the common people imagine that by a secret power bestowed by god upon the temple no whale can pass it without immediate death but the truth of the matter is that on either side of the temple there are rocks that shoot two miles into the sea and wound the whales when they light upon em they keep a whales rib of an incredible length for a miracle which lying upon the ground with its convex part uppermost makes an arch the head of which cannot be reached by a man upon a camels back this rib says john leo is said to have layn there a hundred years before i saw it their historians affirm that a prophet who prophesyd of mahomet came from this temple and some do not stand to assert that the prophet jonas was cast forth by the whale at the base of the temple in this afric temple of the whale i leave you reader and if you be a nantucketer and a whaleman you will silently worship there inasmuch then as this leviathan comes floundering down upon us from the headwaters of the eternities it may be fitly inquired whether in the long course of his generations he has not degenerated from the original bulk of his sires but upon investigation we find that not only are the whales of the present day superior in magnitude to those whose fossil remains are found in the tertiary system embracing a distinct geological period prior to man but of the whales found in that tertiary system those belonging to its latter formations exceed in size those of its earlier ones of all the preadamite whales yet exhumed by far the largest is the alabama one mentioned in the last chapter and that was less than seventy feet in length in the skeleton whereas we have already seen that the tapemeasure gives seventytwo feet for the skeleton of a large sized modern whale and i have heard on whalemens authority that sperm whales have been captured near a hundred feet long at the time of capture but may it not be that while the whales of the present hour are an advance in magnitude upon those of all previous geological periods may it not be that since adams time they have degenerated assuredly we must conclude so if we are to credit the accounts of such gentlemen as pliny and the ancient naturalists generally for pliny tells us of whales that embraced acres of living bulk and aldrovandus of others which measured eight hundred feet in lengthrope walks and thames tunnels of whales and even in the days of banks and solander cookes naturalists we find a danish member of the academy of sciences setting down certain iceland whales reydansiskur or wrinkled bellies at one hundred and twenty yards that is three hundred and sixty feet and lacepede the french naturalist in his elaborate history of whales in the very beginning of his work page  sets down the right whale at one hundred metres three hundred and twentyeight feet the whale of today is as big as his ancestors in plinys time and if ever i go where pliny is i a whaleman more than he was will make bold to tell him so because i cannot understand how it is that while the egyptian mummies that were buried thousands of years before even pliny was born do not measure so much in their coffins as a modern kentuckian in his socks and while the cattle and other animals sculptured on the oldest egyptian and nineveh tablets by the relative proportions in which they are drawn just as plainly prove that the highbred stallfed prize cattle of smithfield not only equal but far exceed in magnitude the fattest of pharaohs fat kine in the face of all this i will not admit that of all animals the whale alone should have degenerated but still another inquiry remains one often agitated by the more recondite nantucketers
elinor encouraged her as much as possible to talk of what she felt and before breakfast was ready they had gone through the subject again and again and with the same steady conviction and affectionate counsel on elinors side the same impetuous feelings and varying opinions on mariannes as before sometimes she could believe willoughby to be as unfortunate and as innocent as herself and at others lost every consolation in the impossibility of acquitting him at one moment she was absolutely indifferent to the observation of all the world at another she would seclude herself from it for ever and at a third could resist it with energy in one thing however she was uniform when it came to the point in avoiding where it was possible the presence of mrs jennings and in a determined silence when obliged to endure it jenningss entering into her sorrows with any compassion her kindness is not sympathy her goodnature is not tenderness all that she wants is gossip and she only likes me now because i supply it elinor had not needed this to be assured of the injustice to which her sister was often led in her opinion of others by the irritable refinement of her own mind and the too great importance placed by her on the delicacies of a strong sensibility and the graces of a polished manner like half the rest of the world if more than half there be that are clever and good marianne with excellent abilities and an excellent disposition was neither reasonable nor candid she expected from other people the same opinions and feelings as her own and she judged of their motives by the immediate effect of their actions on herself thus a circumstance occurred while the sisters were together in their own room after breakfast which sunk the heart of mrs jennings still lower in her estimation because through her own weakness it chanced to prove a source of fresh pain to herself though mrs jennings was governed in it by an impulse of the utmost goodwill with a letter in her outstretched hand and countenance gaily smiling from the persuasion of bringing comfort she entered their room saying now my dear i bring you something that i am sure will do you good in one moment her imagination placed before her a letter from willoughby full of tenderness and contrition explanatory of all that had passed satisfactory convincing and instantly followed by willoughby himself rushing eagerly into the room to inforce at her feet by the eloquence of his eyes the assurances of his letter the hand writing of her mother never till then unwelcome was before her and in the acuteness of the disappointment which followed such an ecstasy of more than hope she felt as if till that instant she had never suffered jennings no language within her reach in her moments of happiest eloquence could have expressed and now she could reproach her only by the tears which streamed from her eyes with passionate violencea reproach however so entirely lost on its object that after many expressions of pity she withdrew still referring her to the letter of comfort but the letter when she was calm enough to read it brought little comfort her mother still confident of their engagement and relying as warmly as ever on his constancy had only been roused by elinors application to intreat from marianne greater openness towards them both and this with such tenderness towards her such affection for willoughby and such a conviction of their future happiness in each other that she wept with agony through the whole of it
there is no staying in any one place for at one and the same time everything has to be done everywhere it is much the same with him who endeavors the description of the scene it was mentioned that upon first breaking ground in the whales back the blubberhook was inserted into the original hole there cut by the spades of the mates but how did so clumsy and weighty a mass as that same hook get fixed in that hole it was inserted there by my particular friend queequeg whose duty it was as harpooneer to descend upon the monsters back for the special purpose referred to but in very many cases circumstances require that the harpooneer shall remain on the whale till the whole flensing or stripping operation is concluded the whale be it observed lies almost entirely submerged excepting the immediate parts operated upon so down there some ten feet below the level of the deck the poor harpooneer flounders about half on the whale and half in the water as the vast mass revolves like a treadmill beneath him on the occasion in question queequeg figured in the highland costumea shirt and socksin which to my eyes at least he appeared to uncommon advantage and no one had a better chance to observe him as will presently be seen being the savages bowsman that is the person who pulled the bowoar in his boat the second one from forward it was my cheerful duty to attend upon him while taking that hardscrabble scramble upon the dead whales back you have seen italian organboys holding a dancingape by a long cord just so from the ships steep side did i hold queequeg down there in the sea by what is technically called in the fishery a monkeyrope attached to a strong strip of canvas belted round his waist it was a humorously perilous business for both of us for before we proceed further it must be said that the monkeyrope was fast at both ends fast to queequegs broad canvas belt and fast to my narrow leather one so that for better or for worse we two for the time were wedded and should poor queequeg sink to rise no more then both usage and honour demanded that instead of cutting the cord it should drag me down in his wake queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother nor could i any way get rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond entailed so strongly and metaphysically did i conceive of my situation then that while earnestly watching his motions i seemed distinctly to perceive that my own individuality was now merged in a joint stock company of two that my free will had received a mortal wound and that anothers mistake or misfortune might plunge innocent me into unmerited disaster and death therefore i saw that here was a sort of interregnum in providence for its evenhanded equity never could have so gross an injustice and yet still further ponderingwhile i jerked him now and then from between the whale and ship which would threaten to jam himstill further pondering i say i saw that this situation of mine was the precise situation of every mortal that breathes only in most cases he one way or other has this siamese connexion with a plurality of other mortals if your banker breaks you snap if your apothecary by mistake sends you poison in your pills you die
john dashwood had never been a favourite with any of her husbands family but she had had no opportunity till the present of shewing them with how little attention to the comfort of other people she could act when occasion required it dashwood feel this ungracious behaviour and so earnestly did she despise her daughterinlaw for it that on the arrival of the latter she would have quitted the house for ever had not the entreaty of her eldest girl induced her first to reflect on the propriety of going and her own tender love for all her three children determined her afterwards to stay and for their sakes avoid a breach with their brother elinor this eldest daughter whose advice was so effectual possessed a strength of understanding and coolness of judgment which qualified her though only nineteen to be the counsellor of her mother and enabled her frequently to counteract to the advantage of them all that eagerness of mind in mrs dashwood which must generally have led to imprudence she had an excellent hearther disposition was affectionate and her feelings were strong but she knew how to govern them it was a knowledge which her mother had yet to learn and which one of her sisters had resolved never to be taught mariannes abilities were in many respects quite equal to elinors she was sensible and clever but eager in everything her sorrows her joys could have no moderation she was generous amiable interesting she was everything but prudent the resemblance between her and her mother was strikingly great elinor saw with concern the excess of her sisters sensibility but by mrs they encouraged each other now in the violence of their affliction the agony of grief which overpowered them at first was voluntarily renewed was sought for was created again and again they gave themselves up wholly to their sorrow seeking increase of wretchedness in every reflection that could afford it and resolved against ever admitting consolation in future elinor too was deeply afflicted but still she could struggle she could exert herself she could consult with her brother could receive her sisterinlaw on her arrival and treat her with proper attention and could strive to rouse her mother to similar exertion and encourage her to similar forbearance margaret the other sister was a goodhumored welldisposed girl but as she had already imbibed a good deal of mariannes romance without having much of her sense she did not at thirteen bid fair to equal her sisters at a more advanced period of life john dashwood now installed herself mistress of norland and her mother and sistersinlaw were degraded to the condition of visitors as such however they were treated by her with quiet civility and by her husband with as much kindness as he could feel towards anybody beyond himself his wife and their child he really pressed them with some earnestness to consider norland as their home and as no plan appeared so eligible to mrs dashwood as remaining there till she could accommodate herself with a house in the neighbourhood his invitation was accepted
she believed the regard to be mutual but she required greater certainty of it to make mariannes conviction of their attachment agreeable to her she knew that what marianne and her mother conjectured one moment they believed the nextthat with them to wish was to hope and to hope was to expect she tried to explain the real state of the case to her sister i do not attempt to deny said she that i think very highly of himthat i greatly esteem that i like him marianne here burst forth with indignation esteem him use those words again and i will leave the room this moment excuse me said she and be assured that i meant no offence to you by speaking in so quiet a way of my own feelings believe them to be stronger than i have declared believe them in short to be such as his merit and the suspicionthe hope of his affection for me may warrant without imprudence or folly there are moments when the extent of it seems doubtful and till his sentiments are fully known you cannot wonder at my wishing to avoid any encouragement of my own partiality by believing or calling it more than it is in my heart i feel littlescarcely any doubt of his preference but there are other points to be considered besides his inclination what his mother really is we cannot know but from fannys occasional mention of her conduct and opinions we have never been disposed to think her amiable and i am very much mistaken if edward is not himself aware that there would be many difficulties in his way if he were to wish to marry a woman who had not either a great fortune or high rank marianne was astonished to find how much the imagination of her mother and herself had outstripped the truth i shall not lose you so soon and edward will have greater opportunity of improving that natural taste for your favourite pursuit which must be so indispensably necessary to your future felicity if he should be so far stimulated by your genius as to learn to draw himself how delightful it would be she could not consider her partiality for edward in so prosperous a state as marianne had believed it there was at times a want of spirits about him which if it did not denote indifference spoke of something almost as unpromising a doubt of her regard supposing him to feel it need not give him more than inquietude it would not be likely to produce that dejection of mind which frequently attended him a more reasonable cause might be found in the dependent situation which forbade the indulgence of his affection
how it was that they so aboundingly responded to the old mans ireby what evil magic their souls were possessed that at times his hate seemed almost theirs the white whale as much their insufferable foe as his how all this came to bewhat the white whale was to them or how to their unconscious understandings also in some dim unsuspected way he might have seemed the gliding great demon of the seas of lifeall this to explain would be to dive deeper than ishmael can go the subterranean miner that works in us all how can one tell whither leads his shaft by the ever shifting muffled sound of his pick for one i gave myself up to the abandonment of the time and the place but while yet all arush to encounter the whale could see naught in that brute but the deadliest ill what the white whale was to ahab has been hinted what at times he was to me as yet remains unsaid aside from those more obvious considerations touching moby dick which could not but occasionally awaken in any mans soul some alarm there was another thought or rather vague nameless horror concerning him which at times by its intensity completely overpowered all the rest and yet so mystical and well nigh ineffable was it that i almost despair of putting it in a comprehensible form it was the whiteness of the whale that above all things appalled me but how can i hope to explain myself here and yet in some dim random way explain myself i must else all these chapters might be naught though in many natural objects whiteness refiningly enhances beauty as if imparting some special virtue of its own as in marbles japonicas and pearls and though various nations have in some way recognised a certain royal preeminence in this hue even the barbaric grand old kings of pegu placing the title lord of the white elephants above all their other magniloquent ascriptions of dominion and the modern kings of siam unfurling the same snowwhite quadruped in the royal standard and the hanoverian flag bearing the one figure of a snowwhite charger and the great austrian empire caesarian heir to overlording rome having for the imperial colour the same imperial hue and though this preeminence in it applies to the human race itself giving the white man ideal mastership over every dusky tribe and though besides all this whiteness has been even made significant of gladness for among the romans a white stone marked a joyful day and though in other mortal sympathies and symbolizings this same hue is made the emblem of many touching noble thingsthe innocence of brides the benignity of age though among the red men of america the giving of the white belt of wampum was the deepest pledge of honour though in many climes whiteness typifies the majesty of justice in the ermine of the judge and contributes to the daily state of kings and queens drawn by milkwhite steeds though even in the higher mysteries of the most august religions it has been made the symbol of the divine spotlessness and power by the persian fire worshippers the white forked flame being held the holiest on the altar and in the greek mythologies great jove himself being made incarnate in a snowwhite bull and though to the noble iroquois the midwinter sacrifice of the sacred white dog was by far the holiest festival of their theology that spotless faithful creature being held the purest envoy they could send to the great spirit with the annual tidings of their own fidelity and though directly from the latin word for white all christian priests derive the name of one part of their sacred vesture the alb or tunic worn beneath the cassock and though among the holy pomps of the romish faith white is specially employed in the celebration of the passion of our lord though in the vision of st john white robes are given to the redeemed and the fourandtwenty elders stand clothed in white before the greatwhite throne and the holy one that sitteth there white like wool yet for all these accumulated associations with whatever is sweet and honourable and sublime there yet lurks an elusive something in the innermost idea of this hue which strikes more of panic to the soul than that redness which affrights in blood this elusive quality it is which causes the thought of whiteness when divorced from more kindly associations and coupled with any object terrible in itself to heighten that terror to the furthest bounds witness the white bear of the poles and the white shark of the tropics what but their smooth flaky whiteness makes them the transcendent horrors they are that ghastly whiteness it is which imparts such an abhorrent mildness even more loathsome than terrific to the dumb gloating of their aspect so that not the fiercefanged tiger in his heraldic coat can so stagger courage as the whiteshrouded bear or shark  with reference to the polar bear it may possibly be urged by him who would fain go still deeper into this matter that it is not the whiteness separately regarded which heightens the intolerable hideousness of that brute for analysed that heightened hideousness it might be said only rises from the circumstance that the irresponsible ferociousness of the creature stands invested in the fleece of celestial innocence and love and hence by bringing together two such opposite emotions in our minds the polar bear frightens us with so unnatural a contrast but even assuming all this to be true yet were it not for the whiteness you would not have that intensified terror as for the white shark the white gliding ghostliness of repose in that creature when beheld in his ordinary moods strangely tallies with the same quality in the polar quadruped this peculiarity is most vividly hit by the french in the name they bestow upon that fish the romish mass for the dead begins with requiem eternam eternal rest whence requiem denominating the mass itself and any other funeral music now in allusion to the white silent stillness of death in this shark and the mild deadliness of his habits the french call him requin bethink thee of the albatross whence come those clouds of spiritual wonderment and pale dread in which that white phantom sails in all imaginations
darcy is neither by honour nor inclination confined to his cousin why is not he to make another choice because honour decorum prudence nay interest forbid it yes miss bennet interest for do not expect to be noticed by his family or friends if you wilfully act against the inclinations of all you will be censured slighted and despised by everyone connected with him your alliance will be a disgrace your name will never even be mentioned by any of us darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation that she could upon the whole have no cause to repine is this your gratitude for my attentions to you last spring you are to understand miss bennet that i came here with the determined resolution of carrying my purpose nor will i be dissuaded from it i have not been used to submit to any persons whims i have not been in the habit of brooking disappointment that will make your ladyships situation at present more pitiable but it will have no effect on me my daughter and my nephew are formed for each other they are descended on the maternal side from the same noble line and on the fathers from respectable honourable and ancientthough untitledfamilies they are destined for each other by the voice of every member of their respective houses and what is to divide them the upstart pretensions of a young woman without family connections or fortune if you were sensible of your own good you would not wish to quit the sphere in which you have been brought up in marrying your nephew i should not consider myself as quitting that sphere he is a gentleman i am a gentlemans daughter so far we are equal whatever my connections may be said elizabeth if your nephew does not object to them they can be nothing to you though elizabeth would not for the mere purpose of obliging lady catherine have answered this question she could not but say after a moments deliberation i am not
indeed his spout is so small that it is not very readily discernible but the next time you have a chance watch him and you will then see the great sperm whale himself in miniature he is somewhat larger than the huzza porpoise but much of the same general make i have lowered for him many times but never yet saw him captured the largest kind of porpoise and only found in the pacific so far as it is known the only english name by which he has hitherto been designated is that of the fishersrightwhale porpoise from the circumstance that he is chiefly found in the vicinity of that folio in shape he differs in some degree from the huzza porpoise being of a less rotund and jolly girth indeed he is of quite a neat and gentlemanlike figure he has no fins on his back most other porpoises have he has a lovely tail and sentimental indian eyes of a hazel hue though his entire back down to his side fins is of a deep sable yet a boundary line distinct as the mark in a ships hull called the bright waist that line streaks him from stem to stern with two separate colours black above and white below the white comprises part of his head and the whole of his mouth which makes him look as if he had just escaped from a felonious visit to a mealbag beyond the duodecimo this system does not proceed inasmuch as the porpoise is the smallest of the whales but there are a rabble of uncertain fugitive halffabulous whales which as an american whaleman i know by reputation but not personally i shall enumerate them by their forecastle appellations for possibly such a list may be valuable to future investigators who may complete what i have here but begun if any of the following whales shall hereafter be caught and marked then he can readily be incorporated into this system according to his folio octavo or duodecimo magnitudethe bottlenose whale the junk whale the puddingheaded whale the cape whale the leading whale the cannon whale the scragg whale the coppered whale the elephant whale the iceberg whale the quog whale the blue whale etc from icelandic dutch and old english authorities there might be quoted other lists of uncertain whales blessed with all manner of uncouth names but i omit them as altogether obsolete and can hardly help suspecting them for mere sounds full of leviathanism but signifying nothing finally it was stated at the outset that this system would not be here and at once perfected you cannot but plainly see that i have kept my word but i now leave my cetological system standing thus unfinished even as the great cathedral of cologne was left with the crane still standing upon the top of the uncompleted tower for small erections may be finished by their first architects grand ones true ones ever leave the copestone to posterity
the composure of mind with which i have brought myself at present to consider the matter the consolation that i have been willing to admit have been the effect of constant and painful exertionthey did not spring up of themselvesthey did not occur to relieve my spirits at first then if i had not been bound to silence perhaps nothing could have kept me entirelynot even what i owed to my dearest friendsfrom openly shewing that i was very unhappy elinor she cried you have made me hate myself for ever you who have been my only comfort who have borne with me in all my misery who have seemed to be only suffering for me because your merit cries out upon myself i have been trying to do it away in such a frame of mind as she was now in elinor had no difficulty in obtaining from her whatever promise she required and at her request marianne engaged never to speak of the affair to any one with the least appearance of bitternessto meet lucy without betraying the smallest increase of dislike to herand even to see edward himself if chance should bring them together without any diminution of her usual cordiality  these were great concessionsbut where marianne felt that she had injured no reparation could be too much for her to make she performed her promise of being discreet to admiration jennings had to say upon the subject with an unchanging complexion dissented from her in nothing and was heard three times to say yes maam she listened to her praise of lucy with only moving from one chair to another and when mrs jennings talked of edwards affection it cost her only a spasm in her throat such advances towards heroism in her sister made elinor feel equal to any thing herself the next morning brought a farther trial of it in a visit from their brother who came with a most serious aspect to talk over the dreadful affair and bring them news of his wife you have heard i suppose said he with great solemnity as soon as he was seated of the very shocking discovery that took place under our roof yesterday they all looked their assent it seemed too awful a moment for speech ferrars tooin short it has been a scene of such complicated distressbut i will hope that the storm may be weathered without our being any of us quite overcome donavan says there is nothing materially to be apprehended her constitution is a good one and her resolution equal to any thing she has borne it all with the fortitude of an angel she says she never shall think well of anybody again and one cannot wonder at it after being so deceived meeting with such ingratitude where so much kindness had been shewn so much confidence had been placed
but in his joy at the enchanted tacit acquiescence of the mate ahab did not hear his foreboding invocation nor yet the low laugh from the hold nor yet the presaging vibrations of the winds in the cordage nor yet the hollow flap of the sails against the masts as for a moment their hearts sank in for again starbucks downcast eyes lighted up with the stubbornness of life the subterranean laugh died away the winds blew on the sails filled out the ship heaved and rolled as before but rather are ye predictions than warnings ye shadows yet not so much predictions from without as verifications of the foregoing things within for with little external to constrain us the innermost necessities in our being these still drive us on receiving the brimming pewter and turning to the harpooneers he ordered them to produce their weapons then ranging them before him near the capstan with their harpoons in their hands while his three mates stood at his side with their lances and the rest of the ships company formed a circle round the group he stood for an instant searchingly eyeing every man of his crew but those wild eyes met his as the bloodshot eyes of the prairie wolves meet the eye of their leader ere he rushes on at their head in the trail of the bison but alas he cried handing the heavy charged flagon to the nearest seaman short draughtslong swallows men tis hot as satans hoof it spiralizes in ye forks out at the serpentsnapping eye men ye seem the years so brimming life is gulped and gone i have mustered ye all round this capstan and ye mates flank me with your lances and ye harpooneers stand there with your irons and ye stout mariners ring me in that i may in some sort revive a noble custom of my fisherman fathers before me why now this pewter had run brimming again weret not thou st so saying with extended arm he grasped the three level radiating lances at their crossed centre while so doing suddenly and nervously twitched them meanwhile glancing intently from starbuck to stubb from stubb to flask it seemed as though by some nameless interior volition he would fain have shocked into them the same fiery emotion accumulated within the leyden jar of his own magnetic life the three mates quailed before his strong sustained and mystic aspect stubb and flask looked sideways from him the honest eye of starbuck fell downright for did ye three but once take the fullforced shock then mine own electric thing that had perhaps expired from out me and now ye mates i do appoint ye three cupbearers to my three pagan kinsmen thereyon three most honourable gentlemen and noblemen my valiant harpooneers
though i cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers the fates put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage when others were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies and short and easy parts in genteel comedies and jolly parts in farcesthough i cannot tell why this was exactly yet now that i recall all the circumstances i think i can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly presented to me under various disguises induced me to set about performing the part i did besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgment chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity then the wild and distant seas where he rolled his island bulk the undeliverable nameless perils of the whale these with all the attending marvels of a thousand patagonian sights and sounds helped to sway me to my wish with other men perhaps such things would not have been inducements but as for me i am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote i love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts not ignoring what is good i am quick to perceive a horror and could still be social with itwould they let mesince it is but well to be on friendly terms with all the inmates of the place one lodges in by reason of these things then the whaling voyage was welcome the great floodgates of the wonderworld swung open and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose two and two there floated into my inmost soul endless processions of the whale and mid most of them all one grand hooded phantom like a snow hill in the air i stuffed a shirt or two into my old carpetbag tucked it under my arm and started for cape horn and the pacific quitting the good city of old manhatto i duly arrived in new bedford much was i disappointed upon learning that the little packet for nantucket had already sailed and that no way of reaching that place would offer till the following monday as most young candidates for the pains and penalties of whaling stop at this same new bedford thence to embark on their voyage it may as well be related that i for one had no idea of so doing for my mind was made up to sail in no other than a nantucket craft because there was a fine boisterous something about everything connected with that famous old island which amazingly pleased me besides though new bedford has of late been gradually monopolising the business of whaling and though in this matter poor old nantucket is now much behind her yet nantucket was her great originalthe tyre of this carthagethe place where the first dead american whale was stranded where else but from nantucket did those aboriginal whalemen the redmen first sally out in canoes to give chase to the leviathan and where but from nantucket too did that first adventurous little sloop put forth partly laden with imported cobblestonesso goes the storyto throw at the whales in order to discover when they were nigh enough to risk a harpoon from the bowsprit now having a night a day and still another night following before me in new bedford ere i could embark for my destined port it became a matter of concernment where i was to eat and sleep meanwhile it was a very dubiouslooking nay a very dark and dismal night bitingly cold and cheerless with anxious grapnels i had sounded my pocket and only brought up a few pieces of silverso wherever you go ishmael said i to myself as i stood in the middle of a dreary street shouldering my bag and comparing the gloom towards the north with the darkness towards the southwherever in your wisdom you may conclude to lodge for the night my dear ishmael be sure to inquire the price and dont be too particular with halting steps i paced the streets and passed the sign of the crossed harpoons but it looked too expensive and jolly there
they gaily ascended the downs rejoicing in their own penetration at every glimpse of blue sky and when they caught in their faces the animating gales of a high southwesterly wind they pitied the fears which had prevented their mother and elinor from sharing such delightful sensations is there a felicity in the world said marianne superior to this margaret agreed and they pursued their way against the wind resisting it with laughing delight for about twenty minutes longer when suddenly the clouds united over their heads and a driving rain set full in their face  chagrined and surprised they were obliged though unwillingly to turn back for no shelter was nearer than their own house one consolation however remained for them to which the exigence of the moment gave more than usual propriety it was that of running with all possible speed down the steep side of the hill which led immediately to their garden gate marianne had at first the advantage but a false step brought her suddenly to the ground and margaret unable to stop herself to assist her was involuntarily hurried along and reached the bottom in safety a gentleman carrying a gun with two pointers playing round him was passing up the hill and within a few yards of marianne when her accident happened she had raised herself from the ground but her foot had been twisted in her fall and she was scarcely able to stand the gentleman offered his services and perceiving that her modesty declined what her situation rendered necessary took her up in his arms without farther delay and carried her down the hill then passing through the garden the gate of which had been left open by margaret he bore her directly into the house whither margaret was just arrived and quitted not his hold till he had seated her in a chair in the parlour elinor and her mother rose up in amazement at their entrance and while the eyes of both were fixed on him with an evident wonder and a secret admiration which equally sprung from his appearance he apologized for his intrusion by relating its cause in a manner so frank and so graceful that his person which was uncommonly handsome received additional charms from his voice and expression had he been even old ugly and vulgar the gratitude and kindness of mrs dashwood would have been secured by any act of attention to her child but the influence of youth beauty and elegance gave an interest to the action which came home to her feelings she thanked him again and again and with a sweetness of address which always attended her invited him to be seated dashwood then begged to know to whom she was obliged his name he replied was willoughby and his present home was at allenham from whence he hoped she would allow him the honour of calling tomorrow to enquire after miss dashwood the honour was readily granted and he then departed to make himself still more interesting in the midst of a heavy rain his manly beauty and more than common gracefulness were instantly the theme of general admiration and the laugh which his gallantry raised against marianne received particular spirit from his exterior attractions  marianne herself had seen less of his mama the rest for the confusion which crimsoned over her face on his lifting her up had robbed her of the power of regarding him after their entering the house but she had seen enough of him to join in all the admiration of the others and with an energy which always adorned her praise
gardiner was surprised and concerned but as they were now approaching the scene of her former pleasures every idea gave way to the charm of recollection and she was too much engaged in pointing out to her husband all the interesting spots in its environs to think of anything else fatigued as she had been by the mornings walk they had no sooner dined than she set off again in quest of her former acquaintance and the evening was spent in the satisfactions of a intercourse renewed after many years discontinuance the occurrences of the day were too full of interest to leave elizabeth much attention for any of these new friends and she could do nothing but think and think with wonder of mr darcys civility and above all of his wishing her to be acquainted with his sister darcy would bring his sister to visit her the very day after her reaching pemberley and was consequently resolved not to be out of sight of the inn the whole of that morning but her conclusion was false for on the very morning after their arrival at lambton these visitors came they had been walking about the place with some of their new friends and were just returning to the inn to dress themselves for dining with the same family when the sound of a carriage drew them to a window and they saw a gentleman and a lady in a curricle driving up the street elizabeth immediately recognizing the livery guessed what it meant and imparted no small degree of her surprise to her relations by acquainting them with the honour which she expected her uncle and aunt were all amazement and the embarrassment of her manner as she spoke joined to the circumstance itself and many of the circumstances of the preceding day opened to them a new idea on the business nothing had ever suggested it before but they felt that there was no other way of accounting for such attentions from such a quarter than by supposing a partiality for their niece while these newlyborn notions were passing in their heads the perturbation of elizabeths feelings was at every moment increasing she was quite amazed at her own discomposure but amongst other causes of disquiet she dreaded lest the partiality of the brother should have said too much in her favour and more than commonly anxious to please she naturally suspected that every power of pleasing would fail her she retreated from the window fearful of being seen and as she walked up and down the room endeavouring to compose herself saw such looks of inquiring surprise in her uncle and aunt as made everything worse miss darcy and her brother appeared and this formidable introduction took place with astonishment did elizabeth see that her new acquaintance was at least as much embarrassed as herself since her being at lambton she had heard that miss darcy was exceedingly proud but the observation of a very few minutes convinced her that she was only exceedingly shy she found it difficult to obtain even a word from her beyond a monosyllable miss darcy was tall and on a larger scale than elizabeth and though little more than sixteen her figure was formed and her appearance womanly and graceful she was less handsome than her brother but there was sense and good humour in her face and her manners were perfectly unassuming and gentle elizabeth who had expected to find in her as acute and unembarrassed an observer as ever mr
and as to laughter we will not expose ourselves if you please by attempting to laugh without a subject that is an uncommon advantage and uncommon i hope it will continue for it would be a great loss to me to have many such acquaintances miss bingley said he has given me more credit than can be the wisest and the best of mennay the wisest and best of their actionsmay be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke certainly replied elizabeththere are such people but i hope i am not one of them follies and nonsense whims and inconsistencies do divert me i own and i laugh at them whenever i can but these i suppose are precisely what you are without but it has been the study of my life to avoid those weaknesses which often expose a strong understanding to ridicule but pridewhere there is a real superiority of mind pride will be always under good regulation darcy is over i presume said miss bingley and pray what is the result i have faults enough but they are not i hope of understanding it is i believe too little yieldingcertainly too little for the convenience of the world i cannot forget the follies and vices of others so soon as i ought nor their offenses against myself my feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to move them there is i believe in every disposition a tendency to some particular evila natural defect which not even the best education can overcome and yours he replied with a smile is willfully to misunderstand them do let us have a little music cried miss bingley tired of a conversation in which she had no share her sister had not the smallest objection and the pianoforte was opened and darcy after a few moments recollection was not sorry for it he began to feel the danger of paying elizabeth too much attention chapter  in consequence of an agreement between the sisters elizabeth wrote the next morning to their mother to beg that the carriage might be sent for them in the course of the day
he is moreover aware that she does disapprove the connection he dares not therefore at present confess to her his engagement with marianne and he feels himself obliged from his dependent situation to give into her schemes and absent himself from devonshire for a while you will tell me i know that this may or may not have happened but i will listen to no cavil unless you can point out any other method of understanding the affair as satisfactory at this then you would have told me that it might or might not have happened you had rather look out for misery for marianne and guilt for poor willoughby than an apology for the latter you are resolved to think him blameable because he took leave of us with less affection than his usual behaviour has shewn and is no allowance to be made for inadvertence or for spirits depressed by recent disappointment are no probabilities to be accepted merely because they are not certainties is nothing due to the man whom we have all such reason to love and no reason in the world to think ill of to the possibility of motives unanswerable in themselves though unavoidably secret for a while but suspicion of something unpleasant is the inevitable consequence of such an alteration as we just witnessed in him there is great truth however in what you have now urged of the allowances which ought to be made for him and it is my wish to be candid in my judgment of every body willoughby may undoubtedly have very sufficient reasons for his conduct and i will hope that he has but it would have been more like willoughby to acknowledge them at once secrecy may be advisable but still i cannot help wondering at its being practiced by him do not blame him however for departing from his character where the deviation is necessary but you really do admit the justice of what i have said in his defence it may be proper to conceal their engagement if they are engaged from mrs smithand if that is the case it must be highly expedient for willoughby to be but little in devonshire at present but this is no excuse for their concealing it from us my dear child do you accuse willoughby and marianne of concealment
