Austen Said:

to return with her again from Cleveland.

This set the matter beyond a doubt.

she did not think THAT any material objection;

The preferment,

was already provided to enable him to marry; — and SHE, of all people in the world, was fixed on to bestow it!

to undertake the commission with pleasure, if it were really his wish to put off so agreeable an office to another.

no one could so well perform it as himself. It was an office in short, from which, unwilling to give Edward the pain of receiving an obligation from HER, she would have been very glad to be spared herself;

Edward,

was still in town, and fortunately she had heard his address from Miss Steele. She could undertake therefore to inform him of it, in the course of the day.

Why Mr. Ferrars was to have been written to about it in such a hurry,

Miss Dashwood was above, and wanted to speak with him on very particular business.

however difficult it might be to express herself properly by letter, it was at least preferable to giving the information by word of mouth,

the probability of their not waiting for any thing more.

she had never seen him in such spirits before in her life.

no exertion for their good on Miss Dashwood's part, either present or future, would ever surprise her, for she believed her capable of doing any thing in the world for those she really valued.

she was not only ready to worship him as a saint, but was moreover truly anxious that he should be treated as one in all worldly concerns; anxious that his tithes should be raised to the utmost;

she thought Fanny might have borne with composure, an acquisition of wealth to her brother, by which neither she nor her child could be possibly impoverished.

'It would have been beyond comparison,'

'the least evil of the two, and she would be glad to compound NOW for nothing worse.'

concerned to find that Elinor and her sister were so soon to leave town, as she had hoped to see more of them;

to come to Norland whenever it should happen to be in their way,

all her friends seemed determined to send her to Delaford; — a place, in which, of all others, she would now least chuse to visit, or wish to reside;

from their summits Combe Magna might be seen.

perfectly the gentleman in his behaviour to all his visitors, and only occasionally rude to his wife and her mother; she found him very capable of being a pleasant companion, and only prevented from being so always, by too great an aptitude to fancy himself as much superior to people in general, as he must feel himself to be to Mrs. Jennings and Charlotte. For the rest of his character and habits, they were marked, as far as Elinor could perceive, with no traits at all unusual in his sex and time of life. He was nice in his eating, uncertain in his hours; fond of his child, though affecting to slight it; and idled away the mornings at billiards, which ought to have been devoted to business. She liked him, however, upon the whole, much better than she had expected, and in her heart was not sorry that she could like him no more; — not sorry to be driven by the observation of his Epicurism, his selfishness, and his conceit, to rest with complacency on the remembrance of Edward's generous temper, simple taste, and diffident feelings.

she was better,

the necessity of her immediate removal with her infant;

her resolution of not stirring from Cleveland as long as Marianne remained ill, and of endeavouring, by her own attentive care, to supply to her the place of the mother she had taken her from;

to send the Colonel away while his love was in so much uneasiness on her sister's account, would be to deprive them both,

of every comfort;

his stay at Cleveland was necessary to herself, that she should want him to play at piquet of an evening, while Miss Dashwood was above with her sister,

Marianne would never get over it,

It was lower and quicker than ever!

The comfort of such a friend at that moment as Colonel Brandon — or such a companion for her mother, —

a companion whose judgment would guide, whose attendance must relieve, and whose friendship might soothe her! — as far as the shock of such a summons COULD be lessened to her, his presence, his manners, his assistance, would lessen it.

all relief might soon be in vain, that every thing had been delayed too long,

Marianne might probably be to HER what Charlotte was to herself,

At ten o'clock,

or at least not much later her mother would be relieved from the dreadful suspense in which she must now be travelling towards them. The Colonel, too! — perhaps scarcely less an object of pity! — Oh! — how slow was the progress of time which yet kept them in ignorance!

he must be in liquor;

on the irreparable injury which too early an independence and its consequent habits of idleness, dissipation, and luxury, had made in the mind, the character, the happiness, of a man who, to every advantage of person and talents, united a disposition naturally open and honest, and a feeling, affectionate temper. The world had made him extravagant and vain — Extravagance and vanity had made him cold-hearted and selfish. Vanity, while seeking its own guilty triumph at the expense of another, had involved him in a real attachment, which extravagance, or at least its offspring, necessity, had required to be sacrificed. Each faulty propensity in leading him to evil, had led him likewise to punishment. The attachment, from which against honour, against feeling, against every better interest he had outwardly torn himself, now, when no longer allowable, governed every thought; and the connection, for the sake of which he had, with little scruple, left her sister to misery, was likely to prove a source of unhappiness to himself of a far more incurable nature.

she did; — that she forgave, pitied, wished him well — was even interested in his happiness —

Willoughby, he, whom only half an hour ago she had abhorred as the most worthless of men, Willoughby, in spite of all his faults, excited a degree of commiseration for the sufferings produced by them,

now separated for ever from her family, with a tenderness, a regret, rather in proportion,

— to his wishes than to his merits.

his influence over her mind was heightened by circumstances which ought not in reason to have weight; by that person of uncommon attraction, that open, affectionate, and lively manner which it was no merit to possess; and by that still ardent love for Marianne, which it was not even innocent to indulge.

it was so, long, long before she could feel his influence less.

"poor Willoughby,"

to HIS sufferings and his constancy far more than to his rival's, the reward of her sister was due,

one of the happiest women in the world.

whether her mother ever recollected Edward.