Chapter 31

Mr. and Mrs. Morland’s surprise on being applied to by Mr. Tilney for

their consent to his m arry ing their daughter was, for a few m inutes, considerable, it having never entered their heads to suspect an attachm ent on either side; but as nothing, after all, could be m ore natural than Catherine’s being beloved, they soon learnt to consider it with only the happy agitation of gratified pride, and, as far as they alone were concerned, had not a single obj ection to start. His pleasing m anners and good sense were self-evident recom m endations; and having never heard evil of him , it was not their way to suppose any evil could be told. Goodwill supply ing the place of experience, his character needed no attestation. “Catherine would m ake a sad, heedless y oung housekeeper to be sure,” was her m other’s foreboding rem ark; but quick was the consolation of there being nothing like practice.

There was but one obstacle, in short, to be m entioned; but till that one

was rem oved, it m ust be im possible for them to sanction the engagem ent. Their tem pers were m ild, but their principles were steady, and while his parent so expressly forbade the connection, they could not allow them selves to encourage it. That the general should com e forward to solicit the alliance, or that he should even very heartily approve it, they were not refined enough to m ake any parading stipulation; but the decent appearance of consent m ust be y ielded, and that once obtained – and their own hearts m ade them trust that it could not be very long denied – their willing approbation was instantly to follow. His consent was all that they wished for. They were no m ore inclined than entitled to dem and his m oney. Of a very considerable fortune, his son was, by m arriage settlem ents, eventually secure; his present incom e was an incom e of independence and com fort, and under every pecuniary view, it was a m atch bey ond the claim s of their daughter.

The y oung people could not be surprised at a decision like this. They felt

and they deplored – but they could not resent it; and they parted, endeavouring to hope that such a change in the general, as each believed alm ost im possible, m ight speedily take place, to unite them again in the fullness of privileged affection. Henry returned to what was now his only hom e, to watch over his y oung plantations, and extend his im provem ents for her sake, to whose share in them he looked anxiously forward; and Catherine rem ained at Fullerton to cry. Whether the torm ents of absence were softened by a clandestine correspondence, let us not inquire. Mr. and Mrs. Morland never did – they had been too kind to exact any prom ise; and whenever Catherine received a letter, as, at that tim e, happened pretty often, they alway s looked another way.

The anxiety, which in this state of their attachm ent m ust be the portion

of Henry and Catherine, and of all who loved either, as to its final event, can hardly extend, I fear, to the bosom of m y readers, who will see in the tell-tale com pression of the pages before them , that we are all hastening together to perfect felicity. The m eans by which their early m arriage was effected can be the only doubt: what probable circum stance could work upon a tem per like the general’s? The circum stance which chiefly availed was the m arriage of his daughter with a m an of fortune and consequence, which took place in the course of the sum m er – an accession of dignity that threw him into a fit of good hum our, from which he did not recover till after Eleanor had obtained his forgiveness of Henry, and his perm ission for him “to be a fool if he liked it!”

The m arriage of Eleanor Tilney, her rem oval from all the evils of such

a hom e as Northanger had been m ade by Henry ’s banishm ent, to the hom e of her choice and the m an of her choice, is an event which I expect to give general satisfaction am ong all her acquaintance. My own j oy on the occasion is very sincere. I know no one m ore entitled, by unpretending m erit, or better prepared by habitual suffering, to receive and enj oy felicity. Her partiality for this gentlem an was not of recent origin; and he had been long withheld only by inferiority of situation from addressing her. His unexpected accession to title and fortune had rem oved all his difficulties; and never had the general loved his daughter so well in all her hours of com panionship, utility, and patient endurance as when he first hailed her “Your Lady ship!” Her husband was really deserving of her; independent of his peerage, his wealth, and his attachm ent, being to a precision the m ost charm ing y oung m an in the world. Any further definition of his m erits m ust be unnecessary ; the m ost charm ing y oung m an in the world is instantly before the im agination of us all. Concerning the one in question, therefore, I have only to add – aware that the rules of com position forbid the introduction of a character not connected with m y fable – that this was the very gentlem an whose negligent servant left behind him that collection of washing-bills, resulting from a long visit at Northanger, by which m y heroine was involved in one of her m ost alarm ing adventures.

The influence of the viscount and viscountess in their brother’s behalf

was assisted by that right understanding of Mr. Morland’s circum stances which, as soon as the general would allow him self to be inform ed, they were qualified to give. It taught him that he had been scarcely m ore m isled by Thorpe’s first boast of the fam ily wealth than by his subsequent m alicious overthrow of it; that in no sense of the word were they necessitous or poor, and that Catherine would have three thousand pounds. This was so m aterial an am endm ent of his late expectations that it greatly contributed to sm ooth the descent of his pride; and by no m eans without its effect was the private intelligence, which he was at som e pains to procure, that the Fullerton estate, being entirely at the disposal of its present proprietor, was consequently open to every greedy speculation.

On the strength of this, the general, soon after Eleanor’s m arriage, perm itted his son to return to Northanger, and thence m ade him the bearer of his consent, very courteously worded in a page full of em pty professions to Mr. Morland. The event which it authorized soon followed: Henry and Catherine were m arried, the bells rang, and every body sm iled; and, as this took place within a twelvem onth from the first day of their m eeting, it will not appear, after all the dreadful delay s occasioned by the general’s cruelty, that they were essentially hurt by it. To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of twenty -six and eighteen is to do pretty well; and professing m y self m oreover convinced that the general’s unj ust interference, so far from being really inj urious to their felicity, was perhaps rather conducive to it, by im proving their knowledge of each other, and adding strength to their attachm ent, I leave it to be settled, by whom soever it m ay concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recom m end parental ty ranny, or reward filial disobedience.

THE END