Everything now marked out Louisa for Captain Wentworth;nothing could be plainer;and where many divisions were necessary,or even where they were not,they walked side by side,nearly as much as the other two.In a long strip of meadow land,where there was ample space for all,they were thus divided -forming three distinct parties;and to that party of the three which boasted least animation,and least complaisance,Anne necessarily belonged.She joined Charles and Mary,and was tired enough to be very glad of Charles's other arm -but Charles,though in very good humour with her,was out of temper with his wife.Mary had shown herself disobliging to him,and was now to reap the consequence,which consequence was his dropping her arm almost every moment,to cut off the heads of some nettles in the hedge with his switch;and when Mary began to complain of it,and lament her being ill-used,according to custom,in being on the hedge side,while Anne was never incommoded on the other,he dropped the arms of both to hunt after a weasel which he had a momentary glance of;and they could hardly get him along at all.
This long meadow bordered a lane,which their footpath,at the end of it,was to cross;and when the party had all reached the gate of exit,the carriage advancing in the same direction,which had been some time heard,was just coming up,and proved to be Admiral Croft's gig.-He and his wife had taken their intended drive,and were returning home.Upon hearing how long a walk the young people had engaged in,they kindly offered a seat to any lady who might be particularly tired;it would save her full a mile,and they were going through Uppercross.The invitation was general,and generally declined.The Miss Musgroves were not at all tired,and Mary was either offended,by not being asked before any of the others,or what Louisa called the Elliot pride could not endure to make a third in a one-horse chaise.
The walking-party had crossed the lane and were surmounting an opposite stile;and the Admiral was putting his horse in to motion again,when Captain Wentworth cleared the hedge in a moment to say something to his sister.-The something might be guessed by its effects.
‘Miss Elliot,I am sure you are tired,’cried Mrs Croft.‘Do let us have the pleasure of taking you home.Here is excellent room for three,I assure you.If we were all like you,I believe we might sit four.-You must,indeed,you must.’
Anne was still in the lane;and though instinctively beginning to decline,she was not allowed to proceed.The Admiral's kind urgency came in support of his wife's;they would not be refused;they compressed themselves into the smallest possible space to leave her a corner,and Captain Wentworth,without saying a word,turned to her,and quietly obliged her to be assisted into the carriage.
Yes-he had done it.She was in the carriage,and felt that he had placed her there,that his will and his hands had done it,that she owed it to his perception of her fatigue,and his resolution to give her rest.She was very much affected by the view of his disposition towards her which all these things made apparent.This little circumstance seemed the completion of all that had gone before.She understood him.He could not forgive her-but he could not be unfeeling.Though condemning her for the past,and considering it with high and unjust resentment,though perfectly careless of her,and though becoming attached to another,still he could not see her suffer without the desire of giving her relief.It was a remainder of former sentiment;it was an impulse of pure,though unacknowledged friendship;it was a proof of his own warm and amiable heart,which she could not contemplate without emotions so compounded of pleasure and pain that she knew not which prevailed.
Her answers to the kindness and the remarks of her companions were at first unconsciously given.They had travelled half their way along the rough lane before she was quite awake to what they said.She then found them talking of ‘Frederick.’
‘He certainly means to have one or other of those two girls,Sophy,’said the Admiral;‘but there is no saying which.He has been running after them,too,long enough,one would think,to make up his mind.Ay,this comes of the peace.If it were war,now,he would have settled it long ago.-We sailors,Miss Elliot,cannot afford to make long courtships in time of war.How many days was it,my dear,between the first time of my seeing you,and our sitting down together in our lodgings at North Yarmouth?’
‘We had better not talk about it,my dear,’replied Mrs Croft,pleasantly;‘for if Miss Elliot were to hear how soon we came to an understanding,she would never be persuaded that we could be happy together.I had known you by character,however,long before.’
‘Well,and I had heard of you as a very pretty girl;and what were we to wait for besides?-I do not like having such things so long in hand.I wish Frederick would spread a little more canvas,and bring us home one of these young ladies to Kellynch.Then,there would always be company for them.-And very nice young ladies they both are;I hardly know one from the other.’
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