Chapter 4
Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in
interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or
dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.
A week had not passed since Miss Hawkins's name was first
mentioned in Highbury, before she was, by some means or other,
discovered to have every recommendation of person and mind; to be
handsome, elegant, highly accomplished, and perfectly amiable: and
when Mr. Elton himself arrived to triumph in his happy prospects,
and circulate the fame of her merits, there was very little more
for him to do, than to tell her Christian name, and say whose music
she principally played.
Mr. Elton returned, a very happy man. He had gone away rejected
and mortified—disappointed in a very sanguine hope, after a series
of
