announced his engagement to your sister. I am sorry their marriage will not now take place.'
'Unfortunately, it was necessary for Kitty and Mr. Dashwood to part ways''
'It must be of some comfort to your family that they discovered their incompatibility before the wedding vows were spoken, I was surprised to hear the news, as he talked so ardently of her when he visited. But these things do happen with young people '
Though Elizabeth and Darcy grew more relieved with each passing day that Kitty had escaped a permanent alliance with Harry Dashwood, Elizabeth had little inclination to discuss the broken engagement. She yet lamented her lapse of judgment on the point of Harry's character, and it rankled her vanity that she had allowed herself to be so deceived.
'I understand Mr. Dashwood also spoke of other matters with you during his visit to Devonshire?' Elizabeth asked.
Mrs. Dashwood smiled softly in recollection 'Yes. He wanted to hear about my husband, Henry. I was so pleased by his interest. Other than naming Harry after his grandfather, John and Fanny didn't seem to give Henry two minutes' thought before he died, and none afterward. Harry met his grandfather few times; John and Fanny visited Norland just often enough to
insinuate themselves into Uncle Albert's will. That he wished to hear about Henry now encouraged me to hope that he had grown to be a man worthy of the name he bears.'
'Mother, Harry asked me whether Papa or Uncle Albert had ever spoken of Sir Francis Dashwood. Did Harry pose the same question to you?'
'He did. I could not tell him much. Sir Francis was a distant relation who had been involved in some sort of scandalous affairs that became known to the public a few years before I met your father. I was only about sixteen at the time, and living far enough removed from London that I was ignorant of the details. The only time Henry ever spoke of it later was to assure me, while we were courting, that anything I might hear about his
famous relation had no connection at all to the sort of man
'That's all I ever heard of Sir Francis for years. To both your father and Uncle Albert, he was an embarrassmem better left undiscussed. Then one day, shortly after we moved in with Uncle Albert at Norland, a delivery arrived quite unexpectectedly from West Wycombe Park — Sir Francis's estate. It was a large mirror, with a letter from Sir Francis asking Uncle Albert to keep it for a while.'
Elizabeth recalled the looking glass that Harry's footman had struggled with when she had accompanied Kitty to his townhouse to break their engagement. 'I think perhaps I have seen that mirror. Has it a Greek design?'
'Yes — with carvings of athletes round the whole frame. Uncle Albert didn't know what to think. He had never known Sir Francis well and had cut off communication altogether when the scandals broke. He was still trying to decide what to do with the mirror when we received word several days later that Sir Francis had died. The death itself came as little surprise — he was in his seventies, and by all accounts had lived an immoderate life — but it left Uncle Albert in a quandary over how to dispose of the mirror. He wrote to Sir Francis's heir to make arrangements for its return. But the heir, believing the mirror to have been a deathbed gift by Sir Francis in an attempt to polish the memory he would leave behind, exhorted Uncle Albert to keep it and sent with his reply a portrait of Sir Francis in his youth by which to better remember him. So now poor Uncle Albert had a huge looking glass and a full-length portrait to constantly call to mind a dead man he had been quite happy to forget during his life.'
'What did he do with them?' Elinor asked.
'What could he do with them? He couldn't return them to West Wycombe without delivering an enormous insult along with them, he couldn't get rid of them, and he couldn't bear looking at them. So he stuck them in the attic, and none of us ever thought about them or Sir Francis again.'
At least, not until Harry found them. It seemed that his discovery of the portrait had awakened in him some dormant predisposition to vice that he and his ancestor shared. Elizabeth remembered the conversation between Harry and Professor Randolph on the day Harry had first called upon Kitty. Would that meeting the archaeologist had never inspired Harry to explore Norland's attics! Sir Francis could have remained forever in obscurity, where he belonged.
The stampede above had ceased sometime during Mrs. Dashwood's narration, enough so that the ladies in the drawing room were able to hear a carriage pull up. Minutes later, the arrival of Mrs. Robert Ferrars was announced.
'Lucy calls upon us already?' Mrs. Dashwood remarked to her daughter. 'She must want something.'
Lucy entered, sans Regina for the first time Elizabeth could recall having seen her. Free of the excess weight, she swept into the room like a cat pouncing on a mouse. She dropped herself beside Elinor and put a hand on her arm. 'Elinor, I am so glad you're at home. The most— Oh!' So intent had she been on her mission, that she hadn't taken notice of the room's other occupants. 'Good afternoon, Mrs. Dashwood. And Edward. Oh — And Mrs. Darcy! I didn't expect anyone but family might be here. Especially you, I mean — you know, since the sad business between Harry and Miss Bennett.'
'Regardless of what has transpired between Mr. Dashwood and my sister, I continue to regard his family with esteem,' Elizabeth said.
'And we think the same way of you, to be sure. Well, you all would not believe what has just happened! Elinor, I knew you were in town, and I hurried here straightaway to make sure you didn't hear the astounding news from someone else!'
Elizabeth could not help but reflect that Lucy seemed very thoughtful in this regard. Whenever bad news circulated, she could be counted upon to deliver it most expeditiously to anyone remotely interested.
'What do you think our sister Fanny has done? I'm sure you could never guess, so I'll tell you. She has disinherited Harry! Her only son! I am beside myself with shock. My heart just breaks for him.' As if to illustrate the fracture, she brought her hand to her chest. 'Doesn't yours?'
Elinor's face registered astonishment, but at least she and Edward possessed information about Harry's recent conduct that lent Lucys announcement context. Poor Mrs. Dashwood appeared completely bewildered.
'Fanny has disinherited Harry? Whatever for?'
'For his profligate behavior She has been threatening it for weeks, but today she signed the papers with the solicitors. He'sstill got Norland, of course, but he won't see a penny of the rest of his father's estate or Fanny's own settlement after her death. Two thousand a year, yanked right out of his grasp!'
'What profligate behavior?'
'Mother,' Elinor said gently, 'there have been rumors….out of fairness to Harry, I did not want to repeat them even to you, until I could determine their veracity.'
'Rumors? They are more than just rumors!' Lucy exclaimed. 'Why, all the ton is talking about his drunken soirees, and his mistress, and the Hel—'
'Yes, I am sure they are,' Elinor said.
'Mistress?'
'Oh. Mrs. Dashwood, Harry's the most infamous rakehell in London nght now! Why, he—'
'Our Harry?'
'Well, yes, our Harry! Who else would I be speaking of?'
'And Fanny has cut him off?'
'Utterly! Said her mother did the same thing to Edward without half so much cause, and she weren't going to allow her son to embarrass her any further. Why, she hasn't set foot outside her door these three weeks at least, 'cause she knows folks are whispering behind her back.'
Edward shook his head in disbelief. 'Poor Harry.'
'Oh, Edward — do forgive me. I didn't even think how you must feel! Of course this must bring up dreadful memories.'
Which would not, Elizabeth suspected, prevent Lucy from continuing to talk about it
'Unlike Edward, whose younger brother benefited from his loss,' Elinor said pointedly. 'Harry has no siblings. On whom did Fanny settle her fortune?'
Lucy actually stopped talking long enough to catch her breath 'Well,' she said slowly, 'now that's the other