supposing him to be attached to me would my refusing to accept his hand make him wish to bestow it on his cousin allow me to say lady catherine that the arguments with which you have supported this extraordinary application have been as frivolous as the application was illjudged you have widely mistaken my character if you think i can be worked on by such persuasions as these how far your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs i cannot tell but you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine i must beg therefore to be importuned no farther on the subject to all the objections i have already urged i have still another to add i am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sisters infamous elopement i know it all that the young mans marrying her was a patchedup business at the expence of your father and uncles is her husband is the son of his late fathers steward to be his brother you can now have nothing further to say she resentfully answered you have no regard then for the honour and credit of my nephew do you not consider that a connection with you must disgrace him in the eyes of everybody i am only resolved to act in that manner which will in my own opinion constitute my happiness without reference to you or to any person so wholly unconnected with me you refuse to obey the claims of duty honour and gratitude you are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends and make him the contempt of the world neither duty nor honour nor gratitude replied elizabeth have any possible claim on me in the present instance no principle of either would be violated by my marriage with mr and with regard to the resentment of his family or the indignation of the world if the former were excited by his marrying me it would not give me one moments concernand the world in general would have too much sense to join in the scorn do not imagine miss bennet that your ambition will ever be gratified i hoped to find you reasonable but depend upon it i will carry my point
commonly after seeing the harpooneers furnished with all things they demanded he would escape from their clutches into his little pantry adjoining and fearfully peep out at them through the blinds of its door till all was over it was a sight to see queequeg seated over against tashtego opposing his filed teeth to the indians crosswise to them daggoo seated on the floor for a bench would have brought his hearseplumed head to the low carlines at every motion of his colossal limbs making the low cabin framework to shake as when an african elephant goes passenger in a ship but for all this the great negro was wonderfully abstemious not to say dainty it seemed hardly possible that by such comparatively small mouthfuls he could keep up the vitality diffused through so broad baronial and superb a person but doubtless this noble savage fed strong and drank deep of the abounding element of air and through his dilated nostrils snuffed in the sublime life of the worlds not by beef or by bread are giants made or nourished but queequeg he had a mortal barbaric smack of the lip in eatingan ugly sound enoughso much so that the trembling doughboy almost looked to see whether any marks of teeth lurked in his own lean arms and when he would hear tashtego singing out for him to produce himself that his bones might be picked the simplewitted steward all but shattered the crockery hanging round him in the pantry by his sudden fits of the palsy nor did the whetstone which the harpooneers carried in their pockets for their lances and other weapons and with which whetstones at dinner they would ostentatiously sharpen their knives that grating sound did not at all tend to tranquillize poor doughboy how could he forget that in his island days queequeg for one must certainly have been guilty of some murderous convivial indiscretions hard fares the white waiter who waits upon cannibals not a napkin should he carry on his arm but a buckler in good time though to his great delight the three saltsea warriors would rise and depart to his credulous fablemongering ears all their martial bones jingling in them at every step like moorish scimetars in scabbards but though these barbarians dined in the cabin and nominally lived there still being anything but sedentary in their habits they were scarcely ever in it except at mealtimes and just before sleepingtime when they passed through it to their own peculiar quarters in this one matter ahab seemed no exception to most american whale captains who as a set rather incline to the opinion that by rights the ships cabin belongs to them and that it is by courtesy alone that anybody else is at any time permitted there so that in real truth the mates and harpooneers of the pequod might more properly be said to have lived out of the cabin than in it for when they did enter it it was something as a streetdoor enters a house turning inwards for a moment only to be turned out the next and as a permanent thing residing in the open air nor did they lose much hereby in the cabin was no companionship socially ahab was inaccessible though nominally included in the census of christendom he was still an alien to it he lived in the world as the last of the grisly bears lived in settled missouri
he who she had been persuaded would avoid her as his greatest enemy seemed on this accidental meeting most eager to preserve the acquaintance and without any indelicate display of regard or any peculiarity of manner where their two selves only were concerned was soliciting the good opinion of her friends and bent on making her known to his sister such a change in a man of so much pride exciting not only astonishment but gratitudefor to love ardent love it must be attributed and as such its impression on her was of a sort to be encouraged as by no means unpleasing though it could not be exactly defined she respected she esteemed she was grateful to him she felt a real interest in his welfare and she only wanted to know how far she wished that welfare to depend upon herself and how far it would be for the happiness of both that she should employ the power which her fancy told her she still possessed of bringing on her the renewal of his addresses it had been settled in the evening between the aunt and the niece that such a striking civility as miss darcys in coming to see them on the very day of her arrival at pemberley for she had reached it only to a late breakfast ought to be imitated though it could not be equalled by some exertion of politeness on their side and consequently that it would be highly expedient to wait on her at pemberley the following morning elizabeth was pleased though when she asked herself the reason she had very little to say in reply the fishing scheme had been renewed the day before and a positive engagement made of his meeting some of the gentlemen at pemberley before noon chapter  convinced as elizabeth now was that miss bingleys dislike of her had originated in jealousy she could not help feeling how unwelcome her appearance at pemberley must be to her and was curious to know with how much civility on that ladys side the acquaintance would now be renewed on reaching the house they were shown through the hall into the saloon whose northern aspect rendered it delightful for summer its windows opening to the ground admitted a most refreshing view of the high woody hills behind the house and of the beautiful oaks and spanish chestnuts which were scattered over the intermediate lawn in this house they were received by miss darcy who was sitting there with mrs hurst and miss bingley and the lady with whom she lived in london georgianas reception of them was very civil but attended with all the embarrassment which though proceeding from shyness and the fear of doing wrong would easily give to those who felt themselves inferior the belief of her being proud and reserved gardiner and her niece however did her justice and pitied her hurst and miss bingley they were noticed only by a curtsey and on their being seated a pause awkward as such pauses must always be succeeded for a few moments annesley a genteel agreeablelooking woman whose endeavour to introduce some kind of discourse proved her to be more truly wellbred than either of the others and between her and mrs gardiner with occasional help from elizabeth the conversation was carried on miss darcy looked as if she wished for courage enough to join in it and sometimes did venture a short sentence when there was least danger of its being heard elizabeth soon saw that she was herself closely watched by miss bingley and that she could not speak a word especially to miss darcy without calling her attention this observation would not have prevented her from trying to talk to the latter had they not been seated at an inconvenient distance but she was not sorry to be spared the necessity of saying much she expected every moment that some of the gentlemen would enter the room
she was not equal however to much conversation and when miss bingley left them together could attempt little besides expressions of gratitude for the extraordinary kindness she was treated with when breakfast was over they were joined by the sisters and elizabeth began to like them herself when she saw how much affection and solicitude they showed for jane the apothecary came and having examined his patient said as might be supposed that she had caught a violent cold and that they must endeavour to get the better of it advised her to return to bed and promised her some draughts the advice was followed readily for the feverish symptoms increased and her head ached acutely elizabeth did not quit her room for a moment nor were the other ladies often absent the gentlemen being out they had in fact nothing to do elsewhere when the clock struck three elizabeth felt that she must go and very unwillingly said so miss bingley offered her the carriage and she only wanted a little pressing to accept it when jane testified such concern in parting with her that miss bingley was obliged to convert the offer of the chaise to an invitation to remain at netherfield for the present elizabeth most thankfully consented and a servant was dispatched to longbourn to acquaint the family with her stay and bring back a supply of clothes chapter  at five oclock the two ladies retired to dress and at halfpast six elizabeth was summoned to dinner to the civil inquiries which then poured in and amongst which she had the pleasure of distinguishing the much superior solicitude of mr bingleys she could not make a very favourable answer the sisters on hearing this repeated three or four times how much they were grieved how shocking it was to have a bad cold and how excessively they disliked being ill themselves and then thought no more of the matter and their indifference towards jane when not immediately before them restored elizabeth to the enjoyment of all her former dislike their brother indeed was the only one of the party whom she could regard with any complacency his anxiety for jane was evident and his attentions to herself most pleasing and they prevented her feeling herself so much an intruder as she believed she was considered by the others hurst by whom elizabeth sat he was an indolent man who lived only to eat drink and play at cards who when he found her to prefer a plain dish to a ragout had nothing to say to her when dinner was over she returned directly to jane and miss bingley began abusing her as soon as she was out of the room her manners were pronounced to be very bad indeed a mixture of pride and impertinence she had no conversation no style no beauty hurst thought the same and added she has nothing in short to recommend her but being an excellent walker why must she be scampering about the country because her sister had a cold yes and her petticoat i hope you saw her petticoat six inches deep in mud i am absolutely certain and the gown which had been let down to hide it not doing its office
pull pull my fine heartsalive pull my children pull my little ones drawlingly and soothingly sighed stubb to his crew some of whom still showed signs of uneasiness they are only five more hands come to help usnever mind from wherethe more the merrier pull then do pull never mind the brimstonedevils are good fellows enough so so there you are now thats the stroke for a thousand pounds thats the stroke to sweep the stakes the devil fetch ye ye ragamuffin rapscallions ye are all asleep why in the name of gudgeons and gingercakes dont ye pull whipping out the sharp knife from his girdle every mothers son of ye draw his knife and pull with the blade between his teeth now ye do something that looks like it my steelbits stubbs exordium to his crew is given here at large because he had rather a peculiar way of talking to them in general and especially in inculcating the religion of rowing but you must not suppose from this specimen of his sermonizings that he ever flew into downright passions with his congregation not at all and therein consisted his chief peculiarity he would say the most terrific things to his crew in a tone so strangely compounded of fun and fury and the fury seemed so calculated merely as a spice to the fun that no oarsman could hear such queer invocations without pulling for dear life and yet pulling for the mere joke of the thing besides he all the time looked so easy and indolent himself so loungingly managed his steeringoar and so broadly gapedopenmouthed at timesthat the mere sight of such a yawning commander by sheer force of contrast acted like a charm upon the crew then again stubb was one of those odd sort of humorists whose jollity is sometimes so curiously ambiguous as to put all inferiors on their guard in the matter of obeying them in obedience to a sign from ahab starbuck was now pulling obliquely across stubbs bow and when for a minute or so the two boats were pretty near to each other stubb hailed the mate returned starbuck turning round not a single inch as he spoke still earnestly but whisperingly urging his crew his face set like a flint from stubbs  in a whisper to his crew then speaking out loud again a sad business mr aye aye i thought as much soliloquized stubb when the boats diverged as soon as i clapt eye on em i thought so aye and thats what he went into the after hold for so often as doughboy long suspected now the advent of these outlandish strangers at such a critical instant as the lowering of the boats from the deck this had not unreasonably awakened a sort of superstitious amazement in some of the ships company but archys fancied discovery having some time previous got abroad among them though indeed not credited then this had in some small measure prepared them for the event
from something that he told me in our journey hither i have reason to think bingley very much indebted to him but i ought to beg his pardon for i have no right to suppose that bingley was the person meant it is a circumstance which darcy could not wish to be generally known because if it were to get round to the ladys family it would be an unpleasant thing and remember that i have not much reason for supposing it to be bingley what he told me was merely this that he congratulated himself on having lately saved a friend from the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage but without mentioning names or any other particulars and i only suspected it to be bingley from believing him the kind of young man to get into a scrape of that sort and from knowing them to have been together the whole of last summer i understood that there were some very strong objections against the lady he did not talk to me of his own arts said fitzwilliam smiling elizabeth made no answer and walked on her heart swelling with indignation after watching her a little fitzwilliam asked her why she was so thoughtful i am thinking of what you have been telling me said she you are rather disposed to call his interference officious darcy had to decide on the propriety of his friends inclination or why upon his own judgement alone he was to determine and direct in what manner his friend was to be happy but she continued recollecting herself as we know none of the particulars it is not fair to condemn him it is not to be supposed that there was much affection in the case that is not an unnatural surmise said fitzwilliam but it is a lessening of the honour of my cousins triumph very sadly this was spoken jestingly but it appeared to her so just a picture of mr darcy that she would not trust herself with an answer and therefore abruptly changing the conversation talked on indifferent matters until they reached the parsonage there shut into her own room as soon as their visitor left them she could think without interruption of all that she had heard it was not to be supposed that any other people could be meant than those with whom she was connected there could not exist in the world two men over whom mr
your wife has a claim to your politeness to your respect at least she must be attached to you or she would not have married you to treat her with unkindness to speak of her slightingly is no atonement to mariannenor can i suppose it a relief to your own conscience do not talk to me of my wife said he with a heavy sigh well married we were and came down to combe magna to be happy and afterwards returned to town to be gay  am ibe it only one degreeam i less guilty in your opinion than i was before  you have proved yourself on the whole less faulty than i had believed you you have proved your heart less wicked much less wicked but i hardly knowthe misery that you have inflictedi hardly know what could have made it worse will you repeat to your sister when she is recovered what i have been telling you let me be a little lightened too in her opinion as well as in yours let me be able to fancy that a better knowledge of my heart and of my present feelings will draw from her a more spontaneous more natural more gentle less dignified forgiveness tell her of my misery and my penitencetell her that my heart was never inconstant to her and if you will that at this moment she is dearer to me than ever i will tell her all that is necessary to what may comparatively be called your justification but you have not explained to me the particular reason of your coming now nor how you heard of her illness last night in drury lane lobby i ran against sir john middleton and when he saw who i wasfor the first time these two monthshe spoke to me that he had cut me ever since my marriage i had seen without surprise or resentment now however his goodnatured honest stupid soul full of indignation against me and concern for your sister could not resist the temptation of telling me what he knew ought tothough probably he did not think it wouldvex me horridly as bluntly as he could speak it therefore he told me that marianne dashwood was dying of a putrid fever at clevelanda letter that morning received from mrs jennings declared her danger most imminentthe palmers are all gone off in a fright c
you know my mothers ideas as to the necessity of constant company for her friends but really and upon my honour i will try to do what i think to be the wisest and now i hope you are satisfied her aunt assured her that she was and elizabeth having thanked her for the kindness of her hints they parted a wonderful instance of advice being given on such a point without being resented collins returned into hertfordshire soon after it had been quitted by the gardiners and jane but as he took up his abode with the lucases his arrival was no great inconvenience to mrs his marriage was now fast approaching and she was at length so far resigned as to think it inevitable and even repeatedly to say in an illnatured tone that she wished they might be happy thursday was to be the wedding day and on wednesday miss lucas paid her farewell visit and when she rose to take leave elizabeth ashamed of her mothers ungracious and reluctant good wishes and sincerely affected herself accompanied her out of the room as they went downstairs together charlotte said i shall depend on hearing from you very often eliza elizabeth could not refuse though she foresaw little pleasure in the visit my father and maria are coming to me in march added charlotte and i hope you will consent to be of the party indeed eliza you will be as welcome as either of them the wedding took place the bride and bridegroom set off for kent from the church door and everybody had as much to say or to hear on the subject as usual elizabeth soon heard from her friend and their correspondence was as regular and frequent as it had ever been that it should be equally unreserved was impossible elizabeth could never address her without feeling that all the comfort of intimacy was over and though determined not to slacken as a correspondent it was for the sake of what had been rather than what was charlottes first letters were received with a good deal of eagerness there could not but be curiosity to know how she would speak of her new home how she would like lady catherine and how happy she would dare pronounce herself to be though when the letters were read elizabeth felt that charlotte expressed herself on every point exactly as she might have foreseen she wrote cheerfully seemed surrounded with comforts and mentioned nothing which she could not praise the house furniture neighbourhood and roads were all to her taste and lady catherines behaviour was most friendly and obliging collinss picture of hunsford and rosings rationally softened and elizabeth perceived that she must wait for her own visit there to know the rest jane had already written a few lines to her sister to announce their safe arrival in london and when she wrote again elizabeth hoped it would be in her power to say something of the bingleys her impatience for this second letter was as well rewarded as impatience generally is jane had been a week in town without either seeing or hearing from caroline
miss dashwood had a delicate complexion regular features and a remarkably pretty figure her form though not so correct as her sisters in having the advantage of height was more striking and her face was so lovely that when in the common cant of praise she was called a beautiful girl truth was less violently outraged than usually happens her skin was very brown but from its transparency her complexion was uncommonly brilliant her features were all good her smile was sweet and attractive and in her eyes which were very dark there was a life a spirit an eagerness which could hardily be seen without delight from willoughby their expression was at first held back by the embarrassment which the remembrance of his assistance created but when this passed away when her spirits became collected when she saw that to the perfect goodbreeding of the gentleman he united frankness and vivacity and above all when she heard him declare that of music and dancing he was passionately fond she gave him such a look of approbation as secured the largest share of his discourse to herself for the rest of his stay it was only necessary to mention any favourite amusement to engage her to talk she could not be silent when such points were introduced and she had neither shyness nor reserve in their discussion they speedily discovered that their enjoyment of dancing and music was mutual and that it arose from a general conformity of judgment in all that related to either encouraged by this to a further examination of his opinions she proceeded to question him on the subject of books her favourite authors were brought forward and dwelt upon with so rapturous a delight that any young man of five and twenty must have been insensible indeed not to become an immediate convert to the excellence of such works however disregarded before the same books the same passages were idolized by eachor if any difference appeared any objection arose it lasted no longer than till the force of her arguments and the brightness of her eyes could be displayed he acquiesced in all her decisions caught all her enthusiasm and long before his visit concluded they conversed with the familiarity of a longestablished acquaintance well marianne said elinor as soon as he had left them for one morning i think you have done pretty well willoughbys opinion in almost every matter of importance you know what he thinks of cowper and scott you are certain of his estimating their beauties as he ought and you have received every assurance of his admiring pope no more than is proper but how is your acquaintance to be long supported under such extraordinary despatch of every subject for discourse another meeting will suffice to explain his sentiments on picturesque beauty and second marriages and then you can have nothing farther to ask i have been too much at my ease too happy too frank i have erred against every commonplace notion of decorum i have been open and sincere where i ought to have been reserved spiritless dull and deceitfulhad i talked only of the weather and the roads and had i spoken only once in ten minutes this reproach would have been spared my love said her mother you must not be offended with elinorshe was only in jest i should scold her myself if she were capable of wishing to check the delight of your conversation with our new friend
i do not understand what you mean by interrupting them said elinor you were all in the same room together were not you miss dashwood do you think people make love when any body else is by no no they were shut up in the drawingroom together and all i heard was only by listening at the door cried elinor have you been repeating to me what you only learnt yourself by listening at the door i am sorry i did not know it before for i certainly would not have suffered you to give me particulars of a conversation which you ought not to have known yourself and i am sure lucy would have done just the same by me for a year or two back when martha sharpe and i had so many secrets together she never made any bones of hiding in a closet or behind a chimneyboard on purpose to hear what we said elinor tried to talk of something else but miss steele could not be kept beyond a couple of minutes from what was uppermost in her mind edward talks of going to oxford soon said she but now he is lodging at no however i shant say anything against them to you and to be sure they did send us home in their own chariot which was more than i looked for and for my part i was all in a fright for fear your sister should ask us for the huswifes she had gave us a day or two before but however nothing was said about them and i took care to keep mine out of sight edward have got some business at oxford he says so he must go there for a time and after that as soon as he can light upon a bishop he will be ordained giggling as she spoke id lay my life i know what my cousins will say when they hear of it they will tell me i should write to the doctor to get edward the curacy of his new living i know they will but i am sure i would not do such a thing for all the world  i shall say directly i wonder how you could think of such a thing  well said elinor it is a comfort to be prepared against the worst miss steele was going to reply on the same subject but the approach of her own party made another more necessary i had a vast deal more to say to you but i must not stay away from them not any longer he makes a monstrous deal of money and they keep their own coach jennings about it myself but pray tell her i am quite happy to hear she is not in anger against us and lady middleton the same and if anything should happen to take you and your sister away and mrs
sir william lucas and his daughter maria a goodhumoured girl but as emptyheaded as himself had nothing to say that could be worth hearing and were listened to with about as much delight as the rattle of the chaise elizabeth loved absurdities but she had known sir williams too long he could tell her nothing new of the wonders of his presentation and knighthood and his civilities were worn out like his information it was a journey of only twentyfour miles and they began it so early as to be in gracechurch street by noon gardiners door jane was at a drawingroom window watching their arrival when they entered the passage she was there to welcome them and elizabeth looking earnestly in her face was pleased to see it healthful and lovely as ever on the stairs were a troop of little boys and girls whose eagerness for their cousins appearance would not allow them to wait in the drawingroom and whose shyness as they had not seen her for a twelvemonth prevented their coming lower the day passed most pleasantly away the morning in bustle and shopping and the evening at one of the theatres their first object was her sister and she was more grieved than astonished to hear in reply to her minute inquiries that though jane always struggled to support her spirits there were periods of dejection it was reasonable however to hope that they would not continue long gardiner gave her the particulars also of miss bingleys visit in gracechurch street and repeated conversations occurring at different times between jane and herself which proved that the former had from her heart given up the acquaintance gardiner then rallied her niece on wickhams desertion and complimented her on bearing it so well but my dear elizabeth she added what sort of girl is miss king pray my dear aunt what is the difference in matrimonial affairs between the mercenary and the prudent motive last christmas you were afraid of his marrying me because it would be imprudent and now because he is trying to get a girl with only ten thousand pounds you want to find out that he is mercenary if you will only tell me what sort of girl miss king is i shall know what to think but he paid her not the smallest attention till her grandfathers death made her mistress of this fortune if it were not allowable for him to gain my affections because i had no money what occasion could there be for making love to a girl whom he did not care about and who was equally poor but there seems an indelicacy in directing his attentions towards her so soon after this event a man in distressed circumstances has not time for all those elegant decorums which other people may observe it only shows her being deficient in something herselfsense or feeling
she could not but smile to see the graciousness of both mother and daughter towards the very person for lucy was particularly distinguishedwhom of all others had they known as much as she did they would have been most anxious to mortify while she herself who had comparatively no power to wound them sat pointedly slighted by both but while she smiled at a graciousness so misapplied she could not reflect on the meanspirited folly from which it sprung nor observe the studied attentions with which the miss steeles courted its continuance without thoroughly despising them all four lucy was all exultation on being so honorably distinguished and miss steele wanted only to be teazed about dr the dinner was a grand one the servants were numerous and every thing bespoke the mistresss inclination for show and the masters ability to support it in spite of the improvements and additions which were making to the norland estate and in spite of its owner having once been within some thousand pounds of being obliged to sell out at a loss nothing gave any symptom of that indigence which he had tried to infer from itno poverty of any kind except of conversation appearedbut there the deficiency was considerable john dashwood had not much to say for himself that was worth hearing and his wife had still less but there was no peculiar disgrace in this for it was very much the case with the chief of their visitors who almost all laboured under one or other of these disqualifications for being agreeablewant of sense either natural or improvedwant of elegancewant of spiritsor want of temper when the ladies withdrew to the drawingroom after dinner this poverty was particularly evident for the gentlemen had supplied the discourse with some varietythe variety of politics inclosing land and breaking horsesbut then it was all over and one subject only engaged the ladies till coffee came in which was the comparative heights of harry dashwood and lady middletons second son william who were nearly of the same age had both the children been there the affair might have been determined too easily by measuring them at once but as harry only was present it was all conjectural assertion on both sides and every body had a right to be equally positive in their opinion and to repeat it over and over again as often as they liked the parties stood thus the two mothers though each really convinced that her own son was the tallest politely decided in favour of the other the two grandmothers with not less partiality but more sincerity were equally earnest in support of their own descendant lucy who was hardly less anxious to please one parent than the other thought the boys were both remarkably tall for their age and could not conceive that there could be the smallest difference in the world between them and miss steele with yet greater address gave it as fast as she could in favour of each elinor having once delivered her opinion on williams side by which she offended mrs ferrars and fanny still more did not see the necessity of enforcing it by any farther assertion and marianne when called on for hers offended them all by declaring that she had no opinion to give as she had never thought about it before her removing from norland elinor had painted a very pretty pair of screens for her sisterinlaw which being now just mounted and brought home ornamented her present drawing room and these screens catching the eye of john dashwood on his following the other gentlemen into the room were officiously handed by him to colonel brandon for his admiration these are done by my eldest sister said he and you as a man of taste will i dare say be pleased with them i do not know whether you have ever happened to see any of her performances before but she is in general reckoned to draw extremely well the colonel though disclaiming all pretensions to connoisseurship warmly admired the screens as he would have done any thing painted by miss dashwood and on the curiosity of the others being of course excited they were handed round for general inspection ferrars not aware of their being elinors work particularly requested to look at them and after they had received gratifying testimony of lady middletonss approbation fanny presented them to her mother considerately informing her at the same time that they were done by miss dashwood ferrarsvery prettyand without regarding them at all returned them to her daughter
bennet having dawdled about in the vestibule to watch for the end of the conference no sooner saw elizabeth open the door and with quick step pass her towards the staircase than she entered the breakfastroom and congratulated both him and herself in warm terms on the happy prospect of their nearer connection collins received and returned these felicitations with equal pleasure and then proceeded to relate the particulars of their interview with the result of which he trusted he had every reason to be satisfied since the refusal which his cousin had steadfastly given him would naturally flow from her bashful modesty and the genuine delicacy of her character bennet she would have been glad to be equally satisfied that her daughter had meant to encourage him by protesting against his proposals but she dared not believe it and could not help saying so collins she added that lizzy shall be brought to reason she is a very headstrong foolish girl and does not know her own interest but i will make her know it collins but if she is really headstrong and foolish i know not whether she would altogether be a very desirable wife to a man in my situation who naturally looks for happiness in the marriage state if therefore she actually persists in rejecting my suit perhaps it were better not to force her into accepting me because if liable to such defects of temper she could not contribute much to my felicity in everything else she is as goodnatured a girl as ever lived bennet and we shall very soon settle it with her i am sure she would not give him time to reply but hurrying instantly to her husband called out as she entered the library oh bennet you are wanted immediately we are all in an uproar collins for she vows she will not have him and if you do not make haste he will change his mind and not have her bennet raised his eyes from his book as she entered and fixed them on her face with a calm unconcern which was not in the least altered by her communication i have not the pleasure of understanding you said he when she had finished her speech bennet rang the bell and miss elizabeth was summoned to the library very welland this offer of marriage you have refused from this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents your mother will never see you again if you do not marry mr elizabeth could not but smile at such a conclusion of such a beginning but mrs bennet who had persuaded herself that her husband regarded the affair as she wished was excessively disappointed
and when we consider that other theory of the natural philosophers that all other earthly huesevery stately or lovely emblazoningthe sweet tinges of sunset skies and woods yea and the gilded velvets of butterflies and the butterfly cheeks of young girls all these are but subtile deceits not actually inherent in substances but only laid on from without so that all deified nature absolutely paints like the harlot whose allurements cover nothing but the charnelhouse within and when we proceed further and consider that the mystical cosmetic which produces every one of her hues the great principle of light for ever remains white or colourless in itself and if operating without medium upon matter would touch all objects even tulips and roses with its own blank tingepondering all this the palsied universe lies before us a leper and like wilful travellers in lapland who refuse to wear coloured and colouring glasses upon their eyes so the wretched infidel gazes himself blind at the monumental white shroud that wraps all the prospect around him and of all these things the albino whale was the symbol it was the middlewatch a fair moonlight the seamen were standing in a cordon extending from one of the freshwater butts in the waist to the scuttlebutt near the taffrail in this manner they passed the buckets to fill the scuttlebutt standing for the most part on the hallowed precincts of the quarterdeck they were careful not to speak or rustle their feet from hand to hand the buckets went in the deepest silence only broken by the occasional flap of a sail and the steady hum of the unceasingly advancing keel it was in the midst of this repose that archy one of the cordon whose post was near the afterhatches whispered to his neighbor a cholo the words above there it is againunder the hatchesdont you hear ita coughit sounded like a cough it sounds like two or three sleepers turning over now its the three soaked biscuits ye eat for supper turning over inside of yenothing else aye you are the chap aint ye that heard the hum of the old quakeresss knittingneedles fifty miles at sea from nantucket youre the chap hark ye cabaco there is somebody down in the afterhold that has not yet been seen on deck and i suspect our old mogul knows something of it too i heard stubb tell flask one morning watch that there was something of that sort in the wind had you followed captain ahab down into his cabin after the squall that took place on the night succeeding that wild ratification of his purpose with his crew you would have seen him go to a locker in the transom and bringing out a large wrinkled roll of yellowish sea charts spread them before him on his screweddown table then seating himself before it you would have seen him intently study the various lines and shadings which there met his eye and with slow but steady pencil trace additional courses over spaces that before were blank at intervals he would refer to piles of old logbooks beside him wherein were set down the seasons and places in which on various former voyages of various ships sperm whales had been captured or seen while thus employed the heavy pewter lamp suspended in chains over his head continually rocked with the motion of the ship and for ever threw shifting gleams and shadows of lines upon his wrinkled brow till it almost seemed that while he himself was marking out lines and courses on the wrinkled charts some invisible pencil was also tracing lines and courses upon the deeply marked chart of his forehead but it was not this night in particular that in the solitude of his cabin ahab thus pondered over his charts almost every night they were brought out almost every night some pencil marks were effaced and others were substituted for with the charts of all four oceans before him ahab was threading a maze of currents and eddies with a view to the more certain accomplishment of that monomaniac thought of his soul
as if struck by some enchanters wand the sleepy ship and every sleeper in it all at once started into wakefulness and more than a score of voices from all parts of the vessel simultaneously with the three notes from aloft shouted forth the accustomed cry as the great fish slowly and regularly spouted the sparkling brine into the air and obeying his own order he dashed the helm down before the helmsman could handle the spokes the sudden exclamations of the crew must have alarmed the whale and ere the boats were down majestically turning he swam away to the leeward but with such a steady tranquillity and making so few ripples as he swam that thinking after all he might not as yet be alarmed ahab gave orders that not an oar should be used and no man must speak but in whispers so seated like ontario indians on the gunwales of the boats we swiftly but silently paddled along the calm not admitting of the noiseless sails being set presently as we thus glided in chase the monster perpendicularly flitted his tail forty feet into the air and then sank out of sight like a tower swallowed up was the cry an announcement immediately followed by stubbs producing his match and igniting his pipe for now a respite was granted after the full interval of his sounding had elapsed the whale rose again and being now in advance of the smokers boat and much nearer to it than to any of the others stubb counted upon the honour of the capture it was obvious now that the whale had at length become aware of his pursuers all silence of cautiousness was therefore no longer of use paddles were dropped and oars came loudly into play and still puffing at his pipe stubb cheered on his crew to the assault all alive to his jeopardy he was going head out  that part obliquely projecting from the mad yeast which he brewed  it will be seen in some other place of what a very light substance the entire interior of the sperm whales enormous head consists though apparently the most massive it is by far the most buoyant part about him so that with ease he elevates it in the air and invariably does so when going at his utmost speed besides such is the breadth of the upper part of the front of his head and such the tapering cutwater formation of the lower part that by obliquely elevating his head he thereby may be said to transform himself from a bluffbowed sluggish galliot into a sharppointed new york pilotboat dont hurry yourselves take plenty of timebut start her start her like thunderclaps thats all cried stubb spluttering out the smoke as he spoke start her now give em the long and strong stroke tashtego start her tash my boystart her all but keep cool keep coolcucumbers is the wordeasy easyonly start her like grim death and grinning devils and raise the buried dead perpendicular out of their graves boysthats all screamed the gayheader in reply raising some old warwhoop to the skies as every oarsman in the strained boat involuntarily bounced forward with the one tremendous leading stroke which the eager indian gave
