Chapter Text
It had been his intention, whatever foolishness he might have been led to commit afterward, to dance with her only once. Henry Tilney paced the confines of his rooms and chastised himself. He should not have indulged himself. He should have known, that even in the days before his family’s arrival, he bore the name Tilney still. If he had done as he ought, Miss Morland could have been nothing but a pleasant memory to him; one he would have been free to return to in idle hours without the slightest detriment to the lady herself. Her character would have remained unknown to him, her artless manner unexamined, the finer point of her understanding lost on him. If he had but danced with her once and not sought any further acquaintance.
He had, however. He had danced with her once and when they met again at the Octagon Room, he had wished to dance with her again. Her refusal should have put an end to it. But such a sorrowful, contrite refusal. His vanity, he had to own, had been too much moved by her, and his interest already won, by her sincerity.
And yet, he wished to believe that that was not all that had brought him to dance with her a second time the following assembly. Could he have known how very much dear Eleanor would delight in her company? Could he have denied her the joys of Miss Morland’s acquaintance, fleeting as they must be, knowing how very lonesome his sister had been the past years.
Too good, too kind Eleanor. Her happiness was at least a more honourable motive to attribute his own guilt to. For the guilt was his, not hers. He should not have gone to speak with Miss Morland at the theatre. There was the gravest fault. Doing so had awakened his father’s interest. To see him dance with her, had already drawn his notice, but it was from that evening onward that the General had begun to distinguish her.
Henry could not understand it, he only knew that it was his doing, and that it must end. No more lively dances, no more country walks, no more self-indulgent conversation merely to prove to himself how readily he made her smile. In a week they would quit Bath, and he would meet with Miss Morland no longer.