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Page 69
"A little. I am a little acquainted with Captain Benwick."
"Well, she is to marry him. Nay, most likely they are married already,
for I do not know what they should wait for."
"I thought Captain Benwick a very pleasing young man," said Anne,
"and I understand that he bears an excellent character."
"Oh! yes, yes, there is not a word to be said against James Benwick.
He is only a commander, it is true, made last summer, and these are
bad times for getting on, but he has not another fault that I know of.
An excellent, good-hearted fellow, I assure you; a very active,
zealous officer too, which is more than you would think for, perhaps,
for that soft sort of manner does not do him justice."
"Indeed you are mistaken there, sir; I should never augur want of spirit
from Captain Benwick's manners. I thought them particularly pleasing,
and I will answer for it, they would generally please."
"Well, well, ladies are the best judges; but James Benwick is rather too
piano for me; and though very likely it is all our partiality,
Sophy and I cannot help thinking Frederick's manners better than his.
There is something about Frederick more to our taste."
Anne was caught. She had only meant to oppose the too common idea
of spirit and gentleness being incompatible with each other,
not at all to represent Captain Benwick's manners as the very best
that could possibly be; and, after a little hesitation,
she was beginning to say, "I was not entering into any comparison
of the two friends," but the Admiral interrupted her with--
"And the thing is certainly true. It is not a mere bit of gossip.
We have it from Frederick himself. His sister had a letter
from him yesterday, in which he tells us of it, and he had just had it
in a letter from Harville, written upon the spot, from Uppercross.
I fancy they are all at Uppercross."
This was an opportunity which Anne could not resist; she said, therefore,
"I hope, Admiral, I hope there is nothing in the style of Captain
Wentworth's letter to make you and Mrs Croft particularly uneasy.
It did seem, last autumn, as if there were an attachment between him
and Louisa Musgrove; but I hope it may be understood to have worn out
on each side equally, and without violence. I hope his letter
does not breathe the spirit of an ill-used man."
"Not at all, not at all; there is not an oath or a murmur
from beginning to end."
Anne looked down to hide her smile.
"No, no; Frederick is not a man to whine and complain; he has
too much spirit for that. If the girl likes another man better,
it is very fit she should have him."
"Certainly. But what I mean is, that I hope there is nothing
in Captain Wentworth's manner of writing to make you suppose
he thinks himself ill-used by his friend, which might appear,
you know, without its being absolutely said. I should be very sorry
that such a friendship as has subsisted between him and Captain Benwick
should be destroyed, or even wounded, by a circumstance of this sort."
"Yes, yes, I understand you. But there is nothing at all of that nature
in the letter. He does not give the least fling at Benwick;
does not so much as say, `I wonder at it, I have a reason of my own
for wondering at it.' No, you would not guess, from his way of writing,
that he had ever thought of this Miss (what's her name?) for himself.
He very handsomely hopes they will be happy together; and there is
nothing very unforgiving in that, I think."
Anne did not receive the perfect conviction which the Admiral meant
to convey, but it would have been useless to press the enquiry farther.
She therefore satisfied herself with common-place remarks or quiet
attention, and the Admiral had it all his own way.
"Poor Frederick!" said he at last. "Now he must begin all over again
with somebody else. I think we must get him to Bath. Sophy must write,
and beg him to come to Bath. Here are pretty girls enough, I am sure.
It would be of no use to go to Uppercross again, for that other
Miss Musgrove, I find, is bespoke by her cousin, the young parson.
Do not you think, Miss Elliot, we had better try to get him to Bath?"
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