Chapter 7

by Jane Austen

　　Barton Park was about half a mile from the cottage.The ladies had passed near it in their way along the valley,but it was screened from their view at home by theprojection of a hill. The house was large and handsome;and the Middletons lived in a style of equal hospitalityand elegance. The former was for Sir John's gratification,the latter for that of his lady. They were scarcelyever without some friends staying with them in the house,and they kept more company of every kind than any otherfamily in the neighbourhood. It was necessary to thehappiness of both; for however dissimilar in temperand outward behaviour, they strongly resembled each otherin that total want of talent and taste which confinedtheir employments, unconnected with such as society produced,within a very narrow compass. Sir John was a sportsman,Lady Middleton a mother. He hunted and shot, and shehumoured her children; and these were their only resources.Lady Middleton had the advantage of being able to spoil herchildren all the year round, while Sir John's independentemployments were in existence only half the time.Continual engagements at home and abroad, however,supplied all the deficiencies of nature and education;supported the good spirits of Sir John, and gave exerciseto the good breeding of his wife.Lady Middleton piqued herself upon the eleganceof her table, and of all her domestic arrangements;and from this kind of vanity was her greatest enjoymentin any of their parties. But Sir John's satisfactionin society was much more real; he delighted in collectingabout him more young people than his house would hold,and the noisier they were the better was he pleased.He was a blessing to all the juvenile part of the neighbourhood,for in summer he was for ever forming parties to eat coldham and chicken out of doors, and in winter his privateballs were numerous enough for any young lady who was notsuffering under the unsatiable appetite of fifteen.The arrival of a new family in the country was alwaysa matter of joy to him, and in every point of view he wascharmed with the inhabitants he had now procured for hiscottage at Barton. The Miss Dashwoods were young, pretty,and unaffected. It was enough to secure his good opinion;for to be unaffected was all that a pretty girl couldwant to make her mind as captivating as her person.The friendliness of his disposition made him happy inaccommodating those, whose situation might be considered,in comparison with the past, as unfortunate. In showingkindness to his cousins therefore he had the real satisfactionof a good heart; and in settling a family of females onlyin his cottage, he had all the satisfaction of a sportsman;for a sportsman, though he esteems only those of his sex whoare sportsmen likewise, is not often desirous of encouragingtheir taste by admitting them to a residence within his ownmanor.Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters were met at the doorof the house by Sir John, who welcomed them to BartonPark with unaffected sincerity; and as he attended themto the drawing room repeated to the young ladies the concernwhich the same subject had drawn from him the day before,at being unable to get any smart young men to meet them.They would see, he said, only one gentleman therebesides himself; a particular friend who was staying atthe park, but who was neither very young nor very gay.He hoped they would all excuse the smallness of the party,and could assure them it should never happen so again.He had been to several families that morning in hopesof procuring some addition to their number, but itwas moonlight and every body was full of engagements.Luckily Lady Middleton's mother had arrived at Bartonwithin the last hour, and as she was a very cheerfulagreeable woman, he hoped the young ladies would not findit so very dull as they might imagine. The young ladies,as well as their mother, were perfectly satisfied withhaving two entire strangers of the party, and wished forno more.Mrs. Jennings, Lady Middleton's mother, was agood-humoured, merry, fat, elderly woman, who talked agreat deal, seemed very happy, and rather vulgar. She was fullof jokes and laughter, and before dinner was over had saidmany witty things on the subject of lovers and husbands;hoped they had not left their hearts behind them in Sussex,and pretended to see them blush whether they did or not.Marianne was vexed at it for her sister's sake, and turnedher eyes towards Elinor to see how she bore these attacks,with an earnestness which gave Elinor far more pain thancould arise from such common-place raillery as Mrs. Jennings's.Colonel Brandon, the friend of Sir John, seemed nomore adapted by resemblance of manner to be his friend,than Lady Middleton was to be his wife, or Mrs. Jenningsto be Lady Middleton's mother. He was silent and grave.His appearance however was not unpleasing, in spiteof his being in the opinion of Marianne and Margaretan absolute old bachelor, for he was on the wrong sideof five and thirty; but though his face was not handsome,his countenance was sensible, and his address wasparticularly gentlemanlike.There was nothing in any of the party which couldrecommend them as companions to the Dashwoods; but the coldinsipidity of Lady Middleton was so particularly repulsive,that in comparison of it the gravity of Colonel Brandon,and even the boisterous mirth of Sir John and hismother-in-law was interesting. Lady Middleton seemedto be roused to enjoyment only by the entrance of herfour noisy children after dinner, who pulled her about,tore her clothes, and put an end to every kind of discourseexcept what related to themselves.In the evening, as Marianne was discovered to be musical,she was invited to play. The instrument was unlocked,every body prepared to be charmed, and Marianne,who sang very well, at their request went through thechief of the songs which Lady Middleton had brought intothe family on her marriage, and which perhaps had lainever since in the same position on the pianoforte,for her ladyship had celebrated that event by givingup music, although by her mother's account, she hadplayed extremely well, and by her own was very fond of it.Marianne's performance was highly applauded.Sir John was loud in his admiration at the end of every song,and as loud in his conversation with the others while everysong lasted. Lady Middleton frequently called him to order,wondered how any one's attention could be diverted from musicfor a moment, and asked Marianne to sing a particular songwhich Marianne had just finished. Colonel Brandon alone,of all the party, heard her without being in raptures.He paid her only the compliment of attention; and she felta respect for him on the occasion, which the others hadreasonably forfeited by their shameless want of taste.His pleasure in music, though it amounted not to thatecstatic delight which alone could sympathize with her own,was estimable when contrasted against the horribleinsensibility of the others; and she was reasonable enoughto allow that a man of five and thirty might well haveoutlived all acuteness of feeling and every exquisitepower of enjoyment. She was perfectly disposed to makeevery allowance for the colonel's advanced state of lifewhich humanity required.