Persuasion

tural to take her almost daily walk to Lady Russell's, and keep out of the way till all was over

good manners in the other; and with regard to the gentlemen, there was such an hearty good humour, such an open, trusting liberality on the Admiral's side, as could not but influence Sir

very thing, and every body, was right; and Mr Shepherd's clerks were set to work, without the

ld not be ashamed of being seen with him any where; and the Admiral, with sympathetic cordiality, observed to his wife as they drove back through the park, "I thought we should soon come to a deal, my

r proposed removing to Bath in the course of the preceding month,

convey her to Bath herself after Christmas; but having engagements of her own which must take her from Kellynch for several weeks, she was unable to give the full invitation she wished, and Anne though dreading the possible heats of September in all the white glare of Bat

the habit of claiming Anne when anything was the matter, was indisposed; and foreseeing that she should not have a day's health all the autumn, entreated, or

oning; and Elizabeth's reply was, "Then I am sure An

at all; and Anne, glad to be thought of some use, glad to have anything marked out as a duty, and cert

tly soon settled that Anne should not go to Bath till Lady Russell took her, and that a

Bath with Sir Walter and Elizabeth, as a most important and valuable assistant to the latter in all the business before her. Lady Russell was extremely sorry that such a measure should hav

that her father had at present an idea of the kind. Mrs Clay had freckles, and a projecting tooth, and a clumsy wrist, which he was continually making severe remarks upon, in her absence; but she was young, and certainly altogether well-looking, and possessed, in an acute mind and assiduous pleasing manners, infinitely more dangerous attractions than any merely pe

ve how such an absurd suspicion should occur to her, and indigna

gle so long for our sakes, need be suspected now. If Mrs Clay were a very beautiful woman, I grant you, it might be wrong to have her so much with me; not that anything in the world, I am sure, would induce my father to make a degrading match, but he might be rendered unhappy. But poor Mrs Clay who, with all her merits, can never have been reckoned tolerably pretty, I really think poor Mr

replied Anne, "which an agreeable manne

features, but can never alter plain ones. However, at any rate, as I have a great deal more at stak

tely hopeless of doing good. Elizabeth, though resen

spirits; Sir Walter prepared with condescending bows for all the afflicted tenantry and cottagers who might have had a hint to show th

o look upon their deserted grounds, and still worse to anticipate the new hands they were to fall into; and to escape the solitariness and the melancholy of so altered a village, and be out of the way when Admiral and Mrs Croft firs

es, substantial and unmodernized, and the compact, tight parsonage, enclosed in its own neat garden, with a vine and a pear-tree trained round its casements; but upon the marriage of the young 'squire, it had received the improvement of a farm-house elevated into a cott

than the elder sister, Mary had not Anne's understanding nor temper. While well, and happy, and properly attended to, she had great good humour and excellent spirits; but any indisposition sunk her completely. She had no resources for solitude; and inheriting a considerable share of the Elliot self-importance, was very prone to add to every other distress that of fancying herself n

ould never see you. I am so ill I can hardly spe

plied Anne. "You sent me such a goo

s I have been all this morning: very unfit to be left alone, I am sure. Suppose I were to be seized of a sudden in some dreadful way,

since seven o'clock. He would go, though I told him how ill I was. He said he should not stay out long; but h

your little

anageable that they do me more harm than good. Little Charles

, cheerfully. "You know I always cure you when I

e through the window, but without getting off his horse; and though I told him how ill I was, not one of them have be

perhaps, before the morn

great deal too much for me. Oh! Anne, I am so very unw

ell, and in no hurry for me; and that being the case, you must be aware that my wish would be to remain with Lady Russell to the last: and besid

can you possi

ing to understand, and make him understand, which of Elizabeth's plants are for Lady Russell. I have had all my own little concerns to arrange, books and music to divide, and all my trunks to repack, from not having understood in time what wa

"but you have never asked me one word ab

iries, because I concluded you must h

hing at all the matter with me till this mornin

well enough, and I hope y

of one's own. Mr and Mrs Musgrove took me, and we were so crowded! They are both so very large, and take up so much room; and Mr Musgrove always sits

t upright on the sofa, and began to hope she might be able to leave it by dinner-time. Then, forgetting to think of it, she was at t

eady. "I suppose you will not like to call at t

ed Anne. "I should never think of standing on such ceremon

el what is due to you as my sister. However, we may as well go and sit wit

t the full half hour in the old-fashioned square parlour, with a small carpet and shining floor, to which the present daughters of the house were gradually giving the proper air of confusion by a grand piano-forte and a harp, flower-stands and little tables placed in every direction.

ung ladies of nineteen and twenty, who had brought from school at Exeter all the usual stock of accomplishments, and were now like thousands of other young ladies, living to be fashionable, happy, and merry. Their dress had every advantage, their faces were rather pretty, their spirits extremely good, their manner unembarrassed and pleasant; they were of consequence at home, and favourites abroad. Anne always contemplated them as some of the happ

, as Anne very well knew, the least to blame. The half hour was chatted away pleasantly enough; and she was not at all su