the latter to guess the price and weigh the merits of a new muff and tippet. A pre-engagement in Edgar's
Buildings prevented his accepting the invitation of one friend, and obliged him to hurry away as soon
as he had satisfied the demands of the other. The time of the two parties uniting in the Octagon Room
being correctly adjusted, Catherine was then left to the luxury of a raised, restless, and frightened imagination
over the pages of Udolpho, lost from all worldly concerns of dressing and dinner, incapable of soothing
Mrs. Allen's fears on the delay of an expected dressmaker, and having only one minute in sixty to bestow
even on the reflection of her own felicity, in being already engaged for the evening.