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1Who can be in doubt of what followed? When any two young people take it into their heads to marry, they are pretty sure
2by perseverance to carry their point, be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent, or ever so little likely to be
3necessary to each other's ultimate comfort. This may be bad morality to conclude with, but I believe it to be truth; and
4if such parties succeed, how should a Captain Wentworth and an Anne Elliot, with the advantage of maturity of mind,
5consciousness of right, and one independent fortune between them, fail of bearing down every opposition? They might in
6fact, have borne down a great deal more than they met with, for there was little to distress them beyond the want of
7graciousness and warmth. Sir Walter made no objection, and Elizabeth did nothing worse than look cold and unconcerned.
8Captain Wentworth, with five-and-twenty thousand pounds, and as high in his profession as merit and activity could place
9him, was no longer nobody. He was now esteemed quite worthy to address the daughter of a foolish, spendthrift baronet,
10who had not had principle or sense enough to maintain himself in the situation in which Providence had placed him, and
11who could give his daughter at present but a small part of the share of ten thousand pounds which must be hers
12hereafter. Sir Walter, indeed, though he had no affection for Anne, and no vanity flattered, to make him really happy on
13the occasion, was very far from thinking it a bad match for her. On the contrary, when he saw more of Captain Wentworth,
14saw him repeatedly by daylight, and eyed him well, he was very much struck by his personal claims, and felt that his
15superiority of appearance might be not unfairly balanced against her superiority of rank; and all this, assisted by his
16well-sounding name, enabled Sir Walter at last to prepare his pen, with a very good grace, for the insertion of the
17marriage in the volume of honour. The only one among them, whose opposition of feeling could excite any serious anxiety
18was Lady Russell. Anne knew that Lady Russell must be suffering some pain in understanding and relinquishing Mr Elliot,
19and be making some struggles to become truly acquainted with, and do justice to Captain Wentworth. This however was what
20Lady Russell had now to do. She must learn to feel that she had been mistaken with regard to both; that she had been
21unfairly influenced by appearances in each; that because Captain Wentworth's manners had not suited her own ideas, she
22had been too quick in suspecting them to indicate a character of dangerous impetuosity; and that because Mr Elliot's
23manners had precisely pleased her in their propriety and correctness, their general politeness and suavity, she had been
24too quick in receiving them as the certain result of the most correct opinions and well-regulated mind. There was
25nothing less for Lady Russell to do, than to admit that she had been pretty completely wrong, and to take up a new set
26of opinions and of hopes. There is a quickness of perception in some, a nicety in the discernment of character, a
27natural penetration, in short, which no experience in others can equal, and Lady Russell had been less gifted in this
28part of understanding than her young friend. But she was a very good woman, and if her second object was to be sensible
29and well-judging, her first was to see Anne happy. She loved Anne better than she loved her own abilities; and when the
30awkwardness of the beginning was over, found little hardship in attaching herself as a mother to the man who was
31securing the happiness of her other child. Of all the family, Mary was probably the one most immediately gratified by
32the circumstance. It was creditable to have a sister married, and she might flatter herself with having been greatly
33instrumental to the connexion, by keeping Anne with her in the autumn; and as her own sister must be better than her
34husband's sisters, it was very agreeable that Captain Wentworth should be a richer man than either Captain Benwick or
35Charles Hayter. She had something to suffer, perhaps, when they came into contact again, in seeing Anne restored to the
36rights of seniority, and the mistress of a very pretty landaulette; but she had a future to look forward to, of powerful
37consolation. Anne had no Uppercross Hall before her, no landed estate, no headship of a family; and if they could but
38keep Captain Wentworth from being made a baronet, she would not change situations with Anne. It would be well for the
39eldest sister if she were equally satisfied with her situation, for a change is not very probable there. She had soon
40the mortification of seeing Mr Elliot withdraw, and no one of proper condition has since presented himself to raise even
41the unfounded hopes which sunk with him. The news of his cousin Anne's engagement burst on Mr Elliot most unexpectedly.
42It deranged his best plan of domestic happiness, his best hope of keeping Sir Walter single by the watchfulness which a
43son-in-law's rights would have given. But, though discomfited and disappointed, he could still do something for his own
44interest and his own enjoyment. He soon quitted Bath; and on Mrs Clay's quitting it soon afterwards, and being next
45heard of as established under his protection in London, it was evident how double a game he had been playing, and how
46determined he was to save himself from being cut out by one artful woman, at least. Mrs Clay's affections had
47overpowered her interest, and she had sacrificed, for the young man's sake, the possibility of scheming longer for Sir
48Walter. She has abilities, however, as well as affections; and it is now a doubtful point whether his cunning, or hers,
49may finally carry the day; whether, after preventing her from being the wife of Sir Walter, he may not be wheedled and
50caressed at last into making her the wife of Sir William. It cannot be doubted that Sir Walter and Elizabeth were
51shocked and mortified by the loss of their companion, and the discovery of their deception in her. They had their great
52cousins, to be sure, to resort to for comfort; but they must long feel that to flatter and follow others, without being
53flattered and followed in turn, is but a state of half enjoyment. Anne, satisfied at a very early period of Lady
54Russell's meaning to love Captain Wentworth as she ought, had no other alloy to the happiness of her prospects than what
55arose from the consciousness of having no relations to bestow on him which a man of sense could value. There she felt
56her own inferiority very keenly. The disproportion in their fortune was nothing; it did not give her a moment's regret;
57but to have no family to receive and estimate him properly, nothing of respectability, of harmony, of good will to offer
58in return for all the worth and all the prompt welcome which met her in his brothers and sisters, was a source of as
59lively pain as her mind could well be sensible of under circumstances of otherwise strong felicity. She had but two
60friends in the world to add to his list, Lady Russell and Mrs Smith. To those, however, he was very well disposed to
61attach himself. Lady Russell, in spite of all her former transgressions, he could now value from his heart. While he was
62not obliged to say that he believed her to have been right in originally dividing them, he was ready to say almost
63everything else in her favour, and as for Mrs Smith, she had claims of various kinds to recommend her quickly and
64permanently. Her recent good offices by Anne had been enough in themselves, and their marriage, instead of depriving her
65of one friend, secured her two. She was their earliest visitor in their settled life; and Captain Wentworth, by putting
66her in the way of recovering her husband's property in the West Indies, by writing for her, acting for her, and seeing
67her through all the petty difficulties of the case with the activity and exertion of a fearless man and a determined
68friend, fully requited the services which she had rendered, or ever meant to render, to his wife. Mrs Smith's enjoyments
69were not spoiled by this improvement of income, with some improvement of health, and the acquisition of such friends to
70be often with, for her cheerfulness and mental alacrity did not fail her; and while these prime supplies of good
71remained, she might have bid defiance even to greater accessions of worldly prosperity. She might have been absolutely
72rich and perfectly healthy, and yet be happy. Her spring of felicity was in the glow of her spirits, as her friend
73Anne's was in the warmth of her heart. Anne was tenderness itself, and she had the full worth of it in Captain
74Wentworth's affection. His profession was all that could ever make her friends wish that tenderness less, the dread of a
75future war all that could dim her sunshine. She gloried in being a sailor's wife, but she must pay the tax of quick
76alarm for belonging to that profession which is, if possible, more distinguished in its domestic virtues than in its
77national importance. Finis
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