she who had seen her week after week so constantly suffering oppressed by anguish of heart which she had neither courage to speak of nor fortitude to conceal now saw with a joy which no other could equally share an apparent composure of mind which in being the result as she trusted of serious reflection must eventually lead her to contentment and cheerfulness as they approached barton indeed and entered on scenes of which every field and every tree brought some peculiar some painful recollection she grew silent and thoughtful and turning away her face from their notice sat earnestly gazing through the window but here elinor could neither wonder nor blame and when she saw as she assisted marianne from the carriage that she had been crying she saw only an emotion too natural in itself to raise any thing less tender than pity and in its unobtrusiveness entitled to praise in the whole of her subsequent manner she traced the direction of a mind awakened to reasonable exertion for no sooner had they entered their common sittingroom than marianne turned her eyes around it with a look of resolute firmness as if determined at once to accustom herself to the sight of every object with which the remembrance of willoughby could be connected she said little but every sentence aimed at cheerfulness and though a sigh sometimes escaped her it never passed away without the atonement of a smile she went to it but the music on which her eye first rested was an opera procured for her by willoughby containing some of their favourite duets and bearing on its outward leaf her own name in his handwriting she shook her head put the music aside and after running over the keys for a minute complained of feebleness in her fingers and closed the instrument again declaring however with firmness as she did so that she should in future practice much the next morning produced no abatement in these happy symptoms on the contrary with a mind and body alike strengthened by rest she looked and spoke with more genuine spirit anticipating the pleasure of margarets return and talking of the dear family party which would then be restored of their mutual pursuits and cheerful society as the only happiness worth a wish when the weather is settled and i have recovered my strength said she we will take long walks together every day we will walk to the farm at the edge of the down and see how the children go on we will walk to sir johns new plantations at barton cross and the abbeyland and we will often go to the old ruins of the priory and try to trace its foundations as far as we are told they once reached i mean never to be later in rising than six and from that time till dinner i shall divide every moment between music and reading i have formed my plan and am determined to enter on a course of serious study our own library is too well known to me to be resorted to for any thing beyond mere amusement but there are many works well worth reading at the park and there are others of more modern production which i know i can borrow of colonel brandon by reading only six hours aday i shall gain in the course of a twelvemonth a great deal of instruction which i now feel myself to want elinor honoured her for a plan which originated so nobly as this though smiling to see the same eager fancy which had been leading her to the extreme of languid indolence and selfish repining now at work in introducing excess into a scheme of such rational employment and virtuous selfcontrol her smile however changed to a sigh when she remembered that promise to willoughby was yet unfulfilled and feared she had that to communicate which might again unsettle the mind of marianne and ruin at least for a time this fair prospect of busy tranquillity willing therefore to delay the evil hour she resolved to wait till her sisters health were more secure before she appointed it marianne had been two or three days at home before the weather was fine enough for an invalid like herself to venture out
marianne was spared from the troublesome feelings of contempt and resentment on this impertinent examination of their features and on the puppyism of his manner in deciding on all the different horrors of the different toothpickcases presented to his inspection by remaining unconscious of it all for she was as well able to collect her thoughts within herself and be as ignorant of what was passing around her in mr the ivory the gold and the pearls all received their appointment and the gentleman having named the last day on which his existence could be continued without the possession of the toothpickcase drew on his gloves with leisurely care and bestowing another glance on the miss dashwoods but such a one as seemed rather to demand than express admiration walked off with a happy air of real conceit and affected indifference elinor lost no time in bringing her business forward was on the point of concluding it when another gentleman presented himself at her side she turned her eyes towards his face and found him with some surprise to be her brother their affection and pleasure in meeting was just enough to make a very creditable appearance in mr john dashwood was really far from being sorry to see his sisters again it rather gave them satisfaction and his inquiries after their mother were respectful and attentive elinor found that he and fanny had been in town two days i wished very much to call upon you yesterday said he but it was impossible for we were obliged to take harry to see the wild beasts at exeter exchange and we spent the rest of the day with mrs this morning i had fully intended to call on you if i could possibly find a spare half hour but one has always so much to do on first coming to town but tomorrow i think i shall certainly be able to call in berkeley street and be introduced to your friend mrs and the middletons too you must introduce me to them as my motherinlaws relations i shall be happy to show them every respect they are excellent neighbours to you in the country i understand their attention to our comfort their friendliness in every particular is more than i can express i am extremely glad to hear it upon my word extremely glad indeed but so it ought to be they are people of large fortune they are related to you and every civility and accommodation that can serve to make your situation pleasant might be reasonably expected and so you are most comfortably settled in your little cottage and want for nothing edward brought us a most charming account of the place the most complete thing of its kind he said that ever was and you all seemed to enjoy it beyond any thing it was a great satisfaction to us to hear it i assure you elinor did feel a little ashamed of her brother and was not sorry to be spared the necessity of answering him by the arrival of mrs
allow me to congratulate you on having so respectable and welljudging a friend and to join in his wish that the livingit is about two hundred ayearwere much more considerable and such as might better enable you toas might be more than a temporary accommodation to yourselfsuch in short as might establish all your views of happiness what edward felt as he could not say it himself it cannot be expected that any one else should say for him he looked all the astonishment which such unexpected such unthoughtof information could not fail of exciting but he said only these two words colonel brandon yes continued elinor gathering more resolution as some of the worst was over colonel brandon means it as a testimony of his concern for what has lately passedfor the cruel situation in which the unjustifiable conduct of your family has placed youa concern which i am sure marianne myself and all your friends must share and likewise as a proof of his high esteem for your general character and his particular approbation of your behaviour on the present occasion the unkindness of your own relations has made you astonished to find friendship any where no replied he with sudden consciousness not to find it in you for i cannot be ignorant that to you to your goodness i owe it all i feel iti would express it if i couldbut as you well know i am no orator i do assure you that you owe it entirely at least almost entirely to your own merit and colonel brandons discernment of it i did not even know till i understood his design that the living was vacant nor had it ever occurred to me that he might have had such a living in his gift as a friend of mine of my family he may perhapsindeed i know he has still greater pleasure in bestowing it but upon my word you owe nothing to my solicitation truth obliged her to acknowledge some small share in the action but she was at the same time so unwilling to appear as the benefactress of edward that she acknowledged it with hesitation which probably contributed to fix that suspicion in his mind which had recently entered it for a short time he sat deep in thought after elinor had ceased to speakat last and as if it were rather an effort he said colonel brandon seems a man of great worth and respectability i have always heard him spoken of as such and your brother i know esteems him highly he is undoubtedly a sensible man and in his manners perfectly the gentleman indeed replied elinor i believe that you will find him on farther acquaintance all that you have heard him to be and as you will be such very near neighbours for i understand the parsonage is almost close to the mansionhouse it is particularly important that he should be all this edward made no answer but when she had turned away her head gave her a look so serious so earnest so uncheerful as seemed to say that he might hereafter wish the distance between the parsonage and the mansionhouse much greater james street said he soon afterwards rising from his chair i must hurry away then to give him those thanks which you will not allow me to give you to assure him that he has made me a veryan exceedingly happy man elinor did not offer to detain him and they parted with a very earnest assurance on her side of her unceasing good wishes for his happiness in every change of situation that might befall him on his with rather an attempt to return the same good will than the power of expressing it when i see him again said elinor to herself as the door shut him out i shall see him the husband of lucy
whenever i find myself growing grim about the mouth whenever it is a damp drizzly november in my soul whenever i find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses and bringing up the rear of every funeral i meet and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street and methodically knocking peoples hats offthen i account it high time to get to sea as soon as i can with a philosophical flourish cato throws himself upon his sword i quietly take to the ship if they but knew it almost all men in their degree some time or other cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me there now is your insular city of the manhattoes belted round by wharves as indian isles by coral reefscommerce surrounds it with her surf its extreme downtown is the battery where that noble mole is washed by waves and cooled by breezes which a few hours previous were out of sight of land circumambulate the city of a dreamy sabbath afternoon go from corlears hook to coenties slip and from thence by whitehall northward posted like silent sentinels all around the town stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries some leaning against the spiles some seated upon the pierheads some looking over the bulwarks of ships from china some high aloft in the rigging as if striving to get a still better seaward peep but these are all landsmen of week days pent up in lath and plastertied to counters nailed to benches clinched to desks here come more crowds pacing straight for the water and seemingly bound for a dive nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses will not suffice they must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can without falling in inlanders all they come from lanes and alleys streets and avenuesnorth east south and west tell me does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither say you are in the country in some high land of lakes take almost any path you please and ten to one it carries you down in a dale and leaves you there by a pool in the stream let the most absentminded of men be plunged in his deepest reveriesstand that man on his legs set his feet agoing and he will infallibly lead you to water if water there be in all that region should you ever be athirst in the great american desert try this experiment if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor yes as every one knows meditation and water are wedded for ever
they would see he said only one gentleman there besides himself a particular friend who was staying at the park but who was neither very young nor very gay he hoped they would all excuse the smallness of the party and could assure them it should never happen so again he had been to several families that morning in hopes of procuring some addition to their number but it was moonlight and every body was full of engagements luckily lady middletons mother had arrived at barton within the last hour and as she was a very cheerful agreeable woman he hoped the young ladies would not find it so very dull as they might imagine the young ladies as well as their mother were perfectly satisfied with having two entire strangers of the party and wished for no more jennings lady middletons mother was a goodhumoured merry fat elderly woman who talked a great deal seemed very happy and rather vulgar she was full of jokes and laughter and before dinner was over had said many witty things on the subject of lovers and husbands hoped they had not left their hearts behind them in sussex and pretended to see them blush whether they did or not marianne was vexed at it for her sisters sake and turned her eyes towards elinor to see how she bore these attacks with an earnestness which gave elinor far more pain than could arise from such commonplace raillery as mrs colonel brandon the friend of sir john seemed no more adapted by resemblance of manner to be his friend than lady middleton was to be his wife or mrs his appearance however was not unpleasing in spite of his being in the opinion of marianne and margaret an absolute old bachelor for he was on the wrong side of five and thirty but though his face was not handsome his countenance was sensible and his address was particularly gentlemanlike there was nothing in any of the party which could recommend them as companions to the dashwoods but the cold insipidity of lady middleton was so particularly repulsive that in comparison of it the gravity of colonel brandon and even the boisterous mirth of sir john and his motherinlaw was interesting lady middleton seemed to be roused to enjoyment only by the entrance of her four noisy children after dinner who pulled her about tore her clothes and put an end to every kind of discourse except what related to themselves in the evening as marianne was discovered to be musical she was invited to play the instrument was unlocked every body prepared to be charmed and marianne who sang very well at their request went through the chief of the songs which lady middleton had brought into the family on her marriage and which perhaps had lain ever since in the same position on the pianoforte for her ladyship had celebrated that event by giving up music although by her mothers account she had played extremely well and by her own was very fond of it sir john was loud in his admiration at the end of every song and as loud in his conversation with the others while every song lasted lady middleton frequently called him to order wondered how any ones attention could be diverted from music for a moment and asked marianne to sing a particular song which marianne had just finished colonel brandon alone of all the party heard her without being in raptures he paid her only the compliment of attention and she felt a respect for him on the occasion which the others had reasonably forfeited by their shameless want of taste his pleasure in music though it amounted not to that ecstatic delight which alone could sympathize with her own was estimable when contrasted against the horrible insensibility of the others and she was reasonable enough to allow that a man of five and thirty might well have outlived all acuteness of feeling and every exquisite power of enjoyment she was perfectly disposed to make every allowance for the colonels advanced state of life which humanity required
i would not on any account trifle with her affectionate solicitude or allow her to hear it from anyone but myself lizzy to know that what i have to relate will give such pleasure to all my dear family she then hastened away to her mother who had purposely broken up the card party and was sitting up stairs with kitty elizabeth who was left by herself now smiled at the rapidity and ease with which an affair was finally settled that had given them so many previous months of suspense and vexation and this said she is the end of all his friends anxious circumspection in a few minutes she was joined by bingley whose conference with her father had been short and to the purpose he then shut the door and coming up to her claimed the good wishes and affection of a sister elizabeth honestly and heartily expressed her delight in the prospect of their relationship they shook hands with great cordiality and then till her sister came down she had to listen to all he had to say of his own happiness and of janes perfections and in spite of his being a lover elizabeth really believed all his expectations of felicity to be rationally founded because they had for basis the excellent understanding and superexcellent disposition of jane and a general similarity of feeling and taste between her and himself it was an evening of no common delight to them all the satisfaction of miss bennets mind gave a glow of such sweet animation to her face as made her look handsomer than ever kitty simpered and smiled and hoped her turn was coming soon bennet could not give her consent or speak her approbation in terms warm enough to satisfy her feelings though she talked to bingley of nothing else for half an hour and when mr bennet joined them at supper his voice and manner plainly showed how really happy he was not a word however passed his lips in allusion to it till their visitor took his leave for the night but as soon as he was gone he turned to his daughter and said jane i congratulate you jane went to him instantly kissed him and thanked him for his goodness you are a good girl he replied and i have great pleasure in thinking you will be so happily settled i have not a doubt of your doing very well together you are each of you so complying that nothing will ever be resolved on so easy that every servant will cheat you and so generous that you will always exceed your income imprudence or thoughtlessness in money matters would be unpardonable in me why he has four or five thousand a year and very likely more
the great live squid which they say few whaleships ever beheld and returned to their ports to tell of it but ahab said nothing turning his boat he sailed back to the vessel the rest as silently following whatever superstitions the sperm whalemen in general have connected with the sight of this object certain it is that a glimpse of it being so very unusual that circumstance has gone far to invest it with portentousness so rarely is it beheld that though one and all of them declare it to be the largest animated thing in the ocean yet very few of them have any but the most vague ideas concerning its true nature and form notwithstanding they believe it to furnish to the sperm whale his only food for though other species of whales find their food above water and may be seen by man in the act of feeding the spermaceti whale obtains his whole food in unknown zones below the surface and only by inference is it that any one can tell of what precisely that food consists at times when closely pursued he will disgorge what are supposed to be the detached arms of the squid some of them thus exhibited exceeding twenty and thirty feet in length they fancy that the monster to which these arms belonged ordinarily clings by them to the bed of the ocean and that the sperm whale unlike other species is supplied with teeth in order to attack and tear it there seems some ground to imagine that the great kraken of bishop pontoppodan may ultimately resolve itself into squid the manner in which the bishop describes it as alternately rising and sinking with some other particulars he narrates in all this the two correspond but much abatement is necessary with respect to the incredible bulk he assigns it by some naturalists who have vaguely heard rumors of the mysterious creature here spoken of it is included among the class of cuttlefish to which indeed in certain external respects it would seem to belong but only as the anak of the tribe with reference to the whaling scene shortly to be described as well as for the better understanding of all similar scenes elsewhere presented i have here to speak of the magical sometimes horrible whaleline the line originally used in the fishery was of the best hemp slightly vapoured with tar not impregnated with it as in the case of ordinary ropes for while tar as ordinarily used makes the hemp more pliable to the ropemaker and also renders the rope itself more convenient to the sailor for common ship use yet not only would the ordinary quantity too much stiffen the whaleline for the close coiling to which it must be subjected but as most seamen are beginning to learn tar in general by no means adds to the ropes durability or strength however much it may give it compactness and gloss of late years the manilla rope has in the american fishery almost entirely superseded hemp as a material for whalelines for though not so durable as hemp it is stronger and far more soft and elastic and i will add since there is an aesthetics in all things is much more handsome and becoming to the boat than hemp hemp is a dusky dark fellow a sort of indian but manilla is as a goldenhaired circassian to behold the whaleline is only twothirds of an inch in thickness at first sight you would not think it so strong as it really is by experiment its one and fifty yarns will each suspend a weight of one hundred and twenty pounds so that the whole rope will bear a strain nearly equal to three tons in length the common sperm whaleline measures something over two hundred fathoms towards the stern of the boat it is spirally coiled away in the tub not like the wormpipe of a still though but so as to form one round cheeseshaped mass of densely bedded sheaves or layers of concentric spiralizations without any hollow but the heart or minute vertical tube formed at the axis of the cheese
elinor had just been congratulating herself in the midst of her perplexity that however difficult it might be to express herself properly by letter it was at least preferable to giving the information by word of mouth when her visitor entered to force her upon this greatest exertion of all her astonishment and confusion were very great on his so sudden appearance she had not seen him before since his engagement became public and therefore not since his knowing her to be acquainted with it which with the consciousness of what she had been thinking of and what she had to tell him made her feel particularly uncomfortable for some minutes he too was much distressed and they sat down together in a most promising state of embarrassment whether he had asked her pardon for his intrusion on first coming into the room he could not recollect but determining to be on the safe side he made his apology in form as soon as he could say any thing after taking a chair jennings told me said he that you wished to speak with me at least i understood her soor i certainly should not have intruded on you in such a manner though at the same time i should have been extremely sorry to leave london without seeing you and your sister especially as it will most likely be some timeit is not probable that i should soon have the pleasure of meeting you again you would not have gone however said elinor recovering herself and determined to get over what she so much dreaded as soon as possible without receiving our good wishes even if we had not been able to give them in person i have something of consequence to inform you of which i was on the point of communicating by paper i am charged with a most agreeable office breathing rather faster than usual as she spoke  colonel brandon who was here only ten minutes ago has desired me to say that understanding you mean to take orders he has great pleasure in offering you the living of delaford now just vacant and only wishes it were more valuable allow me to congratulate you on having so respectable and welljudging a friend and to join in his wish that the livingit is about two hundred ayearwere much more considerable and such as might better enable you toas might be more than a temporary accommodation to yourselfsuch in short as might establish all your views of happiness what edward felt as he could not say it himself it cannot be expected that any one else should say for him he looked all the astonishment which such unexpected such unthoughtof information could not fail of exciting but he said only these two words colonel brandon yes continued elinor gathering more resolution as some of the worst was over colonel brandon means it as a testimony of his concern for what has lately passedfor the cruel situation in which the unjustifiable conduct of your family has placed youa concern which i am sure marianne myself and all your friends must share and likewise as a proof of his high esteem for your general character and his particular approbation of your behaviour on the present occasion the unkindness of your own relations has made you astonished to find friendship any where no replied he with sudden consciousness not to find it in you for i cannot be ignorant that to you to your goodness i owe it all i feel iti would express it if i couldbut as you well know i am no orator i do assure you that you owe it entirely at least almost entirely to your own merit and colonel brandons discernment of it i did not even know till i understood his design that the living was vacant nor had it ever occurred to me that he might have had such a living in his gift as a friend of mine of my family he may perhapsindeed i know he has still greater pleasure in bestowing it but upon my word you owe nothing to my solicitation
her teeth are tolerable but not out of the common way and as for her eyes which have sometimes been called so fine i could never see anything extraordinary in them they have a sharp shrewish look which i do not like at all and in her air altogether there is a selfsufficiency without fashion which is intolerable persuaded as miss bingley was that darcy admired elizabeth this was not the best method of recommending herself but angry people are not always wise and in seeing him at last look somewhat nettled she had all the success she expected he was resolutely silent however and from a determination of making him speak she continued i remember when we first knew her in hertfordshire how amazed we all were to find that she was a reputed beauty and i particularly recollect your saying one night after they had been dining at netherfield she a beauty  but afterwards she seemed to improve on you and i believe you thought her rather pretty at one time yes replied darcy who could contain himself no longer but that was only when i first saw her for it is many months since i have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance he then went away and miss bingley was left to all the satisfaction of having forced him to say what gave no one any pain but herself gardiner and elizabeth talked of all that had occurred during their visit as they returned except what had particularly interested them both the look and behaviour of everybody they had seen were discussed except of the person who had mostly engaged their attention they talked of his sister his friends his house his fruitof everything but himself yet elizabeth was longing to know what mrs gardiner would have been highly gratified by her nieces beginning the subject chapter  elizabeth had been a good deal disappointed in not finding a letter from jane on their first arrival at lambton and this disappointment had been renewed on each of the mornings that had now been spent there but on the third her repining was over and her sister justified by the receipt of two letters from her at once on one of which was marked that it had been missent elsewhere elizabeth was not surprised at it as jane had written the direction remarkably ill they had just been preparing to walk as the letters came in and her uncle and aunt leaving her to enjoy them in quiet set off by themselves the one missent must first be attended to it had been written five days ago the beginning contained an account of all their little parties and engagements with such news as the country afforded but the latter half which was dated a day later and written in evident agitation gave more important intelligence it was to this effect since writing the above dearest lizzy something has occurred of a most unexpected and serious nature but i am afraid of alarming yoube assured that we are all well an express came at twelve last night just as we were all gone to bed from colonel forster to inform us that she was gone off to scotland with one of his officers to own the truth with wickham to kitty however it does not seem so wholly unexpected but i am willing to hope the best and that his character has been misunderstood
ship and boat diverged the cold damp night breeze blew between a screaming gull flew overhead the two hulls wildly rolled we gave three heavyhearted cheers and blindly plunged like fate into the lone atlantic some chapters back one bulkington was spoken of a tall newlanded mariner encountered in new bedford at the inn when on that shivering winters night the pequod thrust her vindictive bows into the cold malicious waves who should i see standing at her helm but bulkington i looked with sympathetic awe and fearfulness upon the man who in midwinter just landed from a four years dangerous voyage could so unrestingly push off again for still another tempestuous term wonderfullest things are ever the unmentionable deep memories yield no epitaphs this sixinch chapter is the stoneless grave of bulkington let me only say that it fared with him as with the stormtossed ship that miserably drives along the leeward land the port would fain give succor the port is pitiful in the port is safety comfort hearthstone supper warm blankets friends all thats kind to our mortalities but in that gale the port the land is that ships direst jeopardy she must fly all hospitality one touch of land though it but graze the keel would make her shudder through and through with all her might she crowds all sail off shore in so doing fights gainst the very winds that fain would blow her homeward seeks all the lashed sea s landlessness again for refuges sake forlornly rushing into peril her only friend her bitterest foe glimpses do ye seem to see of that mortally intolerable truth that all deep earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous slavish shore but as in landlessness alone resides highest truth shoreless indefinite as godso better is it to perish in that howling infinite than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee even if that were safety up from the spray of thy oceanperishingstraight up leaps thy apotheosis as queequeg and i are now fairly embarked in this business of whaling and as this business of whaling has somehow come to be regarded among landsmen as a rather unpoetical and disreputable pursuit therefore i am all anxiety to convince ye ye landsmen of the injustice hereby done to us hunters of whales in the first place it may be deemed almost superfluous to establish the fact that among people at large the business of whaling is not accounted on a level with what are called the liberal professions if a stranger were introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitan society it would but slightly advance the general opinion of his merits were he presented to the company as a harpooneer say and if in emulation of the naval officers he should append the initials s sperm whale fishery to his visiting card such a procedure would be deemed preeminently presuming and ridiculous doubtless one leading reason why the world declines honouring us whalemen is this they think that at best our vocation amounts to a butchering sort of business and that when actively engaged therein we are surrounded by all manner of defilements but butchers also and butchers of the bloodiest badge have been all martial commanders whom the world invariably delights to honour and as for the matter of the alleged uncleanliness of our business ye shall soon be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally unknown and which upon the whole will triumphantly plant the sperm whaleship at least among the cleanliest things of this tidy earth but even granting the charge in question to be true what disordered slippery decks of a whaleship are comparable to the unspeakable carrion of those battlefields from which so many soldiers return to drink in all ladies plaudits
for as in this world head winds are far more prevalent than winds from astern that is if you never violate the pythagorean maxim so for the most part the commodore on the quarterdeck gets his atmosphere at second hand from the sailors on the forecastle in much the same way do the commonalty lead their leaders in many other things at the same time that the leaders little suspect it but wherefore it was that after having repeatedly smelt the sea as a merchant sailor i should now take it into my head to go on a whaling voyage this the invisible police officer of the fates who has the constant surveillance of me and secretly dogs me and influences me in some unaccountable wayhe can better answer than any one else and doubtless my going on this whaling voyage formed part of the grand programme of providence that was drawn up a long time ago it came in as a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances i take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this grand contested election for the presidency of the united states though i cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers the fates put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage when others were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies and short and easy parts in genteel comedies and jolly parts in farcesthough i cannot tell why this was exactly yet now that i recall all the circumstances i think i can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly presented to me under various disguises induced me to set about performing the part i did besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgment chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity then the wild and distant seas where he rolled his island bulk the undeliverable nameless perils of the whale these with all the attending marvels of a thousand patagonian sights and sounds helped to sway me to my wish with other men perhaps such things would not have been inducements but as for me i am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote i love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts not ignoring what is good i am quick to perceive a horror and could still be social with itwould they let mesince it is but well to be on friendly terms with all the inmates of the place one lodges in by reason of these things then the whaling voyage was welcome the great floodgates of the wonderworld swung open and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose two and two there floated into my inmost soul endless processions of the whale and mid most of them all one grand hooded phantom like a snow hill in the air i stuffed a shirt or two into my old carpetbag tucked it under my arm and started for cape horn and the pacific quitting the good city of old manhatto i duly arrived in new bedford much was i disappointed upon learning that the little packet for nantucket had already sailed and that no way of reaching that place would offer till the following monday as most young candidates for the pains and penalties of whaling stop at this same new bedford thence to embark on their voyage it may as well be related that i for one had no idea of so doing for my mind was made up to sail in no other than a nantucket craft because there was a fine boisterous something about everything connected with that famous old island which amazingly pleased me besides though new bedford has of late been gradually monopolising the business of whaling and though in this matter poor old nantucket is now much behind her yet nantucket was her great originalthe tyre of this carthagethe place where the first dead american whale was stranded
every thing in her household arrangements was conducted on the most liberal plan and excepting a few old city friends whom to lady middletons regret she had never dropped she visited no one to whom an introduction could at all discompose the feelings of her young companions pleased to find herself more comfortably situated in that particular than she had expected elinor was very willing to compound for the want of much real enjoyment from any of their evening parties which whether at home or abroad formed only for cards could have little to amuse her colonel brandon who had a general invitation to the house was with them almost every day he came to look at marianne and talk to elinor who often derived more satisfaction from conversing with him than from any other daily occurrence but who saw at the same time with much concern his continued regard for her sister it grieved her to see the earnestness with which he often watched marianne and his spirits were certainly worse than when at barton about a week after their arrival it became certain that willoughby was also arrived his card was on the table when they came in from the mornings drive elinor rejoiced to be assured of his being in london now ventured to say depend upon it he will call again tomorrow this event while it raised the spirits of elinor restored to those of her sister all and more than all their former agitation from this moment her mind was never quiet the expectation of seeing him every hour of the day made her unfit for any thing she insisted on being left behind the next morning when the others went out elinors thoughts were full of what might be passing in berkeley street during their absence but a moments glance at her sister when they returned was enough to inform her that willoughby had paid no second visit there a note was just then brought in and laid on the table nay elinor this reproach from youyou who have confidence in no one returned elinor in some confusion indeed marianne i have nothing to tell nor i answered marianne with energy our situations then are alike we have neither of us any thing to tell you because you do not communicate and i because i conceal nothing elinor distressed by this charge of reserve in herself which she was not at liberty to do away knew not how under such circumstances to press for greater openness in marianne jennings soon appeared and the note being given her she read it aloud it was from lady middleton announcing their arrival in conduit street the night before and requesting the company of her mother and cousins the following evening business on sir johns part and a violent cold on her own prevented their calling in berkeley street
ahab well knew that although his friends at home would think little of his entering a boat in certain comparatively harmless vicissitudes of the chase for the sake of being near the scene of action and giving his orders in person yet for captain ahab to have a boat actually apportioned to him as a regular headsman in the huntabove all for captain ahab to be supplied with five extra men as that same boats crew he well knew that such generous conceits never entered the heads of the owners of the pequod therefore he had not solicited a boats crew from them nor had he in any way hinted his desires on that head nevertheless he had taken private measures of his own touching all that matter until cabacos published discovery the sailors had little foreseen it though to be sure when after being a little while out of port all hands had concluded the customary business of fitting the whaleboats for service when some time after this ahab was now and then found bestirring himself in the matter of making tholepins with his own hands for what was thought to be one of the spare boats and even solicitously cutting the small wooden skewers which when the line is running out are pinned over the groove in the bow when all this was observed in him and particularly his solicitude in having an extra coat of sheathing in the bottom of the boat as if to make it better withstand the pointed pressure of his ivory limb and also the anxiety he evinced in exactly shaping the thigh board or clumsy cleat as it is sometimes called the horizontal piece in the boats bow for bracing the knee against in darting or stabbing at the whale when it was observed how often he stood up in that boat with his solitary knee fixed in the semicircular depression in the cleat and with the carpenters chisel gouged out a little here and straightened it a little there all these things i say had awakened much interest and curiosity at the time but almost everybody supposed that this particular preparative heedfulness in ahab must only be with a view to the ultimate chase of moby dick for he had already revealed his intention to hunt that mortal monster in person but such a supposition did by no means involve the remotest suspicion as to any boats crew being assigned to that boat now with the subordinate phantoms what wonder remained soon waned away for in a whaler wonders soon wane besides now and then such unaccountable odds and ends of strange nations come up from the unknown nooks and ashholes of the earth to man these floating outlaws of whalers and the ships themselves often pick up such queer castaway creatures found tossing about the open sea on planks bits of wreck oars whaleboats canoes blownoff japanese junks and what not that beelzebub himself might climb up the side and step down into the cabin to chat with the captain and it would not create any unsubduable excitement in the forecastle but be all this as it may certain it is that while the subordinate phantoms soon found their place among the crew though still as it were somehow distinct from them yet that hairturbaned fedallah remained a muffled mystery to the last whence he came in a mannerly world like this by what sort of unaccountable tie he soon evinced himself to be linked with ahabs peculiar fortunes nay so far as to have some sort of a halfhinted influence heaven knows but it might have been even authority over him all this none knew but one cannot sustain an indifferent air concerning fedallah he was such a creature as civilized domestic people in the temperate zone only see in their dreams and that but dimly but the like of whom now and then glide among the unchanging asiatic communities especially the oriental isles to the east of the continentthose insulated immemorial unalterable countries which even in these modern days still preserve much of the ghostly aboriginalness of earths primal generations when the memory of the first man was a distinct recollection and all men his descendants unknowing whence he came eyed each other as real phantoms and asked of the sun and the moon why they were created and to what end when though according to genesis the angels indeed consorted with the daughters of men the devils also add the uncanonical rabbins indulged in mundane amours days weeks passed and under easy sail the ivory pequod had slowly swept across four several cruisinggrounds that off the azores off the cape de verdes on the plate so called being off the mouth of the rio de la plata and the carrol ground an unstaked watery locality southerly from st it was while gliding through these latter waters that one serene and moonlight night when all the waves rolled by like scrolls of silver and by their soft suffusing seethings made what seemed a silvery silence not a solitude on such a silent night a silvery jet was seen far in advance of the white bubbles at the bow lit up by the moon it looked celestial seemed some plumed and glittering god uprising from the sea for of these moonlight nights it was his wont to mount to the mainmast head and stand a lookout there with the same precision as if it had been day and yet though herds of whales were seen by night not one whaleman in a hundred would venture a lowering for them you may think with what emotions then the seamen beheld this old oriental perched aloft at such unusual hours his turban and the moon companions in one sky but when after spending his uniform interval there for several successive nights without uttering a single sound when after all this silence his unearthly voice was heard announcing that silvery moonlit jet every reclining mariner started to his feet as if some winged spirit had lighted in the rigging and hailed the mortal crew had the trump of judgment blown they could not have quivered more yet still they felt no terror rather pleasure
