第2章

The acquaintance, thus oddly begun, was neither short nor unimportant. For a whole fortnight the Travellors were fixed at Willingden; Mr. P.'s sprain proving too serious forhim to move sooner.—He had fallen into very good hands. The Heywoods were a thoroughly respectable family, and every possible attention was paid in the kindest and most unpretending manner, to both Husband and wife. He was waited on and nursed, and she cheered and comforted with unremitting kindness—and as every office of Hospitality and friendliness was received as it ought—as there was not more good will on one side than Gratitude on the other—nor any deficiency of generally pleasant manners on either, they grew to like each other in the course of that fortnight, exceedingly well.—Mr. Parker's Character and History were soon unfolded. All that he understood of himself, he readily told, for he was very openhearted;—and where he might be himself in the dark, his conversation was still giving information, to such of the Heywoods as could observe.—By such he was perceived to be an Enthusiast;—on the subject of Sanditon, a complete Enthusiast.—Sanditon,—the success of Sanditon as a small, fashionable Bathing Place was the object, for which he seemed to live. A very few years ago, and it had been a quiet Village of no pretensions; but some natural advantages in its position and some accidental circumstances having suggested to himself, and the other principal Land Holder, the probability of its becoming a profitable Speculation, they had engaged in it, andplanned and built, and praised and puffed, and raised it to a Something of young Renown—and Mr. Parker could now think of very little besides.—The Facts, which in more direct communication, he laid before them were that he was about five and thirty—had been married,—very happily married seven years—and had four sweet Children at home;—that he was of a respectable Family, and easy though not large fortune;—no Profession—succeeding as eldest son to the Property which two or three Generations had been holding and accumulating before him;—that he had two Brothers and two Sisters—all single and all independant—the eldest of the two former indeed, by collateral Inheritance, quite as well provided for as himself.—His object in quitting the high road, to hunt for an advertising Surgeon, was also plainly stated;—it had not proceeded from any intention of spraining his ancle or doing himself any other Injury for the good of such Surgeon—nor (as Mr H. had been apt to suppose) from any design of entering into Partnership with him—; it was merely in consequence of a wish to establish some medical Man at Sanditon, which the nature of the Advertisement induced him to expect to accomplish in Willingden.—He was convinced that the advantage of a medical Man at hand would very materially promote the rise and prosperity of the Place—would in fact tend to bring a prodigious influx;—nothing else was wanting. He had strong reason to believe that one family had been deterred last year from trying Sanditon on that account—and probably very many more—and his own Sisters who were sad Invalids, and whom he was very anxious to get to Sanditon this Summer, could hardly be expected to hazard themselves in a place where they could not have immediate medical advice.—Upon the whole, Mr.