treated her
therefore, with all the indulgent fondness of a parent towards a
favourite child on the last day of its holidays. Marianne was to have
the best place by the fire, was to be tempted to eat by every delicacy
in the house, and to be amused by the relation of all the news of the
day. Had not Elinor, in the sad countenance of her sister, seen a
check to all mirth, she could have been entertained by Mrs. Jennings's
endeavours to cure a disappointment in love, by a variety of
sweetmeats and olives, and a good fire. As soon, however, as the
consciousness of all this was forced by continual repetition on
Marianne, she could stay no longer. With a hasty exclamation of
Misery, and a sign to her sister not to follow her, she directly got
up and hurried out of the room.

"Poor soul!" cried Mrs. Jennings, as soon as she was gone, "how it
grieves me to see her! And I declare if she is not gone away without
finishing her wine! And the dried cherries too! Lord! nothing seems to
do her any good. I am sure if I knew of any thing she would like, I
would send all over the town for it. Well, it is the oddest thing to
me, that a man should use such a pretty girl so ill! But when there
is plenty of money on one side, and next to none on the other, Lord
bless you! they care no more about such things!"

"The lady then,--Miss Grey I think you called her,--is very rich?"

"Fifty thousand pounds, my dear. Did you ever see her? a smart,
stylish girl they say, but not handsome. I remember her aunt very
well, Biddy Henshawe; she married a very wealthy man. But the family
are all rich together. Fifty thousand pounds! and by all accounts, it
won't come before it's wanted; for they say he is all to pieces. No
wonder! dashing about with his curricle and hunters! Well, it don't
signify talking; but when a young man, be who he will, comes and makes
love to a pretty girl, and promises marriage, he has no business to
fly off from his word only because he grows poor, and a richer girl is
ready to have him. Why don't he, in such a case, sell his horses, let
his house, turn off his servants, and make a thorough reform at once?
I warrant you, Miss Marianne would have been ready to wait till
matters came round. But that won't do nowadays; nothing in the way
of pleasure can ever be given up by the young men of this age."

"Do you know what kind of a girl Miss Grey is? Is she said to be
amiable?"

"I never heard any harm of her; indeed I hardly eve