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Page 83
"No. It does not come to me in quite so direct a line as that;
it takes a bend or two, but nothing of consequence. The stream
is as good as at first; the little rubbish it collects in the turnings
is easily moved away. Mr Elliot talks unreservedly to Colonel Wallis
of his views on you, which said Colonel Wallis, I imagine to be,
in himself, a sensible, careful, discerning sort of character;
but Colonel Wallis has a very pretty silly wife, to whom
he tells things which he had better not, and he repeats it all to her.
She in the overflowing spirits of her recovery, repeats it all
to her nurse; and the nurse knowing my acquaintance with you,
very naturally brings it all to me. On Monday evening, my good friend
Mrs Rooke let me thus much into the secrets of Marlborough Buildings.
When I talked of a whole history, therefore, you see I was
not romancing so much as you supposed."
"My dear Mrs Smith, your authority is deficient. This will not do.
Mr Elliot's having any views on me will not in the least account
for the efforts he made towards a reconciliation with my father.
That was all prior to my coming to Bath. I found them on
the most friendly terms when I arrived."
"I know you did; I know it all perfectly, but--"
"Indeed, Mrs Smith, we must not expect to get real information
in such a line. Facts or opinions which are to pass through the hands
of so many, to be misconceived by folly in one, and ignorance in another,
can hardly have much truth left."
"Only give me a hearing. You will soon be able to judge of
the general credit due, by listening to some particulars
which you can yourself immediately contradict or confirm.
Nobody supposes that you were his first inducement. He had seen you
indeed, before he came to Bath, and admired you, but without
knowing it to be you. So says my historian, at least. Is this true?
Did he see you last summer or autumn, `somewhere down in the west,'
to use her own words, without knowing it to be you?"
"He certainly did. So far it is very true. At Lyme.
I happened to be at Lyme."
"Well," continued Mrs Smith, triumphantly, "grant my friend the credit
due to the establishment of the first point asserted. He saw you then
at Lyme, and liked you so well as to be exceedingly pleased
to meet with you again in Camden Place, as Miss Anne Elliot,
and from that moment, I have no doubt, had a double motive
in his visits there. But there was another, and an earlier,
which I will now explain. If there is anything in my story which you know
to be either false or improbable, stop me. My account states,
that your sister's friend, the lady now staying with you,
whom I have heard you mention, came to Bath with Miss Elliot and Sir Walter
as long ago as September (in short when they first came themselves),
and has been staying there ever since; that she is a clever, insinuating,
handsome woman, poor and plausible, and altogether such in situation
and manner, as to give a general idea, among Sir Walter's acquaintance,
of her meaning to be Lady Elliot, and as general a surprise
that Miss Elliot should be apparently, blind to the danger."
Here Mrs Smith paused a moment; but Anne had not a word to say,
and she continued--
"This was the light in which it appeared to those who knew the family,
long before you returned to it; and Colonel Wallis had his eye
upon your father enough to be sensible of it, though he did not then
visit in Camden Place; but his regard for Mr Elliot gave him an interest
in watching all that was going on there, and when Mr Elliot came to Bath
for a day or two, as he happened to do a little before Christmas,
Colonel Wallis made him acquainted with the appearance of things,
and the reports beginning to prevail. Now you are to understand,
that time had worked a very material change in Mr Elliot's opinions
as to the value of a baronetcy. Upon all points of blood and connexion
he is a completely altered man. Having long had as much money
as he could spend, nothing to wish for on the side of avarice
or indulgence, he has been gradually learning to pin his happiness
upon the consequence he is heir to. I thought it coming on
before our acquaintance ceased, but it is now a confirmed feeling.
He cannot bear the idea of not being Sir William. You may guess,
therefore, that the news he heard from his friend could not be
very agreeable, and you may guess what it produced; the resolution
of coming back to Bath as soon as possible, and of fixing himself here
for a time, with the view of renewing his former acquaintance,
and recovering such a footing in the family as might give him the means
of ascertaining the degree of his danger, and of circumventing the lady
if he found it material. This was agreed upon between the two friends
as the only thing to be done; and Colonel Wallis was to assist
in every way that he could. He was to be introduced, and Mrs Wallis
was to be introduced, and everybody was to be introduced.
Mr Elliot came back accordingly; and on application was forgiven,
as you know, and re-admitted into the family; and there it was
his constant object, and his only object (till your arrival
added another motive), to watch Sir Walter and Mrs Clay.
He omitted no opportunity of being with them, threw himself in their way,
called at all hours; but I need not be particular on this subject.
You can imagine what an artful man would do; and with this guide,
perhaps, may recollect what you have seen him do."
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