Austen Said:

"Miss Dashwood,"

"you are now using me unkindly. You are endeavouring to disarm me by reason, and to convince me against my will. But it will not do. You shall find me as stubborn as you can be artful. I have three unanswerable reasons for disliking Colonel Brandon; he threatened me with rain when I wanted it to be fine; he has found fault with the hanging of my curricle, and I cannot persuade him to buy my brown mare. If it will be any satisfaction to you, however, to be told, that I believe his character to be in other respects irreproachable, I am ready to confess it. And in return for an acknowledgment, which must give me some pain, you cannot deny me the privilege of disliking him as much as ever."

"Your sister, I understand, does not approve of second attachments."

"Or rather, as I believe, she considers them impossible to exist."

"This will probably be the case,"

"and yet there is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind, that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions."

"Does your sister make no distinction in her objections against a second attachment? or is it equally criminal in every body? Are those who have been disappointed in their first choice, whether from the inconstancy of its object, or the perverseness of circumstances, to be equally indifferent during the rest of their lives?"

"This,"

"cannot hold; but a change, a total change of sentiments — No, no, do not desire it; for when the romantic refinements of a young mind are obliged to give way, how frequently are they succeeded by such opinions as are but too common, and too dangerous! I speak from experience. I once knew a lady who in temper and mind greatly resembled your sister, who thought and judged like her, but who from an inforced change — from a series of unfortunate circumstances"

"But, Marianne, the horse is still yours, though you cannot use it now. I shall keep it only till you can claim it. When you leave Barton to form your own establishment in a more lasting home, Queen Mab shall receive you."

"None at all, ma'am, I thank you."

"No, ma'am. It came from town, and is merely a letter of business."

"No, indeed, it is not."

"Whom do you mean, ma'am?"

"I am particularly sorry, ma'am,"

"that I should receive this letter today, for it is on business which requires my immediate attendance in town."

"My own loss is great,"

"in being obliged to leave so agreeable a party; but I am the more concerned, as I fear my presence is necessary to gain your admittance at Whitwell."

"I wish it could be so easily settled. But it is not in my power to delay my journey for one day!"

"You would not be six hours later,"

"if you were to defer your journey till our return."

"I cannot afford to lose ONE hour." —

"There are some people who cannot bear a party of pleasure. Brandon is one of them. He was afraid of catching cold I dare say, and invented this trick for getting out of it. I would lay fifty guineas the letter was of his own writing."

"You are very obliging. But it is so uncertain, when I may have it in my power to return, that I dare not engage for it at all."

"No. Only to Honiton. I shall then go post."

"I assure you it is not in my power."

"Is there no chance of my seeing you and your sisters in town this winter, Miss Dashwood?"

"Then I must bid you farewell for a longer time than I should wish to do."

"Did not you know,"

"that we had been out in my curricle?"

"What!"

"Improve this dear cottage! No. THAT I will never consent to. Not a stone must be added to its walls, not an inch to its size, if my feelings are regarded."

"I am heartily glad of it,"

"May she always be poor, if she can employ her riches no better."

"I am,"

"To me it is faultless. Nay, more, I consider it as the only form of building in which happiness is attainable, and were I rich enough I would instantly pull Combe down, and build it up again in the exact plan of this cottage."

"Yes,"

"with all and every thing belonging to it; — in no one convenience or INconvenience about it, should the least variation be perceptible. Then, and then only, under such a roof, I might perhaps be as happy at Combe as I have been at Barton."

"There certainly are circumstances,"

"which might greatly endear it to me; but this place will always have one claim of my affection, which no other can possibly share."

"How often did I wish,"

"when I was at Allenham this time twelvemonth, that Barton cottage were inhabited! I never passed within view of it without admiring its situation, and grieving that no one should live in it. How little did I then think that the very first news I should hear from Mrs. Smith, when I next came into the country, would be that

and I felt an immediate satisfaction and interest in the event, which nothing but a kind of prescience of what happiness I should experience from it, can account for. Must it not have been so, Marianne?"

"And yet this house you would spoil, Mrs. Dashwood? You would rob it of its simplicity by imaginary improvement! and this dear parlour in which our acquaintance first began, and in which so many happy hours have been since spent by us together, you would degrade to the condition of a common entrance, and every body would be eager to pass through the room which has hitherto contained within itself more real accommodation and comfort than any other apartment of the handsomest dimensions in the world could possibly afford."

"You are a good woman,"

"Your promise makes me easy. Extend it a little farther, and it will make me happy. Tell me that not only your house will remain the same, but that I shall ever find you and yours as unchanged as your dwelling; and that you will always consider me with the kindness which has made everything belonging to you so dear to me."

"I hope not,"

"It is I who may rather expect to be ill — for I am now suffering under a very heavy disappointment!"

"Yes, for I am unable to keep my engagement with you. Mrs. Smith has this morning exercised the privilege of riches upon a poor dependent cousin, by sending me on business to London. I have just received my dispatches, and taken my farewell of Allenham; and by way of exhilaration I am now come to take my farewell of you."

"Almost this moment."