“In this affair it can only do harm;more so perhaps than in many cases of a similar kind,for it has been attended by circumstances which,for the sake of every one concerned in it,make it unfit to become the public conversation.I must do _this_ justice to Mr.Willoughby—he has broken no positive engagement with my sister. ”
“Law, my dear!Don’t pretend to defend him.No positive engagement indeed!after taking her all over Allenham House,and fixing on the very rooms they were to live in hereafter!”
Elinor, for her sister’s sake,could not press the subject farther,and she hoped it was not required of her for Willoughby’s;since, though Marianne might lose much,he could gain very little by the enforcement of the real truth.After a short silence on both sides, Mrs. Jennings,with all her natural hilarity, burst forth again.
“Well, my dear, ’tis a true saying about an ill-wind,for it will be all the better for Colonel Brandon.He will have her at last; aye, that he will. Mind me,now, if they an’t married by Mid-summer. Lord!how he’ll chuckle over this news!I hope he will come tonight.It will be all to one a better match for your sister.Two thousand a year without debt or drawback—except the little love-child,indeed; aye, I had forgot her;but she may be ’prenticed out at a small cost,and then what does it signify?Delaford is a nice place, I can tell you;exactly what I call a nice old fashioned place,full of comforts and conveniences;quite shut in with great garden walls that are covered with the best fruit-trees in the country; and such a mulberry tree in one corner!Lord!how Charlotte and I did stuff the only time we were there!Then, there is a dove-cote, some delightful stew-ponds,and a very pretty canal; and every thing, in short,that one could wish for; and, moreover,it is close to the church,and only a quarter of a mile from the turnpike-road,so ’tis never dull,for if you only go and sit up in an old yew arbour behind the house,you may see all the carriages that pass along. Oh!’tis a nice place!A butcher hard by in the village,and the parsonage-house within a stone’s throw.To my fancy, a thousand times prettier than Barton Park,where they are forced to send three miles for their meat,and have not a neighbour nearer than your mother. Well,I shall spirit up the Colonel as soon as I can.One shoulder of mutton, you know, drives another down.If we _can_ but put Willoughby out of her head!”
“Ay, if we can do _that_, Ma’am,” said Elinor,“we shall do very well with or without Colonel Brandon.” And then rising, she went away to join Marianne,whom she found, as she expected, in her own room,leaning, in silent misery,over the small remains of a fire, which,till Elinor’s entrance, had been her only light.
“You had better leave me,” was all the notice that her sister received from her.
“I will leave you,” said Elinor, “if you will go to bed.” But this, from the momentary perverseness of impatient suffering,she at first refused to do. Her sister’s earnest,though gentle persuasion, however,soon softened her to compliance,and Elinor saw her lay her aching head on the pillow,and as she hoped, in a way to get some quiet rest before she left her.
In the drawing-room, whither she then repaired,she was soon joined by Mrs. Jennings,with a wine-glass, full of something, in her hand.
“My dear,” said she, entering,“I have just recollected that I have some of the finest old Constantia wine in the house that ever was tasted, so I have brought a glass of it for your sister. My poor husband!how fond he was of it!Whenever he had a touch of his old colicky gout,he said it did him more good than any thing else in the world.Do take it to your sister.”
“Dear Ma’am,” replied Elinor,smiling at the difference of the complaints for which it was recommended, “how good you are!But I have just left Marianne in bed, and, I hope,almost asleep; and as I think nothing will be of so much service to her as rest, if you will give me leave, I will drink the wine myself.”
Mrs. Jennings, though regretting that she had not been five minutes earlier,was satisfied with the compromise; and Elinor,as she swallowed the chief of it, reflected,that though its effects on a colicky gout were,at present, of little importance to her,its healing powers,on a disappointed heart might be as reasonably tried on herself as on her sister.
Colonel Brandon came in while the party were at tea,and by his manner of looking round the room for Marianne,Elinor immediately fancied that he neither expected nor wished to see her there, and, in short, that he was already aware of what occasioned her absence. Mrs. Jennings was not struck by the same thought; for soon after his entrance, she walked across the room to the tea-table where Elinor presided, and whispered, “The Colonel looks as grave as ever you see. He knows nothing of it; do tell him, my dear.”
He shortly afterwards drew a chair close to hers, and,with a look which perfectly assured her of his good information,inquired after her sister.
“Marianne is not well,” said she.“She has been indisposed all day,and we have persuaded her to go to bed.”
“Perhaps, then,” he hesitatingly replied,“what I heard this morning may be—there may be more truth in it than I could believe possible at first.”
“What did you hear?”
“That a gentleman, whom I had reason to think—in short,that a man, whom I _knew_ to be engaged—but how shall I tell you?If you know it already, as surely you must, I may be spared.”
“You mean,” answered Elinor, with forced calmness, “Mr.Willoughby’s marriage with Miss Grey. Yes,we _do_ know it all.This seems to have been a day of general elucidation,for this very morning first unfolded it to us. Mr.Willoughby is unfathomable!Where did you hear it?”
“In a stationer’s shop in Pall Mall,where I had business.Two ladies were waiting for their carriage,and one of them was giving the other an account of the intended match,in a voice so little attempting concealment,that it was impossible for me not to hear all.The name of Willoughby, John Willoughby,frequently repeated, first caught my attention;and what followed was a positive assertion that every thing was now finally settled respecting his marriage with Miss Grey—it was no longer to be a secret—it would take place even within a few weeks, with many particulars of preparations and other matters. One thing, especially, I remember, because it served to identify the man still more:—as soon as the ceremony was over, they were to go to Combe Magna, his seat in Somersetshire. My astonishment!—but it would be impossible to describe what I felt.The communicative lady I learnt, on inquiry,for I stayed in the shop till they were gone,was a Mrs. Ellison, and that,as I have been since informed,is the name of Miss Grey’s guardian.”
“It is. But have you likewise heard that Miss Grey has fifty thousand pounds?In that, if in any thing, we may find an explanation.”
“It may be so; but Willoughby is capable—at least I think”—he stopped a moment;then added in a voice which seemed to distrust itself,“And your sister—how did she—”
“Her sufferings have been very severe.I have only to hope that they may be proportionately short.It has been, it is a most cruel affliction.Till yesterday, I believe,she never doubted his regard; and even now,perhaps—but _I_ am almost convinced that he never was really attached to her.He has been very deceitful!and, in some points,there seems a hardness of heart about him.”
“Ah!” said Colonel Brandon, “there is, indeed!But your sister does not—I think you said so—she does not consider quite as you do?”
“You know her disposition,and may believe how eagerly she would still justify him if she could. ”