“What a change.”
When the sisters retired to their apartment for the night, Frances’
exuberantly gay spirits received a sad check; she saw at a glance, how
thoroughly unhappy Julia was.
The extraordinary change in Edmund’s circumstances, was freely talked
over and wondered at, even in the presence of Alice; and she ventured
to express her joy on the occasion, and to comment on how delighted her
aunt, and, indeed, every servant at Lodore would be, when they should
hear of what had happened.
A few moments of silence followed her dismissal, during which, Frances
looked enquiringly at her sister.
“Well, we have had a full explanation,” said Julia.
“Indeed!” cried Frances, “and what did he say, Julia?”
“Oh, treated all the friendship, that all or any of us could offer him,
with sovereign contempt!”
“Impossible! you must have misunderstood him.”
“Oh no, there was no room for misunderstanding; he was explicit enough,
I assure you! Why, he was little short of angry, (as if it was my fault,
that Lady Susan chose to prefer the Marquis of H.), that hope had been
all, he said, that, in his eyes, gave value to existence; and he would,
therefore, leave England for ever!” The firmness our heroine had been
affecting, here gave way, and her voice faltered. Frances embraced her.
“Oh, and he talked all sorts of ridiculous nonsense,” continued
Julia, as she vainly endeavoured to check her tears, “about dying an
honourable death, and said, that my congratulating him, on his late
good fortune, was a mockery. I used, I am sure, to pity him, if he only
looked melancholy for a moment; but really, this caricature, of sorrow,
one cannot sympathise with!” Julia seems to forget a grand distinction:
when she used to feel such indulgent pity for the melancholy look, she
believed that love, for herself, was its source; it was quite another
thing now; she could see the folly of being in despair about any body
else.
“And what a time,” said Frances, “to behave ungratefully! It is certainly
very unlike Edmund. Indeed Julia, I think you must have mistaken him,
some way.” Julia shook her head. “We used, you know, to imagine,”
continued Frances, “that it would be such a time of rejoicing, whenever
Edmund was discovered to be some great person, (as Mr. Jackson always
said would be the case;) and now, the time is come; and we only seem
to have lost our own Edmund. How could I have been so mistaken! I was
absolutely certain that he was breaking his heart about his love for you:
yet, if he was, this would not be the time to be in particular despair
about it, just when, it is most probable, that papa would give his
consent. So, I suppose, I must have been mistaken.”
Frances had had a thousand things to tell her sister about her new old
acquaintance, Beaumont; but the melancholy subject they had been just
discussing, and Julia’s tearful countenance, made her think it all such
nonsense, that she determined not even to mention the subject.