. How could he
get up his cases properly if he had to drag about in society at the tail
of a gay young woman? Therefore he sent Elinor a very nice present in
gratitude to her and providence. She was a danger removed out of his
boy's way.

All this kept a cheerful little commotion about the house, and often
kept the mother and daughter from thinking more than was good for them.
These extraneous matters did not indeed preserve Elinor altogether from
the consciousness that her _fiance's_ letters were very short and a
little uncertain in their arrival, sometimes missing several days
together, and generally written in a hurry to catch the post. But they
kept Mrs. Dennistoun from remarking that fact, as otherwise she would
have been sure to do. If any chill of disappointment was in Elinor's
mind, she said to herself that men were generally bad correspondents,
not like girls, who had nothing else to do, and other consolations of
this kind, which to begin with beg the question, and show the beginning
of that disenchantment which ought to be reserved at least for a later
period. Elinor had already given up a good deal of her own ideal. She
would not, as she said, put herself in competition with the grouse, she
would not give him the choice between her and a cigar; but already the
consciousness that he preferred the grouse, and even a cigar, to her
society, had come an unwilling intruder into Elinor's mind. She would
not allow to herself that she felt it in either case. She said to
herself that she was proud of it, that it showed the freedom and
strength of a man, and that love was only one of many things which
occupied his life. She rebelled against the other deduction that "'tis
woman's sole existence," protesting loudly (to herself) that she too had
a hundred things to do, and did not want him always at her apron-strings
like a tame curate. But as a matter of fact, no doubt the girl would
have been flattered and happy had he been more with her. The time was
coming very quickly in which they should be together always, even when
there was grouse in hand, when his wife would be invited with him, and
all things would be in common between them; so what did it matter for a
few days? The marriage was fixed for the 16th of September, and that
great date was now scarcely a fortnight off. The excitement quickened as
everything grew towards this central point. Arrangements had to be made
about the wedding breakfast and where the guests w