ll confident of their engagement, and
relying as warmly as ever on his constancy, had only been roused by
Elinor's application, to entreat from Marianne greater openness
towards them both; and this, with such tenderness towards her, such
affection for Willoughby, and such a conviction of their future
happiness in each other, that she wept with agony through the whole of
it.

All her impatience to be at home again now returned; her mother was
dearer to her than ever; dearer through the very excess of her
mistaken confidence in Willoughby, and she was wildly urgent to be
gone. Elinor, unable herself to determine whether it were better for
Marianne to be in London or at Barton, offered no counsel of her own
except of patience till their mother's wishes could be known; and at
length she obtained her sister's consent to wait for that knowledge.

Mrs. Jennings left them earlier than usual; for she could not be easy
till the Middletons and Palmers were able to grieve as much as
herself; and positively refusing Elinor's offered attendance, went out
alone for the rest of the morning. Elinor, with a very heavy heart,
aware of the pain she was going to communicate, and perceiving, by
Marianne's letter, how ill she had succeeded in laying any foundation
for it, then sat down to write her mother an account of what had
passed, and entreat her directions for the future; while Marianne, who
came into the drawing-room on Mrs. Jennings's going away, remained
fixed at the table where Elinor wrote, watching the advancement of her
pen, grieving over her for the hardship of such a task, and grieving
still more fondly over its effect on her mother.

In this manner they had continued about a quarter of an hour, when
Marianne, whose nerves could not then bear any sudden noise, was
startled by a rap at the door.

"Who can this be?" cried Elinor. "So early too! I thought we _had_
been safe."

Marianne moved to the window--

"It is Colonel Brandon!" said she, with vexation. "We are never safe
from _him._"

"He will not come in, as Mrs. Jennings is from home."

"I will not trust to _that_," retreating to her own room. "A man who
has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion
on that of others."

The event proved her conjecture right, though it was founded on
injustice and error; for Colonel Brandon _did_ come in; and Elinor,
who was convinced that solicitude for Marianne brought him thither,
and who saw _that_ s