Her explanation, defective only in being--from her irritation of nerves and shortness of breath--no explanation at all, was instantly given.

"I am come in a great hurry--It was all a mistake--I never promised to go--I told them from the first I could not go .-- I ran away in a great hurry to explain it .-- I did not care what you thought of me .-- I would not stay for the servant." The business, however, though not perfectly elucidated by this speech, soon ceased to be a puzzle.

Catherine found that John Thorpe had given the message; and Miss Tilney had no scruple in owning herself greatly surprised by it.

But whether her brother had still exceeded her in resentment, Catherine, though she instinctively addressed herself as much to one as to the other in her vindication, had no means of knowing.
Whatever might have been felt before her arrival, her eager declarations immediately made every look and sentence as friendly as she could desire.
The affair thus happily settled, she was introduced by Miss Tilney to her father, and received by him with such ready, such solicitous politeness as recalled Thorpe's information to her mind, and made her think with pleasure that he might be sometimes depended on.

To such anxious attention was the general's civility carried, that not aware of her extraordinary swiftness in entering the house, he was quite angry with the servant whose neglect had reduced her to open the door of the apartment herself.