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SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
by Jane Austen (1811)
Chapter 25
Though Mrs. Jennings was in the habit of
spending a large portion of the year at the
houses of her children and friends, she was
not without a settled habitation of her
own.
Since the death of her husband, who had
traded with success in a less elegant part
of the town, she had resided every winter
in a house in one of the streets near
Portman Square.
Towards this home, she began on the
approach of January to turn her thoughts,
and thither she one day abruptly, and very
unexpectedly by them, asked the elder
Misses Dashwood to accompany her.
Elinor, without observing the varying
complexion of her sister, and the animated
look which spoke no indifference to the
plan, immediately gave a grateful but
absolute denial for both, in which she
believed herself to be speaking their
united inclinations.
The reason alleged was their determined
resolution of not leaving their mother at
that time of the year.
Mrs. Jennings received the refusal with
some surprise, and repeated her invitation
immediately.
"Oh, Lord!
I am sure your mother can spare you very
well, and I DO beg you will favour me with
your company, for I've quite set my heart
upon it.
Don't fancy that you will be any
inconvenience to me, for I shan't put
myself at all out of my way for you.
It will only be sending Betty by the coach,
and I hope I can afford THAT.
We three shall be able to go very well in
my chaise; and when we are in town, if you
do not like to go wherever I do, well and
good, you may always go with one of my
daughters.
I am sure your mother will not object to
it; for I have had such good luck in
getting my own children off my hands that
she will think me a very fit person to have
the charge of you; and if I don't get one
of you at least well married before I have
done with you, it shall not be my fault.
I shall speak a good word for you to all
the young men, you may depend upon it."
"I have a notion," said Sir John, "that
Miss Marianne would not object to such a
scheme, if her elder sister would come into
it.
It is very hard indeed that she should not
have a little pleasure, because Miss
Dashwood does not wish it.
So I would advise you two, to set off for
town, when you are tired of Barton, without
saying a word to Miss Dashwood about it."
"Nay," cried Mrs. Jennings, "I am sure I
shall be monstrous glad of Miss Marianne's
company, whether Miss Dashwood will go or
not, only the more the merrier say I, and I
thought it would be more comfortable for
them to be together; because, if they got
tired of me, they might talk to one
another, and laugh at my old ways behind my
back.
But one or the other, if not both of them,
I must have.
Lord bless me! how do you think I can live
poking by myself, I who have been always
used till this winter to have Charlotte
with me.
Come, Miss Marianne, let us strike hands
upon the bargain, and if Miss Dashwood will
change her mind by and bye, why so much the
better."
"I thank you, ma'am, sincerely thank you,"
said Marianne, with warmth: "your
invitation has insured my gratitude for
ever, and it would give me such happiness,
yes, almost the greatest happiness I am
capable of, to be able to accept it.
But my mother, my dearest, kindest mother,-
-I feel the justice of what Elinor has
urged, and if she were to be made less
happy, less comfortable by our absence--Oh!
no, nothing should tempt me to leave her.
It should not, must not be a struggle."
Mrs. Jennings repeated her assurance that
Mrs. Dashwood could spare them perfectly
well; and Elinor, who now understood her
sister, and saw to what indifference to
almost every thing else she was carried by
her eagerness to be with Willoughby again,
made no farther direct opposition to the
plan, and merely referred it to her
mother's decision, from whom however she
scarcely expected to receive any support in
her endeavour to prevent a visit, which she
could not approve of for Marianne, and
which on her own account she had particular
reasons to avoid.
Whatever Marianne was desirous of, her
mother would be eager to promote--she could
not expect to influence the latter to
cautiousness of conduct in an affair
respecting which she had never been able to
inspire her with distrust; and she dared
not explain the motive of her own
disinclination for going to London.
That Marianne, fastidious as she was,
thoroughly acquainted with Mrs. Jennings'
manners, and invariably disgusted by them,
should overlook every inconvenience of that
kind, should disregard whatever must be
most wounding to her irritable feelings, in
her pursuit of one object, was such a
proof, so strong, so full, of the
importance of that object to her, as
Elinor, in spite of all that had passed,
was not prepared to witness.
On being informed of the invitation, Mrs.
Dashwood, persuaded that such an excursion
would be productive of much amusement to
both her daughters, and perceiving through
all her affectionate attention to herself,
how much the heart of Marianne was in it,
would not hear of their declining the offer
upon HER account; insisted on their both
accepting it directly; and then began to
foresee, with her usual cheerfulness, a
variety of advantages that would accrue to
them all, from this separation.
"I am delighted with the plan," she cried,
"it is exactly what I could wish.
Margaret and I shall be as much benefited
by it as yourselves.
