by Jane Austen
If Sidney Parker’s intention had been to bestow his attentions only on Miss Heywood, he was soon to have his plans thwarted, for they had not yet walked the circumference of the lawn when Clara Brereton came upon them and Sidney was obliged to have her at his left side while Charlotte was on his right.That the parade was a comical reflection of Sir Edward Denham’s alliance with the Miss Beauforts was an idea that instantly occurred to Charlotte. Before long the Denham threesome passed the Parker group, the Miss Beauforts giggled, and the gentlemen began some civilities; the weather, sport, business, all manner of subjects were covered.
“It seems quite the trend to escort two ladies these days, Sidney,” said Sir Edward with good humor.
“I concede, it is a fashion I imagine will take off,” said Sidney in response.
Edward Denham smiled. “It saves the trouble of choosing! For what sane man can make a distinction between two examples of beauty? I am notoriously bad at coming to decisions, this way I need make none.”
Charlotte seized the moment. “It is not such an uncommon sight, Sir Edward. It brings to my mind a vivid memory of a very senior gentleman being taken around an exhibition by two young ladies.The story, as I recall it, was that the gentleman was in some way infirm or unstable and the two young ladies had taken pity on him.”
Sir Edward Denham laughed and gestured toward the Miss Beauforts who were still clinging to him.“’Twould be a pretty pity though, do you not agree?”
CHAPTER 16
The events of the afternoon unfolded in something of an expected manner. The heat increased and with it Arthur Parker’s appetite. Lady Denham had begun to feel fatigued by the time Tom Parker was alighted upon his podium with his speech polished and ready to be heard.
Latecomers to such events are always greeted with unwarranted excitement.This enthusiasm often bears no relation to the person’s having unusual qualities or outstanding gifts; it is merely their lack of punctuality that affords them undue allure. Miss Esther Denham was so regularly late that there was a kind of reliability about her. It was her absolute abhorrence to arrive at a place without there being the highest possibility of her being seen by everyone. The aspect of herself that she most eagerly wished to draw attention to was her devotion. Lady Denham had a dependency on devotion, but she was not so foolish as to think that Miss Denham’s compassionate attentions were all the result of concern. Such love, such care as the kind Miss Denham bestowed upon her senior relative was outwardly impressive but inwardly calculating. A share of the lady’s fortune governed every smile, every errand, every benevolent offer to read aloud to or otherwise entertain her aunt. Miss Denham was always supremely attentive to Lady Denham but an audience could be depended upon to improve the manner and the depth of her commitment. If Lady Denham’s Sanditon neighbors could all see what a good-hearted, deserving girl Miss Denham was, then they were sure to recommend her as being so.
Lady Denham’s fortune was no secret, but the nature of her intentions for it was. No hint of her proposals ever left her lips and those three parties, the Denhams, the Hollises and Miss Brereton, who considered themselves likely contenders for it, vied with each other in the sweetest of ways. Sir Edward and Miss Denham had formed a kind of alliance; it was very likely, they thought, that one or the other would be favored, their shared name and relationship would ensure security for both. But there hung around this arrangement an uneasy feeling that on acquisition of the fortune, the favored party might well forget all previous promises of generosity.
