omfort they would much rather have remained, at least all the
morning, in Mrs. Jennings's house; but it was not a thing to be urged
against the wishes of everybody. Their hours were therefore made over
to Lady Middleton and the two Miss Steeles, by whom their company, in
fact was as little valued, as it was professedly sought.

They had too much sense to be desirable companions to the former; and
by the latter they were considered with a jealous eye, as intruding on
_their_ ground, and sharing the kindness which they wanted to
monopolize. Though nothing could be more polite than Lady Middleton's
behaviour to Elinor and Marianne, she did not really like them at all.
Because they neither flattered herself nor her children, she could not
believe them good-natured; and because they were fond of reading, she
fancied them satirical: perhaps without exactly knowing what it was to
be satirical; but _that_ did not signify. It was censure in common
use, and easily given.

Their presence was a restraint both on her and on Lucy. It checked the
idleness of one, and the business of the other. Lady Middleton was
ashamed of doing nothing before them, and the flattery which Lucy was
proud to think of and administer at other times, she feared they would
despise her for offering. Miss Steele was the least discomposed of the
three, by their presence; and it was in their power to reconcile her
to it entirely. Would either of them only have given her a full and
minute account of the whole affair between Marianne and Mr.
Willoughby, she would have thought herself amply rewarded for the
sacrifice of the best place by the fire after dinner, which their
arrival occasioned. But this conciliation was not granted; for though
she often threw out expressions of pity for her sister to Elinor, and
more than once dropt a reflection on the inconstancy of beaux before
Marianne, no effect was produced, but a look of indifference from the
former, or of disgust in the latter. An effort even yet lighter might
have made her their friend. Would they only have laughed at her about
the Doctor! But so little were they, anymore than the others, inclined
to oblige her, that if Sir John dined from home, she might spend a
whole day without hearing any other raillery on the subject, than what
she was kind enough to bestow on herself.

All these jealousies and discontents, however, were so totally
unsuspected by Mrs. Jennings, that she thought it a delightful thing
f