Sense and Sensibility Chapter 24

Lucy tells Elinor she is happy that Elinor is not angry with her: "'And yet I do assure you,' replied Lucy, her sharp little eyes full of meaning, 'there seemed to me a coldness and displeasure in your manner, that made me quite uncomfortable.'" Chapter 24, pg. 123 Elinor does her best to convince Lucy that she was not offended.

The two discuss Edward's dependence on his mother, and the engagement. Lucy makes many small comments about Edward's love, and how she could tell if she had lost it, which she subtly points at Elinor. Elinor does her best to appear neutral. Lucy tells Elinor about her idea for Edward to work in the church, and she asks Elinor to help Edward get the parsonage at Norland. Elinor agrees, but says she can most likely do little, because Edward's family does not think the church fashionable enough. Their uneasy conversation becomes more so, when Lucy asks Elinor what she thinks about her ending the engagement. After this unpleasant discussion, Elinor goes back to the others:

"[A]nd Elinor sat down to the card-table with the melancholy persuasion that Edward was not only without affection for the person who was to be his wife; but that he had not even the chance of being tolerably happy in marriage, which sincere affection on her side would have given, for self-interest alone could induce a woman to keep a man to an engagement, of which she seemed so thoroughly aware that he was weary." Chapter 24, pg. 127

Topic Tracking: Money 9

The Steeles stayed at Barton Park for the next two months, with Lucy never missing a chance to tell Elinor about a letter she received from Edward, professing his love for her.