Jane Austen 3 страница

sufficiently to feel the continual discussion of the Crofts

and their business no evil. She was assisted, however, by that

perfect indifference and apparent unconsciousness, among the only three

of her own friends in the secret of the past, which seemed almost to deny

any recollection of it. She could do justice to the superiority

of Lady Russell`s motives in this, over those of her father and Elizabeth;

she could honour all the better feelings of her calmness;

but the general air of oblivion among them was highly important

from whatever it sprung; and in the event of Admiral Croft`s really

taking Kellynch Hall, she rejoiced anew over the conviction which

had always been most grateful to her, of the past being known to

those three only among her connexions, by whom no syllable,

she believed, would ever be whispered, and in the trust that among his,

the brother only with whom he had been residing, had received

any information of their short-lived engagement. That brother had been

long removed from the country and being a sensible man, and, moreover,

a single man at the time, she had a fond dependence on no human creature`s

having heard of it from him.

 

The sister, Mrs Croft, had then been out of England, accompanying

her husband on a foreign station, and her own sister, Mary,

had been at school while it all occurred; and never admitted by

the pride of some, and the delicacy of others, to the smallest knowledge

of it afterwards.

 

With these supports, she hoped that the acquaintance between herself

and the Crofts, which, with Lady Russell, still resident in Kellynch,

and Mary fixed only three miles off, must be anticipated,

need not involve any particular awkwardness.

 

Chapter 5

 

 

On the morning appointed for Admiral and Mrs Croft`s seeing Kellynch Hall,

Anne found it most natural to take her almost daily walk to Lady Russell`s,

and keep out of the way till all was over; when she found it most natural

to be sorry that she had missed the opportunity of seeing them.

 

This meeting of the two parties proved highly satisfactory,

and decided the whole business at once. Each lady was previously

well disposed for an agreement, and saw nothing, therefore,

but 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 Walter,

who had besides been flattered into his very best and most polished

behaviour by Mr Shepherd`s assurances of his being known, by report,

to the Admiral, as a model of good breeding.

 

The house and grounds, and furniture, were approved, the Crofts

were approved, terms, time, every thing, and every body, was right;

and Mr Shepherd`s clerks were set to work, without there having been

a single preliminary difference to modify of all that

"This indenture sheweth."

 

Sir Walter, without hesitation, declared the Admiral to be

the best-looking sailor he had ever met with, and went so far as to say,

that if his own man might have had the arranging of his hair,

he should 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 dear, in spite of what they told us at Taunton.

The Baronet will never set the Thames on fire, but there seems to be

no harm in him." reciprocal compliments, which would have been

esteemed about equal.

 

The Crofts were to have possession at Michaelmas; and as Sir Walter

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

there was no time to be lost in making every dependent arrangement.

 

Lady Russell, convinced that Anne would not be allowed to be of any use,

or any importance, in the choice of the house which they were

going to secure, was very unwilling to have her hurried away so soon,

and wanted to make it possible for her to stay behind till she might

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 Bath, and grieving to forego all the influence so sweet and so sad

of the autumnal months in the country, did not think that,

everything considered, she wished to remain. It would be most right,

and most wise, and, therefore must involve least suffering

to go with the others.

 

Something occurred, however, to give her a different duty.

Mary, often a little unwell, and always thinking a great deal

of her own complaints, and always in 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 rather required her, for it was hardly entreaty, to come to

Uppercross Cottage, and bear her company as long as she should want her,

instead of going to Bath.

 

"I cannot possibly do without Anne," was Mary`s reasoning;

and Elizabeth`s reply was, "Then I am sure Anne had better stay,

for nobody will want her in Bath."

 

To be claimed as a good, though in an improper style, is at least

better than being rejected as no good at all; and Anne, glad to

be thought of some use, glad to have anything marked out as a duty,

and certainly not sorry to have the scene of it in the country,

and her own dear country, readily agreed to stay.

 

This invitation of Mary`s removed all Lady Russell`s difficulties,

and it was consequently soon settled that Anne should not go to Bath

till Lady Russell took her, and that all the intervening time

should be divided between Uppercross Cottage and Kellynch Lodge.

 

So far all was perfectly right; but Lady Russell was almost startled

by the wrong of one part of the Kellynch Hall plan, when it burst on her,

which was, Mrs Clay`s being engaged to go to 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 have been resorted to at all, wondered,

grieved, and feared; and the affront it contained to Anne,

in Mrs Clay`s being of so much use, while Anne could be of none,

was a very sore aggravation.