What a monstrous dictator money is! It forces civility between foes, creates acrimony between supposed friends, and has been the cause of countless loveless marriages throughout the world. It is hard to say, of this little circle of contenders, which member was the most calculating or self interested and harder still to say which the most probable recipient of the coveted riches. And it was almost impossible to find any one of the competitors entirely deserving. The Denhams were concerned that Clara Brereton, by the nature of her constancy and general sweetness, might just succeed.The Hollises’ chances did not seem great, they were rarely come to Sanditon, and it was hoped, by Miss Brereton and the Denhams alike, that their absence would make them as good as forgotten. A sudden visit by the Hollises was dreaded, the avoidance of informing them, should Lady Denham fall ill, was agreed upon between Sir Edward and his sister; in this their complicity was unreserved. Where Miss Denham was scheming, her brother was thrice so, and accepting there to be a likelihood of Miss Brereton’s inheriting, the pair had devised a plan to ensure that he could ingratiate himself to her. Love, or the cunning imitation of such emotion, was his favored weapon in what he acknowledged to be a battle. Sir Edward Denham, having decided that softening of Miss Brereton by way of emotional manipulation would be his security, did not appear to be making a success of things. He actively pursued other ladies, overtly flattered them, even in Miss Brereton’s presence, and flirted without restraint at every given opportunity with the first woman unfortunate enough to give him a polite smile. Could Miss Brereton think him so in love with her and believe herself to be similarly enamored with him when all his actions seemed to imply otherwise? She did not question it. She did not give consequence to the fervent attentions he showed to any lady who came into the neighborhood. She barely acknowledged him, crushed between the Miss Beauforts, and there seemed, in her denial of his presence, no malice, no hurt pride, nor any feelings of rejection.
Charlotte’s introduction to Miss Denham was brief, for the latter was eager to be by Lady Denham immediately. “Forgive me, Miss Heywood, I have been quite determined to make your acquaintance but Lady Denham looks fatigued, does she not? I must forego any chance of starting a conversation and go to her at once, excuse me.”
Lady Denham was tiring and despite her own avid interest and ample investment in Sanditon was unable to sustain prolonged enthusiasm for Mr. Parker’s promotional speech. She was not given to fainting, she had never been a swooner, not even in her youth, so her collapse had about it the appeal that novelties invariably bring. The vapors were called for, and once they had been administered and praised for their remarkable effectiveness, Lady Denham was thereafter escorted home to Sanditon House. One nurse is usually considered equal to the task of attending one patient, but Lady Denham was obliged to accept the attention of three aids. Clara Brereton, Miss Denham, and Sir Edward all departed with expressions of gravity and very powerful feelings of anticipation.
The Miss Beauforts expounded between themselves on the inconvenience of having lost their admirer so early in the afternoon and knowing Sidney Parker to be handsome but otherwise engaged they deigned to grace his brother Arthur with their company. He was not the handsomest of men (the Miss Beauforts loved a handsome admirer) but he would do in place of any other. Poor Arthur was forced to talk! This he managed between mouthfuls. He had never enjoyed female attention other than that of his sisters, to be enjoying it now from two young ladies was a marvel to him. They giggled when he spoke and sometimes when he did not.Arthur took their laughter to be a measure of his success in the art of amusing the fairer sex, so he spoke more and ate less.
Diana was concerned for her sickly brother’s well-being. “He should not over enthuse, he will be sure to suffer later, all manner of irregularities will no doubt seize him. Not that I wish to shield poor Arthur from social pleasures, no, indeed I do not, but it will fall to me to resurrect his health, I am quite harsh upon myself in matters of duty. But I am far from robust, that is no secret, and Arthur is prone to an internal condition, that is something of a delicate matter and I worry terribly. But it does not end there.We are quite stricken as a group. My sister Susan, of course, is entirely reliant on the leeches. Cupping has no effect on her.Wet or dry. It is completely ineffectual! It must always be leeches for Susan, but she is so reluctant to give up her blood that three are applied to draw just an ounce from her. The best I can hope for, for myself, after such an afternoon, is that some bitters will be my salvation. If
I manage some bread that alone will be a miracle.”All this she voiced to Mrs.Whitby who heard the forthright declarations with astonishment. She had been sitting with Miss Lambe whose appearance at the gathering had had less effect than Mrs. Griffiths would have liked and far more than the girl herself would have wished for.
“It is a shame, my dear, that Sir Edward Denham has departed,” said Mrs. Griffiths to her charge.“I rather hoped that your acquaintance with him would be enlarged upon this afternoon.”
