Willoughby's Rescue — Sense and Sensibility

A handsome rescue arrives before anyone can say what the man is like. The Dashwoods are settled at Barton, and drawing, music, and walks please them more than Norland has pleased them since their father died. Sir John calls every day and is amazed to find them always busy. He offers his carriage. Mrs. Dashwood will not visit beyond walking distance. On a showery morning Marianne and Margaret climb the downs. Marianne has promised the clouds will clear. They join instead. The girls run for the garden gate. Marianne falls and twists her foot. Margaret cannot stop. A gentleman with a gun and two pointers puts the gun down and, when Marianne hesitates at the help she needs, carries her into the parlour.

Elinor and her mother rise in amazement. He is uncommonly handsome, and he explains himself with a frankness and grace that add to his looks. Had he been old, ugly, and vulgar, gratitude for any care of Marianne would still have been sure. Youth, beauty, and elegance make the act come home. He will not sit. He is dirty and wet. His name is Willoughby. His present home is Allenham, and he asks the honour of calling tomorrow. It is granted. He leaves in heavy rain and is more interesting for it. Marianne, too confused to look at him after he lifted her, has seen enough. His person and air match the hero of a favourite story. Carrying her in with so little ceremony is a quickness she particularly likes. Of all men's clothes, a shooting-jacket is the most becoming. The ankle is disregarded.

Sir John knows the name. Willoughby is down every year, as good a fellow as ever lived, a very decent shot, and not a bolder rider in England. Marianne asks for his manners, his pursuits, his talents, his genius. Sir John is puzzled. He is pleasant and good-humoured, and he has the finest little black pointer Sir John ever saw. Marianne can no more say that pointer's colour than Sir John can describe the shades of Willoughby's mind. Elinor gets the plainer facts. He owns nothing here. He is staying with the old lady at Allenham Court, a relation, whose possessions he is to inherit, and he has a small estate of his own in Somerset. Sir John tells Elinor he is well worth catching, and that Brandon will be jealous. Mrs. Dashwood smiles. Catching a man is not work her daughters were brought up to do. Men are safe with them, however rich. She is glad he sounds respectable. He danced, Sir John adds, from eight at night till four, and was riding again at eight. That, says Marianne, is what a young man ought to be. Eagerness should know no moderation, and leave him no sense of fatigue. Sir John says she will set her cap at Willoughby and forget poor Brandon. She hates that common phrase, and every phrase like making a conquest. He laughs as if he understood, and says it again. Willoughby is coming tomorrow. Will anyone ask him a question Sir John could not answer?