`I hope he will be here to-morrow, for I have a question or two to ask him about myself of some consequence. And, my dear, whenever he comes, you had better let him look at little Bella's throat.'

`Oh! my dear sir, her throat is so much better that I have hardly any uneasiness about it. Either bathing has been of the greatest service to her, or else it is to be attributed to an excellent embrocation of Mr. Wingfield's, which we have been applying at times ever since August.'

`It is not very likely, my dear, that bathing should have been of use to her - and if I had known you were wanting an embrocation, I would have spoken to -

`You seem to me to have forgotten Mrs. and Miss Bates,' said Emma, `I have not heard one inquiry after them.'

`Oh! the good Bateses - I am quite ashamed of myself - but you mention them in most of your letters. I hope they are quite well. Good old Mrs. Bates - I will call upon her to-morrow, and take my children. - They are always so pleased to see my children. - And that excellent Miss Bates! - such thorough worthy people! - How are they, sir?'

`Why, pretty well, my dear, upon the whole. But poor Mrs. Bates had a bad cold about a month ago.'

`How sorry I am! But colds were never so prevalent as they have been this autumn. Mr. Wingfield told me that he has never known them more general or heavy - except when it has been quite an influenza.'

`That has been a good deal the case, my dear; but not to the degree you mention. Perry says that colds have been very general, but not so heavy as he has very often known them in November. Perry does not call it altogether a sickly season.'

`No, I do not know that Mr. Wingfield considers it very sickly except -

`Ah! my poor dear child, the truth is, that in London it is always a sickly season. Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be. It is a dreadful thing to have you forced to live there! so far off! - and the air so bad!'

`No, indeed - we are not at all in a bad air. Our part of London is very superior to most others! - You must not confound us with London in general, my dear sir. The neighbourhood of Brunswick Square is very different from almost all the rest. We are so very airy! I should be unwilling, I own, to live in any other part of the town; - there is hardly any other that I could be satisfied to have my children in: but we are so remarkably airy! - Mr. Wingfield thinks the vicinity of Brunswick Square decidedly the most favourable as to air.'

`Ah! my dear, it is not like Hartfield. You make the best of it - but after you have been a week at Hartfield, you are all of you different creatures; you do not look like the same. Now I cannot say, that I think you are any of you looking well at present.'

`I am sorry to hear you say so, sir; but I assure you, excepting those little nervous head-aches and palpitations which I am never entirely free from anywhere, I am quite well myself; and if the children were rather pale before they went to bed, it was only because they were a little more tired than usual, from their journey and the happiness of coming. I hope you will think better of their looks to-morrow; for I assure you Mr. Wingfield told me, that he did not believe he had ever sent us off altogether, in such good case. I trust, at least, that you do not think Mr. Knightley looking ill,' turning her eyes with affectionate anxiety towards her husband.

`Middling, my dear; I cannot compliment you. I think Mr. John Knightley very far from looking well.'

`What is the matter, sir? - Did you speak to me?' cried Mr. John Knightley, hearing his own name.