Sense And Sensibility And Sea Monsters Part 11

CHAPTER 29

ELINOR WOKE THE NEXT MORNING with visions of rust-coloured claws still snapping menacingly in her head; her sister, contrastingly, seemed to have little remembrance of the homicidal lobsters and remained mired in her former preoccupation. Only half dressed, Marianne was kneeling against one of the window-seats for the sake of all the dim sea-green light that poured in from the swirling ocean outside the gla.s.s, and writing as fast as a continual flow of tears would permit her. She ignored the squid that sat slavering just outside the gla.s.s, watching her with its giant popeyes and dragging its tentacles against the Dome-gla.s.s. After observing her for a few moments with silent anxiety, Elinor asked in a tone of the most considerate gentleness: with visions of rust-coloured claws still snapping menacingly in her head; her sister, contrastingly, seemed to have little remembrance of the homicidal lobsters and remained mired in her former preoccupation. Only half dressed, Marianne was kneeling against one of the window-seats for the sake of all the dim sea-green light that poured in from the swirling ocean outside the gla.s.s, and writing as fast as a continual flow of tears would permit her. She ignored the squid that sat slavering just outside the gla.s.s, watching her with its giant popeyes and dragging its tentacles against the Dome-gla.s.s. After observing her for a few moments with silent anxiety, Elinor asked in a tone of the most considerate gentleness: "Marianne, may I ask-"

"No, Elinor," she replied. "Ask nothing; you will soon know all."

The sort of desperate calmness with which this was said, lasted no longer than while she spoke, and was immediately followed by a return of the same excessive affliction. It was some minutes before she could go on with her letter, and the frequent bursts of grief which still obliged her, at intervals, to withhold her pen, were proof enough that she was writing for the last time to Willoughby.

Elinor paid her every quiet and un.o.btrusive attention in her power, She would have tried to soothe and tranquilize her still more, had not Marianne eagerly entreated her not to speak. In such circ.u.mstances, it was better for both that they should not be long together; and the restless state of Marianne's mind not only prevented her from remaining in the room a moment after she was dressed, but requiring at once solitude and continual change of place, made her wander about the house, avoiding the sight of everybody.

At breakfast Marianne neither ate nor attempted to eat anything; her packets of tea powder and scone-and-jam-flavoured food loaf sat unopened on the table before her. They were just setting themselves in, after breakfast, round the common working table, when a letter was delivered to Marianne, which she eagerly caught from the servant, and, turning of a death-like paleness, instantly ran out of the room. Elinor knew that it must come from Willoughby, and she felt immediately such a sickness at heart as made her hardly able to hold up her head, and sat in such a general tremor as made her fear it impossible to escape Mrs. Jennings's notice. But that good lady, much distracted by Elinor's detailed description of the mutant lobsters who had set upon them at Hydra-Z, saw only that Marianne had received a letter from Willoughby, which appeared to her a very good joke, and which she treated accordingly, by hoping, with a laugh, that she would find it to her liking.

"Upon my word, I never saw a young woman so desperately in love in my life! My My girls were foolish enough, running after this or that young princeling or shaman, until the day when Sir John's adventuring party dragged us all away in sacks." Here she laughed and then sighed with amused nostalgia before picking up the thread of her comment. "But as for Miss Marianne, she is quite an altered creature. I hope, from the bottom of my heart, he won't keep her waiting much longer, for it is quite grievous to see her look so ill and forlorn. Pray, when are they to be married?" girls were foolish enough, running after this or that young princeling or shaman, until the day when Sir John's adventuring party dragged us all away in sacks." Here she laughed and then sighed with amused nostalgia before picking up the thread of her comment. "But as for Miss Marianne, she is quite an altered creature. I hope, from the bottom of my heart, he won't keep her waiting much longer, for it is quite grievous to see her look so ill and forlorn. Pray, when are they to be married?"

