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The Read (2022) Season 4 Episode 1
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FunTranscript
00:00:00Thank you for listening.
00:00:30Thank you for listening.
00:03:00And she was only Anne.
00:03:03For one daughter, his eldest, Sir Walter would really have given up anything,
00:03:08which he had not been very much tempted to do.
00:03:12Elizabeth, being very handsome and very like himself,
00:03:16her influence had always been great,
00:03:19and they had gone on together most happily.
00:03:22But Elizabeth did not quite equal her father in personal contentment.
00:03:28She had had a disappointment.
00:03:31Sir Walter's heir presumptive, the very William Walter Elliot, Esquire.
00:03:37He was at that time a very young man, just engaged in the study of the law,
00:03:42and Elizabeth found him extremely agreeable.
00:03:46He was invited to Kellynch Hall.
00:03:49He was talked of and expected all the rest of the year.
00:03:52But he never came.
00:03:55The following spring, he was seen again in town,
00:03:58found equally agreeable, again encouraged, invited and expected.
00:04:03And again, he did not come.
00:04:07And the next tidings were that he was married.
00:04:11But now, another occupation and solicitude of mind
00:04:15was beginning to be added to the family's problems.
00:04:18While Lady Elliot lived, there had been method, moderation and economy
00:04:24which had just kept Sir Walter within his income.
00:04:27But with her had died all such right-mindedness,
00:04:31and from that period he had been constantly exceeding it.
00:04:35He was not only growing dreadfully in debt,
00:04:38but was hearing of it so often that it became vain to attempt concealing it longer.
00:04:43Indeed, Sir Walter would need to retrench, or quit, Kellynch Hall.
00:04:49What?
00:04:50Every comfort of life knocked off.
00:04:53Journeys, London, servants, horses, table, contractions and restrictions everywhere.
00:05:00No!
00:05:01I would sooner quit Kellynch Hall at once
00:05:04than remain in it on such disgraceful terms.
00:05:07And after a very few days more of doubt and indecision,
00:05:13the great question of whither he should go was settled.
00:05:17Sir Walter and his family would move to Bath,
00:05:21and Kellynch Hall would be let.
00:05:24The very first application for the letting of Kellynch Hall
00:05:28was from an Admiral Croft.
00:05:30And who is Admiral Croft?
00:05:33was Sir Walter's cold, suspicious inquiry.
00:05:37Admiral Croft was a real Admiral of the White.
00:05:41A hale, hearty, well-looking man,
00:05:44a little weather-beaten to be sure, but not much,
00:05:47and quite the gentleman in all his notions and behaviour.
00:05:51As for his wife,
00:05:54I found she was not quite unconnected in this country.
00:05:58That is to say, she is sister to a gentleman
00:06:01who did live amongst us once, said Mr Shepherd, the family's lawyer.
00:06:06You mean Mr Wentworth, I suppose, said Anne.
00:06:11Wentworth was the very name.
00:06:13You remember him, I'm sure.
00:06:16Wentworth? replies Sir Walter.
00:06:19Oh, aye, Mr Wentworth.
00:06:22You misled me by the term gentleman.
00:06:24I thought you were speaking of some man of property.
00:06:26Mr Wentworth was nobody, I remember.
00:06:29He was, in fact, Captain Frederick Wentworth,
00:06:35who, being made commander in consequence of the action of San Domingo
00:06:39and not immediately employed,
00:06:41had come into Somersetshire in the summer of 1806
00:06:45and, having no parent living,
00:06:47found a home for half a year at Kellynch.
00:06:51He was, at that time, a remarkably fine young man,
00:06:56with a great deal of intelligence, spirit and brilliancy,
00:07:00and Anne, an extremely pretty girl,
00:07:04with gentleness, modesty, taste and feeling.
00:07:09They were gradually acquainted and, when acquainted,
00:07:13fell rapidly and deeply in love.
00:07:17A short period of exquisite felicity followed,
00:07:22and but a short one.
00:07:26Troubles soon arose.
00:07:28Sir Walter, on being applied to,
00:07:31without actually withholding his consent
00:07:33or saying it should never be,
00:07:35gave all the negative of great astonishment,
00:07:39great coldness, great silence
00:07:41and a professed resolution of doing nothing for his daughter.
00:07:46He thought it a very degrading alliance
00:07:49and Lady Russell, though with more tempered and pardonable pride,
00:07:53received it as a most unfortunate one.
00:07:56Captain Wentworth had no fortune,
00:08:01but he was confident that he should soon be rich,
00:08:05full of life and ardour.
00:08:07He knew that he should soon have a ship
00:08:09and soon be on a station that would lead to everything he wanted.
00:08:13Such confidence, powerful in its own warmth
00:08:18and bewitching in the wit which often expressed it,
00:08:21must have been enough for Anne,
00:08:24but Lady Russell saw it very differently.
00:08:27His sanguine temper and fearlessness of mind
00:08:31operated very differently on her.
00:08:34Such opposition, as these feelings produced,
00:08:38was more than Anne could combat.
00:08:41Young and gentle as she was,
00:08:44it might have been possible to withstand her father's ill will,
00:08:47but Lady Russell, whom she'd always loved and relied on,
00:08:50could not, with such steadiness of opinion
00:08:53and such tenderness of manner,
00:08:55be continually advising her in vain.
00:08:58She was persuaded to believe the engagement a wrong thing,
00:09:04indiscreet, improper, hardly capable of success
00:09:09and not deserving it.
