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Page 50
Anne had never entered Kellynch since her quitting Lady Russell's house
in September. It had not been necessary, and the few occasions of
its being possible for her to go to the Hall she had contrived to evade
and escape from. Her first return was to resume her place in the modern
and elegant apartments of the Lodge, and to gladden the eyes
of its mistress.
There was some anxiety mixed with Lady Russell's joy in meeting her.
She knew who had been frequenting Uppercross. But happily,
either Anne was improved in plumpness and looks, or Lady Russell
fancied her so; and Anne, in receiving her compliments on the occasion,
had the amusement of connecting them with the silent admiration
of her cousin, and of hoping that she was to be blessed with
a second spring of youth and beauty.
When they came to converse, she was soon sensible of some mental change.
The subjects of which her heart had been full on leaving Kellynch,
and which she had felt slighted, and been compelled to smother
among the Musgroves, were now become but of secondary interest.
She had lately lost sight even of her father and sister and Bath.
Their concerns had been sunk under those of Uppercross;
and when Lady Russell reverted to their former hopes and fears,
and spoke her satisfaction in the house in Camden Place,
which had been taken, and her regret that Mrs Clay should still
be with them, Anne would have been ashamed to have it known
how much more she was thinking of Lyme and Louisa Musgrove,
and all her acquaintance there; how much more interesting to her
was the home and the friendship of the Harvilles and Captain Benwick,
than her own father's house in Camden Place, or her own sister's intimacy
with Mrs Clay. She was actually forced to exert herself
to meet Lady Russell with anything like the appearance of equal solicitude,
on topics which had by nature the first claim on her.
There was a little awkwardness at first in their discourse
on another subject. They must speak of the accident at Lyme.
Lady Russell had not been arrived five minutes the day before,
when a full account of the whole had burst on her; but still it must
be talked of, she must make enquiries, she must regret the imprudence,
lament the result, and Captain Wentworth's name must be mentioned by both.
Anne was conscious of not doing it so well as Lady Russell.
She could not speak the name, and look straight forward to
Lady Russell's eye, till she had adopted the expedient of telling her
briefly what she thought of the attachment between him and Louisa.
When this was told, his name distressed her no longer.
Lady Russell had only to listen composedly, and wish them happy,
but internally her heart revelled in angry pleasure, in pleased contempt,
that the man who at twenty-three had seemed to understand somewhat
of the value of an Anne Elliot, should, eight years afterwards,
be charmed by a Louisa Musgrove.
The first three or four days passed most quietly, with no circumstance
to mark them excepting the receipt of a note or two from Lyme,
which found their way to Anne, she could not tell how, and brought
a rather improving account of Louisa. At the end of that period,
Lady Russell's politeness could repose no longer, and the fainter
self-threatenings of the past became in a decided tone,
"I must call on Mrs Croft; I really must call upon her soon.
Anne, have you courage to go with me, and pay a visit in that house?
It will be some trial to us both."
Anne did not shrink from it; on the contrary, she truly felt as she said,
in observing--
"I think you are very likely to suffer the most of the two;
your feelings are less reconciled to the change than mine.
By remaining in the neighbourhood, I am become inured to it."
She could have said more on the subject; for she had in fact
so high an opinion of the Crofts, and considered her father
so very fortunate in his tenants, felt the parish to be so sure
of a good example, and the poor of the best attention and relief,
that however sorry and ashamed for the necessity of the removal,
she could not but in conscience feel that they were gone
who deserved not to stay, and that Kellynch Hall had passed
into better hands than its owners'. These convictions must unquestionably
have their own pain, and severe was its kind; but they precluded
that pain which Lady Russell would suffer in entering the house again,
and returning through the well-known apartments.
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