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1But Mr Elliot was not done with. Mrs Smith had been carried away from her first direction, and Anne had forgotten, in
2the interest of her own family concerns, how much had been originally implied against him; but her attention was now
3called to the explanation of those first hints, and she listened to a recital which, if it did not perfectly justify the
4unqualified bitterness of Mrs Smith, proved him to have been very unfeeling in his conduct towards her; very deficient
5both in justice and compassion. She learned that (the intimacy between them continuing unimpaired by Mr Elliot's
6marriage) they had been as before always together, and Mr Elliot had led his friend into expenses much beyond his
7fortune. Mrs Smith did not want to take blame to herself, and was most tender of throwing any on her husband; but Anne
8could collect that their income had never been equal to their style of living, and that from the first there had been a
9great deal of general and joint extravagance. From his wife's account of him she could discern Mr Smith to have been a
10man of warm feelings, easy temper, careless habits, and not strong understanding, much more amiable than his friend, and
11very unlike him, led by him, and probably despised by him. Mr Elliot, raised by his marriage to great affluence, and
12disposed to every gratification of pleasure and vanity which could be commanded without involving himself, (for with all
13his self-indulgence he had become a prudent man), and beginning to be rich, just as his friend ought to have found
14himself to be poor, seemed to have had no concern at all for that friend's probable finances, but, on the contrary, had
15been prompting and encouraging expenses which could end only in ruin; and the Smiths accordingly had been ruined. The
16husband had died just in time to be spared the full knowledge of it. They had previously known embarrassments enough to
17try the friendship of their friends, and to prove that Mr Elliot's had better not be tried; but it was not till his
18death that the wretched state of his affairs was fully known. With a confidence in Mr Elliot's regard, more creditable
19to his feelings than his judgement, Mr Smith had appointed him the executor of his will; but Mr Elliot would not act,
20and the difficulties and distress which this refusal had heaped on her, in addition to the inevitable sufferings of her
21situation, had been such as could not be related without anguish of spirit, or listened to without corresponding
22indignation. Anne was shewn some letters of his on the occasion, answers to urgent applications from Mrs Smith, which
23all breathed the same stern resolution of not engaging in a fruitless trouble, and, under a cold civility, the same
24hard-hearted indifference to any of the evils it might bring on her. It was a dreadful picture of ingratitude and
25inhumanity; and Anne felt, at some moments, that no flagrant open crime could have been worse. She had a great deal to
26listen to; all the particulars of past sad scenes, all the minutiae of distress upon distress, which in former
27conversations had been merely hinted at, were dwelt on now with a natural indulgence. Anne could perfectly comprehend
28the exquisite relief, and was only the more inclined to wonder at the composure of her friend's usual state of mind.
29There was one circumstance in the history of her grievances of particular irritation. She had good reason to believe
30that some property of her husband in the West Indies, which had been for many years under a sort of sequestration for
31the payment of its own incumbrances, might be recoverable by proper measures; and this property, though not large, would
32be enough to make her comparatively rich. But there was nobody to stir in it. Mr Elliot would do nothing, and she could
33do nothing herself, equally disabled from personal exertion by her state of bodily weakness, and from employing others
34by her want of money. She had no natural connexions to assist her even with their counsel, and she could not afford to
35purchase the assistance of the law. This was a cruel aggravation of actually straitened means. To feel that she ought to
36be in better circumstances, that a little trouble in the right place might do it, and to fear that delay might be even
37weakening her claims, was hard to bear. It was on this point that she had hoped to engage Anne's good offices with Mr
38Elliot. She had previously, in the anticipation of their marriage, been very apprehensive of losing her friend by it;
39but on being assured that he could have made no attempt of that nature, since he did not even know her to be in Bath, it
40immediately occurred, that something might be done in her favour by the influence of the woman he loved, and she had
41been hastily preparing to interest Anne's feelings, as far as the observances due to Mr Elliot's character would allow,
42when Anne's refutation of the supposed engagement changed the face of everything; and while it took from her the
43new-formed hope of succeeding in the object of her first anxiety, left her at least the comfort of telling the whole
44story her own way. After listening to this full description of Mr Elliot, Anne could not but express some surprise at
45Mrs Smith's having spoken of him so favourably in the beginning of their conversation. "She had seemed to recommend and
46praise him!" "My dear," was Mrs Smith's reply, "there was nothing else to be done. I considered your marrying him as
47certain, though he might not yet have made the offer, and I could no more speak the truth of him, than if he had been
48your husband. My heart bled for you, as I talked of happiness; and yet he is sensible, he is agreeable, and with such a
49woman as you, it was not absolutely hopeless. He was very unkind to his first wife. They were wretched together. But she
50was too ignorant and giddy for respect, and he had never loved her. I was willing to hope that you must fare better."
51Anne could just acknowledge within herself such a possibility of having been induced to marry him, as made her shudder
52at the idea of the misery which must have followed. It was just possible that she might have been persuaded by Lady
53Russell! And under such a supposition, which would have been most miserable, when time had disclosed all, too late? It
54was very desirable that Lady Russell should be no longer deceived; and one of the concluding arrangements of this
55important conference, which carried them through the greater part of the morning, was, that Anne had full liberty to
56communicate to her friend everything relative to Mrs Smith, in which his conduct was involved.
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