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Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen Chapter 49 Continued Eleanor read Lucy Ferrer's letter without any comment.
I will not ask your opinion of it as a composition,
Said Edward.
In a sister it's bad enough,
But in a wife,
How I have blushed over the pages of her writing.
And I believe I may say that since the first half year of our foolish business,
This is the only letter I ever received from her of which the substance made me any amends for the defect of the style.
However it may have come about,
Said Eleanor after a pause,
They are certainly married and your mother has brought on herself a most appropriate punishment.
The independence she settled on Robert,
Though resentment against you,
Has put it in his power to make his own choice and she has actually been bribing one's son with a thousand a year to do the very deed which she disinherited the other for intending to do.
She will hardly be less hurt,
I suppose,
By Robert's marrying Lucy than she would have been by you marrying her.
She will be more hurt by it,
Said Edward,
For Robert always was her favourite.
She will be more hurt by it and on the same principle will forgive him much sooner.
Edward quitted Oxford within four and twenty hours after Lucy's letter arrived and with only one object before him,
The nearest road to Barton,
Had had no leisure to form any scheme of conduct with which that road did not hold the most intimate connection.
He could do nothing till he were assured of his fate with Miss Eleanor Dashwood.
That Lucy had certainly meant to deceive,
To go off with a flourish of malice against him in her message by Thomas,
Was perfectly clear to Eleanor.
And Edward himself,
Now thoroughly enlightened on her character,
Had no scruple in believing her capable of the utmost meanness of wanton ill nature.
Till her last letter reached him,
He had always believed her to be a well-disposed,
Good-hearted girl and thoroughly attached to himself.
Nothing but such a persuasion could have prevented his putting an end to an engagement,
Which long before the discovery of it laid him open to his mother's anger,
Had been a continual source of disquiet and regret to him.
I thought it my duty,
Said he,
Independent of my feelings,
To give her the option of continuing the engagement or not,
When I was renounced by my mother and stood to all appearance without a friend in the world to assist me.
In such a situation as that,
How could I suppose,
When she so earnestly and warmly insisted on sharing my fate,
Whatever it might be,
That anything but the most disinterested affection was her inducement?
And even now I cannot comprehend on what motive she acted to be fettered to a man for whom she had not the smallest regard,
And who had only two thousand pounds in the world.
She could not foresee that Colonel Brandon would give me a living.
No,
Said Eleanor,
But she might suppose that your own family might in time relent.
And anyway,
She lost nothing by continuing the engagement.
The connection was certainly a respectable one,
And probably gained her consideration amongst her friends,
And if nothing more advantageous occurred,
It would be better for her to marry you than be single.
Edward was of course immediately convinced that nothing could have been more natural than Lucy's conduct,
Nor more subtle.
Eleanor scolded him for having spent so much time with a McNorland when he must have felt his own inconstancy.
He could only plead an ignorance of his own heart,
And a mistaken confidence in the force of his engagement.
I was simple enough to think that because my faith was plighted to another,
There could be no danger in my being with you.
But I was not so sure.
Was plighted to another,
There could be no danger in my being with you.
And that the consciousness of my engagement was to keep my heart as safe and sacred as my honour.
He said.
I felt I admired you,
But I told myself it was only friendship.
Until I began to make comparisons between yourself and Lucy,
I did not know how far I was got.
After that,
I suppose,
I was wrong in remaining so much in Sussex,
And the arguments with which I reconciled myself to the expediency of it were no better than these.
The danger is my own.
I am doing no injury to anybody but myself.
Eleanor smiled and shook her head.
Edward heard with pleasure of Colonel Brandon's being expected at the cottage,
As he really wanted not only to be better acquainted with him,
But to have an opportunity of convincing him that he no longer resented his giving him the living of Delaford.
Now he felt astonished himself that he had never even been to the place.
But so little interest had he taken in the matter that he owed all his knowledge of the house to Eleanor herself,
Who had heard so much of it from Colonel Brandon,
And heard it with so much attention,
As to be entirely mistress of the subject.
One question after this only remained undecided.
One difficulty only was to be overcome.
They were brought together by mutual affection,
With a warmest approbation of their real friends,
And they only wanted something to live upon.
