Sense and Sensibility: The London Party

Marianne and Elinor were staying in London with their friend Mrs. Jennings, and for days Marianne waited for Willoughby to call, but he neither came nor wrote.One evening they went to a crowded party with Lady Middleton, and Marianne, pale and hopeless, sat on a chair near the card table without looking at anyone.Suddenly Elinor saw Willoughby standing a few steps away, talking closely with a fashionable young woman.

He bowed to Elinor but did not come over, and when Marianne saw him, her face lit up, and she called his name and held out her hand.He came, but he spoke only to Elinor, asked coldly about Mrs. Dashwood, and hardly looked at Marianne.“Have you not received my letters?” cried Marianne, but he only touched her hand for a moment, said stiffly that he had heard of her arrival, and walked away with a slight bow.

Marianne turned white and sank into her chair, and Elinor hid her from the crowd while she begged to be taken home at once.That night Marianne lay in bed without tears, too unhappy to speak, while Elinor thought over what she had seen and felt sure that Willoughby was tired of Marianne, though he still seemed ashamed of himself.Elinor also thought of her own trouble with Edward, but she knew that she could still respect him, while Marianne had lost even that comfort.

The next morning Marianne was up before sunrise, writing another letter through her tears.At breakfast a letter arrived for her, and she ran out of the room; Mrs. Jennings laughed and said she had never seen a girl so much in love, and asked when the wedding would be.Elinor answered seriously that her sister was not engaged to Mr. Willoughby, and then hurried upstairs, where she found Marianne on the bed, crying, with the letters in her hand.

Willoughby’s letter was polite but cruel: he said that he was sorry if he had given her a wrong idea of his feelings, that his heart had long belonged to someone else, and that he was returning her letters and the lock of her hair.Elinor read it again and again in anger, for he admitted no fault and showed no regret, and she felt that her sister had escaped from a man with no honour.Marianne’s own three letters were full of love and trust, and when Elinor asked about an engagement, Marianne said that there had been none in words, but that she had felt as bound to him as if they had signed a contract.

Marianne would not believe that Willoughby could be so cruel by his own choice, and she said that someone else must have turned his heart against her, and that she would rather be unhappy than pretend to be happy.At last she cried that she wanted to go home to her mother, and Elinor gently told her that they could not leave Mrs. Jennings so suddenly, until, worn out, Marianne lay quiet on the bed.