"Nay," said Anne, "I have no particular enquiry to make about her. I
have always understood they were not a happy couple. But I should like
to know why, at that time of his life, he should slight my father's
acquaintance as he did. My father was certainly disposed to take very
kind and proper notice of him. Why did Mr Elliot draw back?"
"Mr Elliot," replied Mrs Smith, "at that period of his life, had one
object in view: to make his fortune, and by a rather quicker process
than the law. He was determined to make it by marriage. He was
determined, at least, not to mar it by an imprudent marriage; and I
know it was his belief (whether justly or not, of course I cannot
decide), that your father and sister, in their civilities and
invitations, were designing a match between the heir and the young
lady, and it was impossible that such a match should have answered his
ideas of wealth and independence. That was his motive for drawing
back, I can assure you. He told me the whole story. He had no
concealments with me. It was curious, that having just left you behind
me in Bath, my first and principal acquaintance on marrying should be
your cousin; and that, through him, I should be continually hearing of
your father and sister. He described one Miss Elliot, and I thought
very affectionately of the other."
"Perhaps," cried Anne, struck by a sudden idea, "you sometimes spoke of
me to Mr Elliot?"
"To be sure I did; very often. I used to boast of my own Anne Elliot,
and vouch for your being a very different creature from--"
She checked herself just in time.
"This accounts for something which Mr Elliot said last night," cried
Anne. "This explains it. I found he had been used to hear of me. I
could not comprehend how. What wild imaginations one forms where dear
self is concerned! How sure to be mistaken! But I beg your pardon; I
have interrupted you. Mr Elliot married then completely for money?
The circumstances, probably, which first opened your eyes to his
character."
Mrs Smith hesitated a little here. "Oh! those things are too common.
When one lives in the world, a man or woman's marrying for money is too
common to strike one as it ought. I was very young, and associated
only with the young, and we were a thoughtless, gay set, without any
strict rules of conduct. We lived for enjoyment. I think differently
now; time and sickness and sorrow have given me other notions; but at
that period I must own I saw nothing reprehensible in what Mr Elliot
was doing. 'To do the best for himself,' passed as a duty."