The Crofts had placed themselves in lodgings in Gay Street, perfectly

to Sir Walter's satisfaction. He was not at all ashamed of the

acquaintance, and did, in fact, think and talk a great deal more about

the Admiral, than the Admiral ever thought or talked about him.

The Crofts knew quite as many people in Bath as they wished for, and

considered their intercourse with the Elliots as a mere matter of form,

and not in the least likely to afford them any pleasure. They brought

with them their country habit of being almost always together. He was

ordered to walk to keep off the gout, and Mrs Croft seemed to go shares

with him in everything, and to walk for her life to do him good. Anne

saw them wherever she went. Lady Russell took her out in her carriage

almost every morning, and she never failed to think of them, and never

failed to see them. Knowing their feelings as she did, it was a most

attractive picture of happiness to her. She always watched them as

long as she could, delighted to fancy she understood what they might be

talking of, as they walked along in happy independence, or equally

delighted to see the Admiral's hearty shake of the hand when he

encountered an old friend, and observe their eagerness of conversation

when occasionally forming into a little knot of the navy, Mrs Croft

looking as intelligent and keen as any of the officers around her.

Anne was too much engaged with Lady Russell to be often walking

herself; but it so happened that one morning, about a week or ten days

after the Croft's arrival, it suited her best to leave her friend, or

her friend's carriage, in the lower part of the town, and return alone

to Camden Place, and in walking up Milsom Street she had the good

fortune to meet with the Admiral. He was standing by himself at a

printshop window, with his hands behind him, in earnest contemplation

of some print, and she not only might have passed him unseen, but was

obliged to touch as well as address him before she could catch his

notice. When he did perceive and acknowledge her, however, it was done

with all his usual frankness and good humour. "Ha! is it you? Thank

you, thank you. This is treating me like a friend. Here I am, you

see, staring at a picture. I can never get by this shop without

stopping. But what a thing here is, by way of a boat! Do look at it.

Did you ever see the like? What queer fellows your fine painters must

be, to think that anybody would venture their lives in such a shapeless

old cockleshell as that? And yet here are two gentlemen stuck up in it

mightily at their ease, and looking about them at the rocks and

mountains, as if they were not to be upset the next moment, which they

certainly must be. I wonder where that boat was built!" (laughing

heartily); "I would not venture over a horsepond in it. Well,"

(turning away), "now, where are you bound? Can I go anywhere for you,

or with you? Can I be of any use?"




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