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Eleanor Tilney bid farewell to her new friend, Miss Morland, as she and her brother Henry left.
“Remember, twelve o’clock!” Miss Morland called out as they were leaving.
“Provided it does not rain, of course!” Eleanor called back.
“She is a sweet girl, is she not?” she asked her brother on the way home. He said nothing, only giving the slightest smile that none but his sister would notice.
The following morning was cloudy, which did not bode well for a walk, but Eleanor and her brother agreed that by noon, the weather would most likely improve.
The days in Bath were often quite indistinguishable, so it was a pleasant diversion that morning to look forward to a walk like this.
Much to her dismay, however, later in the morning, it began to rain. The walk might have to be postponed.
“It’s noon now,” she lamented to her brother. “I’m afraid we won’t be able to see Miss Morland today.”
“Perhaps it will clear up soon enough,” he declared.
As if by the power of his own words, the rain cleared up within half an hour.
“Perhaps Miss Morland will still be at home,” Eleanor said.
They gathered their things quickly, and walked to the house where their new friend was staying. Upon arrival, they learned that she had left with the Thorpes only a few minutes prior.
“What now?” Eleanor asked her brother as they left disappointed.
Eleanor woke up and looked outside.
“Another grey morning,” she sighed, remembering the previous day’s disappointment. Perhaps she would call on Miss Morland this morning. It had been raining at noon when they were to meet, so that may have been the source of the confusion.
She found her brother alone downstairs reading.
“I think I shall call on Miss Morland this morning,” she said.
“I believe you had agreed upon noon,” he replied.
“What?” she asked. “Have you spoken to her? Are we going to attempt the walk again?”
“Again?” he asked, perplexed. “I believe the first you spoke of the arrangement was last night at the party.”
“Last night?” She thought for a moment. “That is a relief. I think I had a dream that we had not been able to get to her house on time, and we did not see her the rest of the day. It was a very dull and disappointing dream.”
“You are anxious that the social call will go well, that is quite understandable,” he smiled.
Catherine Morland found Mrs. Allen downstairs.
“I think I will call on Miss Tilney this morning,” Catherine announced. It had been disappointing not seeing her new friend the day before, and she had never made it to the castle, and all in all she would have much rather stayed home doing nothing.
“But I thought they were to come here,” Mrs. Allen said. “I believe you agreed on noon, did you not?”
“Oh,” Catherine said. “I had the oddest dream, I suppose. I’m very glad it was only a dream, though.”
“This is so odd,” Eleanor said as they left the house where Miss Morland was staying. “The servant said the very same thing in my dream.”
“Perhaps it is merely that there are a limited number of things a servant will say to callers,” her brother suggested. “It is not his job to think of original prose, but to let visitors know whether someone is home or has gone out.”
Eleanor nodded. That must be it.
Catherine Morland sat in the carriage as the began the journey, wondering at how the day had gone nearly the same as the dream she had. As they left Bath, Catherine wondered if they would actually see the phaeton that Mr. Thorpe had told her he had seen Miss Tilney and her brother driving.
The rest of the day went much like the previous day, and she returned home even more disappointed than she had been. She would definitely want to find Miss Tilney the next day.
Eleanor looked out the window. It was another grey day, except something about the clouds was too similar. It wasn’t simply that it was another cloudy day, but the clouds and the sun seemed to come at the exact same times as the day before, and she was quite sure it was the same as it had been in her dream, if that even had been a dream. This was too strange.
She ran downstairs as soon as she could, and found her brother reading.
“What are your plans for today?” she asked him.
“We were planning to go on a walk with Miss Morland, were we not? You agreed on that with her last night.”
The rain had cleared exactly as it had the prior days, for Catherine was quite certain that it was not a dream now. What it was, she did not know, but it did not seem to be a dream. She dreaded hearing the familiar voices approaching the door. They would be asking her to go with them, and would not care that she had plans. But, of course, if Miss Tilney and her brother had left without her, that was very well. Still, if it was going to be the same day, she wished to avoid going with them if she could, though she was not sure if her will was strong enough.
Eleanor looked around as they left the house where Miss Morland was staying. They had turned to the left previously, but perhaps if they headed in the other direction, it would at least be something different.
“Why are you going that way?” her brother asked as she pulled on his arm.
“I simply wish to,” she replied.
With a shrug, he followed her. She heard a carriage in the distance, and looked over.
“I believe that was Miss Morland,” she said. “But she is too far to see for sure.”
“Well, I suppose she will have an enjoyable day,” her brother said, sounding slightly annoyed at the idea.
Once again, Catherine’s party did not make it to the promised castle, and once again, she had not seen her new friends. She began to wonder if perhaps this was all a dream, but what then?
She found a sheet of paper, and wrote a note to herself. She hoped she would find it in the morning, and as she awoke, she remembered the note, but found that everything was it had been every morning.
After so many days, Catherine had now given up on anything changing. She waited for the rain, and then the inevitable call from the Thorpes. Aside from a comment from Mrs. Allen that she seemed particularly out of spirits, nothing was changed.
On this day, however, as they were going along, she saw Miss Tilney and her brother walking along the street, not, as Mr. Thorpe had told her, driving in a phaeton.
“Stop!” she shouted.
Eleanor had tried for days now to get closer to the carriage in which she had seen Miss Morland, and some days her brother was just slow enough that she missed it entirely, and other days she got close enough to see, she was sure, Miss Morland looking distinctly unhappy to be there. Eleanor did not like that she was finding some joy in this fact, but it did provide some diversion to the days that were otherwise so difficult to tell apart.
Today, her brother had allowed just quick enough of a pace that the carriage passed directly by them, and she saw Miss Morland turning around and waving. She could have sworn that she heard her telling Mr. Thorpe to stop, but her brother did not seem to have noticed.
Still, it was different. Different was good.
Catherine woke up and noticed the clouds. They were different. She had almost forgotten that the clouds could be different, though she wasn’t entirely sure if she could trust this.
As soon as she found Mrs. Allen, Catherine inquired about calling on Miss Tilney this morning, expecting the answer that Miss Tilney and her brother were to call on her.
“Go, by all means, my dear; only put on a white gown; Miss Tilney always wears white.”