ELINOR could not find herself in the carriage with
Mrs. Jennings, and beginning a journey to London under
her protection, and as her guest, without wondering at
her own situation, so short had their acquaintance with
that lady been, so wholly unsuited were they in age and
disposition, and so many had been her objections against
such a measure only a few days before! But these
objections had all, with that happy ardour of youth
which Marianne and her mother equally shared, been
overcome or overlooked; and Elinor, in spite of every
occasional doubt of Willoughby's constancy, could not
witness the rapture of delightful expectation which filled
the whole soul and beamed in the eyes of Marianne,
without feeling how blank was her own prospect, how
cheerless her own state of mind in the comparison, and
how gladly she would engage in the solicitude of Mari-
anne's situation to have the same animating object in
view, the same possibility of hope. A short, a very
short time however must now decide what Willoughby's
intentions were; in all probability he was already in
town. Marianne's eagerness to be gone declared her
dependance on finding him there; and Elinor was
resolved not only upon gaining every new light as to his
character which her own observation or the intelligence
of others could give her, but likewise upon watching his
behaviour to her sister with such zealous attention, as
to ascertain what he was and what he meant, before
many meetings had taken place. Should the result of
her observations be unfavourable, she was determined
at all events to open the eyes of her sister; should it
be otherwise, her exertions would be of a different
nature--she must then learn to avoid every selfish com-
parison, and banish every regret which might lessen her
satisfaction in the happiness of Marianne.

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