CHAPTER 7.
The popularity of the Parkers brought them some visitors the very next morning;—amongstthem, Sir EdwdDenham & his Sister, who having been at SanditonH—drove on to pay their Compliments; & the duty of Letter-writing being accomplished, Charlotte wassettled with MrsP.—in theDrawing roomin time to see them all.—The Denhams were the only ones to excite particular attention. Charlotte was glad to complete her knowledge of the family by an introduction to them, & found them, the better half at least—(for while single, theGentlemanmay sometimes be thought the better half,of the pair)—not unworthy notice.—Miss D. was a fine young woman, but cold & reserved, giving the idea of one who felt her consequence with Pride & her Poverty with Discontent, & who was immediately gnawed by the want of an handsomer Equipage than the simple Gig in which they travelled, & which their Groom was leading about still in her sight.—Sir Edwdwas much her superior in air & manner;—certainly handsome, but yet more to be remarked for hisvery goodaddress & wish of paying attention & giving pleasure.—He came into the room remarkably well, talked much—& very much to Charlotte, by whom he chanced to be placed—& she soon perceived that he had afineCountenance, a most pleasing gentleness of Voice, & a great deal of Conversation.Sheliked him.—Sober-minded as she was, she thoughthimagreable, & did not quarrel with thesuspicionof his finding her equally so, whichwouldarisefrom his evidently disregarding his Sister’s motion to go, & persisting in his station & his discourse.—I make no apologies for my Heroine’s vanity.—If there are young Ladies in the World at her time of Life, moredull of Fancy& morecarelessof pleasing, I know them not, & never wish to know them.—At last, from the low French windows of the Drawing room which commanded the road & all the Paths across the Down, Charlotte & Sir Edw: as they sat, could not but observe Lady D. & Miss B. walking by—& there was instantly a slight change in Sir Edw:’s countenance—with an anxious glance after them as they proceeded—followedby an early proposal to his Sister—notmerelyfor moving, but for walkingon together to the Terrace—whichaltogethergave an hasty turn to Charlotte’s fancy, cured her of her halfhour’s fever, & placed her in a more capable state of judging, when Sir Edw: was gone, ofhowagreable he had actually been.—“Perhaps there was a good deal in his Air & Address; And his Titledid him no harm.” She was very soon in his company again. The first object of the Parkers, when their House was cleared of morngvisitors was to get out themselves;—the Terrace was the attraction toall;—Every body who walked, must begin with the Terrace, & there, seated on one of the two Green Benches by the Gravel walk, they found the united Denham Party;—but though united in the Gross, very distinctly divided again—the two superior Ladies being at one end of the bench, & Sir Edw: & Miss B.at the other.—Charlotte’s first glance told her that Sir Edw:’s air was that of a Lover.—There could be no doubt of his Devotion to Clara.—How Clara received it, was less obvious—but she was inclined to think not very favourably; for tho’ sitting thus apart with him (which probably she might not have been able to prevent) her air was calm & grave.—That the young Lady at the other end of the Bench was doing Penance, was indubitable. The difference in Miss Denham’s countenance, the change from Miss Denham sitting in cold Grandeur in MrsParker’s Drawg-room to be kept from silence by the efforts of others, to Miss D. at Lady D.’s Elbow, listening & talking with smiling attention or solicitous eagerness, was very striking—and very amusing—or very melancholy, just as Satire or Morality might prevail.—MissDenham’s Character was pretty well decided with Charlotte. Sir Edward’s required longer Observation. He surprised her by quitting Clara immediately on their all joining & agreeing towalk, &by addressinghis attentions entirely to herself.—Stationing himself closeby her, he seemed to mean to detach her as much as possible from the rest of the Party &to giveher the whole of his Conversation. He began, in a tone of great Taste & Feeling, to talk of the Sea & the Sea shore—& ran with Energy through all the usual Phrases employed in praise of their Sublimity, & descriptive of theundescribableEmotions they excite in the Mind of Sensibility.