The popularity of the Parkers brought them some visitors the very next morning;—amongst them, Sir Edward Denham and his Sister, who having been at Sanditon H—drove on to pay their Compliments; and the duty of Letter-writing being accomplished, Charlotte was settled with Mrs. P. in the Drawing room in time to see them all.—The Denhams were the only ones to excite particular attention. Charlotte was glad to complete her knowledge of the family by an introduction to them, and found them, the better half at least—(for while single, the Gentleman may sometimes be thought the better half, of the pair)—not unworthy notice.—Miss D. was a fine young woman, but cold and reserved, giving the idea of one who felt her consequence with Pride and her Poverty with Discontent, and who was immediately gnawed by the want of an handsomer Equipage than the simple Gig in which they travelled, and which their Groom was leading about still in her sight.—Sir Edward was much her superior in air and manner;—certainly handsome, but yet more to be remarked for his very good address and wish of paying attention and giving pleasure.—He came into the room remarkably well, talked much—and very much to Charlotte, by whom he chanced to be placed—and she soon perceived that he had a fine Countenance, a most pleasing gentleness of voice, and a great deal of Conversation. She liked him.—Sober-minded as she was, she thought him agreable, and did not quarrel with the suspicion of his finding her equally so, which would arise from hisevidently disregarding his Sister's motion to go, and persisting in his station and his discourse.—I make no apologies for my Heroine's vanity.—If there are young Ladies in the World at her time of Life, more dull of Fancy and more careless of pleasing, I know them not, and never wish to know them.—At last, from the low French windows of the Drawing room which commanded the road and all the Paths across the Down, Charlotte and Sir Edward as they sat, could not but observe Lady D. and Miss B. walking by—and there was instantly a slight change in Sir Edward's countenance—with an anxious glance after them as they proceeded—followed by an early proposal to his Sister—not merely for moving, but for walking on together to the Terrace— which altogether gave an hasty turn to Charlotte's fancy, cured her of her halfhour's fever, and placed her in a more capable state of judging, when Sir Edward was gone, of how agreable he had actually been.—'Perhaps there was a good deal in his Air and Address; And his Title did him no harm.' She was very soon in his company again. The first object of the Parkers, when their House was cleared of morning visitors was to get out themselves;—the Terrace was the attraction to all;—Every body who walked, must begin with the Terrace, and there, seated on one of the two Green Benches by the Gravel walk, they found the united Denham Party;—but though united in the Gross, very distinctly divided again—the two superior Ladies being at one end of the bench, and Sir Edward and Miss B. at the other.—Charlotte's first glance told her that Sir Edward's air was that of a Lover.—There could be no doubt of his Devotion to Clara.—How Clara received it, was less obvious—but she was inclined to think not very favourably; for tho' sitting thus apart with him (which probably she might nothave been able to prevent) her air was calm and grave.—That the young Lady at the other end of the Bench was doing Penance, was indubitable. The difference in Miss Denham's countenance, the change from Miss Denham sitting in cold Grandeur in Mrs. Parker's Drawing-room to be kept from silence by the efforts of others, to Miss D. at Lady D.'s Elbow, listening and talking with smiling attention or solicitous eagerness, was very striking—and very amusing—or very melancholy, just as Satire or Morality might prevail. Miss Denham's Character was pretty well decided with Charlotte. Sir Edward's required longer Observation. He surprised her by quitting Clara immediately on their all joining and agreeing to walk, and by addressing his attentions entirely to herself.—Stationing himself close by her, he seemed to mean to detach her as much as possible from the rest of the Party and to give her the whole of his Conversation. He began, in a tone of great Taste and Feeling, to talk of the Sea and the Sea shore—and ran with Energy through all the usual Phrases employed in praise of their Sublimity, and deive of the undescribable Emotions they excite in the Mind of Sensibility.—The terrific Grandeur of the Ocean in a Storm, its glassy surface in a calm, its Gulls and its Samphire, and the deep fathoms of its Abysses, its quick vicissitudes, its direful Deceptions, its Mariners tempting it in Sunshine and overwhelmed by the sudden Tempest, All were eagerly and fluently touched;—rather commonplace perhaps—but doing very well from the Lips of a handsome Sir Edward,—and she could not but think him a Man of Feeling—till he began to stagger her by the number of his Quotations, and the bewilderment of some of his sentences.—'Do you remember,' said he, 'Scotts' beautiful Lines on the Sea?—Oh! what a deionthey convey!—They are never out of my Thoughts when I walk here.—That Man who can read them unmoved must have the nerves of an Assassin!—Heaven defend me from meeting such a Man un-armed.'—'What deion do you mean?'—said Charlotte. 'I remember none at this moment, of the Sea, in either of Scotts' Poems.'—'Do not you indeed?—Nor can I exactly recall the beginning at this moment—But—you cannot have forgotten his deion of Woman.—"Oh! Woman in our Hours of Ease —"
Delicious! Delicious!—Had he written nothing more, he would have been Immortal. And then again, that unequalled, unrivalled address to Parental affection—"Some feelings are to Mortals given.
