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the prettiest girl in the room; and when they see you standing up
with somebody else, they will quiz me famously."

"Oh, no; they will never think of me, after such a description as
that."

"By heavens, if they do not, I will kick them out of the room for
blockheads. What chap have you there?" Catherine satisfied his
curiosity. "Tilney," he repeated. "Hum -- I do not know him. A
good figure of a man; well put together. Does he want a horse?
Here is a friend of mine, Sam Fletcher, has got one to sell that
would suit anybody. A famous clever animal for the road -- only
forty guineas. I had fifty minds to buy it myself, for it is one
of my maxims always to buy a good horse when I meet with one; but
it would not answer my purpose, it would not do for the field. I
would give any money for a real good hunter. I have three now, the
best that ever were backed. I would not take eight hundred guineas
for them. Fletcher and I mean to get a house in Leicestershire,
against the next season. It is so d -- uncomfortable, living at
an inn."

This was the last sentence by which he could weary Catherine's
attention, for he was just then borne off by the resistless pressure
of a long string of passing ladies. Her partner now drew near,
and said, "That gentleman would have put me out of patience, had
he stayed with you half a minute longer. He has no business to
withdraw the attention of my partner from me. We have entered into
a contract of mutual agreeableness for the space of an evening, and
all our agreeableness belongs solely to each other for that time.
Nobody can fasten themselves on the notice of one, without injuring
the rights of the other. I consider a country-dance as an emblem
of marriage. Fidelity and complaisance are the principal duties of
both; and those men who do not choose to dance or marry themselves,
have no business with the partners or wives of their neighbours."

"But they are such very different things!"

" -- That you think they cannot be compared together."

"To be sure not. People that marry can never part, but must go and
keep house together. People that dance only stand opposite each
other in a long room for half an hour."

"And such is your definition of matrimony and dancing. Taken in
that light certainly, their resemblance is not striking; but I think
I could place them in such a view. You will allow, that in both,
man has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal;
that in both, it is an engagement between man and woman, formed
for the advantage of each; and that when once entered into, they
belong exclusively to each other till the moment of its dissolution;
that it is their duty, each to endeavour to give the other no cause
for wishing that he or she had bestowed themselves elsewhere, and
their best interest to keep their own imaginations from wandering
towards the perfections of their neighbours, or fancying that they
should have been better off with anyone else.

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