Persuasion | Page 8

were induced to believe that they should
lose neither consequence nor enjoyment by settling there.
Lady Russell felt obliged to oppose her dear Anne's known wishes. It
would be too much to expect Sir Walter to descend into a small house
in his own neighbourhood. Anne herself would have found the
mortifications of it more than she foresaw, and to Sir Walter's feelings
they must have been dreadful. And with regard to Anne's dislike of
Bath, she considered it as a prejudice and mistake arising, first, from
the circumstance of her having been three years at school there, after
her mother's death; and secondly, from her happening to be not in
perfectly good spirits the only winter which she had afterwards spent

there with herself.
Lady Russell was fond of Bath, in short, and disposed to think it must
suit them all; and as to her young friend's health, by passing all the
warm months with her at Kellynch Lodge, every danger would be
avoided; and it was in fact, a change which must do both health and
spirits good. Anne had been too little from home, too little seen. Her
spirits were not high. A larger society would improve them. She
wanted her to be more known.
The undesirableness of any other house in the same neighbourhood for
Sir Walter was certainly much strengthened by one part, and a very
material part of the scheme, which had been happily engrafted on the
beginning. He was not only to quit his home, but to see it in the hands
of others; a trial of fortitude, which stronger heads than Sir Walter's
have found too much. Kellynch Hall was to be let. This, however, was
a profound secret, not to be breathed beyond their own circle.
Sir Walter could not have borne the degradation of being known to
design letting his house. Mr Shepherd had once mentioned the word
"advertise," but never dared approach it again. Sir Walter spurned the
idea of its being offered in any manner; forbad the slightest hint being
dropped of his having such an intention; and it was only on the
supposition of his being spontaneously solicited by some most
unexceptionable applicant, on his own terms, and as a great favour, that
he would let it at all.
How quick come the reasons for approving what we like! Lady Russell
had another excellent one at hand, for being extremely glad that Sir
Walter and his family were to remove from the country. Elizabeth had
been lately forming an intimacy, which she wished to see interrupted. It
was with the daughter of Mr Shepherd, who had returned, after an
unprosperous marriage, to her father's house, with the additional burden
of two children. She was a clever young woman, who understood the
art of pleasing--the art of pleasing, at least, at Kellynch Hall; and who
had made herself so acceptable to Miss Elliot, as to have been already
staying there more than once, in spite of all that Lady Russell, who
thought it a friendship quite out of place, could hint of caution and

reserve.
Lady Russell, indeed, had scarcely any influence with Elizabeth, and
seemed to love her, rather because she would love her, than because
Elizabeth deserved it. She had never received from her more than
outward attention, nothing beyond the observances of complaisance;
had never succeeded in any point which she wanted to carry, against
previous inclination. She had been repeatedly very earnest in trying to
get Anne included in the visit to London, sensibly open to all the
injustice and all the discredit of the selfish arrangements which shut her
out, and on many lesser occasions had endeavoured to give Elizabeth
the advantage of her own better judgement and experience; but always
in vain: Elizabeth would go her own way; and never had she pursued it
in more decided opposition to Lady Russell than in this selection of
Mrs Clay; turning from the society of so deserving a sister, to bestow
her affection and confidence on one who ought to have been nothing to
her but the object of distant civility.
From situation, Mrs Clay was, in Lady Russell's estimate, a very
unequal, and in her character she believed a very dangerous companion;
and a removal that would leave Mrs Clay behind, and bring a choice of
more suitable intimates within Miss Elliot's reach, was therefore an
object of first-rate importance.
Chapter 3
"I must take leave to observe, Sir Walter," said Mr Shepherd one
morning at Kellynch Hall, as he laid down the newspaper, "that the
present juncture is much in our favour. This peace will be turning all
our rich naval officers ashore. They will be all wanting a home. Could
not be a better time, Sir Walter, for having a choice of tenants,