She had had a disappointment, moreover, which that book, and especially

the history of her own family, must ever present the remembrance of.

The heir presumptive, the very William Walter Elliot, Esq., whose

rights had been so generously supported by her father, had disappointed

her.

She had, while a very young girl, as soon as she had known him to be,

in the event of her having no brother, the future baronet, meant to

marry him, and her father had always meant that she should. He had not

been known to them as a boy; but soon after Lady Elliot's death, Sir

Walter had sought the acquaintance, and though his overtures had not

been met with any warmth, he had persevered in seeking it, making

allowance for the modest drawing-back of youth; and, in one of their

spring excursions to London, when Elizabeth was in her first bloom, Mr

Elliot had been forced into the introduction.

He was at that time a very young man, just engaged in the study of the

law; and Elizabeth found him extremely agreeable, and every plan in his

favour was confirmed. He was invited to Kellynch Hall; he was talked

of and expected all the rest of the year; but he never came. The

following spring he was seen again in town, found equally agreeable,

again encouraged, invited, and expected, and again he did not come; and

the next tidings were that he was married. Instead of pushing his

fortune in the line marked out for the heir of the house of Elliot, he

had purchased independence by uniting himself to a rich woman of

inferior birth.

Sir Walter has resented it. As the head of the house, he felt that he

ought to have been consulted, especially after taking the young man so

publicly by the hand; "For they must have been seen together," he

observed, "once at Tattersall's, and twice in the lobby of the House of

Commons." His disapprobation was expressed, but apparently very little

regarded. Mr Elliot had attempted no apology, and shewn himself as

unsolicitous of being longer noticed by the family, as Sir Walter

considered him unworthy of it: all acquaintance between them had

ceased.

This very awkward history of Mr Elliot was still, after an interval of

several years, felt with anger by Elizabeth, who had liked the man for

himself, and still more for being her father's heir, and whose strong

family pride could see only in him a proper match for Sir Walter

Elliot's eldest daughter. There was not a baronet from A to Z whom her

feelings could have so willingly acknowledged as an equal. Yet so

miserably had he conducted himself, that though she was at this present

time (the summer of 1814) wearing black ribbons for his wife, she could

not admit him to be worth thinking of again. The disgrace of his first

marriage might, perhaps, as there was no reason to suppose it

perpetuated by offspring, have been got over, had he not done worse;

but he had, as by the accustomary intervention of kind friends, they

had been informed, spoken most disrespectfully of them all, most

slightingly and contemptuously of the very blood he belonged to, and

the honours which were hereafter to be his own. This could not be

pardoned.




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