“Would I!” was all her answer; but the
accent was decisive enough.
“Good God!” he cried, “you would!
It is not that I did not think of it, or desire it,
as what could alone crown all my other success; but
I was proud, too proud to ask again. I did not
understand you. I shut my eyes, and would not
understand you, or do you justice. This is a
recollection which ought to make me forgive every one
sooner than myself. Six years of separation and
suffering might have been spared. It is a sort
of pain, too, which is new to me. I have been
used to the gratification of believing myself to earn
every blessing that I enjoyed. I have valued
myself on honourable toils and just rewards.
Like other great men under reverses,” he added,
with a smile. “I must endeavour to subdue
my mind to my fortune. I must learn to brook
being happier than I deserve.”
Who can be in doubt of what followed? When any
two young people take it into their heads to marry,
they are pretty sure by perseverance to carry their
point, be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent,
or ever so little likely to be necessary to each other’s
ultimate comfort. This may be bad morality to
conclude with, but I believe it to be truth; and if
such parties succeed, how should a Captain Wentworth
and an Anne Elliot, with the advantage of maturity
of mind, consciousness of right, and one independent
fortune between them, fail of bearing down every opposition?
They might in fact, have borne down a great deal
more than they met with, for there was little to distress
them beyond the want of graciousness and warmth.
Sir Walter made no objection, and Elizabeth did nothing
worse than look cold and unconcerned. Captain
Wentworth, with five-and-twenty thousand pounds, and
as high in his profession as merit and activity could
place him, was no longer nobody. He was now esteemed
quite worthy to address the daughter of a foolish,
spendthrift baronet, who had not had principle or
sense enough to maintain himself in the situation
in which Providence had placed him, and who could
give his daughter at present but a small part of the
share of ten thousand pounds which must be hers hereafter.
Sir Walter, indeed, though he had no affection for
Anne, and no vanity flattered, to make him really
happy on the occasion, was very far from thinking
it a bad match for her. On the contrary, when
he saw more of Captain Wentworth, saw him repeatedly
by daylight, and eyed him well, he was very much struck
by his personal claims, and felt that his superiority
of appearance might be not unfairly balanced against
her superiority of rank; and all this, assisted by
his well-sounding name, enabled Sir Walter at last
to prepare his pen, with a very good grace, for the
insertion of the marriage in the volume of honour.
