“I believe it would be the wisest way to put an end to the business at once by dissolving the engagement. We seem so beset with difficulties on every side, that though it would make us miserable for a time, we should be happier perhaps in the end. But you will not give me your advice, Miss Dashwood?”
“No,” answered Elinor, with a smile,which concealed very agitated feelings,“on such a subject I certainly will not.You know very well that my opinion would have no weight with you,unless it were on the side of your wishes.”
“Indeed you wrong me,” replied Lucy,with great solemnity;“I know nobody of whose judgment I think so highly as I do of yours;and I do really believe, that if you was to say to me,‘I advise you by all means to put an end to your engagement with Edward Ferrars, it will be more for the happiness of both of you,’ I should resolve upon doing it immediately.”
Elinor blushed for the insincerity of Edward’s future wife,and replied, “This compliment would effectually frighten me from giving any opinion on the subject had I formed one. It raises my influence much too high; the power of dividing two people so tenderly attached is too much for an indifferent person.”
“’Tis because you are an indifferent person,” said Lucy,with some pique, and laying a particular stress on those words,“that your judgment might justly have such weight with me.If you could be supposed to be biased in any respect by your own feelings,your opinion would not be worth having.”
Elinor thought it wisest to make no answer to this,lest they might provoke each other to an unsuitable increase of ease and unreserve; and was even partly determined never to mention the subject again. Another pause therefore of many minutes’ duration, succeeded this speech, and Lucy was still the first to end it.
“Shall you be in town this winter, Miss Dashwood?” said she with all her accustomary complacency.
“Certainly not.”
“I am sorry for that,” returned the other,while her eyes brightened at the information,“it would have gave me such pleasure to meet you there!But I dare say you will go for all that. To be sure,your brother and sister will ask you to come to them.”
“It will not be in my power to accept their invitation if they do. ”
“How unlucky that is!I had quite depended upon meeting you there.Anne and me are to go the latter end of January to some relations who have been wanting us to visit them these several years!But I only go for the sake of seeing Edward.He will be there in February,otherwise London would have no charms for me;I have not spirits for it.”
Elinor was soon called to the card-table by the conclusion of the first rubber,and the confidential discourse of the two ladies was therefore at an end,to which both of them submitted without any reluctance,for nothing had been said on either side to make them dislike each other less than they had done before; and Elinor sat down to the card table with the melancholy persuasion that Edward was not only without affection for the person who was to be his wife; but that he had not even the chance of being tolerably happy in marriage, which sincere affection on _her_ side would have given, for self-interest alone could induce a woman to keep a man to an engagement, of which she seemed so thoroughly aware that he was weary.
From this time the subject was never revived by Elinor,and when entered on by Lucy,who seldom missed an opportunity of introducing it,and was particularly careful to inform her confidante,of her happiness whenever she received a letter from Edward,it was treated by the former with calmness and caution,and dismissed as soon as civility would allow;for she felt such conversations to be an indulgence which Lucy did not deserve,and which were dangerous to herself.
The visit of the Miss Steeles at Barton Park was lengthened far beyond what the first invitation implied. Their favour increased; they could not be spared; Sir John would not hear of their going; and in spite of their numerous and long arranged engagements in Exeter, in spite of the absolute necessity of returning to fulfill them immediately, which was in full force at the end of every week, they were prevailed on to stay nearly two months at the park, and to assist in the due celebration of that festival which requires a more than ordinary share of private balls and large dinners to proclaim its importance.
CHAPTER XXV.
Though Mrs. Jennings was in the habit of spending a large portion of the year at the houses of her children and friends, she was not without a settled habitation of her own. Since the death of her husband, who had traded with success in a less elegant part of the town, she had resided every winter in a house in one of the streets near Portman Square. Towards this home, she began on the approach of January to turn her thoughts, and thither she one day abruptly, and very unexpectedly by them, asked the elder Misses Dashwood to accompany her. Elinor, without observing the varying complexion of her sister, and the animated look which spoke no indifference to the plan, immediately gave a grateful but absolute denial for both, in which she believed herself to be speaking their united inclinations. The reason alleged was their determined resolution of not leaving their mother at that time of the year. Mrs. Jennings received the refusal with some surprise, and repeated her invitation immediately.
“Oh, Lord!I am sure your mother can spare you very well,and I _do_ beg you will favour me with your company,for I’ve quite set my heart upon it.Don’t fancy that you will be any inconvenience to me,for I shan’t put myself at all out of my way for you.It will only be sending Betty by the coach,and I hope I can afford _that_.We three shall be able to go very well in my chaise;and when we are in town,if you do not like to go wherever I do, well and good,you may always go with one of my daughters.I am sure your mother will not object to it;for I have had such good luck in getting my own children off my hands that she will think me a very fit person to have the charge of you; and if I don’t get one of you at least well married before I have done with you, it shall not be my fault. I shall speak a good word for you to all the young men, you may depend upon it.”
“I have a notion,” said Sir John,“that Miss Marianne would not object to such a scheme,if her elder sister would come into it.It is very hard indeed that she should not have a little pleasure,because Miss Dashwood does not wish it.So I would advise you two, to set off for town,when you are tired of Barton,without saying a word to Miss Dashwood about it.”
“Nay,” cried Mrs. Jennings,“I am sure I shall be monstrous glad of Miss Marianne’s company,whether Miss Dashwood will go or not,only the more the merrier say I,and I thought it would be more comfortable for them to be together;because, if they got tired of me,they might talk to one another,and laugh at my odd ways behind my back.But one or the other, if not both of them, I must have. Lord bless me!how do you think I can live poking by myself,I who have been always used till this winter to have Charlotte with me.Come, Miss Marianne,let us strike hands upon the bargain,and if Miss Dashwood will change her mind by and bye,why so much the better.”
“I thank you, ma’am, sincerely thank you,” said Marianne, with warmth:“your invitation has insured my gratitude for ever,and it would give me such happiness, yes,almost the greatest happiness I am capable of,to be able to accept it. But my mother, my dearest,kindest mother,—I feel the justice of what Elinor has urged,and if she were to be made less happy,less comfortable by our absence—Oh!no, nothing should tempt me to leave her. It should not,must not be a struggle.”