, and spoken her decided censure of what was
wrong in the other, she thought herself at liberty to attend to the interest of
her own assemblies, and therefore determined (though rather against the opinion
of Sir John) that as Mrs. Willoughby would at once be a woman of elegance and
fortune, to leave her card with her as soon as she married.
    Colonel Brandon's delicate unobtrusive inquiries were never unwelcome to
Miss Dashwood. He had abundantly earned the privilege of intimate discussion of
her sister's disappointment, by the friendly zeal with which he had endeavoured
to soften it, and they always conversed with confidence. His chief reward for
the painful exertion of disclosing past sorrows and present humiliations, was
given in the pitying eye with which Marianne sometimes observed him, and the
gentleness of her voice whenever (though it did not often happen) she was
obliged, or could oblige herself to speak to him. These assured him that his
exertion had produced an increase of good-will towards himself, and these gave
Elinor hopes of its being farther augmented hereafter; but Mrs. Jennings, who
knew nothing of all this, who knew only that the Colonel continued as grave as
ever, and that she could neither prevail on him to make the offer himself, nor
commission her to make it for him, began, at the end of two days, to think that,
instead of Midsummer, they would not be married till Michaelmas, and by the end
of a week that it would not be a match at all. The good understanding between
the Colonel and Miss Dashwood seemed rather to declare that the honours of the
mulberry-tree, the canal, and the yew arbour, would all be made over to her; and
Mrs. Jennings had for some time ceased to think at all of Mr. Ferrars.
    Early in February, within a fortnight from the receipt of Willoughby's
letter, Elinor had the painful office of informing her sister that he was
married. She had taken care to have the intelligence conveyed to herself, as
soon as it was known that the ceremony was over, as she was desirous that
Marianne should not receive the first notice of it from the public papers, which
she saw her eagerly examining every morning.
    She received the news with resolute composure; made no observation on it,
and at first shed no tears; but after a short time they would burst out, and for
the rest of the day, she was in a state hardly less pitiable than when she first
learnt to expect the event.
    The Willoughbys left town as soon as they were married;
