"Who told you that Mr.Ferrars was married, Thomas?""I see Mr.Ferrars myself, ma'am, this morning in Exeter, and his lady too, Miss Steele as was.They was stopping in a chaise at the door of the New London Inn, as I went there with a message from Sally at the Park to her brother, who is one of the post-boys.I happened to look up as I went by the chaise, and so I see directly it was the youngest Miss Steele; so I took off my hat, and she knew me and called to me, and inquired after you, ma'am, and the young ladies, especially Miss Marianne, and bid me I should give her compliments and Mr.Ferrars's, their best compliments and service, and how sorry they was they had not time to come on and see you, but they was in a great hurry to go forwards, for they was going further down for a little while, but howsever, when they come back, they'd make sure to come and see you.""But did she tell you she was married, Thomas?""Yes, ma'am.She smiled, and said how she had changed her name since she was in these parts.
She was always a very affable and free-spoken young lady, and very civil behaved.So, I made free to wish her joy.""Was Mr.Ferrars in the carriage with her?""Yes, ma'am, I just see him leaning back in it, but he did not look up;--he never was a gentleman much for talking."Elinor's heart could easily account for his not putting himself forward; and Mrs.Dashwood probably found the same explanation.
"Was there no one else in the carriage?"
"No, ma'am, only they two."
"Do you know where they came from?"
"They come straight from town, as Miss Lucy--Mrs.Ferrars told me."
"And are they going farther westward?"
"Yes, ma'am--but not to bide long.They will soon be back again, and then they'd be sure and call here."Mrs.Dashwood now looked at her daughter;but Elinor knew better than to expect them.
She recognised the whole of Lucy in the message, and was very confident that Edward would never come near them.
She observed in a low voice, to her mother, that they were probably going down to Mr.Pratt's, near Plymouth.
Thomas's intelligence seemed over.Elinor looked as if she wished to hear more.
"Did you see them off, before you came away?""No, ma'am--the horses were just coming out, but Icould not bide any longer; I was afraid of being late.""Did Mrs.Ferrars look well?"
"Yes, ma'am, she said how she was very well;and to my mind she was always a very handsome young lady--and she seemed vastly contented."Mrs.Dashwood could think of no other question, and Thomas and the tablecloth, now alike needless, were soon afterwards dismissed.Marianne had already sent to say, that she should eat nothing more.Mrs.Dashwood's and Elinor's appetites were equally lost, and Margaret might think herself very well off, that with so much uneasiness as both her sisters had lately experienced, so much reason as they had often had to be careless of their meals, she had never been obliged to go without her dinner before.
When the dessert and the wine were arranged, and Mrs.Dashwood and Elinor were left by themselves, they remained long together in a similarity of thoughtfulness and silence.Mrs.Dashwood feared to hazard any remark, and ventured not to offer consolation.She now found that she had erred in relying on Elinor's representation of herself; and justly concluded that every thing had been expressly softened at the time, to spare her from an increase of unhappiness, suffering as she then had suffered for Marianne.She found that she had been misled by the careful, the considerate attention of her daughter, to think the attachment, which once she had so well understood, much slighter in reality, than she had been wont to believe, or than it was now proved to be.She feared that under this persuasion she had been unjust, inattentive, nay, almost unkind, to her Elinor;--that Marianne's affliction, because more acknowledged, more immediately before her, had too much engrossed her tenderness, and led her away to forget that in Elinor she might have a daughter suffering almost as much, certainly with less self-provocation, and greater fortitude.