edward was of course immediately convinced that nothing could have been more natural than lucys conduct nor more selfevident than the motive of it elinor scolded him harshly as ladies always scold the imprudence which compliments themselves for having spent so much time with them at norland when he must have felt his own inconstancy your behaviour was certainly very wrong said she becauseto say nothing of my own conviction our relations were all led away by it to fancy and expect what as you were then situated could never be he could only plead an ignorance of his own heart and a mistaken confidence in the force of his engagement i was simple enough to think that because my faith was plighted to another there could be no danger in my being with you and that the consciousness of my engagement was to keep my heart as safe and sacred as my honour i felt that i admired you but i told myself it was only friendship and till i began to make comparisons between yourself and lucy i did not know how far i was got after that i suppose i was wrong in remaining so much in sussex and the arguments with which i reconciled myself to the expediency of it were no better than thesethe danger is my own i am doing no injury to anybody but myself edward heard with pleasure of colonel brandons being expected at the cottage as he really wished not only to be better acquainted with him but to have an opportunity of convincing him that he no longer resented his giving him the living of delafordwhich at present said he after thanks so ungraciously delivered as mine were on the occasion he must think i have never forgiven him for offering now he felt astonished himself that he had never yet been to the place but so little interest had he taken in the matter that he owed all his knowledge of the house garden and glebe extent of the parish condition of the land and rate of the tithes to elinor herself who had heard so much of it from colonel brandon and heard it with so much attention as to be entirely mistress of the subject one question after this only remained undecided between them one difficulty only was to be overcome they were brought together by mutual affection with the warmest approbation of their real friends their intimate knowledge of each other seemed to make their happiness certainand they only wanted something to live upon edward had two thousand pounds and elinor one which with delaford living was all that they could call their own for it was impossible that mrs dashwood should advance anything and they were neither of them quite enough in love to think that three hundred and fifty pounds ayear would supply them with the comforts of life edward was not entirely without hopes of some favourable change in his mother towards him and on that he rested for the residue of their income but elinor had no such dependence for since edward would still be unable to marry miss morton and his chusing herself had been spoken of in mrs ferrarss flattering language as only a lesser evil than his chusing lucy steele she feared that roberts offence would serve no other purpose than to enrich fanny about four days after edwards arrival colonel brandon appeared to complete mrs dashwoods satisfaction and to give her the dignity of having for the first time since her living at barton more company with her than her house would hold edward was allowed to retain the privilege of first comer and colonel brandon therefore walked every night to his old quarters at the park from whence he usually returned in the morning early enough to interrupt the lovers first teteatete before breakfast
willoughby you ought to feel and i certainly dothat after what has passedyour coming here in this manner and forcing yourself upon my notice requires a very particular excuse  i mean said he with serious energyif i can to make you hate me one degree less than you do now i mean to offer some kind of explanation some kind of apology for the past to open my whole heart to you and by convincing you that though i have been always a blockhead i have not been always a rascal to obtain something like forgiveness from mafrom your sister upon my soul it is was his answer with a warmth which brought all the former willoughby to her remembrance and in spite of herself made her think him sincere if that is all you may be satisfied alreadyfor marianne doesshe has long forgiven you  then she has forgiven me before she ought to have done it but she shall forgive me again and on more reasonable grounds i do not know said he after a pause of expectation on her side and thoughtfulness on his ownhow you may have accounted for my behaviour to your sister or what diabolical motive you may have imputed to me  perhaps you will hardly think the better of meit is worth the trial however and you shall hear every thing when i first became intimate in your family i had no other intention no other view in the acquaintance than to pass my time pleasantly while i was obliged to remain in devonshire more pleasantly than i had ever done before your sisters lovely person and interesting manners could not but please me and her behaviour to me almost from the first was of a kindit is astonishing when i reflect on what it was and what she was that my heart should have been so insensible but at first i must confess my vanity only was elevated by it careless of her happiness thinking only of my own amusement giving way to feelings which i had always been too much in the habit of indulging i endeavoured by every means in my power to make myself pleasing to her without any design of returning her affection  miss dashwood at this point turning her eyes on him with the most angry contempt stopped him by saying it is hardly worth while mr willoughby for you to relate or for me to listen any longer such a beginning as this cannot be followed by any thing  do not let me be pained by hearing any thing more on the subject i insist on you hearing the whole of it he replied my fortune was never large and i had always been expensive always in the habit of associating with people of better income than myself every year since my coming of age or even before i believe had added to my debts and though the death of my old cousin mrs smith was to set me free yet that event being uncertain and possibly far distant it had been for some time my intention to reestablish my circumstances by marrying a woman of fortune
what to that apostolic lancer brother jonathan is texas but a fastfish and concerning all these is not possession the whole of the law but if the doctrine of fastfish be pretty generally applicable the kindred doctrine of loosefish is still more widely so what was america in  but a loosefish in which columbus struck the spanish standard by way of waifing it for his royal master and mistress what are the rights of man and the liberties of the world but loosefish what is the principle of religious belief in them but a loosefish what to the ostentatious smuggling verbalists are the thoughts of thinkers but loosefish and what are you reader but a loosefish and a fastfish too de balena vero sufficit si rex habeat caput et regina caudam latin from the books of the laws of england which taken along with the context means that of all whales captured by anybody on the coast of that land the king as honourary grand harpooneer must have the head and the queen be respectfully presented with the tail a division which in the whale is much like halving an apple there is no intermediate remainder now as this law under a modified form is to this day in force in england and as it offers in various respects a strange anomaly touching the general law of fast and loosefish it is here treated of in a separate chapter on the same courteous principle that prompts the english railways to be at the expense of a separate car specially reserved for the accommodation of royalty in the first place in curious proof of the fact that the abovementioned law is still in force i proceed to lay before you a circumstance that happened within the last two years it seems that some honest mariners of dover or sandwich or some one of the cinque ports had after a hard chase succeeded in killing and beaching a fine whale which they had originally descried afar off from the shore now the cinque ports are partially or somehow under the jurisdiction of a sort of policeman or beadle called a lord warden holding the office directly from the crown i believe all the royal emoluments incident to the cinque port territories become by assignment his because the lord warden is busily employed at times in fobbing his perquisites which are his chiefly by virtue of that same fobbing of them now when these poor sunburnt mariners barefooted and with their trowsers rolled high up on their eely legs had wearily hauled their fat fish high and dry promising themselves a good l from the precious oil and bone and in fantasy sipping rare tea with their wives and good ale with their cronies upon the strength of their respective shares up steps a very learned and most christian and charitable gentleman with a copy of blackstone under his arm and laying it upon the whales head he sayshands off  upon this the poor mariners in their respectful consternationso truly englishknowing not what to say fall to vigorously scratching their heads all round meanwhile ruefully glancing from the whale to the stranger but that did in nowise mend the matter or at all soften the hard heart of the learned gentleman with the copy of blackstone
if it was to be secret said jane say not another word on the subject certainly said elizabeth though burning with curiosity we will ask you no questions thank you said lydia for if you did i should certainly tell you all and then wickham would be angry on such encouragement to ask elizabeth was forced to put it out of her power by running away but to live in ignorance on such a point was impossible or at least it was impossible not to try for information it was exactly a scene and exactly among people where he had apparently least to do and least temptation to go conjectures as to the meaning of it rapid and wild hurried into her brain but she was satisfied with none those that best pleased her as placing his conduct in the noblest light seemed most improbable she could not bear such suspense and hastily seizing a sheet of paper wrote a short letter to her aunt to request an explanation of what lydia had dropt if it were compatible with the secrecy which had been intended you may readily comprehend she added what my curiosity must be to know how a person unconnected with any of us and comparatively speaking a stranger to our family should have been amongst you at such a time pray write instantly and let me understand itunless it is for very cogent reasons to remain in the secrecy which lydia seems to think necessary and then i must endeavour to be satisfied with ignorance not that i shall though she added to herself as she finished the letter and my dear aunt if you do not tell me in an honourable manner i shall certainly be reduced to tricks and stratagems to find it out janes delicate sense of honour would not allow her to speak to elizabeth privately of what lydia had let fall elizabeth was glad of ittill it appeared whether her inquiries would receive any satisfaction she had rather be without a confidante chapter  elizabeth had the satisfaction of receiving an answer to her letter as soon as she possibly could she was no sooner in possession of it than hurrying into the little copse where she was least likely to be interrupted she sat down on one of the benches and prepared to be happy for the length of the letter convinced her that it did not contain a denial my dear niece i have just received your letter and shall devote this whole morning to answering it as i foresee that a little writing will not comprise what i have to tell you i must confess myself surprised by your application i did not expect it from you dont think me angry however for i only mean to let you know that i had not imagined such inquiries to be necessary on your side if you do not choose to understand me forgive my impertinence your uncle is as much surprised as i amand nothing but the belief of your being a party concerned would have allowed him to act as he has done
therei have saved you the trouble of accounting for it and really all things considered i begin to think it perfectly reasonable to be sure you knew no actual good of mebut nobody thinks of that when they fall in love was there no good in your affectionate behaviour to jane while she was ill at netherfield my good qualities are under your protection and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible and in return it belongs to me to find occasions for teasing and quarrelling with you as often as may be and i shall begin directly by asking you what made you so unwilling to come to the point at last what made you so shy of me when you first called and afterwards dined here why especially when you called did you look as if you did not care about me because you were grave and silent and gave me no encouragement you might have talked to me more when you came to dinner how unlucky that you should have a reasonable answer to give and that i should be so reasonable as to admit it but i wonder how long you would have gone on if you had been left to yourself i wonder when you would have spoken if i had not asked you my resolution of thanking you for your kindness to lydia had certainly great effect too much i am afraid for what becomes of the moral if our comfort springs from a breach of promise lady catherines unjustifiable endeavours to separate us were the means of removing all my doubts i am not indebted for my present happiness to your eager desire of expressing your gratitude i was not in a humour to wait for any opening of yours my aunts intelligence had given me hope and i was determined at once to know every thing lady catherine has been of infinite use which ought to make her happy for she loves to be of use but tell me what did you come down to netherfield for was it merely to ride to longbourn and be embarrassed
the second day brought them into the cherished or the prohibited county of somerset for as such was it dwelt on by turns in mariannes imagination and in the forenoon of the third they drove up to cleveland cleveland was a spacious modernbuilt house situated on a sloping lawn it had no park but the pleasuregrounds were tolerably extensive and like every other place of the same degree of importance it had its open shrubbery and closer wood walk a road of smooth gravel winding round a plantation led to the front the lawn was dotted over with timber the house itself was under the guardianship of the fir the mountainash and the acacia and a thick screen of them altogether interspersed with tall lombardy poplars shut out the offices marianne entered the house with a heart swelling with emotion from the consciousness of being only eighty miles from barton and not thirty from combe magna and before she had been five minutes within its walls while the others were busily helping charlotte to show her child to the housekeeper she quitted it again stealing away through the winding shrubberies now just beginning to be in beauty to gain a distant eminence where from its grecian temple her eye wandering over a wide tract of country to the southeast could fondly rest on the farthest ridge of hills in the horizon and fancy that from their summits combe magna might be seen in such moments of precious invaluable misery she rejoiced in tears of agony to be at cleveland and as she returned by a different circuit to the house feeling all the happy privilege of country liberty of wandering from place to place in free and luxurious solitude she resolved to spend almost every hour of every day while she remained with the palmers in the indulgence of such solitary rambles she returned just in time to join the others as they quitted the house on an excursion through its more immediate premises and the rest of the morning was easily whiled away in lounging round the kitchen garden examining the bloom upon its walls and listening to the gardeners lamentations upon blights in dawdling through the greenhouse where the loss of her favourite plants unwarily exposed and nipped by the lingering frost raised the laughter of charlotteand in visiting her poultryyard where in the disappointed hopes of her dairymaid by hens forsaking their nests or being stolen by a fox or in the rapid decrease of a promising young brood she found fresh sources of merriment the morning was fine and dry and marianne in her plan of employment abroad had not calculated for any change of weather during their stay at cleveland with great surprise therefore did she find herself prevented by a settled rain from going out again after dinner she had depended on a twilight walk to the grecian temple and perhaps all over the grounds and an evening merely cold or damp would not have deterred her from it but a heavy and settled rain even she could not fancy dry or pleasant weather for walking their party was small and the hours passed quietly away jennings her carpetwork they talked of the friends they had left behind arranged lady middletons engagements and wondered whether mr palmer and colonel brandon would get farther than reading that night elinor however little concerned in it joined in their discourse and marianne who had the knack of finding her way in every house to the library however it might be avoided by the family in general soon procured herself a book palmers side that constant and friendly good humour could do to make them feel themselves welcome the openness and heartiness of her manner more than atoned for that want of recollection and elegance which made her often deficient in the forms of politeness her kindness recommended by so pretty a face was engaging her folly though evident was not disgusting because it was not conceited and elinor could have forgiven every thing but her laugh the two gentlemen arrived the next day to a very late dinner affording a pleasant enlargement of the party and a very welcome variety to their conversation which a long morning of the same continued rain had reduced very low palmer and in that little had seen so much variety in his address to her sister and herself that she knew not what to expect to find him in his own family she found him however perfectly the gentleman in his behaviour to all his visitors and only occasionally rude to his wife and her mother she found him very capable of being a pleasant companion and only prevented from being so always by too great an aptitude to fancy himself as much superior to people in general as he must feel himself to be to mrs for the rest of his character and habits they were marked as far as elinor could perceive with no traits at all unusual in his sex and time of life he was nice in his eating uncertain in his hours fond of his child though affecting to slight it and idled away the mornings at billiards which ought to have been devoted to business
certainly there can be no difference for robert will now to all intents and purposes be considered as the eldest sonand as to any thing else they are both very agreeable young men i do not know that one is superior to the other elinor said no more and john was also for a short time silent of one thing my dear sister kindly taking her hand and speaking in an awful whisperi may assure youand i will do it because i know it must gratify you i have good reason to thinkindeed i have it from the best authority or i should not repeat it for otherwise it would be very wrong to say any thing about itbut i have it from the very best authoritynot that i ever precisely heard mrs ferrars say it herselfbut her daughter did and i have it from herthat in short whatever objections there might be against a certaina certain connectionyou understand meit would have been far preferable to her it would not have given her half the vexation that this does ferrars considered it in that lighta very gratifying circumstance you know to us all it would have been beyond comparison she said the least evil of the two and she would be glad to compound now for nothing worse but however all that is quite out of the questionnot to be thought of or mentionedas to any attachment you knowit never could beall that is gone by but i thought i would just tell you of this because i knew how much it must please you not that you have any reason to regret my dear elinor there is no doubt of your doing exceedingly wellquite as well or better perhaps all things considered  elinor had heard enough if not to gratify her vanity and raise her selfimportance to agitate her nerves and fill her mindand she was therefore glad to be spared from the necessity of saying much in reply herself and from the danger of hearing any thing more from her brother by the entrance of mr after a few moments chat john dashwood recollecting that fanny was yet uninformed of her sisters being there quitted the room in quest of her and elinor was left to improve her acquaintance with robert who by the gay unconcern the happy selfcomplacency of his manner while enjoying so unfair a division of his mothers love and liberality to the prejudice of his banished brother earned only by his own dissipated course of life and that brothers integrity was confirming her most unfavourable opinion of his head and heart they had scarcely been two minutes by themselves before he began to speak of edward for he too had heard of the living and was very inquisitive on the subject elinor repeated the particulars of it as she had given them to john and their effect on robert though very different was not less striking than it had been on him the idea of edwards being a clergyman and living in a small parsonagehouse diverted him beyond measureand when to that was added the fanciful imagery of edward reading prayers in a white surplice and publishing the banns of marriage between john smith and mary brown he could conceive nothing more ridiculous elinor while she waited in silence and immovable gravity the conclusion of such folly could not restrain her eyes from being fixed on him with a look that spoke all the contempt it excited it was a look however very well bestowed for it relieved her own feelings and gave no intelligence to him he was recalled from wit to wisdom not by any reproof of hers but by his own sensibility we may treat it as a joke said he at last recovering from the affected laugh which had considerably lengthened out the genuine gaiety of the momentbut upon my soul it is a most serious business
she was then but fifteen which must be her excuse and after stating her imprudence i am happy to add that i owed the knowledge of it to herself i joined them unexpectedly a day or two before the intended elopement and then georgiana unable to support the idea of grieving and offending a brother whom she almost looked up to as a father acknowledged the whole to me regard for my sisters credit and feelings prevented any public exposure but i wrote to mr wickhams chief object was unquestionably my sisters fortune which is thirty thousand pounds but i cannot help supposing that the hope of revenging himself on me was a strong inducement this madam is a faithful narrative of every event in which we have been concerned together and if you do not absolutely reject it as false you will i hope acquit me henceforth of cruelty towards mr i know not in what manner under what form of falsehood he had imposed on you but his success is not perhaps to be wondered at ignorant as you previously were of everything concerning either detection could not be in your power and suspicion certainly not in your inclination you may possibly wonder why all this was not told you last night but i was not then master enough of myself to know what could or ought to be revealed for the truth of everything here related i can appeal more particularly to the testimony of colonel fitzwilliam who from our near relationship and constant intimacy and still more as one of the executors of my fathers will has been unavoidably acquainted with every particular of these transactions if your abhorrence of me should make my assertions valueless you cannot be prevented by the same cause from confiding in my cousin and that there may be the possibility of consulting him i shall endeavour to find some opportunity of putting this letter in your hands in the course of the morning darcy gave her the letter did not expect it to contain a renewal of his offers she had formed no expectation at all of its contents but such as they were it may well be supposed how eagerly she went through them and what a contrariety of emotion they excited her feelings as she read were scarcely to be defined with amazement did she first understand that he believed any apology to be in his power and steadfastly was she persuaded that he could have no explanation to give which a just sense of shame would not conceal with a strong prejudice against everything he might say she began his account of what had happened at netherfield she read with an eagerness which hardly left her power of comprehension and from impatience of knowing what the next sentence might bring was incapable of attending to the sense of the one before her eyes his belief of her sisters insensibility she instantly resolved to be false and his account of the real the worst objections to the match made her too angry to have any wish of doing him justice he expressed no regret for what he had done which satisfied her his style was not penitent but haughty but when this subject was succeeded by his account of mr wickhamwhen she read with somewhat clearer attention a relation of events which if true must overthrow every cherished opinion of his worth and which bore so alarming an affinity to his own history of himselfher feelings were yet more acutely painful and more difficult of definition
two thick squares of wood of equal size are stoutly clenched together so that they cross each others grain at right angles a line of considerable length is then attached to the middle of this block and the other end of the line being looped it can in a moment be fastened to a harpoon it is chiefly among gallied whales that this drugg is used for then more whales are close round you than you can possibly chase at one time but sperm whales are not every day encountered while you may then you must kill all you can and if you cannot kill them all at once you must wing them so that they can be afterwards killed at your leisure hence it is that at times like these the drugg comes into requisition the first and second were successfully darted and we saw the whales staggeringly running off fettered by the enormous sidelong resistance of the towing drugg they were cramped like malefactors with the chain and ball but upon flinging the third in the act of tossing overboard the clumsy wooden block it caught under one of the seats of the boat and in an instant tore it out and carried it away dropping the oarsman in the boats bottom as the seat slid from under him on both sides the sea came in at the wounded planks but we stuffed two or three drawers and shirts in and so stopped the leaks for the time it had been next to impossible to dart these druggedharpoons were it not that as we advanced into the herd our whales way greatly diminished moreover that as we went still further and further from the circumference of commotion the direful disorders seemed waning so that when at last the jerking harpoon drew out and the towing whale sideways vanished then with the tapering force of his parting momentum we glided between two whales into the innermost heart of the shoal as if from some mountain torrent we had slid into a serene valley lake here the storms in the roaring glens between the outermost whales were heard but not felt in this central expanse the sea presented that smooth satinlike surface called a sleek produced by the subtle moisture thrown off by the whale in his more quiet moods yes we were now in that enchanted calm which they say lurks at the heart of every commotion and still in the distracted distance we beheld the tumults of the outer concentric circles and saw successive pods of whales eight or ten in each swiftly going round and round like multiplied spans of horses in a ring and so closely shoulder to shoulder that a titanic circusrider might easily have overarched the middle ones and so have gone round on their backs owing to the density of the crowd of reposing whales more immediately surrounding the embayed axis of the herd no possible chance of escape was at present afforded us we must watch for a breach in the living wall that hemmed us in the wall that had only admitted us in order to shut us up keeping at the centre of the lake we were occasionally visited by small tame cows and calves the women and children of this routed host now inclusive of the occasional wide intervals between the revolving outer circles and inclusive of the spaces between the various pods in any one of those circles the entire area at this juncture embraced by the whole multitude must have contained at least two or three square miles
old captain peleg many years her chiefmate before he commanded another vessel of his own and now a retired seaman and one of the principal owners of the pequodthis old peleg during the term of his chiefmateship had built upon her original grotesqueness and inlaid it all over with a quaintness both of material and device unmatched by anything except it be thorkillhakes carved buckler or bedstead she was apparelled like any barbaric ethiopian emperor his neck heavy with pendants of polished ivory a cannibal of a craft tricking herself forth in the chased bones of her enemies all round her unpanelled open bulwarks were garnished like one continuous jaw with the long sharp teeth of the sperm whale inserted there for pins to fasten her old hempen thews and tendons to those thews ran not through base blocks of land wood but deftly travelled over sheaves of seaivory scorning a turnstile wheel at her reverend helm she sported there a tiller and that tiller was in one mass curiously carved from the long narrow lower jaw of her hereditary foe the helmsman who steered by that tiller in a tempest felt like the tartar when he holds back his fiery steed by clutching its jaw now when i looked about the quarterdeck for some one having authority in order to propose myself as a candidate for the voyage at first i saw nobody but i could not well overlook a strange sort of tent or rather wigwam pitched a little behind the mainmast it was of a conical shape some ten feet high consisting of the long huge slabs of limber black bone taken from the middle and highest part of the jaws of the rightwhale planted with their broad ends on the deck a circle of these slabs laced together mutually sloped towards each other and at the apex united in a tufted point where the loose hairy fibres waved to and fro like the topknot on some old pottowottamie sachems head a triangular opening faced towards the bows of the ship so that the insider commanded a complete view forward and half concealed in this queer tenement i at length found one who by his aspect seemed to have authority and who it being noon and the ships work suspended was now enjoying respite from the burden of command he was seated on an oldfashioned oaken chair wriggling all over with curious carving and the bottom of which was formed of a stout interlacing of the same elastic stuff of which the wigwam was constructed there was nothing so very particular perhaps about the appearance of the elderly man i saw he was brown and brawny like most old seamen and heavily rolled up in blue pilotcloth cut in the quaker style only there was a fine and almost microscopic network of the minutest wrinkles interlacing round his eyes which must have arisen from his continual sailings in many hard gales and always looking to windwardfor this causes the muscles about the eyes to become pursed together supposing it be the captain of the pequod what dost thou want of him i see thou art no nantucketerever been in a stove boat dost know nothing at all about whaling i dare sayeh ive been several voyages in the merchant service and i think that merchant service be damned ill take that leg away from thy stern if ever thou talkest of the marchant service to me again i suppose now ye feel considerable proud of having served in those marchant ships
it should not be said that the miss bennets could not be at home half a day before they were in pursuit of the officers wickham again and was resolved to avoid it as long as possible the comfort to her of the regiments approaching removal was indeed beyond expression in a fortnight they were to goand once gone she hoped there could be nothing more to plague her on his account she had not been many hours at home before she found that the brighton scheme of which lydia had given them a hint at the inn was under frequent discussion between her parents elizabeth saw directly that her father had not the smallest intention of yielding but his answers were at the same time so vague and equivocal that her mother though often disheartened had never yet despaired of succeeding at last chapter  elizabeths impatience to acquaint jane with what had happened could no longer be overcome and at length resolving to suppress every particular in which her sister was concerned and preparing her to be surprised she related to her the next morning the chief of the scene between mr miss bennets astonishment was soon lessened by the strong sisterly partiality which made any admiration of elizabeth appear perfectly natural and all surprise was shortly lost in other feelings darcy should have delivered his sentiments in a manner so little suited to recommend them but still more was she grieved for the unhappiness which her sisters refusal must have given him his being so sure of succeeding was wrong said she and certainly ought not to have appeared but consider how much it must increase his disappointment indeed replied elizabeth i am heartily sorry for him but he has other feelings which will probably soon drive away his regard for me but you blame me for having spoken so warmly of wickham noi do not know that you were wrong in saying what you did but you will know it when i tell you what happened the very next day she then spoke of the letter repeating the whole of its contents as far as they concerned george wickham who would willingly have gone through the world without believing that so much wickedness existed in the whole race of mankind as was here collected in one individual nor was darcys vindication though grateful to her feelings capable of consoling her for such discovery most earnestly did she labour to prove the probability of error and seek to clear the one without involving the other this will not do said elizabeth you never will be able to make both of them good for anything take your choice but you must be satisfied with only one
but this was not the only jamming jeopardy he was exposed to unappalled by the massacre made upon them during the night the sharks now freshly and more keenly allured by the before pent blood which began to flow from the carcassthe rabid creatures swarmed round it like bees in a beehive and right in among those sharks was queequeg who often pushed them aside with his floundering feet a thing altogether incredible were it not that attracted by such prey as a dead whale the otherwise miscellaneously carnivorous shark will seldom touch a man nevertheless it may well be believed that since they have such a ravenous finger in the pie it is deemed but wise to look sharp to them accordingly besides the monkeyrope with which i now and then jerked the poor fellow from too close a vicinity to the maw of what seemed a peculiarly ferocious sharkhe was provided with still another protection suspended over the side in one of the stages tashtego and daggoo continually flourished over his head a couple of keen whalespades wherewith they slaughtered as many sharks as they could reach this procedure of theirs to be sure was very disinterested and benevolent of them they meant queequegs best happiness i admit but in their hasty zeal to befriend him and from the circumstance that both he and the sharks were at times half hidden by the bloodmuddled water those indiscreet spades of theirs would come nearer amputating a leg than a tail but poor queequeg i suppose straining and gasping there with that great iron hookpoor queequeg i suppose only prayed to his yojo and gave up his life into the hands of his gods well well my dear comrade and twinbrother thought i as i drew in and then slacked off the rope to every swell of the seawhat matters it after all are you not the precious image of each and all of us men in this whaling world that unsounded ocean you gasp in is life those sharks your foes those spades your friends and what between sharks and spades you are in a sad pickle and peril poor lad for now as with blue lips and bloodshot eyes the exhausted savage at last climbs up the chains and stands all dripping and involuntarily trembling over the side the steward advances and with a benevolent consolatory glance hands himwhat yes this must be ginger peering into the as yet untasted cup then standing as if incredulous for a while he calmly walked towards the astonished steward slowly saying ginger is ginger the sort of fuel you use doughboy to kindle a fire in this shivering cannibal what the devil is ginger i say that you offer this cup to our poor queequeg here there is some sneaking temperance society movement about this business he suddenly added now approaching starbuck who had just come from forward will you look at that kannakin sir smell of it if you please
elinors thanks followed this speech with grateful earnestness attended too with the assurance of her expecting material advantage to marianne from the communication of what had passed i have been more pained said she by her endeavors to acquit him than by all the rest for it irritates her mind more than the most perfect conviction of his unworthiness can do now though at first she will suffer much i am sure she will soon become easier have you she continued after a short silence ever seen mr elinor startled by his manner looked at him anxiously saying what eliza had confessed to me though most reluctantly the name of her lover and when he returned to town which was within a fortnight after myself we met by appointment he to defend i to punish his conduct we returned unwounded and the meeting therefore never got abroad elinor sighed over the fancied necessity of this but to a man and a soldier she presumed not to censure it such said colonel brandon after a pause has been the unhappy resemblance between the fate of mother and daughter no as soon as she recovered from her lyingin for i found her near her delivery i removed her and her child into the country and there she remains recollecting soon afterwards that he was probably dividing elinor from her sister he put an end to his visit receiving from her again the same grateful acknowledgments and leaving her full of compassion and esteem for him chapter  when the particulars of this conversation were repeated by miss dashwood to her sister as they very soon were the effect on her was not entirely such as the former had hoped to see not that marianne appeared to distrust the truth of any part of it for she listened to it all with the most steady and submissive attention made neither objection nor remark attempted no vindication of willoughby and seemed to shew by her tears that she felt it to be impossible but though this behaviour assured elinor that the conviction of this guilt was carried home to her mind though she saw with satisfaction the effect of it in her no longer avoiding colonel brandon when he called in her speaking to him even voluntarily speaking with a kind of compassionate respect and though she saw her spirits less violently irritated than before she did not see her less wretched her mind did become settled but it was settled in a gloomy dejection she felt the loss of willoughbys character yet more heavily than she had felt the loss of his heart his seduction and desertion of miss williams the misery of that poor girl and the doubt of what his designs might once have been on herself preyed altogether so much on her spirits that she could not bring herself to speak of what she felt even to elinor and brooding over her sorrows in silence gave more pain to her sister than could have been communicated by the most open and most frequent confession of them dashwood on receiving and answering elinors letter would be only to give a repetition of what her daughters had already felt and said of a disappointment hardly less painful than mariannes and an indignation even greater than elinors long letters from her quickly succeeding each other arrived to tell all that she suffered and thought to express her anxious solicitude for marianne and entreat she would bear up with fortitude under this misfortune bad indeed must the nature of mariannes affliction be when her mother could talk of fortitude mortifying and humiliating must be the origin of those regrets which she could wish her not to indulge
collins could be forgotten there was really an air of great comfort throughout and by charlottes evident enjoyment of it elizabeth supposed he must be often forgotten she had already learnt that lady catherine was still in the country it was spoken of again while they were at dinner when mr collins joining in observed yes miss elizabeth you will have the honour of seeing lady catherine de bourgh on the ensuing sunday at church and i need not say you will be delighted with her she is all affability and condescension and i doubt not but you will be honoured with some portion of her notice when service is over i have scarcely any hesitation in saying she will include you and my sister maria in every invitation with which she honours us during your stay here we dine at rosings twice every week and are never allowed to walk home i should say one of her ladyships carriages for she has several lady catherine is a very respectable sensible woman indeed added charlotte and a most attentive neighbour she is the sort of woman whom one cannot regard with too much deference the evening was spent chiefly in talking over hertfordshire news and telling again what had already been written and when it closed elizabeth in the solitude of her chamber had to meditate upon charlottes degree of contentment to understand her address in guiding and composure in bearing with her husband and to acknowledge that it was all done very well she had also to anticipate how her visit would pass the quiet tenor of their usual employments the vexatious interruptions of mr collins and the gaieties of their intercourse with rosings about the middle of the next day as she was in her room getting ready for a walk a sudden noise below seemed to speak the whole house in confusion and after listening a moment she heard somebody running up stairs in a violent hurry and calling loudly after her she opened the door and met maria in the landing place who breathless with agitation cried out oh my dear eliza pray make haste and come into the diningroom for there is such a sight to be seen elizabeth asked questions in vain maria would tell her nothing more and down they ran into the diningroom which fronted the lane in quest of this wonder it was two ladies stopping in a low phaeton at the garden gate i expected at least that the pigs were got into the garden and here is nothing but lady catherine and her daughter my dear said maria quite shocked at the mistake it is not lady catherine jenkinson who lives with them the other is miss de bourgh
she perceived him soon afterwards looking at herself and speaking familiarly to her brother and had just determined to find out his name from the latter when they both came towards her and mr he addressed her with easy civility and twisted his head into a bow which assured her as plainly as words could have done that he was exactly the coxcomb she had heard him described to be by lucy happy had it been for her if her regard for edward had depended less on his own merit than on the merit of his nearest relations for then his brothers bow must have given the finishing stroke to what the illhumour of his mother and sister would have begun but while she wondered at the difference of the two young men she did not find that the emptiness of conceit of the one put her out of all charity with the modesty and worth of the other why they were different robert exclaimed to her himself in the course of a quarter of an hours conversation for talking of his brother and lamenting the extreme gaucherie which he really believed kept him from mixing in proper society he candidly and generously attributed it much less to any natural deficiency than to the misfortune of a private education while he himself though probably without any particular any material superiority by nature merely from the advantage of a public school was as well fitted to mix in the world as any other man upon my soul he added i believe it is nothing more and so i often tell my mother when she is grieving about it my dear madam i always say to her you must make yourself easy the evil is now irremediable and it has been entirely your own doing why would you be persuaded by my uncle sir robert against your own judgment to place edward under private tuition at the most critical time of his life if you had only sent him to westminster as well as myself instead of sending him to mr  this is the way in which i always consider the matter and my mother is perfectly convinced of her error elinor would not oppose his opinion because whatever might be her general estimation of the advantage of a public school she could not think of edwards abode in mr you reside in devonshire i think was his next observation in a cottage near dawlish elinor set him right as to its situation and it seemed rather surprising to him that anybody could live in devonshire without living near dawlish he bestowed his hearty approbation however on their species of house for my own part said he i am excessively fond of a cottage there is always so much comfort so much elegance about them and i protest if i had any money to spare i should buy a little land and build one myself within a short distance of london where i might drive myself down at any time and collect a few friends about me and be happy i advise every body who is going to build to build a cottage my friend lord courtland came to me the other day on purpose to ask my advice and laid before me three different plans of bonomis
