The arrival of a new family in the country was always a matter of joy to him,and in every point of view he was charmed with the inhabitants he had now procured for his cottage at Barton.The Miss Dashwoods were young,pretty,and unaffected.It was enough to secure his good opinion,for to be unaffected was all that a pretty girl could want to make her mind as captivating as her person.The friendliness of his disposition made him happy in accommodating those whose situation might be considered,in comparison with the past,as unfortunate.In showing kindness to his cousins,therefore,he had the real satisfaction of a good heart;and in settling a family of females only in his cottage,he had all the satisfaction of a sportsman;for a sportsman,though he esteems only those of his sex who are sportsmen likewise,is not often desirous of encouraging their taste by admitting them to a residence within his own manor.
Mrs Dashwood and her daughters were met at the door of the house by Sir John,who welcomed them to Barton Park with unaffected sincerity;and as he attended them to the drawing-room,repeated to the young ladies the concern which the same subject had drawn from him the day before,at being unable to get any smart young men to meet them.They would see,he said,only one gentleman there besides himself;a particular friend who was staying at the park,but who was neither very young nor very gay.He hoped they would all excuse the smallness of the party,and could assure them it should never happen so again.He had been to several families that morning，in hopes of procuring some addition to their number；but it was moonlight，and everybody was full of engagements.Luckily，Lady Middleton's mother had arrived at Barton within the last hour,and as she was a very cheerful,agreeable woman,he hoped the young ladies would not find it so very dull as they might imagine.The young ladies,as well as their mother,were perfectly satisfied with having two entire strangers of the party,and wished for no more.
Mrs Jennings,Lady Middleton's mother,was a good-humoured,merry,fat,elderly woman,who talked a great deal,seemed very happy,and rather vulgar.She was full of jokes and laughter,and before dinner was over had said many witty things on the subject of lovers and husbands;hoped they had not left their hearts behind them in Sussex,and pretended to see them blush whether they did or not.Marianne was vexed at it for her sister's sake,and turned her eyes towards Elinor，to see how she bore these attacks,with an earnestness which gave Elinor far more pain than could arise from such common-place raillery as Mrs Jennings's.
Colonel Brandon,the friend of Sir John,seemed no more adapted by resemblance of manner to be his friend than Lady Middleton was to be his wife,or Mrs Jennings to be Lady Middleton's mother.He was silent and grave.His appearance，however，was not unpleasing,in spite of his being，in the opinion of Marianne and Margaret,an absolute old bachelor,for he was on the wrong side of five-and-thirty;but though his face was not handsome,his countenance was sensible,and his address was particularly gentlemanlike.
There was nothing in any of the party which could recommend them as companions to the Dashwoods;but the cold insipidity of Lady Middleton was so particularly repulsive that in comparison of it the gravity of Colonel Brandon,and even the boisterous mirth of Sir John and his mother-in-law，was interesting.Lady Middleton seemed to be roused to enjoyment only by the entrance of her four noisy children after dinner,who pulled her about,tore her clothes,and put an end to every kind of discourse except what related to themselves.
In the evening,as Marianne was discovered to be musical,she was invited to play.The instrument was unlocked,everybody prepared to be charmed,and Marianne,who sang very well,at their request went through the chief of the songs which Lady Middleton had brought into the family on her marriage,and which perhaps had lain ever since in the same position on the pianoforte；for her ladyship had celebrated that event by giving up music,although by her mother's account she had played extremely well,and by her own was very fond of it.
Marianne's performance was highly applauded.Sir John was loud in his admiration at the end of every song,and as loud in his conversation with the others while every song lasted.Lady Middleton frequently called him to order,wondered how anyone's attention could be diverted from music for a moment,and asked Marianne to sing a particular song which Marianne had just finished.Colonel Brandon alone,of all the party,heard her without being in raptures.He paid her only the compliment of attention;and she felt a respect for him on the occasion which the others had reasonably forfeited by their shameless want of taste.His pleasure in music,though it amounted not to that ecstatic delight which alone could sympathise with her own,was estimable when contrasted against the horrible insensibility of the others;and she was reasonable enough to allow that a man of five-and-thirty might well have outlived all acuteness of feeling and every exquisite power of enjoyment.She was perfectly disposed to make every allowance for the colonel's advanced state of life which humanity required.
