|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 67
This was Sir Walter and Elizabeth's share of interest in the letter;
when Mrs Clay had paid her tribute of more decent attention,
in an enquiry after Mrs Charles Musgrove, and her fine little boys,
Anne was at liberty.
In her own room, she tried to comprehend it. Well might Charles wonder
how Captain Wentworth would feel! Perhaps he had quitted the field,
had given Louisa up, had ceased to love, had found he did not love her.
She could not endure the idea of treachery or levity, or anything
akin to ill usage between him and his friend. She could not endure
that such a friendship as theirs should be severed unfairly.
Captain Benwick and Louisa Musgrove! The high-spirited,
joyous-talking Louisa Musgrove, and the dejected, thinking,
feeling, reading, Captain Benwick, seemed each of them everything
that would not suit the other. Their minds most dissimilar!
Where could have been the attraction? The answer soon presented itself.
It had been in situation. They had been thrown together several weeks;
they had been living in the same small family party: since Henrietta's
coming away, they must have been depending almost entirely on each other,
and Louisa, just recovering from illness, had been in an interesting state,
and Captain Benwick was not inconsolable. That was a point which Anne
had not been able to avoid suspecting before; and instead of drawing
the same conclusion as Mary, from the present course of events,
they served only to confirm the idea of his having felt some
dawning of tenderness toward herself. She did not mean, however,
to derive much more from it to gratify her vanity, than Mary
might have allowed. She was persuaded that any tolerably pleasing
young woman who had listened and seemed to feel for him would have
received the same compliment. He had an affectionate heart.
He must love somebody.
She saw no reason against their being happy. Louisa had fine
naval fervour to begin with, and they would soon grow more alike.
He would gain cheerfulness, and she would learn to be an enthusiast
for Scott and Lord Byron; nay, that was probably learnt already;
of course they had fallen in love over poetry. The idea of
Louisa Musgrove turned into a person of literary taste,
and sentimental reflection was amusing, but she had no doubt
of its being so. The day at Lyme, the fall from the Cobb,
might influence her health, her nerves, her courage, her character to
the end of her life, as thoroughly as it appeared to have
influenced her fate.
The conclusion of the whole was, that if the woman who had been sensible
of Captain Wentworth's merits could be allowed to prefer another man,
there was nothing in the engagement to excite lasting wonder;
and if Captain Wentworth lost no friend by it, certainly nothing
to be regretted. No, it was not regret which made Anne's heart
beat in spite of herself, and brought the colour into her cheeks
when she thought of Captain Wentworth unshackled and free.
She had some feelings which she was ashamed to investigate.
They were too much like joy, senseless joy!
She longed to see the Crofts; but when the meeting took place,
it was evident that no rumour of the news had yet reached them.
The visit of ceremony was paid and returned; and Louisa Musgrove
was mentioned, and Captain Benwick, too, without even half a smile.
The Crofts had placed themselves in lodgings in Gay Street,
perfectly to Sir Walter's satisfaction. He was not at all ashamed
of the acquaintance, and did, in fact, think and talk a great deal more
about the Admiral, than the Admiral ever thought or talked about him.
The Crofts knew quite as many people in Bath as they wished for,
and considered their intercourse with the Elliots as a mere matter of form,
and not in the least likely to afford them any pleasure.
They brought with them their country habit of being almost always together.
He was ordered to walk to keep off the gout, and Mrs Croft
seemed to go shares with him in everything, and to walk
for her life to do him good. Anne saw them wherever she went.
Lady Russell took her out in her carriage almost every morning,
and she never failed to think of them, and never failed to see them.
Knowing their feelings as she did, it was a most attractive picture
of happiness to her. She always watched them as long as she could,
delighted to fancy she understood what they might be talking of,
as they walked along in happy independence, or equally delighted
to see the Admiral's hearty shake of the hand when he encountered
an old friend, and observe their eagerness of conversation
when occasionally forming into a little knot of the navy, Mrs Croft
looking as intelligent and keen as any of the officers around her.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|