Mrs Jennings wishes Elinor joy. She tried not to hear, and she caught enough. Elinor thanks her for Colonel Brandon's goodness, and says she was never more astonished. Mrs Jennings is not astonished at all. When a man has made up his mind, an opportunity will be found. Elinor asks, with a faint smile, whether she means to go to Delaford after them. The house, Mrs Jennings says, is as good as any she ever saw. He spoke of its being out of repair. Whose fault is that? The carriage comes. Elinor will tell Marianne, and nobody else, not even Lucy, until she has written to Mr Ferrars. One day's delay will not be very material. He has much to do about being ordained. Mrs Jennings puzzles, then lights on it. Mr Ferrars is to be the man. Things are far forward between Elinor and the Colonel. She goes, comes back about Betty's sister as a lady's maid, and leaves Elinor with the pen in her hand.
Too much, or too little, would be equally wrong, and a letter still seems easier than saying it. Edward walks in. He had come to leave a farewell card. Mrs Jennings met him at the door and sent him up: Miss Dashwood wanted him on very particular business. He goes to Oxford tomorrow. Elinor tells him at once. The living of Delaford is his, about two hundred a year, and she wishes it were enough to establish all his views of happiness. He looks the astonishment, and he says only two words. Colonel Brandon. She tells him he owes it to his own merit, not to her. She had not even known the living was vacant. Truth makes her admit a small share, and the hesitation seems to fix a suspicion. The parsonage is almost close to the mansion-house. When she looks away, his face is so serious that he might hereafter wish the distance greater. He must go to St James Street and give the thanks she will not take, and say he has been made an exceedingly happy man. She does not detain him. As the door shuts, she tells herself that the next time she sees him, she will see the husband of Lucy.
Mrs Jennings, at home again, asks if she did right to send him up. He was not unwilling to accept the proposal? How soon will he be ready? Elinor supposes two or three months will complete the ordination. Can the Colonel wait so long? Somebody already in orders might do as well. Then she says the sentence that ends the mistake. Surely the Colonel does not marry Elinor only for the sake of giving ten guineas to Mr Ferrars. The explanation amuses them both. Mrs Jennings exchanges one delight for another, and she does not give up the first. She has heard of five sitting rooms and fifteen beds, and if she is alive she will visit Delaford Parsonage before Michaelmas, but not unless Lucy is there. Will the thanks he was not allowed to give still be in the room, the next time the door opens?
Coming Up in Chapter 41
Edward carries his thanks to Colonel Brandon, and then his happiness on to Lucy. By the time he reaches Bartlett's Buildings, she can tell Mrs. Jennings, who calls the next day with congratulations, that she has never seen him in such spirits in her life.
