in the promotion of this object she was active as far as her ability reached and missed no opportunity of projecting among all the young people of her acquaintance she was remarkably quick in the discovery of and had enjoyed the advantage of raising the and the vanity of many a young lady by of her power over such a young man and this kind of enabled her soon after her arrival at to pronounce that colonel was very much in love with she rather suspected it to be so on the very first evening of their being together from his listening so attentively while she sang to them and when the visit was returned by the dining at the cottage the fact was ascertained by his listening to her again it must be so she was perfectly convinced of it i would be an excellent match for he was rich and she was handsome mrs had been anxious to see colonel well married ever her connection with sir john first brought him to her knowledge and she was always anxious to get a good husband for every pretty girl the immediate advantage to herself was by no means for it supplied her with endless jokes against them both at the park she laughed at the colonel and in the cottage at to the former her was probably as far as it regarded only himself perfectly but to the latter it was at first incomprehensible and when its object was understood she hardly knew whether most to laugh at its absurdity or censure i � impertinence for she considered it as an reflection on the co advanced years and on hia forlorn condition as an old bachelor mrs dash wood who could not think a man five younger herself so exceedingly ancient as he appeared to the fancy of her daughter ventured to clear mrs from the probability of to throw ridicule on his age but at least mamma you cannot deny the absurdity of the though you may not think it colonel is certainly younger than mrs hut he is old enough to be my father and if he were ever animated enough to be in love must have long every sensation of the kind it is too ridiculous i when ia a � man to be safe from such if age and infirmity will not m protect him � infirmity said do you call colonel i can easily suppose that his age may appear much greater to you than to my mother but you can hardly deceive yourself as to his having the use of his limbs did not you hear him complain of the and is not that the commonest infirmity of life my dearest child said her mother laughing at this rate you must be in continual terror of m decay and it must seem to you a miracle that my life has been extended to the advanced age of forty mamma you are not doing me justice i know very well that colonel is not old enough to make his friends yet of losing in the course of nature he may live twenty years longer but thirty five has nothing ta do with matrimony perhaps said thirty five and seventeen had better not have any thing to do with matrimony together but if te should by any chance happen to be a woman who is single at seven and twenty i should not think colonel s being thirty five any objection to his a woman of seven and said after sense and sensibility pausing a moment can never hope to feel or inspire affection again and if her home be uncomfortable or her fortune small i can suppose that she might herself to submit to the offices of a nurse for the sake of the provision and security of a wife in his marrying such a woman therefore there would be nothing it would be a compact of convenience and ihe world would be satisfied in my eyes it would be no marriage at all but that would be to me it would seem only a commercial exchange in which each wished to be at the expense of the other it would be impossible i know replied to convince you that a woman of seven and twenty could feel for a man of thirty five any thing near enough to love to make him a desirable companion to her but i must object to your colonel and his wife to the constant confinement of a sick chamber merely because he chanced to yesterday a very cold damp day of a slight feel in one of shoulders but he talked of flannel said and with me a flannel waistcoat is invariably connected with and every species of that can the old and the feeble had he been only in a violent fever you would not have despised him half so much confess is not there something interesting to you in the flushed cheek hollow eye and quick pulse of a fever soon after this upon s leaving the room mamma said i have an alarm on the subject of illness which i cannot conceal from you i am sure edward is not well we have now been here almost a fortnight and jet he does not come nothing but real could occasion this extraordinary delay what else can detain at had you any idea of his coming so soon said mrs had none on the contrary if i have felt any anxiety at all on the subject it has been in that be sometimes showed a want of and readiness in ac sense and sensibility o i mi b m j i talked of hie coming to does expect liim already i have never mentioned it to her but of she must i rather think you are mistaken for when i was talking to her yesterday of getting a new grate for the spare she observed 