—The terrific Grandeur of the Ocean in a Storm, its glassy surface in a calm, it’s Gulls & its Samphire, & the deep fathoms of it’s Abysses, it’s quickvicissitudes, it’s direful Deceptions, it’s Mariners tempting it in Sunshine & overwhelmed by the sudden Tempest, All were eagerly & fluently touched;—rather commonplace perhaps—but doing very well from the Lips of a handsome Sir Edward,—and she cdnot but think him a Man of Feeling—till he began to stagger her by the number of his Quotations, & the bewilderment of some of his sentences.—“Do you remember, said he, Scott’s beautiful Lines on the Sea?—Oh! what a description they convey!—They are never out of my Thoughts when I walk here.—That Man who can read them unmoved must have the nerves of an Assassin!—Heaven defend me from meeting such a Man un-armed.”—“What description do you mean?—said Charlotte. I remember none at this moment, of the Sea, in either of Scott’s Poems.”—“Donot you indeed?—Nor can I exactly recall the beginning at this moment—But—you cannot have forgotten his description ofWoman.—
“Oh! Woman in our Hours of Ease—”
“Oh! Woman in our Hours of Ease—”
“Oh! Woman in our Hours of Ease—”
“Oh! Woman in our Hours of Ease—”
Delicious! Delicious!—Had he written nothing more, he wdhave been Immortal. And then again, that unequalled, unrivalled address to Parentalaffection—
“Some feelings are to Mortals givenWith less of Earth in them than Heaven” &c
“Some feelings are to Mortals givenWith less of Earth in them than Heaven” &c
“Some feelings are to Mortals givenWith less of Earth in them than Heaven” &c
“Some feelings are to Mortals given
With less of Earth in them than Heaven” &c
But while we are on the subject of Poetry, what think you Miss H. of Burns Lines to hisMary?”—
“Oh!there isPathosto maddenone!—If ever there was a Man whofelt, it was Burns.—Montgomery has all the Fire of Poetry, Wordsworth has the true soul of it—Campbell in his pleasuresof Hope has touched the extreme of our Sensations—“Like Angel’s visits, few & far between.” Can you conceive any thing more subduing, more melting, more fraught with the deep Sublime than that Line?—But Burns—I confess my sence of his Pre-eminence Miss H.—If Scotthasa fault, it is the want of Passion.—Tender, Elegant, Descriptive—butTame.—The Man who cannot do justice to the attributes of Woman is my contempt.—Sometimes indeed a flash of feeling seems to irradiatehim—as in the Lines we were speaking of—“Oh! Woman in our hours of Ease”—. But Burns is always on fire.—His Soul was the Altar in which lovely Woman sat enshrined, his Spirittruly breathedthe immortal Incence which is her Due.—” “I have read several of Burn’s Poems with great delight, said Charlotte as soon asshe had time to speak, but I am not poetic enough to separate a Man’s Poetry entirely from his Character;—& poor Burns’s known Irregularities, greatly interrupt my enjoyment of his Lines.—I have difficulty, in depending on theTruthof his Feelings as a Lover. I have not faith in thesincerityof the affections of a Man of his Description. He felt & he wrote & he forgot.” “Oh! no no—exclaimed Sir Edw: in an extasy. He was all ardour & Truth!—His Genius & his Susceptibilities might lead him into some Aberrations—But who is perfect?—It were Hyper-criticism, it were Pseudo-philosophy to expect from the soul of high toned Genius, the grovellings of a common mind.—The Coruscations of Talent,elicitedby impassioned feeling in the breast of Man, are perhaps incompatible with some of the prosaicDecencies of Life;—nor can you, loveliest Miss Heywood—(speaking with an air of deep sentiment)—nor can any Woman be a fair Judge of what a Man may be propelled to say, write or do, by the sovereign impulses of illimitable Ardour.” This was very fine;—but if Charlotte understood it at all, not very moral—& being moreover by no means pleased with his extraordinary stile of compliment, she gravely answered “I really know nothing of the matter.—This is a charming day. The Wind I fancy must be Southerly.” “Happy, happy Wind, to engage Miss Heywood’s Thoughts!