Now nothing! There had been a time, when of all the large party
now filling the drawing-room at Uppercross, they would have found it
most difficult to cease to speak to one another. With the exception,
perhaps, of Admiral and Mrs Croft, who seemed particularly attached
and happy, (Anne could allow no other exceptions even among
the married couples), there could have been no two hearts so open,
no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved.
Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could
never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.

When he talked, she heard the same voice, and discerned the same mind.
There was a very general ignorance of all naval matters throughout the party;
and he was very much questioned, and especially by the two Miss Musgroves,
who seemed hardly to have any eyes but for him, as to the manner
of living on board, daily regulations, food, hours, &c., and their surprise
at his accounts, at learning the degree of accommodation and arrangement
which was practicable, drew from him some pleasant ridicule,
which reminded Anne of the early days when she too had been ignorant,
and she too had been accused of supposing sailors to be living on board
without anything to eat, or any cook to dress it if there were,
or any servant to wait, or any knife and fork to use.

From thus listening and thinking, she was roused by a whisper
of Mrs Musgrove's who, overcome by fond regrets, could not help saying--

"Ah! Miss Anne, if it had pleased Heaven to spare my poor son,
I dare say he would have been just such another by this time."

Anne suppressed a smile, and listened kindly, while Mrs Musgrove
relieved her heart a little more; and for a few minutes, therefore,