Sir John's Welcome — Sense and Sensibility

Mrs. Dashwood announces that she has taken a house and will soon leave Norland for Devonshire. John expresses polite regret about the distance; Fanny says little. Edward reacts with unmistakable distress when he hears how far Barton lies from Sussex, and Mrs. Dashwood invites him with pointed warmth to show Fanny she will not be intimidated. Practical preparations expose the family's reduced means. Furniture and Marianne's pianoforte travel by water; Fanny resents even that modest elegance. Elinor insists on selling the carriage and limiting servants to three, overruling her mother's wish to keep comforts they cannot afford.

John laments that Devonshire prevents him from helping with the move, which neatly frees him from the exertion he always avoided. Within weeks everything is settled and the women depart. Marianne's farewell to Norland is pure sensibility: she mourns the trees and house as if they share her grief, while the landscape will remain indifferent. Economic humiliation finally becomes motion: leaving is their answer to Fanny. The Dashwoods are not yet at Barton, but they have escaped Fanny's roof and begin the westward journey that will bring new neighbours, new attachments, and new tests of sense and feeling. John never enlarges the legacy beyond six months' maintenance.