A Lily Pond

A Lily Pond
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
American Day Dream
As soon as they were out of sight, the ladies of Captain Wentworth's party began talking of them. ¡¡¡¡ "Mr Elliot does not dislike his cousin, I fancy?" ¡¡¡¡ "Oh! no, that is clear enough. One can guess what will happen there. He is always with them; half lives in the family, I believe. What a very good-looking man!" ¡¡¡¡ "Yes, and Miss Atkinson, who dined with him once at the Wallises, says he is the most agreeable man she ever was in company with." ¡¡¡¡ "She is pretty, I think; Anne Elliot; very pretty, when one comes to look at her. It is not the fashion to say so, but I confess I admire her more than her sister." ¡¡¡¡ "Oh! so do I." ¡¡¡¡ "And so do I. No comparison. But the men are all wild after Miss Elliot. Anne is too delicate for them." ¡¡¡¡ Anne would have been particularly obliged to her cousin, if he would have walked by her side all the way to Camden Place, without saying a word. She had never found it so difficult to listen to him, though nothing could exceed his solicitude and care, and though his subjects were principally such as were wont to be always interesting: praise, warm, just, and discriminating, of Lady Russell, and insinuations highly rational against Mrs Clay. But just now she could think only of Captain Wentworth. She could not understand his present feelings, whether he were really suffering much from disappointment or not; and till that point were settled, she could not be quite herself.