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Northanger Abbey-Part29_Jane Austen(1775-1817)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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with his daughter to the house. He would follow them



in a quarter of an hour. Again they parted--but Eleanor

was called back in half a minute to receive a strict charge



against taking her friend round the abbey till his return.

This second instance of his anxiety to delay what she



so much wished for struck Catherine as very remarkable.

CHAPTER 23



An hour passed away before the general

came in, spent, on the part of his young guest,



in no very favourable consideration of his character.

"This lengthened absence, these solitary rambles, did not



speak a mind at ease, or a conscience void of reproach."

At length he appeared; and, whatever might have been the



gloom of his meditations, he could still smile with them.

Miss Tilney, understanding in part her friend's



curiosity to see the house, soon revived the subject;

and her father being, contrary to Catherine's expectations,



unprovided with any pretence for further delay,

beyond that of stopping five minutes to order refreshments



to be in the room by their return, was at last ready

to escort them.



They set forward; and, with a grandeur of air,

a dignified step, which caught the eye, but could not



shake the doubts of the well-read Catherine, he led

the way across the hall, through the common drawing-room



and one useless antechamber, into a room magnificent

both in size and furniture--the real drawing-room, used



only with company of consequence. It was very noble--very

grand--very charming!--was all that Catherine had to say,



for her indiscriminating eye scarcely discerned the colour

of the satin; and all minuteness of praise, all praise



that had much meaning, was supplied by the general:

the costliness or elegance of any room's fitting-up



could be nothing to her; she cared for no furniture

of a more modern date than the fifteenth century.



When the general had satisfied his own curiosity,

in a close examination of every well-known ornament,



they proceeded into the library, an apartment, in its way,

of equal magnificence, exhibiting a collection of books,



on which an humble man might have looked with pride.

Catherine heard, admired, and wondered with more genuine



feeling than before--gathered all that she could from

this storehouse of knowledge, by running over the titles



of half a shelf, and was ready to proceed. But suites

of apartments did not spring up with her wishes.



Large as was the building, she had already visited

the greatest part; though, on being told that,



with the addition of the kitchen, the six or seven rooms

she had now seen surrounded three sides of the court,



she could scarcely believe it, or overcome the suspicion

of there being many chambers secreted. It was some relief,



however, that they were to return to the rooms in

common use, by passing through a few of less importance,



looking into the court, which, with occasional passages,

not wholly unintricate, connected the different sides;



and she was further soothed in her progress by being told

that she was treading what had once been a cloister,



having traces of cells pointed out, and observing several

doors that were neither opened nor explained to her--by



finding herself successively in a billiard-room, and in

the general's private apartment, without comprehending



their connection, or being able to turn aright when she

left them; and lastly, by passing through a dark little room,



owning Henry's authority, and strewed with his litter

of books, guns, and greatcoats.



From the dining-room, of which, though already seen,

and always to be seen at five o'clock, the general



could not forgo the pleasure of pacing out the length,

for the more certain information of Miss Morland,



as to what she neither doubted nor cared for,

they proceeded by quick communication to the kitchen--



the ancient kitchen of the convent, rich in the massy walls

and smoke of former days, and in the stoves and hot






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