A very friendly inquiry after Miss Fairfax, she hoped, might lead the way to a return of old feelings.

The touch seemed immediate.
"Ah! Miss Woodhouse, how kind you are!--I suppose you have heard--and are come to give us joy.

This does not seem much like joy, indeed, in me--( twinkling away a tear or two)--but it will be very trying for us to part with her, after having had her so long, and she has a dreadful headache just now, writing all the morning:--such long letters, you know, to be written to Colonel Campbell, and Mrs.Dixon.

'My dear,' said I, 'you will blind yourself'-- for tears were in her eyes perpetually.
One cannot wonder, one cannot wonder.

It is a great change; and though she is amazingly fortunate--such a situation, I suppose, as no young woman before ever met with on first going out--do not think us ungrateful, Miss Woodhouse, for such surprising good fortune--( again dispersing her tears)--but, poor dear soul! if you were to see what a headache she has.