第94章

And to have entered into a secret engagement with a young man under her uncle's care, the son of a woman especially of such very large fortune as Mrs.Ferrars, is perhaps, altogether a little extraordinary.In short, I do not mean to reflect upon the behaviour of any person whom you have a regard for, Mrs.Jennings.We all wish her extremely happy; and Mrs.Ferrars's conduct throughout the whole, has been such as every conscientious, good mother, in like circumstances, would adopt.It has been dignified and liberal.Edward has drawn his own lot, and I fear it will be a bad one."Marianne sighed out her similar apprehension;and Elinor's heart wrung for the feelings of Edward, while braving his mother's threats, for a woman who could not reward him.

"Well, sir," said Mrs.Jennings, "and how did it end?""I am sorry to say, ma'am, in a most unhappy rupture:--Edward is dismissed for ever from his mother's notice.

He left her house yesterday, but where he is gone, or whether he is still in town, I do not know; for WE of course can make no inquiry.""Poor young man!--and what is to become of him?""What, indeed, ma'am! It is a melancholy consideration.

Born to the prospect of such affluence! I cannot conceive a situation more deplorable.The interest of two thousand pounds--how can a man live on it?--and when to that is added the recollection, that he might, but for his own folly, within three months have been in the receipt of two thousand, five hundred a-year (for Miss Morton has thirty thousand pounds,) I cannot picture to myself a more wretched condition.We must all feel for him;and the more so, because it is totally out of our power to assist him.""Poor young man!" cried Mrs.Jennings, "I am sure he should be very welcome to bed and board at my house;and so I would tell him if I could see him.It is not fit that he should be living about at his own charge now, at lodgings and taverns."Elinor's heart thanked her for such kindness towards Edward, though she could not forbear smiling at the form of it.

"If he would only have done as well by himself,"said John Dashwood, "as all his friends were disposed to do by him, he might now have been in his proper situation, and would have wanted for nothing.But as it is, it must be out of anybody's power to assist him.And there is one thing more preparing against him, which must be worse than all--his mother has determined, with a very natural kind of spirit, to settle THAT estate upon Robert immediately, which might have been Edward's, on proper conditions.

I left her this morning with her lawyer, talking over the business.""Well!" said Mrs.Jennings, "that is HER revenge.

Everybody has a way of their own.But I don't think mine would be, to make one son independent, because another had plagued me."Marianne got up and walked about the room.

"Can anything be more galling to the spirit of a man,"continued John, "than to see his younger brother in possession of an estate which might have been his own?

Poor Edward! I feel for him sincerely."

A few minutes more spent in the same kind of effusion, concluded his visit; and with repeated assurances to his sisters that he really believed there was no material danger in Fanny's indisposition, and that they need not therefore be very uneasy about it, he went away;leaving the three ladies unanimous in their sentiments on the present occasion, as far at least as it regarded Mrs.Ferrars's conduct, the Dashwoods', and Edward's.

Marianne's indignation burst forth as soon as he quitted the room; and as her vehemence made reserve impossible in Elinor, and unnecessary in Mrs.Jennings, they all joined in a very spirited critique upon the party.