Persuasion

by a sensible man, without many of those agreeable sensations
which her friend meant to create.

Lady Russell was now perfectly decided in her opinion of Mr Elliot.
She was as much convinced of his meaning to gain Anne in time as of
his deserving her, and was beginning to calculate the number of weeks
which would free him from all the remaining restraints of widowhood,
and leave him at liberty to exert his most open powers of pleasing.
She would not speak to Anne with half the certainty she felt on the subject,
she would venture on little more than hints of what might be hereafter,
of a possible attachment on his side, of the desirableness of the alliance,
supposing such attachment to be real and returned.  Anne heard her,
and made no violent exclamations; she only smiled, blushed,
and gently shook her head.

"I am no match-maker, as you well know," said Lady Russell,
"being much too well aware of the uncertainty of all human events
and calculations.  I only mean that if Mr Elliot should some time hence
pay his addresses to you, and if you should be disposed to accept him,
I think there would be every possibility of your being happy together.
A most suitable connection everybody must consider it, but I think
it might be a very happy one."

"Mr Elliot is an exceedingly agreeable man, and in many respects
I think highly of him," said Anne; "but we should not suit."

Lady Russell let this pass, and only said in rejoinder, "I own that
to be able to regard you as the future mistress of Kellynch,
the future Lady Elliot, to look forward and see you occupying
your dear mother's place, succeeding to all her rights,
and all her popularity, as well as to all her virtues, would be
the highest possible gratification to me.  You are your mother's self
in countenance and disposition; and if I might be allowed to fancy you
such as she was, in situation and name, and home, presiding and blessing
in the same spot, and only superior to her in being more highly valued!
My dearest Anne, it would give me more delight than is often felt
at my time of life!"

Anne was obliged to turn away, to rise, to walk to a distant table,
and, leaning there in pretended employment, try to subdue the feelings
this picture excited.  For a few moments her imagination and her heart
were bewitched.  The idea of becoming what her mother had been;
of having the precious name of "Lady Elliot" first revived in herself;
of being restored to Kellynch, calling it her home again,
her home for ever, was a charm which she could not immediately resist.
Lady Russell said not another word, willing to leave the matter
to its own operation; and believing that, could Mr Elliot at that moment
with propriety have spoken for himself!--she believed, in short,
what Anne did not believe.  The same image of Mr Elliot speaking
for himself brought Anne to composure again.  The charm of Kellynch
and of "Lady Elliot" all faded away.  She never could accept him.
And it was not only that her feelings were still adverse to any man
save one; her judgement, on a serious consideration of the possibilities
of such a case was against Mr Elliot.

Though they had now been acquainted a month, she could not be satisfied
that she really knew his character.  That he was a sensible man,
an agreeable man, that he talked well, professed good opinions,
seemed to judge properly and as a man of principle, this was all
clear enough.  He certainly knew what was right, nor could she fix
on any one article of moral duty evidently transgressed; but yet she would
have been afraid to answer for his conduct.  She distrusted the past,
if not the present.  The names which occasionally dropt
of former associates, the allusions to former practices and pursuits,
suggested suspicions not favourable of what he had been.
She saw that there had been bad habits; that Sunday travelling
had been a common thing; that there had been a period of his life
(and probably not a short one) when he had been, at least,
careless in all serious matters; and, though he might now think
very differently, who could answer for the true sentiments of a clever,
cautious man, grown old enough to appreciate a fair character?
How could it ever be ascertained that his mind was truly cleansed?

Mr Elliot was rational, discreet, polished, but he was not open.
There was never any burst of feeling, any warmth of indignation or delight,
at the evil or good of others.  This, to Anne, was a decided imperfection.
Her early impressions were incurable.  She prized the frank,
the open-hearted, the eager character beyond all others.
Warmth and enthusiasm did captivate her still.  She felt that she could
so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked
or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind
never varied, whose tongue never slipped.

Mr Elliot was too generally agreeable.  Various as were the tempers
in her father's house, he pleased them all.  He endured too well,
stood too well with every body.  He had spoken to her with some
degree of openness of Mrs Clay; had appeared completely to see
what Mrs Clay was about, and to hold her in contempt; and yet
Mrs Clay found him as agreeable as any body.

Lady Russell saw either less or more than her young friend,
for she saw nothing to excite distrust.  She could not imagine
a man more exactly what he ought to be than Mr Elliot; nor did she
ever enjoy a sweeter feeling than the hope of seeing him receive
the hand of her beloved Anne in Kellynch church, in the course of
the following autumn.



Chapter 18