21 Cont. Persuasion Read By Stephanie Poppins

Volume 2 Chapter 9 Continued Has it indeed been spoken of?

Asked Anne,

Eager to escape further notice,

And impatient to know why Mrs Smith should have fancied she were to marry Mr Elliot at all.

Did you observe the woman who opened the door to you when you called yesterday?

Asked Mrs Smith.

No.

Was not it Mrs Speed,

As usual,

Or the maid?

I observed no one in particular.

It was my friend Mrs Rook,

Nurse Rook,

Who had a great curiosity to see you and was delighted to be in the way to let you in.

She came from Marlborough Buildings only on Sunday and it was she who told me you were to marry Mr Elliot.

She had heard it from Mrs Wallace herself,

Which did not seem bad authority.

She sat an hour with me on Monday evening and gave me the whole history.

The whole history?

Repeated Anne,

Laughing.

She could not make a very long history,

I think,

Of one such little article or unfounded news.

Mrs Smith said nothing.

But,

Continued Anne presently,

Though there is no truth in my having this claim on Mr Elliot,

I should be extremely happy to be of use to you in any way I could.

Shall I message to him your being in Barl?

No,

Thank you,

Said Mrs Smith,

Certainly not.

In the warmth of the moment and under a mistaken impression I might perhaps have endeavoured to interest you in some circumstances,

But not now.

No,

I thank you,

I have nothing to trouble you with.

I think you spoke of having known Mr Elliot for many years?

I did.

Not before he was married,

I suppose?

Yes,

He was not married when I knew him first.

And were you much acquainted?

Intimately.

Indeed,

Then do tell me what he was at that time of life.

I have a great curiosity to know what Mr Elliot was as a very young man,

Said Anne.

Was he at all as he appears now?

I have not seen Mr Elliot these three years,

Was Mrs Smith's answer,

Given so gravely it was impossible to pursue the subject further,

And Anne felt she had gained nothing but an increase of curiosity.

They were both silent,

Mrs Smith very thoughtful.

At last,

She said,

I beg your pardon,

My dear Miss Elliot.

I beg your pardon for the short answers I have been giving you,

But I have been uncertain what to do.

I have been doubting and considering as to what I ought to tell you.

There were many things to be taken into the account.

One hates to be officious,

To be giving bad impressions and making mischief.

Even the smooth surface of family union seems worth preserving,

Though there may be nothing durable beneath.

However,

I have determined I think I am right,

That you ought to be made acquainted with Mr Elliot's real character,

Though I fully believe that at present you have not the smallest intention of accepting him,

There is no saying what may happen.

You might sometime or another be differently affected towards him.

Hear the truth,

Therefore,

Now,

While you are unprejudiced.

Mr Elliot is a man without heart or conscience,

A designing,

Wary,

Cold-blooded being who thinks only of himself,

Whom for his own interest or ease would be guilty of any cruelty or any treachery that could be perpetrated without risk of his general character.

He has no feeling for others.

Those whom he has been the chief cause of leading into ruin he can neglect and desert without the smallest compunction.

He is totally beyond the reach of sentiment or justice or compassion.

He is black at heart,

Hollow and black.

Anne's astonished air and exclamation of wonder made her pause,

And in a calmer manner she added,

My expression startled you.

You must allow for an injured,

Angry woman,

But I will try to command myself.

I will not abuse him.

I will only tell you what I found.

Fact shall speak.

He was the intimate friend of my dear husband who trusted and loved him and thought him as good as himself.

The intimacy had been formed before our marriage.

I found the most intimate friends and I too became excessively pleased with Mr Elliot and entertained the highest opinion of him.

At nineteen you know one does not think very seriously,

But Mr Elliot appeared to me quite as good as others and much more agreeable than most others and we were almost always together.

We were principally in town living in a very good style.

He was then the inferior in circumstances.

He was then the poor one.

He had chambers in the temple and it was as much as he could do to support the appearance of a gentleman.

He always had a home with us whenever he chose it.

He was always welcome.

He was like a brother.

My poor Charles,

Who had the finest,

Most generous spirit in the world would have divided his last farthing with him and I know that his purse was open to him and I know that he often assisted him.

