Page:Jane Austen (Sarah Fanny Malden 1889).djvu/80

 And there is one thing more preparing against him, which must be worse than all—his mother has determined, with a very natural kind of spirit, to settle that estate upon Robert immediately, which might have been Edward's on proper conditions. I left her this morning with her lawyer, talking over the business.'

"'Well,' said Mrs. Jennings, 'that is her revenge. Everybody has a way of their own. But I don't think mine would be to make one son independent because another had plagued me.'

"Marianne got up, and walked about the room.

"'Can anything be more galling to the spirit of a man,' continued John, 'than to see his younger brother in possession of an estate which might have been his own? Poor Edward! I feel for him sincerely.'

"A few minutes more, spent in the same kind of effusion concluded his visit, and, with repeated assurances to his sisters that he really believed there was no material danger in Fanny's indisposition, and that they need not, therefore, be very uneasy about it, he went away, leaving the three ladies unanimous in their sentiments on the present occasion, as far, at least, as it regarded Mrs. Ferrars's conduct, the Dashwoods' and Edward's. Marianne's indignation burst forth as soon as he quitted the room, and, as her vehemence made reserve impossible in Elinor, and unnecessary in Mrs, Jennings, they all joined in a very spirited critique upon the party."

Marianne's unusual self-control before her brother is due to the "promises" mentioned above, which Elinor had extorted from her. She has, of course, been greatly shocked and grieved at the discovery of Edward Ferrars's