The two dances seemed very short, and she had her partner’s authority for considering them so. – At their conclusion the Osbornes and their train were all on the move.‘We are off at last,’ said his Lordship to Tom – ‘How much longer do you stay in this heavenly place? – till sunrise?’‘No faith! my Lord, I have had quite enough of it. I assure you – I shall not show myself here again when I have had the honour of attending Lady Osborne to her carriage. I shall retreat in as much secrecy as possible to the most remote corner of the house, where I shall order a barrel of oysters, and be famously snug.’‘Let us see you soon at the Castle; and bring me word how she looks by daylight.’Emma and Mrs Blake parted as old acquaintances, and Charles shook her by the hand and wished her ‘goodbye’ at least a dozen times. From Miss Osborne and Miss Carr she received something like a jerking curtsey as they passed her; even Lady Osborne gave her a look of complacency – and his Lordship actually came back after the others were out of the room, to ‘beg her pardon’, and look in the window seat behind her for the gloves which were visibly compressed in his hand.As Tom Musgrave was seen no more, we may suppose his plan to have succeeded, and imagine him mortifying with his barrel of oysters, in dreary solitude – or gladly assisting the landlady in her bar to make fresh negus17 for the happy dancers above. Emma could not help missing the party, by whom she had been, though in some respects unpleasantly, distinguished, and the two dances which followed and concluded the ball, were rather flat, in comparison with the others. – Mr Edwards having played with good luck, they were some of the last in the room.‘Here we are, back again I declare – ’ said Emma sorrowfully, as she walked into the dining room, where the tables was prepared, and the neat upper maid was lighting the candles – ‘My dear Miss Edwards – how soon it is at an end! – I wish it could come all over again! –’A great deal of kind pleasure was expressed in her having enjoyed the evening so much – and Mr Edwards was as warm as herself, in praise of the fullness, brilliancy and spirit of the meeting, though as he had been fixed the whole time at the same table in the same room, with only one change of chairs, it might have seemed a matter scarcely perceived. – But he had won four rubbers out of five, and everything went well His daughter felt the advantage of this gratified state of mind, in the course of the remarks and retrospections which now ensued, over the welcome soup.