Chapter 14

by Jane Austen

　　Though Charles and Mary had remained at Lyme much longer afterMr and Mrs Musgrove's going than Anne conceived they could have beenat all wanted, they were yet the first of the family to be at home again;and as soon as possible after their return to Uppercrossthey drove over to the Lodge. They had left Louisa beginning to sit up;but her head, though clear, was exceedingly weak, and her nervessusceptible to the highest extreme of tenderness; and thoughshe might be pronounced to be altogether doing very well,it was still impossible to say when she might be able to bearthe removal home; and her father and mother, who must returnin time to receive their younger children for the Christmas holidays,had hardly a hope of being allowed to bring her with them.

　　They had been all in lodgings together. Mrs Musgrove hadgot Mrs Harville's children away as much as she could, every possiblesupply from Uppercross had been furnished, to lighten the inconvenienceto the Harvilles, while the Harvilles had been wanting themto come to dinner every day; and in short, it seemed to have beenonly a struggle on each side as to which should be most disinterestedand hospitable.

　　Mary had had her evils; but upon the whole, as was evidentby her staying so long, she had found more to enjoy than to suffer.Charles Hayter had been at Lyme oftener than suited her; and whenthey dined with the Harvilles there had been only a maid-servant to wait,and at first Mrs Harville had always given Mrs Musgrove precedence;but then, she had received so very handsome an apology from heron finding out whose daughter she was, and there had been so muchgoing on every day, there had been so many walks between their lodgingsand the Harvilles, and she had got books from the library,and changed them so often, that the balance had certainly beenmuch in favour of Lyme. She had been taken to Charmouth too,and she had bathed, and she had gone to church, and there were a great manymore people to look at in the church at Lyme than at Uppercross;and all this, joined to the sense of being so very useful,had made really an agreeable fortnight.

　　Anne enquired after Captain Benwick, Mary's face was clouded directly.Charles laughed.

　　"Oh! Captain Benwick is very well, I believe, but he isa very odd young man. I do not know what he would be at.We asked him to come home with us for a day or two: Charles undertookto give him some shooting, and he seemed quite delighted, and, for my part,I thought it was all settled; when behold! on Tuesday night,he made a very awkward sort of excuse; `he never shot' and he had`been quite misunderstood,' and he had promised this and he hadpromised that, and the end of it was, I found, that he did not mean to come.I suppose he was afraid of finding it dull; but upon my wordI should have thought we were lively enough at the Cottagefor such a heart-broken man as Captain Benwick."

　　Charles laughed again and said, "Now Mary, you know very wellhow it really was. It was all your doing," (turning to Anne.)"He fancied that if he went with us, he should find you close by:he fancied everybody to be living in Uppercross; and when he discoveredthat Lady Russell lived three miles off, his heart failed him,and he had not courage to come. That is the fact, upon my honour,Mary knows it is."

　　But Mary did not give into it very graciously, whether fromnot considering Captain Benwick entitled by birth and situationto be in love with an Elliot, or from not wanting to believeAnne a greater attraction to Uppercross than herself, must beleft to be guessed. Anne's good-will, however, was not to be lessenedby what she heard. She boldly acknowledged herself flattered,and continued her enquiries.

　　"Oh! he talks of you," cried Charles, "in such terms--"Mary interrupted him. "I declare, Charles, I never heard himmention Anne twice all the time I was there. I declare, Anne,he never talks of you at all."

　　"No," admitted Charles, "I do not know that he ever does, in a generalway; but however, it is a very clear thing that he admires you exceedingly.His head is full of some books that he is reading upon your recommendation,and he wants to talk to you about them; he has found out something or otherin one of them which he thinks--oh! I cannot pretend to remember it,but it was something very fine--I overheard him telling Henriettaall about it; and then `Miss Elliot' was spoken of in the highest terms!Now Mary, I declare it was so, I heard it myself, and you werein the other room. `Elegance, sweetness, beauty.' Oh! there was no endof Miss Elliot's charms."

