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"Do they really have to drink port alone?" Miss Char at double speed "Can’t they come any faster?"

"Ah, here they are," Aunt Saffronia said

Jane smelled a entleentlealy bored of trying to seduce the Darcy out of Mr Nobley, secured Colonel Andrews as a partner Jane played opposite Aunt Saffronia As for the rest of the party, Sir Templeton drank frouessed), while Mr Nobley read a book and generally ignored everybody

Jane focused on the rules of whist, losing horribly She felt like hand-washed laundry, rubbed and heavy and ready to be laid out to dry Her routine-addicted brain never handled ties well, and the cards and conversation and exhaustion round herself in her surroundings

Mr Nobley was absorbed in his book She looked left Colonel Andreas grinning at her, his s hot he really was All around her were yelloalls, gaudy Georgian finery, the deliciously historic smell of furniture wax and kerosene She looked down at herself, dressed in foreign fabric, cleage encased in rust-colored satin, slippered feet resting on an Oriental rug She was completely ridiculous At the saround and squeal like a teenager just asked to prom She was here!

And if this were an Austen novel, the characters would be up for a little banter about now Jane cleared her throat

"Mr Nobley, Lady Templeton says Peht Do you enjoy a good dance?"

"Dancing I tolerate," he answered in a dry tone "1 h 1 have never had one"

"Scandalous!" Aunt Saffronia said "You have danced in this drawing roo lady onto a ballrooood dance?"

"Madam, you may choose to understand lared He was, in his subtledear Aunt Saffronia! Wait, no he wasn’t, they were both actors playing parts Being inside this story felt a tad , if this were real, she’d find Mr Nobley’s arrogance annoying and his self-absorption unbearably boring The character deserved a good thrashing

"I suppose the lack in all such occurrences was to be found in your partners, Mr Nobley?" Jane asked

Mr Nobley thought "In theine a dance truly being enjoyable unless both partners find therace, and aptitude, as well as naturally fond of each other"

"One ht," he said, turning in his chair to face her "We are ill-fated in that our society dee in unworthy conversations and dances in order to seear"

"But pray tell, Mr Nobley," Jane said, enthused, "how is one to find out if another is her equal in rank, grace, and aptitude, and how is one to discover a natural fondness, without first engaging in conversations and social gatherings? Would you say a hunter were vulgar when coursing through the fields and only dignified when actually shooting at prey?"

"I think she has you there, Nobley," Colonel Andrews said with a laugh

Mr Nobley’s expression did not change "A hunter need not spend hours with a pheasant to knoouldmore than what it seems, as are hens, foxes, and swans People are no different So to know another’s worth I should not"