Elinor, though never less disposed to speak than at that moment, obliged herself to answer. "And have you really, Ma'am, talked yourself into a persuasion of my sister's being engaged to Mr. Willoughby? I thought it had been only a joke, but so serious a question seems to imply more. I do a.s.sure you that nothing would surprise me more than to hear of their going to be married. If you had told me yesterday that monster-lobsters would rise from their pool and attempt to slay everyone present, I could not have found the notion more surprising-though obviously today I know differently."

"For shame, for shame, Miss Dashwood! How can you talk so? Don't we all know that it must be a match, that they were in love with each other from the first moment they met? Did not I see them together in Devons.h.i.+re every day, and all day long, dancing jigs and singing shanties and carrying on? And did not I know that your sister came to the Sub-Station with me on purpose to buy wedding clothes at the Retail Embankment's most fas.h.i.+onable shops? Come, come, this won't do. Because you are so sly about it yourself, you think n.o.body else has any senses; but it is no such thing, I can tell you, for it has been known all over the Station ever so long. I tell every body of it and so does Charlotte."

"Indeed, Ma'am," said Elinor, very seriously, "you are mistaken. Indeed, you are doing a very unkind thing in spreading the report."

Mrs. Jennings laughed again, but Elinor had not spirits to say more, and eager at all events to know what Willoughby had written, hurried away to their room, where, on opening the door, she saw Marianne stretched on the bed, almost choked by grief, one letter in her hand, and two or three others laying by her. Elinor drew near, but without saying a word; and seating herself on the bed, took her hand, kissed her affectionately several times, and then gave way to a burst of tears, which at first was scarcely less violent than Marianne's. The latter, though unable to speak, put all the letters into Elinor's hands; and then covering her face with her handkerchief, almost screamed with agony. A school of minnows observed her pitilessly from the other side of the gla.s.s. Elinor watched by her till this excess of suffering had somewhat spent itself, and then turning eagerly to Willoughby's letter, read as follows: Bond Causeway, January January.

MY DEAR MADAM,I have just had the honour of receiving your letter, for which I beg to return my sincere acknowledgments. I trust that you and your sister survived the crustaceous uprising unharmed, and are safely returned to your docking. I am much concerned to find there was anything in my behaviour last night that did not meet your approbation; if I should have offered you some measure of protection from the clawing onslaught, I regret that in the panic I was unable to do so. I shall never reflect on my former acquaintance with your family off the coast of Devons.h.i.+re without the most grateful pleasure. My esteem for your whole family is very sincere; but if I have been so unfortunate as to give rise to a belief of more than I felt, or meant to express, I shall reproach myself for not having been more guarded in my professions of that esteem. That I should ever have meant more you will allow to be impossible, when you understand that my affections have been long engaged elsewhere, and it will not be many weeks, I believe, before this engagement is fulfilled. This treasure hunter has found that treasure which is most sought, and soon I am to dig it up. It is with great regret that I obey your commands in returning the letters with which I have been honoured from you, and the lock of hair, which you so obligingly bestowed on me.

I am, dear Madam, Your most obedient humble servant, JOHN WILLOUGHBY.

It may be imagined with what indignation this letter was read by Miss Dashwood. Though aware, before she began it, that it must confirm their separation forever, she was not aware that such language could be suffered to announce it; nor could she have supposed Willoughby capable of departing so far from the appearance of every honourable and delicate feeling-so far from the common decorum of a gentleman, as to send a letter so impudently cruel: a letter which acknowledged no breach of faith, denied all peculiar affection whatever-a letter of which every line was an insult, and which proclaimed its writer to be deep in hardened villainy.

She paused over it for some time with indignant astonishment; then read it again and again; but every perusal only served to increase her abhorrence of the man. She dared not trust herself to speak, lest she might wound Marianne still deeper by treating their disengagement, not as a loss to her of any possible good but as an escape from the worst and most irremediable of all evils. To have been engaged to such a man was like falling under a curse more grave even than the one afflicting Colonel Brandon; to have the engagement broken was to see the curse lifted in a stroke.

