CHAPTER 31

Mr. and Mrs. Morland's surprise on being applied to by Mr. Tilney for

their consent to his marrying their daughter was, for a few minutes,

considerable, it having never entered their heads to suspect an

attachment on either side; but as nothing, after all, could be more

natural than Catherine's being beloved, they soon learnt to consider it

with only the happy agitation of gratified pride, and, as far as they

alone were concerned, had not a single objection to start. His pleasing

manners and good sense were self-evident recommendations; and having

never heard evil of him, it was not their way to suppose any evil could

be told. Goodwill supplying the place of experience, his character

needed no attestation. "Catherine would make a sad, heedless young

housekeeper to be sure," was her mother's foreboding remark; but quick

was the consolation of there being nothing like practice.

There was but one obstacle, in short, to be mentioned; but till that one

was removed, it must be impossible for them to sanction the engagement.

Their tempers were mild, but their principles were steady, and while

his parent so expressly forbade the connection, they could not allow

themselves to encourage it. That the general should come forward to

solicit the alliance, or that he should even very heartily approve it,

they were not refined enough to make any parading stipulation; but

the decent appearance of consent must be yielded, and that once

obtained--and their own hearts made them trust that it could not be

very long denied--their willing approbation was instantly to follow. His

consent was all that they wished for. They were no more inclined than

entitled to demand his money. Of a very considerable fortune, his son

was, by marriage settlements, eventually secure; his present income was

an income of independence and comfort, and under every pecuniary view,

it was a match beyond the claims of their daughter.

The young people could not be surprised at a decision like this. They

felt and they deplored--but they could not resent it; and they parted,

endeavouring to hope that such a change in the general, as each believed

almost impossible, might speedily take place, to unite them again in

the fullness of privileged affection. Henry returned to what was now

his only home, to watch over his young plantations, and extend his

improvements for her sake, to whose share in them he looked anxiously

forward; and Catherine remained at Fullerton to cry. Whether the

torments of absence were softened by a clandestine correspondence, let

us not inquire. Mr. and Mrs. Morland never did--they had been too kind

to exact any promise; and whenever Catherine received a letter, as, at

that time, happened pretty often, they always looked another way.

The anxiety, which in this state of their attachment must be the portion

of Henry and Catherine, and of all who loved either, as to its final

event, can hardly extend, I fear, to the bosom of my readers, who will

see in the tell-tale compression of the pages before them, that we are

all hastening together to perfect felicity. The means by which their

early marriage was effected can be the only doubt: what probable

circumstance could work upon a temper like the general's? The

circumstance which chiefly availed was the marriage of his daughter with

a man of fortune and consequence, which took place in the course of

the summer--an accession of dignity that threw him into a fit of good

humour, from which he did not recover till after Eleanor had obtained

his forgiveness of Henry, and his permission for him "to be a fool if he

liked it!"

The marriage of Eleanor Tilney, her removal from all the evils of such

a home as Northanger had been made by Henry's banishment, to the home of

her choice and the man of her choice, is an event which I expect to

give general satisfaction among all her acquaintance. My own joy on the

occasion is very sincere. I know no one more entitled, by unpretending

merit, or better prepared by habitual suffering, to receive and enjoy

felicity. Her partiality for this gentleman was not of recent origin;

and he had been long withheld only by inferiority of situation from

addressing her. His unexpected accession to title and fortune had

removed all his difficulties; and never had the general loved his

daughter so well in all her hours of companionship, utility, and patient

endurance as when he first hailed her "Your Ladyship!" Her husband was

really deserving of her; independent of his peerage, his wealth, and

his attachment, being to a precision the most charming young man in the

world. Any further definition of his merits must be unnecessary; the

most charming young man in the world is instantly before the imagination

of us all. Concerning the one in question, therefore, I have only to

add--aware that the rules of composition forbid the introduction of a

character not connected with my fable--that this was the very

gentleman whose negligent servant left behind him that collection of

washing-bills, resulting from a long visit at Northanger, by which my

heroine was involved in one of her most alarming adventures.

The influence of the viscount and viscountess in their brother's behalf

was assisted by that right understanding of Mr. Morland's circumstances

which, as soon as the general would allow himself to be informed, they

were qualified to give. It taught him that he had been scarcely

more misled by Thorpe's first boast of the family wealth than by his

subsequent malicious overthrow of it; that in no sense of the word were

they necessitous or poor, and that Catherine would have three thousand

pounds. This was so material an amendment of his late expectations that

it greatly contributed to smooth the descent of his pride; and by no

means without its effect was the private intelligence, which he was at

some pains to procure, that the Fullerton estate, being entirely at

the disposal of its present proprietor, was consequently open to every

greedy speculation.

On the strength of this, the general, soon after Eleanor's marriage,

permitted his son to return to Northanger, and thence made him the

bearer of his consent, very courteously worded in a page full of empty

professions to Mr. Morland. The event which it authorized soon followed:

Henry and Catherine were married, the bells rang, and everybody smiled;

and, as this took place within a twelvemonth from the first day of their

meeting, it will not appear, after all the dreadful delays occasioned by

the general's cruelty, that they were essentially hurt by it. To begin

perfect happiness at the respective ages of twenty-six and eighteen is

to do pretty well; and professing myself moreover convinced that the

general's unjust interference, so far from being really injurious to

their felicity, was perhaps rather conducive to it, by improving their

knowledge of each other, and adding strength to their attachment,

I leave it to be settled, by whomsoever it may concern, whether the

tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or

reward filial disobedience.

*Vide a letter from Mr. Richardson, No. 97, Vol. II, Rambler.

A NOTE ON THE TEXT

Northanger Abbey was written in 1797-98 under a different title. The

manuscript was revised around 1803 and sold to a London publisher,

Crosbie & Co., who sold it back in 1816. The Signet Classic text

is based on the first edition, published by John Murray, London, in

1818--the year following Miss Austen's death. Spelling and punctuation

have been largely brought into conformity with modern British usage.

MANSFIELD PARK

(1814)

By Jane Austen