 

Anne herself was become hardened to such affronts; but she felt

the imprudence of the arrangement quite as keenly as Lady Russell.

With a great deal of quiet observation, and a knowledge,

which she often wished less, of her father`s character, she was

sensible that results the most serious to his family from the intimacy

were more than possible. She did not imagine 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 personal might have been. Anne was so impressed

by the degree of their danger, that she could not excuse herself

from trying to make it perceptible to her sister. She had little hope

of success; but Elizabeth, who in the event of such a reverse would be

so much more to be pitied than herself, should never, she thought,

have reason to reproach her for giving no warning.

 

She spoke, and seemed only to offend. Elizabeth could not conceive

how such an absurd suspicion should occur to her, and indignantly

answered for each party`s perfectly knowing their situation.

 

"Mrs Clay," said she, warmly, "never forgets who she is;

and as I am rather better acquainted with her sentiments than you can be,

I can assure you, that upon the subject of marriage they are

particularly nice, and that she reprobates all inequality of condition

and rank more strongly than most people. And as to my father,

I really should not have thought that he, who has kept himself single

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

Mrs Clay may be staying here in perfect safety. One would imagine

you had never heard my father speak of her personal misfortunes,

though I know you must fifty times. That tooth of her`s

and those freckles. Freckles do not disgust me so very much

as they do him. I have known a face not materially disfigured by a few,

but he abominates them. You must have heard him notice

Mrs Clay`s freckles."

 

"There is hardly any personal defect," replied Anne,

"which an agreeable manner might not gradually reconcile one to."

 

"I think very differently," answered Elizabeth, shortly;

"an agreeable manner may set off handsome features, but can never

alter plain ones. However, at any rate, as I have a great deal more

at stake on this point than anybody else can have, I think it

rather unnecessary in you to be advising me."

 

Anne had done; glad that it was over, and not absolutely hopeless

of doing good. Elizabeth, though resenting the suspicion,

might yet be made observant by it.

 

The last office of the four carriage-horses was to draw Sir Walter,

Miss Elliot, and Mrs Clay to Bath. The party drove off

in very good spirits; Sir Walter prepared with condescending bows

for all the afflicted tenantry and cottagers who might have had a hint

to show themselves, and Anne walked up at the same time,

in a sort of desolate tranquility, to the Lodge, where she was to spend

the first week.

 

Her friend was not in better spirits than herself. Lady Russell felt this

break-up of the family exceedingly. Their respectability was

as dear to her as her own, and a daily intercourse had become

precious by habit. It was painful to 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 first arrived,

she had determined to make her own absence from home begin

when she must give up Anne. Accordingly their removal was made together,

and Anne was set down at Uppercross Cottage, in the first stage

of Lady Russell`s journey.

 

Uppercross was a moderate-sized village, which a few years back

had been completely in the old English style, containing only

two houses superior in appearance to those of the yeomen and labourers;

the mansion of the squire, with its high walls, great gates, and old trees,

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 cottage,

for his residence, and Uppercross Cottage, with its veranda,

French windows, and other prettiness, was quite as likely to catch

the traveller`s eye as the more consistent and considerable aspect

and premises of the Great House, about a quarter of a mile farther on.

 

Here Anne had often been staying. She knew the ways of Uppercross

as well as those of Kellynch. The two families were so continually meeting,

so much in the habit of running in and out of each other`s house

at all hours, that it was rather a surprise to her to find Mary alone;

but being alone, her being unwell and out of spirits was almost

a matter of course. Though better endowed 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 neglected and ill-used. In person, she was

inferior to both sisters, and had, even in her bloom, only reached

the dignity of being "a fine girl." She was now lying on the faded sofa

of the pretty little drawing-room, the once elegant furniture of which

had been gradually growing shabby, under the influence of four summers

and two children; and, on Anne`s appearing, greeted her with--

 

"So, you are come at last! I began to think I should never see you.

I am so ill I can hardly speak. I have not seen a creature

the whole morning!"

 

"I am sorry to find you unwell," replied Anne. "You sent me

such a good account of yourself on Thursday!"

 

"Yes, I made the best of it; I always do: but I was very far from well

at the time; and I do not think I ever was so ill in my life

as 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,

and not able to ring the bell! So, Lady Russell would not get out.

I do not think she has been in this house three times this summer."

 

Anne said what was proper, and enquired after her husband.

"Oh! Charles is out shooting. I have not seen him since seven o`clock.