This must have been about that very period of Mr Elliot's life,

Said Anne,

Which has always excited my particular curiosity.

It must have been about the same time he became known to my father and sister.

I never knew him myself,

I only heard of him,

But there was a something in his conduct then with regard to my father and sister and afterwards in the circumstances of his marriage which I could never quite reconcile with.

It seemed to announce a different sort of man.

I know it all,

I know it all,

Cried Mrs Smith.

He'd been introduced to Sir Walter and your sister before I was acquainted with him,

But I heard him speak of them forever.

I know he was invited and encouraged and I know he did not choose to go.

I can satisfy you perhaps on points which you would little expect and as to his marriage I knew all about it at the time.

I was privy to all the for's and against.

I was the friend's who knew he confided his hopes and plans with,

And though I did not know his wife previously,

Her inferior situation in society indeed rendered that impossible,

Yet I knew her all her life afterwards,

Or at least till within the last two years of her life,

And can answer any questions you may wish to put.

Nay,

Said Anne,

I have no particular inquiry to make about her.

I've always understood they were not a happy couple,

But I should like to know why at that time of his life he should slight my father's acquaintance as he did.

My father was certainly disposed to take very kind and proper notice of him.

Why did Mr Elliot draw back?

Mr Elliot,

Replied Mrs Smith,

At that period of his life had one object in view to make his fortune,

And by a rather quicker process than the law.

He was determined to make it by marriage.

He was determined at least not to mar it by an imprudent marriage,

And I know it was his belief that your father and sister were designing a match between the heir and the young lady,

And it was impossible that such a match should have answered his ideas of wealth and independence.

That was his motive for drawing back,

I can assure you.

He told me the whole story.

He had no concealments with me.

It was curious that having just left you behind me in Bath,

My first and principal acquaintance on marrying should be your cousin,

And that through him I should be continually hearing of your father and sister.

He described one Miss Elliot,

And I thought it very affectionately of the other.

Perhaps,

Cried Anne,

Struck by a sudden idea,

You sometimes spoke of me to Mr Elliot?

To be sure I did very often.

I used to boast of my own Anne Elliot,

And vouch for your being a very different creature from.

.

.

She checked herself just in time.

This accounts for something which Mr Elliot said last night,

Cried Anne.

This explains it.

I found he had been used to hear of me,

And I could not comprehend how.

What wild imagination one forms when dear self is concerned.

But I beg your pardon,

I've interrupted you.

Mr Elliot married then completely for money?

The circumstances probably which first opened your eyes to his character.

Mrs Smith hesitated a little here.

All those things are too common.

When one lives in the world,

A man or woman's marrying for money is too common to strike one as it ought.

I was very young,

And associated only with the young,

And we were a thoughtless gay set without any strict rules of conduct.

We live for enjoyment.

I think differently now.

Time and sickness and sorrow have given me other notions.

But at that period I must own I saw nothing reprehensible in what Mr Elliot was doing.

But was she not a very low woman?

Yes,

Which I objected to,

But Mr Elliot would not regard.

Money,

Money,

That was all he wanted.

Her father was a grazier,

Her grandfather had been a butcher,

But that was all nothing.

She was a fine woman,

Had had a decent education,

Was brought forward by some cousins,

Thrown by chance into Mr Elliot's company,

And fell in love with him.

And not a difficulty or a scruple was there on his side with respect to her birth.

All his caution was spent in being secured of the real amount of her fortune before he committed himself.

Depend upon it,

Whatever esteem Mr Elliot may have for his own situation in life now,

As a young man he had not the smallest value for it.

His chance at the Kellynch estate was something.

But all the honour of the family he held as cheap as dirt.

I have often heard him declare that if baronetcies were saleable anybody should have his for fifty pounds,

Arms and motto,

Name and liver included.

But I will not pretend to repeat half that I used to hear him say on the subject.

It would not be fair,

And yet you ought to have proof.

For what is all this but assertion?

And you shall have proof.

Indeed,

My dear Mrs Smith,

I want none,

Cried Anne.

You have asserted nothing contradictory to what Mr Elliot appeared to me some years ago.

This is all in confirmation,

Rather,

Of what we used to hear and believe.

I am more curious to know why he should be so different now.

End