Chapter 22 Chapter Twenty

The Allens mourned the loss of their young friend.Catherine's good temper and pleasant disposition made her an invaluable companion.In promoting her pleasure, the Allens greatly increased their own.She was happy to go with Miss Tilney, however, and it was not in their power to object.Besides, they themselves were only going to stay in Bath another week, and they would not be lonely for long now that Catherine was away from them.Mr. Allen sent Catherine to breakfast in Milsom Street, and saw her seated among her new friends, and received the warmest welcome.Catherine was overwhelmed with excitement at finding herself a member of the Tilney family, and fearful that she should behave inappropriately to keep their affection for her, and during the awkward first five minutes she was tempted to follow Mr. Allen. Go back to Pulteney Street.

Miss Tilney's politeness, and Henry's smile, soon dispelled some of Catherine's embarrassment, but she was still uncomfortable, and not entirely reassured by the General's own constant entertainment.Although this seemed unreasonable, she wondered if she would feel more at ease if the general cared less about her.Worrying about her safety, he kept asking her to eat this and that. Although she had never seen such a rich breakfast, he repeatedly expressed his fear that these dishes were not to the taste, which made her never forget that she was a guest.She felt totally unworthy of such respect, so she didn't know how to respond.

The General waited impatiently for the eldest son to come out, and when Captain Tilney finally appeared, he complained that he was lazy, which made Catherine's peace even more difficult.To her great pain, the father's scolding was so severe that it seemed out of proportion to the son's fault.She was all the more troubled when she discovered that the reprimand was chiefly for her sake, and that Captain Tilney was being reprimanded chiefly for disrespecting her.This put her in an awkward position.Although she sympathized with Captain Tierney very much, the captain didn't have a good impression of her anymore.

Captain Tilney listened to his father's lecture in silence, without answering a word, which confirmed her one fear: the real reason for the captain's late rise might be that Isabella was disturbed and disturbed at night. Can't fall asleep for a long time.This was the first real time Catherine had been with him, and she wished she could see him now.But when his father was in the house.She hardly ever heard him speak.Even afterwards, because his emotions were so affected, she could not make out what he said, but he whispered to Elinor: How glad I am that you are all gone! The rush before leaving was unpleasant.The box was brought down after the clock struck eleven, when the General had ordered him to be out of Milsom Street.His overcoat was taken down, but instead of being put on immediately, it was spread out on the buggy in which he and his son rode.The middle stool had not been drawn out, though the buggy had room for three, and his daughter's maid had piled it so full of packages that Miss Moran had no place to sit.General Tilney was so disturbed as he helped her into the carriage that Miss Morland managed to save her new desk from being thrown into the street.

At last the door of the carriage in which the three women were in was closed, and the horses set off at the deliberate pace which a gentleman's four fat horses usually use when they have thirty miles to cover. .The distance from Bath to Northanger Abbey was exactly thirty miles, and it was now to be divided into two equal parts.Catherine's spirits were refreshed as soon as the carriage was driven out, for she felt at ease with Miss Tilney.She was full of interest in this completely unfamiliar road, the monastery in front, and the carriage behind. She took a last look at Bath without regret, and saw milestones unconsciously.

Then, a weary wait of two hours in Petite France, with nothing to do but eat and walk, although I was not hungry and there was nothing to see around.Originally, she was very envious of their travel style, envious of this fashionable four-horse carriage, the left-hand driver in a beautiful livery was regularly rising and falling on the saddle, and many attendants sat upright on the horses .However, due to the many troubles caused by this kind of situation, her envy also decreased a little bit.The delay would have been nothing if everyone had been very affectionate, for General Tilney, though very pleasant, seemed to be overwhelmed by his two children, and he was almost the only one to be heard talking.Catherine saw him dissatisfied with everything in the inn, and angry with the waiter when he got impatient, and grew in awe of him, until two hours seemed to be four.

However, at last the order to depart was issued.For the rest of the way, the General proposed, to Catherine's great surprise, that Catherine should sit in his son's carriage instead of him.The weather is lovely and I'd love for you to see as much of the country as you can. As soon as General Tilney proposed the plan, Catherine blushed, remembering Mr. Allen's opinion of young people in open carriages.At first she thought of refusing, but on second thought, she had great respect for General Tilney's opinion, and he would not give her bad advice.In a few minutes, therefore, she was in Henry's buggy, feeling happier than anyone else.After a short ride she did realize that a buggy was the best carriage in the world, and a four-horse four-wheeler certainly looked mighty to go.But it was a clumsy, troublesome thing after all, and she would not easily forget that it had rested for two hours in Petite France.It is enough for a buggy to rest only half the time.Its brisk little horse wanted to run at full speed, and if the general hadn't insisted on letting his carriage lead, they could easily pass in half a minute.However, the advantage of the buggy is not only that the horse is good. Henry's driving skills are also really superb, smooth and stable, without any trouble, neither bragging to the lady, nor cursing the horse.How different he was from the gentleman driver with whom Catherine could only be compared!And his hat, which fit perfectly on his head, and the innumerable shawls on his overcoat, which looked both dignified and fitting!Sitting in his car, second only to dancing with him, was undoubtedly the greatest pleasure in the world.

