Robert and Miss Morton — Sense and Sensibility

Lucy has never seen Edward in such spirits. She expects them all comfortably together at Delaford Parsonage before Michaelmas, and she is ready to own every obligation to Elinor. Colonel Brandon she will worship as a saint, so long as his tithes are raised to the utmost, and so long as his carriage, his cows, and his poultry can be made use of at Delaford.

Fanny is denied. John meets Elinor as the carriage turns, and he has a good deal to say. Can it be true? No relationship, no connection, and livings fetch such a price. About two hundred a year. For the next presentation, if the late holder had been old and sickly, Brandon might have got fourteen hundred pounds. How came a man of sense not to settle that before the death? On recollection, Edward is perhaps only to hold the living until the person it was really sold to is old enough to take it. Elinor contradicts him. She carried the offer herself, and the motive was a simple one, to be of use. He submits. Fanny bears it vastly well, and will not like it much talked of. Mrs Ferrars knows nothing, and should not, until the marriage. Elinor asks why a mother who has cast her son off for ever should still be spared. The reasoning is very good, he says, and founded on ignorance of human nature. She will feel the match as if she had never discarded him. She is one of the most affectionate mothers in the world. Elinor is silent.

They think now of Robert marrying Miss Morton. From his manner, Elinor supposes the lady has no choice, and that it is the same to her whether she marries Edward or Robert. Certainly. Robert will be considered the eldest son, and John does not know that one brother is superior to the other. Then, in a whisper, from the best authority, though not from Mrs Ferrars's own mouth: a certain other connection would have been the least evil of the two. All that, he adds, is quite out of the question. Robert comes in before she must answer, laughs immoderately at a clergyman in a small parsonage, and then grows serious. Poor Edward is ruined for ever. Had Robert known a few hours earlier, he should have told him to consider what he was doing. Now it is too late. He must be starved, absolutely starved. Will the fourteen hundred pounds still be the reason that is told, after she has said the living was given?