When you and the Middletons are gone, we
shall go on so quietly and happily together
with our books and our music!
You will find Margaret so improved when you
come back again!
I have a little plan of alteration for your
bedrooms too, which may now be performed
without any inconvenience to any one.
It is very right that you SHOULD go to
town; I would have every young woman of
your condition in life acquainted with the
manners and amusements of London.
You will be under the care of a motherly
good sort of woman, of whose kindness to
you I can have no doubt.
And in all probability you will see your
brother, and whatever may be his faults, or
the faults of his wife, when I consider
whose son he is, I cannot bear to have you
so wholly estranged from each other."
"Though with your usual anxiety for our
happiness," said Elinor, "you have been
obviating every impediment to the present
scheme which occurred to you, there is
still one objection which, in my opinion,
cannot be so easily removed."
Marianne's countenance sunk.
"And what," said Mrs. Dashwood, "is my dear
prudent Elinor going to suggest?
What formidable obstacle is she now to
bring forward?
Do let me hear a word about the expense of
it."
"My objection is this; though I think very
well of Mrs. Jennings's heart, she is not a
woman whose society can afford us pleasure,
or whose protection will give us
consequence."
"That is very true," replied her mother,
"but of her society, separately from that
of other people, you will scarcely have any
thing at all, and you will almost always
appear in public with Lady Middleton."
"If Elinor is frightened away by her
dislike of Mrs. Jennings," said Marianne,
"at least it need not prevent MY accepting
her invitation.
I have no such scruples, and I am sure I
could put up with every unpleasantness of
that kind with very little effort."
Elinor could not help smiling at this
display of indifference towards the manners
of a person, to whom she had often had
difficulty in persuading Marianne to behave
with tolerable politeness; and resolved
within herself, that if her sister
persisted in going, she would go likewise,
as she did not think it proper that
Marianne should be left to the sole
guidance of her own judgment, or that Mrs.
Jennings should be abandoned to the mercy
of Marianne for all the comfort of her
domestic hours.
To this determination she was the more
easily reconciled, by recollecting that
Edward Ferrars, by Lucy's account, was not
to be in town before February; and that
their visit, without any unreasonable
abridgement, might be previously finished.
"I will have you BOTH go," said Mrs.
Dashwood; "these objections are
nonsensical.
You will have much pleasure in being in
London, and especially in being together;
and if Elinor would ever condescend to
anticipate enjoyment, she would foresee it
there from a variety of sources; she would,
perhaps, expect some from improving her
acquaintance with her sister-in-law's
family."
Elinor had often wished for an opportunity
of attempting to weaken her mother's
dependence on the attachment of Edward and
herself, that the shock might be less when
the whole truth were revealed, and now on
this attack, though almost hopeless of
success, she forced herself to begin her
design by saying, as calmly as she could,
"I like Edward Ferrars very much, and shall
always be glad to see him; but as to the
rest of the family, it is a matter of
perfect indifference to me, whether I am
ever known to them or not."
Mrs. Dashwood smiled, and said nothing.
Marianne lifted up her eyes in
astonishment, and Elinor conjectured that
she might as well have held her tongue.
After very little farther discourse, it was
finally settled that the invitation should
be fully accepted.
Mrs. Jennings received the information with
a great deal of joy, and many assurances of
kindness and care; nor was it a matter of
pleasure merely to her.
Sir John was delighted; for to a man, whose
prevailing anxiety was the dread of being
alone, the acquisition of two, to the
number of inhabitants in London, was
something.
Even Lady Middleton took the trouble of
being delighted, which was putting herself
rather out of her way; and as for the Miss
Steeles, especially Lucy, they had never
been so happy in their lives as this
intelligence made them.
Elinor submitted to the arrangement which
counteracted her wishes with less
reluctance than she had expected to feel.
With regard to herself, it was now a matter
of unconcern whether she went to town or
not, and when she saw her mother so
thoroughly pleased with the plan, and her
sister exhilarated by it in look, voice,
and manner, restored to all her usual
animation, and elevated to more than her
usual gaiety, she could not be dissatisfied
with the cause, and would hardly allow
herself to distrust the consequence.
Marianne's joy was almost a degree beyond
happiness, so great was the perturbation of
her spirits and her impatience to be gone.
Her unwillingness to quit her mother was
her only restorative to calmness; and at
the moment of parting her grief on that
score was excessive.
Her mother's affliction was hardly less,
and Elinor was the only one of the three,
who seemed to consider the separation as
any thing short of eternal.
Their departure took place in the first
week in January.
The Middletons were to follow in about a
week.
The Miss Steeles kept their station at the
park, and were to quit it only with the
rest of the family.