wickham indeed had gone to her on their first arrival in london and had she been able to receive them into her house they would have taken up their abode with her at length however our kind friend procured the wishedfor direction he saw wickham and afterwards insisted on seeing lydia his first object with her he acknowledged had been to persuade her to quit her present disgraceful situation and return to her friends as soon as they could be prevailed on to receive her offering his assistance as far as it would go but he found lydia absolutely resolved on remaining where she was she cared for none of her friends she wanted no help of his she would not hear of leaving wickham she was sure they should be married some time or other and it did not much signify when since such were her feelings it only remained he thought to secure and expedite a marriage which in his very first conversation with wickham he easily learnt had never been his design he confessed himself obliged to leave the regiment on account of some debts of honour which were very pressing and scrupled not to lay all the illconsequences of lydias flight on her own folly alone he meant to resign his commission immediately and as to his future situation he could conjecture very little about it he must go somewhere but he did not know where and he knew he should have nothing to live on darcy asked him why he had not married your sister at once bennet was not imagined to be very rich he would have been able to do something for him and his situation must have been benefited by marriage but he found in reply to this question that wickham still cherished the hope of more effectually making his fortune by marriage in some other country under such circumstances however he was not likely to be proof against the temptation of immediate relief they met several times for there was much to be discussed wickham of course wanted more than he could get but at length was reduced to be reasonable darcys next step was to make your uncle acquainted with it and he first called in gracechurch street the evening before i came home darcy found on further inquiry that your father was still with him but would quit town the next morning he did not judge your father to be a person whom he could so properly consult as your uncle and therefore readily postponed seeing him till after the departure of the former
robert ferrarsi never saw him in my life but fixing her eyes upon elinor to his eldest brother astonishment that would have been as painful as it was strong had not an immediate disbelief of the assertion attended it she turned towards lucy in silent amazement unable to divine the reason or object of such a declaration and though her complexion varied she stood firm in incredulity and felt in no danger of an hysterical fit or a swoon you may well be surprised continued lucy for to be sure you could have had no idea of it before for i dare say he never dropped the smallest hint of it to you or any of your family because it was always meant to be a great secret and i am sure has been faithfully kept so by me to this hour not a soul of all my relations know of it but anne and i never should have mentioned it to you if i had not felt the greatest dependence in the world upon your secrecy and i really thought my behaviour in asking so many questions about mrs ferrars must seem so odd that it ought to be explained ferrars can be displeased when he knows i have trusted you because i know he has the highest opinion in the world of all your family and looks upon yourself and the other miss dashwoods quite as his own sisters her astonishment at what she heard was at first too great for words but at length forcing herself to speak and to speak cautiously she said with calmness of manner which tolerably well concealed her surprise and solicitude may i ask if your engagement is of long standing elinor though greatly shocked still felt unable to believe it i did not know said she that you were even acquainted till the other day he was under my uncles care you know a considerable while i think i have replied elinor with an exertion of spirits which increased with her increase of emotion he was four years with my uncle who lives at longstaple near plymouth it was there our acquaintance begun for my sister and me was often staying with my uncle and it was there our engagement was formed though not till a year after he had quitted as a pupil but he was almost always with us afterwards i was very unwilling to enter into it as you may imagine without the knowledge and approbation of his mother but i was too young and loved him too well to be so prudent as i ought to have been  though you do not know him so well as me miss dashwood you must have seen enough of him to be sensible he is very capable of making a woman sincerely attached to him certainly answered elinor without knowing what she said but after a moments reflection she added with revived security of edwards honour and love and her companions falsehoodengaged to mr i confess myself so totally surprised at what you tell me that reallyi beg your pardon but surely there must be some mistake of person or name ferrars of park street and brother of your sisterinlaw mrs john dashwood is the person i mean you must allow that i am not likely to be deceived as to the name of the man on who all my happiness depends
he scarcely needed an invitation to stay supper and before he went away an engagement was formed chiefly through his own and mrs bennets means for his coming next morning to shoot with her husband after this day jane said no more of her indifference not a word passed between the sisters concerning bingley but elizabeth went to bed in the happy belief that all must speedily be concluded unless mr seriously however she felt tolerably persuaded that all this must have taken place with that gentlemans concurrence bingley was punctual to his appointment and he and mr bennet spent the morning together as had been agreed on the latter was much more agreeable than his companion expected there was nothing of presumption or folly in bingley that could provoke his ridicule or disgust him into silence and he was more communicative and less eccentric than the other had ever seen him bingley of course returned with him to dinner and in the evening mrs bennets invention was again at work to get every body away from him and her daughter elizabeth who had a letter to write went into the breakfast room for that purpose soon after tea for as the others were all going to sit down to cards she could not be wanted to counteract her mothers schemes but on returning to the drawingroom when her letter was finished she saw to her infinite surprise there was reason to fear that her mother had been too ingenious for her on opening the door she perceived her sister and bingley standing together over the hearth as if engaged in earnest conversation and had this led to no suspicion the faces of both as they hastily turned round and moved away from each other would have told it all their situation was awkward enough but hers she thought was still worse not a syllable was uttered by either and elizabeth was on the point of going away again when bingley who as well as the other had sat down suddenly rose and whispering a few words to her sister ran out of the room jane could have no reserves from elizabeth where confidence would give pleasure and instantly embracing her acknowledged with the liveliest emotion that she was the happiest creature in the world elizabeths congratulations were given with a sincerity a warmth a delight which words could but poorly express every sentence of kindness was a fresh source of happiness to jane but she would not allow herself to stay with her sister or say half that remained to be said for the present
go to him elinor she cried as soon as she could speak and force him to come to me tell him i must see him againmust speak to him instantly  i cannot resti shall not have a moments peace till this is explainedsome dreadful misapprehension or other with difficulty however could she prevent her from following him herself and to persuade her to check her agitation to wait at least with the appearance of composure till she might speak to him with more privacy and more effect was impossible for marianne continued incessantly to give way in a low voice to the misery of her feelings by exclamations of wretchedness in a short time elinor saw willoughby quit the room by the door towards the staircase and telling marianne that he was gone urged the impossibility of speaking to him again that evening as a fresh argument for her to be calm she instantly begged her sister would entreat lady middleton to take them home as she was too miserable to stay a minute longer lady middleton though in the middle of a rubber on being informed that marianne was unwell was too polite to object for a moment to her wish of going away and making over her cards to a friend they departed as soon the carriage could be found scarcely a word was spoken during their return to berkeley street marianne was in a silent agony too much oppressed even for tears but as mrs jennings was luckily not come home they could go directly to their own room where hartshorn restored her a little to herself she was soon undressed and in bed and as she seemed desirous of being alone her sister then left her and while she waited the return of mrs jennings had leisure enough for thinking over the past that some kind of engagement had subsisted between willoughby and marianne she could not doubt and that willoughby was weary of it seemed equally clear for however marianne might still feed her own wishes she could not attribute such behaviour to mistake or misapprehension of any kind nothing but a thorough change of sentiment could account for it her indignation would have been still stronger than it was had she not witnessed that embarrassment which seemed to speak a consciousness of his own misconduct and prevented her from believing him so unprincipled as to have been sporting with the affections of her sister from the first without any design that would bear investigation absence might have weakened his regard and convenience might have determined him to overcome it but that such a regard had formerly existed she could not bring herself to doubt as for marianne on the pangs which so unhappy a meeting must already have given her and on those still more severe which might await her in its probable consequence she could not reflect without the deepest concern her own situation gained in the comparison for while she could esteem edward as much as ever however they might be divided in future her mind might be always supported but every circumstance that could embitter such an evil seemed uniting to heighten the misery of marianne in a final separation from willoughbyin an immediate and irreconcilable rupture with him chapter  before the housemaid had lit their fire the next day or the sun gained any power over a cold gloomy morning in january marianne only half dressed was kneeling against one of the windowseats for the sake of all the little light she could command from it and writing as fast as a continual flow of tears would permit her
marianne was afraid of offending and said no more on the subject but the kind of approbation which elinor described as excited in him by the drawings of other people was very far from that rapturous delight which in her opinion could alone be called taste yet though smiling within herself at the mistake she honoured her sister for that blind partiality to edward which produced it i hope marianne continued elinor you do not consider him as deficient in general taste indeed i think i may say that you cannot for your behaviour to him is perfectly cordial and if that were your opinion i am sure you could never be civil to him she would not wound the feelings of her sister on any account and yet to say what she did not believe was impossible at length she replied do not be offended elinor if my praise of him is not in every thing equal to your sense of his merits i have not had so many opportunities of estimating the minuter propensities of his mind his inclinations and tastes as you have but i have the highest opinion in the world of his goodness and sense i am sure replied elinor with a smile that his dearest friends could not be dissatisfied with such commendation as that i do not perceive how you could express yourself more warmly marianne was rejoiced to find her sister so easily pleased of his sense and his goodness continued elinor no one can i think be in doubt who has seen him often enough to engage him in unreserved conversation the excellence of his understanding and his principles can be concealed only by that shyness which too often keeps him silent you know enough of him to do justice to his solid worth but of his minuter propensities as you call them you have from peculiar circumstances been kept more ignorant than myself he and i have been at times thrown a good deal together while you have been wholly engrossed on the most affectionate principle by my mother i have seen a great deal of him have studied his sentiments and heard his opinion on subjects of literature and taste and upon the whole i venture to pronounce that his mind is wellinformed enjoyment of books exceedingly great his imagination lively his observation just and correct and his taste delicate and pure his abilities in every respect improve as much upon acquaintance as his manners and person at first sight his address is certainly not striking and his person can hardly be called handsome till the expression of his eyes which are uncommonly good and the general sweetness of his countenance is perceived at present i know him so well that i think him really handsome or at least almost so i shall very soon think him handsome elinor if i do not now
and when after gaining his own deck and his own pivothole there he so vehemently wheeled round with an urgent command to the steersman it was as ever something about his not steering inflexibly enough then the already shaken ivory received such an additional twist and wrench that though it still remained entire and to all appearances lusty yet ahab did not deem it entirely trustworthy and indeed it seemed small matter for wonder that for all his pervading mad recklessness ahab did at times give careful heed to the condition of that dead bone upon which he partly stood for it had not been very long prior to the pequods sailing from nantucket that he had been found one night lying prone upon the ground and insensible by some unknown and seemingly inexplicable unimaginable casualty his ivory limb having been so violently displaced that it had stakewise smitten and all but pierced his groin nor was it without extreme difficulty that the agonizing wound was entirely cured nor at the time had it failed to enter his monomaniac mind that all the anguish of that then present suffering was but the direct issue of a former woe and he too plainly seemed to see that as the most poisonous reptile of the marsh perpetuates his kind as inevitably as the sweetest songster of the grove so equally with every felicity all miserable events do naturally beget their like yea more than equally thought ahab since both the ancestry and posterity of grief go further than the ancestry and posterity of joy for not to hint of this that it is an inference from certain canonic teachings that while some natural enjoyments here shall have no children born to them for the other world but on the contrary shall be followed by the joychildlessness of all hells despair whereas some guilty mortal miseries shall still fertilely beget to themselves an eternally progressive progeny of griefs beyond the grave not at all to hint of this there still seems an inequality in the deeper analysis of the thing for thought ahab while even the highest earthly felicities ever have a certain unsignifying pettiness lurking in them but at bottom all heartwoes a mystic significance and in some men an archangelic grandeur so do their diligent tracingsout not belie the obvious deduction to trail the genealogies of these high mortal miseries carries us at last among the sourceless primogenitures of the gods so that in the face of all the glad haymaking suns and soft cymballing round harvestmoons we must needs give in to this that the gods themselves are not for ever glad the ineffaceable sad birthmark in the brow of man is but the stamp of sorrow in the signers unwittingly here a secret has been divulged which perhaps might more properly in set way have been disclosed before with many other particulars concerning ahab always had it remained a mystery to some why it was that for a certain period both before and after the sailing of the pequod he had hidden himself away with such grandlamalike exclusiveness and for that one interval sought speechless refuge as it were among the marble senate of the dead captain pelegs bruited reason for this thing appeared by no means adequate though indeed as touching all ahabs deeper part every revelation partook more of significant darkness than of explanatory light but in the end it all came out this one matter did at least that direful mishap was at the bottom of his temporary recluseness and not only this but to that evercontracting dropping circle ashore who for any reason possessed the privilege of a less banned approach to him to that timid circle the above hinted casualtyremaining as it did moodily unaccounted for by ahabinvested itself with terrors not entirely underived from the land of spirits and of wails so that through their zeal for him they had all conspired so far as in them lay to muffle up the knowledge of this thing from others and hence it was that not till a considerable interval had elapsed did it transpire upon the pequods decks but be all this as it may let the unseen ambiguous synod in the air or the vindictive princes and potentates of fire have to do or not with earthly ahab yet in this present matter of his leg he took plain practical procedureshe called the carpenter and when that functionary appeared before him he bade him without delay set about making a new leg and directed the mates to see him supplied with all the studs and joists of jawivory sperm whale which had thus far been accumulated on the voyage in order that a careful selection of the stoutest clearestgrained stuff might be secured this done the carpenter received orders to have the leg completed that night and to provide all the fittings for it independent of those pertaining to the distrusted one in use moreover the ships forge was ordered to be hoisted out of its temporary idleness in the hold and to accelerate the affair the blacksmith was commanded to proceed at once to the forging of whatever iron contrivances might be needed
literally this word means fatcutter usage however in time made it equivalent to chief harpooneer in those days the captains authority was restricted to the navigation and general management of the vessel while over the whalehunting department and all its concerns the specksynder or chief harpooneer reigned supreme in the british greenland fishery under the corrupted title of specksioneer this old dutch official is still retained but his former dignity is sadly abridged at present he ranks simply as senior harpooneer and as such is but one of the captains more inferior subalterns nevertheless as upon the good conduct of the harpooneers the success of a whaling voyage largely depends and since in the american fishery he is not only an important officer in the boat but under certain circumstances night watches on a whaling ground the command of the ships deck is also his therefore the grand political maxim of the sea demands that he should nominally live apart from the men before the mast and be in some way distinguished as their professional superior though always by them familiarly regarded as their social equal now the grand distinction drawn between officer and man at sea is thisthe first lives aft the last forward hence in whaleships and merchantmen alike the mates have their quarters with the captain and so too in most of the american whalers the harpooneers are lodged in the after part of the ship that is to say they take their meals in the captains cabin and sleep in a place indirectly communicating with it though the long period of a southern whaling voyage by far the longest of all voyages now or ever made by man the peculiar perils of it and the community of interest prevailing among a company all of whom high or low depend for their profits not upon fixed wages but upon their common luck together with their common vigilance intrepidity and hard work though all these things do in some cases tend to beget a less rigorous discipline than in merchantmen generally yet never mind how much like an old mesopotamian family these whalemen may in some primitive instances live together for all that the punctilious externals at least of the quarterdeck are seldom materially relaxed and in no instance done away indeed many are the nantucket ships in which you will see the skipper parading his quarterdeck with an elated grandeur not surpassed in any military navy nay extorting almost as much outward homage as if he wore the imperial purple and not the shabbiest of pilotcloth and though of all men the moody captain of the pequod was the least given to that sort of shallowest assumption and though the only homage he ever exacted was implicit instantaneous obedience though he required no man to remove the shoes from his feet ere stepping upon the quarterdeck and though there were times when owing to peculiar circumstances connected with events hereafter to be detailed he addressed them in unusual terms whether of condescension or in terrorem or otherwise yet even captain ahab was by no means unobservant of the paramount forms and usages of the sea nor perhaps will it fail to be eventually perceived that behind those forms and usages as it were he sometimes masked himself incidentally making use of them for other and more private ends than they were legitimately intended to subserve that certain sultanism of his brain which had otherwise in a good degree remained unmanifested through those forms that same sultanism became incarnate in an irresistible dictatorship for be a mans intellectual superiority what it will it can never assume the practical available supremacy over other men without the aid of some sort of external arts and entrenchments always in themselves more or less paltry and base this it is that for ever keeps gods true princes of the empire from the worlds hustings and leaves the highest honours that this air can give to those men who become famous more through their infinite inferiority to the choice hidden handful of the divine inert than through their undoubted superiority over the dead level of the mass such large virtue lurks in these small things when extreme political superstitions invest them that in some royal instances even to idiot imbecility they have imparted potency but when as in the case of nicholas the czar the ringed crown of geographical empire encircles an imperial brain then the plebeian herds crouch abased before the tremendous centralization nor will the tragic dramatist who would depict mortal indomitableness in its fullest sweep and direct swing ever forget a hint incidentally so important in his art as the one now alluded to but ahab my captain still moves before me in all his nantucket grimness and shagginess and in this episode touching emperors and kings i must not conceal that i have only to do with a poor old whalehunter like him and therefore all outward majestical trappings and housings are denied me what shall be grand in thee it must needs be plucked at from the skies and dived for in the deep and featured in the unbodied air
in her earnest meditations on the contents of the letter on the depravity of that mind which could dictate it and probably on the very different mind of a very different person who had no other connection whatever with the affair than what her heart gave him with every thing that passed elinor forgot the immediate distress of her sister forgot that she had three letters on her lap yet unread and so entirely forgot how long she had been in the room that when on hearing a carriage drive up to the door she went to the window to see who could be coming so unreasonably early she was all astonishment to perceive mrs jenningss chariot which she knew had not been ordered till one determined not to quit marianne though hopeless of contributing at present to her ease she hurried away to excuse herself from attending mrs jennings with a thoroughly goodhumoured concern for its cause admitted the excuse most readily and elinor after seeing her safe off returned to marianne whom she found attempting to rise from the bed and whom she reached just in time to prevent her from falling on the floor faint and giddy from a long want of proper rest and food for it was many days since she had any appetite and many nights since she had really slept and now when her mind was no longer supported by the fever of suspense the consequence of all this was felt in an aching head a weakened stomach and a general nervous faintness a glass of wine which elinor procured for her directly made her more comfortable and she was at last able to express some sense of her kindness by saying poor elinor i only wish replied her sister there were any thing i could do which might be of comfort to you this as every thing else would have been was too much for marianne who could only exclaim in the anguish of her heart oh elinor i am miserable indeed before her voice was entirely lost in sobs elinor could no longer witness this torrent of unresisted grief in silence exert yourself dear marianne she cried if you would not kill yourself and all who love you think of your mother think of her misery while you suffer for her sake you must exert yourself i cannot i cannot cried marianne leave me leave me if i distress you leave me hate me forget me how easy for those who have no sorrow of their own to talk of exertion happy happy elinor you cannot have an idea of what i suffer and can you believe me to be so while i see you so wretched forgive me forgive me throwing her arms round her sisters neck i know you feel for me i know what a heart you have but yet you areyou must be happy edward loves youwhat oh what can do away such happiness as that no no no cried marianne wildly he loves you and only you i can have no pleasure while i see you in this state is your loss such as leaves no opening for consolation much as you suffer now think of what you would have suffered if the discovery of his character had been delayed to a later periodif your engagement had been carried on for months and months as it might have been before he chose to put an end to it
poor kitty has anger for having concealed their attachment but as it was a matter of confidence one cannot wonder i am truly glad dearest lizzy that you have been spared something of these distressing scenes but now as the first shock is over shall i own that i long for your return i am not so selfish however as to press for it if inconvenient i take up my pen again to do what i have just told you i would not but circumstances are such that i cannot help earnestly begging you all to come here as soon as possible i know my dear uncle and aunt so well that i am not afraid of requesting it though i have still something more to ask of the former my father is going to london with colonel forster instantly to try to discover her what he means to do i am sure i know not but his excessive distress will not allow him to pursue any measure in the best and safest way and colonel forster is obliged to be at brighton again tomorrow evening in such an exigence my uncles advice and assistance would be everything in the world he will immediately comprehend what i must feel and i rely upon his goodness cried elizabeth darting from her seat as she finished the letter in eagerness to follow him without losing a moment of the time so precious but as she reached the door it was opened by a servant and mr her pale face and impetuous manner made him start and before he could recover himself to speak she in whose mind every idea was superseded by lydias situation hastily exclaimed i beg your pardon but i must leave you gardiner this moment on business that cannot be delayed i have not an instant to lose cried he with more feeling than politeness then recollecting himself i will not detain you a minute but let me or let the servant go after mr elizabeth hesitated but her knees trembled under her and she felt how little would be gained by her attempting to pursue them calling back the servant therefore she commissioned him though in so breathless an accent as made her almost unintelligible to fetch his master and mistress home instantly on his quitting the room she sat down unable to support herself and looking so miserably ill that it was impossible for darcy to leave her or to refrain from saying in a tone of gentleness and commiseration let me call your maid is there nothing you could take to give you present relief no i thank you she replied endeavouring to recover herself i am quite well i am only distressed by some dreadful news which i have just received from longbourn she burst into tears as she alluded to it and for a few minutes could not speak another word darcy in wretched suspense could only say something indistinctly of his concern and observe her in compassionate silence
bennet treasured up the hint and trusted that she might soon have two daughters married and the man whom she could not bear to speak of the day before was now high in her good graces lydias intention of walking to meryton was not forgotten every sister except mary agreed to go with her and mr bennet who was most anxious to get rid of him and have his library to himself for thither mr collins had followed him after breakfast and there he would continue nominally engaged with one of the largest folios in the collection but really talking to mr bennet with little cessation of his house and garden at hunsford in his library he had been always sure of leisure and tranquillity and though prepared as he told elizabeth to meet with folly and conceit in every other room of the house he was used to be free from them there his civility therefore was most prompt in inviting mr collins being in fact much better fitted for a walker than a reader was extremely pleased to close his large book and go in pompous nothings on his side and civil assents on that of his cousins their time passed till they entered meryton the attention of the younger ones was then no longer to be gained by him their eyes were immediately wandering up in the street in quest of the officers and nothing less than a very smart bonnet indeed or a really new muslin in a shop window could recall them but the attention of every lady was soon caught by a young man whom they had never seen before of most gentlemanlike appearance walking with another officer on the other side of the way denny concerning whose return from london lydia came to inquire and he bowed as they passed all were struck with the strangers air all wondered who he could be and kitty and lydia determined if possible to find out led the way across the street under pretense of wanting something in an opposite shop and fortunately had just gained the pavement when the two gentlemen turning back had reached the same spot denny addressed them directly and entreated permission to introduce his friend mr wickham who had returned with him the day before from town and he was happy to say had accepted a commission in their corps this was exactly as it should be for the young man wanted only regimentals to make him completely charming his appearance was greatly in his favour he had all the best part of beauty a fine countenance a good figure and very pleasing address the introduction was followed up on his side by a happy readiness of conversationa readiness at the same time perfectly correct and unassuming and the whole party were still standing and talking together very agreeably when the sound of horses drew their notice and darcy and bingley were seen riding down the street on distinguishing the ladies of the group the two gentlemen came directly towards them and began the usual civilities bingley was the principal spokesman and miss bennet the principal object
dashwood had been informed by her husband of the solemn promise on the part of his son in their favour which gave comfort to his last earthly reflections she doubted the sincerity of this assurance no more than he had doubted it himself and she thought of it for her daughters sake with satisfaction though as for herself she was persuaded that a much smaller provision than l would support her in affluence for their brothers sake too for the sake of his own heart she rejoiced and she reproached herself for being unjust to his merit before in believing him incapable of generosity his attentive behaviour to herself and his sisters convinced her that their welfare was dear to him and for a long time she firmly relied on the liberality of his intentions the contempt which she had very early in their acquaintance felt for her daughterinlaw was very much increased by the farther knowledge of her character which half a years residence in her family afforded and perhaps in spite of every consideration of politeness or maternal affection on the side of the former the two ladies might have found it impossible to have lived together so long had not a particular circumstance occurred to give still greater eligibility according to the opinions of mrs this circumstance was a growing attachment between her eldest girl and the brother of mrs john dashwood a gentlemanlike and pleasing young man who was introduced to their acquaintance soon after his sisters establishment at norland and who had since spent the greatest part of his time there some mothers might have encouraged the intimacy from motives of interest for edward ferrars was the eldest son of a man who had died very rich and some might have repressed it from motives of prudence for except a trifling sum the whole of his fortune depended on the will of his mother dashwood was alike uninfluenced by either consideration it was enough for her that he appeared to be amiable that he loved her daughter and that elinor returned the partiality it was contrary to every doctrine of hers that difference of fortune should keep any couple asunder who were attracted by resemblance of disposition and that elinors merit should not be acknowledged by every one who knew her was to her comprehension impossible edward ferrars was not recommended to their good opinion by any peculiar graces of person or address he was not handsome and his manners required intimacy to make them pleasing he was too diffident to do justice to himself but when his natural shyness was overcome his behaviour gave every indication of an open affectionate heart his understanding was good and his education had given it solid improvement but he was neither fitted by abilities nor disposition to answer the wishes of his mother and sister who longed to see him distinguishedasthey hardly knew what they wanted him to make a fine figure in the world in some manner or other his mother wished to interest him in political concerns to get him into parliament or to see him connected with some of the great men of the day john dashwood wished it likewise but in the mean while till one of these superior blessings could be attained it would have quieted her ambition to see him driving a barouche all his wishes centered in domestic comfort and the quiet of private life
you have now done your duty by her and must fret no longer but my dear sister can i be happy even supposing the best in accepting a man whose sisters and friends are all wishing him to marry elsewhere you must decide for yourself said elizabeth and if upon mature deliberation you find that the misery of disobliging his two sisters is more than equivalent to the happiness of being his wife i advise you by all means to refuse him you must know that though i should be exceedingly grieved at their disapprobation i could not hesitate i did not think you would and that being the case i cannot consider your situation with much compassion but if he returns no more this winter my choice will never be required the idea of his returning no more elizabeth treated with the utmost contempt it appeared to her merely the suggestion of carolines interested wishes and she could not for a moment suppose that those wishes however openly or artfully spoken could influence a young man so totally independent of everyone she represented to her sister as forcibly as possible what she felt on the subject and had soon the pleasure of seeing its happy effect janes temper was not desponding and she was gradually led to hope though the diffidence of affection sometimes overcame the hope that bingley would return to netherfield and answer every wish of her heart bennet should only hear of the departure of the family without being alarmed on the score of the gentlemans conduct but even this partial communication gave her a great deal of concern and she bewailed it as exceedingly unlucky that the ladies should happen to go away just as they were all getting so intimate together after lamenting it however at some length she had the consolation that mr bingley would be soon down again and soon dining at longbourn and the conclusion of all was the comfortable declaration that though he had been invited only to a family dinner she would take care to have two full courses chapter  the bennets were engaged to dine with the lucases and again during the chief of the day was miss lucas so kind as to listen to mr it keeps him in good humour said she and i am more obliged to you than i can express charlotte assured her friend of her satisfaction in being useful and that it amply repaid her for the little sacrifice of her time this was very amiable but charlottes kindness extended farther than elizabeth had any conception of its object was nothing else than to secure her from any return of mr collinss addresses by engaging them towards herself such was miss lucass scheme and appearances were so favourable that when they parted at night she would have felt almost secure of success if he had not been to leave hertfordshire so very soon but here she did injustice to the fire and independence of his character for it led him to escape out of longbourn house the next morning with admirable slyness and hasten to lucas lodge to throw himself at her feet
but in spite of the certainty in which elizabeth affected to place this point as well as the still more interesting one of bingleys being withheld from seeing jane she felt a solicitude on the subject which convinced her on examination that she did not consider it entirely hopeless it was possible and sometimes she thought it probable that his affection might be reanimated and the influence of his friends successfully combated by the more natural influence of janes attractions miss bennet accepted her aunts invitation with pleasure and the bingleys were no otherwise in her thoughts at the same time than as she hoped by carolines not living in the same house with her brother she might occasionally spend a morning with her without any danger of seeing him the gardiners stayed a week at longbourn and what with the phillipses the lucases and the officers there was not a day without its engagement bennet had so carefully provided for the entertainment of her brother and sister that they did not once sit down to a family dinner when the engagement was for home some of the officers always made part of itof which officers mr wickham was sure to be one and on these occasions mrs gardiner rendered suspicious by elizabeths warm commendation narrowly observed them both without supposing them from what she saw to be very seriously in love their preference of each other was plain enough to make her a little uneasy and she resolved to speak to elizabeth on the subject before she left hertfordshire and represent to her the imprudence of encouraging such an attachment gardiner wickham had one means of affording pleasure unconnected with his general powers about ten or a dozen years ago before her marriage she had spent a considerable time in that very part of derbyshire to which he belonged they had therefore many acquaintances in common and though wickham had been little there since the death of darcys father it was yet in his power to give her fresher intelligence of her former friends than she had been in the way of procuring here consequently was an inexhaustible subject of discourse in comparing her recollection of pemberley with the minute description which wickham could give and in bestowing her tribute of praise on the character of its late possessor she was delighting both him and herself darcys treatment of him she tried to remember some of that gentlemans reputed disposition when quite a lad which might agree with it and was confident at last that she recollected having heard mr fitzwilliam darcy formerly spoken of as a very proud illnatured boy gardiners caution to elizabeth was punctually and kindly given on the first favourable opportunity of speaking to her alone after honestly telling her what she thought she thus went on you are too sensible a girl lizzy to fall in love merely because you are warned against it and therefore i am not afraid of speaking openly do not involve yourself or endeavour to involve him in an affection which the want of fortune would make so very imprudent i have nothing to say against him he is a most interesting young man and if he had the fortune he ought to have i should think you could not do better but as it is you must not let your fancy run away with you
the waifpole was thrust upright into the dead whales spouthole and the lantern hanging from its top cast a troubled flickering glare upon the black glossy back and far out upon the midnight waves which gently chafed the whales broad flank like soft surf upon a beach ahab and all his boats crew seemed asleep but the parsee who crouching in the bow sat watching the sharks that spectrally played round the whale and tapped the light cedar planks with their tails a sound like the moaning in squadrons over asphaltites of unforgiven ghosts of gomorrah ran shuddering through the air started from his slumbers ahab face to face saw the parsee and hooped round by the gloom of the night they seemed the last men in a flooded world have i not said old man that neither hearse nor coffin can be thine but i said old man that ere thou couldst die on this voyage two hearses must verily be seen by thee on the sea the first not made by mortal hands and the visible wood of the last one must be grown in america a strange sight that parseea hearse and its plumes floating over the ocean with the waves for the pallbearers believe it or not thou canst not die till it be seen old man though it come to the last i shall still go before thee thy pilot and when thou art so gone beforeif that ever befallthen ere i can follow thou must still appear to me to pilot me still i have here two pledges that i shall yet slay moby dick and survive it take another pledge old man said the parsee as his eyes lighted up like fireflies in the gloomhemp only can kill thee i am immortal then on land and on sea cried ahab with a laugh of derisionimmortal on land and on sea the grey dawn came on and the slumbering crew arose from the boats bottom and ere noon the dead whale was brought to the ship the season for the line at length drew near and every day when ahab coming from his cabin cast his eyes aloft the vigilant helmsman would ostentatiously handle his spokes and the eager mariners quickly run to the braces and would stand there with all their eyes centrally fixed on the nailed doubloon impatient for the order to point the ships prow for the equator it was hard upon high noon and ahab seated in the bows of his highhoisted boat was about taking his wonted daily observation of the sun to determine his latitude now in that japanese sea the days in summer are as freshets of effulgences that unblinkingly vivid japanese sun seems the blazing focus of the glassy oceans immeasurable burningglass the sky looks lacquered clouds there are none the horizon floats and this nakedness of unrelieved radiance is as the insufferable splendors of gods throne well that ahabs quadrant was furnished with coloured glasses through which to take sight of that solar fire
i almost envy you the pleasure and yet i believe it would be too much for me or else i could take it in my way to newcastle that you were gone into the army and she was afraid hadnot turned out well at such a distance as that you know things are strangely misrepresented elizabeth hoped she had silenced him but he soon afterwards said i was surprised to see darcy in town last month perhaps preparing for his marriage with miss de bourgh said elizabeth it must be something particular to take him there at this time of year i thought i understood from the gardiners that you had i have heard indeed that she is uncommonly improved within this year or two i dare say she will she has got over the most trying age i mention it because it is the living which i ought to have had i should have considered it as part of my duty and the exertion would soon have been nothing one ought not to repinebut to be sure it would have been such a thing for me the quiet the retirement of such a life would have answered all my ideas of happiness did you ever hear darcy mention the circumstance when you were in kent i have heard from authority which i thought as good that it was left you conditionally only and at the will of the present patron yes there was something in that i told you so from the first you may remember i did hear too that there was a time when sermonmaking was not so palatable to you as it seems to be at present that you actually declared your resolution of never taking orders and that the business had been compromised accordingly you may remember what i told you on that point when first we talked of it they were now almost at the door of the house for she had walked fast to get rid of him and unwilling for her sisters sake to provoke him she only said in reply with a goodhumoured smile come mr she held out her hand he kissed it with affectionate gallantry though he hardly knew how to look and they entered the house
