Sir Walter would quit Kellynch Hall; and after a very few days more of

doubt and indecision, the great question of whither he should go was

settled, and the first outline of this important change made out.

There had been three alternatives, London, Bath, or another house in

the country. All Anne's wishes had been for the latter. A small house

in their own neighbourhood, where they might still have Lady Russell's

society, still be near Mary, and still have the pleasure of sometimes

seeing the lawns and groves of Kellynch, was the object of her

ambition. But the usual fate of Anne attended her, in having something

very opposite from her inclination fixed on. She disliked Bath, and

did not think it agreed with her; and Bath was to be her home.

Sir Walter had at first thought more of London; but Mr Shepherd felt

that he could not be trusted in London, and had been skilful enough to

dissuade him from it, and make Bath preferred. It was a much safer

place for a gentleman in his predicament: he might there be important

at comparatively little expense. Two material advantages of Bath over

London had of course been given all their weight: its more convenient

distance from Kellynch, only fifty miles, and Lady Russell's spending

some part of every winter there; and to the very great satisfaction of

Lady Russell, whose first views on the projected change had been for

Bath, Sir Walter and Elizabeth were induced to believe that they should

lose neither consequence nor enjoyment by settling there.

Lady Russell felt obliged to oppose her dear Anne's known wishes. It

would be too much to expect Sir Walter to descend into a small house in

his own neighbourhood. Anne herself would have found the

mortifications of it more than she foresaw, and to Sir Walter's

feelings they must have been dreadful. And with regard to Anne's

dislike of Bath, she considered it as a prejudice and mistake arising,

first, from the circumstance of her having been three years at school

there, after her mother's death; and secondly, from her happening to be

not in perfectly good spirits the only winter which she had afterwards

spent there with herself.

Lady Russell was fond of Bath, in short, and disposed to think it must

suit them all; and as to her young friend's health, by passing all the

warm months with her at Kellynch Lodge, every danger would be avoided;

and it was in fact, a change which must do both health and spirits

good. Anne had been too little from home, too little seen. Her spirits

were not high. A larger society would improve them. She wanted her to

be more known.




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