feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/gradesaver/Sense and Sensibility/section_3_part_9.txt
feat_book_id: Sense and Sensibility.chapter 39
feat_summary_id: chapter 39
feat_summary: {"name": "Chapter 39", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210419170735/https://www.gradesaver.com/sense-and-sensibility/study-guide/summary-chapters-31-40", "summary": "Marianne is desperate to finally be gone from London; but they are to stay until they go to the Palmers' with Mrs. Jennings, which is part of the way home from London. Marianne refuses to go there, however, because of the proximity to Willoughby's estate, although Elinor convinces her that this is the best plan. Mrs. Jennings is convinced by an overheard conversation between Elinor and the Colonel that they will soon be a match; but, their conversation has nothing to do with themselves, but rather Edward's difficult situation. The Colonel, although he barely knows Edward, generously offers the parish at Delaford to him, though it will hardly enable him to marry; Elinor is to convey the offer to Edward, to see if he will accept.", "analysis": "Despite Elinor and the Colonel's friendship, it seems quite obvious at this point that they will not become a couple, although ironically, they are considered to be almost betrothed by many. Ironically, the conversation they have is not about themselves, as Mrs. Jennings figures it is, but about Edward, despite the fact that the Colonel is little acquainted with him. The Colonel's generous, good spirit is again demonstrated through his concern for Edward. Even more of an irony is that Elinor is to offer Edward some means for him to get married, when she is the last person who wishes this to happen"}
text: 
  
  The Miss Dashwoods had now been rather more than two months in town,
  and Marianne's impatience to be gone increased every day.  She sighed
  for the air, the liberty, the quiet of the country; and fancied that if
  any place could give her ease, Barton must do it.  Elinor was hardly
  less anxious than herself for their removal, and only so much less bent
  on its being effected immediately, as that she was conscious of the
  difficulties of so long a journey, which Marianne could not be brought
  to acknowledge.  She began, however, seriously to turn her thoughts
  towards its accomplishment, and had already mentioned their wishes to
  their kind hostess, who resisted them with all the eloquence of her
  good-will, when a plan was suggested, which, though detaining them from
  home yet a few weeks longer, appeared to Elinor altogether much more
  eligible than any other. The Palmers were to remove to Cleveland about
  the end of March, for the Easter holidays; and Mrs. Jennings, with both
  her friends, received a very warm invitation from Charlotte to go with
  them.  This would not, in itself, have been sufficient for the delicacy
  of Miss Dashwood;--but it was inforced with so much real politeness by
  Mr. Palmer himself, as, joined to the very great amendment of his
  manners towards them since her sister had been known to be unhappy,
  induced her to accept it with pleasure.
  
  When she told Marianne what she had done, however, her first reply was
  not very auspicious.
  
  "Cleveland!"--she cried, with great agitation.  "No, I cannot go to
  Cleveland."--
  
  "You forget," said Elinor gently, "that its situation is not...that it
  is not in the neighbourhood of..."
  
  "But it is in Somersetshire.--I cannot go into Somersetshire.--There,
  where I looked forward to going...No, Elinor, you cannot expect me to
  go there."
  
  Elinor would not argue upon the propriety of overcoming such
  feelings;--she only endeavoured to counteract them by working on
  others;--represented it, therefore, as a measure which would fix the
  time of her returning to that dear mother, whom she so much wished to
  see, in a more eligible, more comfortable manner, than any other plan
  could do, and perhaps without any greater delay.  From Cleveland, which
  was within a few miles of Bristol, the distance to Barton was not
  beyond one day, though a long day's journey; and their mother's servant
  might easily come there to attend them down; and as there could be no
  occasion of their staying above a week at Cleveland, they might now be
  at home in little more than three weeks' time.  As Marianne's affection
  for her mother was sincere, it must triumph with little difficulty,
  over the imaginary evils she had started.
  
  Mrs. Jennings was so far from being weary of her guests, that she
  pressed them very earnestly to return with her again from Cleveland.
  Elinor was grateful for the attention, but it could not alter her
  design; and their mother's concurrence being readily gained, every
  thing relative to their return was arranged as far as it could be;--and
  Marianne found some relief in drawing up a statement of the hours that
  were yet to divide her from Barton.
  