—” She began to think him downright silly.—His chusing to walk with her, shehad learnt to understand. It was done to pique Miss Brereton. Shehadread it, in an anxious glanceor two on his side—butwhy he shdtalk so much Nonsense, unless he could do no better, was unintelligible.—He seemed very sentimental, very full of some Feelings or other, & very much addicted to all the newest-fashioned hard words—had not a very clear Brain she presumed, & talked a good deal by rote.—The Future might explain him further—but when there was a propositionfor goinginto the Library she felt that she had had quite enough of Sir Edw: for one morng, & very gladly accepted Lady D.’s invitation of remaining on the Terrace with her.—The others all left them, Sir Edw: withlooksof very gallant despair in tearing himself away, & theyunitedtheir agreableness—that is, Lady Denham like a true great Lady, talked & talked only of her own concerns, & Charlotte listened—amused in consideringthe contrastbetweenher two companions.—Certainly, there was nostrain ofdoubtful Sentiment, nor any phrase of difficult interpretation in Lady D’sdiscourse. Taking hold of Charlotte’sarmwith the ease of one whofelt that any notice from her was an Honour, & communicative, from the influence of the same conscious Importanceor a naturallove of talking, she immediately said in a tone of great satisfaction—& with a look of arch sagacity—“Miss Esther wants me to invite her & her Brother to spend a week with me at Sanditon House, as I did last Summer—But I shan’t.—She has been trying to get round meevery way, with her praise of this, & her praise of that; but I saw what she was about.—I saw through it all.—I am not very easily taken-in my Dear.” Charlotte cdthink of nothing more harmless to be said, than thesimple enquiry of—“Sir Edward & Miss Denham?”—“Yes, my Dear.My young Folks, as I call them sometimes, for I take them very much by the hand. I had themwith melast Summer about this time, for a week; from Monday to Monday; and very delighted & thankful they were.—For they are very good young People my Dear. I wdnot have you think that Ionlynotice them, for poor dear Sir Harry’s sake. No, no; they are very deserving themselves, or trust me, they wdnot be so much inmyCompany.—I am not the Woman to help any body blindfold.—I always take care to know what I am about & who I have to deal with, before I stir a finger.—I do not think I was ever over-reached in my Life; & That is a good deal for a Woman to say that has been married twice.—Poor dear Sir Harry (betweenourselves) thought at first to have got more.—But (with a bit of a sigh) He is gone, & we must notfind fault withthe Dead.Nobody could live happier together than us—& he was a very honourable Man, quite the Gentleman of ancient Family.—And when he died, I gave Sir Edwdhis Gold Watch.—” She said this with a look at her Companion which implied it’s right to produce a great Impression—& seeing no rapturous astonishment inCharlottescountenance, added quickly—“He did not bequeath it to his Nephew, my dear—It was nobequest. It was not in the Will. Heonlytold me, &thatbut once, that he shdwish his Nephew to have his Watch; butitneed not have been binding, if I had not chose it.—” “Very kind indeed! very Handsome!”—said Charlotte, absolutely forced to affect admiration.—“Yes,my dear—& it is not theonlykind thing I have done by him.—I have been a very liberal friend to Sir Edwd. And poor young Man, he needs itbadenough;—For though I amonlytheDowagermy Dear, & he is theHeir, things do not stand between us in the way they commonly do between those two parties.—Not a shilling do I receive from the Denham Estate. Sir Edw: has no Payments to makeme. He don’t stand uppermost, beleive me.—It isIthat helphim.” “Indeed!—He isa very fineyoung Man;—particularly Elegantin hisAddress.”—This was said cheifly for the sake of saying something—but Charlottedirectly saw thatit was laying her open to suspicion by Lady D’s giving a shrewd glance at her & replying—“Yes, yes, he is very well to look at—& it is to be hoped some Lady oflarge fortune will think so—for Sir Edwdmustmarry for Money.—He & I often talk that matter over.