On hearing the splash of oars outside, Elinor went to the front window to see who could be coming so unreasonably early. She was astonished to perceive Mrs. Jennings's regal, swan-drawn gondola being made ready, though she knew it had not been ordered till one. Determined not to quit Marianne, though hopeless of contributing to her ease, she hurried away to excuse herself from attending Mrs. Jennings, on account of her sister being indisposed; she explained that Marianne had an aeroembolism, as the excuse most likely to be believed. Mrs. Jennings, with a thoroughly good-humoured disbelief in the origin of Marianne's indisposition, admitted the excuse most readily; and Elinor, after seeing her safe off, returned to Marianne, whom she found attempting to rise from the bed, and whom she reached just in time to prevent her from falling on the floor, faint and giddy from a long want of proper rest and food. A gla.s.s of lukewarm water, mixed with a wine flavouring packet, which Elinor procured for her directly, made her more comfortable, and she was at last able to express some sense of her kindness.

"Poor Elinor!" she said. "How unhappy I make you!"

"I only wish," replied her sister, "there were anything I could could do, which might be of comfort to you." do, which might be of comfort to you."

Marianne could only exclaim, "Oh! Elinor, I am miserable, indeed," before her voice was entirely lost in sobs.

Just then the minnows which had been silently observing Marianne's grief from outside the gla.s.s were consumed in one gulp by a pa.s.sing marlin.

"Exert yourself, dear Marianne," Elinor cried. "Think of your mother; think of her misery while you you suffer. For her sake you must exert yourself." suffer. For her sake you must exert yourself."

"I cannot, I cannot!" cried Marianne. "Leave me, leave me, if I distress you; leave me, hate me, forget me! Drown me in the all-consuming sea! Let my bones calcify with the pa.s.sing centuries and be turned to coral! But do not torture me so. Happy, happy Elinor, you you cannot have an idea of what I suffer." cannot have an idea of what I suffer."

"Have you no comforts? No friends? Is your loss such as leaves no opening for consolation? Much as you suffer now, think of what you would have suffered if the discovery of his character had been delayed to a later period-if your engagement had been carried on for months and months, as it might have been, before he chose to put an end to it. Every additional day of unhappy confidence, on your side, would have made the blow more dreadful."

"Engagement!" cried Marianne. "There has been no engagement."

"No engagement!"

"No, he is not so unworthy as you believe him. He has broken no faith with me."

"But he told you that he loved you."

"Yes-no-never. It was every day implied, but never professedly declared. Sometimes I thought it had been-but it never was."

"Yet you wrote to him?"

"Yes-could that be wrong after all that had pa.s.sed?"

Elinor turned again to the three letters and directly ran over the contents of all. The first, which was what her sister had sent him on their arrival in town, was to this effect: Berkeley Causeway, January January.

How surprised you will be, Willoughby, on receiving this; and I think you will feel something more than surprise, when you know that I have Descended into the Station. An opportunity of coming hither, though with Mrs. Jennings, was a temptation we could not resist. I wish you may receive this in time to come here to-night, but I will not depend on it. At any rate I shall expect you to-morrow. For the present, adieu.

M. D.

Her second note, which had been written on the morning after the pirate-themed amus.e.m.e.nt at the Middletons', was in these words: I cannot express my disappointment in having missed you the day before yesterday, nor my astonishment at not having received any answer to a note which I sent you above a week ago. I have been expecting to hear from you, and still more to see you, every hour of the day. Pray call again as soon as possible, and explain the reason of my having expected this in vain. Such is the behaviour not of a gentleman, but of a rank scallywag. I have been told that you were asked to be of the pirate party, and Sir John even would have lent you a cutla.s.s and pegleg for adornment. But could it be so? You must be very much altered indeed since we parted, if that could be the case, and you not there. But I will not suppose this possible, and I hope very soon to receive your personal a.s.surance of its being otherwise.

