"No," said he, "my father's hands need not be strengthened, and Frederick's confession of folly need not be forestalled.

He must tell his own story." "But he will tell only half of it." "A quarter would be enough." A day or two passed away and brought no tidings of Captain Tilney.

His brother and sister knew not what to think.

Sometimes it appeared to them as if his silence would be the natural result of the suspected engagement, and at others that it was wholly incompatible with it.
The general, meanwhile, though offended every morning by Frederick's remissness in writing, was free from any real anxiety about him, and had no more pressing solicitude than that of making Miss Morland's time at Northanger pass pleasantly.

He often expressed his uneasiness on this head, feared the sameness of every day's society and employments would disgust her with the place, wished the Lady Frasers had been in the country, talked every now and then of having a large party to dinner, and once or twice began even to calculate the number of young dancing people in the neighbourhood.