00:09:11A few months had seen the beginning and the end of their acquaintance,
00:09:17but her attachment and regrets had, for a long time,
00:09:21clouded every enjoyment of youth,
00:09:24and an early loss of bloom and spirits had been their lasting effect.
00:09:29More than seven years were gone
00:09:32since this little history of sorrowful interest had reached its close.
00:09:36Lady Russell and Anne knew not each other's opinion,
00:09:39either its constancy or its change on the leading point of Anne's conduct,
00:09:44for the subject was never alluded to.
00:09:47But Anne, at seven and twenty, thought very differently
00:09:51from what she had been made to think at nineteen.
00:09:54She did not blame Lady Russell,
00:09:56she did not blame herself for having been guided by her,
00:09:59but she felt that were any young person in similar circumstances
00:10:04to apply to her for counsel,
00:10:06they would never receive any of such certain immediate wretchedness.
00:10:12She was persuaded that,
00:10:14under every disadvantage of disapprobation at home
00:10:17and every anxiety attending his profession,
00:10:20all their probable fears, delays and disappointments,
00:10:24she should yet have been a happier woman
00:10:27in maintaining the engagement
00:10:29than she had been in the sacrifice of it.
00:10:33With all these circumstances, recollections and feelings,
00:10:37she could not hear that Captain Wentworth's sister
00:10:40was likely to live at Kellynch without a revival of former pain.
00:10:45And many a stroll and many a sigh
00:10:49were necessary to dispel the agitation of the idea.
00:10:55In the event of Admiral Croft's really taking Kellynch Hall,
00:10:59she hoped that the acquaintance need not involve any particular awkwardness.
00:11:05Uppercross was a moderate-sized village.
00:11:21Here, Anne had often been staying,
00:11:24and here she would stay once again with her sister Mary.
00:11:27She knew the ways of Uppercross as well as those of Kellynch.
00:11:31There lived Mary's in-laws, the Musgroves,
00:11:34and Mr and Mrs Musgrove were a very good sort of people,
00:11:38friendly and hospitable, not much educated and not at all elegant.
00:11:43There was a numerous family,
00:11:45but the only two grown-up, excepting Charles Musgrove, Mary's husband,
00:11:50were Henrietta and Louisa, young ladies of 19 and 20,
00:11:54who were now, like thousands of other young ladies,
00:11:57living to be fashionable, happy and merry.
00:12:02The neighbourhood was not large, but the Musgroves were visited by everybody
00:12:07and had more dinner parties and more callers,
00:12:10more visitors by invitation and by chance than any other family.
00:12:15Henrietta and Louisa were wild for dancing,
00:12:19and the evenings ended, occasionally, in an unpremeditated little ball.
00:12:24So passed the first three weeks,
00:12:28and Anne's spirits were greatly improved by change of place and subject.
00:12:35Admiral Croft and his wife took possession of Kellynch Hall
00:12:39with true naval alertness and were to be visited.
00:12:43A very few days more,
00:12:45and Captain Wentworth was known to be at Kellynch.
00:12:49Mr Musgrove had called on him and come back warm in his praise,
00:12:53and he was engaged with the Crofts
00:12:56to dine at Uppercross by the end of another week.
00:13:00A week must pass.
00:13:03Only a week, and then, Anne's supposed, they must meet.
00:13:08And soon she began to wish that she could feel secure even for a week.
00:13:14To hear the Musgroves talking so much of Captain Wentworth,
00:13:18puzzling over past years and at last ascertaining
00:13:21that it might turn out to be the very same Captain Wentworth
00:13:24whom they recollected meeting once or twice,
00:13:27a very fine young man,
00:13:29was a new sort of trial to Anne's nerves.
00:13:33She found, however, that it was one to which she must inure herself.
00:13:40Anne and Mary were actually setting forth for the Musgroves' house
00:13:43to dine with the Crofts and Captain Wentworth
00:13:46when they were stopped by Mary's eldest boy
00:13:49being at that moment brought home in consequence of a bad fall.
00:13:53The child's situation put the visit entirely aside,
00:13:57but she could not hear of her escape with indifference,
00:14:01even in the midst of the serious anxiety
00:14:03which they afterwards felt on his account.
00:14:06The child's collarbone was found to be dislocated.
00:14:12It was an afternoon of distress.
00:14:15Anne volunteered to stay.
00:14:18She knew herself to be of the first utility to the child
00:14:21and what was it to her if Captain Wentworth
00:14:23were only half a mile distant,
00:14:25making himself agreeable to others?
00:14:28She would have liked to know how he felt as to a meeting.
00:14:34Perhaps indifferent,
00:14:35if indifference could exist under such circumstances.
00:14:39He must be either indifferent or unwilling.
00:14:42Had he wished ever to see her again,
00:14:44he need not have waited till this time.
00:14:49Mary and Charles came back delighted with their new acquaintance
00:14:53and their visit in general.
00:14:55There had been music, singing, dancing, talking,
00:14:58all that was most agreeable, charming manners in Captain Wentworth.
00:15:03No shyness or reserve.
00:15:05They seemed all to know each other perfectly
00:15:07and he was coming the very next morning to shoot with Charles.
00:15:12He was coming to breakfast,
00:15:14though he seemed afraid of being in Mary's way on account of the child.
00:15:18Anne understood it.
00:15:20He wished to avoid seeing her.
00:15:23He had inquired after her, she found, slightly,
00:15:28as might suit a former slight acquaintance,
00:15:31seeming to acknowledge such as she had acknowledged,
00:15:34actuated perhaps by the same view with escaping introduction
00:15:38when they were to meet.