—A handsome young fellow like him, will go smirking & smiling about & paying girls compliments, but he knows hemustmarry for Money.—And Sir Edw: is a very steady young Man in the main, & has got very good notions.” “Sir Edw: Denham, said Charlotte, with such personal Advantages may be almost sure of getting a Woman of fortune, if he chuses it.”—This glorious sentimentseemed quitetoremove suspicion. “Aye my Dear—That’s very sensibly saidcried LadyD—And if we cdbut get a young Heiress to S! But Heiresses are monstrous scarce! I do not think we have had an Heiress here, or even a Co—since Sanditon has been a public place. Families come after Families, but as far asI can learn, it is not one in an hundred of them that have anyreal Property, Landed or Funded.—An Income perhaps, but no Property. Clergymen may be, or Lawyers from Town, or Half pay officers, or Widows with only a Jointure.Andwhat good can such people do anybody?—except just as they take our empty Houses—and (between ourselves) I think they are great fools for not staying at home. Now, if we couldgeta young Heiress to be sent here for her health—(and if she was ordered to drink asses milk I could supply her)—and as soon as she got well, have her fall in love with Sir Edward!”—“That would be very fortunate indeed.” “And Miss Esther must marry somebody of fortune too—She must get a rich Husband. Ah! young Ladies that have no Money are very much to be pitied!—But—aftera short pause—if Miss Esther thinks to talk me into inviting them to come & stay at Sanditon House, she will find herself mistaken.—Matters are altered with me since last Summer you know—. I have Miss Clara with me now, which makes a great difference.” She spoke thisso seriously that Charlotteinstantly saw in it the evidence of real penetration &preparedfor some fuller remarks—but it was followed only by—“I have no fancy for having my House as full as an Hotel. I should not chuse to have my 2 Housemaids Time taken up all the morng, in dustingout Bed rooms.—They have Miss Clara’s room to put to rights as well as my own every day.—If they had hard Places, they would want Higher Wages.—” For objections of this Nature, Charlotte was not prepared, & she found it so impossible even to affect simpathy,that she cdsay nothing.—Lady D. soon added, with great glee—“And besides all this my Dear, am I to be filling my House to the prejudice of Sanditon?—If People want to be by the Sea, why dont they take Lodgings?—Here are a great many empty Houses—3 on this very Terrace; no fewer than three Lodging Papers staring me in the face at this very moment, Numbers 3, 4 & 8. 8, the Corner House may be too large for them, buteitherof the two others are nice little snug Houses, very fit for a young Gentleman & his sister—And so, my dear, the next time Miss Esther begins talking about the Dampness of Denham Park, & the Good Bathing always does her, I shall advise them to come & take one of these Lodgings for a fortnight.—Don’t you think that will be very fair?—Charity begins at home you know.”—Charlotte’sfeelings were divided between amusement & indignation—but indignation had the larger & the increasing share.—She kept her Countenance & she kept a civil Silence. She could not carry her forbearance farther;but withoutattempting to listen longer,& only conscious that Lady D. was still talkingon in the same way, allowed her Thoughts to form themselves into such a Meditation as this.—“She isthoroughly mean. I had not expected any thing so bad.—Mr. P. spoke too mildly of her.—His Judgementis evidently notto be trusted.—His own Goodnaturemisleads him. He is too kind hearted to see clearly.—I must judge for myself.—And their veryconnectionprejudices him.—He has persuaded her to engage in the same Speculation—& because their object in thatLineis the same, he fancies shefeels like him in others.—But she is very, very mean.—I can see no Good in her.—Poor Miss Brereton!—And she makes every body mean about her.—This poor Sir Edward & his Sister,—how far Nature meant them to be respectable Icannottell,—but they areobligedto be Mean in their Servility to her.—And I am Mean too, in giving her my attention, with the appearance of coinciding with her.—Thus it is, when Rich People areSordid.”—