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She was gazing on it with the first blush of surprise when Miss Tilney, anxious for her friend's being ready, entered the roo harboured for some minutes an absurd expectation, was then added the shaht in so idle a search "That is a curious old chest, is not it?" said Miss Tilney, as Catherine hastily closed it and turned away to the glass "It is ienerations it has been here How it came to be first put in this rooht ithats and bonnets The worst of it is that its weight makes it difficult to open In that corner, however, it is at least out of the way"

Catherine had no leisure for speech, being at once blushing, tying her gown, and for wise resolutions with the ently hinted her fear of being late; and in half a ether, in an alar the drawing-roo, on the very instant of their entering, pulled the bell with violence, ordered "Dinner to be on table directly!"

Catherine trembled at the emphasis hich he spoke, and sat pale and breathless, in aold chests; and the general, recovering his politeness as he looked at her, spent the rest of his ti her fair friend, as absolutely out of breath from haste, when there was not the least occasion for hurry in the world: but Catherine could not at all get over the double distress of having involved her friend in a lecture and been a great simpleton herself, till they were happily seated at the dinner-table, when the general's coood appetite of her own, restored her to peace The dining-parlour was a noble roo-room than the one in common use, and fitted up in a style of luxury and expense which was almost lost on the unpractised eye of Catherine, who saw little more than its spaciousness and the number of their attendants Of the foreneral, with a very gracious countenance, acknowledged that it was by no h as careless on such subjects as -room as one of the necessaries of life; he supposed, however, "that she must have been used to much better-sized apartments at Mr Allen's?"