00:15:40The morning hours of the cottage were always later
00:15:44than those of the other house
00:15:46and on the morrow the difference was so great
00:15:49that Mary and Anne were not more than beginning breakfast
00:15:53when Charles returned from Upper Cross,
00:15:55came in to say that they were just setting off
00:15:58and that he was come for his dogs.
00:16:00Captain Wentworth was following Charles soon after to wait on Mary for a few minutes,
00:16:06if not inconvenient,
00:16:08and though Charles had answered for the child's being in no such state
00:16:11as could make it inconvenient,
00:16:13Captain Wentworth would not be satisfied
00:16:16without his running on to give notice.
00:16:19Mary, very much gratified by this attention,
00:16:24was delighted to receive him,
00:16:26while a thousand feelings rushed on Anne,
00:16:29of which this was the most consoling,
00:16:33that it would soon be over.
00:16:35And it was soon over.
00:16:39In two minutes, after Charles's preparation,
00:16:43the others appeared.
00:16:44They were in the drawing room.
00:16:46Her eye half met Captain Wentworth's.
00:16:50A bow?
00:16:51The curtsy passed.
00:16:53She heard his voice.
00:16:55He talked to Mary, said all that was right.
00:16:58The room seemed full, full of persons and voices,
00:17:02but a few minutes ended it.
00:17:05Charles showed himself at the window.
00:17:08All was ready.
00:17:10Their visitor had bowed and was gone shooting with Charles.
00:17:13Louisa and Henrietta were gone too,
00:17:15suddenly resolving to walk to the end of the village with the sportsman.
00:17:19The room was cleared,
00:17:21and Anne might finish her breakfast as she could.
00:17:25It is over.
00:17:27It is over,
00:17:29she repeated to herself again and again,
00:17:32in nervous gratitude.
00:17:34The worst is over.
00:17:36Mary talked, but she could not attend.
00:17:41She had seen him.
00:17:43They had met.
00:17:45They had been once more in the same room.
00:17:49Soon, however, she began to reason with herself and try to be feeling less.
00:17:55Eight years.
00:17:57Eight years.
00:17:59Almost eight years had passed since all had been given up.
00:18:03How absurd to be resuming the agitation which such an interval had banished into distance and indistinctness.
00:18:10What might not eight years do?
00:18:14Alas, with all her reasoning she found that, to retentive feelings, eight years may be little more than nothing.
00:18:25Now, how were his sentiments to be read? Was this like trying to avoid her?
00:18:31And the next moment she was hating herself for the folly which asked the question.
00:18:36On one other question, which perhaps her utmost wisdom might not have prevented, she was soon spared all suspense.
00:18:45For after Mary had returned, she had this spontaneous information.
00:18:50Captain Wentworth is not very gallant by you, Anne, though he was so attentive to me.
00:18:56Henrietta asked him what he thought of you when they went away and he said you were so altered he should not have known you again.
00:19:03Mary had no feelings to make her respect her sisters in a common way, but she was perfectly unsuspicious of being inflicting any particular wound.
00:19:14Altered beyond his knowledge, Anne fully submitted in silent, deep mortification.
00:19:25Doubtless it was so.
00:19:27And she could take no such revenge, for he was not altered, or not for the worse.
00:19:33She had already acknowledged it to herself and could not think differently.
00:19:37Let him think of her as he would.
00:19:40No.
00:19:41The years which had destroyed her youth and bloom had only given him a more glowing, manly, open look, in no respect lessening his personal advantages.
00:19:55She had seen the same, Captain Wentworth.
00:20:00So altered that he should not have known her again.
00:20:05These were words which could not but dwell with her.
00:20:10Captain Wentworth had used such words, or something like them, but without an idea that they would be carried round to her.
00:20:18He had thought her wretchedly altered, and in the first moment of appeal had spoken as he felt.
00:20:24He had not forgiven Anne Elliot.
00:20:28She had used him ill, deserted and disappointed him, and worse, she had shown a feebleness of character in doing so, which his own decided, confident temper could not endure.
00:20:40She had given him up to oblige others.
00:20:44It had been the effect of over-persuasion.
00:20:47He had been most warmly attached to her, and had never seen a woman since whom he thought her equal.
00:20:56But, except from some natural sensation of curiosity, he had no desire of meeting her again.
00:21:03Her power with him was gone forever.
00:21:08It was now his object to marry.
00:21:12He was rich, and being turned on shore, fully intended to settle as soon as he could be properly tempted.
00:21:19Actually looking round, ready to fall in love with all the speed which a clear head and a quick taste could allow.
00:21:26He had a heart for either of the Miss Musgroves, if they could catch it.
00:21:31A heart, in short, for any pleasing young woman who came in his way.
00:21:36Excepting Anne Elliot.
00:21:39From this time, Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot were repeatedly in the same circle.
00:21:58They had no conversation together, no intercourse, but what the communist civility required.
00:22:05Once so much to each other.
00:22:09Now nothing.
00:22:11It was a perpetual estrangement.
00:22:14Which of the two Musgroves sisters was preferred by Captain Wentworth was as yet quite doubtful, as far as Anne's observation reached.
00:22:23Henrietta was perhaps the prettiest.
00:22:26Louisa had the higher spirits, and she knew not now whether the more gentle or the more lively character were most likely to attract him.
00:22:34After a short struggle, however, it became clear that Henrietta would return to her former suitor, a Mr. Hater.
00:22:43Everything now marked out Louisa for Captain Wentworth.
00:22:48Nothing could be plainer.
00:22:50Meanwhile, a letter from Captain Wentworth's friend, Captain Harville, brought intelligence of Captain Harville's being settled with his family at Lyme for the winter.
