“But then you spend your time so much more rationally in the country.”

“Do I?”

“Do you not?”

“I do not believe there is much difference.”

“Here you are in pursuit only of amusement all day long.”

“And so I am at home —­ only I do not find so much of it.  I walk about here, and so I do there; but here I see a variety of people in every street, and there I can only go and call on Mrs. Allen.”

Mr. Tilney was very much amused.

“Only go and call on Mrs. Allen!” he repeated.  “What a picture of intellectual poverty!  However, when you sink into this abyss again, you will have more to say.  You will be able to talk of Bath, and of all that you did here.”

“Oh!  Yes.  I shall never be in want of something to talk of again to Mrs. Allen, or anybody else.  I really believe I shall always be talking of Bath, when I am at home again —­ I do like it so very much.  If I could but have Papa and Mamma, and the rest of them here, I suppose I should be too happy!  James’s coming (my eldest brother) is quite delightful —­ and especially as it turns out that the very family we are just got so intimate with are his intimate friends already.  Oh!  Who can ever be tired of Bath?”

“Not those who bring such fresh feelings of every sort to it as you do.  But papas and mammas, and brothers, and intimate friends are a good deal gone by, to most of the frequenters of Bath —­ and the honest relish of balls and plays, and everyday sights, is past with them.”  Here their conversation closed, the demands of the dance becoming now too importunate for a divided attention.

Soon after their reaching the bottom of the set, Catherine perceived herself to be earnestly regarded by a gentleman who stood among the lookers-on, immediately behind her partner.  He was a very handsome man, of a commanding aspect, past the bloom, but not past the vigour of life; and with his eye still directed towards her, she saw him presently address Mr. Tilney in a familiar whisper.  Confused by his notice, and blushing from the fear of its being excited by something wrong in her appearance, she turned away her head.  But while she did so, the gentleman retreated, and her partner, coming nearer, said, “I see that you guess what I have just been asked.  That gentleman knows your name, and you have a right to know his.  It is General Tilney, my father.”

Catherine’s answer was only “Oh!” —­ but it was an “Oh!” expressing everything needful:  attention to his words, and perfect reliance on their truth.  With real interest and strong admiration did her eye now follow the general, as he moved through the crowd, and “How handsome a family they are!” was her secret remark.