Читать книгу The 4 Unabridged Early and Posthumous Novels: Lady Susan + Sense and Sensibility + Northanger Abbey + Persuasion - Jane Austen - Страница 13

Edward St.

My dearest Friend

I congratulate you on Mr. De Courcy’s arrival, & I advise you by all means to marry him; his Father’s Estate is, we know, considerable, & I beleive certainly entailed. Sir Reginald is very infirm, & not likely to stand in your way long. I hear the young Man well spoken of; & tho’ no one can really deserve you, my dearest Susan, Mr. De Courcy may be worth having. Manwaring will storm of course, but you may easily pacify him; besides, the most scrupulous point of honour could not require you to wait for his emancipation. I have seen Sir James; he came to Town for a few days last week, & called several times in Edward Street. I talked to him about you & your Daughter, & he is so far from having forgotten you, that I am sure he would marry either of you with pleasure. I gave him hopes of Frederica’s relenting, & told him a great deal of her improvements. I scolded him for making Love to Maria Manwaring; he protested that he had been only in joke, & we both laughed heartily at her disappointment; and, in short, were very agreable. He is as silly as ever. – Yours faithfully

ALICIA.