00:23:03Captain Wentworth's description of the fine country about Lyme was so feelingly attended to by the party in Upper Cross that an earnest desire to see Lyme themselves and a project for going thither was the consequence.
00:23:17To Lyme they were to go.
00:23:20Charles, Mary, Anne, Henrietta, Louisa and Captain Wentworth.
00:23:26After securing accommodations and ordering a dinner at one of the inns, the next thing to be done was unquestionably to walk directly down to the sea.
00:23:35The party from Upper Cross soon found themselves on the seashore and lingering only, as all must linger and gaze on a first return to the sea, proceeded towards the Cobb, equally their object in itself and on Captain Wentworth's account.
00:23:52For in a small house near the foot of an old pier of unknown date were the Harvilles settled.
00:23:59Captain Wentworth turned in to call on his friend.
00:24:04The others walked on and he was to join them on the Cobb.
00:24:08Captain Harville, though not equaling Captain Wentworth in manners, was a perfect gentleman.
00:24:15Unaffected, warm and obliging.
00:24:19Mrs Harville, a degree less polished than her husband, seemed however to have the same good feelings and nothing could be more pleasant than their desire of considering the whole party as friends of their own.
00:24:33Their friend, Captain Benwick, the youngest of the three captains, was compared with either of them a little man, though he had a pleasing face and a melancholy air.
00:24:44There was so much attachment to Captain Wentworth in all this, and such a bewitching charm in a degree of hospitality so uncommon, that Anne felt her spirits not likely to be benefited by an increasing acquaintance among his brother officers.
00:25:01These would have been all my friends, was her thought, and she had to struggle against a great tendency to lowness.
00:25:10They all went indoors with their new friends and found rooms so small as none but those who invite from the heart could think capable of accommodating so many.
00:25:22Anne thought she left great happiness behind her when they quitted the house, and Louisa burst forth into raptures of admiration and delight on the character of the Navy.
00:25:33Their friendliness, their brotherliness, their openness, their uprightness, protesting that she was convinced of sailors having more worth and warmth than any other set of men in England.
00:25:44Anne and Henrietta, finding themselves the earliest of the party the next morning, agreed to stroll down to the sea before breakfast.
00:25:55They went to the sands to watch the flowing of the tide which a fine south-easterly breeze was bringing in with all the grandeur which so flat ashore admitted.
00:26:05Presently, Louisa and Captain Wentworth joined them.
00:26:10When they came to the steps leading upwards from the beach, a gentleman, at the same moment preparing to come down, politely drew back and stopped to give them way.
00:26:22They ascended and passed him, and as they passed, Anne's face caught his eye and he looked at her with a degree of earnest admiration which she could not be insensible of.
00:26:34She was looking remarkably well, her very regular, very pretty features having the bloom and freshness of youth restored by the fine wind which had been blowing on her complexion,
00:26:46and by the animation of eye which it had also produced.
00:26:51It was evident that the gentleman admired her exceedingly.
00:26:57Captain Wentworth looked round at her instantly in a way which showed his noticing of it.
00:27:04He gave her a momentary glance, a glance of brightness, which seemed to say,
00:27:09that man is struck with you, and even I at this moment see something like Anne Elliot again.
00:27:16After loitering about a little longer, they returned to the inn and Anne, in passing afterwards quickly from her own chamber to their dining room,
00:27:25had nearly run against the very same gentleman as he came out of an adjoining apartment.
00:27:31She had before conjectured him to be a stranger like themselves, and determined that a well-looking groom who was strolling about near the inn as they came back should be his servant.
00:27:44It was now proved that he belonged to the same inn as themselves, and this second meeting, short as it was, also proved again by the gentleman's looks that he thought hers very lovely,
00:27:57and by the readiness and propriety of his apologies that he was a man of exceedingly good manners.
00:28:04He seemed about thirty, and though not handsome, had an agreeable person.
00:28:09Anne felt that she should like to know who he was.
00:28:15The following day, they had nearly done breakfast, when the sound of a carriage drew half the party to the window.
00:28:22It was a gentleman's carriage, a curricle, but only coming round from the stable yard to the front door, somebody must be going away.
00:28:30It was driven by a servant in mourning.
00:28:34The curricle made Charles Musgrove jump up that he might compare it with his own.
00:28:39The servant in mourning roused Anne's curiosity, and the whole six were collected to look by the time the owner of the curricle was to be seen issuing from the door amidst the bows and civilities of the household and taking his seat to drive off.
00:28:55Ah! cried Captain Wentworth instantly, and with half a glance at Anne, it is the very man we passed.
00:29:02Henrietta and Louisa agreed, and having all kindly watched him as far up the hill as they could, they returned to the breakfast table.
00:29:11The waiter came into the room soon afterwards.
00:29:14Pray, said Captain Wentworth immediately, can you tell us the name of the gentleman who has just gone away?
00:29:21Yes, sir? A Mr Elliot, a gentleman of large fortune, come in last night from Sidmouth.
00:29:27Elliot! Many had looked on each other and many had repeated the name before all this had been got through, even by the smart rapidity of a waiter.
00:29:38Bless me, cried Mary, it must be our cousin, it must be our Mr William Elliot, it must indeed! Charles, Anne, must not it!
00:29:48How very extraordinary! In the same inn with us, Anne, must not it be our Mr Elliot, my father's next heir?
00:29:57Breakfast had not been long over when they were joined by Captain and Mrs Harville and Captain Benwick, with whom they had appointed to take their last walk about Lyme.
