Page:Jane Austen (Sarah Fanny Malden 1889).djvu/202

 has not forgiven Anne for her desertion of him years ago; and though he intends ta marry as soon as he can find a wife to his liking, he has no idea that that wife will be Anne Elliot. Nothing in the story is better than his attempt to persuade himself into caring for one of the young ladies with whom he is thrown into contact; and the gradual way in which he finds himself turning, as of old, to Anne for the companionship and appreciation with which she only can supply him, while he is quite unconscious of the feeling slowly working in him.

Eventually Anne departs for Bath, and, as her absence leaves an insupportable blank for him, Captain Wentworth sets off too. Anne has been there with her father and sister for some time before his arrival, and has found an ardent admirer in the cousin, William Elliot, who is the heir to her father's baronetcy. Of course the marriage would be an extremely suitable one for both parties, and Lady Russell, who is also at Bath, is delighted at the possibility of it and cannot resist speaking of it to Anne.

"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,