Lucy Steele — Sense and Sensibility

The excursion to Whitwell collapses when a letter summons Colonel Brandon to London on urgent business he will not explain. Mrs. Jennings guesses at Miss Williams, whom she whispers is his natural daughter. Willoughby mocks Brandon's sudden exit as hypochondria and invents the letter himself; Marianne agrees. With the outing ruined, Sir John proposes driving about the country instead. Willoughby takes Marianne alone in his curricle and returns delighted. At dinner Mrs. Jennings triumphantly reveals that her servant learned they spent the morning walking over Allenham, Mrs. Smith's house, which Willoughby expects to inherit.

Marianne defends the visit as pleasure and future right; she describes the rooms she would furnish with a few hundred pounds. Elinor is shocked that they entered the house while its owner was present and without chaperone beyond Willoughby's open carriage. Marianne believes conscience would have troubled her if she had acted wrongly. Brandon's secret duty and the lovers' secret tour of Allenham run on parallel tracks, one obligation and one indiscretion, both hidden from the family that trusts them. Gossip spreads through Barton Park while Elinor sees how quickly romantic boldness can outrun reputation and income. Marianne treats the Allenham tour as proof of future rights, not impropriety.