M. D.

The contents of her last note to him were these: What am I to imagine, Willoughby, by your behaviour last night? Again I demand an explanation of it, and I will not accept the lobster attack as an excuse. I was prepared to meet you with the pleasure which our separation naturally produced, with the familiarity which our intimacy at Barton Cottage appeared to me to justify. I was repulsed indeed! I have pa.s.sed a wretched night in endeavouring to excuse a conduct which can scarcely be called less than insulting; but though I have not yet been able to form any reasonable apology for your behaviour, I am perfectly ready to hear your justification of it. It would grieve me indeed to think ill of you; but if I am to do it, if I am to learn that your behaviour to me was intended only to deceive, let it be told as soon as possible. I wish to acquit you, but certainty on either side will be ease to what I now suffer. If your sentiments are no longer what they were, you will return my notes, and the lock of my hair which is in your possession.

M. D.

Elinor lowered the letter and reflected on its contents, whilst a swordfish began to tap softly against the Dome-gla.s.s. She would have been unwilling to believe that such letters, so full of affection and confidence, could have been answered as Willoughby had done.

"I felt myself," Marianne said, "to be solemnly engaged to him, as if the strictest legal covenant had bound us to each other."

"I can believe it," said Elinor, "but unfortunately he did not feel the same."

"He did did feel the same, Elinor-for weeks and weeks he felt it. I know he did!" The swordfish rapped ardently, punctuating the pa.s.sion of Marianne's outburst. "Have you forgotten the last evening of our being together at Barton Cottage? The morning that we parted too! When he told me that it might be many weeks before we met again-his distress- can I ever forget his distress? The shocked and saddened expression behind the portcullis of his diving helmet!" feel the same, Elinor-for weeks and weeks he felt it. I know he did!" The swordfish rapped ardently, punctuating the pa.s.sion of Marianne's outburst. "Have you forgotten the last evening of our being together at Barton Cottage? The morning that we parted too! When he told me that it might be many weeks before we met again-his distress- can I ever forget his distress? The shocked and saddened expression behind the portcullis of his diving helmet!"

For a moment or two Marianne could say no more; but when this emotion had pa.s.sed away, she added, in a firmer tone, "I have been cruelly used, but not by Willoughby."

"Dearest Marianne, who but himself? By whom can he have been instigated?"

"By all the world! I would rather believe every creature of my acquaintance leagued together to ruin me in his opinion, than believe his nature capable of such cruelty. This woman of whom he writes-whoever she be-must have somehow ensorcelled him-to alter his inclinations and turn his affection from me."

Again they were both silent. Elinor paced back and forth, watching idly as a cod gobbled up a ma.s.s of c.o.c.kles, and then was consumed in its turn by an orca; all the while, the swordfish tapped continually against the gla.s.s. For some reason, its persistent presence connected itself in Elinor's mind with the rampaging lobsters-but, before she could ponder what a.s.sociation there might be, Marianne again took up Willoughby's letter and exclaimed, "I must go home. I must go and comfort Mama. Can we not Ascend to-morrow and hire some convenient submersible or submarine to take us home?"

"To-morrow, Marianne!"

"Why should I stay here? I came only for Willoughby's sake-and now who cares for me? Who regards me?"

"It would be impossible to go to-morrow. Civility of the commonest kind must prevent such a hasty removal as that."

"Well then, another day or two, perhaps; but I cannot stay here long, I cannot stay to endure the questions and remarks of all these people. The Middletons and Palmers-how am I to bear their pity?"

Elinor advised Marianne to lie down again, and for a moment she did so; but no att.i.tude could give her ease; and in restless pain of mind and body she moved from one posture to another, till growing more and more hysterical, her sister could with difficulty keep her on the bed at all. Neither, absorbed in Marianne's grief, noticed the tiny crack in the gla.s.s that had been the fruit of the swordfish's relentless exertions, nor the tiny cartilaginous grin it wore as it swam away.