Edward had two thousand pounds,
And Eleanor one,
Which,
With Delaford living,
Was all they could call their own.
And they neither of them were quite enough in love to think that three hundred and fifty pounds a year would supply them with the comforts of life.
Edward was not entirely without hopes of some favourable change in his mother towards him.
But Eleanor had no such dependence.
For since Edward would still be unable to marry Miss Morton,
And his choosing herself had been spoken of in Mrs Ferris's flattering language as only a lesser evil than his choosing Lucy,
She feared that Robert's offence would serve no other purpose than to enrich Fanny.
About four days after Edward's arrival,
Colonel Brandon appeared to complete Mrs Dashwood's satisfaction and give her the dignity of having more company with her than the house would hold.
Edward was allowed to retain the privilege of first-comer,
And Colonel Brandon therefore walked every night to his old quarters at the park,
From whence he usually returned in the morning.
A three-week's residence at Delaford brought him to Barton in a temper of mind which needed all the improvement in Marianne's looks,
All the kindness of her welcome,
And all the encouragement of her mother's language to make it cheerful.
Among such friends,
However,
And such flattery,
He did revive.
No rumour of Lucy's marriage had yet reached him.
He knew nothing of what had passed,
And the first hours of his visit were consequently spent in hearing and in wondering.
It would be needless to say that the gentlemen advanced in the good opinion of each other,
As they advanced in each other's acquaintance,
For it could not be otherwise.
Their resemblance in good principles and good sense would probably have been sufficient to unite them in friendship,
But their being in love with two sisters made that mutual regard inevitable and immediate.
The letters from town,
Which a few days before would have made every nerve in Eleanor's body thrill with transport,
Now,
In the absence of a letter from her mother,
Seemed to be read with less emotion than mirth.
Mrs Jennings wrote to tell the wonderful tale,
To vent her honest indignation against the jilting girl,
And pour forth her compassion towards poor Mr Edward,
Who she was sure had quite doted upon the worthless hussy,
And was now,
By all accounts,
Almost broken-hearted at Oxford.
Mr Dashwood's strains were more solemn.
Mrs Ferrars was the most unfortunate of women.
Robert's offence was unpardonable,
But Lucy's infinitely worse.
Neither of them was ever again to be mentioned to Mrs Ferrars,
And even if she might hereafter be induced to forgive her son,
His wife should never be acknowledged as her daughter,
Nor be permitted to appear in her presence.
He called on Eleanor to join with him in regretting that Lucy's engagement with Edward had not rather been fulfilled than that she should thus be the means of spreading misery further in the family.
He thus continued,
Mrs Ferrars has never yet mentioned Edward's name,
Which does not surprise us,
But to our great astonishment not a line has been received from him on the occasion,
And I am afraid perhaps,
However,
He is kept silent by his fear of offending,
And I shall therefore give him a hint by a line to Oxford that his sister and I both think a letter of proper submission from him,
Addressed perhaps to Fanny,
And by her shown to her mother,
Might not be taken amiss,
For we all know the tenderness of Mrs Ferrars' heart.
This paragraph was of some importance to the prospects and conduct of Edward.
It determined him to attempt a reconciliation,
Though not exactly in the manner pointed out by their brother and sister.
A letter of proper submission,
Repeated he,
Would they have me beg my mother's pardon for Robert's ingratitude to her,
And breach of honour to me,
I know of no submission that is proper for me to take.
You may certainly ask to be forgiven,
Said Eleanor,
Because you have offended,
And I should think you might now venture so far as to profess some concern for having ever formed the engagement which drew on you your mother's anger.
Edward agreed that he might,
And when she has forgiven you,
Eleanor continued,
Perhaps a little humility may be convenient while acknowledging a second engagement,
Almost as imprudent in her eyes as the first.
Edward had nothing to urge against it,
But still resisted the idea of a letter of proper submission,
And therefore,
To make it easier to him,
It was resolved that,
Instead of writing to Fanny,
He should go to London and personally entreat her good offices in his favour.
After a visit on Colonel Brandon's side of only three or four days,
The two gentlemen quitted Barton together.
They were to go immediately to Delaford,
That Edward might have some personal knowledge of his future home,
And from thence,
After staying there a couple of nights,
He was to proceed on his journey to town.
