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1"What poor Mrs. Ferrars suffered, when first Fanny broke it to her, is not to be described. While she with the truest
2affection had been planning a most eligible connection for him, was it to be supposed that he could be all the time
3secretly engaged to another person!--such a suspicion could never have entered her head! If she suspected any
4prepossession elsewhere, it could not be in that quarter. 'There, to be sure,' said she, 'I might have thought myself
5safe.' She was quite in an agony. We consulted together, however, as to what should be done, and at last she determined
6to send for Edward. He came. But I am sorry to relate what ensued. All that Mrs. Ferrars could say to make him put an
7end to the engagement, assisted too as you may well suppose by my arguments, and Fanny's entreaties, was of no avail.
8Duty, affection, every thing was disregarded. I never thought Edward so stubborn, so unfeeling before. His mother
9explained to him her liberal designs, in case of his marrying Miss Morton; told him she would settle on him the Norfolk
10estate, which, clear of land-tax, brings in a good thousand a-year; offered even, when matters grew desperate, to make
11it twelve hundred; and in opposition to this, if he still persisted in this low connection, represented to him the
12certain penury that must attend the match. His own two thousand pounds she protested should be his all; she would never
13see him again; and so far would she be from affording him the smallest assistance, that if he were to enter into any
14profession with a view of better support, she would do all in her power to prevent him advancing in it." Here Marianne,
15in an ecstasy of indignation, clapped her hands together, and cried, "Gracious God! can this be possible!" "Well may you
16wonder, Marianne," replied her brother, "at the obstinacy which could resist such arguments as these. Your exclamation
17is very natural." Marianne was going to retort, but she remembered her promises, and forbore. "All this, however," he
18continued, "was urged in vain. Edward said very little; but what he did say, was in the most determined manner. Nothing
19should prevail on him to give up his engagement. He would stand to it, cost him what it might." "Then," cried Mrs.
20Jennings with blunt sincerity, no longer able to be silent, "he has acted like an honest man! I beg your pardon, Mr.
21Dashwood, but if he had done otherwise, I should have thought him a rascal. I have some little concern in the business,
22as well as yourself, for Lucy Steele is my cousin, and I believe there is not a better kind of girl in the world, nor
23one who more deserves a good husband." John Dashwood was greatly astonished; but his nature was calm, not open to
24provocation, and he never wished to offend anybody, especially anybody of good fortune. He therefore replied, without
25any resentment, "I would by no means speak disrespectfully of any relation of yours, madam. Miss Lucy Steele is, I dare
26say, a very deserving young woman, but in the present case you know, the connection must be impossible. And to have
27entered into a secret engagement with a young man under her uncle's care, the son of a woman especially of such very
28large fortune as Mrs. Ferrars, is perhaps, altogether a little extraordinary. In short, I do not mean to reflect upon
29the behaviour of any person whom you have a regard for, Mrs. Jennings. We all wish her extremely happy; and Mrs.
30Ferrars's conduct throughout the whole, has been such as every conscientious, good mother, in like circumstances, would
31adopt. It has been dignified and liberal. Edward has drawn his own lot, and I fear it will be a bad one." Marianne
32sighed out her similar apprehension; and Elinor's heart wrung for the feelings of Edward, while braving his mother's
33threats, for a woman who could not reward him. "Well, sir," said Mrs. Jennings, "and how did it end?" "I am sorry to
34say, ma'am, in a most unhappy rupture:--Edward is dismissed for ever from his mother's notice. He left her house
35yesterday, but where he is gone, or whether he is still in town, I do not know; for we of course can make no inquiry."
36"Poor young man!--and what is to become of him?" "What, indeed, ma'am! It is a melancholy consideration. Born to the
37prospect of such affluence! I cannot conceive a situation more deplorable. The interest of two thousand pounds--how can
38a man live on it?--and when to that is added the recollection, that he might, but for his own folly, within three months
39have been in the receipt of two thousand, five hundred a-year (for Miss Morton has thirty thousand pounds,) I cannot
40picture to myself a more wretched condition. We must all feel for him; and the more so, because it is totally out of our
41power to assist him." "Poor young man!" cried Mrs. Jennings, "I am sure he should be very welcome to bed and board at my
42house; 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,
43at lodgings and taverns." Elinor's heart thanked her for such kindness towards Edward, though she could not forbear
44smiling at the form of it. "If he would only have done as well by himself," said John Dashwood, "as all his friends were
45disposed to do by him, he might now have been in his proper situation, and would have wanted for nothing. But as it is,
46it must be out of anybody's power to assist him. And there is one thing more preparing against him, which must be worse
47than all--his mother has determined, with a very natural kind of spirit, to settle that estate upon Robert immediately,
48which might have been Edward's, on proper conditions. I left her this morning with her lawyer, talking over the
49business." "Well!" said Mrs. Jennings, "that is her revenge. Everybody has a way of their own. But I don't think mine
50would be, to make one son independent, because another had plagued me." Marianne got up and walked about the room. "Can
51anything be more galling to the spirit of a man," continued John, "than to see his younger brother in possession of an
52estate which might have been his own? Poor Edward! I feel for him sincerely." A few minutes more spent in the same kind
53of effusion, concluded his visit; and with repeated assurances to his sisters that he really believed there was no
54material danger in Fanny's indisposition, and that they need not therefore be very uneasy about it, he went away;
55leaving the three ladies unanimous in their sentiments on the present occasion, as far at least as it regarded Mrs.
56Ferrars's conduct, the Dashwoods', and Edward's. Marianne's indignation burst forth as soon as he quitted the room; and
57as her vehemence made reserve impossible in Elinor, and unnecessary in Mrs. Jennings, they all joined in a very spirited
58critique upon the party. CHAPTER XXXVIII. Mrs. Jennings was very warm in her praise of Edward's conduct, but only Elinor
59and Marianne understood its true merit. They only knew how little he had had to tempt him to be disobedient, and how
60small was the consolation, beyond the consciousness of doing right, that could remain to him in the loss of friends and
61fortune. Elinor gloried in his integrity; and Marianne forgave all his offences in compassion for his punishment. But
62though confidence between them was, by this public discovery, restored to its proper state, it was not a subject on
63which either of them were fond of dwelling when alone. Elinor avoided it upon principle, as tending to fix still more
64upon her thoughts, by the too warm, too positive assurances of Marianne, that belief of Edward's continued affection for
65herself which she rather wished to do away; and Marianne's courage soon failed her, in trying to converse upon a topic
66which always left her more dissatisfied with herself than ever, by the comparison it necessarily produced between
67Elinor's conduct and her own. She felt all the force of that comparison; but not as her sister had hoped, to urge her to
68exertion now; she felt it with all the pain of continual self-reproach, regretted most bitterly that she had never
69exerted herself before; but it brought only the torture of penitence, without the hope of amendment. Her mind was so
70much weakened that she still fancied present exertion impossible, and therefore it only dispirited her more.
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