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