morning in my life."

"I am afraid," replied Elinor, "that the pleasantness of an employment
does not always evince its propriety."

"On the contrary, nothing can be a stronger proof of it, Elinor; for
if there had been any real impropriety in what I did, I should have
been sensible of it at the time, for we always know when we are acting
wrong, and with such a conviction I could have had no pleasure."

"But, my dear Marianne, as it has already exposed you to some very
impertinent remarks, do you not now begin to doubt the discretion of
your own conduct?"

"If the impertinent remarks of Mrs. Jennings are to be the proof of
impropriety in conduct, we are all offending every moment of our
lives. I value not her censure any more than I should do her
commendation. I am not sensible of having done anything wrong in
walking over Mrs. Smith's grounds, or in seeing her house. They will
one day be Mr. Willoughby's, and--"

"If they were one day to be your own, Marianne, you would not be
justified in what you have done."

She blushed at this hint; but it was even visibly gratifying to her;
and after a ten minutes' interval of earnest thought, she came to her
sister again, and said with great good humour, "Perhaps, Elinor, it
_was_ rather ill-judged in me to go to Allenham; but Mr. Willoughby
wanted particularly to show me the place; and it is a charming house,
I assure you. There is one remarkably pretty sitting room up stairs;
of a nice comfortable size for constant use, and with modern furniture
it would be delightful. It is a corner room, and has windows on two
sides. On one side you look across the bowling-green, behind the
house, to a beautiful hanging wood, and on the other you have a view
of the church and village, and, beyond them, of those fine bold hills
that we have so often admired. I did not see it to advantage, for
nothing could be more forlorn than the furniture; but if it were newly
fitted up--a couple of hundred pounds, Willoughby says, would make it
one of the pleasantest summer-rooms in England."

Could Elinor have listened to her without interruption from the
others, she would have described every room in the house with equal
delight.

CHAPTER XIV

The sudden termination of Colonel Brandon's visit at the park, with
his steadiness in concealing its cause, filled the mind, and raised
the wonder of Mrs. Jennings for two or three days; she was a great
wonderer, as every one must be who takes a