Chapter 6

During the week of mourning, the intercourse between Moseley Hall and the
rectory was confined to messages and notes of inquiry after each other's
welfare: but the visit of the Moseleys to the deanery had been returned;
and the day after the appearance of the obituary paragraph, the family of
the latter dined by invitation at the Hall. Colonel Egerton had recovered
the use of his leg, and was included in the party. Between this gentleman
and Mr. Benfield there appeared, from the first moment of their
introduction, a repugnance which was rather increased by time, and which
the old gentleman manifested by a demeanor loaded with the overstrained
ceremony of the day, and which, in the colonel, only showed itself by
avoiding, when possible, all intercourse with the object of his aversion.
Both Sir Edward and Lady Moseley, on the contrary, were not slow in
manifesting their favorable impressions in behalf of the gentleman. The
latter, in particular, having ascertained to her satisfaction that he was
the undoubted heir to the title, and most probably to the estates of his
uncle, Sir Edgar Egerton, felt herself strongly disposed to encourage an
acquaintance she found so agreeable, and to which she could see no
reasonable objection. Captain Jarvis, who was extremely offensive to her,
from his vulgar familiarity, she barely tolerated, from the necessity of
being civil, and keeping up sociability in the neighborhood. It is true,
she could not help being surprised that a gentleman, as polished, as the
colonel, could find any pleasure in an associate like his friend, or even
in the hardly more softened females of his family; then again, the
flattering suggestion would present itself, that possibly he might have
seen Emily at Bath, or Jane elsewhere, and availed himself of the
acquaintance of young Jarvis to get into their neighborhood. Lady Moseley
had never been vain, or much interested about the disposal of her own
person, previously to her attachment to her husband: but her daughters
called forth not a little of her natural pride--we had almost said of her
selfishness.

The attentions of the colonel were of the most delicate and insinuating
kind; and Mrs. Wilson several times turned away in displeasure at herself,
for listening with too much satisfaction to nothings, uttered in an
agreeable manner, or, what was worse, false sentiments supported with the
gloss of language and a fascinating deportment. The anxiety of this lady
on behalf of Emily kept her ever on the alert, when chance, or any chain
of circumstances, threw her in the way of forming new connexions of any
kind; and of late, as her charge approached the period of life her sex
were apt to make that choice from which there is no retreat, her
solicitude to examine