She was delighted, among other pleasures, to hear him praise herself, at least for his sister, to thank her for coming, and to consider her presence a friend and a great gratitude.He said that his sister was in a lonely situation, that she had no female companions at home, and that, in addition to the frequent absence of her father, she sometimes had no company at all. How is that possible?said Catherine, are you not with her? Northanger Abbey is only half my home, I have my own home at Woodston, nearly twenty miles from my father's, and I need to spend part of my time there. You must feel very sorry for this!

I was always sad to leave Eleanor. yes.But besides loving your sister, you must love this monastery very much!I am used to living in a home like Northanger Abbey, and I must feel very awkward when I come to an ordinary vicarage. Henry smiled and said: You already have a good impression of this monastery. Of course it is, isn't it an elegant ancient temple, as one sees in books? There have been many horrible incidents in the buildings seen in the books, are you ready to see them?do you have the courageDo you dare to see those sliding panels and tapestries? ah!some.I don't think I'm easily afraid, because there are people in the room.What's more, this house hasn't been empty all the time, it hasn't been unoccupied for many years, and you don't come back to the house suddenly without prior notice like normal situations.

Of course it is.We didn't have to feel our way into a hall dimly lit by the embers of a firewood, and we didn't bother to make a bed on the floor. There were no windows, no doors, no furniture.You should know, however, that in whatever manner a young lady is introduced into such a dwelling, she must live separately from the members of her family.When everyone returned to their own end in comfort, she was led solemnly up another flight of stairs by the old housekeeper Dorothy, and walked into a room along dark corridors.The house had been unoccupied since a relative died there some twenty years ago.Can you stand such a treat?You find yourself in such a gloomy room, too high and too big, dimly lit by a single lamp, life-size portraits painted on tapestries all around the walls, The quilts are all dark green woolen.Or fuchsia velvet, just like a funeral, don't you feel hairy at this time?

