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 sympathize 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.