He would go, though I told him how ill I was. He said he should not

stay out long; but he has never come back, and now it is almost one.

I assure you, I have not seen a soul this whole long morning."

 

"You have had your little boys with you?"

 

"Yes, as long as I could bear their noise; but they are so unmanageable

that they do me more harm than good. Little Charles does not mind

a word I say, and Walter is growing quite as bad."

 

"Well, you will soon be better now," replied Anne, cheerfully.

"You know I always cure you when I come. How are your neighbours

at the Great House?"

 

"I can give you no account of them. I have not seen one of them to-day,

except Mr Musgrove, who just stopped and spoke through the window,

but without getting off his horse; and though I told him how ill I was,

not one of them have been near me. It did not happen to suit

the Miss Musgroves, I suppose, and they never put themselves

out of their way."

 

"You will see them yet, perhaps, before the morning is gone.

It is early."

 

"I never want them, I assure you. They talk and laugh a great deal

too much for me. Oh! Anne, I am so very unwell! It was quite unkind

of you not to come on Thursday."

 

"My dear Mary, recollect what a comfortable account you sent me of yourself!

You wrote in the cheerfullest manner, and said you were perfectly well,

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 besides what I felt on her account, I have really been so busy,

have had so much to do, that I could not very conveniently have

left Kellynch sooner."

 

"Dear me! what can you possibly have to do?"

 

"A great many things, I assure you. More than I can recollect

in a moment; but I can tell you some. I have been making

a duplicate of the catalogue of my father`s books and pictures.

I have been several times in the garden with Mackenzie,

trying 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 was intended as to the waggons:

and one thing I have had to do, Mary, of a more trying nature:

going to almost every house in the parish, as a sort of take-leave.

I was told that they wished it. But all these things took up

a great deal of time."

 

"Oh! well!" and after a moment`s pause, "but you have never asked me

one word about our dinner at the Pooles yesterday."

 

"Did you go then? I have made no enquiries, because I concluded

you must have been obliged to give up the party."

 

"Oh yes! I went. I was very well yesterday; nothing at all

the matter with me till this morning. It would have been strange

if I had not gone."

 

"I am very glad you were well enough, and I hope you had a pleasant party."

 

"Nothing remarkable. One always knows beforehand what the dinner will be,

and who will be there; and it is so very uncomfortable not having

a carriage 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 forward. So, there was I, crowded into

the back seat with Henrietta and Louise; and I think it very likely

that my illness to-day may be owing to it."

 

A little further perseverance in patience and forced cheerfulness

on Anne`s side produced nearly a cure on Mary`s. She could soon

sit 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 the other end of the room, beautifying a nosegay;

then, she ate her cold meat; and then she was well enough

to propose a little walk.

 

"Where shall we go?" said she, when they were ready. "I suppose

you will not like to call at the Great House before they have

been to see you?"

 

"I have not the smallest objection on that account," replied Anne.

"I should never think of standing on such ceremony with people I know

so well as Mrs and the Miss Musgroves."

 

"Oh! but they ought to call upon you as soon as possible.

They ought to feel what is due to you as my sister. However,

we may as well go and sit with them a little while, and when we

have that over, we can enjoy our walk."

 

Anne had always thought such a style of intercourse highly imprudent;

but she had ceased to endeavour to check it, from believing that,

though there were on each side continual subjects of offence,

neither family could now do without it. To the Great House accordingly

they went, to sit 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. Oh! could the originals of the portraits

against the wainscot, could the gentlemen in brown velvet and

the ladies in blue satin have seen what was going on, have been conscious

of such an overthrow of all order and neatness! The portraits themselves

seemed to be staring in astonishment.

 

The Musgroves, like their houses, were in a state of alteration,

perhaps of improvement. The father and mother were in the old

English style, and the young people in the new. Mr and Mrs Musgrove

were a very good sort of people; friendly and hospitable,

not much educated, and not at all elegant. Their children had

more modern minds and manners. There was a numerous family;

but the only two grown up, excepting Charles, were Henrietta and Louisa,

young 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 happiest creatures

of her acquaintance; but still, saved as we all are, by some

comfortable feeling of superiority from wishing for the possibility

of exchange, she would not have given up her own more elegant

and cultivated mind for all their enjoyments; and envied them nothing

but that seemingly perfect good understanding and agreement together,

that good-humoured mutual affection, of which she had known

so little herself with either of her sisters.

