Captain Benwick and Louisa Musgrove! The high-spirited, joyous-talking

Louisa Musgrove, and the dejected, thinking, feeling, reading, Captain

Benwick, seemed each of them everything that would not suit the other.

Their minds most dissimilar! Where could have been the attraction?

The answer soon presented itself. It had been in situation. They had

been thrown together several weeks; they had been living in the same

small family party: since Henrietta's coming away, they must have been

depending almost entirely on each other, and Louisa, just recovering

from illness, had been in an interesting state, and Captain Benwick was

not inconsolable. That was a point which Anne had not been able to

avoid suspecting before; and instead of drawing the same conclusion as

Mary, from the present course of events, they served only to confirm

the idea of his having felt some dawning of tenderness toward herself.

She did not mean, however, to derive much more from it to gratify her

vanity, than Mary might have allowed. She was persuaded that any

tolerably pleasing young woman who had listened and seemed to feel for

him would have received the same compliment. He had an affectionate

heart. He must love somebody.

She saw no reason against their being happy. Louisa had fine naval

fervour to begin with, and they would soon grow more alike. He would

gain cheerfulness, and she would learn to be an enthusiast for Scott

and Lord Byron; nay, that was probably learnt already; of course they

had fallen in love over poetry. The idea of Louisa Musgrove turned

into a person of literary taste, and sentimental reflection was

amusing, but she had no doubt of its being so. The day at Lyme, the

fall from the Cobb, might influence her health, her nerves, her

courage, her character to the end of her life, as thoroughly as it

appeared to have influenced her fate.

The conclusion of the whole was, that if the woman who had been

sensible of Captain Wentworth's merits could be allowed to prefer

another man, there was nothing in the engagement to excite lasting

wonder; and if Captain Wentworth lost no friend by it, certainly

nothing to be regretted. No, it was not regret which made Anne's heart

beat in spite of herself, and brought the colour into her cheeks when

she thought of Captain Wentworth unshackled and free. She had some

feelings which she was ashamed to investigate. They were too much like

joy, senseless joy!

She longed to see the Crofts; but when the meeting took place, it was

evident that no rumour of the news had yet reached them. The visit of

ceremony was paid and returned; and Louisa Musgrove was mentioned, and

Captain Benwick, too, without even half a smile.




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