"If we can persuade your father to all this," said Lady Russell,

looking over her paper, "much may be done. If he will adopt these

regulations, in seven years he will be clear; and I hope we may be able

to convince him and Elizabeth, that Kellynch Hall has a respectability

in itself which cannot be affected by these reductions; and that the

true dignity of Sir Walter Elliot will be very far from lessened in the

eyes of sensible people, by acting like a man of principle. What will

he be doing, in fact, but what very many of our first families have

done, or ought to do? There will be nothing singular in his case; and

it is singularity which often makes the worst part of our suffering, as

it always does of our conduct. I have great hope of prevailing. We

must be serious and decided; for after all, the person who has

contracted debts must pay them; and though a great deal is due to the

feelings of the gentleman, and the head of a house, like your father,

there is still more due to the character of an honest man."

This was the principle on which Anne wanted her father to be

proceeding, his friends to be urging him. She considered it as an act

of indispensable duty to clear away the claims of creditors with all

the expedition which the most comprehensive retrenchments could secure,

and saw no dignity in anything short of it. She wanted it to be

prescribed, and felt as a duty. She rated Lady Russell's influence

highly; and as to the severe degree of self-denial which her own

conscience prompted, she believed there might be little more difficulty

in persuading them to a complete, than to half a reformation. Her

knowledge of her father and Elizabeth inclined her to think that the

sacrifice of one pair of horses would be hardly less painful than of

both, and so on, through the whole list of Lady Russell's too gentle

reductions.

How Anne's more rigid requisitions might have been taken is of little

consequence. Lady Russell's had no success at all: could not be put up

with, were not to be borne. "What! every comfort of life knocked off!

Journeys, London, servants, horses, table--contractions and

restrictions every where! To live no longer with the decencies even of

a private gentleman! No, he would sooner quit Kellynch Hall at once,

than remain in it on such disgraceful terms."

"Quit Kellynch Hall." The hint was immediately taken up by Mr

Shepherd, whose interest was involved in the reality of Sir Walter's

retrenching, and who was perfectly persuaded that nothing would be done

without a change of abode. "Since the idea had been started in the

very quarter which ought to dictate, he had no scruple," he said, "in

confessing his judgement to be entirely on that side. It did not

appear to him that Sir Walter could materially alter his style of

living in a house which had such a character of hospitality and ancient

dignity to support. In any other place Sir Walter might judge for

himself; and would be looked up to, as regulating the modes of life in

whatever way he might choose to model his household."




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