Chapter 24

by Jane Austen

　　Who can be in doubt of what followed? When any two young peopletake it into their heads to marry, they are pretty sure by perseveranceto carry their point, be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent,or ever so little likely to be necessary to each other's ultimate comfort.This may be bad morality to conclude with, but I believe it to be truth;and if such parties succeed, how should a Captain Wentworth andan Anne Elliot, with the advantage of maturity of mind,consciousness of right, and one independent fortune between them,fail of bearing down every opposition? They might in fact,have borne down a great deal more than they met with, for there waslittle to distress them beyond the want of graciousness and warmth.Sir Walter made no objection, and Elizabeth did nothing worsethan look cold and unconcerned. Captain Wentworth, with five-and-twentythousand pounds, and as high in his profession as merit and activitycould place him, was no longer nobody. He was now esteemed quite worthyto address the daughter of a foolish, spendthrift baronet,who had not had principle or sense enough to maintain himselfin the situation in which Providence had placed him, and who couldgive his daughter at present but a small part of the shareof ten thousand pounds which must be hers hereafter.

　　Sir Walter, indeed, though he had no affection for Anne,and no vanity flattered, to make him really happy on the occasion,was very far from thinking it a bad match for her. On the contrary,when he saw more of Captain Wentworth, saw him repeatedly by daylight,and eyed him well, he was very much struck by his personal claims,and felt that his superiority of appearance might be not unfairly balancedagainst her superiority of rank; and all this, assisted byhis well-sounding name, enabled Sir Walter at last to prepare his pen,with a very good grace, for the insertion of the marriagein the volume of honour.

　　The only one among them, whose opposition of feeling could exciteany serious anxiety was Lady Russell. Anne knew that Lady Russellmust be suffering some pain in understanding and relinquishing Mr Elliot,and be making some struggles to become truly acquainted with,and do justice to Captain Wentworth. This however was whatLady Russell had now to do. She must learn to feel that she hadbeen mistaken with regard to both; that she had been unfairly influencedby appearances in each; that because Captain Wentworth's mannershad not suited her own ideas, she had been too quick in suspecting themto indicate a character of dangerous impetuosity; and that becauseMr Elliot's manners had precisely pleased her in their proprietyand correctness, their general politeness and suavity, she had beentoo quick in receiving them as the certain result of the most correctopinions and well-regulated mind. There was nothing lessfor Lady Russell to do, than to admit that she had beenpretty completely wrong, and to take up a new set of opinionsand of hopes.

　　There is a quickness of perception in some, a nicety in the discernmentof character, a natural penetration, in short, which no experiencein others can equal, and Lady Russell had been less giftedin this part of understanding than her young friend. But she wasa very good woman, and if her second object was to be sensibleand well-judging, her first was to see Anne happy. She loved Annebetter than she loved her own abilities; and when the awkwardnessof the beginning was over, found little hardship in attaching herselfas a mother to the man who was securing the happiness of her other child.

　　Of all the family, Mary was probably the one most immediately gratifiedby the circumstance. It was creditable to have a sister married,and she might flatter herself with having been greatly instrumentalto the connexion, by keeping Anne with her in the autumn;and as her own sister must be better than her husband's sisters,it was very agreeable that Captain Wentworth should be a richer man thaneither Captain Benwick or Charles Hayter. She had something to suffer,perhaps, when they came into contact again, in seeing Anne restoredto the rights of seniority, and the mistress of a very pretty landaulette;but she had a future to look forward to, of powerful consolation.Anne had no Uppercross Hall before her, no landed estate,no headship of a family; and if they could but keep Captain Wentworthfrom being made a baronet, she would not change situations with Anne.

　　It would be well for the eldest sister if she were equally satisfiedwith her situation, for a change is not very probable there.She had soon the mortification of seeing Mr Elliot withdraw,and no one of proper condition has since presented himself to raiseeven the unfounded hopes which sunk with him.

　　The news of his cousins Anne's engagement burst on Mr Elliotmost unexpectedly. It deranged his best plan of domestic happiness,his best hope of keeping Sir Walter single by the watchfulnesswhich a son-in-law's rights would have given. But, though discomfitedand disappointed, he could still do something for his own interestand his own enjoyment. He soon quitted Bath; and on Mrs Clay'squitting it soon afterwards, and being next heard of as establishedunder his protection in London, it was evident how double a gamehe had been playing, and how determined he was to save himselffrom being cut out by one artful woman, at least.

　　Mrs Clay's affections had overpowered her interest, and she had sacrificed,for the young man's sake, the possibility of scheming longerfor Sir Walter. She has abilities, however, as well as affections;and it is now a doubtful point whether his cunning, or hers,may finally carry the day; whether, after preventing her from beingthe wife of Sir Walter, he may not be wheedled and caressed at lastinto making her the wife of Sir William.

　　It cannot be doubted that Sir Walter and Elizabeth were shockedand mortified by the loss of their companion, and the discovery oftheir deception in her. They had their great cousins, to be sure,to resort to for comfort; but they must long feel that to flatterand follow others, without being flattered and followed in turn,is but a state of half enjoyment.

　　Anne, satisfied at a very early period of Lady Russell's meaningto love Captain Wentworth as she ought, had no other alloyto the happiness of her prospects than what arose from the consciousnessof having no relations to bestow on him which a man of sense could value.There she felt her own inferiority very keenly. The disproportionin their fortune was nothing; it did not give her a moment's regret;but to have no family to receive and estimate him properly,nothing of respectability, of harmony, of good will to offerin return for all the worth and all the prompt welcome which met herin his brothers and sisters, was a source of as lively painas her mind could well be sensible of under circumstances of otherwisestrong felicity. She had but two friends in the world to add to his list,Lady Russell and Mrs Smith. To those, however, he was very well disposedto attach himself. Lady Russell, in spite of all her former transgressions,he could now value from his heart. While he was not obliged to saythat he believed her to have been right in originally dividing them,he was ready to say almost everything else in her favour,and as for Mrs Smith, she had claims of various kinds to recommend herquickly and permanently.

　　Her recent good offices by Anne had been enough in themselves,and their marriage, instead of depriving her of one friend,secured her two. She was their earliest visitor in their settled life;and Captain Wentworth, by putting her in the way of recoveringher husband's property in the West Indies, by writing for her,acting for her, and seeing her through all the petty difficultiesof the case with the activity and exertion of a fearless manand a determined friend, fully requited the services whichshe had rendered, or ever meant to render, to his wife.

　　Mrs Smith's enjoyments were not spoiled by this improvement of income,with some improvement of health, and the acquisition of such friendsto be often with, for her cheerfulness and mental alacrity did notfail her; and while these prime supplies of good remained, she might havebid defiance even to greater accessions of worldly prosperity.She might have been absolutely rich and perfectly healthy,and yet be happy. Her spring of felicity was in the glowof her spirits, as her friend Anne's was in the warmth of her heart.Anne was tenderness itself, and she had the full worth of itin Captain Wentworth's affection. His profession was all that could evermake her friends wish that tenderness less, the dread of a future warall that could dim her sunshine. She gloried in being a sailor's wife,but she must pay the tax of quick alarm for belonging to that professionwhich is, if possible, more distinguished in its domestic virtuesthan in its national importance.

　　Finis