　　"And I am sure," cried Mary, warmly, "it was a very little to his credit,if he did. Miss Harville only died last June. Such a heartis very little worth having; is it, Lady Russell? I am sureyou will agree with me."

　　"I must see Captain Benwick before I decide," said Lady Russell, smiling.

　　"And that you are very likely to do very soon, I can tell you, ma'am,"said Charles. "Though he had not nerves for coming away with us,and setting off again afterwards to pay a formal visit here,he will make his way over to Kellynch one day by himself,you may depend on it. I told him the distance and the road,and I told him of the church's being so very well worth seeing;for as he has a taste for those sort of things, I thought that wouldbe a good excuse, and he listened with all his understanding and soul;and I am sure from his manner that you will have him calling here soon.So, I give you notice, Lady Russell."

　　"Any acquaintance of Anne's will always be welcome to me,"was Lady Russell's kind answer.

　　"Oh! as to being Anne's acquaintance," said Mary, "I think he is rathermy acquaintance, for I have been seeing him every day this last fortnight."

　　"Well, as your joint acquaintance, then, I shall be very happyto see Captain Benwick."

　　"You will not find anything very agreeable in him, I assure you, ma'am.He is one of the dullest young men that ever lived. He has walked with me,sometimes, from one end of the sands to the other, without saying a word.He is not at all a well-bred young man. I am sure you will not like him."

　　"There we differ, Mary," said Anne. "I think Lady Russell would like him.I think she would be so much pleased with his mind, that she wouldvery soon see no deficiency in his manner."

　　"So do I, Anne," said Charles. "I am sure Lady Russell would like him.He is just Lady Russell's sort. Give him a book, and he willread all day long."

　　"Yes, that he will!" exclaimed Mary, tauntingly. "He will sit poringover his book, and not know when a person speaks to him, or when onedrop's one's scissors, or anything that happens. Do you thinkLady Russell would like that?"

　　Lady Russell could not help laughing. "Upon my word," said she,"I should not have supposed that my opinion of any one could haveadmitted of such difference of conjecture, steady and matter of factas I may call myself. I have really a curiosity to see the personwho can give occasion to such directly opposite notions.I wish he may be induced to call here. And when he does, Mary,you may depend upon hearing my opinion; but I am determinednot to judge him beforehand."

　　"You will not like him, I will answer for it."

　　Lady Russell began talking of something else. Mary spoke with animationof their meeting with, or rather missing, Mr Elliot so extraordinarily.

　　"He is a man," said Lady Russell, "whom I have no wish to see.His declining to be on cordial terms with the head of his family,has left a very strong impression in his disfavour with me."

　　This decision checked Mary's eagerness, and stopped her shortin the midst of the Elliot countenance.

　　With regard to Captain Wentworth, though Anne hazarded no enquiries,there was voluntary communication sufficient. His spirits had beengreatly recovering lately as might be expected. As Louisa improved,he had improved, and he was now quite a different creaturefrom what he had been the first week. He had not seen Louisa;and was so extremely fearful of any ill consequence to herfrom an interview, that he did not press for it at all; and,on the contrary, seemed to have a plan of going away for a weekor ten days, till her head was stronger. He had talked of goingdown to Plymouth for a week, and wanted to persuade Captain Benwickto go with him; but, as Charles maintained to the last, Captain Benwickseemed much more disposed to ride over to Kellynch.

　　There can be no doubt that Lady Russell and Anne were bothoccasionally thinking of Captain Benwick, from this time.Lady Russell could not hear the door-bell without feeling that it mightbe his herald; nor could Anne return from any stroll of solitary indulgencein her father's grounds, or any visit of charity in the village,without wondering whether she might see him or hear of him.Captain Benwick came not, however. He was either less disposed for itthan Charles had imagined, or he was too shy; and after giving hima week's indulgence, Lady Russell determined him to be unworthyof the interest which he had been beginning to excite.

　　The Musgroves came back to receive their happy boys and girls from school,bringing with them Mrs Harville's little children, to improve the noiseof Uppercross, and lessen that of Lyme. Henrietta remained with Louisa;but all the rest of the family were again in their usual quarters.

