Sense & Sensibility Chapter 14

Elinor can't figure out if Willoughby has declared his love to Marianne, he has declared his love for the cottage.

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Frances:  Kia ora, welcome to the Amateur Austenite. I'm Frances Duncan author, austenite, life coach. My co-host is Rachel Pilois book buyer austinite, and all around nerd. hi. today, we're discussing chapter 14 of sense and sensibility by jane austen. colonel brandon's just gone. missus jennings is desperate to find out what happened and all gossipy about it. and eleanor's like, what i actually wanna know is, uh, my sister and willoughby get engaged, and if they are, why aren't they telling us about this? and willoughby waxes lyrical about the beauties of barton cottage.

Rachel:  eleanor is the only person with her priorities straight to me, in this chapter.

Frances:  we need to know if they're engaged because they're behaving like they're engaged, but they haven't said anything.

Rachel:  if you are engaged, why would you not just say it? it feels kinda suspicious that you're not saying anything, guys.

Frances:  it's referred to as an extraordinary silence. but their constant behavior to each other has declared that they're engaged.

Rachel:  which just tells me they're not engaged and are being inappropriate.

Frances:  eleanor's got no opportunity to worry about what's going on with colonel brennan. she's like, how about instead of speculating about that thing that doesn't really bother us, how about the thing right in front of us? and the way that austin said it is so funny that her wonder was otherwise disposed of.

Rachel:  it's like, i don't care. i don't give a shit. where's colonel brandon? he's off doing his own thing. he's a man. he's a grown adult man who can go and do his own stuff.

Frances:  eleanor's like, okay. i get that they might not be able to marry immediately because money. sir john has said willoughby's got 6 or 700 a year, but he lives in an expense that the income is never gonna meet. and i'm like, uh, should that not be a red flag? he is not an eligible husband because he's living outside of his income. i don't care if he's gonna get money in the future. you've gotta deal with what you have right now.

Rachel:  yeah. live within your means because otherwise, he's just gonna be getting debts. and that's a dangerous game

Frances:  people will live forever. as fanny dashwood says, people live forever when there's an annuity to be paid them. people live forever when you want their fucking money.

Rachel:  yep. it's so true.

Frances:  one of our readers in the book club wondered whether willoughby was a gambler, and well, this is a type of gambling that he's doing right now.

Rachel:  because there's no guarantees that his money is gonna come in. there's no guarantees that he's going to continue to have the goodwill of the people who he relies upon, to continue getting credit. yeah. well, you've spent all your money for the year. you've gotta still get food and stuff. are you just, like, visiting people who you know and just dining at that place and, oh, i'm just gonna go and stay with those friends. but how long are those people actually gonna be your friends if you're fucking around?

Frances:  well, one of the things about his current housemate, missus smith, he's intending to get money from her, but he hasn't been spending any time with her. more of his hours are spent at barton cottage than at allenham, where he's meant to be visiting.

Rachel:  are they gonna actually leave it to you just because you're staying there and you what? you're not even dining with them because he's dining with the family and the middletons.

Frances:  he's spending basically every day. they don't even need to give an invitation. he'll turn up. he'll spend all day there, and then he'll come for dinner. although note that at the end of this chapter, missus dashwood does invite him to come for dinner the next day because we're gonna be out during the day. so but come for dinner. and it's a very pointed invitation because the very next chapter is where he fucks off, and he does not come to dinner. all of his behavior in this chapter, where he's so, like, attached to the family and attached to the cottage, makes for a huge turnaround.

Rachel:  it's almost like it's building up he loves it so much and everything is beautiful and perfect and i love you guys, and it feels like, the next logical step should be a proposal. but then austen's like, nope. shatter that plate.

Frances:  but they've also, you know, kind of what's the word? um

Rachel:  record scratch.

Frances:  you're right. but they are acting like they're engaged already. the cottage is like his home. he loves this place. you can't improve it? i'll never let you, dude. rude.

Rachel:  yeah. it is a bit of a funny thing of, like, never change it, and it's like, but you must also promise me that you'll never change. that's kind of a weird thing to say to me or to ask someone. especially seeing as one of them is a young child or a young teen.

Frances:  why did willoughby express such an attachment to barton cottage?

Rachel:  because he wanted to inherit it.

Frances:  no. it's not grand enough for him. although he does make jokes about he'd pull down combe magna and build it exactly like the cottage. pretty sure you wouldn't, man. pretty sure you wouldn't. they're like, you'll probably find your own house as faultless at some point in the future. hint, hint, because maryann's here now, and at future, she'll be at your house, and so you'll love it just as much. and he's like, there are circumstances which will endear it to me, but this place will always have one claim on my affection, which no other can possibly share. i fell in love here, so i will always love this house. but, yes, i will take mary anne with me to my house, or at least that's what everybody's reading into it. but with willoughby, who knows? is he being genuine?

