Mrs. Smith's Story — Persuasion

Lady Russell continues promoting Mr. Elliot as Anne's ideal match, painting an irresistible picture: Anne could become Lady Elliot, mistress of Kellynch, occupying her mother's place, restoring the beloved name. For a moment Anne is bewitched by the vision. But "the image of Mr. Elliot speaking for himself brought Anne to composure again. The charm of Kellynch and of Lady Elliot all faded away. She never could accept him." Not only because her feelings remain "adverse to any man save one," but because her judgment tells her something's wrong. Mr. Elliot is too polished, too careful, never open. "There was never any burst of feeling, any warmth of indignation or delight." Anne prizes the frank and open-hearted. "Warmth and enthusiasm did captivate her still." Mr. Elliot is "too generally agreeable", he pleases everyone, including Mrs. Clay despite claiming to despise her. Anne can't trust someone whose "presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped." Then a letter arrives from Mary with shocking news: Louisa Musgrove is engaged, not to Wentworth, but to Captain Benwick. They fell in love while Louisa recovered in Lyme. Benwick, the mourning poet, and Louisa, the impulsive girl Wentworth praised for her firmness, have found each other. Mary adds casually that the engagement ends "Captain Benwick's being supposed to be an admirer of yours," completely missing the point. Anne is astonished. The high-spirited Louisa and the melancholy Benwick "seemed each of them everything that would not suit the other." But Anne understands: "It had been in situation." Proximity, shared crisis, Louisa's interesting recovery, Benwick's need to love someone. And the fall from the Cobb "might influence her health, her nerves, her courage, her character to the end of her life, as thoroughly as it appeared to have influenced her fate." The crucial revelation: Wentworth is free. Anne tries to reason it through calmly, but "it was not regret which made Anne's heart beat in spite of herself, and brought the colour into her cheeks when she thought of Captain Wentworth unshackled and free." She has "feelings which she was ashamed to investigate. They were too much like joy, senseless joy!"