The Courtship of Mrs Elton:
Part III

The ladies took in all the sights and card parties of Bath, as every body did, in and out of the season. There was nothing new in this social round to Augusta, with her eight seasons' experience of the place; but it did often occur to her, in the course of her multifarious activities, that, of all the people she had met during them, none had ever been more attractive to her than this Mr. Elton. He was very handsome, and decidedly agreeable; that he liked her was beyond question; and the Miss Milmans had swiftly found out, and swiftly related to her, that he was installed in an excellent and modern vicarage in one of hte very finest towns of England, as well as being possessed of a comfortable competence of his own. Augusta had lived enough years in the world to know that she could hardly do better; that this might, indeed, be her last and best chance; and though she did not call herself desperate, she had already made up her mind, before she set eyes upon him for the second time, that, if he were ever to ask her to marry him, she would accept. Before this could transpire, it would be necessary for her to see him again, however; and accordingly she scanned every grouping of people with great attention, but she was unlucky. Mr. Elton was not to be seen, and she could only reassure herself with the thought that their next meeting would be at the house of Mr. Green.

Mr. Green was a very rich man, known to Mrs. Partridge, as was every one worth knowing in Bath, because he had no aristocratic pretensions to debar him from her society: he had made his fortune in trade, and his wife had been a miller's daughter. There was no cachet in being a guest in their home, but Augusta had three distinct pieces of consolation: she would undoubtably be the first lady in company; there would be a very fine dinner laid; and she would see Mr. Elton.

It was absolutely essential that all portions of her outfit for the important occasion should be perfect; and Augusta spent many a morning with Mrs. Partridge and her female intimates, discussing the gown, the mantle, the feathers, and the finery. On the very morning of the dinner, what was her concern to discover, in a preliminary examination of her stores, that she had not one pair of silk stockings that was without a ladder, a splash of mud, or some other imperfection. It was a small errand, such a very small one that she did not trouble to summon her confederates, or even the maid, who was hurrying to finish some sewing that would complete Augusta's costume. There was a shop where stockings could be procured, only a five minutes' walk away, and surely no elaborate preparations need be undertaken. On a drizzly morning, she was unlikely to meet with anyone she knew, in the course of such an errand, least of all Mr. Elton; and so she pulled on her common cloak and paid no special attention to her hair-dressing.

But Augusta's calculations were at fault, for as she hurried out of Drew's, a humble little parcel of stockings in her hand, she walked almost full up against that selfsame Mr. Elton. He caught her with his hand, prevented her parcel from falling, and could almost not apologize enough for the mishap.

"My dear Miss Hawkins! is it you! I am so extremely sorry. Have I hurt you with my clumsiness? Do pray tell me that I have not. I would not have injured you for the world."

Augusta assured him that she was intact, and somewhat flustered, she attempted to slip her parcel into her ridicule, lest he discover what it contained.

"Oh! I have harmed your goods. Only assure me that your purchase is undamaged - allow me to restore it - shall we go into this shop and buy some more? Do permit me. Was it the glovers'? the silk merchant's?"

Augusta most sincerely begged that he would not trouble himself in the least, and gripped her ridicule more firmly. "Do you - do you often come this way?" she ventured.

"No - that is, to say the truth, I have been laid up in my lodgings all this week with a slight cold, which I would not pass on to my friends for any thing; but I am quite recovered again, and was actually on my way to pay a call upon you."

"Upon me!"

"Yes, Miss Hawkins, you. You cannot but be aware that you made a powerful impression on me at our meeting the other day; and in short - in short - "

Augusta summoned up the most encouraging look she knew how to bestow, but Mr. Elton did not seem to know how to proceed.

"Are you going home now? May I accompany you?" he asked helplessly.

She smiled. "Yes, certainly. It is early yet; perhaps you would care to have a dish of tea with us, before it is time to prepare for the dinner at Mr. Green's."

"The dinner at Mr. Green's! Oh, yes, by all means - I had forgot - I am to see you there tonight. Well, upon my word, that is so very..."

"Yes. I am looking forward to it I confess."

"And so am I. Exactly so. Well, Miss Hawkins, then, a lady ought not to walk home alone in all this wet; you might slip. Allow me to take your arm."

Miss Hawkins allowed it.