00:30:09They ought to be setting off for upper cross by one, and in the meanwhile were to be all together and out of doors as long as they could.
00:30:17There was too much wind to make the high part of the new cob pleasant for the ladies, and they agreed to get down the steps to the lower, and were all contented to pass quietly and carefully down the steep flight, excepting Louisa.
00:30:34She must be jumped down them by Captain Wentworth. In all their walks, Captain Wentworth had had to jump Louisa from the stiles. The sensation was delightful to her.
00:30:46The hardness of the pavement for her feet made him less willing upon the present occasion. He did it, however.
00:30:53She was safely down, and instantly, to show her enjoyment, ran up the steps to be jumped down again.
00:31:00He advised her against it, thought the jar too great, but no. He reasoned and talked in vain. She smiled and said,
00:31:08I am determined I will. He put out his hands. She was too precipitous. By half a second, she fell on the pavement on the lower cob and was taken up lifeless.
00:31:20There was no wound, no blood, no visible bruise, but her eyes were closed. She breathed not. Her face was like death.
00:31:31She is dead! She is dead! screamed Mary, catching hold of her husband, and contributing with his own horror to make him immovable.
00:31:41And in another moment, Henrietta, sinking under the conviction, lost her senses too, and would have fallen on the steps,
00:31:48but for Captain Benwick and Anne, who caught and supported her between them.
00:31:53Is there no one to help me? were the first words which burst from Captain Wentworth in a tone of despair,
00:31:59and as if all his own strength were gone. Go to him. Go to him, cried Anne. For heaven's sake, go to him.
00:32:06I can support her myself. Leave me and go to him. Rub her hands. Rub her temples. Here are salts. Take them. Take them.
00:32:14Louisa was raised up and supported more firmly between them, and everything was done that Anne had prompted, but in vain.
00:32:21While Captain Wentworth, staggering against the wall for his support, exclaimed in the bitterest agony,
00:32:27Oh, God! Her father and mother, a surgeon, said Anne. He caught the word.
00:32:34It seemed to rouse him at once, and saying only true, true, a surgeon this instant, was darting away when Anne eagerly suggested,
00:32:42Had not she better be carried to the inn? Yes, I am sure. Carry her gently to the inn. Yes, yes, to the inn, repeated Captain Wentworth.
00:32:50Comparatively collected and eager to be doing something. I will carry her myself.
00:32:57The surgeon was with them almost before it had seemed possible.
00:33:02They were sick with horror while he examined, but he was not hopeless.
00:33:07The head had received a severe contusion, but he had seen greater injuries recovered from. He was by no means hopeless. He spoke cheerfully.
00:33:17It now became necessary for the party to consider what was best to be done as to their general situation.
00:33:25That Louisa must remain where she was, however distressing to her friends to be involving the Harvilles in such trouble, did not admit a doubt.
00:33:34Captain Wentworth, exerting himself, said,
00:33:38We must be decided and without the loss of another minute. Every minute is valuable. Someone must resolve on being off for Uppercross instantly. Musgrove, either you or I must go.
00:33:50Charles agreed, but declared his resolution of not going away. He would be as little encumbrance as possible to Captain Harville and Mrs Harville, but as to leaving his sister in such a state, he neither ought nor would.
00:34:05The plan had reached this point when Anne, coming quietly down from Louisa's room, could not but hear what followed, for the parlour door was open.
00:34:17Then it is settled, Musgrove, cried Captain Wentworth, that you stay and that I take your sister Henrietta home. But as to the rest, as to the others, if one stays to assist Mrs Harville, I think if Anne will stay, no one so proper, no one so capable as Anne.
00:34:35Anne paused a moment to recover from the emotion of hearing herself so spoken of. The other two warmly agreed with what he said, and then she appeared.
00:34:50You will stay, I'm sure. You will stay and nurse her, cried he, turning to her and speaking with a glow and yet a gentleness which seemed almost restoring the past.
00:35:05When she could command Mary's attention, Anne quietly tried to convince her that their father and Mr Elliot had not for many years been on such terms as to make the power of attempting an introduction at all desirable.
00:35:20At the same time, however, it was a secret gratification to herself to have seen her cousin and to know that the future owner of Kellynch was undoubtedly a gentleman.
00:35:35Elizabeth's last letter had communicated a piece of news of some interest.
00:35:52Mr Elliot was in Bath.
00:35:54Lady Russell was in a state of very agreeable curiosity and perplexity about Mr Elliot.
00:36:01Anne was not animated to an equal pitch by the circumstance, but she felt that she would rather see Mr Elliot again than not, which was more than she could say for many other persons in Bath.
00:36:12She was put down in Camden Place, her father's new lodgings in Bath. A degree of unexpected cordiality and the welcome she received did Anne good. Her making a fourth when they sat down to dinner was noticed as an advantage.
00:36:30Anne had a great deal to hear of Mr Elliot. He was not only pardoned, they were delighted with him. They had not a fault to find in him. He had explained away all the appearance of neglect on his own side. It had originated in misapprehension entirely.
00:36:51Anne listened, but without quite understanding it. Allowances, large allowances she knew must be made for the ideas of those who spoke. Anne was considering when a knock at the door suspended everything.
00:37:09A knock at the door and so late. It was ten o'clock. Could it be Mr Elliot?
00:37:19With all the state which a butler and footboy could give, Mr Elliot was ushered into the room.
00:37:27It was the same. The very same man with no difference but of dress.
00:37:33Anne drew a little back while the others received his compliments.
