He addressed her with easy civility,and twisted his head into a bow which assured her as plainly as words could have done,that he was exactly the coxcomb she had heard him described to be by Lucy.Happy had it been for her if her regard for Edward had depended less on his own merit,than on the merit of his nearest relations.For then his brother's bow must have given the finishing stroke of what the ill-humour of his mother and sister would have begun.But while she wondered at the difference of the two young men,she did not find that the emptiness and conceit of the one put her at all out of charity with the modesty and worth of the other.Why they were different,Robert explained to her himself in the course of a quarter of an hour's conversation;for,talking of his brother,and lamenting the extreme gaucherie which he really believed kept him from mixing in proper society,he candidly and generously attributed it much less to any natural deficiency,than to the misfortune of a private education;while he himself,though probably without any particular,any material superiority by nature,merely from the advantage of a public school,was as well fitted to mix in the world as any other man.
‘Upon my soul,’he added,‘I believe it is nothing more:and so I often tell my mother,when she is grieving about it.“My dear madam,”I always say to her,“you must make yourself easy.The evil is now irremediable,and it has been entirely your own doing.Why would you be persuaded by my uncle,Sir Robert,against your own judgment,to place Edward under private tuition,at the most critical time of his life?If you had only sent him to Westminster as well as myself,instead of sending him to Mr Pratt's,all this would have been prevented.”This is the way in which I always consider the matter,and my mother is perfectly convinced of her error.’
Elinor would not oppose his opinion,because whatever might be her general estimation of the advantage of a public school,she could not think of Edward's abode in Mr Pratt's family with any satisfaction.
‘You reside in Devonshire,I think,’was his next observation,‘in a cottage near Dawlish.’
Elinor set him right as to its situation,and it seemed rather surprising to him that anybody could live in Devonshire without living near Dawlish.He bestowed his hearty approbation,however,on their species of house.
‘For my own part,’said he,‘I am excessively fond of a cottage;there is always so much comfort,so much elegance about them.And I protest,if I had any money to spare,I should buy a little land and build one myself,within a short distance of London,where I might drive myself down at any time,and collect a few friends about me and be happy.I advise everybody who is going to build,to build a cottage.My friend Lord Courtland came to me the other day on purpose to ask my advice,and laid before me three different plans of Bonomi's.I was to decide on the best of them.“My dear Courtland,”said I,immediately throwing them all into the fire,“do not adopt either of them,but by all means build a cottage.”And that,I fancy,will be the end of it.Some people imagine that there can be no accommodations,no space in a cottage;but this is all a mistake.I was last month at my friend Elliott's near Dartford.Lady Elliott wished to give a dance.“But how can it be done?”said she;“my dear Ferrars,do tell me how it is to be managed.There is not a room in this cottage that will hold ten couple,and where can the supper be?”I immediately saw that there could be no difficulty in it,so I said:“My dear Lady Elliott,do not be uneasy.The dining-parlour will admit eighteen couple with ease;card-tables may be placed in the drawing-room;the library may be open for tea and other refreshments;and let the supper be set out in the saloon.”Lady Elliott was delighted with the thought.We measured the dining-room,and found it would hold exactly eighteen couple,and the affair was arranged precisely after my plan.So that in fact,you see,if people do but know how to set about it,every comfort may be as well enjoyed in a cottage as in the most spacious dwelling.’
Elinor agreed to it all,for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition.
As John Dashwood had no more pleasure in music than his eldest sister,his mind was equally at liberty to fix on anything else;and a thought struck him during the evening,which he communicated to his wife,for her approbation when they got home.The consideration of Mrs Dennison's mistake,in supposing his sisters their guests,had suggested the propriety of their being really invited to become such,while Mrs Jennings's engagements kept her from home.The expense would be nothing,the inconvenience not more;and it was altogether an attention which the delicacy of his conscience pointed out to be requisite to its complete enfranchisement from his promise to his father.Fanny was startled at the proposal.
‘I do not see how it can be done,’said she,‘without affronting Lady Middleton,for they spend every day with her;otherwise I should be exceedingly glad to do it.You know I am always ready to pay them any attention in my power,as my taking them out this evening shows.But they are Lady Middleton's visitors.How can I ask them away from her?’
Her husband,but with great humility,did not see the force of her objection.‘They had already spent a week in this manner in Conduit Street,and Lady Middleton could not be displeased at their giving the same number of days to such near relations.’
Fanny paused a moment,and then,with fresh vigour,said-
