But by coolly giving the reins a better direction
herself they happily passed the danger; and by once
afterwards judiciously putting out her hand they neither
fell into a rut, nor ran foul of a dung-cart; and
Anne, with some amusement at their style of driving,
which she imagined no bad representation of the general
guidance of their affairs, found herself safely deposited
by them at the Cottage.
The time now approached for Lady Russell’s return:
the day was even fixed; and Anne, being engaged to
join her as soon as she was resettled, was looking
forward to an early removal to Kellynch, and beginning
to think how her own comfort was likely to be affected
by it.
It would place her in the same village with Captain
Wentworth, within half a mile of him; they would have
to frequent the same church, and there must be intercourse
between the two families. This was against her;
but on the other hand, he spent so much of his time
at Uppercross, that in removing thence she might be
considered rather as leaving him behind, than as going
towards him; and, upon the whole, she believed she
must, on this interesting question, be the gainer,
almost as certainly as in her change of domestic society,
in leaving poor Mary for Lady Russell.
She wished it might be possible for her to avoid ever
seeing Captain Wentworth at the Hall: those
rooms had witnessed former meetings which would be
brought too painfully before her; but she was yet
more anxious for the possibility of Lady Russell and
Captain Wentworth never meeting anywhere. They
did not like each other, and no renewal of acquaintance
now could do any good; and were Lady Russell to see
them together, she might think that he had too much
self-possession, and she too little.
These points formed her chief solicitude in anticipating
her removal from Uppercross, where she felt she had
been stationed quite long enough. Her usefulness
to little Charles would always give some sweetness
to the memory of her two months’ visit there,
but he was gaining strength apace, and she had nothing
else to stay for.
The conclusion of her visit, however, was diversified
in a way which she had not at all imagined.
Captain Wentworth, after being unseen and unheard
of at Uppercross for two whole days, appeared again
among them to justify himself by a relation of what
had kept him away.
A letter from his friend, Captain Harville, having
found him out at last, had brought intelligence of
Captain Harville’s being settled with his family
at Lyme for the winter; of their being therefore,
quite unknowingly, within twenty miles of each other.
Captain Harville had never been in good health since
a severe wound which he received two years before,
and Captain Wentworth’s anxiety to see him had
determined him to go immediately to Lyme. He
had been there for four-and-twenty hours. His
acquittal was complete, his friendship warmly honoured,
a lively interest excited for his friend, and his
description of the fine country about Lyme so feelingly
attended to by the party, that an earnest desire to
see Lyme themselves, and a project for going thither
was the consequence.
