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1While Sir Walter and Elizabeth were assiduously pushing their good fortune in Laura Place, Anne was renewing an
2acquaintance of a very different description. She had called on her former governess, and had heard from her of there
3being an old schoolfellow in Bath, who had the two strong claims on her attention of past kindness and present
4suffering. Miss Hamilton, now Mrs Smith, had shewn her kindness in one of those periods of her life when it had been
5most valuable. Anne had gone unhappy to school, grieving for the loss of a mother whom she had dearly loved, feeling her
6separation from home, and suffering as a girl of fourteen, of strong sensibility and not high spirits, must suffer at
7such a time; and Miss Hamilton, three years older than herself, but still from the want of near relations and a settled
8home, remaining another year at school, had been useful and good to her in a way which had considerably lessened her
9misery, and could never be remembered with indifference. Miss Hamilton had left school, had married not long afterwards,
10was said to have married a man of fortune, and this was all that Anne had known of her, till now that their governess's
11account brought her situation forward in a more decided but very different form. She was a widow and poor. Her husband
12had been extravagant; and at his death, about two years before, had left his affairs dreadfully involved. She had had
13difficulties of every sort to contend with, and in addition to these distresses had been afflicted with a severe
14rheumatic fever, which, finally settling in her legs, had made her for the present a cripple. She had come to Bath on
15that account, and was now in lodgings near the hot baths, living in a very humble way, unable even to afford herself the
16comfort of a servant, and of course almost excluded from society. Their mutual friend answered for the satisfaction
17which a visit from Miss Elliot would give Mrs Smith, and Anne therefore lost no time in going. She mentioned nothing of
18what she had heard, or what she intended, at home. It would excite no proper interest there. She only consulted Lady
19Russell, who entered thoroughly into her sentiments, and was most happy to convey her as near to Mrs Smith's lodgings in
20Westgate Buildings, as Anne chose to be taken. The visit was paid, their acquaintance re-established, their interest in
21each other more than re-kindled. The first ten minutes had its awkwardness and its emotion. Twelve years were gone since
22they had parted, and each presented a somewhat different person from what the other had imagined. Twelve years had
23changed Anne from the blooming, silent, unformed girl of fifteen, to the elegant little woman of seven-and-twenty, with
24every beauty except bloom, and with manners as consciously right as they were invariably gentle; and twelve years had
25transformed the fine-looking, well-grown Miss Hamilton, in all the glow of health and confidence of superiority, into a
26poor, infirm, helpless widow, receiving the visit of her former protegee as a favour; but all that was uncomfortable in
27the meeting had soon passed away, and left only the interesting charm of remembering former partialities and talking
28over old times. Anne found in Mrs Smith the good sense and agreeable manners which she had almost ventured to depend on,
29and a disposition to converse and be cheerful beyond her expectation. Neither the dissipations of the past--and she had
30lived very much in the world--nor the restrictions of the present, neither sickness nor sorrow seemed to have closed her
31heart or ruined her spirits. In the course of a second visit she talked with great openness, and Anne's astonishment
32increased. She could scarcely imagine a more cheerless situation in itself than Mrs Smith's. She had been very fond of
33her husband: she had buried him. She had been used to affluence: it was gone. She had no child to connect her with life
34and happiness again, no relations to assist in the arrangement of perplexed affairs, no health to make all the rest
35supportable. Her accommodations were limited to a noisy parlour, and a dark bedroom behind, with no possibility of
36moving from one to the other without assistance, which there was only one servant in the house to afford, and she never
37quitted the house but to be conveyed into the warm bath. Yet, in spite of all this, Anne had reason to believe that she
38had moments only of languor and depression, to hours of occupation and enjoyment. How could it be? She watched,
39observed, reflected, and finally determined that this was not a case of fortitude or of resignation only. A submissive
40spirit might be patient, a strong understanding would supply resolution, but here was something more; here was that
41elasticity of mind, that disposition to be comforted, that power of turning readily from evil to good, and of finding
42employment which carried her out of herself, which was from nature alone. It was the choicest gift of Heaven; and Anne
43viewed her friend as one of those instances in which, by a merciful appointment, it seems designed to counterbalance
44almost every other want. There had been a time, Mrs Smith told her, when her spirits had nearly failed. She could not
45call herself an invalid now, compared with her state on first reaching Bath. Then she had, indeed, been a pitiable
46object; for she had caught cold on the journey, and had hardly taken possession of her lodgings before she was again
47confined to her bed and suffering under severe and constant pain; and all this among strangers, with the absolute
48necessity of having a regular nurse, and finances at that moment particularly unfit to meet any extraordinary expense.
49She had weathered it, however, and could truly say that it had done her good. It had increased her comforts by making
50her feel herself to be in good hands. She had seen too much of the world, to expect sudden or disinterested attachment
51anywhere, but her illness had proved to her that her landlady had a character to preserve, and would not use her ill;
52and she had been particularly fortunate in her nurse, as a sister of her landlady, a nurse by profession, and who had
53always a home in that house when unemployed, chanced to be at liberty just in time to attend her. "And she," said Mrs
54Smith, "besides nursing me most admirably, has really proved an invaluable acquaintance. As soon as I could use my hands
55she taught me to knit, which has been a great amusement; and she put me in the way of making these little thread-cases,
56pin-cushions and card-racks, which you always find me so busy about, and which supply me with the means of doing a
57little good to one or two very poor families in this neighbourhood. She had a large acquaintance, of course
58professionally, among those who can afford to buy, and she disposes of my merchandise. She always takes the right time
59for applying. Everybody's heart is open, you know, when they have recently escaped from severe pain, or are recovering
60the blessing of health, and Nurse Rooke thoroughly understands when to speak. She is a shrewd, intelligent, sensible
61woman. Hers is a line for seeing human nature; and she has a fund of good sense and observation, which, as a companion,
62make her infinitely superior to thousands of those who having only received 'the best education in the world,' know
63nothing worth attending to. Call it gossip, if you will, but when Nurse Rooke has half an hour's leisure to bestow on
64me, she is sure to have something to relate that is entertaining and profitable: something that makes one know one's
65species better. One likes to hear what is going on, to be au fait as to the newest modes of being trifling and silly. To
66me, who live so much alone, her conversation, I assure you, is a treat." Anne, far from wishing to cavil at the
67pleasure, replied, "I can easily believe it. Women of that class have great opportunities, and if they are intelligent
68may be well worth listening to. Such varieties of human nature as they are in the habit of witnessing! And it is not
69merely in its follies, that they are well read; for they see it occasionally under every circumstance that can be most
70interesting or affecting. What instances must pass before them of ardent, disinterested, self-denying attachment, of
71heroism, fortitude, patience, resignation: of all the conflicts and all the sacrifices that ennoble us most. A sick
72chamber may often furnish the worth of volumes."
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