“Very true,” said Henry, “and this is a very nice day; and we are taking a very nice walk; and you are two very nice young ladies.  Oh, it is a very nice word indeed—­it does for everything!  Originally perhaps, it was applied only to express neatness, propriety, delicacy, or refinement; people were nice in their dress, in their sentiments, or in their choice.  But now every commendation on every subject is comprised in that one word.”

Meanwhile, Catherine was required to interest herself in her friend’s love affairs.  Isabella surprised her one day with the news that she was engaged to her brother James; and, obviously under the impression that her lover was the heir of a wealthy man, seemed to wonder whether his parents would acquiesce in the engagement.  But despite her affection for James, she danced with Mr. Tilney’s elder brother, Captain Tilney, at a ball which was given while her betrothed was absent on the necessary visit to his parents; and when letters were received from him, announcing their consent to the match and the agreement of Mr. Morland to resign a living of four hundred pounds to his son and to bequeath to him by will an estate of the same value, Isabella looked grave first at the smallness of the income, and then at the fact that it would be nearly three years before James would be old enough to take it.

Meantime, she continued to flirt rather openly with Captain Tilney, much to James’ uneasiness and to his sister’s distress.  But Catherine was to some extent reassured as to the captain’s conduct by his brother Henry, and she was so overjoyed by receiving an invitation from General Tilney to pay a visit to Northanger Abbey, his beautiful country seat, that a parting interview with Isabella and James, at which he was in excellent spirits and she most engagingly placid, left her blissfully convinced that the behaviour of the lovers was a model of judicious affection.

IV.—­Romance at Northanger Abbey

The Tilney party set out for the Abbey in great state, the ladies in the general’s chaise and four, with postilions and numerous outriders, and the general and Henry in the latter’s curricle.  But at the first stage the general proposed that Catherine should take his place in the curricle that she might “see as much of the country as possible;” and, for the rest of the journey she was tete-a-tete with Henry, who amused himself by rallying her upon the sliding panels, ghastly tapestry, funereal beds, vaulted chambers, and kindred uncanny apparatus which, judging from her favourite kind of fiction, she must be expecting to find at the Abbey.

As a matter of fact, Northanger, though it comprised some parts of the old Abbey, turned out to be a building thoroughly modernized and improved.  Notwithstanding, Catherine could not restrain her imagination from running riot just a little.  A large cedar chest, curiously inlaid and provided with silver handles, first attracted her attention.  But this was soon found to contain merely a white cotton counterpane.  A high old-fashioned ebony cabinet, which she noticed in her bedroom just before stepping into bed, struck her as offering more promise of romantic interest.  Even this, after a most thrilling search, in the midst of which her candle went out, yielded nothing better than an inventory of linen.