“No, I do not think we shall.”
“Oh, yes, I dare say you will.”
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Elinor would not humour her by farther opposition.
“What a charming thing it is that Mrs. Dashwood can spare you both for so long a time together!”
“Long a time, indeed!” interposed Mrs. Jennings.
“Why, their visit is but just begun!”
Lucy was silenced.
“I am sorry we cannot see your sister, Miss Dashwood,”
said Miss Steele. “I am sorry she is not well–”
for Marianne had left the room on their arrival.
“You are very good. My sister will be equally sorry to miss the pleasure of seeing you; but she has been very much plagued lately with nervous head-aches, which make her unfit for company or conversation.”
“Oh, dear, that is a great pity! but such old friends as Lucy and me!–I think she might see US; and I am sure we would not speak a word.”
Elinor, with great civility, declined the proposal.
Her sister was perhaps laid down upon the bed, or in her dressing gown, and therefore not able to come to them.
“Oh, if that’s all,” cried Miss Steele, “we can just as well go and see HER.”
Elinor began to find this impertinence too much for her temper; but she was saved the trouble of checking it, by Lucy’s sharp reprimand, which now, as on many occasions, though it did not give much sweetness to the manners of one sister, was of advantage in governing those of the other.
CHAPTER 33
After some opposition, Marianne yielded to her
sister’s entreaties, and consented to go out with her and Mrs. Jennings one morning for half an hour. She expressly conditioned, however, for paying no visits, and would do no more than accompany them to Gray’s in Sackville Street, where Elinor was carrying on a negotiation for the exchange of a few old-fashioned jewels of her mother.
When they stopped at the door, Mrs. Jennings recollected that there was a lady at the other end of the street on whom she ought to call; and as she had no business at Gray’s, it was resolved, that while her young friends transacted their’s, she should pay her visit and return for them.
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On ascending the stairs, the Miss Dashwoods found so many people before them in the room, that there was not a person at liberty to tend to their orders; and they were obliged to wait. All that could be done was, to sit down at that end of the counter which seemed to promise the quickest succession; one gentleman only was standing there, and it is probable that Elinor was not without hope of exciting his politeness to a quicker despatch.
But the correctness of his eye, and the delicacy of his taste, proved to be beyond his politeness.
He was giving orders for a toothpick-case for himself, and till its size, shape, and ornaments were determined, all of which, after examining and debating for a quarter of an hour over every toothpick-case in the shop, were finally arranged by his own inventive fancy, he had no leisure to bestow any other attention on the two ladies, than what was comprised in three or four very broad stares; a kind of notice which served to imprint on Elinor the remembrance of a person and face, of strong, natural, sterling insignificance, though adorned in the first style of fashion.
Marianne was spared from the troublesome feelings of contempt and resentment, on this impertinent examination of their features, and on the puppyism of his manner in deciding on all the different horrors of the different toothpick-cases presented to his inspection, by remaining unconscious of it all; for she was as well able to collect her thoughts within herself, and be as ignorant of what was passing around her, in Mr. Gray’s shop, as in her own bedroom.
At last the affair was decided. The ivory,
the gold, and the pearls, all received their appointment, and the gentleman having named the last day on which his existence could be continued without the possession of the toothpick-case, drew on his gloves with leisurely care, and bestowing another glance on the Miss Dashwoods, but such a one as seemed rather to demand than express admiration, walked off with a happy air of real conceit and affected indifference.