 soon secure it.«
    »To judge from the Colonel's spirits, however, you have not yet made him
equally sanguine.«
    »No. - He thinks Marianne's affection too deeply rooted for any change in it
under a great length of time, and even supposing her heart again free, is too
diffident of himself to believe, that with such a difference of age and
disposition, he could ever attach her. There, however, he is quite mistaken. His
age is only so much beyond her's, as to be an advantage, as to make his
character and principles fixed; - and his disposition, I am well convinced, is
exactly the very one to make your sister happy. And his person, his manners too,
are all in his favour. My partiality does not blind me; he certainly is not so
handsome as Willoughby - but at the same time, there is something much more
pleasing in his countenance. - There was always a something, - if you remember,
- in Willoughby's eyes at times, which I did not like.«
    Elinor could not remember it; - but her mother, without waiting for her
assent, continued,
    »And his manners, the Colonel's manners are not only more pleasing to me
than Willoughby's ever were, but they are of a kind I well know to be more
solidly attaching to Marianne. Their gentleness, their genuine attention to
other people, and their manly unstudied simplicity is much more accordant with
her real disposition, than the liveliness - often artificial, and often
ill-timed of the other. I am very sure myself, that had Willoughby turned out as
really amiable, as he has proved himself the contrary, Marianne would yet never
have been so happy with him, as she will be with Colonel Brandon.«
    She paused. - Her daughter could not quite agree with her, but her dissent
was not heard, and therefore gave no offence.
    »At Delaford, she will be within an easy distance of me,« added Mrs.
Dashwood, »even if I remain at Barton; and in all probability, - for I hear it
is a large village, - indeed there certainly must be some small house or cottage
close by, that would suit us quite as well as our present situation.«
    Poor Elinor! - here was a new scheme for getting her to Delaford! - but her
spirit was stubborn.
    »His fortune too! - for at my time of life you know, everybody cares about
that; - and though I neither
