"Colonel Wallis! you are acquainted with him?"

"No. It does not come to me in quite so direct a line as that; it

takes a bend or two, but nothing of consequence. The stream is as good

as at first; the little rubbish it collects in the turnings is easily

moved away. Mr Elliot talks unreservedly to Colonel Wallis of his

views on you, which said Colonel Wallis, I imagine to be, in himself, a

sensible, careful, discerning sort of character; but Colonel Wallis has

a very pretty silly wife, to whom he tells things which he had better

not, and he repeats it all to her. She in the overflowing spirits of

her recovery, repeats it all to her nurse; and the nurse knowing my

acquaintance with you, very naturally brings it all to me. On Monday

evening, my good friend Mrs Rooke let me thus much into the secrets of

Marlborough Buildings. When I talked of a whole history, therefore,

you see I was not romancing so much as you supposed."

"My dear Mrs Smith, your authority is deficient. This will not do. Mr

Elliot's having any views on me will not in the least account for the

efforts he made towards a reconciliation with my father. That was all

prior to my coming to Bath. I found them on the most friendly terms

when I arrived."

"I know you did; I know it all perfectly, but--"

"Indeed, Mrs Smith, we must not expect to get real information in such

a line. Facts or opinions which are to pass through the hands of so

many, to be misconceived by folly in one, and ignorance in another, can

hardly have much truth left."

"Only give me a hearing. You will soon be able to judge of the general

credit due, by listening to some particulars which you can yourself

immediately contradict or confirm. Nobody supposes that you were his

first inducement. He had seen you indeed, before he came to Bath, and

admired you, but without knowing it to be you. So says my historian,

at least. Is this true? Did he see you last summer or autumn,

'somewhere down in the west,' to use her own words, without knowing it

to be you?"

"He certainly did. So far it is very true. At Lyme. I happened to be

at Lyme."

"Well," continued Mrs Smith, triumphantly, "grant my friend the credit

due to the establishment of the first point asserted. He saw you then

at Lyme, and liked you so well as to be exceedingly pleased to meet

with you again in Camden Place, as Miss Anne Elliot, and from that

moment, I have no doubt, had a double motive in his visits there. But

there was another, and an earlier, which I will now explain. If there

is anything in my story which you know to be either false or

improbable, stop me. My account states, that your sister's friend, the

lady now staying with you, whom I have heard you mention, came to Bath

with Miss Elliot and Sir Walter as long ago as September (in short when

they first came themselves), and has been staying there ever since;

that she is a clever, insinuating, handsome woman, poor and plausible,

and altogether such in situation and manner, as to give a general idea,

among Sir Walter's acquaintance, of her meaning to be Lady Elliot, and

as general a surprise that Miss Elliot should be apparently, blind to

the danger."




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