oh!But I'm sure it won't happen to me. With what apprehension do you examine the furniture in your room?What will you find?There were no tables, dressers, wardrobes, or cupboards, except perhaps a broken lute on one side, and a large chest of drawers that would not open no matter how hard you tried, on the other, and above the fireplace was a portrait of a handsome warrior whose features made you wonder Fascinated, you cannot take your eyes off the portrait.At this moment, Dorothy was also attracted by the expression on your face, and stared at you anxiously, giving you a few elusive hints.Besides, to cheer you up, she said something to make you think that your side of the monastery must be haunted.She also tells you that there is not a single servant near you.After these macabre words, she salutes out, and you hear her footsteps go further and further until you hear a final echo.When you timidly tried to knock the door, you were even more horrified to find that the door was unlocked. oh!How dreadful, Mr. Tilney!It's really like a book, but it never happens to me.Your housekeeper will never be Dorothy.Well, what happened next? Perhaps the first night had nothing more to frighten.Having overcome your overwhelming fear of the bed, you went to bed and slept disturbedly for several hours.But, on the second night after your arrival, or at the latest the third night, you are very likely to be caught in a storm.A thunder rumbled in the nearby mountains, as if it was about to shake the entire building down.With the thunder, and the terrible gusts of wind, while your lamp is still on, you may well fancy yourself to find that one part of the tapestry moves more than the rest.This is the time that makes you most curious. Of course you can't suppress this curiosity, so you immediately get up from the bed, put on your dressing gown in a hurry, and start to find out the mystery.After a little research, you will find that there is a very clever weaving in the tapestry.No matter how careful you are, it is not easy to see.As soon as you open the place, there is a door with only a few thick bars and a padlock, which you open with a few struggles.You go through the door with a lamp and into a vaulted hut. No, never.I was scared to death, how could I do such a thing. What!When Dorothy told you that there was a secret passage between your room and St. Anthony's Church, two miles away?Are you daunted by such a simple adventure?no, I can not.You would go into this vaulted hut, and through this hut, and into several other such huts, and find nothing extraordinary.There might be a dagger in one room, a few drops of blood in another, the remains of an instrument of torture in a third, but there was nothing unusual about it.Your lights are going out and you are going back to your room.As you pass the igloo, however, your eye catches another old-fashioned ebony and gilt-mounted chest of drawers.Although you have carefully checked the furniture before, you have ignored this cabinet.With an irrepressible sense of foreboding, you hurried to the cabinet, unlocked the folding door, and searched every drawer.However, after searching for a long time, nothing of value was found, except perhaps a large pile of diamonds.Finally, though, you hit the hidden spring and opened the drawer inside, revealing a roll of papers, which you grabbed to find a number of manuscripts.You hurried back to your room as if you had found a treasure, Who would have thought that you just recognized this sentence Oh, you, whoever you are, once these records of the fateful Matilda fall into your hands Your lamp Suddenly it goes out, leaving you in total darkness. Oh, don't, don't!don't say that.Well, let's go on. But Henry, too amused by the interest he aroused, could go on.From content to tone, he can no longer pretend to be serious.He had to implore her to use her imagination as she read about Matilda's misadventures.As soon as Catherine had recovered her composure, she was ashamed of her impatience, and told him sincerely that she had listened to him attentively, and was not in the least afraid of actually encountering what he said.She was sure that Miss Tilney would never have placed her in a room like the one he spoke of.She wasn't afraid at all. Catherine's eagerness to see Northanger Abbey was interrupted for a moment by Henry talking of other matters.As the journey drew to a close, she became impatient again.She looked forward with reverence at every turn, to see its thick walls of gray stone rising among the old oaks, and the afterglow of the sun reflecting off its long Gothic windows. , looks very magnificent.Who would have thought that the house was so low, she walked through the gate of the number room (the former refers to the messenger room or the person who conveys things).When I entered the gardens of Northanger Abbey, I found that I didn't even see an ancient chimney. She knew she shouldn't be surprised, but she certainly wasn't expecting her to drive through the door this way.Passing through two rows of modern-looking halls, it was strange and disappointing to find herself so easily entering the monastery's precincts, the carriage speeding along the smooth and flat gravel road, without obstacles, panic, or solemnity. coordination.However, she didn't have much time to think about these things. Suddenly, a gust of rain blew head-on, so that she could no longer look at this and that, and only cared about protecting her new straw hat.In fact, she had come to the foot of the monastery wall, jumped out of the carriage with Henry's help, hid under the old porch, and even ran into the hall, where her friends and the general were waiting to welcome her, while her pain for her future He didn't have any terrible premonition, and he didn't suspect any horrible scenes in this solemn building in the past.The breeze didn't seem to have picked up the screams of the murderer yet, but brought her a drizzle of rain.She shook her clothes vigorously, preparing to be ushered into the shared living room, and at the same time thinking about where she had come. A monastery!Yes, what a pleasure to be there!But, looking around the room, she could not help wondering whether what she saw made her feel that way.The room is full of rich and magnificent furniture, which is completely modern.As for the fireplace, she had expected to see a great deal of rigid ancient carving, who would have guessed that it was entirely Langfordian (Translator's Note: Sir Benjamin Thompson "1753|1814": also known as Earl of Longford, inventor of the open fireplace.), of plain but handsome marble slabs, with very handsome English china.She looked at the windows with special trust, because she had heard the general say that he had taken care to keep them Gothic out of respect, but on closer inspection it was far from what she had imagined.True, the pointed arches were preserved, the forms were Gothic, and there were even casements, but every pane of glass was too big, too clear, too bright!In Catherine's imagination she wanted to see the tiniest panes, the heaviest stone frames, stained glass, mud, and cobwebs.For her, the change was harrowing. The General, noticing her glances about her, began to talk of the smallness of the room, of its poor furniture, that everything was of everyday use, merely for comfort, and so on.However, he said smugly that there were several rooms in Northanger Abbey that were worth her seeing, and when he was about to mention the luxurious gilded room in particular, he pulled out his watch and suddenly stopped talking, astonished. Announcement: five o'clock in twenty minutes!The remark seemed to be an order to dismiss, and the way Catherine found Miss Tilney urging her to go away convinced her that at Northanger Abbey family hours must be strictly observed. Everyone passed through the spacious and tall hall, climbed the wide and shiny oak staircase, passed many stairs and turns, and came to a wide and long corridor.On one side of the corridor is a sliding door, and on the other side is a row of windows, which illuminate the corridor brightly.As soon as Catherine saw a quadrangle outside the window, she was led into a room by Miss Tilney. Miss Tilney only said that she hoped that she would feel comfortable, and left in a hurry. clothing.