led
at the mansion-house was equally the wish of Edward and Elinor. They
each felt his sorrows, and their own obligations, and Marianne, by
general consent, was to be the reward of all.

With such a confederacy against her--with a knowledge so intimate of
his goodness--with a conviction of his fond attachment to herself,
which at last, though long after it was observable to everybody
else--burst on her--what could she do?

Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate. She was born to
discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her
conduct, her most favourite maxims. She was born to overcome an
affection formed so late in life as at seventeen, and with no
sentiment superior to strong esteem and lively friendship, voluntarily
to give her hand to another!--and _that_ other, a man who had suffered
no less than herself under the event of a former attachment, whom, two
years before, she had considered too old to be married,--and who still
sought the constitutional safeguard of a flannel waistcoat!

But so it was. Instead of falling a sacrifice to an irresistible
passion, as once she had fondly flattered herself with expecting,
instead of remaining even for ever with her mother, and finding her
only pleasures in retirement and study, as afterwards in her more calm
and sober judgment she had determined on,--she found herself at
nineteen, submitting to new attachments, entering on new duties,
placed in a new home, a wife, the mistress of a family, and the
patroness of a village.

Colonel Brandon was now as happy, as all those who best loved him,
believed he deserved to be;--in Marianne he was consoled for every
past affliction;--her regard and her society restored his mind to
animation, and his spirits to cheerfulness; and that Marianne found
her own happiness in forming his, was equally the persuasion and
delight of each observing friend. Marianne could never love by halves;
and her whole heart became, in time, as much devoted to her husband,
as it had once been to Willoughby.

Willoughby could not hear of her marriage without a pang; and his
punishment was soon afterwards complete in the voluntary forgiveness
of Mrs. Smith, who, by stating his marriage with a woman of character,
as the source of her clemency, gave him reason for believing that had
he behaved with honour towards Marianne, he might at once have been
happy and rich. That his repentance of misconduct, which thus brought
its own