
    »Very true, very true, indeed. The very thing that we have always been
rather afraid of; for we should not have liked to have her at such a distance
from us, for months together - not able to come if anything was to happen. But
you see, every thing turns out for the best. They want her (Mr. and Mrs. Dixon)
excessively to come over with Colonel and Mrs. Campbell; quite depend upon it;
nothing can be more kind or pressing than their joint invitation, Jane says, as
you will hear presently; Mr. Dixon does not seem in the least backward in any
attention. He is a most charming young man. Ever since the service he rendered
Jane at Weymouth, when they were out in that party on the water, and she, by the
sudden whirling round of something or other among the sails, would have been
dashed into the sea at once, and actually was all but gone, if he had not, with
the greatest presence of mind, caught hold of her habit - (I can never think of
it without trembling!) - But ever since we had the history of that day, I have
been so fond of Mr. Dixon!«
    »But, in spite of all her friend's urgency, and her own wish of seeing
Ireland, Miss Fairfax prefers devoting the time to you and Mrs. Bates?«
    »Yes - entirely her own doing, entirely her own choice; and Colonel and Mrs.
Campbell think she does quite right, just what they should recommend; and indeed
they particularly wish her to try her native air, as she has not been quite so
well as usual lately.«
    »I am concerned to hear of it. I think they judge wisely. But Mrs. Dixon
must be very much disappointed. Mrs. Dixon, I understand, has no remarkable
degree of personal beauty; is not, by any means, to be compared with Miss
Fairfax.«
    »Oh! no. You are very obliging to say such things - but certainly not. There
is no comparison between them. Miss Campbell always was absolutely plain - but
extremely elegant and amiable.«
    »Yes, that of course.«
    »Jane caught a bad cold, poor thing! so long ago as the 7th of November, (as
I am going to read to you,) and has never been well since. A long time, is not
it, for a cold to hang upon her? She never mentioned it before, because she
would not alarm us. Just like