00:37:39Sir Walter talked of his youngest daughter and Anne, smiling and blushing very becomingly, showed to Mr Elliot the pretty features which he had by no means forgotten and instantly saw with amusement at his little start of surprise that he had not been at all aware of who she was.
00:37:58He looked completely astonished, but not more astonished than pleased. His eyes brightened and with the most perfect alacrity he welcomed the relationship, alluded to the past and entreated to be received as an acquaintance already.
00:38:18He was quite as good looking as he had appeared at Lyme. His countenance improved by speaking and his manners were so exactly what they ought to be, so polished, so easy, so particularly agreeable that she could compare them in excellence to only one person's manners.
00:38:37He stayed an hour with them. The elegant little clock on the mantelpiece had struck eleven with its silver sounds before Mr Elliot or any of them seemed to feel that he had been there long.
00:38:53Anne could not have supposed it possible that her first evening in Camden Place could have passed so well.
00:39:01It was now some years since Anne had begun to learn that she and her excellent friend could sometimes think differently, and it did not surprise her, therefore, that Lady Russell should see nothing suspicious or inconsistent, nothing to require more motives than appeared in Mr Elliot's great desire of a reconciliation.
00:39:26Anne presumed, however, still to smile about it, and at last to mention Elizabeth.
00:39:39Lady Russell listened and looked and made only this cautious reply.
00:39:45Elizabeth, very well. Time will explain.
00:39:51Anne could determine nothing at present.
00:39:56Mr Elliot, too, it must be remembered, had not been a widower seven months.
00:40:02However it might end, he was without any question their pleasantest acquaintance in Bath.
00:40:08She saw nobody equal to him.
00:40:11They went through the particulars of their first meeting a great many times.
00:40:15He gave her to understand that he had looked at her with some earnestness.
00:40:21She knew it well, and she remembered another person's look also.
00:40:28Lady Russell was now perfectly decided in her opinion of Mr Elliot.
00:40:34She was as much convinced of his meaning to gain Anne in time as of his deserving her, and was beginning to calculate the number of weeks which would free him from all the remaining restraints of widowhood, and leave him at liberty to exert his most open powers of pleasing.
00:40:52I am no matchmaker, as you well know, said Lady Russell.
00:40:58Being much too well aware of the uncertainty of all human events and calculations, I only mean that if Mr Elliot should sometime hence pay his addresses to you, and if you should be disposed to accept him,
00:41:13I think there would be every possibility of your being happy together.
00:41:19A most suitable connection, everyone must consider it, but I think it might be a very happy one.
00:41:26Mr Elliot is an exceedingly agreeable man, and in many respects I think highly of him, said Anne, but we should not suit.
00:41:38Lady Russell let this pass and only said in rejoinder,
00:41:44I own that to be able to regard you as the future mistress of Kellynch, the future Lady Elliot, and to look forward and see you occupying your dear mother's place,
00:41:57succeeding to all her rights and all her popularity, as well as to all her virtues, would be the highest possible gratification to me.
00:42:07You are your mother's self in countenance and disposition, and if I might be allowed to fancy you such as she was in situation and name,
00:42:17and home, presiding and blessing in the same spot, and only superior to her in being more highly valued,
00:42:26my dearest Anne, it would give me more delight than is often felt at my time of life.
00:42:35Anne was obliged to turn away, to rise, to walk to a distant table and, leaning there in pretended employment, try to subdue the feelings this picture excited.
00:42:52For a few moments her imagination and her heart were bewitched.
00:43:00The idea of becoming what her mother had been, of having the precious name of Lady Elliot first revived in herself,
00:43:09of being restored to Kellynch, calling it her home again, her home forever, was a charm which she could not immediately resist.
00:43:23It was the beginning of February, and Anne, having been a month in Bath, was growing very eager for news from Upper Cross and Lyme.
00:43:33She only knew that Henrietta was at home again, and that Louisa was still in Lyme.
00:43:39And she was thinking of them all very intently one evening, when a thicker letter than usual from Mary was delivered to her.
00:43:47In Anne's own room, she tried to comprehend it.
00:43:52The conclusion of the whole was that Louisa and Captain Benwick were engaged.
00:43:59If the woman who had been sensible of Captain Wentworth's merits could be allowed to prefer another man, certainly there was nothing to be regretted.
00:44:10No, it was not regret which made Anne's heart beat in spite of herself,
00:44:17and brought the colour into her cheeks when she thought of Captain Wentworth unshackled and free.
00:44:23She had some feelings which she was ashamed to investigate.
00:44:29They were too much like joy. Senseless joy.
00:44:36That evening, at the concert, the party was divided and disposed of on two contiguous benches.
00:44:44Anne was among those on the foremost, and Mr Elliot had manoeuvred so well as to have a seat by her.
00:44:52Towards the close of it, in the interval succeeding an Italian song, she explained the words of the song to Mr Elliot.
00:45:01Though she said demurely, I'm a very poor Italian scholar.
00:45:05Yes. Yes, I see you are. I see you know nothing of the matter.
00:45:14You have only knowledge enough of the language to translate at sight these inverted, transposed, curtailed Italian lines into clear, comprehensible, elegant English.
00:45:27For shame. For shame. For shame. This is too much flattery. I forget what we are to have next.
00:45:36Turning to the bill.
00:45:39The name of Anne Elliot, said he, has long had an interesting sound to me.
00:45:48Very long has it possessed a charm over my fancy, and if I dared, I would breathe my wishes that the name might never change.
00:45:58Such she believed were his words, but scarcely had she received their sound than her attention was caught by other sounds immediately behind her, which rendered everything else trivial.
