Page:Fragment of a novel written by Jane Austen.pdf/119

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a short pause—if Miss Esther thinks to talk me into inviting them to come & stay at Sanditon House, she will find herself mistaken.—Matters are altered with me since last Summer you know—.I have Miss Clara with me now, which makes a great difference." She spoke this so seriously that Charlotte instantly saw in it the evidence of real penetration & prepared for some fuller remarks—but it was followed only by—"I have no fancy for having my House as full as an Hotel. I should not chuse to have my 2 Housemaids Time taken up all the morng, in dusting out Bed rooms.—They have Miss Clara's room to put to rights as well as my own every day.—If they had hard Places, they would want Higher Wages.—" For objections of this Nature, Charlotte was not prepared, & she found it

so impossible even to affect simpathy,

that