her skin was very brown but from its transparency her complexion was uncommonly brilliant her features were all good her smile was sweet and attractive and in her eyes which were very dark there was a life a spirit an eagerness which could hardily be seen without delight from willoughby their expression was at first held back by the embarrassment which the remembrance of his assistance created but when this passed away when her spirits became collected when she saw that to the perfect goodbreeding of the gentleman he united frankness and vivacity and above all when she heard him declare that of music and dancing he was passionately fond she gave him such a look of approbation as secured the largest share of his discourse to herself for the rest of his stay it was only necessary to mention any favourite amusement to engage her to talk she could not be silent when such points were introduced and she had neither shyness nor reserve in their discussion they speedily discovered that their enjoyment of dancing and music was mutual and that it arose from a general conformity of judgment in all that related to either encouraged by this to a further examination of his opinions she proceeded to question him on the subject of books her favourite authors were brought forward and dwelt upon with so rapturous a delight that any young man of five and twenty must have been insensible indeed not to become an immediate convert to the excellence of such works however disregarded before the same books the same passages were idolized by eachor if any difference appeared any objection arose it lasted no longer than till the force of her arguments and the brightness of her eyes could be displayed he acquiesced in all her decisions caught all her enthusiasm and long before his visit concluded they conversed with the familiarity of a longestablished acquaintance well marianne said elinor as soon as he had left them for one morning i think you have done pretty well willoughbys opinion in almost every matter of importance you know what he thinks of cowper and scott you are certain of his estimating their beauties as he ought and you have received every assurance of his admiring pope no more than is proper but how is your acquaintance to be long supported under such extraordinary despatch of every subject for discourse another meeting will suffice to explain his sentiments on picturesque beauty and second marriages and then you can have nothing farther to ask i have been too much at my ease too happy too frank i have erred against every commonplace notion of decorum i have been open and sincere where i ought to have been reserved spiritless dull and deceitfulhad i talked only of the weather and the roads and had i spoken only once in ten minutes this reproach would have been spared my love said her mother you must not be offended with elinorshe was only in jest i should scold her myself if she were capable of wishing to check the delight of your conversation with our new friend willoughby on his side gave every proof of his pleasure in their acquaintance which an evident wish of improving it could offer to enquire after marianne was at first his excuse but the encouragement of his reception to which every day gave greater kindness made such an excuse unnecessary before it had ceased to be possible by mariannes perfect recovery
bennet had no more to say and lady lucas who had been long yawning at the repetition of delights which she saw no likelihood of sharing was left to the comforts of cold ham and chicken but not long was the interval of tranquillity for when supper was over singing was talked of and she had the mortification of seeing mary after very little entreaty preparing to oblige the company by many significant looks and silent entreaties did she endeavour to prevent such a proof of complaisance but in vain mary would not understand them such an opportunity of exhibiting was delightful to her and she began her song elizabeths eyes were fixed on her with most painful sensations and she watched her progress through the several stanzas with an impatience which was very ill rewarded at their close for mary on receiving amongst the thanks of the table the hint of a hope that she might be prevailed on to favour them again after the pause of half a minute began another marys powers were by no means fitted for such a display her voice was weak and her manner affected she looked at jane to see how she bore it but jane was very composedly talking to bingley she looked at his two sisters and saw them making signs of derision at each other and at darcy who continued however imperturbably grave she looked at her father to entreat his interference lest mary should be singing all night he took the hint and when mary had finished her second song said aloud that will do extremely well child mary though pretending not to hear was somewhat disconcerted and elizabeth sorry for her and sorry for her fathers speech was afraid her anxiety had done no good collins were so fortunate as to be able to sing i should have great pleasure i am sure in obliging the company with an air for i consider music as a very innocent diversion and perfectly compatible with the profession of a clergyman i do not mean however to assert that we can be justified in devoting too much of our time to music for there are certainly other things to be attended to in the first place he must make such an agreement for tithes as may be beneficial to himself and not offensive to his patron he must write his own sermons and the time that remains will not be too much for his parish duties and the care and improvement of his dwelling which he cannot be excused from making as comfortable as possible and i do not think it of light importance that he should have attentive and conciliatory manners towards everybody especially towards those to whom he owes his preferment i cannot acquit him of that duty nor could i think well of the man who should omit an occasion of testifying his respect towards anybody connected with the family darcy he concluded his speech which had been spoken so loud as to be heard by half the room many staredmany smiled but no one looked more amused than mr bennet himself while his wife seriously commended mr collins for having spoken so sensibly and observed in a halfwhisper to lady lucas that he was a remarkably clever good kind of young man
not always though ledyard the great new england traveller and mungo park the scotch one of all men they possessed the least assurance in the parlor but perhaps the mere crossing of siberia in a sledge drawn by dogs as ledyard did or the taking a long solitary walk on an empty stomach in the negro heart of africa which was the sum of poor mungos performancesthis kind of travel i say may not be the very best mode of attaining a high social polish still for the most part that sort of thing is to be had anywhere these reflections just here are occasioned by the circumstance that after we were all seated at the table and i was preparing to hear some good stories about whaling to my no small surprise nearly every man maintained a profound silence yes here were a set of seadogs many of whom without the slightest bashfulness had boarded great whales on the high seasentire strangers to themand duelled them dead without winking and yet here they sat at a social breakfast tableall of the same calling all of kindred tasteslooking round as sheepishly at each other as though they had never been out of sight of some sheepfold among the green mountains a curious sight these bashful bears these timid warrior whalemen but as for queequegwhy queequeg sat there among themat the head of the table too it so chanced as cool as an icicle his greatest admirer could not have cordially justified his bringing his harpoon into breakfast with him and using it there without ceremony reaching over the table with it to the imminent jeopardy of many heads and grappling the beefsteaks towards him but that was certainly very coolly done by him and every one knows that in most peoples estimation to do anything coolly is to do it genteelly we will not speak of all queequegs peculiarities here how he eschewed coffee and hot rolls and applied his undivided attention to beefsteaks done rare enough that when breakfast was over he withdrew like the rest into the public room lighted his tomahawkpipe and was sitting there quietly digesting and smoking with his inseparable hat on when i sallied out for a stroll if i had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of so outlandish an individual as queequeg circulating among the polite society of a civilized town that astonishment soon departed upon taking my first daylight stroll through the streets of new bedford in thoroughfares nigh the docks any considerable seaport will frequently offer to view the queerest looking nondescripts from foreign parts even in broadway and chestnut streets mediterranean mariners will sometimes jostle the affrighted ladies regent street is not unknown to lascars and malays and at bombay in the apollo green live yankees have often scared the natives in these lastmentioned haunts you see only sailors but in new bedford actual cannibals stand chatting at street corners savages outright many of whom yet carry on their bones unholy flesh but besides the feegeeans tongatobooarrs erromanggoans pannangians and brighggians and besides the wild specimens of the whalingcraft which unheeded reel about the streets you will see other sights still more curious certainly more comical there weekly arrive in this town scores of green vermonters and new hampshire men all athirst for gain and glory in the fishery they are mostly young of stalwart frames fellows who have felled forests and now seek to drop the axe and snatch the whalelance many are as green as the green mountains whence they came
george might have been only a large seal or seahorse bearing all this in mind it will not appear altogether incompatible with the sacred legend and the ancientest draughts of the scene to hold this socalled dragon no other than the great leviathan himself in fact placed before the strict and piercing truth this whole story will fare like that fish flesh and fowl idol of the philistines dagon by name who being planted before the ark of israel his horses head and both the palms of his hands fell off from him and only the stump or fishy part of him remained thus then one of our own noble stamp even a whaleman is the tutelary guardian of england and by good rights we harpooneers of nantucket should be enrolled in the most noble order of st and therefore let not the knights of that honourable company none of whom i venture to say have ever had to do with a whale like their great patron let them never eye a nantucketer with disdain since even in our woollen frocks and tarred trowsers we are much better entitled to st whether to admit hercules among us or not concerning this i long remained dubious for though according to the greek mythologies that antique crockett and kit carsonthat brawny doer of rejoicing good deeds was swallowed down and thrown up by a whale still whether that strictly makes a whaleman of him that might be mooted it nowhere appears that he ever actually harpooned his fish unless indeed from the inside nevertheless he may be deemed a sort of involuntary whaleman at any rate the whale caught him if he did not the whale but by the best contradictory authorities this grecian story of hercules and the whale is considered to be derived from the still more ancient hebrew story of jonah and the whale and vice versa certainly they are very similar nor do heroes saints demigods and prophets alone comprise the whole roll of our order our grand master is still to be named for like royal kings of old times we find the head waters of our fraternity in nothing short of the great gods themselves that wondrous oriental story is now to be rehearsed from the shaster which gives us the dread vishnoo one of the three persons in the godhead of the hindoos gives us this divine vishnoo himself for our lordvishnoo who by the first of his ten earthly incarnations has for ever set apart and sanctified the whale when brahma or the god of gods saith the shaster resolved to recreate the world after one of its periodical dissolutions he gave birth to vishnoo to preside over the work but the vedas or mystical books whose perusal would seem to have been indispensable to vishnoo before beginning the creation and which therefore must have contained something in the shape of practical hints to young architects these vedas were lying at the bottom of the waters so vishnoo became incarnate in a whale and sounding down in him to the uttermost depths rescued the sacred volumes even as a man who rides a horse is called a horseman reference was made to the historical story of jonah and the whale in the preceding chapter now some nantucketers rather distrust this historical story of jonah and the whale but then there were some sceptical greeks and romans who standing out from the orthodox pagans of their times equally doubted the story of hercules and the whale and arion and the dolphin and yet their doubting those traditions did not make those traditions one whit the less facts for all that one old sagharbor whalemans chief reason for questioning the hebrew story was thishe had one of those quaint oldfashioned bibles embellished with curious unscientific plates one of which represented jonahs whale with two spouts in his heada peculiarity only true with respect to a species of the leviathan the right whale and the varieties of that order concerning which the fishermen have this saying a penny roll would choke him  his swallow is so very small but to this bishop jebbs anticipative answer is ready it is not necessary hints the bishop that we consider jonah as tombed in the whales belly but as temporarily lodged in some part of his mouth and this seems reasonable enough in the good bishop
and ahab he too was standing on his quarterdeck shaggy and black with a stubborn gloom and as the two ships crossed each others wakesone all jubilations for things passed the other all forebodings as to things to cometheir two captains in themselves impersonated the whole striking contrast of the scene cried the gay bachelors commander lifting a glass and a bottle in the air no only heard of him but dont believe in him at all said the other goodhumoredly not enough to speak oftwo islanders thats allbut come aboard old hearty come along come along will ye merrys the play a full ship and homewardbound muttered ahab then aloud thou art a full ship and homeward bound thou sayst well then call me an empty ship and outwardbound and thus while the one ship went cheerily before the breeze the other stubbornly fought against it and so the two vessels parted the crew of the pequod looking with grave lingering glances towards the receding bachelor but the bachelors men never heeding their gaze for the lively revelry they were in and as ahab leaning over the taffrail eyed the homewardbound craft he took from his pocket a small vial of sand and then looking from the ship to the vial seemed thereby bringing two remote associations together for that vial was filled with nantucket soundings not seldom in this life when on the right side fortunes favourites sail close by us we though all adroop before catch somewhat of the rushing breeze and joyfully feel our bagging sails fill out for next day after encountering the gay bachelor whales were seen and four were slain and one of them by ahab it was far down the afternoon and when all the spearings of the crimson fight were done and floating in the lovely sunset sea and sky sun and whale both stilly died together then such a sweetness and such plaintiveness such inwreathing orisons curled up in that rosy air that it almost seemed as if far over from the deep green convent valleys of the manilla isles the spanish landbreeze wantonly turned sailor had gone to sea freighted with these vesper hymns soothed again but only soothed to deeper gloom ahab who had sterned off from the whale sat intently watching his final wanings from the now tranquil boat for that strange spectacle observable in all sperm whales dyingthe turning sunwards of the head and so expiringthat strange spectacle beheld of such a placid evening somehow to ahab conveyed a wondrousness unknown before he turns and turns him to ithow slowly but how steadfastly his homagerendering and invoking brow with his last dying motions he too worships fire most faithful broad baronial vassal of the sun oh that these toofavouring eyes should see these toofavouring sights here far waterlocked beyond all hum of human weal or woe in these most candid and impartial seas where to traditions no rocks furnish tablets where for long chinese ages the billows have still rolled on speechless and unspoken to as stars that shine upon the nigers unknown source here too life dies sunwards full of faith but see no sooner dead than death whirls round the corpse and it heads some other way oh thou dark hindoo half of nature who of drowned bones hast builded thy separate throne somewhere in the heart of these unverdured seas thou art an infidel thou queen and too truly speakest to me in the wideslaughtering typhoon and the hushed burial of its after calm nor has this thy whale sunwards turned his dying head and then gone round again without a lesson to me
bennet who could by no means wish for so speedy a return immediately said but is there not danger of lady catherines disapprobation here my good sir you had better neglect your relations than run the risk of offending your patroness collins i am particularly obliged to you for this friendly caution and you may depend upon my not taking so material a step without her ladyships concurrence risk anything rather than her displeasure and if you find it likely to be raised by your coming to us again which i should think exceedingly probable stay quietly at home and be satisfied that we shall take no offence believe me my dear sir my gratitude is warmly excited by such affectionate attention and depend upon it you will speedily receive from me a letter of thanks for this and for every other mark of your regard during my stay in hertfordshire as for my fair cousins though my absence may not be long enough to render it necessary i shall now take the liberty of wishing them health and happiness not excepting my cousin elizabeth with proper civilities the ladies then withdrew all of them equally surprised that he meditated a quick return bennet wished to understand by it that he thought of paying his addresses to one of her younger girls and mary might have been prevailed on to accept him she rated his abilities much higher than any of the others there was a solidity in his reflections which often struck her and though by no means so clever as herself she thought that if encouraged to read and improve himself by such an example as hers he might become a very agreeable companion but on the following morning every hope of this kind was done away miss lucas called soon after breakfast and in a private conference with elizabeth related the event of the day before collinss fancying himself in love with her friend had once occurred to elizabeth within the last day or two but that charlotte could encourage him seemed almost as far from possibility as she could encourage him herself and her astonishment was consequently so great as to overcome at first the bounds of decorum and she could not help crying out engaged to mr the steady countenance which miss lucas had commanded in telling her story gave way to a momentary confusion here on receiving so direct a reproach though as it was no more than she expected she soon regained her composure and calmly replied why should you be surprised my dear eliza collins should be able to procure any womans good opinion because he was not so happy as to succeed with you but elizabeth had now recollected herself and making a strong effort for it was able to assure with tolerable firmness that the prospect of their relationship was highly grateful to her and that she wished her all imaginable happiness you must be surprised very much surprisedso lately as mr but when you have had time to think it over i hope you will be satisfied with what i have done collinss character connection and situation in life i am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state elizabeth quietly answered undoubtedly and after an awkward pause they returned to the rest of the family charlotte did not stay much longer and elizabeth was then left to reflect on what she had heard
fortunately for those who pay their court through such foibles a fond mother though in pursuit of praise for her children the most rapacious of human beings is likewise the most credulous her demands are exorbitant but she will swallow any thing and the excessive affection and endurance of the miss steeles towards her offspring were viewed therefore by lady middleton without the smallest surprise or distrust she saw with maternal complacency all the impertinent encroachments and mischievous tricks to which her cousins submitted she saw their sashes untied their hair pulled about their ears their workbags searched and their knives and scissors stolen away and felt no doubt of its being a reciprocal enjoyment it suggested no other surprise than that elinor and marianne should sit so composedly by without claiming a share in what was passing said she on his taking miss steeless pocket handkerchief and throwing it out of windowhe is full of monkey tricks  and soon afterwards on the second boys violently pinching one of the same ladys fingers she fondly observed how playful william is and here is my sweet little annamaria she added tenderly caressing a little girl of three years old who had not made a noise for the last two minutes and she is always so gentle and quietnever was there such a quiet little thing but unfortunately in bestowing these embraces a pin in her ladyships head dress slightly scratching the childs neck produced from this pattern of gentleness such violent screams as could hardly be outdone by any creature professedly noisy the mothers consternation was excessive but it could not surpass the alarm of the miss steeles and every thing was done by all three in so critical an emergency which affection could suggest as likely to assuage the agonies of the little sufferer she was seated in her mothers lap covered with kisses her wound bathed with lavenderwater by one of the miss steeles who was on her knees to attend her and her mouth stuffed with sugar plums by the other with such a reward for her tears the child was too wise to cease crying she still screamed and sobbed lustily kicked her two brothers for offering to touch her and all their united soothings were ineffectual till lady middleton luckily remembering that in a scene of similar distress last week some apricot marmalade had been successfully applied for a bruised temple the same remedy was eagerly proposed for this unfortunate scratch and a slight intermission of screams in the young lady on hearing it gave them reason to hope that it would not be rejected  she was carried out of the room therefore in her mothers arms in quest of this medicine and as the two boys chose to follow though earnestly entreated by their mother to stay behind the four young ladies were left in a quietness which the room had not known for many hours yet i hardly know how cried marianne unless it had been under totally different circumstances but this is the usual way of heightening alarm where there is nothing to be alarmed at in reality marianne was silent it was impossible for her to say what she did not feel however trivial the occasion and upon elinor therefore the whole task of telling lies when politeness required it always fell she did her best when thus called on by speaking of lady middleton with more warmth than she felt though with far less than miss lucy and sir john too cried the elder sister what a charming man he is here too miss dashwoods commendation being only simple and just came in without any eclat she merely observed that he was perfectly good humoured and friendly
his spout was short slow and laborious coming forth with a choking sort of gush and spending itself in torn shreds followed by strange subterranean commotions in him which seemed to have egress at his other buried extremity causing the waters behind him to upbubble adverse winds are holding mad christmas in him boys its the first foul wind i ever knew to blow from astern but look did ever whale yaw so before as an overladen indiaman bearing down the hindostan coast with a deck load of frightened horses careens buries rolls and wallows on her way so did this old whale heave his aged bulk and now and then partly turning over on his cumbrous ribends expose the cause of his devious wake in the unnatural stump of his starboard fin whether he had lost that fin in battle or had been born without it it were hard to say only wait a bit old chap and ill give ye a sling for that wounded arm cried cruel flask pointing to the whaleline near him with one intent all the combined rival boats were pointed for this one fish because not only was he the largest and therefore the most valuable whale but he was nearest to them and the other whales were going with such great velocity moreover as almost to defy pursuit for the time at this juncture the pequods keels had shot by the three german boats last lowered but from the great start he had had dericks boat still led the chase though every moment neared by his foreign rivals the only thing they feared was that from being already so nigh to his mark he would be enabled to dart his iron before they could completely overtake and pass him as for derick he seemed quite confident that this would be the case and occasionally with a deriding gesture shook his lampfeeder at the other boats cried starbuck he mocks and dares me with the very poorbox i filled for him not five minutes ago  i tell ye what it is men cried stubb to his crewits against my religion to get mad but id like to eat that villainous yarmanpullwont ye whos that been dropping an anchor overboardwe dont budge an inchwere becalmed halloo heres grass growing in the boats bottomand by the lord the mast theres budding the short and long of it is men will ye spit fire or not cried flask dancing up and downwhat a humpoh do pile on the beeflays like a log my lads do springslapjacks and quahogs for supper you know my ladsbaked clams and muffinsoh do do springhes a hundred barrellerdont lose him nowdont oh dont see that yarmanoh wont ye pull for your duff my ladssuch a sog  at this moment derick was in the act of pitching his lampfeeder at the advancing boats and also his oilcan perhaps with the double view of retarding his rivals way and at the same time economically accelerating his own by the momentary impetus of the backward toss pull now men like fifty thousand lineofbattleship loads of redhaired devils
presently a breeze sprang up stubb feigned to cast off from the whale hoisting his boats the frenchman soon increased his distance while the pequod slid in between him and stubbs whale whereupon stubb quickly pulled to the floating body and hailing the pequod to give notice of his intentions at once proceeded to reap the fruit of his unrighteous cunning seizing his sharp boatspade he commenced an excavation in the body a little behind the side fin you would almost have thought he was digging a cellar there in the sea and when at length his spade struck against the gaunt ribs it was like turning up old roman tiles and pottery buried in fat english loam his boats crew were all in high excitement eagerly helping their chief and looking as anxious as goldhunters and all the time numberless fowls were diving and ducking and screaming and yelling and fighting around them stubb was beginning to look disappointed especially as the horrible nosegay increased when suddenly from out the very heart of this plague there stole a faint stream of perfume which flowed through the tide of bad smells without being absorbed by it as one river will flow into and then along with another without at all blending with it for a time i have it i have it cried stubb with delight striking something in the subterranean regions a purse dropping his spade he thrust both hands in and drew out handfuls of something that looked like ripe windsor soap or rich mottled old cheese very unctuous and savory withal you might easily dent it with your thumb it is of a hue between yellow and ash colour and this good friends is ambergris worth a gold guinea an ounce to any druggist some six handfuls were obtained but more was unavoidably lost in the sea and still more perhaps might have been secured were it not for impatient ahabs loud command to stubb to desist and come on board else the ship would bid them good bye now this ambergris is a very curious substance and so important as an article of commerce that in  a certain nantucketborn captain coffin was examined at the bar of the english house of commons on that subject for at that time and indeed until a comparatively late day the precise origin of ambergris remained like amber itself a problem to the learned though the word ambergris is but the french compound for grey amber yet the two substances are quite distinct for amber though at times found on the seacoast is also dug up in some far inland soils whereas ambergris is never found except upon the sea besides amber is a hard transparent brittle odorless substance used for mouthpieces to pipes for beads and ornaments but ambergris is soft waxy and so highly fragrant and spicy that it is largely used in perfumery in pastiles precious candles hairpowders and pomatum the turks use it in cooking and also carry it to mecca for the same purpose that frankincense is carried to st some wine merchants drop a few grains into claret to flavor it who would think then that such fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale
colonel brandon the friend of sir john seemed no more adapted by resemblance of manner to be his friend than lady middleton was to be his wife or mrs his appearance however was not unpleasing in spite of his being in the opinion of marianne and margaret an absolute old bachelor for he was on the wrong side of five and thirty but though his face was not handsome his countenance was sensible and his address was particularly gentlemanlike there was nothing in any of the party which could recommend them as companions to the dashwoods but the cold insipidity of lady middleton was so particularly repulsive that in comparison of it the gravity of colonel brandon and even the boisterous mirth of sir john and his motherinlaw was interesting lady middleton seemed to be roused to enjoyment only by the entrance of her four noisy children after dinner who pulled her about tore her clothes and put an end to every kind of discourse except what related to themselves in the evening as marianne was discovered to be musical she was invited to play the instrument was unlocked every body prepared to be charmed and marianne who sang very well at their request went through the chief of the songs which lady middleton had brought into the family on her marriage and which perhaps had lain ever since in the same position on the pianoforte for her ladyship had celebrated that event by giving up music although by her mothers account she had played extremely well and by her own was very fond of it sir john was loud in his admiration at the end of every song and as loud in his conversation with the others while every song lasted lady middleton frequently called him to order wondered how any ones attention could be diverted from music for a moment and asked marianne to sing a particular song which marianne had just finished colonel brandon alone of all the party heard her without being in raptures he paid her only the compliment of attention and she felt a respect for him on the occasion which the others had reasonably forfeited by their shameless want of taste his pleasure in music though it amounted not to that ecstatic delight which alone could sympathize with her own was estimable when contrasted against the horrible insensibility of the others and she was reasonable enough to allow that a man of five and thirty might well have outlived all acuteness of feeling and every exquisite power of enjoyment she was perfectly disposed to make every allowance for the colonels advanced state of life which humanity required she had only two daughters both of whom she had lived to see respectably married and she had now therefore nothing to do but to marry all the rest of the world in the promotion of this object she was zealously active as far as her ability reached and missed no opportunity of projecting weddings among all the young people of her acquaintance she was remarkably quick in the discovery of attachments and had enjoyed the advantage of raising the blushes and the vanity of many a young lady by insinuations of her power over such a young man and this kind of discernment enabled her soon after her arrival at barton decisively to pronounce that colonel brandon was very much in love with marianne dashwood she rather suspected it to be so on the very first evening of their being together from his listening so attentively while she sang to them and when the visit was returned by the middletons dining at the cottage the fact was ascertained by his listening to her again it would be an excellent match for he was rich and she was handsome jennings had been anxious to see colonel brandon well married ever since her connection with sir john first brought him to her knowledge and she was always anxious to get a good husband for every pretty girl the immediate advantage to herself was by no means inconsiderable for it supplied her with endless jokes against them both at the park she laughed at the colonel and in the cottage at marianne
nor was the pulpit itself without a trace of the same seataste that had achieved the ladder and the picture its panelled front was in the likeness of a ships bluff bows and the holy bible rested on a projecting piece of scroll work fashioned after a ships fiddleheaded beak for the pulpit is ever this earths foremost part all the rest comes in its rear the pulpit leads the world from thence it is the storm of gods quick wrath is first descried and the bow must bear the earliest brunt from thence it is the god of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favourable winds yes the worlds a ship on its passage out and not a voyage complete and the pulpit is its prow father mapple rose and in a mild voice of unassuming authority ordered the scattered people to condense there was a low rumbling of heavy seaboots among the benches and a still slighter shuffling of womens shoes and all was quiet again and every eye on the preacher he paused a little then kneeling in the pulpits bows folded his large brown hands across his chest uplifted his closed eyes and offered a prayer so deeply devout that he seemed kneeling and praying at the bottom of the sea this ended in prolonged solemn tones like the continual tolling of a bell in a ship that is foundering at sea in a fogin such tones he commenced reading the following hymn but changing his manner towards the concluding stanzas burst forth with a pealing exultation and joy the ribs and terrors in the whale      arched over me a dismal gloom      while all gods sunlit waves rolled by      and lift me deepening down to doom i saw the opening maw of hell with endless pains and sorrows there which none but they that feel can tell oh i was plunging to despair in black distress i called my god      when i could scarce believe him mine      he bowed his ear to my complaints      no more the whale did me confine with speed he flew to my relief as on a radiant dolphin borne awful yet bright as lightning shone the face of my deliverer god my song for ever shall record      that terrible that joyful hour      i give the glory to my god      his all the mercy and the power nearly all joined in singing this hymn which swelled high above the howling of the storm a brief pause ensued the preacher slowly turned over the leaves of the bible and at last folding his hand down upon the proper page said beloved shipmates clinch the last verse of the first chapter of jonahand god had prepared a great fish to swallow up jonah  shipmates this book containing only four chaptersfour yarnsis one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the scriptures yet what depths of the soul does jonahs deep sealine sound what a noble thing is that canticle in the fishs belly we feel the floods surging over us we sound with him to the kelpy bottom of the waters seaweed and all the slime of the sea is about us
this woman of whom he writeswhoever she beor any one in short but your own dear self mama and edward may have been so barbarous to bely me beyond you three is there a creature in the world whom i would not rather suspect of evil than willoughby whose heart i know so well elinor would not contend and only replied whoever may have been so detestably your enemy let them be cheated of their malignant triumph my dear sister by seeing how nobly the consciousness of your own innocence and good intentions supports your spirits it is a reasonable and laudable pride which resists such malevolence no no cried marianne misery such as mine has no pride the triumph of seeing me so may be open to all the world elinor elinor they who suffer little may be proud and independent as they likemay resist insult or return mortificationbut i cannot i must feeli must be wretchedand they are welcome to enjoy the consciousness of it that can but for my mothers sake and mine i would do more than for my own elinor was employed in walking thoughtfully from the fire to the window from the window to the fire without knowing that she received warmth from one or discerning objects through the other and marianne seated at the foot of the bed with her head leaning against one of its posts again took up willoughbys letter and after shuddering over every sentence exclaimed it is too much whatever he might have heard against meought he not to have suspended his belief ought he not to have told me of it to have given me the power of clearing myself the lock of hair repeating it from the letter which you so obligingly bestowed on methat is unpardonable willoughby where was your heart when you wrote those words and yet this womanwho knows what her art may have been how long it may have been premeditated and how deeply contrived by her whom did i ever hear him talk of as young and attractive among his female acquaintance another pause ensued marianne was greatly agitated and it ended thus i came only for willoughbys sakeand now who cares for me jennings much more than civility and civility of the commonest kind must prevent such a hasty removal as that
elizabeth however astonished was at least more prepared for an interview than before and resolved to appear and to speak with calmness if he really intended to meet them for a few moments indeed she felt that he would probably strike into some other path the idea lasted while a turning in the walk concealed him from their view the turning past he was immediately before them with a glance she saw that he had lost none of his recent civility and to imitate his politeness she began as they met to admire the beauty of the place but she had not got beyond the words delightful and charming when some unlucky recollections obtruded and she fancied that praise of pemberley from her might be mischievously construed gardiner was standing a little behind and on her pausing he asked her if she would do him the honour of introducing him to her friends this was a stroke of civility for which she was quite unprepared and she could hardly suppress a smile at his being now seeking the acquaintance of some of those very people against whom his pride had revolted in his offer to herself what will be his surprise thought she when he knows who they are the introduction however was immediately made and as she named their relationship to herself she stole a sly look at him to see how he bore it and was not without the expectation of his decamping as fast as he could from such disgraceful companions that he was surprised by the connection was evident he sustained it however with fortitude and so far from going away turned back with them and entered into conversation with mr elizabeth could not but be pleased could not but triumph it was consoling that he should know she had some relations for whom there was no need to blush she listened most attentively to all that passed between them and gloried in every expression every sentence of her uncle which marked his intelligence his taste or his good manners the conversation soon turned upon fishing and she heard mr darcy invite him with the greatest civility to fish there as often as he chose while he continued in the neighbourhood offering at the same time to supply him with fishing tackle and pointing out those parts of the stream where there was usually most sport gardiner who was walking arminarm with elizabeth gave her a look expressive of wonder elizabeth said nothing but it gratified her exceedingly the compliment must be all for herself her astonishment however was extreme and continually was she repeating why is he so altered it cannot be for meit cannot be for my sake that his manners are thus softened my reproofs at hunsford could not work such a change as this after walking some time in this way the two ladies in front the two gentlemen behind on resuming their places after descending to the brink of the river for the better inspection of some curious waterplant there chanced to be a little alteration
whos afraid of him except the old governor who daresnt catch him and put him in doubledarbies as he deserves but lets him go about kidnapping people aye and signed a bond with him that all the people the devil kidnapped hed roast for him do you suppose fedallah wants to kidnap captain ahab but i am going now to keep a sharp lookout on him and if i see anything very suspicious going on ill just take him by the nape of his neck and saylook here beelzebub you dont do it and if he makes any fuss by the lord ill make a grab into his pocket for his tail take it to the capstan and give him such a wrenching and heaving that his tail will come short off at the stumpdo you see and then i rather guess when he finds himself docked in that queer fashion hell sneak off without the poor satisfaction of feeling his tail between his legs now do you mean what you say and have been saying all along stubb the boats were here hailed to tow the whale on the larboard side where fluke chains and other necessaries were already prepared for securing him said flask yes youll soon see this right whales head hoisted up opposite that parmacettis as before the pequod steeply leaned over towards the sperm whales head now by the counterpoise of both heads she regained her even keel though sorely strained you may well believe so when on one side you hoist in lockes head you go over that way but now on the other side hoist in kants and you come back again but in very poor plight throw all these thunderheads overboard and then you will float light and right in disposing of the body of a right whale when brought alongside the ship the same preliminary proceedings commonly take place as in the case of a sperm whale only in the latter instance the head is cut off whole but in the former the lips and tongue are separately removed and hoisted on deck with all the well known black bone attached to what is called the crownpiece but nothing like this in the present case had been done the carcases of both whales had dropped astern and the headladen ship not a little resembled a mule carrying a pair of overburdening panniers meantime fedallah was calmly eyeing the right whales head and ever and anon glancing from the deep wrinkles there to the lines in his own hand and ahab chanced so to stand that the parsee occupied his shadow while if the parsees shadow was there at all it seemed only to blend with and lengthen ahabs as the crew toiled on laplandish speculations were bandied among them concerning all these passing things here now are two great whales laying their heads together let us join them and lay together our own of the grand order of folio leviathans the sperm whale and the right whale are by far the most noteworthy to the nantucketer they present the two extremes of all the known varieties of the whale as the external difference between them is mainly observable in their heads and as a head of each is this moment hanging from the pequods side and as we may freely go from one to the other by merely stepping across the deckwhere i should like to know will you obtain a better chance to study practical cetology than here in the first place you are struck by the general contrast between these heads