00:46:10Anne's eyes had caught the right direction and distinguished Captain Wentworth standing among a cluster of men at a little distance.
00:46:21As her eyes fell on him, his seemed to be withdrawn from her.
00:46:28When able to turn and look, as she had done before, she found herself accosted by Captain Wentworth in a reserved yet hurried sort of farewell.
00:46:38He must wish her good night. He was going. He should get home as fast as he could.
00:46:44Is not this song worth staying for? Said Anne, suddenly struck by an idea which made her yet more anxious to be encouraging.
00:46:53No, he replied impressively. There is nothing worth my staying for. And he was gone. Directly.
00:47:01Jealousy of Mr Elliot. It was the only intelligible motive. Captain Wentworth jealous of her affection.
00:47:13For a moment, the gratification was exquisite. But alas, there were very different thoughts to succeed. How was such jealousy to be quieted? How was the truth to reach him? How, in all the peculiar disadvantages of their respective situations, would he ever learn of her real sentiments?
00:47:40Anne was also renewing an acquaintance of a very different description in Bath.
00:47:59Mrs Smith had shown her kindness in one of those periods of her life when it had been most valuable.
00:48:06Anne had gone unhappy to school, grieving for the loss of a mother whom she had dearly loved, feeling her separation from home, and suffering, as a girl of 14, of strong sensibility and not high spirits, must suffer at such a time.
00:48:25Mrs Smith, three years older than herself, had been useful and good to her in a way which had considerably lessened her misery, and could never be remembered with indifference.
00:48:38Mrs Smith was said to have married a man of fortune, and this was all that Anne had known of her, till now that their governess's account brought her situation forward in a more decided but very different form.
00:48:53She was a widow and poor.
00:48:57Her husband had been extravagant, and at his death about two years before, had left his affairs dreadfully involved.
00:49:06She had come to Bath, and was now in lodgings near the hot baths, living in a very humble way, unable even to afford herself the comfort of a servant, and of course, almost excluded from society.
00:49:21Anne recollected with pleasure the next morning of her promise of going to Mrs Smith, meaning that it should engage her from home at the time when Mr Elliot would be most likely to call, for to avoid Mr Elliot was almost a first object.
00:49:38An account of the concert was immediately claimed, and Anne's recollection of the concert were quite happy enough to animate her features and make her rejoice to talk of it.
00:49:48After a short silence...
00:49:53Pray, said Mrs Smith, is Mr Elliot aware of your acquaintance with me? Does he know that I am in Bath?
00:50:04Mr Elliot, repeated Anne, looking up surprised, are you acquainted with Mr Elliot?
00:50:10I have been a good deal acquainted with him, replied Mrs Smith, gravely.
00:50:18Anne had forgotten, in the interest of her own family concerns, how much had been originally implied against him, but her attention was now called to the explanation of those first hints, and she listened to a recital which proved him very deficient, both in justice and compassion.
00:50:38She learned that Mr Elliot had led Mrs Smith's husband into expenses much beyond his fortune.
00:50:47It was not till his death that the wretched state of his affairs was fully known.
00:50:52Mr Smith had appointed him the executor of his will, but Mr Elliot would not act, and the difficulties and distress which this refusal had heaped on her, in addition to the inevitable sufferings of her situation, had been such as could not be related without anguish of spirit, or listened to without corresponding indignation.
00:51:15It was a dreadful picture of ingratitude and inhumanity, and Anne felt, at some moments, that no flagrant open crime could have been worse.
00:51:27Anne could just acknowledge within herself such a possibility of having been induced to marry him as made her shudder at the idea of the misery which must have followed.
00:51:42It was just possible that she might have been persuaded by Lady Russell.
00:51:47One day only had passed since Anne's conversation with Mrs Smith.
00:51:54The Musgroves had recently arrived at their bath lodgings, and Anne had promised to pass the whole day with them, from breakfast to dinner.
00:52:02But when she reached the Musgroves lodgings, she found herself neither arriving quite in time, nor the first to arrive.
00:52:11The party before her were only Captain Harville and Captain Wentworth.
00:52:16She immediately heard that Mary and Henrietta, too impatient to wait, had gone out the moment the rain had cleared.
00:52:23Captain Wentworth was writing a letter on behalf of Captain Harville.
00:52:28Anne's eyes instinctively glanced towards the distant table.
00:52:35Captain Wentworth's pen ceased to move.
00:52:38His head was raised, pausing, listening.
00:52:42And he turned round the next instant to give a look, one quick, conscious look at her.
00:52:51Captain Harville now left his seat and moved towards Anne.
00:52:55Look here, said he, unfolding a parcel in his hand and displaying a small miniature painting.
00:53:04Do you know who that is?
00:53:08Certainly, Captain Benwick.
00:53:11Yes.
00:53:13And you may guess who it is for, but it was not done for Louisa.
00:53:17It was done for his first wife, Fanny.
00:53:22And with a quivering lip, he wound up the hole by adding,
00:53:27Poor Fanny.
00:53:29She would not have forgotten him so soon.
00:53:32No, replied Anne in a low, feeling voice.
00:53:37It would not be the nature of any woman who truly loved.
00:53:41Captain Harville smiled as much as to say,
00:53:45Do you claim that for your sex?
00:53:47She answered the question, smiling also.
00:53:50Yes.
00:53:51We certainly do not forget you as soon as you forget us.
00:53:56It is perhaps our fate rather than our merit.
00:54:00We cannot help ourselves.
00:54:02All the privilege I claim for my own sex is that of loving longest,
00:54:08when existence or when hope is gone.
