From this time Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot were repeatedly in the

same circle. They were soon dining in company together at Mr

Musgrove's, for the little boy's state could no longer supply his aunt

with a pretence for absenting herself; and this was but the beginning

of other dinings and other meetings.

Whether former feelings were to be renewed must be brought to the

proof; former times must undoubtedly be brought to the recollection of

each; they could not but be reverted to; the year of their engagement

could not but be named by him, in the little narratives or descriptions

which conversation called forth. His profession qualified him, his

disposition lead him, to talk; and "That was in the year six;" "That

happened before I went to sea in the year six," occurred in the course

of the first evening they spent together: and though his voice did not

falter, and though she had no reason to suppose his eye wandering

towards her while he spoke, Anne felt the utter impossibility, from her

knowledge of his mind, that he could be unvisited by remembrance any

more than herself. There must be the same immediate association of

thought, though she was very far from conceiving it to be of equal pain.

They had no conversation together, no intercourse but what the

commonest civility required. Once so much to each other! Now nothing!

There had been a time, when of all the large party now filling the

drawing-room at Uppercross, they would have found it most difficult to

cease to speak to one another. With the exception, perhaps, of Admiral

and Mrs Croft, who seemed particularly attached and happy, (Anne could

allow no other exceptions even among the married couples), there could

have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so

in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers;

nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It

was a perpetual estrangement.

When he talked, she heard the same voice, and discerned the same mind.

There was a very general ignorance of all naval matters throughout the

party; and he was very much questioned, and especially by the two Miss

Musgroves, who seemed hardly to have any eyes but for him, as to the

manner of living on board, daily regulations, food, hours, &c., and

their surprise at his accounts, at learning the degree of accommodation

and arrangement which was practicable, drew from him some pleasant

ridicule, which reminded Anne of the early days when she too had been

ignorant, and she too had been accused of supposing sailors to be

living on board without anything to eat, or any cook to dress it if

there were, or any servant to wait, or any knife and fork to use.




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