"Tom," said William, turning to face his cousin fully, "I cannot think what possesses you to talk in this detestable way. Can you not feel how horrible it is? If you care for Miss Thorpe, you cannot think of marrying a girl you meet directly after leaving her, and have only known for a week. Whereas, if you think for one moment of Miss Darcy with the feelings a man ought to have, if marriage is in his mind, how can you possibly go on making comparisons between her and Miss Thorpe? Either way, it is abominable treatment of one of them." "My dear William, you are going to the other extreme. Just now, you told me not to take anything Mrs. Jennings said seriously, yet you are assuming me to be in the most sober earnest all round, when all I want is to give the matter the consideration it deserves. Miss Darcy is very charming, but I am quite heart-whole where she is concerned at present, and so, no doubt, is she as regards me. But everything must have a beginning, and if such difficulties are to be put in way of my marrying Isabella, I could hardly do better than this; at any rate, it is worth thinking of. I shall go home and see how things develop in the course of the weeks. I can always come over again, you know; it is not the ends of the earth." William broke from his cousin with an impatient gesture, and hurried away to another part of the grounds. Mr. Bertram looked after him in surprise, shrugged his shoulders, and returned to the house, to establish himself by the fireside with a newspaper. Many inquiries were made for Mr. Price throughout the afternoon, to which Mr. Bertram could only say that he had seen him last in the garden, and it was not until nearly dinner-time that he reappeared, with a heated, wearied look, and confessed to having walked too far and missed his way in the park.