CHAPTER 30

MRS. JENNINGS CAME IMMEDIATELY to their room on her return. to their room on her return.

"How do you do, my dear?" said she in a voice of great compa.s.sion to Marianne, who turned away her face without answering. "Rashes? Joint pain? Itching?" she inquired, naming some of the symptoms often attending to aeroembolism-though she knew well that Marianne's trouble was one of the heart, not one caused by the precipitation of dissolved bubbles within the body accompanying rapid compression or decompression.

"Poor thing!" Mrs. Jennings continued. "She looks very bad. No wonder. Aye, it is but too true. He is to be married very soon-a good-for-nothing scoundrel! I have no patience with him. Mrs. Taylor told me of it half an hour ago, and she was told it by a particular friend of Miss Grey herself, else I am sure I should not have believed it. I wish with all my soul his wife may be like a tapeworm to him: May she dwell symbiotically in the digestive tract of his existence, consuming all joy, causing him writhing pain at odd intervals, until she is finally defecated out. And so I shall always say, my dear, you may depend on it; I love to repeat a parasite metaphor, once I first have invented it. But there is one comfort, my dear Miss Marianne; he is not the only young man in the world; and with your pretty face, strong back, and noticeable lung capacity, you will never want admirers."

She then went away, walking on tiptoe out of the room, as if she supposed her young friend's affliction could be increased by noise.

Marianne, to the surprise of her sister, determined on dining that night with Mrs. Jennings and her guests. When there, though looking most wretchedly, she managed to choke down several cubes of rack-of-lamb paste, and was calmer than Elinor had expected. Mrs. Jennings saw that Marianne was unhappy, and felt that everything was due to her which might make her less so. She treated her with all the indulgent fondness of a parent towards a favourite child on the last day of its holidays. Marianne was to have the best seat, looking right out at the Dome-gla.s.s, and to be amused by the relation of all the news of the day. There had been news of a particularly dramatic s.h.i.+pwreck, in which a fully outfitted French frigate was beset by a tempest and capsized in the shark-infested waters off eastern Tasmania; Mrs. Jennings relayed the tale to Marianne with particular zest, acting out the terrified "mon dieu!"s and "aidez-moi!"s of the sailors as they were surrounded by the befinned man-consumers. But soon Marianne could stay no longer. With a sign to her sister not to follow her, she directly got up and hurried out of the room.

"Poor soul!" cried Mrs. Jennings, as soon as she was gone, "Never have I known of spirits so low they could not be raised by hearing of a Frenchman eaten by a shark! I am sure if I knew of anything she would like, I would send all over the Sub-Marine Station for it. And this weekend brings new exhibits at the Aqua-Museo-Quarium: Harbour seals that have been made to grow sideburns! Clownfish dancing the tarantella! But it seems nothing will cheer her! Well, it is the oddest thing to me, that a man should use such a pretty girl so ill! But when there is plenty of money on one side, and next to none on the other, Lord bless you! They care no more about such things!"

"The lady, then," Elinor interposed. "Miss Grey, I think you called her-is she very rich?"

"Fifty thousand pounds, my dear."

"Is she said to be amiable?"

"I never heard any harm of her; indeed I hardly ever heard her mentioned. But now your poor sister has gone to her room. Is there nothing one can get to amuse her? What shall we play at? You two are not fond of Karankrolla, but is there no game she cares for?"

"Dear ma'am, this kindness is quite unnecessary. I shall persuade Marianne to go early to bed, for I am sure she wants rest."

"Aye, that will be best. Lord! No wonder she has been looking so green about the gills this last week or two, for this matter has been hanging over her head. And so the letter that came today finished it! Poor soul!"

"I must do this this justice to Mr. Willoughby-he has broken no positive engagement with my sister." justice to Mr. Willoughby-he has broken no positive engagement with my sister."

"Don't pretend to defend him. No positive engagement indeed! After taking her all over Allenham Isle, and making her a gift of that sea horse, King John-"

"James."

