第 三十一 章 · 第31章

Mr. and Mrs. Morland’s surprise on being applied to by Mr. Tilney for

their consent to his marrying their daughter was, for a few minutes,

considerable, it having never entered their heads to suspect an

attachment on either side; but as nothing, after all, could be more

natural than Catherine’s being beloved, they soon learnt to consider it

with only the happy agitation of gratified pride, and, as far as they

alone were concerned, had not a single objection to start. His pleasing

manners and good sense were self-evident recommendations; and having

never heard evil of him, it was not their way to suppose any evil could

be told. Goodwill supplying the place of experience, his character

needed no attestation. “Catherine would make a sad, heedless young

housekeeper to be sure,” was her mother’s foreboding remark; but quick

was the consolation of there being nothing like practice.

There was but one obstacle, in short, to be mentioned; but till that

one was removed, it must be impossible for them to sanction the

engagement. Their tempers were mild, but their principles were steady,

and while his parent so expressly forbade the connection, they could

not allow themselves to encourage it. That the General should come

forward to solicit the alliance, or that he should even very heartily

approve it, they were not refined enough to make any parading

stipulation; but the decent appearance of consent must be yielded, and

that once obtained—and their own hearts made them trust that it could

not be very long denied—their willing approbation was instantly to

follow. His _consent_ was all that they wished for. They were no more

inclined than entitled to demand his _money_. Of a very considerable

fortune, his son was, by marriage settlements, eventually secure; his

present income was an income of independence and comfort, and under

every pecuniary view, it was a match beyond the claims of their

daughter.

The young people could not be surprised at a decision like this. They

felt and they deplored—but they could not resent it; and they parted,

endeavouring to hope that such a change in the General, as each

believed almost impossible, might speedily take place, to unite them

again in the fulness of privileged affection. Henry returned to what

was now his only home, to watch over his young plantations, and extend

his improvements for her sake, to whose share in them he looked

anxiously forward; and Catherine remained at Fullerton to cry. Whether

the torments of absence were softened by a clandestine correspondence,

let us not inquire. Mr. and Mrs. Morland never did—they had been too

kind to exact any promise; and whenever Catherine received a letter,

as, at that time, happened pretty often, they always looked another

way.

The anxiety, which in this state of their attachment must be the

portion of Henry and Catherine, and of all who loved either, as to its

final event, can hardly extend, I fear, to the bosom of my readers, who

will see in the tell-tale compression of the pages before them, that we

are all hastening together to perfect felicity. The means by which

their early marriage was effected can be the only doubt: what probable

circumstance could work upon a temper like the General’s? The

circumstance which chiefly availed was the marriage of his daughter

with a man of fortune and consequence, which took place in the course

of the summer—an accession of dignity that threw him into a fit of good

humour, from which he did not recover till after Eleanor had obtained

his forgiveness of Henry, and his permission for him “to be a fool if

he liked it!”

The marriage of Eleanor Tilney, her removal from all the evils of such

a home as Northanger had been made by Henry’s banishment, to the home

of her choice and the man of her choice, is an event which I expect to

give general satisfaction among all her acquaintance. My own joy on the

occasion is very sincere. I know no one more entitled, by unpretending

merit, or better prepared by habitual suffering, to receive and enjoy

felicity. Her partiality for this gentleman was not of recent origin;

and he had been long withheld only by inferiority of situation from

addressing her. His unexpected accession to title and fortune had

removed all his difficulties; and never had the General loved his

daughter so well in all her hours of companionship, utility, and

patient endurance as when he first hailed her “Your Ladyship!” Her

husband was really deserving of her; independent of his peerage, his

wealth, and his attachment, being to a precision the most charming

young man in the world. Any further definition of his merits must be

unnecessary; the most charming young man in the world is instantly

before the imagination of us all. Concerning the one in question,

therefore, I have only to add—aware that the rules of composition

forbid the introduction of a character not connected with my fable—that

this was the very gentleman whose negligent servant left behind him

that collection of washing-bills, resulting from a long visit at

Northanger, by which my heroine was involved in one of her most

alarming adventures.

The influence of the Viscount and Viscountess in their brother’s behalf

was assisted by that right understanding of Mr. Morland’s circumstances

which, as soon as the General would allow himself to be informed, they

were qualified to give. It taught him that he had been scarcely more

misled by Thorpe’s first boast of the family wealth than by his

subsequent malicious overthrow of it; that in no sense of the word were

they necessitous or poor, and that Catherine would have three thousand

pounds. This was so material an amendment of his late expectations that

it greatly contributed to smooth the descent of his pride; and by no

means without its effect was the private intelligence, which he was at

some pains to procure, that the Fullerton estate, being entirely at the

disposal of its present proprietor, was consequently open to every

greedy speculation.

On the strength of this, the General, soon after Eleanor’s marriage,

permitted his son to return to Northanger, and thence made him the

bearer of his consent, very courteously worded in a page full of empty

professions to Mr. Morland. The event which it authorized soon

followed: Henry and Catherine were married, the bells rang, and

everybody smiled; and, as this took place within a twelvemonth from the

first day of their meeting, it will not appear, after all the dreadful

delays occasioned by the General’s cruelty, that they were essentially

hurt by it. To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of

twenty-six and eighteen is to do pretty well; and professing myself

moreover convinced that the General’s unjust interference, so far from

being really injurious to their felicity, was perhaps rather conducive

to it, by improving their knowledge of each other, and adding strength

to their attachment, I leave it to be settled, by whomsoever it may

concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend

parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.

A NOTE ON THE TEXT

Northanger Abbey was written in 1797–98 under a different title. The

manuscript was revised around 1803 and sold to a London publisher,

Crosbie & Co., who sold it back in 1816. The Signet Classic text is

based on the first edition, published by John Murray, London, in

1818—the year following Miss Austen’s death. Spelling and punctuation

have been largely brought into conformity with modern British usage.