at we had asked your sisters instead of them.'"

Here he stopped to be thanked; which being done, he went on.

"What poor Mrs. Ferrars suffered, when first Fanny broke it to her, is
not to be described. While she with the truest affection had been
planning a most eligible connection for him, was it to be supposed
that he could be all the time secretly engaged to another
person!--such a suspicion could never have entered her head! If she
suspected _any_ prepossession elsewhere, it could not be in _that_
quarter. '_There_ to be sure,' said she, 'I might have thought myself
safe.' She was quite in an agony. We consulted together, however, as
to what should be done, and at last she determined to send for Edward.
He came. But I am sorry to relate what ensued. All that Mrs. Ferrars
could say to make him put an end to the engagement, assisted too as
you may well suppose by my arguments, and Fanny's entreaties, was of
no avail. Duty, affection, every thing was disregarded. I never
thought Edward so stubborn, so unfeeling before. His mother explained
to him her liberal designs, in case of his marrying Miss Morton; told
him she would settle on him the Norfolk estate, which, clear of
land-tax, brings in a good thousand a-year; offered even, when matters
grew desperate, to make it twelve hundred; and in opposition to this,
if he still persisted in this low connection, represented to him the
certain penury that must attend the match. His own two thousand pounds
she protested should be his all; she would never see him again; and so
far would she be from affording him the smallest assistance, that if
he were to enter into any profession with a view of better support,
she would do all in her power to prevent him advancing in it."

Here Marianne, in an ecstasy of indignation, clapped her hands
together, and cried, "Gracious God! can this be possible!"

"Well may you wonder, Marianne," replied her brother, "at the
obstinacy which could resist such arguments as these. Your exclamation
is very natural."

Marianne was going to retort, but she remembered her promises, and
forbore.

"All this, however," he continued, "was urged in vain. Edward said
very little; but what he did say, was in the most determined manner.
Nothing should prevail on him to give up his engagement. He would
stand to it, cost him what it might."

"Then," cried Mrs. Jennings with blunt sincerity, no longer able to be
silent, "he has acted like an honest man! I be