Sense and Sensibility

For many years the Dashwood family had lived at Norland Park, a large old house in the south of England.The estate belonged to an elderly bachelor, who invited his nephew, Mr. Henry Dashwood, to live there with his wife and three daughters.The daughters were Elinor, Marianne, and young Margaret, and the old man grew fond of them all.

Mr. Henry Dashwood also had a grown son, John, from his first marriage, and John had a little boy of his own.When the old gentleman died, everyone learned that his will was a great disappointment.He left Norland to Henry, but only for his lifetime; after that it would pass straight to John and then to John’s small son.

This meant that Mr. Henry Dashwood could not leave the house or the land to his wife and daughters.He received only ten thousand pounds of his own, and the rest of the fortune was tied up for his son and grandson.He hoped to live many more years and save money for his girls, but he fell ill and died just twelve months later.

On his deathbed, Henry sent for John and begged him to take care of his stepmother and his three half-sisters.John Dashwood was not a cruel man, but he was cold and rather selfish, and he thought a great deal about money.Still, he was moved by his father’s words, and he promised to do everything he could to make the women comfortable.

After his father’s death, John thought carefully about what “everything he could” should mean.He decided he might give his sisters a thousand pounds each — three thousand pounds in all.“That would be generous and handsome,” he told himself. “It would be quite enough to make them easy, and I could spare it with very little trouble.”

He turned the plan over in his mind all day, and felt pleased with his own kindness.He did not change his mind — not yet — and he did not once think how small three thousand pounds would seem beside all that he had gained.