CHAPTER 17
Every neighborhood should have a great lady. If that great lady should faint away at a garden party, then the garden party must be deemed to be over. Mr. Parker did not complete his speech, Miss Lambe could not enjoy Sir Edward Denham’s overtures, and all manner of little things could not take place. Guests departed and as the day drew to a close only the Parker family members and the servants remained.The Parker children had quite exhausted themselves and were taken, for an early rest, into the house. Mr. and Mrs. Parker were likewise fatigued but satiated. Sidney had not left Charlotte’s side for a moment.The afternoon had been theirs.They had walked, sat, talked, and laughed together. He engaged himself with unguarded freedom of expression and she with care. Only the brief moments when Miss Brereton had been in their company were they not alone. Mr. Parker, seeing his brother alone once Miss Heywood had gone to dress for dinner, took the opportunity of inquiring, with brotherly concern, about Sidney’s motives.
“Motives?” cried Sidney.“Can a gentlemen not pay attention to a young lady without there being motives? Everything with you must be calculated.You have it that everyone has a scheme.”
“Dear brother, do not be affronted, you know as well as I that undivided attention such as you have bestowed upon Miss Heywood is often thought to be indicative of a particular regard and all history has it that a proposal is usually made thereafter. I will not be the only one expecting an engagement.”
Sidney laughed.“There is only one solution then if I am to save Sanditon from scandal,” said Sidney.
His brother smiled. “You have it right, Sidney, you must pay attention to other young ladies, you may well favor Miss Heywood, brother, but it would be unreasonable to give the wrong impression.These little things are not to be taken lightly, these days so many young women are hankering for expediency where matrimony is concerned.”
“I have no intention of paying attention to other young ladies,” said Sidney sharply, “what is done is done! If I have encouraged Miss Heywood, or anyone else, to believe that I am to propose to her, then propose I must!”
The heat meant that Charlotte, in her room directly above where the brothers conversed in the garden, had opened the casement for air. The first of the conversation, she had not heard, but this next she caught clearly.
“You mean to propose to Miss Heywood! You have not known her but a moment Sidney, must you treat everything as a joke, must you laugh even at love and marriage?”
“Why not? What better way to approach the subject of matrimony than with a little merriment, it makes a good contrast, in my opinion, to the possible miseries that may thereafter ensue in wedlock! No! I cannot take any subject too seriously, I shall ask Miss Heywood to become my wife, and she will no doubt laugh as much I do. She enjoys a joke. There Tom, never let it be said that I do nothing to promote this place.You will have a wedding at Sanditon!”
Charlotte could not move from her spot by the window. To receive a proposal of marriage from a man who meant only to jest was more insulting to her than the prospect of never receiving one. “Deplorable conceit, to think that I would join in the joke and marry for no other reason than to create amusement,” thought Charlotte. “And his conviction that I will accept! ‘...you will have a wedding at Sanditon!’ There will not be such, not if am expected to be the bride. Oh! In what manner does he intend to propose that he thinks will induce me to accept him? No doubt his ideas for the trousseau will include masks and a harlequin costume.Whatever his attitude, I shall refuse him.”
Mr. Parker’s immediate action was to inform his wife of Sidney’s intentions in order that between the two of them they might, in as natural a way as could be achieved, leave Sidney and Miss Heywood alone together in order that the proposal could take place. They viewed the matter with the utmost gravity. A wedding would be a commercial success, a promotion, something of an attraction.“If the proposal could be arranged to occur before dinner,” insisted Mrs. Parker, “we will have the whole of the evening to celebrate. Of course there is the matter of Mr. Heywood’s permission, to make it firm, but your brother sways from convention so often that I’m sure he can at least make his feelings known to Charlotte.” They were both so confident of a happy outcome that the cook was called into the drawing room and extra wine ordered for the evening.
Charlotte, beginning now to wish Sanditon air to be as restorative as it was reputed to be, walked in the garden. After some minutes she knew someone to be behind her and hoped it would be one of the servants. It was not. Sidney was in evening dress. So somberly attired for such a joke, thought she. He was by her and upon his insistence that they sit together, she soon found herself seated, under the canopy that had failed to protect Lady Denham from the insufferable heat, with the object of her aggravation beside her. She knew it must happen, but when he took her hand in his, she found herself responding with discomfort. His voice was low, measured, with no sign of his usual joviality.
