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Part 13: Approaching Disappointment

Sat, 03/26/2022 - 6:00am
"Embroidery for Fire Screen" (early 1800s, Cleveland Museum of Art)

Trifles Light as Air

A collection of one-shots based on Northanger Abbey: drabbles, flash fiction, missing scenes, and more. Title from Shakespeare's Othello, as quoted by Jane Austen in Chapter One. Now available as an eBook via Draft2Digital.

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"Thank you," Anne Thorpe said to Mr. Morland as they joined the line, more to distract from Belle and Captain Tilney than any real gratitude.

Anne Thorpe usually passed the time between sets with friends; with none present that evening she had been forced to wait with her mother until Mr. Morland finished dancing with Maria.

"Thank you," she said as they joined the line, more to distract from Belle and Captain Tilney than any real gratitude.

"Certainly Miss Anne," he answered with a thin smile.

Poor man, he was not so bad, and much kinder than John, but plain! even Mr. Hodges was handsomer! Easy to overlook with independence or fortune, but could he really expect her sister to wait two years for either?

Title from Chapter 19 of Northanger Abbey: "Though his looks did not please her, his name was a passport to her goodwill, and she thought with sincere compassion of his approaching disappointment; for, in spite of what she had believed herself to overhear in the pump-room, his behaviour was so incompatible with a knowledge of Isabella’s engagement that she could not, upon reflection, imagine him aware of it."