 with every possible charm.«
    »Remember, my love, that you are not seventeen. It is yet too early in life
to despair of such an happiness. Why should you be less fortunate than your
mother? In one circumstance only, my Marianne, may your destiny be different
from her's!«
 

                                   Chapter IV

»What a pity it is, Elinor,« said Marianne, »that Edward should have no taste
for drawing.«
    »No taste for drawing,« replied Elinor; »why should you think so? He does
not draw himself, indeed, but he has great pleasure in seeing the performances
of other people, and I assure you he is by no means deficient in natural taste,
though he has not had opportunities of improving it. Had he ever been in the way
of learning, I think he would have drawn very well. He distrusts his own
judgment in such matters so much, that he is always unwilling to give his
opinion on any picture; but he has an innate propriety and simplicity of taste,
which in general direct him perfectly right.«
    Marianne was afraid of offending, and said no more on the subject; but the
kind of approbation which Elinor described as excited in him by the drawings of
other people, was very far from that rapturous delight, which, in her opinion,
could alone be called taste. Yet, though smiling within herself at the mistake,
she honoured her sister for that blind partiality to Edward which produced it.
    »I hope, Marianne,« continued Elinor, »you do not consider him as deficient
in general taste. Indeed, I think I may say that you cannot, for your behaviour
to him is perfectly cordial, and if that were your opinion, I am sure you could
never be civil to him.«
    Marianne hardly knew what to say. She would not wound the feelings of her
sister on any account, and yet to say what she did not believe was impossible.
At length she replied:
    »Do not be offended, Elinor, if my praise of him is not in every thing equal
to your sense of his merits. I have not had so many opportunities of estimating
the minuter propensities of his mind, his inclinations and tastes as you have;
but I have the highest opinion in the world of his goodness and sense. I think
him every thing that is worthy and amiable.«
    »I am sure,« replied Elinor with a smile, »that his dearest friends could
not be dissatisfied with such commendation as that. I do not perceive how you
could express yourself