 

They were received with great cordiality. Nothing seemed amiss

on the side of the Great House family, which was generally,

as Anne very well knew, the least to blame. The half hour was

chatted away pleasantly enough; and she was not at all surprised

at the end of it, to have their walking party joined by both

the Miss Musgroves, at Mary`s particular invitation.

 

Chapter 6

 

 

Anne had not wanted this visit to Uppercross, to learn that a removal

from one set of people to another, though at a distance of only three miles,

will often include a total change of conversation, opinion, and idea.

She had never been staying there before, without being struck by it,

or without wishing that other Elliots could have her advantage

in seeing how unknown, or unconsidered there, were the affairs

which at Kellynch Hall were treated as of such general publicity

and pervading interest; yet, with all this experience, she believed

she must now submit to feel that another lesson, in the art of knowing

our own nothingness beyond our own circle, was become necessary for her;

for certainly, coming as she did, with a heart full of the subject

which had been completely occupying both houses in Kellynch for many weeks,

she had expected rather more curiosity and sympathy than she found

in the separate but very similar remark of Mr and Mrs Musgrove:

"So, Miss Anne, Sir Walter and your sister are gone; and what part of Bath

do you think they will settle in?" and this, without much

waiting for an answer; or in the young ladies` addition of,

"I hope we shall be in Bath in the winter; but remember, papa,

if we do go, we must be in a good situation: none of your

Queen Squares for us!" or in the anxious supplement from Mary, of--

"Upon my word, I shall be pretty well off, when you are all gone away

to be happy at Bath!"

 

She could only resolve to avoid such self-delusion in future,

and think with heightened gratitude of the extraordinary blessing

of having one such truly sympathising friend as Lady Russell.

 

The Mr Musgroves had their own game to guard, and to destroy,

their own horses, dogs, and newspapers to engage them, and the females

were fully occupied in all the other common subjects of housekeeping,

neighbours, dress, dancing, and music. She acknowledged it to be

very fitting, that every little social commonwealth should dictate

its own matters of discourse; and hoped, ere long, to become

a not unworthy member of the one she was now transplanted into.

With the prospect of spending at least two months at Uppercross,

it was highly incumbent on her to clothe her imagination, her memory,

and all her ideas in as much of Uppercross as possible.

 

She had no dread of these two months. Mary was not so repulsive

and unsisterly as Elizabeth, nor so inaccessible to all influence of hers;

neither was there anything among the other component parts

of the cottage inimical to comfort. She was always on friendly terms

with her brother-in-law; and in the children, who loved her nearly as well,

and respected her a great deal more than their mother, she had

an object of interest, amusement, and wholesome exertion.

 

Charles Musgrove was civil and agreeable; in sense and temper he was

undoubtedly superior to his wife, but not of powers, or conversation,

or grace, to make the past, as they were connected together,

at all a dangerous contemplation; though, at the same time,

Anne could believe, with Lady Russell, that a more equal match

might have greatly improved him; and that a woman of real understanding

might have given more consequence to his character, and more usefulness,

rationality, and elegance to his habits and pursuits. As it was,

he did nothing with much zeal, but sport; and his time was otherwise

trifled away, without benefit from books or anything else.

He had very good spirits, which never seemed much affected by

his wife`s occasional lowness, bore with her unreasonableness

sometimes to Anne`s admiration, and upon the whole, though there was

very often a little disagreement (in which she had sometimes more share

than she wished, being appealed to by both parties), they might pass

for a happy couple. They were always perfectly agreed in the want

of more money, and a strong inclination for a handsome present

from his father; but here, as on most topics, he had the superiority,

for while Mary thought it a great shame that such a present was not made,

he always contended for his father`s having many other uses for his money,

and a right to spend it as he liked.

 

As to the management of their children, his theory was much better

than his wife`s, and his practice not so bad. "I could manage them

very well, if it were not for Mary`s interference," was what

Anne often heard him say, and had a good deal of faith in;

but when listening in turn to Mary`s reproach of "Charles spoils

the children so that I cannot get them into any order," she never had

the smallest temptation to say, "Very true."

 

One of the least agreeable circumstances of her residence there

was her being treated with too much confidence by all parties,

and being too much in the secret of the complaints of each house.

Known to have some influence with her sister, she was continually requested,

or at least receiving hints to exert it, beyond what was practicable.

"I wish you could persuade Mary not to be always fancying herself ill,"

was Charles`s language; and, in an unhappy mood, thus spoke Mary:

"I do believe if Charles were to see me dying, he would not think