00:54:11She could not immediately have uttered another sentence.
00:54:17Her heart was too full, her breath too much oppressed.
00:54:23Captain Wentworth, having sealed his letter with great rapidity,
00:54:28had a hurried, agitated air which showed impatience to be gone.
00:54:33Anne knew not how to understand it.
00:54:36She had had the kindest good morning, God bless you, from Captain Harville,
00:54:40but from him, not a word, not a look.
00:54:44He had passed out of the room without a look.
00:54:49She only had time, however, to move closer to the table where he had been writing,
00:54:54when footsteps were heard returning.
00:54:56The door opened.
00:54:57It was himself.
00:54:59Instantly crossing the room to the writing table,
00:55:02he drew out a letter from under the scattered paper,
00:55:05placed it before Anne with eyes of glowing entreaty fixed on her for a time,
00:55:10and hastily collecting his gloves was again out of the room,
00:55:15the work of an instant.
00:55:18The revolution which one instant had made in Anne was almost beyond expression.
00:55:24The letter, with a direction hardly legible to Miss A.E.,
00:55:31was evidently the one which he had been folding so hastily.
00:55:35While supposedly writing Harville's letter, he had been also addressing her.
00:55:39Sinking into the chair which he had occupied, her eyes devoured the following words.
00:55:49I can listen no longer in silence.
00:55:52I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach.
00:55:56You pierce my soul.
00:55:59I am half agony, half hope.
00:56:03Tell me not that I am too late,
00:56:07that such precious feelings are gone forever.
00:56:10I offer myself to you again, with a heart even more your own,
00:56:16than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago.
00:56:20Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman,
00:56:27that his love has an earlier death.
00:56:30I have loved none but you.
00:56:32You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men.
00:56:37Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in C.W.
00:56:44Such a letter was not to be soon recovered from.
00:56:53Half an hour's solitude and reflection might have tranquilised her,
00:56:59but the ten minutes only which now passed before she was interrupted,
00:57:03with all the restraints of her situation,
00:57:06could do nothing towards tranquillity.
00:57:09Every moment, rather, brought fresh agitation.
00:57:12It was overpowering happiness.
00:57:18And before she was beyond the first stage of full sensation,
00:57:23Charles, Mary and Henrietta all came in.
00:57:27This was dreadful.
00:57:29Would they only have gone away and left her in the quiet possession of that room,
00:57:33it would have been her cure.
00:57:35But to have them all standing or waiting around her was distracting,
00:57:38and in desperation she said she would go home.
00:57:42Charles, in his real concern and good nature, would go home with her.
00:57:48There was no preventing him.
00:57:49They were on Union Street, when a quicker step behind, as something of familiar sound,
00:57:57gave her two moments preparation for the sight of Captain Wentworth.
00:58:02He joined them, but, as if irresolute whether to join or to pass on, said nothing, only looked.
00:58:09He walked by her side.
00:58:13Presently struck by a sudden thought, Charles said,
00:58:18Captain Wentworth, which way are you going?
00:58:22I hardly know, replied Captain Wentworth, surprised.
00:58:26Are you going near Camden Place?
00:58:29Because if you are, I shall have no scruple in asking you to take my place,
00:58:34and give Anne your arm to her father's door.
00:58:37There could not be an objection.
00:58:42There could be only the most proper alacrity,
00:58:45a most obliging compliance for public view,
00:58:48and smiles reined in and spirits dancing in private rapture.
00:58:55In half a minute, Charles was at the bottom of Union Street again,
00:59:00and the other two proceeding together.
00:59:03And soon, words enough had passed between them to decide their direction
00:59:08and prepare it for all the immortality which the happiest recollections
00:59:13of their own future lives could bestow.
00:59:15They exchanged again those feelings and those promises,
00:59:22which had once before seemed to secure everything,
00:59:25but which had been followed by so many, many years of division and estrangement.
00:59:33They returned again into the past,
00:59:37more exquisitely happy, perhaps, in their reunion
00:59:41than when it had first been projected.
00:59:42More tender, more tried, more fixed in a knowledge of each other's character,
00:59:49truth and attachment, more equal to act, more justified in acting.
00:59:56At last, Anne was at home again,
01:00:00and happier than anyone in that house could have conceived.
01:00:04Who can be in doubt of what followed?
01:00:09When any two young people take it into their heads to marry,
01:00:13they are pretty sure by perseverance to carry their point,
01:00:17be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent,
01:00:21or ever so little likely to be necessary to each other's ultimate comfort.
01:00:25Sir Walter made no objection.
01:00:31Captain Wentworth, with five and twenty thousand pounds,
01:00:35and as high in his profession as merit and activity could place him,
01:00:39was no longer nobody.
01:00:42The only one among them whose opposition of feeling could excite any serious anxiety,
01:00:51was Lady Russell.
01:00:53Anne knew that Lady Russell must be suffering some pain in understanding and relinquishing Mr Elliot,
01:00:59and be making some struggles to become truly acquainted with,
01:01:05and do justice to, Captain Wentworth.
01:01:08This, however, was what Lady Russell had now to do.
01:01:14She must learn to feel that she had been mistaken with regard to both,
01:01:19that she'd been unfairly influenced by appearances in each.
01:01:23There was nothing less for Lady Russell to do than to admit that she'd been pretty completely wrong,
01:01:31and to take up a new set of opinions, and of hopes.
01:01:36For Anne was tenderness itself,
01:01:41and she had the full worth of it in Captain Wentworth's affection.
01:01:46.
01:01:57.
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01:02:11.
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01:02:41.
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