so she may, for what I
care. I have no pity for either of them. I have no notion of people's
making such a to-do about money and greatness. There is no reason on
earth why Mr. Edward and Lucy should not marry; for I am sure Mrs.
Ferrars may afford to do very well by her son, and though Lucy has
next to nothing herself, she knows better than any body how to make
the most of every thing; I dare say, if Mrs. Ferrars would only allow
him five hundred a-year, she would make as good an appearance with it
as any body else would with eight. Lord! how snug they might live in
such another cottage as yours--or a little bigger--with two maids, and
two men; and I believe I could help them to a housemaid, for my Betty
has a sister out of place, that would fit them exactly."

Here Mrs. Jennings ceased, and as Elinor had had time enough to
collect her thoughts, she was able to give such an answer, and make
such observations, as the subject might naturally be supposed to
produce. Happy to find that she was not suspected of any extraordinary
interest in it; that Mrs. Jennings (as she had of late often hoped
might be the case) had ceased to imagine her at all attached to
Edward; and happy above all the rest, in the absence of Marianne, she
felt very well able to speak of the affair without embarrassment, and
to give her judgment, as she believed, with impartiality on the
conduct of every one concerned in it.

She could hardly determine what her own expectation of its event
really was; though she earnestly tried to drive away the notion of its
being possible to end otherwise at last, than in the marriage of
Edward and Lucy. What Mrs. Ferrars would say and do, though there
could not be a doubt of its nature, she was anxious to hear; and still
more anxious to know how Edward would conduct himself. For _him_ she
felt much compassion;--for Lucy very little--and it cost her some
pains to procure that little;--for the rest of the party none at all.

As Mrs. Jennings could talk on no other subject, Elinor soon saw the
necessity of preparing Marianne for its discussion. No time was to be
lost in undeceiving her, in making her acquainted with the real truth,
and in endeavouring to bring her to hear it talked of by others,
without betraying that she felt any uneasiness for her sister, or any
resentment against Edward.

Elinor's office was a painful one. She was going to remove what she
really believed to be her sister's chief consolation,--to g