Page:Jane Austen (Sarah Fanny Malden 1889).djvu/84

 "'His age is only so much beyond hers as to be an advantage, as to make his character and principles fixed, and his disposition, I am well convinced, is exactly the very one to make your sister happy. And his person, his manners, too, are all in his favour. My partiality does not blind me: he certainly is not so handsome as Willoughby, but, at the same time, there is something much more pleasing in his countenance. There was always a something, if you remember, in Willoughby's eyes at times which I did not like.'

"Elinor could not remember it; but her mother, without waiting for her assent, continued:

"'And his manners; the Colonel's manners are not only more pleasing to me than Willoughby's ever were, but they are of a kind I well know to be more solidly attaching to Marianne. Their gentleness, their genuine attention to other people, and their manly unstudied simplicity, is much more accordant with her real disposition than the liveliness, often artificial and often ill-timed, of the other. I am very sure, myself, that had Willoughby turned out as really amiable as he has proved himself the contrary, Marianne would yet never have been so happy with him as she will be with Colonel Brandon.'

"She paused. Her daughter could not quite agree with her; but her dissent was not heard, and, therefore, gave no offence."

It is clear that Colonel Brandon will succeed in time, but Elinor's own affairs are not in so blissful a state. Edward Ferrars, remaining faithful to Lucy, and, having determined upon taking Holy Orders, has been presented by Colonel Brandon to a small living in his gift (a severe blow to Mrs. John Dashwood, whose husband begs that the matter may not be mentioned