Northanger Abbey, chapter 19: Three's A Crowd

How often do you want to meddle in other people’s relationships? What characteristics do you observe in others that make you want to step in and redirect someone? So many of us are so good at seeing where other people make mistakes, and yet need to work harder to see our own. 

Cat starts to notice a change in her friend: Isabella is now “admitting Captain Tilney’s attentions as readily as they were offered, and allowing him almost an equal share with James in her notice and smiles.” As irritated as she is at Isabella’s “willful thoughtlessness,” she’s more worried about her brother (who notices when Isabella flirts with Captain Troublemaker) and the eldest Tilney sibling (who seems to be unaware of Isabella’s relationship status). Most troubling of all, Captain Tenacious isn’t leaving Bath with the rest of his family, and this spurs Cat to act. 

She tells Henry to make his brother stop.

Now, on one hand, Cat is anxious and she’s trying to isolate the factor causing all this trouble, which she has identified to be Henry’s brother. On the other hand, this is a tricky ask on her part. As Henry points out, a) he is unable to persuade his brother, and b) perhaps it is “Miss Thorpe’s admission of [Captain Tilney’s attentions],” rather than the flirtation itself, “that gives [James] pain.” If Captain Tedious was an admirer only, James would be rather flattered; but Isabella invites these “attentions,” a separate factor that Cat refuses to see. Remember when I said that the Morland siblings need better observation skills?

Cat seems to be aware of this at least unconsciously. Her defense of Isabella is easily punctured. Allow me to do the puncturing:

• “She has been in love with [James] ever since they first met …” Notice how Cat speaks with authority on this, despite the fact that Cat herself had no idea that Isabella was into James until he proposed. This is just Cat regurgitating Isabella’s words.
• “[W]hile my father’s consent was uncertain, she fretted herself almost into a fever.” Er, Cat—we were there. She moped about the paltry income more than she “fretted” about anything.
• “You know she must be attached to him.” Sure, an engagement should mean an attachment, and I understand why Cat would leap to this defense, but on the other hand, Henry only knows what Henry sees. 

After Henry makes a little joke, Cat asks him point-blank for his opinion on his brother’s ulterior motives. Naturally, he doesn’t want to say anything to agitate her even more, and he’s too much of a gentleman to accuse Isabella of being an irresponsible tease. He claims to have little insight on “[his] brother’s heart,” which might be true, but perhaps more to the point, is the only tactful thing to say here. He then suggests that by insisting on the removal of Captain Tease, Cat isn’t really giving the bond between Isabella and James the benefit of the doubt: “[Is] her affection … only to be secured by her seeing nothing of Captain Tilney?” Finally, he assures Cat that Captain Try-Hard will be leaving Bath sooner than later, so he won’t be around to flirt with Isabella anyway.

Convinced, Cat “resolve[s] never to think so seriously on the subject again.” Though she notices a couple of less-than-affectionate moments passing between James and Isabella later that evening, she remembers Henry’s caution that “they know exactly what is required and what can be borne.” 

We can see how Henry’s advice gives Cat peace of mind: after all, he knows Isabella’s foibles about as well as the average person can observe, so he draws his conclusions about her as best he can. Cat held out against his advice partly because of her fixation on Captain Tilney, but also because she has just started to suspect that Isabella doesn’t always say what she means … or means what she says. But the parting of Cat and the Thorpe family will mark an end to this phase of their friendship. 

At last, to Northanger Abbey we go!

The Shapard Shelf: For those wondering what kind of schedule lets Captain Tilney take a Bath holiday when there’s a war going on, Shapard provides an explanation: “Army officers in Britain tended to follow a fairly relaxed routine, which could include going away for substantial, though not indefinite, leaves.” How else could people like Wickham find time to court two sisters and a red-headed heiress at the same time?