CHAPTER 25

     Though Mrs. Jennings was in the habit of spending a large

portion of the year at the houses of her children and friends,

she was not without a settled habitation of her own.

Since the death of her husband, who had traded with success

in a less elegant part of the town, she had resided every

winter in a house in one of the streets near Portman Square.

Towards this home, she began on the approach of January

to turn her thoughts, and thither she one day abruptly,

and very unexpectedly by them, asked the elder Misses

Dashwood to accompany her.  Elinor, without observing

the varying complexion of her sister, and the animated look

which spoke no indifference to the plan, immediately gave

a grateful but absolute denial for both, in which she

believed herself to be speaking their united inclinations.

The reason alleged was their determined resolution

of not leaving their mother at that time of the year.

Mrs. Jennings received the refusal with some surprise,

and repeated her invitation immediately.
 
 

     "Oh, Lord! I am sure your mother can spare you

very well, and I DO beg you will favour me with

your company, for I've quite set my heart upon it.

Don't fancy that you will be any inconvenience to me,

for I shan't put myself at all out of my way for you.

It will only be sending Betty by the coach, and I

hope I can afford THAT.  We three shall be able to go

very well in my chaise; and when we are in town,

if you do not like to go wherever I do, well and good,

you may always go with one of my daughters.  I am sure

your mother will not object to it; for I have had such

good luck in getting my own children off my hands that she

will think me a very fit person to have the charge of you;

and if I don't get one of you at least well married

before I have done with you, it shall not be my fault.

I shall speak a good word for you to all the young men,

you may depend upon it."
 
 

     "I have a notion," said Sir John, "that Miss Marianne

would not object to such a scheme, if her elder sister

would come into it.  It is very hard indeed that she

should not have a little pleasure, because Miss Dashwood

does not wish it.  So I would advise you two, to set off

for town, when you are tired of Barton, without saying

a word to Miss Dashwood about it."
 
 

     "Nay," cried Mrs. Jennings, "I am sure I shall be

monstrous glad of Miss Marianne's company, whether Miss

Dashwood will go or not, only the more the merrier say I,

and I thought it would be more comfortable for them to

be together; because, if they got tired of me, they might talk

to one another, and laugh at my old ways behind my back.

But one or the other, if not both of them, I must have.

Lord bless me! how do you think I can live poking by myself,

I who have been always used till this winter to have

Charlotte with me.  Come, Miss Marianne, let us strike

hands upon the bargain, and if Miss Dashwood will change

her mind by and bye, why so much the better."
 
 

     "I thank you, ma'am, sincerely thank you," said Marianne,

with warmth: "your invitation has insured my gratitude for ever,

and it would give me such happiness, yes, almost the greatest

happiness I am capable of, to be able to accept it.

But my mother, my dearest, kindest mother,--I feel the

justice of what Elinor has urged, and if she were to be

made less happy, less comfortable by our absence--Oh! no,

nothing should tempt me to leave her.  It should not,

must not be a struggle."
 
 

     Mrs. Jennings repeated her assurance that Mrs. Dashwood

could spare them perfectly well; and Elinor, who now

understood her sister, and saw to what indifference to

almost every thing else she was carried by her eagerness

to be with Willoughby again, made no farther direct

opposition to the plan, and merely referred it to her

mother's decision, from whom however she scarcely expected

to receive any support in her endeavour to prevent a visit,

which she could not approve of for Marianne, and which

on her own account she had particular reasons to avoid.

Whatever Marianne was desirous of, her mother would be eager

to promote--she could not expect to influence the latter

to cautiousness of conduct in an affair respecting which she

had never been able to inspire her with distrust; and she

dared not explain the motive of her own disinclination

for going to London.  That Marianne, fastidious as she was,

thoroughly acquainted with Mrs. Jennings' manners,

and invariably disgusted by them, should overlook every

inconvenience of that kind, should disregard whatever

must be most wounding to her irritable feelings, in her

pursuit of one object, was such a proof, so strong,

so full, of the importance of that object to her, as Elinor,

in spite of all that had passed, was not prepared to witness.
 
 

     On being informed of the invitation, Mrs. Dashwood,

persuaded that such an excursion would be productive

of much amusement to both her daughters, and perceiving

through all her affectionate attention to herself,

how much the heart of Marianne was in it, would not hear

of their declining the offer upon HER account; insisted on

their both accepting it directly; and then began to foresee,

with her usual cheerfulness, a variety of advantages that

would accrue to them all, from this separation.
 
 

     "I am delighted with the plan," she cried,

"it is exactly what I could wish.  Margaret and I shall

be as much benefited by it as yourselves.  When you

and the Middletons are gone, we shall go on so quietly

and happily together with our books and our music! You

will find Margaret so improved when you come back again!

