Chương Chương 2 · Mr Shepherd, a civil, cautious lawyer, who, whatever might be his hold

. Mr Shepherd, a civil, cautious lawyer, who, whatever might be his hold

or his views on Sir Walter, would rather have the _disagreeable_

prompted by anybody else, excused himself from offering the slightest

hint, and only begged leave to recommend an implicit reference to the

excellent judgement of Lady Russell, from whose known good sense he

fully expected to have just such resolute measures advised as he meant

to see finally adopted.

Lady Russell was most anxiously zealous on the subject, and gave it

much serious consideration. She was a woman rather of sound than of

quick abilities, whose difficulties in coming to any decision in this

instance were great, from the opposition of two leading principles. She

was of strict integrity herself, with a delicate sense of honour; but

she was as desirous of saving Sir Walter’s feelings, as solicitous for

the credit of the family, as aristocratic in her ideas of what was due

to them, as anybody of sense and honesty could well be. She was a

benevolent, charitable, good woman, and capable of strong attachments,

most correct in her conduct, strict in her notions of decorum, and with

manners that were held a standard of good-breeding. She had a

cultivated mind, and was, generally speaking, rational and

consistent—but she had prejudices on the side of ancestry; she had a

value for rank and consequence, which blinded her a little to the

faults of those who possessed them. Herself the widow of only a knight,

she gave the dignity of a baronet all its due; and Sir Walter,

independent of his claims as an old acquaintance, an attentive

neighbour, an obliging landlord, the husband of her very dear friend,

the father of Anne and her sisters, was, as being Sir Walter, in her

apprehension, entitled to a great deal of compassion and consideration

under his present difficulties.

They must retrench; that did not admit of a doubt. But she was very

anxious to have it done with the least possible pain to him and

Elizabeth. She drew up plans of economy, she made exact calculations,

and she did what nobody else thought of doing: she consulted Anne, who

never seemed considered by the others as having any interest in the

question. She consulted, and in a degree was influenced by her in

marking out the scheme of retrenchment which was at last submitted to

Sir Walter. Every emendation of Anne’s had been on the side of honesty

against importance. She wanted more vigorous measures, a more complete

reformation, a quicker release from debt, a much higher tone 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 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.