  "Ah! Colonel, I do not know what you and I shall do without the Miss
  Dashwoods;"--was Mrs. Jennings's address to him when he first called on
  her, after their leaving her was settled--"for they are quite resolved
  upon going home from the Palmers;--and how forlorn we shall be, when I
  come back!--Lord! we shall sit and gape at one another as dull as two
  cats."
  
  Perhaps Mrs. Jennings was in hopes, by this vigorous sketch of their
  future ennui, to provoke him to make that offer, which might give
  himself an escape from it;--and if so, she had soon afterwards good
  reason to think her object gained; for, on Elinor's moving to the
  window to take more expeditiously the dimensions of a print, which she
  was going to copy for her friend, he followed her to it with a look of
  particular meaning, and conversed with her there for several minutes.
  The effect of his discourse on the lady too, could not escape her
  observation, for though she was too honorable to listen, and had even
  changed her seat, on purpose that she might NOT hear, to one close by
  the piano forte on which Marianne was playing, she could not keep
  herself from seeing that Elinor changed colour, attended with
  agitation, and was too intent on what he said to pursue her
  employment.-- Still farther in confirmation of her hopes, in the
  interval of Marianne's turning from one lesson to another, some words
  of the Colonel's inevitably reached her ear, in which he seemed to be
  apologising for the badness of his house.  This set the matter beyond a
  doubt.  She wondered, indeed, at his thinking it necessary to do so;
  but supposed it to be the proper etiquette.  What Elinor said in reply
  she could not distinguish, but judged from the motion of her lips, that
  she did not think THAT any material objection;--and Mrs. Jennings
  commended her in her heart for being so honest.  They then talked on
  for a few minutes longer without her catching a syllable, when another
  lucky stop in Marianne's performance brought her these words in the
  Colonel's calm voice,--
  
  "I am afraid it cannot take place very soon."
  
  Astonished and shocked at so unlover-like a speech, she was almost
  ready to cry out, "Lord! what should hinder it?"--but checking her
  desire, confined herself to this silent ejaculation.
  
  "This is very strange!--sure he need not wait to be older."
  
  This delay on the Colonel's side, however, did not seem to offend or
  mortify his fair companion in the least, for on their breaking up the
  conference soon afterwards, and moving different ways, Mrs. Jennings
  very plainly heard Elinor say, and with a voice which shewed her to
  feel what she said,
  
  "I shall always think myself very much obliged to you."
  
  Mrs. Jennings was delighted with her gratitude, and only wondered that
  after hearing such a sentence, the Colonel should be able to take leave
  of them, as he immediately did, with the utmost sang-froid, and go away
  without making her any reply!--She had not thought her old friend could
  have made so indifferent a suitor.
  
  What had really passed between them was to this effect.
  
  "I have heard," said he, with great compassion, "of the injustice your
  friend Mr. Ferrars has suffered from his family; for if I understand
  the matter right, he has been entirely cast off by them for persevering
  in his engagement with a very deserving young woman.-- Have I been
  rightly informed?--Is it so?--"
  
  Elinor told him that it was.
  
  "The cruelty, the impolitic cruelty,"--he replied, with great
  feeling,--"of dividing, or attempting to divide, two young people long
  attached to each other, is terrible.-- Mrs. Ferrars does not know what
  she may be doing--what she may drive her son to.  I have seen Mr.
  Ferrars two or three times in Harley Street, and am much pleased with
  him.  He is not a young man with whom one can be intimately acquainted
  in a short time, but I have seen enough of him to wish him well for his
  own sake, and as a friend of yours, I wish it still more.  I understand
  that he intends to take orders.  Will you be so good as to tell him
  that the living of Delaford, now just vacant, as I am informed by this
  day's post, is his, if he think it worth his acceptance--but THAT,
  perhaps, so unfortunately circumstanced as he is now, it may be
  nonsense to appear to doubt; I only wish it were more  valuable.-- It
  is a rectory, but a small one; the late incumbent, I believe, did not
  make more than 200 L per annum, and though it is certainly capable of
  improvement, I fear, not to such an amount as to afford him a very
  comfortable income.  Such as it is, however, my pleasure in presenting
  it to him, will be very great.  Pray assure him of it."
  