　　Lady Russell and Anne paid their compliments to them once,when Anne could not but feel that Uppercross was already quite alive again.Though neither Henrietta, nor Louisa, nor Charles Hayter,nor Captain Wentworth were there, the room presented as strong a contrastas could be wished to the last state she had seen it in.

　　Immediately surrounding Mrs Musgrove were the little Harvilles,whom she was sedulously guarding from the tyranny of the two childrenfrom the Cottage, expressly arrived to amuse them. On one sidewas a table occupied by some chattering girls, cutting up silkand gold paper; and on the other were tressels and trays,bending under the weight of brawn and cold pies, where riotous boyswere holding high revel; the whole completed by a roaring Christmas fire,which seemed determined to be heard, in spite of all the noiseof the others. Charles and Mary also came in, of course,during their visit, and Mr Musgrove made a point of paying his respectsto Lady Russell, and sat down close to her for ten minutes,talking with a very raised voice, but from the clamour of the childrenon his knees, generally in vain. It was a fine family-piece.

　　Anne, judging from her own temperament, would have deemedsuch a domestic hurricane a bad restorative of the nerves,which Louisa's illness must have so greatly shaken. But Mrs Musgrove,who got Anne near her on purpose to thank her most cordially,again and again, for all her attentions to them, concludeda short recapitulation of what she had suffered herself by observing,with a happy glance round the room, that after all she had gone through,nothing was so likely to do her good as a little quiet cheerfulnessat home.

　　Louisa was now recovering apace. Her mother could even think of herbeing able to join their party at home, before her brothers and sisterswent to school again. The Harvilles had promised to come with herand stay at Uppercross, whenever she returned. Captain Wentworth was gone,for the present, to see his brother in Shropshire.

　　"I hope I shall remember, in future," said Lady Russell, as soon asthey were reseated in the carriage, "not to call at Uppercrossin the Christmas holidays."

　　Everybody has their taste in noises as well as in other matters;and sounds are quite innoxious, or most distressing, by their sortrather than their quantity. When Lady Russell not long afterwards,was entering Bath on a wet afternoon, and driving throughthe long course of streets from the Old Bridge to Camden Place,amidst the dash of other carriages, the heavy rumble of carts and drays,the bawling of newspapermen, muffin-men and milkmen, and the ceaselessclink of pattens, she made no complaint. No, these were noiseswhich belonged to the winter pleasures; her spirits roseunder their influence; and like Mrs Musgrove, she was feeling,though not saying, that after being long in the country, nothing could beso good for her as a little quiet cheerfulness.

　　Anne did not share these feelings. She persisted in a very determined,though very silent disinclination for Bath; caught the first dim viewof the extensive buildings, smoking in rain, without any wishof seeing them better; felt their progress through the streets to be,however disagreeable, yet too rapid; for who would be glad to see herwhen she arrived? And looked back, with fond regret, to the bustlesof Uppercross and the seclusion of Kellynch.

　　Elizabeth's last letter had communicated a piece of news of some interest.Mr Elliot was in Bath. He had called in Camden Place; had calleda second time, a third; had been pointedly attentive. If Elizabethand her father did not deceive themselves, had been taking much painsto seek the acquaintance, and proclaim the value of the connection,as he had formerly taken pains to shew neglect. This was very wonderfulif it were true; and Lady Russell was in a state of very agreeablecuriosity and perplexity about Mr Elliot, already recanting the sentimentshe had so lately expressed to Mary, of his being "a man whom she hadno wish to see." She had a great wish to see him. If he really soughtto reconcile himself like a dutiful branch, he must be forgivenfor having dismembered himself from the paternal tree.

　　Anne was not animated to an equal pitch by the circumstance,but she felt that she would rather see Mr Elliot again than not,which was more than she could say for many other persons in Bath.

　　She was put down in Camden Place; and Lady Russell then droveto her own lodgings, in Rivers Street.