The letters from town,which a few days before would have made every nerve in Elinor's body thrill with transport,now arrived to be read with less emotion than mirth.Mrs Jennings wrote to tell the wonderful tale,to vent her honest indignation against the jilting girl,and pour forth her compassion towards poor Mr Edward,who,she was sure,had quite doted upon the worthless hussy,and was now,by all accounts,almost broken-hearted,at Oxford.-‘I do think,’she continued,‘nothing was ever carried on so sly;for it was but two days before Lucy called and sat a couple of hours with me.Not a soul suspected anything of the matter,not even Nancy,who,poor soul!came crying to me the day after,in a great fright for fear of Mrs Ferrars,as well as not knowing how to get to Plymouth;for Lucy,it seems,borrowed all her money before she went off to be married,on purpose,we suppose,to make a show with,and poor Nancy had not seven shillings in the world;-so I was very glad to give her five guineas,to take her down to Exeter,where she thinks of staying three or four weeks with Mrs Burgess,in hopes,as I tell her,to fall in with the Doctor again.And I must say that Lucy's crossness not to take her along with them in the chaise,is worse than all.Poor Mr Edward!I cannot get him out of my head,but you must send for him to Barton,and Miss Marianne must try to comfort him.’
Mr Dashwood's strains were more solemn.Mrs Ferrars was the most unfortunate of women-poor Fanny had suffered agonies of sensibility-and he considered the existence of each,under such a blow,with grateful wonder.Robert's offence was unpardonable,but Lucy's was infinitely worse.Neither of them was ever again to be mentioned to Mrs Ferrars;and,even if she might hereafter be induced to forgive her son,his wife should never be acknowledged as her daughter,nor be permitted to appear in her presence.The secrecy with which everything had been carried on between them was rationally treated as enormously heightening the crime,because had any suspicion of it occurred to the others,proper measures would have been taken to prevent the marriage;and he called on Elinor to join with him in regretting that Lucy's engagement with Edward had not rather been fulfilled,than that she should thus be the means of spreading misery farther in the family.He thus continued-
‘Mrs Ferrars has never yet mentioned Edward's name,which does not surprise us;but,to our great astonishment,not a line has been received from him on the occasion.Perhaps,however,he is kept silent by his fear of offending,and I shall therefore give him a hint,by a line to Oxford,that his sister and I both think a letter of proper submission from him,addressed perhaps to Fanny,and by her shown to her mother,might not be taken amiss;for we all know the tenderness of Mrs Ferrars's heart,and that she wishes for nothing so much as to be on good terms with her children.’
This paragraph was of some importance to the prospects and conduct of Edward.It determined him to attempt a reconciliation,though not exactly in the manner pointed out by their brother and sister.
‘A letter of proper submission!’repeated he;‘would they have me beg my mother's pardon for Robert's ingratitude to her,and breach of honour to me?-I can make no submission-I am grown neither humble nor penitent by what has passed.I am grown very happy,but that would not interest.I know of no submission that is proper for me to make.’
‘You may certainly ask to be forgiven,’said Elinor,‘because you have offended;-and I should think you might now venture so far as to profess some concern for having ever formed the engagement which drew on you your mother's anger.’
He agreed that he might.
‘And when she has forgiven you,perhaps a little humility may be convenient while acknowledging a second engagement,almost as imprudent in her eyes as the first.’
He had nothing to urge against it,but still resisted the idea of a letter of proper submission;and therefore to make it easier to him,as he declared a much greater willingness to make mean concessions by word of mouth than on paper,it was resolved that,instead of writing to Fanny,he should go to London,and personally entreat her good offices in his favour.‘And if they really do interest themselves,’said Marianne,in her new character of candour,‘in bringing about a reconciliation,I shall think that even John and Fanny are not entirely without merit.’
After a visit on Colonel Brandon's side of only three or four days,the two gentlemen quitted Barton together.They were to go immediately to Delaford,that Edward might have some personal knowledge of his future home,and assist his patron and friend in deciding on what improvements were needed to it;and from thence,after staying a couple of nights he was to proceed on his journey to town.
Chapter 50
After a proper resistance on the part of Mrs Ferrars just so violent and so steady as to preserve her from that reproach which she always seemed fearful of incurring,the reproach of being too amiable,Edward was admitted to her presence,and pronounced to be again her son.
Her family had of late been exceedingly fluctuating.For many years of her life she had had two sons;but the crime and annihilation of Edward,a few weeks ago,had robbed her of one;the similar annihilation of Robert had left her for a fortnight without any;and now,by the resuscitation of Edward,she had one again.
