Persuasion | Page 7

of indifference for everything but justice and equity.
"If we can persuade your father to all this," said Lady Russell, looking
over her paper, "much may be done. If he will adopt these regulations,
in seven years he will be clear; and I hope we may be able to convince
him and Elizabeth, that Kellynch Hall has a respectability in itself
which cannot be affected by these reductions; and that the true dignity
of Sir Walter Elliot will be very far from lessened in the eyes of
sensible people, by acting like a man of principle. What will he be
doing, in fact, but what very many of our first families have done, or
ought to do? There will be nothing singular in his case; and it is

singularity which often makes the worst part of our suffering, as it
always does of our conduct. I have great hope of prevailing. We must
be serious and decided; for after all, the person who has contracted
debts must pay them; and though a great deal is due to the feelings of
the gentleman, and the head of a house, like your father, there is still
more due to the character of an honest man."
This was the principle on which Anne wanted her father to be
proceeding, his friends to be urging him. She considered it as an act of
indispensable duty to clear away the claims of creditors with all the
expedition which the most comprehensive retrenchments could secure,
and saw no dignity in anything short of it. She wanted it to be
prescribed, and felt as a duty. She rated Lady Russell's influence highly;
and as to the severe degree of self-denial which her own conscience
prompted, she believed there might be little more difficulty in
persuading them to a complete, than to half a reformation. Her
knowledge of her father and Elizabeth inclined her to think that the
sacrifice of one pair of horses would be hardly less painful than of both,
and so on, through the whole list of Lady Russell's too gentle
reductions.
How Anne's more rigid requisitions might have been taken is of little
consequence. Lady Russell's had no success at all: could not be put up
with, were not to be borne. "What! every comfort of life knocked off!
Journeys, London, servants, horses, table-- contractions and restrictions
every where! To live no longer with the decencies even of a private
gentleman! No, he would sooner quit Kellynch Hall at once, than
remain in it on such disgraceful terms."
"Quit Kellynch Hall." The hint was immediately taken up by Mr
Shepherd, whose interest was involved in the reality of Sir Walter's
retrenching, and who was perfectly persuaded that nothing would be
done without a change of abode. "Since the idea had been started in the
very quarter which ought to dictate, he had no scruple," he said, "in
confessing his judgement to be entirely on that side. It did not appear to
him that Sir Walter could materially alter his style of living in a house
which had such a character of hospitality and ancient dignity to support.

In any other place Sir Walter might judge for himself; and would be
looked up to, as regulating the modes of life in whatever way he might
choose to model his household."
Sir Walter would quit Kellynch Hall; and after a very few days more of
doubt and indecision, the great question of whither he should go was
settled, and the first outline of this important change made out.
There had been three alternatives, London, Bath, or another house in
the country. All Anne's wishes had been for the latter. A small house in
their own neighbourhood, where they might still have Lady Russell's
society, still be near Mary, and still have the pleasure of sometimes
seeing the lawns and groves of Kellynch, was the object of her
ambition. But the usual fate of Anne attended her, in having something
very opposite from her inclination fixed on. She disliked Bath, and did
not think it agreed with her; and Bath was to be her home.
Sir Walter had at first thought more of London; but Mr Shepherd felt
that he could not be trusted in London, and had been skilful enough to
dissuade him from it, and make Bath preferred. It was a much safer
place for a gentleman in his predicament: he might there be important
at comparatively little expense. Two material advantages of Bath over
London had of course been given all their weight: its more convenient
distance from Kellynch, only fifty miles, and Lady Russell's spending
some part of every winter there; and to the very great satisfaction of
Lady Russell, whose first views on the projected change had been for
Bath, Sir Walter and Elizabeth