There was not one family among their
acquaintance who had reared and supported a boy
accidentally found at their door--not one whose origin
was unknown."
Nor is Catherine aided in her career by those "improbable
events," so dear to romance, that serve to introduce a hero--a
robber's attack, a tempest, or a carriage accident. With a sly
glance at such dangerous characters as Lady Greystock in _The
Children of the Abbey_ (1798), Miss Austen creates the inert, but
good-natured Mrs. Alien as Catherine's chaperone in Bath:
"It is now expedient to give some description of Mrs.
Alien that the reader may be able to judge in what
manner her actions will hereafter tend to promote the
general distress of the work and how she will probably
contribute to reduce poor Catherine to all the
desperate wretchedness of which a last volume is
capable, whether by her imprudence, vulgarity or
jealousy--whether by intercepting her letters, ruining
her character or turning her out of doors."
Amid all the diversions of the gay and beautiful city of Bath,
Miss Austen does not lose sight entirely of her satirical aim,
though she turns aside for a time. Catherine's confusion of mind
is suggested with exquisite art in a single sentence.
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