“My dear Miss Heywood, Charlotte,” said he without hesitation, “as my brother was quick to remind me, I have barely known you a moment but believe me when I tell you I have longed for you for a lifetime, I concede this is sudden, amazing, maybe even ridiculous but I am impulsive and my impulse must be succumbed to. I cannot imagine your feelings for me have developed as rapidly as mine for you have done, but I feel confident that they will, in time, grow to equal proportions.”
Charlotte had done nothing but stare at Sidney Parker and now, withdrawing her hand from his, she spoke,“By that I assume you mean that I will one day be inclined to see you as the object of my jokes.”
“Miss Heywood?”
“Is that not what I am, Sir, an unfortunate, unwitting, and gullible object of ridicule?”
Sidney raised his voice. “No, Madam, this is not a joke! I am asking you to marry me.”
Charlotte’s anger could not be contained. “And do you presume, for some unfathomable reason of your own, that proposing in the mode of a fool will incite me to accept you?”
Sidney stood before her.“What part of my proposal makes you view me as a jester? I spoke with sincerity, Miss Heywood.When I said it may seem ridiculous I meant only that you might think me so, for being so little acquainted with you and yet so in love.”
“Oh!” cried she astonished. “You are in love with me, are you? Your thoughts leap from mockery to tenderness with rapidity, Sir.”
“Why do you think me insincere, Charlotte? Why do you reject me thus? If you do not love me nor think you can, be kinder than this and tell me so, but I beg you, do not torment me by suggesting that my feelings are in doubt.”
Charlotte stood now. “Then, Sir, believe me when I say, I do not love you and I do not think I ever could!”Turning away from him she headed toward to the house. He called to her but she did not look back, she went straight to her room and did not come down for dinner. From her window she saw that Sidney stayed in the garden some time, until his brother went thither under the canopy to persuade him to go inside. The brotherly arm around the rejected shoulder, the slow dejected walk of the man she had refused awakened Charlotte to the idea that she might have misjudged Sidney. But had she not heard him in his own words describe the idea of marrying her as a joke?
Oh, what confusing creatures men were, his proposal, now she remembered it, was not jesting, not sarcastic in tone or lighthearted in any way. What had she done in refusing him? Many a woman has agreed to marry a man and regretted it fully by the next morning, but in refusing a man, how could a woman
expect him to ask her again. Men were not inclined to invite rejection repeatedly, Charlotte knew enough about their temperaments to deduce that. “He is lost to me,” she said quietly, “he who I loved, though I did not know it, he who I do love. I have denied all proper feeling and the damage is surely irreparable, I have told him I could never love him!”
CHAPTER 18
By morning Charlotte was ever more convinced that she was irrevocably in love with Sidney Parker, but to feel so with no means to express it was the cause of great despair. He had gone the previous evening to Eastbourne. Mr. and Mrs. Parker, maintaining their position as the kindest host and hostess the world could ever know, said not a word about the matter, both assuming, their opinion being based on Sidney’s report, that she, Charlotte, felt nothing more than mildly perplexed.They had not the first idea of her being in love with Sidney and, as she was not about to reveal it when doing so seemed so pointless, they remained quite ignorant of the facts. Sidney was out of reach.
Reports of Lady Denham’s health affirmed that she was still suffering from fatigue and would very likely be bedridden for some weeks.All this was reported by Diana Parker who, seizing the opportunity to be useful, had offered her services as soon as was possible. She was, as she made clear with regularity, quite strained enough herself with Arthur’s recent decline; his irregularities, as she had predicted, had returned with astonishing reliability. Nevertheless, Diana Parker was inclined to let him recover by his own means, as his ailments, everyone agreed, had been brought about by his own means. “Too much excitement is never a good thing for the boy. He palpitates so.”
A week had passed when some news came for Miss Lambe, which led to her departing Sanditon the next morning. Mrs. Griffiths, who abhorred the idea of seeing to the packing of trunks in haste, was more than a little vexed.