m to be more than it ought to be. In that, he could not be
defended; but if he had injured her, how much more had he injured
himself; if her case were pitiable, his was hopeless. His imprudence
had made her miserable for a while; but it seemed to have deprived
himself of all chance of ever being otherwise. She might in time
regain tranquillity; but _he_, what had he to look forward to? Could
he ever be tolerably happy with Lucy Steele; could he, were his
affection for herself out of the question, with his integrity, his
delicacy, and well-informed mind, be satisfied with a wife like
her--illiterate, artful, and selfish?
The youthful infatuation of nineteen would naturally blind him to
every thing but her beauty and good nature; but the four succeeding
years--years, which if rationally spent, give such improvement to the
understanding, must have opened his eyes to her defects of education,
while the same period of time, spent on her side in inferior society
and more frivolous pursuits, had perhaps robbed her of that simplicity
which might once have given an interesting character to her beauty.
If in the supposition of his seeking to marry herself, his
difficulties from his mother had seemed great, how much greater were
they now likely to be, when the object of his engagement was
undoubtedly inferior in connections, and probably inferior in fortune
to herself. These difficulties, indeed, with a heart so alienated
from Lucy, might not press very hard upon his patience; but melancholy
was the state of the person by whom the expectation of family
opposition and unkindness, could be felt as a relief!
As these considerations occurred to her in painful succession, she
wept for him, more than for herself. Supported by the conviction of
having done nothing to merit her present unhappiness, and consoled by
the belief that Edward had done nothing to forfeit her esteem, she
thought she could even now, under the first smart of the heavy blow,
command herself enough to guard every suspicion of the truth from her
mother and sisters. And so well was she able to answer her own
expectations, that when she joined them at dinner only two hours after
she had first suffered the extinction of all her dearest hopes, no one
would have supposed from the appearance of the sisters, that Elinor
was mourning in secret over obstacles which must divide her for ever
from the object of her love, and that Marianne was internally dwelling
on the perf
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