"Was I? Well, I'm very tired now; it is almost too much for me,
Elinor, to be so lively."

"Was it an effort? Did you not feel well?" inquired Elinor.

"I felt very well, indeed, before we went; but it tires me so to
be animated."

"If it fatigues you to go out, my dear Jane, we had better stay
at home next time we are asked; but I thought you wished to go
this evening."

"So I did. It does not tire me at all to go out; there is nothing
I like so much as going to parties. If one could only do as they
pleased--just sit still, and look on; not laughing and talking
all the time, it would be delightful."

"That is what I have often done at parties," said Elinor,
smiling; "and not from choice either, but from necessity."

"Do you really think that a person who is engaged ought not to
talk?"

"No, indeed;" said Elinor, colouring a little, as she laughed at
the inquiry. "I meant to say, that I had often sat still, without
talking, at parties, because no one took the trouble to come and
speak to me. Not here, at home, where everybody knows me, but at
large parties in town, last winter."