Three days in the carriage, and Elinor cannot stop wondering that she is Mrs Jennings's guest at all. The acquaintance is short, they do not suit, and only a few days ago she refused. Marianne's rapture, and their mother's, has carried the refusal aside. Willoughby is in all probability already in town, and a very short time must decide what he means. If what Elinor sees is unfavourable, she will open her sister's eyes. Marianne sits silent almost all the way, and speaks only when something picturesque is worth a cry to her sister. Elinor takes the post of civility. Mrs Jennings cannot make them choose salmon rather than cod, or boiled fowls rather than veal cutlets. They reach town at three on the third day. Their room had been Charlotte's. Over the mantelpiece hangs a landscape in coloured silks, seven years at a great school put to some effect.
Elinor sits down to write to her mother. Marianne sits down too, and she is not writing home. The note is done in a very few minutes, sealed, and directed so fast that Elinor thinks she can distinguish a large W. It goes to the two-penny post. For Elinor, that decides it. They must be engaged. Marianne can scarcely eat, and she listens for every carriage. A loud rap, which cannot belong to any other house, brings her to her feet. It is Willoughby, she cries, indeed it is. Colonel Brandon appears. She leaves the room. Elinor is hurt that a man so partial to her sister should meet nothing but grief, and she talks of head-aches, low spirits, and over-fatigue. He has been in London almost ever since, once or twice at Delaford, never able to return to Barton. Mrs Jennings asks how he conjured out that she would be in town today. He dined at the Palmers', and he satisfies none of her further questions. No other visitor comes.
Next morning the shock seems forgotten, until the shops. In Bond Street Marianne watches every face and will give no opinion of anything to be bought. Mrs Palmer is wild to buy all, and can settle on none. They come home late. Marianne flies upstairs. No one has been there, and no letter has been left. Is the footman quite sure? No servant, no porter, no note. How very odd. If Marianne had not known him to be in town, Elinor thinks, the letter would have gone to Combe Magna. If he is in town, how odd that he neither comes nor writes. Should this continue, their mother will be told that the affair needs a serious enquiry. That night Marianne walks the room and stops at each window, waiting for the rap. Will the next knock belong to the initial on the note, or to whoever is already on the stairs?
Coming Up in Chapter 27
The morning goes to leaving cards, so Mrs. Jennings's acquaintance will know she is in town. Marianne watches the direction of the carriages. Colonel Brandon, who has a general invitation, is with them almost every day. He comes to look at Marianne and to talk to Elinor.