  Elinor's astonishment at this commission could hardly have been
  greater, had the Colonel been really making her an offer of his hand.
  The preferment, which only two days before she had considered as
  hopeless for Edward, was already provided to enable him to marry;--and
  SHE, of all people in the world, was fixed on to bestow it!--Her
  emotion was such as Mrs. Jennings had attributed to a very different
  cause;--but whatever minor feelings less pure, less pleasing, might
  have a share in that emotion, her esteem for the general benevolence,
  and her gratitude for the particular friendship, which together
  prompted Colonel Brandon to this act, were strongly felt, and warmly
  expressed.  She thanked him for it with all her heart, spoke of
  Edward's principles and disposition with that praise which she knew
  them to deserve; and promised to undertake the commission with
  pleasure, if it were really his wish to put off so agreeable an office
  to another.  But at the same time, she could not help thinking that no
  one could so well perform it as himself.  It was an office in short,
  from which, unwilling to give Edward the pain of receiving an
  obligation from HER, she would have been very glad to be spared
  herself;-- but Colonel Brandon, on motives of equal delicacy, declining
  it likewise, still seemed so desirous of its being given through her
  means, that she would not on any account make farther opposition.
  Edward, she believed, was still in town, and fortunately she had heard
  his address from Miss Steele.  She could undertake therefore to inform
  him of it, in the course of the day.  After this had been settled,
  Colonel Brandon began to talk of his own advantage in securing so
  respectable and agreeable a neighbour, and THEN it was that he
  mentioned with regret, that the house was small and indifferent;--an
  evil which Elinor, as Mrs. Jennings had supposed her to do, made very
  light of, at least as far as regarded its size.
  
  "The smallness of the house," said she, "I cannot imagine any
  inconvenience to them, for it will be in proportion to their family and
  income."
  
  By which the Colonel was surprised to find that SHE was considering Mr.
  Ferrars's marriage as the certain consequence of the presentation; for
  he did not suppose it possible that Delaford living could supply such
  an income, as anybody in his style of life would venture to settle
  on--and he said so.
  
  "This little rectory CAN do no more than make Mr. Ferrars comfortable
  as a bachelor; it cannot enable him to marry.  I am sorry to say that
  my patronage ends with this; and my interest is hardly more extensive.
  If, however, by an unforeseen chance it should be in my power to serve
  him farther, I must think very differently of him from what I now do,
  if I am not as ready to be useful to him then as I sincerely wish I
  could be at present.  What I am now doing indeed, seems nothing at all,
  since it can advance him so little towards what must be his principal,
  his only object of happiness.  His marriage must still be a distant
  good;--at least, I am afraid it cannot take place very soon.--"
  
  Such was the sentence which, when misunderstood, so justly offended the
  delicate feelings of Mrs. Jennings; but after this narration of what
  really passed between Colonel Brandon and Elinor, while they stood at
  the window, the gratitude expressed by the latter on their parting, may
  perhaps appear in general, not less reasonably excited, nor less
  properly worded than if it had arisen from an offer of marriage.
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Chapter 39
target: Marianne is desperate to finally be gone from London; but they are to stay until they go to the Palmers' with Mrs. Jennings, which is part of the way home from London. Marianne refuses to go there, however, because of the proximity to Willoughby's estate, although Elinor convinces her that this is the best plan. Mrs. Jennings is convinced by an overheard conversation between Elinor and the Colonel that they will soon be a match; but, their conversation has nothing to do with themselves, but rather Edward's difficult situation. The Colonel, although he barely knows Edward, generously offers the parish at Delaford to him, though it will hardly enable him to marry; Elinor is to convey the offer to Edward, to see if he will accept.
feat_summary_analysis: Despite Elinor and the Colonel's friendship, it seems quite obvious at this point that they will not become a couple, although ironically, they are considered to be almost betrothed by many. Ironically, the conversation they have is not about themselves, as Mrs. Jennings figures it is, but about Edward, despite the fact that the Colonel is little acquainted with him. The Colonel's generous, good spirit is again demonstrated through his concern for Edward. Even more of an irony is that Elinor is to offer Edward some means for him to get married, when she is the last person who wishes this to happen