Rachel:  don't trust the fae. they're disingenuous and lying to you.

Frances:  missus smith is the person that told him that the cottage was rented, but they've never met her.

Rachel:  well, she doesn't actually exist, and he's schizophrenic and it's in his pocket.

Frances:  she keeps up with the gossip of the neighborhood even though she doesn't ever get out. i suppose that's the servants.

Rachel:  who would be visiting her to give her that gossip? missus jennings? maybe someone from the middleton household? they'd be up to date with it.

Frances:  we would know if they visited her, and it doesn't appear that they do. doesn't appear that anyone visits her.

Rachel:  yeah. because missus jennings would talk about that.

Frances:  yeah. she'd be going on at willoughby about your lovely aunt or whatever her role is.

Rachel:  yeah.

Frances:  willoughby says don't make any changes. it feels a icky because he says about missus dashwood that he wishes she will always be poor unless she can employ her riches better that's fucked up. he's joking. but considering he lives the high life that he can't afford, it's

Rachel:  yeah.

Frances:  it's kinda

Rachel:  hypocritical. why would you want them to be poor? because if they got more money and became wealthier, then you would have more incentive to marry mary anne.

Frances:  oh, he's being silly. he's just saying stupid shit because he's like, i love this house. it's fantastic. never change it. i have no money, so you cannot change it. like, nothing serious well, the reason is never serious.

Rachel:  yeah. he isn't serious. what would make anyone think he's being serious about marianne?

Frances:  because an honorable man would not act the way that he is towards mary anne mhmm. if he did not have intentions.

Rachel:  the honorable until proven shitty. yeah. john Middleton vouches for him. vouches for his character.

Frances:  but this is one of the things about sir john. he knows people at a surface level. and in this society, you do tend to know people at a surface level.

Rachel:  and you never get the opportunity to meet anybody for real with all the rules and stuff. back to, um, colonel brandon.

Frances:  so it's been a week since he's gone.

Rachel:  yeah.

Frances:  considering we know what's happening in the background, today, missus smith is getting a letter from one of her relatives saying, hey. your boy willoughby is a shithead. it's been a week that somehow that information, which is very private and colonel brandon would not have told anybody, has made its way back to allenham to fuck up willoughby's life, so he has to bear the fucking consequences of his actions. thank god for that. missus jennings actually has it right, though, and she's like, i think it's miss williams. yeah. because he looked so conscious when i mentioned her. mhmm.

Rachel:  he cares about her, obviously. if anything happens to her, he's obviously gonna worry.

Frances:  missus jennings thinks that eliza is his actual daughter. mhmm. but also makes it very clear that colonel brandon is an honorable man and does not have bastard children.

Rachel:  he's like the stepdad who steps up. you know? it's like, you're not biologically related, but he's the one who's there when your deadbeat dad ran off.

Frances:  she gives us more details about delaford as well, that it's about 2,000 a year. and his brother not only was a dick to his wife, but messed up the estate as well. although having said that, part of the reason he was forced into marrying was to get the money to save the estate, but maybe he didn't actually tidy it up when he got the money. he just went, i don't really care i just got the money now. i'll do whatever.

Rachel:  money will change people's plans.

Frances:  yeah. but missus jennings quickly turns from that thinking, he's a prudent man. he would have cleared the estate. he wouldn't be in distressed circumstances. he would have got everything sorted out, and he would. and this is one of the things that's pointing out again why colonel brandon is an excellent marriageable prospect. not only does he have an estate, he's prudent, he's responsible. it was in difficulty, and he fixed it. his foster sister was in difficulty, and he took on the charge of her daughter. he is a good man.

Rachel:  we need more colonel brandons in the world.

Frances:  we really do. less willoughby's, more colonel brandons. they may not be as flashy and handsome and exciting, but they got the goods.

Rachel:  they care about people. they make good decisions. any any, um, colonel brandon s, uh, people listening to this, please contact me at unity books wellington. uh, i'd love to hear from you. we'd love to, um, to meet up.

Frances:  rachel does not mind if you're a little bit older so long as you're stable and got some money. yeah. sugar daddy.

Rachel:  yeah. exactly. sorry. my brain just instead of saying sugar daddy, my brain just went sugar kernel. do with that what you will. sugar kernel. sugar kernel brand.

Frances:  nice. nice. and that's our discussion of chapter 14 of sense and sensibility by jane austen. i've been frances duncan. this has been rachel Pilois bye. thank you for listening, and we wish you happy reading.

Rachel:  my brain can't remember if i normally said bye there or if i normally said bye after you finished things. my brain went, wait. when do i normally say goodbye? goodbye, everybody. nice to meet nice mcfly soon.