this was the only point of relief in every other respect in looking around her or penetrating forward she saw more to distrust and to apprehend she was concerned for the disappointment and pain lady would be feeling for the which must be hanging over her father and sister and had all the distress of many evils without knowing how to any one of them she was most thankful for her own knowledge of him she had never considered herself as entitled to reward for not an old friend like mrs smith but here was a reward indeed springing from it mrs smith had been able to tell her what no one else could have done could the knowledge have been extended through her family but this was a vain idea she must talk to lady tell her consult with her and having done her best wait the event with as much composure as possible and after all her greatest want of composure would be in that quarter of the mind which could not be opened to lady in that flow of anxieties and fears which must be all to herself she on home that she had as she intended escaped seeing mr that he had called and paid them a long morning visit hut hardly had she herself and felt safe till to morrow when she heard that he was coming again in the evening i had not the smallest intention of asking him said with carelessness bat he gave so many hints so mrs clay says at least indeed i do say it i never saw any body in my life spell harder for an invitation poor man i was really in pain for him for your hard hearted sister miss anne seems bent on cruelty oh cried elizabeth i have been rather too much used to the game to be soon overcome by a gentleman s hints however when i found how excessively he was that he should miss my this morning i gave way immediately for i would never really omit an opportunity of bringing him and sir walter together they appear to so mu � advantage in company with each other each so pleasantly mr looking up with so much respect quite delightful cried mrs clay not daring however to turn her eyes towards anne exactly like father and son i dear miss may i not say father and son oh i lay no on any body s words if you will have such ideas but upon m v word i am scarcely sensible of his attentions being beyond those of other men my dear miss i exclaimed mrs clay lifting up her hands and eyes and sinking all the rest of her astonishment in a convenient silence my dear you need not be so alarmed about him i did invite him you know i sent him away with smiles when i found he was really going to his friends at park for the whole day to morrow i had compassion on him anne admired the good acting of the friend in being able to show such pleasure as she did in the expectation and in the actual arrival of the very person whose presence must really be interfering with her prime object it was impossible but that mrs clay must hate the sight of mr and yet she could assume a most obliging placid look and appear satisfied with the of only half as much to sir walter as i e would have done otherwise to anne herself it was most distressing to see mr enter the room and quite painful to have him approach and speak to her she had been used before to feel that he could not be always quite sincere but now e saw in every thing his attentive deference to her father contrasted with his former language was odious and when she thought of his cruel conduct towards mrs smith she could hardly bear the sight of his present smiles and or the sound of his artificial good sentiments she meant to avoid any such alteration of manners as might provoke a remonstrance on his side it was a great object with her to escape all or but it was her intention to be as decidedly cool to him as might be with their relationship and to as quietly as she could the few steps of unnecessary intimacy she had been gradually led along she was accordingly more guarded and more cool than she had been the night before he wanted to her curiosity again as to how and where he could have heard her formerly praised wanted very much to be gratified by more but the charm was broken he found that the heat and animation of a public room were necessary to his modest cousin s vanity he found at least that it was not to be done now by any of those attempts which he could hazard among the too commanding claims of the others he only that it was a subject acting now exactly against interest bringing immediately into her thoughts all those parts of his conduct which were least she had some satisfaction in finding that he was really going out of bath the next morning going early and that he would be gone the greater part of two days he was invited again to place the very evening of his return but from thursday to saturday evening his absence was certain it was bad enough that a mrs clay should be always before her but that a deeper should be added to their party seemed the destruction of eveiy thing like peace and comfort it was so humiliating to reflect on the constant deception practised on her father and to the various sources of tion preparing for them mrs s selfishness was not so nor so as his and anne would have for the marriage at once with all it evils to be 