being able to join their party at home before her brothers and sisters went to school again the had promised to come with her and stay at whenever she returned captain was gone for the present to see his brother in i hope i shall remember in future said lady as soon as they were in the carriage not to call at in the christmas holidays everybody has their taste in noises as well as in other matters and sounds are quite or most distressing by their sort rather than their quantity when lady not long afterwards was entering bath on a wet afternoon and driving through the long course of streets from the old bridge to place amidst the dash of other carriages the heavy of carts and the of men and and the ceaseless of she made no complaint no these were noises which belonged to the winter pleasures her spirits rose under their influence and like mrs she was though not saying that after being long in the persuasion country nothing could be so good for her as a little quiet cheerfulness anne did not share these feelings she persisted in a very determined though very silent for bath caught the first dim view of the extensive buildings smoking in rain without any wish of seeing them better felt their progress through the streets to be however disagreeable yet too rapid for who would be glad to see her when she arrived and looked back with fond regret to the of and the seclusion of elizabeth s last letter had communicated a piece of news of some interest mr was in bath he had called in place had called a second time a third had been attentive if elizabeth and her father did not deceive themselves had been taking as much pains to seek the acquaintance and proclaim the value of the connection as he had formerly taken pains to show neglect this was very wonderful if it were true and lady was in a state of very agreeable curiosity and perplexity about mr already the sentiment she had so lately expressed to mary of his being a man whom she had no wish to see she had a great wish to see him if he really sought to reconcile himself like a dutiful branch he must be forgiven for having himself from the paternal tree anne was not animated to an equal pitch by the circumstance but she felt that she would rather see mr again than not which v as more than she could say for many other persons in bath she was put down in place and lady then drove to her own lodgings in rivers street persuasion c sir walter had taken a very good house in place a lofty dignified situation such as becomes a man of consequence and both he and elizabeth were settled there much to their satisfaction anne entered it with a sinking heart an imprisonment of many months and anxiously saying to herself oh when shall i leave you again a degree of unexpected cordiality however in the 