"Yes, King James, and fixing on the very rooms they were to live in hereafter!" After a short silence on both sides, Mrs. Jennings, with all her natural hilarity, burst forth again. "Well, my dear, this will be all the better for poor, fish-faced Colonel Brandon. He will have her within the reach of those tentacles that so unpleasantly decorate his maw. Mind me, now, if they ain't married by Midsummer. Lord! How he'll chuckle a gurgling, unsettling chuckle over this news! I hope he will come tonight. It will be a much better match for your sister. Two thousand a year without debt or drawback. Delaford is a nice place, I can tell you; exactly what I call a nice old-fas.h.i.+oned place, full of comforts and conveniences; he has a long practice of privacy, owing to his condition, and so the estate is quite shut in with great garden walls! I shall spirit up the colonel as soon as I can. If we can can but put Willoughby out of her head!" but put Willoughby out of her head!"

"Ay, if we can do that that, Ma'am," said Elinor, "we shall do very well with or without Colonel Brandon." And then rising, she went away to join Marianne, whom she found, as she expected, in her own room, pressing her face up against the Dome-gla.s.s, and signing to a pa.s.sing sucker-fish an ardent desire to switch places.

"You had better leave me," was all the notice that her sister received from her, and even that pale utterance was difficult to comprehend, since her mouth was very much smashed against the gla.s.s.

In the drawing room, whither she then repaired, Elinor was joined again by Mrs. Jenning-and much to the surprise of both, Colonel Brandon arrived soon after. By his manner of looking round the room for Marianne, Elinor immediately fancied that he neither expected nor wished to see her there. Mrs. Jennings walked across the room to the tea-table where Elinor presided and whispered, "The colonel looks as grave as ever. See how his face-feelers stand at grim attention? He knows nothing of it. Do tell him, my dear."

Shortly afterwards, Colonel Brandon drew a chair close to Elinor's and inquired after her sister.

"Marianne is not well," said she. "She has been indisposed all day, and we have persuaded her to go to bed."

"Itching?"

"No."

"Rashes?"

"No."

"Joint pain?"

Elinor only shook her head. "It is not an aeroembolism that afflicts her. Ah, if only it were."

"Perhaps, then," he hesitatingly replied, "what I heard this morning may be-there may be more truth in it than I could believe possible."

"What did you hear?"

"If you know it already, as surely you must, I may be spared."

"You mean," answered Elinor, with forced calmness, "Mr. Willoughby's marriage with Miss Grey. Yes, we do do know it all. Where did you hear it?" know it all. Where did you hear it?"

"In the Retail Embankment, where I had business. Two ladies were waiting for their decorated tortoise sh.e.l.l, and one of them was giving the other an account of the intended match, in a voice so little attempting concealment, that it was impossible for me not to hear all. The name of John Willoughby, frequently repeated, first caught my attention; and what followed was a positive a.s.sertion that everything was now finally settled respecting his marriage with Miss Grey, daughter of Sterling Grey."

"But have you likewise heard that Miss Grey has fifty thousand pounds? In that, if in any thing, we may find an explanation."

"It may be so; the man proves a treasure hunter to the last!" He stopped a moment, gurgled softly, then added in a voice which seemed to distrust itself, "And your sister? How did she-"

"Her sufferings have been very severe. I have only to hope that they may be proportionately short. It is a most cruel affliction. Till yesterday, I believe, she never doubted his regard; and even now, perhaps-but I am almost convinced that he never was really attached to her."

"Ah!" said Colonel Brandon, his tentacles dancing with animation below his chin. "But your sister does not-I think you said so-she does not consider quite as you do?"

"You know her disposition, and may believe how eagerly she would still justify him if she could."

He made no answer; and soon afterwards, the subject was dropped. Mrs. Jennings expected to see the effect of Miss Dashwood's communication as an instantaneous gaiety on Colonel Brandon's side; instead she saw him remain the whole evening more serious and thoughtful than usual.