The Engagement Exposed — Sense and Sensibility

Mrs. Jennings returns from Mrs. Palmer with explosive news: Anne Steele blurted out Lucy's engagement to Edward at Harley Street, throwing Fanny into hysterics and exposing the secret Mrs. Ferrars never suspected. Lucy was scolded and driven to faint; the cousins were ordered away while Mrs. Ferrars was sent for. Elinor composes herself before Marianne arrives and then reveals the engagement she has borne in secret for four months since Lucy confided at Barton Park. Marianne is shattered by Elinor's calm endurance and compares Edward to a second Willoughby until pity yields to indignation at Lucy. Elinor vindicates Edward's honor while admitting the marriage will likely stand. Marianne promises discretion before Mrs. Jennings's torrent of gossip about Anne's indiscretion and Lucy's tears.

John Dashwood visits solemnly to defend Fanny's benevolence and report Edward's stubborn refusal to break his word despite offers of Norfolk and threats of disinheritance. Mrs. Ferrars has cast him off and settled Robert in Edward's place with the Norfolk estate and twelve hundred a year. Mrs. Jennings praises Edward's honesty; the sisters unite in scorn for the Ferrars and Dashwood parties. Lucy writes to Elinor begging sympathy and predicting poverty. The secret is public at last, and Edward's future appears ruined even to those who admire his constancy. Elinor must now watch the man she loves prepare for orders and a curacy while bound to a woman whose vanity made the exposure inevitable, and Marianne finally understands how long her sister has carried a grief as deep as her own.

Marianne reproaches herself for months of blindness while Elinor explains that Lucy's confidence was a weapon aimed precisely at a rival who could not answer. John repeats that Edward was offered Norfolk if he would marry Miss Morton instead, making clear that Mrs. Ferrars treats marriage as a transaction and honor as obstinacy. Lucy sends a follow-up letter begging Elinor's good word with Mrs. Jennings, and the whole town soon knows Edward is disinherited for keeping a promise made in youth. Volume II closes with Elinor's private world in ruins and Edward's public prospects reduced to a curacy and patience, yet neither sister wavers in scorn for the family that punished integrity.