I have a little plan of alteration for your bedrooms too,

which may now be performed without any inconvenience

to any one.  It is very right that you SHOULD go to town;

I would have every young woman of your condition in life

acquainted with the manners and amusements of London.

You will be under the care of a motherly good sort

of woman, of whose kindness to you I can have no doubt.

And in all probability you will see your brother,

and whatever may be his faults, or the faults of his wife,

when I consider whose son he is, I cannot bear to have you so

wholly estranged from each other."
 
 

     "Though with your usual anxiety for our happiness,"

said Elinor, "you have been obviating every impediment

to the present scheme which occurred to you, there is

still one objection which, in my opinion, cannot be so

easily removed."
 
 

     Marianne's countenance sunk.
 
 

     "And what," said Mrs. Dashwood, "is my dear prudent

Elinor going to suggest?  What formidable obstacle is she

now to bring forward?  Do let me hear a word about the

expense of it."
 
 

     "My objection is this; though I think very well of

Mrs. Jennings's heart, she is not a woman whose society

can afford us pleasure, or whose protection will give

us consequence."
 
 

     "That is very true," replied her mother, "but of

her society, separately from that of other people,

you will scarcely have any thing at all, and you will

almost always appear in public with Lady Middleton."
 
 

     "If Elinor is frightened away by her dislike of

Mrs. Jennings," said Marianne, "at least it need not prevent

MY accepting her invitation.  I have no such scruples,

and I am sure I could put up with every unpleasantness

of that kind with very little effort."
 
 

     Elinor could not help smiling at this display of

indifference towards the manners of a person, to whom she

had often had difficulty in persuading Marianne to behave

with tolerable politeness; and resolved within herself,

that if her sister persisted in going, she would

go likewise, as she did not think it proper that Marianne

should be left to the sole guidance of her own judgment,

or that Mrs. Jennings should be abandoned to the mercy

of Marianne for all the comfort of her domestic hours.

To this determination she was the more easily reconciled,

by recollecting that Edward Ferrars, by Lucy's account,

was not to be in town before February; and that

their visit, without any unreasonable abridgement,

might be previously finished.
 
 

     "I will have you BOTH go," said Mrs. Dashwood;

"these objections are nonsensical.  You will have much

pleasure in being in London, and especially in being together;

and if Elinor would ever condescend to anticipate enjoyment,

she would foresee it there from a variety of sources;

she would, perhaps, expect some from improving her

acquaintance with her sister-in-law's family."
 
 

     Elinor had often wished for an opportunity of

attempting to weaken her mother's dependence on the

attachment of Edward and herself, that the shock might

be less when the whole truth were revealed, and now

on this attack, though almost hopeless of success,

she forced herself to begin her design by saying,

as calmly as she could, "I like Edward Ferrars very much,

and shall always be glad to see him; but as to the rest

of the family, it is a matter of perfect indifference

to me, whether I am ever known to them or not."
 
 

     Mrs. Dashwood smiled, and said nothing.

Marianne lifted up her eyes in astonishment, and Elinor

conjectured that she might as well have held her tongue.
 
 

     After very little farther discourse, it was finally

settled that the invitation should be fully accepted.

Mrs. Jennings received the information with a great

deal of joy, and many assurances of kindness and care;

nor was it a matter of pleasure merely to her.  Sir John

was delighted; for to a man, whose prevailing anxiety

was the dread of being alone, the acquisition of two,

to the number of inhabitants in London, was something.

Even Lady Middleton took the trouble of being delighted,

which was putting herself rather out of her way;

and as for the Miss Steeles, especially Lucy, they had

never been so happy in their lives as this intelligence

made them.
 
 

     Elinor submitted to the arrangement which counteracted

her wishes with less reluctance than she had expected

to feel.  With regard to herself, it was now a matter

of unconcern whether she went to town or not, and when

she saw her mother so thoroughly pleased with the plan,

and her sister exhilarated by it in look, voice, and manner,

restored to all her usual animation, and elevated to more

than her usual gaiety, she could not be dissatisfied

with the cause, and would hardly allow herself to distrust

the consequence.
 
 

     Marianne's joy was almost a degree beyond happiness,

so great was the perturbation of her spirits and her

impatience to be gone.  Her unwillingness to quit her

mother was her only restorative to calmness; and at the

moment of parting her grief on that score was excessive.

Her mother's affliction was hardly less, and Elinor

was the only one of the three, who seemed to consider

the separation as any thing short of eternal.
 
 

     Their departure took place in the first week in January.

The Middletons were to follow in about a week.  The Miss

Steeles kept their station at the park, and were to quit

it only with the rest of the family.