a veritable witness have you hitherto been ishmael but have a care how you seize the privilege of jonah alone the privilege of discoursing upon the joists and beams the rafters ridgepole sleepers and underpinnings making up the framework of leviathan and belike of the tallowvats dairyrooms butteries and cheeseries in his bowels i confess that since jonah few whalemen have penetrated very far beneath the skin of the adult whale nevertheless i have been blessed with an opportunity to dissect him in miniature in a ship i belonged to a small cub sperm whale was once bodily hoisted to the deck for his poke or bag to make sheaths for the barbs of the harpoons and for the heads of the lances think you i let that chance go without using my boathatchet and jackknife and breaking the seal and reading all the contents of that young cub and as for my exact knowledge of the bones of the leviathan in their gigantic full grown development for that rare knowledge i am indebted to my late royal friend tranquo king of tranque one of the arsacides for being at tranque years ago when attached to the tradingship dey of algiers i was invited to spend part of the arsacidean holidays with the lord of tranque at his retired palm villa at pupella a seaside glen not very far distant from what our sailors called bambootown his capital among many other fine qualities my royal friend tranquo being gifted with a devout love for all matters of barbaric vertu had brought together in pupella whatever rare things the more ingenious of his people could invent chiefly carved woods of wonderful devices chiselled shells inlaid spears costly paddles aromatic canoes and all these distributed among whatever natural wonders the wonderfreighted tributerendering waves had cast upon his shores chief among these latter was a great sperm whale which after an unusually long raging gale had been found dead and stranded with his head against a cocoanut tree whose plumagelike tufted droopings seemed his verdant jet when the vast body had at last been stripped of its fathomdeep enfoldings and the bones become dust dry in the sun then the skeleton was carefully transported up the pupella glen where a grand temple of lordly palms now sheltered it the ribs were hung with trophies the vertebrae were carved with arsacidean annals in strange hieroglyphics in the skull the priests kept up an unextinguished aromatic flame so that the mystic head again sent forth its vapoury spout while suspended from a bough the terrific lower jaw vibrated over all the devotees like the hairhung sword that so affrighted damocles the wood was green as mosses of the icy glen the trees stood high and haughty feeling their living sap the industrious earth beneath was as a weavers loom with a gorgeous carpet on it whereof the groundvine tendrils formed the warp and woof and the living flowers the figures all the trees with all their laden branches all the shrubs and ferns and grasses the messagecarrying air all these unceasingly were active through the lacings of the leaves the great sun seemed a flying shuttle weaving the unwearied verdure naythe shuttle fliesthe figures float from forth the loom the freshetrushing carpet for ever slides away the weavergod he weaves and by that weaving is he deafened that he hears no mortal voice and by that humming we too who look on the loom are deafened and only when we escape it shall we hear the thousand voices that speak through it the spoken words that are inaudible among the flying spindles those same words are plainly heard without the walls bursting from the opened casements then be heedful for so in all this din of the great worlds loom thy subtlest thinkings may be overheard afar now amid the green liferestless loom of that arsacidean wood the great white worshipped skeleton lay lounginga gigantic idler yet as the everwoven verdant warp and woof intermixed and hummed around him the mighty idler seemed the cunning weaver himself all woven over with the vines every month assuming greener fresher verdure but himself a skeleton life folded death death trellised life the grim god wived with youthful life and begat him curlyheaded glories
now whether these gin and beer harpooneers so fuddled as one might fancy them to have been were the right sort of men to stand up in a boats head and take good aim at flying whales this would seem somewhat improbable but this was very far north be it remembered where beer agrees well with the constitution upon the equator in our southern fishery beer would be apt to make the harpooneer sleepy at the masthead and boozy in his boat and grievous loss might ensue to nantucket and new bedford but no more enough has been said to show that the old dutch whalers of two or three centuries ago were high livers and that the english whalers have not neglected so excellent an example for say they when cruising in an empty ship if you can get nothing better out of the world get a good dinner out of it at least hitherto in descriptively treating of the sperm whale i have chiefly dwelt upon the marvels of his outer aspect or separately and in detail upon some few interior structural features but to a large and thorough sweeping comprehension of him it behooves me now to unbutton him still further and untagging the points of his hose unbuckling his garters and casting loose the hooks and the eyes of the joints of his innermost bones set him before you in his ultimatum that is to say in his unconditional skeleton how is it that you a mere oarsman in the fishery pretend to know aught about the subterranean parts of the whale did erudite stubb mounted upon your capstan deliver lectures on the anatomy of the cetacea and by help of the windlass hold up a specimen rib for exhibition can you land a fullgrown whale on your deck for examination as a cook dishes a roastpig a veritable witness have you hitherto been ishmael but have a care how you seize the privilege of jonah alone the privilege of discoursing upon the joists and beams the rafters ridgepole sleepers and underpinnings making up the framework of leviathan and belike of the tallowvats dairyrooms butteries and cheeseries in his bowels i confess that since jonah few whalemen have penetrated very far beneath the skin of the adult whale nevertheless i have been blessed with an opportunity to dissect him in miniature in a ship i belonged to a small cub sperm whale was once bodily hoisted to the deck for his poke or bag to make sheaths for the barbs of the harpoons and for the heads of the lances think you i let that chance go without using my boathatchet and jackknife and breaking the seal and reading all the contents of that young cub and as for my exact knowledge of the bones of the leviathan in their gigantic full grown development for that rare knowledge i am indebted to my late royal friend tranquo king of tranque one of the arsacides for being at tranque years ago when attached to the tradingship dey of algiers i was invited to spend part of the arsacidean holidays with the lord of tranque at his retired palm villa at pupella a seaside glen not very far distant from what our sailors called bambootown his capital among many other fine qualities my royal friend tranquo being gifted with a devout love for all matters of barbaric vertu had brought together in pupella whatever rare things the more ingenious of his people could invent chiefly carved woods of wonderful devices chiselled shells inlaid spears costly paddles aromatic canoes and all these distributed among whatever natural wonders the wonderfreighted tributerendering waves had cast upon his shores chief among these latter was a great sperm whale which after an unusually long raging gale had been found dead and stranded with his head against a cocoanut tree whose plumagelike tufted droopings seemed his verdant jet when the vast body had at last been stripped of its fathomdeep enfoldings and the bones become dust dry in the sun then the skeleton was carefully transported up the pupella glen where a grand temple of lordly palms now sheltered it the ribs were hung with trophies the vertebrae were carved with arsacidean annals in strange hieroglyphics in the skull the priests kept up an unextinguished aromatic flame so that the mystic head again sent forth its vapoury spout while suspended from a bough the terrific lower jaw vibrated over all the devotees like the hairhung sword that so affrighted damocles the wood was green as mosses of the icy glen the trees stood high and haughty feeling their living sap the industrious earth beneath was as a weavers loom with a gorgeous carpet on it whereof the groundvine tendrils formed the warp and woof and the living flowers the figures
fourth stealing unawares upon the whale in the fancied security of the middle of solitary seas you find him unbent from the vast corpulence of his dignity and kittenlike he plays on the ocean as if it were a hearth the broad palms of his tail are flirted high into the air then smiting the surface the thunderous concussion resounds for miles you would almost think a great gun had been discharged and if you noticed the light wreath of vapour from the spiracle at his other extremity you would think that that was the smoke from the touchhole fifth as in the ordinary floating posture of the leviathan the flukes lie considerably below the level of his back they are then completely out of sight beneath the surface but when he is about to plunge into the deeps his entire flukes with at least thirty feet of his body are tossed erect in the air and so remain vibrating a moment till they downwards shoot out of view excepting the sublime breachsomewhere else to be describedthis peaking of the whales flukes is perhaps the grandest sight to be seen in all animated nature out of the bottomless profundities the gigantic tail seems spasmodically snatching at the highest heaven so in dreams have i seen majestic satan thrusting forth his tormented colossal claw from the flame baltic of hell but in gazing at such scenes it is all in all what mood you are in if in the dantean the devils will occur to you if in that of isaiah the archangels standing at the masthead of my ship during a sunrise that crimsoned sky and sea i once saw a large herd of whales in the east all heading towards the sun and for a moment vibrating in concert with peaked flukes as it seemed to me at the time such a grand embodiment of adoration of the gods was never beheld even in persia the home of the fire worshippers as ptolemy philopater testified of the african elephant i then testified of the whale pronouncing him the most devout of all beings for according to king juba the military elephants of antiquity often hailed the morning with their trunks uplifted in the profoundest silence the chance comparison in this chapter between the whale and the elephant so far as some aspects of the tail of the one and the trunk of the other are concerned should not tend to place those two opposite organs on an equality much less the creatures to which they respectively belong for as the mightiest elephant is but a terrier to leviathan so compared with leviathans tail his trunk is but the stalk of a lily the most direful blow from the elephants trunk were as the playful tap of a fan compared with the measureless crush and crash of the sperm whales ponderous flukes which in repeated instances have one after the other hurled entire boats with all their oars and crews into the air very much as an indian juggler tosses his balls  though all comparison in the way of general bulk between the whale and the elephant is preposterous inasmuch as in that particular the elephant stands in much the same respect to the whale that a dog does to the elephant nevertheless there are not wanting some points of curious similitude among these is the spout it is well known that the elephant will often draw up water or dust in his trunk and then elevating it jet it forth in a stream the more i consider this mighty tail the more do i deplore my inability to express it at times there are gestures in it which though they would well grace the hand of man remain wholly inexplicable in an extensive herd so remarkable occasionally are these mystic gestures that i have heard hunters who have declared them akin to freemason signs and symbols that the whale indeed by these methods intelligently conversed with the world
gardiner that he had found out where your sister and mr wickham were and that he had seen and talked with them both wickham repeatedly lydia once from what i can collect he left derbyshire only one day after ourselves and came to town with the resolution of hunting for them the motive professed was his conviction of its being owing to himself that wickhams worthlessness had not been so well known as to make it impossible for any young woman of character to love or confide in him he generously imputed the whole to his mistaken pride and confessed that he had before thought it beneath him to lay his private actions open to the world he called it therefore his duty to step forward and endeavour to remedy an evil which had been brought on by himself if he had another motive i am sure it would never disgrace him he had been some days in town before he was able to discover them but he had something to direct his search which was more than we had and the consciousness of this was another reason for his resolving to follow us younge who was some time ago governess to miss darcy and was dismissed from her charge on some cause of disapprobation though he did not say what she then took a large house in edwardstreet and has since maintained herself by letting lodgings younge was he knew intimately acquainted with wickham and he went to her for intelligence of him as soon as he got to town but it was two or three days before he could get from her what he wanted she would not betray her trust i suppose without bribery and corruption for she really did know where her friend was to be found wickham indeed had gone to her on their first arrival in london and had she been able to receive them into her house they would have taken up their abode with her at length however our kind friend procured the wishedfor direction he saw wickham and afterwards insisted on seeing lydia his first object with her he acknowledged had been to persuade her to quit her present disgraceful situation and return to her friends as soon as they could be prevailed on to receive her offering his assistance as far as it would go but he found lydia absolutely resolved on remaining where she was she cared for none of her friends she wanted no help of his she would not hear of leaving wickham she was sure they should be married some time or other and it did not much signify when
there is not one of his tenants or servants but will give him a good name some people call him proud but i am sure i never saw anything of it to my fancy it is only because he does not rattle away like other young men this fine account of him whispered her aunt as they walked is not quite consistent with his behaviour to our poor friend on reaching the spacious lobby above they were shown into a very pretty sittingroom lately fitted up with greater elegance and lightness than the apartments below and were informed that it was but just done to give pleasure to miss darcy who had taken a liking to the room when last at pemberley he is certainly a good brother said elizabeth as she walked towards one of the windows reynolds anticipated miss darcys delight when she should enter the room whatever can give his sister any pleasure is sure to be done in a moment the picturegallery and two or three of the principal bedrooms were all that remained to be shown in the former were many good paintings but elizabeth knew nothing of the art and from such as had been already visible below she had willingly turned to look at some drawings of miss darcys in crayons whose subjects were usually more interesting and also more intelligible in the gallery there were many family portraits but they could have little to fix the attention of a stranger elizabeth walked in quest of the only face whose features would be known to her at last it arrested herand she beheld a striking resemblance to mr darcy with such a smile over the face as she remembered to have sometimes seen when he looked at her she stood several minutes before the picture in earnest contemplation and returned to it again before they quitted the gallery reynolds informed them that it had been taken in his fathers lifetime there was certainly at this moment in elizabeths mind a more gentle sensation towards the original than she had ever felt at the height of their acquaintance what praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant as a brother a landlord a master she considered how many peoples happiness were in his guardianship how much of pleasure or pain was it in his power to bestow
but we must stem the tide of malice and pour into the wounded bosoms of each other the balm of sisterly consolation then perceiving in elizabeth no inclination of replying she added unhappy as the event must be for lydia we may draw from it this useful lesson that loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable that one false step involves her in endless ruin that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex elizabeth lifted up her eyes in amazement but was too much oppressed to make any reply mary however continued to console herself with such kind of moral extractions from the evil before them in the afternoon the two elder miss bennets were able to be for halfanhour by themselves and elizabeth instantly availed herself of the opportunity of making any inquiries which jane was equally eager to satisfy after joining in general lamentations over the dreadful sequel of this event which elizabeth considered as all but certain and miss bennet could not assert to be wholly impossible the former continued the subject by saying but tell me all and everything about it which i have not already heard had they no apprehension of anything before the elopement took place colonel forster did own that he had often suspected some partiality especially on lydias side but nothing to give him any alarm he was coming to us in order to assure us of his concern before he had any idea of their not being gone to scotland when that apprehension first got abroad it hastened his journey and was denny convinced that wickham would not marry yes but when questioned by him denny denied knowing anything of their plans and would not give his real opinion about it he did not repeat his persuasion of their not marryingand from that i am inclined to hope he might have been misunderstood before and till colonel forster came himself not one of you entertained a doubt i suppose of their being really married how was it possible that such an idea should enter our brains i felt a little uneasya little fearful of my sisters happiness with him in marriage because i knew that his conduct had not been always quite right my father and mother knew nothing of that they only felt how imprudent a match it must be kitty then owned with a very natural triumph on knowing more than the rest of us that in lydias last letter she had prepared her for such a step she had known it seems of their being in love with each other many weeks and did colonel forster appear to think well of wickham himself i must confess that he did not speak so well of wickham as he formerly did
he would have had a wife of whose temper he could make no complaint but he would have been always necessitousalways poor and probably would soon have learned to rank the innumerable comforts of a clear estate and good income as of far more importance even to domestic happiness than the mere temper of a wife i have not a doubt of it said marianne and i have nothing to regretnothing but my own folly rather say your mothers imprudence my child said mrs marianne would not let her proceedand elinor satisfied that each felt their own error wished to avoid any survey of the past that might weaken her sisters spirits she therefore pursuing the first subject immediately continued one observation may i think be fairly drawn from the whole of the storythat all willoughbys difficulties have arisen from the first offence against virtue in his behaviour to eliza williams that crime has been the origin of every lesser one and of all his present discontents marianne assented most feelingly to the remark and her mother was led by it to an enumeration of colonel brandons injuries and merits warm as friendship and design could unitedly dictate her daughter did not look however as if much of it were heard by her elinor according to her expectation saw on the two or three following days that marianne did not continue to gain strength as she had done but while her resolution was unsubdued and she still tried to appear cheerful and easy her sister could safely trust to the effect of time upon her health margaret returned and the family were again all restored to each other again quietly settled at the cottage and if not pursuing their usual studies with quite so much vigour as when they first came to barton at least planning a vigorous prosecution of them in future she had heard nothing of him since her leaving london nothing new of his plans nothing certain even of his present abode some letters had passed between her and her brother in consequence of mariannes illness and in the first of johns there had been this sentence we know nothing of our unfortunate edward and can make no enquiries on so prohibited a subject but conclude him to be still at oxford which was all the intelligence of edward afforded her by the correspondence for his name was not even mentioned in any of the succeeding letters she was not doomed however to be long in ignorance of his measures their manservant had been sent one morning to exeter on business and when as he waited at table he had satisfied the inquiries of his mistress as to the event of his errand this was his voluntary communication i suppose you know maam that mr marianne gave a violent start fixed her eyes upon elinor saw her turning pale and fell back in her chair in hysterics dashwood whose eyes as she answered the servants inquiry had intuitively taken the same direction was shocked to perceive by elinors countenance how much she really suffered and a moment afterwards alike distressed by mariannes situation knew not on which child to bestow her principal attention the servant who saw only that miss marianne was taken ill had sense enough to call one of the maids who with mrs dashwoods assistance supported her into the other room by that time marianne was rather better and her mother leaving her to the care of margaret and the maid returned to elinor who though still much disordered had so far recovered the use of her reason and voice as to be just beginning an inquiry of thomas as to the source of his intelligence dashwood immediately took all that trouble on herself and elinor had the benefit of the information without the exertion of seeking it ferrars myself maam this morning in exeter and his lady too miss steele as was
pratt was a foundation for the rest at once indisputable and alarming and edwards visit near plymouth his melancholy state of mind his dissatisfaction at his own prospects his uncertain behaviour towards herself the intimate knowledge of the miss steeles as to norland and their family connections which had often surprised her the picture the letter the ring formed altogether such a body of evidence as overcame every fear of condemning him unfairly and established as a fact which no partiality could set aside his illtreatment of herself her resentment of such behaviour her indignation at having been its dupe for a short time made her feel only for herself but other ideas other considerations soon arose had he feigned a regard for her which he did not feel was his engagement to lucy an engagement of the heart no whatever it might once have been she could not believe it such at present her mother sisters fanny all had been conscious of his regard for her at norland it was not an illusion of her own vanity he had been blamable highly blamable in remaining at norland after he first felt her influence over him to be more than it ought to be in that he could not be defended but if he had injured her how much more had he injured himself if her case were pitiable his was hopeless his imprudence had made her miserable for a while but it seemed to have deprived himself of all chance of ever being otherwise she might in time regain tranquillity but he what had he to look forward to could he ever be tolerably happy with lucy steele could he were his affection for herself out of the question with his integrity his delicacy and wellinformed mind be satisfied with a wife like herilliterate artful and selfish the youthful infatuation of nineteen would naturally blind him to every thing but her beauty and good nature but the four succeeding yearsyears which if rationally spent give such improvement to the understanding must have opened his eyes to her defects of education while the same period of time spent on her side in inferior society and more frivolous pursuits had perhaps robbed her of that simplicity which might once have given an interesting character to her beauty if in the supposition of his seeking to marry herself his difficulties from his mother had seemed great how much greater were they now likely to be when the object of his engagement was undoubtedly inferior in connections and probably inferior in fortune to herself these difficulties indeed with a heart so alienated from lucy might not press very hard upon his patience but melancholy was the state of the person by whom the expectation of family opposition and unkindness could be felt as a relief as these considerations occurred to her in painful succession she wept for him more than for herself supported by the conviction of having done nothing to merit her present unhappiness and consoled by the belief that edward had done nothing to forfeit her esteem she thought she could even now under the first smart of the heavy blow command herself enough to guard every suspicion of the truth from her mother and sisters and so well was she able to answer her own expectations that when she joined them at dinner only two hours after she had first suffered the extinction of all her dearest hopes no one would have supposed from the appearance of the sisters that elinor was mourning in secret over obstacles which must divide her for ever from the object of her love and that marianne was internally dwelling on the perfections of a man of whose whole heart she felt thoroughly possessed and whom she expected to see in every carriage which drove near their house the necessity of concealing from her mother and marianne what had been entrusted in confidence to herself though it obliged her to unceasing exertion was no aggravation of elinors distress on the contrary it was a relief to her to be spared the communication of what would give such affliction to them and to be saved likewise from hearing that condemnation of edward which would probably flow from the excess of their partial affection for herself and which was more than she felt equal to support from their counsel or their conversation she knew she could receive no assistance their tenderness and sorrow must add to her distress while her selfcommand would neither receive encouragement from their example nor from their praise
bennet scarcely spoke at all but when the servants were withdrawn he thought it time to have some conversation with his guest and therefore started a subject in which he expected him to shine by observing that he seemed very fortunate in his patroness lady catherine de bourghs attention to his wishes and consideration for his comfort appeared very remarkable the subject elevated him to more than usual solemnity of manner and with a most important aspect he protested that he had never in his life witnessed such behaviour in a person of ranksuch affability and condescension as he had himself experienced from lady catherine she had been graciously pleased to approve of both of the discourses which he had already had the honour of preaching before her she had also asked him twice to dine at rosings and had sent for him only the saturday before to make up her pool of quadrille in the evening lady catherine was reckoned proud by many people he knew but he had never seen anything but affability in her she had always spoken to him as she would to any other gentleman she made not the smallest objection to his joining in the society of the neighbourhood nor to his leaving the parish occasionally for a week or two to visit his relations she had even condescended to advise him to marry as soon as he could provided he chose with discretion and had once paid him a visit in his humble parsonage where she had perfectly approved all the alterations he had been making and had even vouchsafed to suggest some herselfsome shelves in the closet up stairs that is all very proper and civil i am sure said mrs bennet and i dare say she is a very agreeable woman it is a pity that great ladies in general are not more like her the garden in which stands my humble abode is separated only by a lane from rosings park her ladyships residence she has only one daughter the heiress of rosings and of very extensive property bennet shaking her head then she is better off than many girls lady catherine herself says that in point of true beauty miss de bourgh is far superior to the handsomest of her sex because there is that in her features which marks the young lady of distinguished birth she is unfortunately of a sickly constitution which has prevented her from making that progress in many accomplishments which she could not have otherwise failed of as i am informed by the lady who superintended her education and who still resides with them but she is perfectly amiable and often condescends to drive by my humble abode in her little phaeton and ponies i do not remember her name among the ladies at court her indifferent state of health unhappily prevents her being in town and by that means as i told lady catherine one day has deprived the british court of its brightest ornament her ladyship seemed pleased with the idea and you may imagine that i am happy on every occasion to offer those little delicate compliments which are always acceptable to ladies
to walk three miles or four miles or five miles or whatever it is above her ankles in dirt and alone quite alone it seems to me to show an abominable sort of conceited independence a most countrytown indifference to decorum it shows an affection for her sister that is very pleasing said bingley darcy observed miss bingley in a half whisper that this adventure has rather affected your admiration of her fine eyes not at all he replied they were brightened by the exercise hurst began again i have an excessive regard for miss jane bennet she is really a very sweet girl and i wish with all my heart she were well settled but with such a father and mother and such low connections i am afraid there is no chance of it i think i have heard you say that their uncle is an attorney in meryton yes and they have another who lives somewhere near cheapside that is capital added her sister and they both laughed heartily if they had uncles enough to fill all cheapside cried bingley it would not make them one jot less agreeable but it must very materially lessen their chance of marrying men of any consideration in the world replied darcy to this speech bingley made no answer but his sisters gave it their hearty assent and indulged their mirth for some time at the expense of their dear friends vulgar relations with a renewal of tenderness however they returned to her room on leaving the diningparlour and sat with her till summoned to coffee she was still very poorly and elizabeth would not quit her at all till late in the evening when she had the comfort of seeing her sleep and when it seemed to her rather right than pleasant that she should go downstairs herself on entering the drawingroom she found the whole party at loo and was immediately invited to join them but suspecting them to be playing high she declined it and making her sister the excuse said she would amuse herself for the short time she could stay below with a book she is a great reader and has no pleasure in anything else i deserve neither such praise nor such censure cried elizabeth i am not a great reader and i have pleasure in many things in nursing your sister i am sure you have pleasure said bingley and i hope it will be soon increased by seeing her quite well elizabeth thanked him from her heart and then walked towards the table where a few books were lying
miss bingley warmly resented the indignity he had received in an expostulation with her brother for talking such nonsense if you and miss bennet will defer yours till i am out of the room i shall be very thankful and then you may say whatever you like of me what you ask said elizabeth is no sacrifice on my side and mr when that business was over he applied to miss bingley and elizabeth for an indulgence of some music miss bingley moved with some alacrity to the pianoforte and after a polite request that elizabeth would lead the way which the other as politely and more earnestly negatived she seated herself hurst sang with her sister and while they were thus employed elizabeth could not help observing as she turned over some musicbooks that lay on the instrument how frequently mr she hardly knew how to suppose that she could be an object of admiration to so great a man and yet that he should look at her because he disliked her was still more strange she could only imagine however at last that she drew his notice because there was something more wrong and reprehensible according to his ideas of right than in any other person present she liked him too little to care for his approbation after playing some italian songs miss bingley varied the charm by a lively scotch air and soon afterwards mr darcy drawing near elizabeth said to her do not you feel a great inclination miss bennet to seize such an opportunity of dancing a reel he repeated the question with some surprise at her silence said she i heard you before but i could not immediately determine what to say in reply you wanted me i know to say yes that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste but i always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes and cheating a person of their premeditated contempt i have therefore made up my mind to tell you that i do not want to dance a reel at alland now despise me if you dare elizabeth having rather expected to affront him was amazed at his gallantry but there was a mixture of sweetness and archness in her manner which made it difficult for her to affront anybody and darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her he really believed that were it not for the inferiority of her connections he should be in some danger miss bingley saw or suspected enough to be jealous and her great anxiety for the recovery of her dear friend jane received some assistance from her desire of getting rid of elizabeth she often tried to provoke darcy into disliking her guest by talking of their supposed marriage and planning his happiness in such an alliance i hope said she as they were walking together in the shrubbery the next day you will give your motherinlaw a few hints when this desirable event takes place as to the advantage of holding her tongue and if you can compass it do cure the younger girls of running after officers
chapter  one other short call in harley street in which elinor received her brothers congratulations on their travelling so far towards barton without any expense and on colonel brandons being to follow them to cleveland in a day or two completed the intercourse of the brother and sisters in townand a faint invitation from fanny to come to norland whenever it should happen to be in their way which of all things was the most unlikely to occur with a more warm though less public assurance from john to elinor of the promptitude with which he should come to see her at delaford was all that foretold any meeting in the country it amused her to observe that all her friends seemed determined to send her to delaforda place in which of all others she would now least chuse to visit or wish to reside for not only was it considered as her future home by her brother and mrs jennings but even lucy when they parted gave her a pressing invitation to visit her there very early in april and tolerably early in the day the two parties from hanover square and berkeley street set out from their respective homes to meet by appointment on the road for the convenience of charlotte and her child they were to be more than two days on their journey and mr palmer travelling more expeditiously with colonel brandon was to join them at cleveland soon after their arrival marianne few as had been her hours of comfort in london and eager as she had long been to quit it could not when it came to the point bid adieu to the house in which she had for the last time enjoyed those hopes and that confidence in willoughby which were now extinguished for ever without great pain nor could she leave the place in which willoughby remained busy in new engagements and new schemes in which she could have no share without shedding many tears elinors satisfaction at the moment of removal was more positive she had no such object for her lingering thoughts to fix on she left no creature behind from whom it would give her a moments regret to be divided for ever she was pleased to be free herself from the persecution of lucys friendship she was grateful for bringing her sister away unseen by willoughby since his marriage and she looked forward with hope to what a few months of tranquility at barton might do towards restoring mariannes peace of mind and confirming her own the second day brought them into the cherished or the prohibited county of somerset for as such was it dwelt on by turns in mariannes imagination and in the forenoon of the third they drove up to cleveland cleveland was a spacious modernbuilt house situated on a sloping lawn it had no park but the pleasuregrounds were tolerably extensive and like every other place of the same degree of importance it had its open shrubbery and closer wood walk a road of smooth gravel winding round a plantation led to the front the lawn was dotted over with timber the house itself was under the guardianship of the fir the mountainash and the acacia and a thick screen of them altogether interspersed with tall lombardy poplars shut out the offices marianne entered the house with a heart swelling with emotion from the consciousness of being only eighty miles from barton and not thirty from combe magna and before she had been five minutes within its walls while the others were busily helping charlotte to show her child to the housekeeper she quitted it again stealing away through the winding shrubberies now just beginning to be in beauty to gain a distant eminence where from its grecian temple her eye wandering over a wide tract of country to the southeast could fondly rest on the farthest ridge of hills in the horizon and fancy that from their summits combe magna might be seen in such moments of precious invaluable misery she rejoiced in tears of agony to be at cleveland and as she returned by a different circuit to the house feeling all the happy privilege of country liberty of wandering from place to place in free and luxurious solitude she resolved to spend almost every hour of every day while she remained with the palmers in the indulgence of such solitary rambles she returned just in time to join the others as they quitted the house on an excursion through its more immediate premises and the rest of the morning was easily whiled away in lounging round the kitchen garden examining the bloom upon its walls and listening to the gardeners lamentations upon blights in dawdling through the greenhouse where the loss of her favourite plants unwarily exposed and nipped by the lingering frost raised the laughter of charlotteand in visiting her poultryyard where in the disappointed hopes of her dairymaid by hens forsaking their nests or being stolen by a fox or in the rapid decrease of a promising young brood she found fresh sources of merriment the morning was fine and dry and marianne in her plan of employment abroad had not calculated for any change of weather during their stay at cleveland with great surprise therefore did she find herself prevented by a settled rain from going out again after dinner she had depended on a twilight walk to the grecian temple and perhaps all over the grounds and an evening merely cold or damp would not have deterred her from it but a heavy and settled rain even she could not fancy dry or pleasant weather for walking their party was small and the hours passed quietly away
they meant queequegs best happiness i admit but in their hasty zeal to befriend him and from the circumstance that both he and the sharks were at times half hidden by the bloodmuddled water those indiscreet spades of theirs would come nearer amputating a leg than a tail but poor queequeg i suppose straining and gasping there with that great iron hookpoor queequeg i suppose only prayed to his yojo and gave up his life into the hands of his gods well well my dear comrade and twinbrother thought i as i drew in and then slacked off the rope to every swell of the seawhat matters it after all are you not the precious image of each and all of us men in this whaling world that unsounded ocean you gasp in is life those sharks your foes those spades your friends and what between sharks and spades you are in a sad pickle and peril poor lad for now as with blue lips and bloodshot eyes the exhausted savage at last climbs up the chains and stands all dripping and involuntarily trembling over the side the steward advances and with a benevolent consolatory glance hands himwhat yes this must be ginger peering into the as yet untasted cup then standing as if incredulous for a while he calmly walked towards the astonished steward slowly saying ginger is ginger the sort of fuel you use doughboy to kindle a fire in this shivering cannibal what the devil is ginger i say that you offer this cup to our poor queequeg here there is some sneaking temperance society movement about this business he suddenly added now approaching starbuck who had just come from forward will you look at that kannakin sir smell of it if you please then watching the mates countenance he added the steward mr starbuck had the face to offer that calomel and jalap to queequeg there this instant off the whale and may i ask whether this is the sort of bitters by which he blows back the life into a halfdrowned man aye aye steward cried stubb well teach you to drug a harpooneer none of your apothecarys medicine here you want to poison us do ye you have got out insurances on our lives and want to murder us all and pocket the proceeds do ye it was not me cried doughboy it was aunt charity that brought the ginger on board and bade me never give the harpooneers any spirits but only this gingerjubso she called it and run along with ye to the lockers and get something better it is the captains ordersgrog for the harpooneer on a whale
for as the secrets of the currents in the seas have never yet been divulged even to the most erudite research so the hidden ways of the sperm whale when beneath the surface remain in great part unaccountable to his pursuers and from time to time have originated the most curious and contradictory speculations regarding them especially concerning the mystic modes whereby after sounding to a great depth he transports himself with such vast swiftness to the most widely distant points it is a thing well known to both american and english whaleships and as well a thing placed upon authoritative record years ago by scoresby that some whales have been captured far north in the pacific in whose bodies have been found the barbs of harpoons darted in the greenland seas nor is it to be gainsaid that in some of these instances it has been declared that the interval of time between the two assaults could not have exceeded very many days hence by inference it has been believed by some whalemen that the nor west passage so long a problem to man was never a problem to the whale so that here in the real living experience of living men the prodigies related in old times of the inland strello mountain in portugal near whose top there was said to be a lake in which the wrecks of ships floated up to the surface and that still more wonderful story of the arethusa fountain near syracuse whose waters were believed to have come from the holy land by an underground passage these fabulous narrations are almost fully equalled by the realities of the whalemen forced into familiarity then with such prodigies as these and knowing that after repeated intrepid assaults the white whale had escaped alive it cannot be much matter of surprise that some whalemen should go still further in their superstitions declaring moby dick not only ubiquitous but immortal for immortality is but ubiquity in time that though groves of spears should be planted in his flanks he would still swim away unharmed or if indeed he should ever be made to spout thick blood such a sight would be but a ghastly deception for again in unensanguined billows hundreds of leagues away his unsullied jet would once more be seen but even stripped of these supernatural surmisings there was enough in the earthly make and incontestable character of the monster to strike the imagination with unwonted power for it was not so much his uncommon bulk that so much distinguished him from other sperm whales but as was elsewhere thrown outa peculiar snowwhite wrinkled forehead and a high pyramidical white hump these were his prominent features the tokens whereby even in the limitless uncharted seas he revealed his identity at a long distance to those who knew him the rest of his body was so streaked and spotted and marbled with the same shrouded hue that in the end he had gained his distinctive appellation of the white whale a name indeed literally justified by his vivid aspect when seen gliding at high noon through a dark blue sea leaving a milkyway wake of creamy foam all spangled with golden gleamings nor was it his unwonted magnitude nor his remarkable hue nor yet his deformed lower jaw that so much invested the whale with natural terror as that unexampled intelligent malignity which according to specific accounts he had over and over again evinced in his assaults more than all his treacherous retreats struck more of dismay than perhaps aught else for when swimming before his exulting pursuers with every apparent symptom of alarm he had several times been known to turn round suddenly and bearing down upon them either stave their boats to splinters or drive them back in consternation to their ship but though similar disasters however little bruited ashore were by no means unusual in the fishery yet in most instances such seemed the white whales infernal aforethought of ferocity that every dismembering or death that he caused was not wholly regarded as having been inflicted by an unintelligent agent judge then to what pitches of inflamed distracted fury the minds of his more desperate hunters were impelled when amid the chips of chewed boats and the sinking limbs of torn comrades they swam out of the white curds of the whales direful wrath into the serene exasperating sunlight that smiled on as if at a birth or a bridal his three boats stove around him and oars and men both whirling in the eddies one captain seizing the lineknife from his broken prow had dashed at the whale as an arkansas duellist at his foe blindly seeking with a six inch blade to reach the fathomdeep life of the whale and then it was that suddenly sweeping his sickleshaped lower jaw beneath him moby dick had reaped away ahabs leg as a mower a blade of grass in the field no turbaned turk no hired venetian or malay could have smote him with more seeming malice small reason was there to doubt then that ever since that almost fatal encounter ahab had cherished a wild vindictiveness against the whale all the more fell for that in his frantic morbidness he at last came to identify with him not only all his bodily woes but all his intellectual and spiritual exasperations the white whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them till they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung
she was roused from her seat and her reflections by some ones approach and before she could strike into another path she was overtaken by wickham i am afraid i interrupt your solitary ramble my dear sister you certainly do she replied with a smile but it does not follow that the interruption must be unwelcome bennet and lydia are going in the carriage to meryton and so my dear sister i find from our uncle and aunt that you have actually seen pemberley i almost envy you the pleasure and yet i believe it would be too much for me or else i could take it in my way to newcastle that you were gone into the army and she was afraid hadnot turned out well at such a distance as that you know things are strangely misrepresented elizabeth hoped she had silenced him but he soon afterwards said i was surprised to see darcy in town last month perhaps preparing for his marriage with miss de bourgh said elizabeth it must be something particular to take him there at this time of year i thought i understood from the gardiners that you had i have heard indeed that she is uncommonly improved within this year or two i dare say she will she has got over the most trying age i mention it because it is the living which i ought to have had i should have considered it as part of my duty and the exertion would soon have been nothing one ought not to repinebut to be sure it would have been such a thing for me the quiet the retirement of such a life would have answered all my ideas of happiness did you ever hear darcy mention the circumstance when you were in kent i have heard from authority which i thought as good that it was left you conditionally only and at the will of the present patron
she expected from other people the same opinions and feelings as her own and she judged of their motives by the immediate effect of their actions on herself thus a circumstance occurred while the sisters were together in their own room after breakfast which sunk the heart of mrs jennings still lower in her estimation because through her own weakness it chanced to prove a source of fresh pain to herself though mrs jennings was governed in it by an impulse of the utmost goodwill with a letter in her outstretched hand and countenance gaily smiling from the persuasion of bringing comfort she entered their room saying now my dear i bring you something that i am sure will do you good in one moment her imagination placed before her a letter from willoughby full of tenderness and contrition explanatory of all that had passed satisfactory convincing and instantly followed by willoughby himself rushing eagerly into the room to inforce at her feet by the eloquence of his eyes the assurances of his letter the hand writing of her mother never till then unwelcome was before her and in the acuteness of the disappointment which followed such an ecstasy of more than hope she felt as if till that instant she had never suffered jennings no language within her reach in her moments of happiest eloquence could have expressed and now she could reproach her only by the tears which streamed from her eyes with passionate violencea reproach however so entirely lost on its object that after many expressions of pity she withdrew still referring her to the letter of comfort but the letter when she was calm enough to read it brought little comfort her mother still confident of their engagement and relying as warmly as ever on his constancy had only been roused by elinors application to intreat from marianne greater openness towards them both and this with such tenderness towards her such affection for willoughby and such a conviction of their future happiness in each other that she wept with agony through the whole of it all her impatience to be at home again now returned her mother was dearer to her than ever dearer through the very excess of her mistaken confidence in willoughby and she was wildly urgent to be gone elinor unable herself to determine whether it were better for marianne to be in london or at barton offered no counsel of her own except of patience till their mothers wishes could be known and at length she obtained her sisters consent to wait for that knowledge jennings left them earlier than usual for she could not be easy till the middletons and palmers were able to grieve as much as herself and positively refusing elinors offered attendance went out alone for the rest of the morning elinor with a very heavy heart aware of the pain she was going to communicate and perceiving by mariannes letter how ill she had succeeded in laying any foundation for it then sat down to write her mother an account of what had passed and entreat her directions for the future while marianne who came into the drawingroom on mrs jenningss going away remained fixed at the table where elinor wrote watching the advancement of her pen grieving over her for the hardship of such a task and grieving still more fondly over its effect on her mother in this manner they had continued about a quarter of an hour when marianne whose nerves could not then bear any sudden noise was startled by a rap at the door i will not trust to that retreating to her own room a man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others the event proved her conjecture right though it was founded on injustice and error for colonel brandon did come in and elinor who was convinced that solicitude for marianne brought him thither and who saw that solicitude in his disturbed and melancholy look and in his anxious though brief inquiry after her could not forgive her sister for esteeming him so lightly jennings in bond street said he after the first salutation and she encouraged me to come on and i was the more easily encouraged because i thought it probable that i might find you alone which i was very desirous of doing
receiving the topmaul from starbuck he advanced towards the mainmast with the hammer uplifted in one hand exhibiting the gold with the other and with a high raised voice exclaiming whosoever of ye raises me a whiteheaded whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw whosoever of ye raises me that whiteheaded whale with three holes punctured in his starboard flukelook ye whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale he shall have this gold ounce my boys cried the seamen as with swinging tarpaulins they hailed the act of nailing the gold to the mast its a white whale i say resumed ahab as he threw down the topmaul a white whale skin your eyes for him men look sharp for white water if ye see but a bubble sing out all this while tashtego daggoo and queequeg had looked on with even more intense interest and surprise than the rest and at the mention of the wrinkled brow and crooked jaw they had started as if each was separately touched by some specific recollection captain ahab said tashtego that white whale must be the same that some call moby dick does he fantail a little curious sir before he goes down and has he a curious spout too said daggoo very bushy even for a parmacetty and mighty quick captain ahab good many iron in him hide too captain cried queequeg disjointedly all twisketee betwisk like himhim faltering hard for a word and screwing his hand round and round as though uncorking a bottlelike himhim corkscrew cried ahab aye queequeg the harpoons lie all twisted and wrenched in him aye daggoo his spout is a big one like a whole shock of wheat and white as a pile of our nantucket wool after the great annual sheepshearing aye tashtego and he fantails like a split jib in a squall captain ahab said starbuck who with stubb and flask had thus far been eyeing his superior with increasing surprise but at last seemed struck with a thought which somewhat explained all the wonder captain ahab i have heard of moby dickbut it was not moby dick that took off thy leg cried ahab then pausing aye starbuck aye my hearties all round it was moby dick that dismasted me moby dick that brought me to this dead stump i stand on now aye aye he shouted with a terrific loud animal sob like that of a heartstricken moose aye aye it was that accursed white whale that razed me made a poor pegging lubber of me for ever and a day then tossing both arms with measureless imprecations he shouted out aye aye and ill chase him round good hope and round the horn and round the norway maelstrom and round perditions flames before i give him up to chase that white whale on both sides of land and over all sides of earth till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out shouted the harpooneers and seamen running closer to the excited old man a sharp eye for the white whale a sharp lance for moby dick i am game for his crooked jaw and for the jaws of death too captain ahab if it fairly comes in the way of the business we follow but i came here to hunt whales not my commanders vengeance
certainly my dear nobody said there were but as to not meeting with many people in this neighbourhood i believe there are few neighbourhoods larger nothing but concern for elizabeth could enable bingley to keep his countenance his sister was less delicate and directed her eyes towards mr elizabeth for the sake of saying something that might turn her mothers thoughts now asked her if charlotte lucas had been at longbourn since her coming away that is my idea of good breeding and those persons who fancy themselves very important and never open their mouths quite mistake the matter bingley i always keep servants that can do their own work my daughters are brought up very differently but everybody is to judge for themselves and the lucases are a very good sort of girls i assure you not that i think charlotte so very plainbut then she is our particular friend lady lucas herself has often said so and envied me janes beauty i do not like to boast of my own child but to be sure janeone does not often see anybody better looking when she was only fifteen there was a man at my brother gardiners in town so much in love with her that my sisterinlaw was sure he would make her an offer before we came away however he wrote some verses on her and very pretty they were and so ended his affection said elizabeth impatiently there has been many a one i fancy overcome in the same way i wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love i have been used to consider poetry as the food of love said darcy but if it be only a slight thin sort of inclination i am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away darcy only smiled and the general pause which ensued made elizabeth tremble lest her mother should be exposing herself again she longed to speak but could think of nothing to say and after a short silence mrs bingley for his kindness to jane with an apology for troubling him also with lizzy
she used to be all unreserve and to you more especially supposing it possible that they are not engaged what distress would not such an enquiry inflict i should never deserve her confidence again after forcing from her a confession of what is meant at present to be unacknowledged to any one i know mariannes heart i know that she dearly loves me and that i shall not be the last to whom the affair is made known when circumstances make the revealment of it eligible i would not attempt to force the confidence of any one of a child much less because a sense of duty would prevent the denial which her wishes might direct elinor thought this generosity overstrained considering her sisters youth and urged the matter farther but in vain common sense common care common prudence were all sunk in mrs it was several days before willoughbys name was mentioned before marianne by any of her family sir john and mrs jennings indeed were not so nice their witticisms added pain to many a painful hourbut one evening mrs dashwood accidentally taking up a volume of shakespeare exclaimed we have never finished hamlet marianne our dear willoughby went away before we could get through it dashwood was sorry for what she had said but it gave elinor pleasure as it produced a reply from marianne so expressive of confidence in willoughby and knowledge of his intentions one morning about a week after his leaving the country marianne was prevailed on to join her sisters in their usual walk instead of wandering away by herself hitherto she had carefully avoided every companion in her rambles if her sisters intended to walk on the downs she directly stole away towards the lanes if they talked of the valley she was as speedy in climbing the hills and could never be found when the others set off but at length she was secured by the exertions of elinor who greatly disapproved such continual seclusion they walked along the road through the valley and chiefly in silence for mariannes mind could not be controlled and elinor satisfied with gaining one point would not then attempt more beyond the entrance of the valley where the country though still rich was less wild and more open a long stretch of the road which they had travelled on first coming to barton lay before them and on reaching that point they stopped to look around them and examine a prospect which formed the distance of their view from the cottage from a spot which they had never happened to reach in any of their walks before amongst the objects in the scene they soon discovered an animated one it was a man on horseback riding towards them in a few minutes they could distinguish him to be a gentleman and in a moment afterwards marianne rapturously exclaimed it is he it is indeedi know it is and was hastening to meet him when elinor cried out indeed marianne i think you are mistaken the person is not tall enough for him and has not his air
but at last in his untraceable evolutions the white whale so crossed and recrossed and in a thousand ways entangled the slack of the three lines now fast to him that they foreshortened and of themselves warped the devoted boats towards the planted irons in him though now for a moment the whale drew aside a little as if to rally for a more tremendous charge seizing that opportunity ahab first paid out more line and then was rapidly hauling and jerking in upon it againhoping that way to disencumber it of some snarlswhen lo a sight more savage than the embattled teeth of sharks caught and twistedcorkscrewed in the mazes of the line loose harpoons and lances with all their bristling barbs and points came flashing and dripping up to the chocks in the bows of ahabs boat seizing the boatknife he critically reached withinthroughand then withoutthe rays of steel dragged in the line beyond passed it inboard to the bowsman and then twice sundering the rope near the chocksdropped the intercepted fagot of steel into the sea and was all fast again that instant the white whale made a sudden rush among the remaining tangles of the other lines by so doing irresistibly dragged the more involved boats of stubb and flask towards his flukes dashed them together like two rolling husks on a surfbeaten beach and then diving down into the sea disappeared in a boiling maelstrom in which for a space the odorous cedar chips of the wrecks danced round and round like the grated nutmeg in a swiftly stirred bowl of punch while the two crews were yet circling in the waters reaching out after the revolving linetubs oars and other floating furniture while aslope little flask bobbed up and down like an empty vial twitching his legs upwards to escape the dreaded jaws of sharks and stubb was lustily singing out for some one to ladle him up and while the old mans linenow partingadmitted of his pulling into the creamy pool to rescue whom he couldin that wild simultaneousness of a thousand concreted perilsahabs yet unstricken boat seemed drawn up towards heaven by invisible wiresas arrowlike shooting perpendicularly from the sea the white whale dashed his broad forehead against its bottom and sent it turning over and over into the air till it fell againgunwale downwardsand ahab and his men struggled out from under it like seals from a seaside cave the first uprising momentum of the whalemodifying its direction as he struck the surfaceinvoluntarily launched him along it to a little distance from the centre of the destruction he had made and with his back to it he now lay for a moment slowly feeling with his flukes from side to side and whenever a stray oar bit of plank the least chip or crumb of the boats touched his skin his tail swiftly drew back and came sideways smiting the sea but soon as if satisfied that his work for that time was done he pushed his pleated forehead through the ocean and trailing after him the intertangled lines continued his leeward way at a travellers methodic pace as before the attentive ship having descried the whole fight again came bearing down to the rescue and dropping a boat picked up the floating mariners tubs oars and whatever else could be caught at and safely landed them on her decks some sprained shoulders wrists and ankles livid contusions wrenched harpoons and lances inextricable intricacies of rope shattered oars and planks all these were there but no fatal or even serious ill seemed to have befallen any one as with fedallah the day before so ahab was now found grimly clinging to his boats broken half which afforded a comparatively easy float nor did it so exhaust him as the previous days mishap but when he was helped to the deck all eyes were fastened upon him as instead of standing by himself he still halfhung upon the shoulder of starbuck who had thus far been the foremost to assist him his ivory leg had been snapped off leaving but one short sharp splinter aye aye starbuck tis sweet to lean sometimes be the leaner who he will and would old ahab had leaned oftener than he has the ferrule has not stood sir said the carpenter now coming up i put good work into that leg but no bones broken sir i hope said stubb with true concern but even with a broken bone old ahab is untouched and i account no living bone of mine one jot more me than this dead one thats lost nor white whale nor man nor fiend can so much as graze old ahab in his own proper and inaccessible being can any lead touch yonder floor any mast scrape yonder roof
but once the mood was on him too deep for common regardings and as with heavy lumberlike pace he was measuring the ship from taffrail to mainmast stubb the old second mate came up from below with a certain unassured deprecating humorousness hinted that if captain ahab was pleased to walk the planks then no one could say nay but there might be some way of muffling the noise hinting something indistinctly and hesitatingly about a globe of tow and the insertion into it of the ivory heel am i a cannonball stubb said ahab that thou wouldst wad me that fashion below to thy nightly grave where such as ye sleep between shrouds to use ye to the filling one at last starting at the unforseen concluding exclamation of the so suddenly scornful old man stubb was speechless a moment then said excitedly i am not used to be spoken to that way sir i do but less than half like it sir gritted ahab between his set teeth and violently moving away as if to avoid some passionate temptation no sir not yet said stubb emboldened i will not tamely be called a dog sir then be called ten times a donkey and a mule and an ass and begone or ill clear the world of thee as he said this ahab advanced upon him with such overbearing terrors in his aspect that stubb involuntarily retreated i was never served so before without giving a hard blow for it muttered stubb as he found himself descending the cabinscuttle stop stubb somehow now i dont well know whether to go back and strike him orwhats that yes that was the thought coming up in me but it would be the first time i ever did pray its queer very queer and hes queer too aye take him fore and aft hes about the queerest old man stubb ever sailed with anyway theres something on his mind as sure as there must be something on a deck when it cracks he aint in his bed now either more than three hours out of the twentyfour and he dont sleep then didnt that doughboy the steward tell me that of a morning he always finds the old mans hammock clothes all rumpled and tumbled and the sheets down at the foot and the coverlid almost tied into knots and the pillow a sort of frightful hot as though a baked brick had been on it i guess hes got what some folks ashore call a conscience its a kind of ticdollyrow they sayworse nor a toothache well well i dont know what it is but the lord keep me from catching it hes full of riddles i wonder what he goes into the after hold for every night as doughboy tells me he suspects whats that for i should like to know but theres no telling its the old gamehere goes for a snooze damn me its worth a fellows while to be born into the world if only to fall right asleep
by a tunnel inserted at the rear this reservoir is kept replenished with water as fast as it evaporates there are no external chimneys they open direct from the rear wall it was about nine oclock at night that the pequods tryworks were first started on this present voyage this was an easy thing for the carpenter had been thrusting his shavings into the furnace throughout the passage here be it said that in a whaling voyage the first fire in the tryworks has to be fed for a time with wood after that no wood is used except as a means of quick ignition to the staple fuel in a word after being tried out the crisp shrivelled blubber now called scraps or fritters still contains considerable of its unctuous properties like a plethoric burning martyr or a selfconsuming misanthrope once ignited the whale supplies his own fuel and burns by his own body for his smoke is horrible to inhale and inhale it you must and not only that but you must live in it for the time it has an unspeakable wild hindoo odor about it such as may lurk in the vicinity of funereal pyres it smells like the left wing of the day of judgment it is an argument for the pit we were clear from the carcase sail had been made the wind was freshening the wild ocean darkness was intense but that darkness was licked up by the fierce flames which at intervals forked forth from the sooty flues and illuminated every lofty rope in the rigging as with the famed greek fire the burning ship drove on as if remorselessly commissioned to some vengeful deed so the pitch and sulphurfreighted brigs of the bold hydriote canaris issuing from their midnight harbors with broad sheets of flame for sails bore down upon the turkish frigates and folded them in conflagrations the hatch removed from the top of the works now afforded a wide hearth in front of them standing on this were the tartarean shapes of the pagan harpooneers always the whaleships stokers with huge pronged poles they pitched hissing masses of blubber into the scalding pots or stirred up the fires beneath till the snaky flames darted curling out of the doors to catch them by the feet to every pitch of the ship there was a pitch of the boiling oil which seemed all eagerness to leap into their faces opposite the mouth of the works on the further side of the wide wooden hearth was the windlass
her form though not so correct as her sisters in having the advantage of height was more striking and her face was so lovely that when in the common cant of praise she was called a beautiful girl truth was less violently outraged than usually happens her skin was very brown but from its transparency her complexion was uncommonly brilliant her features were all good her smile was sweet and attractive and in her eyes which were very dark there was a life a spirit an eagerness which could hardily be seen without delight from willoughby their expression was at first held back by the embarrassment which the remembrance of his assistance created but when this passed away when her spirits became collected when she saw that to the perfect goodbreeding of the gentleman he united frankness and vivacity and above all when she heard him declare that of music and dancing he was passionately fond she gave him such a look of approbation as secured the largest share of his discourse to herself for the rest of his stay it was only necessary to mention any favourite amusement to engage her to talk she could not be silent when such points were introduced and she had neither shyness nor reserve in their discussion they speedily discovered that their enjoyment of dancing and music was mutual and that it arose from a general conformity of judgment in all that related to either encouraged by this to a further examination of his opinions she proceeded to question him on the subject of books her favourite authors were brought forward and dwelt upon with so rapturous a delight that any young man of five and twenty must have been insensible indeed not to become an immediate convert to the excellence of such works however disregarded before the same books the same passages were idolized by eachor if any difference appeared any objection arose it lasted no longer than till the force of her arguments and the brightness of her eyes could be displayed he acquiesced in all her decisions caught all her enthusiasm and long before his visit concluded they conversed with the familiarity of a longestablished acquaintance well marianne said elinor as soon as he had left them for one morning i think you have done pretty well willoughbys opinion in almost every matter of importance you know what he thinks of cowper and scott you are certain of his estimating their beauties as he ought and you have received every assurance of his admiring pope no more than is proper but how is your acquaintance to be long supported under such extraordinary despatch of every subject for discourse another meeting will suffice to explain his sentiments on picturesque beauty and second marriages and then you can have nothing farther to ask i have been too much at my ease too happy too frank i have erred against every commonplace notion of decorum i have been open and sincere where i ought to have been reserved spiritless dull and deceitfulhad i talked only of the weather and the roads and had i spoken only once in ten minutes this reproach would have been spared my love said her mother you must not be offended with elinorshe was only in jest i should scold her myself if she were capable of wishing to check the delight of your conversation with our new friend willoughby on his side gave every proof of his pleasure in their acquaintance which an evident wish of improving it could offer
when elinor had ceased to rejoice in the dryness of the season a very awful pause took place dashwood who felt obliged to hope that he had left mrs elinor resolving to exert herself though fearing the sound of her own voice now said is mrs i meant said elinor taking up some work from the table to inquire for mrs she dared not look upbut her mother and marianne both turned their eyes on him he coloured seemed perplexed looked doubtingly and after some hesitation said perhaps you meanmy brotheryou mean mrs was repeated by marianne and her mother in an accent of the utmost amazementand though elinor could not speak even her eyes were fixed on him with the same impatient wonder he rose from his seat and walked to the window apparently from not knowing what to do took up a pair of scissors that lay there and while spoiling both them and their sheath by cutting the latter to pieces as he spoke said in a hurried voice perhaps you do not knowyou may not have heard that my brother is lately married toto the youngestto miss lucy steele his words were echoed with unspeakable astonishment by all but elinor who sat with her head leaning over her work in a state of such agitation as made her hardly know where she was yes said he they were married last week and are now at dawlish she almost ran out of the room and as soon as the door was closed burst into tears of joy which at first she thought would never cease edward who had till then looked any where rather than at her saw her hurry away and perhaps sawor even heard her emotion for immediately afterwards he fell into a reverie which no remarks no inquiries no affectionate address of mrs dashwood could penetrate and at last without saying a word quitted the room and walked out towards the villageleaving the others in the greatest astonishment and perplexity on a change in his situation so wonderful and so suddena perplexity which they had no means of lessening but by their own conjectures chapter  unaccountable however as the circumstances of his release might appear to the whole family it was certain that edward was free and to what purpose that freedom would be employed was easily predetermined by allfor after experiencing the blessings of one imprudent engagement contracted without his mothers consent as he had already done for more than four years nothing less could be expected of him in the failure of that than the immediate contraction of another it was only to ask elinor to marry himand considering that he was not altogether inexperienced in such a question it might be strange that he should feel so uncomfortable in the present case as he really did so much in need of encouragement and fresh air how soon he had walked himself into the proper resolution however how soon an opportunity of exercising it occurred in what manner he expressed himself and how he was received need not be particularly told this only need be saidthat when they all sat down to table at four oclock about three hours after his arrival he had secured his lady engaged her mothers consent and was not only in the rapturous profession of the lover but in the reality of reason and truth one of the happiest of men he had more than the ordinary triumph of accepted love to swell his heart and raise his spirits he was released without any reproach to himself from an entanglement which had long formed his misery from a woman whom he had long ceased to loveand elevated at once to that security with another which he must have thought of almost with despair as soon as he had learnt to consider it with desire he was brought not from doubt or suspense but from misery to happinessand the change was openly spoken in such a genuine flowing grateful cheerfulness as his friends had never witnessed in him before
second to the native indian of peru the continual sight of the snowhowdahed andes conveys naught of dread except perhaps in the mere fancying of the eternal frosted desolateness reigning at such vast altitudes and the natural conceit of what a fearfulness it would be to lose oneself in such inhuman solitudes much the same is it with the backwoodsman of the west who with comparative indifference views an unbounded prairie sheeted with driven snow no shadow of tree or twig to break the fixed trance of whiteness not so the sailor beholding the scenery of the antarctic seas where at times by some infernal trick of legerdemain in the powers of frost and air he shivering and half shipwrecked instead of rainbows speaking hope and solace to his misery views what seems a boundless churchyard grinning upon him with its lean ice monuments and splintered crosses but thou sayest methinks that whitelead chapter about whiteness is but a white flag hung out from a craven soul thou surrenderest to a hypo ishmael tell me why this strong young colt foaled in some peaceful valley of vermont far removed from all beasts of preywhy is it that upon the sunniest day if you but shake a fresh buffalo robe behind him so that he cannot even see it but only smells its wild animal muskinesswhy will he start snort and with bursting eyes paw the ground in phrensies of affright there is no remembrance in him of any gorings of wild creatures in his green northern home so that the strange muskiness he smells cannot recall to him anything associated with the experience of former perils for what knows he this new england colt of the black bisons of distant oregon no but here thou beholdest even in a dumb brute the instinct of the knowledge of the demonism in the world though thousands of miles from oregon still when he smells that savage musk the rending goring bison herds are as present as to the deserted wild foal of the prairies which this instant they may be trampling into dust thus then the muffled rollings of a milky sea the bleak rustlings of the festooned frosts of mountains the desolate shiftings of the windrowed snows of prairies all these to ishmael are as the shaking of that buffalo robe to the frightened colt though neither knows where lie the nameless things of which the mystic sign gives forth such hints yet with me as with the colt somewhere those things must exist though in many of its aspects this visible world seems formed in love the invisible spheres were formed in fright but not yet have we solved the incantation of this whiteness and learned why it appeals with such power to the soul and more strange and far more portentouswhy as we have seen it is at once the most meaning symbol of spiritual things nay the very veil of the christians deity and yet should be as it is the intensifying agent in things the most appalling to mankind is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation when beholding the white depths of the milky way or is it that as in essence whiteness is not so much a colour as the visible absence of colour and at the same time the concrete of all colours is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness full of meaning in a wide landscape of snowsa colourless allcolour of atheism from which we shrink and when we consider that other theory of the natural philosophers that all other earthly huesevery stately or lovely emblazoningthe sweet tinges of sunset skies and woods yea and the gilded velvets of butterflies and the butterfly cheeks of young girls all these are but subtile deceits not actually inherent in substances but only laid on from without so that all deified nature absolutely paints like the harlot whose allurements cover nothing but the charnelhouse within and when we proceed further and consider that the mystical cosmetic which produces every one of her hues the great principle of light for ever remains white or colourless in itself and if operating without medium upon matter would touch all objects even tulips and roses with its own blank tingepondering all this the palsied universe lies before us a leper and like wilful travellers in lapland who refuse to wear coloured and colouring glasses upon their eyes so the wretched infidel gazes himself blind at the monumental white shroud that wraps all the prospect around him and of all these things the albino whale was the symbol it was the middlewatch a fair moonlight the seamen were standing in a cordon extending from one of the freshwater butts in the waist to the scuttlebutt near the taffrail in this manner they passed the buckets to fill the scuttlebutt standing for the most part on the hallowed precincts of the quarterdeck they were careful not to speak or rustle their feet from hand to hand the buckets went in the deepest silence only broken by the occasional flap of a sail and the steady hum of the unceasingly advancing keel
the phantoms for so they then seemed were flitting on the other side of the deck and with a noiseless celerity were casting loose the tackles and bands of the boat which swung there this boat had always been deemed one of the spare boats though technically called the captains on account of its hanging from the starboard quarter the figure that now stood by its bows was tall and swart with one white tooth evilly protruding from its steellike lips a rumpled chinese jacket of black cotton funereally invested him with wide black trowsers of the same dark stuff but strangely crowning this ebonness was a glistening white plaited turban the living hair braided and coiled round and round upon his head less swart in aspect the companions of this figure were of that vivid tigeryellow complexion peculiar to some of the aboriginal natives of the manillasa race notorious for a certain diabolism of subtilty and by some honest white mariners supposed to be the paid spies and secret confidential agents on the water of the devil their lord whose countingroom they suppose to be elsewhere while yet the wondering ships company were gazing upon these strangers ahab cried out to the whiteturbaned old man at their head all ready there fedallah such was the thunder of his voice that spite of their amazement the men sprang over the rail the sheaves whirled round in the blocks with a wallow the three boats dropped into the sea while with a dexterous offhanded daring unknown in any other vocation the sailors goatlike leaped down the rolling ships side into the tossed boats below hardly had they pulled out from under the ships lee when a fourth keel coming from the windward side pulled round under the stern and showed the five strangers rowing ahab who standing erect in the stern loudly hailed starbuck stubb and flask to spread themselves widely so as to cover a large expanse of water but with all their eyes again riveted upon the swart fedallah and his crew the inmates of the other boats obeyed not the command spread yourselves cried ahab give way all four boats aye aye sir cheerily cried little kingpost sweeping round his great steering oar oh i dont mindem sir said archy i knew it all before now pull pull my fine heartsalive pull my children pull my little ones drawlingly and soothingly sighed stubb to his crew some of whom still showed signs of uneasiness they are only five more hands come to help usnever mind from wherethe more the merrier pull then do pull never mind the brimstonedevils are good fellows enough so so there you are now thats the stroke for a thousand pounds thats the stroke to sweep the stakes the devil fetch ye ye ragamuffin rapscallions ye are all asleep why in the name of gudgeons and gingercakes dont ye pull whipping out the sharp knife from his girdle every mothers son of ye draw his knife and pull with the blade between his teeth
harris at four oclockwhen his assurances his felicitations on a recovery in her sister even surpassing his expectation gave her confidence comfort and tears of joy marianne was in every respect materially better and he declared her entirely out of danger jennings perhaps satisfied with the partial justification of her forebodings which had been found in their late alarm allowed herself to trust in his judgment and admitted with unfeigned joy and soon with unequivocal cheerfulness the probability of an entire recovery her joy was of a different kind and led to any thing rather than to gaiety marianne restored to life health friends and to her doting mother was an idea to fill her heart with sensations of exquisite comfort and expand it in fervent gratitudebut it led to no outward demonstrations of joy no words no smiles all within elinors breast was satisfaction silent and strong she continued by the side of her sister with little intermission the whole afternoon calming every fear satisfying every inquiry of her enfeebled spirits supplying every succour and watching almost every look and every breath the possibility of a relapse would of course in some moments occur to remind her of what anxiety wasbut when she saw on her frequent and minute examination that every symptom of recovery continued and saw marianne at six oclock sink into a quiet steady and to all appearance comfortable sleep she silenced every doubt the time was now drawing on when colonel brandon might be expected back at ten oclock she trusted or at least not much later her mother would be relieved from the dreadful suspense in which she must now be travelling towards them how slow was the progress of time which yet kept them in ignorance at seven oclock leaving marianne still sweetly asleep she joined mrs of breakfast she had been kept by her fears and of dinner by their sudden reverse from eating muchand the present refreshment therefore with such feelings of content as she brought to it was particularly welcome jennings would have persuaded her at its conclusion to take some rest before her mothers arrival and allow her to take her place by marianne but elinor had no sense of fatigue no capability of sleep at that moment about her and she was not to be kept away from her sister an unnecessary instant jennings therefore attending her up stairs into the sick chamber to satisfy herself that all continued right left her there again to her charge and her thoughts and retired to her own room to write letters and sleep the wind roared round the house and the rain beat against the windows but elinor all happiness within regarded it not marianne slept through every blast and the travellersthey had a rich reward in store for every present inconvenience had it been ten elinor would have been convinced that at that moment she heard a carriage driving up to the house and so strong was the persuasion that she did in spite of the almost impossibility of their being already come that she moved into the adjoining dressingcloset and opened a window shutter to be satisfied of the truth she instantly saw that her ears had not deceived her the flaring lamps of a carriage were immediately in view
you must feel it and the usual satisfaction of preaching patience to a sufferer is denied me because you have always so much bennet through the assistance of servants contrived to have the earliest tidings of it that the period of anxiety and fretfulness on her side might be as long as it could she counted the days that must intervene before their invitation could be sent hopeless of seeing him before but on the third morning after his arrival in hertfordshire she saw him from her dressingroom window enter the paddock and ride towards the house her daughters were eagerly called to partake of her joy jane resolutely kept her place at the table but elizabeth to satisfy her mother went to the windowshe lookedshe saw mr there is a gentleman with him mamma said kitty who can it be some acquaintance or other my dear i suppose i am sure i do not know replied kitty it looks just like that man that used to be with him before bingleys will always be welcome here to be sure but else i must say that i hate the very sight of him she knew but little of their meeting in derbyshire and therefore felt for the awkwardness which must attend her sister in seeing him almost for the first time after receiving his explanatory letter each felt for the other and of course for themselves and their mother talked on of her dislike of mr darcy and her resolution to be civil to him only as mr bingleys friend without being heard by either of them but elizabeth had sources of uneasiness which could not be suspected by jane to whom she had never yet had courage to shew mrs gardiners letter or to relate her own change of sentiment towards him to jane he could be only a man whose proposals she had refused and whose merit she had undervalued but to her own more extensive information he was the person to whom the whole family were indebted for the first of benefits and whom she regarded herself with an interest if not quite so tender at least as reasonable and just as what jane felt for bingley her astonishment at his comingat his coming to netherfield to longbourn and voluntarily seeking her again was almost equal to what she had known on first witnessing his altered behaviour in derbyshire the colour which had been driven from her face returned for half a minute with an additional glow and a smile of delight added lustre to her eyes as she thought for that space of time that his affection and wishes must still be unshaken let me first see how he behaves said she it will then be early enough for expectation
they were of course very anxious to see a person on whom so much of their comfort at barton must depend and the elegance of her appearance was favourable to their wishes lady middleton was not more than six or seven and twenty her face was handsome her figure tall and striking and her address graceful her manners had all the elegance which her husbands wanted but they would have been improved by some share of his frankness and warmth and her visit was long enough to detract something from their first admiration by shewing that though perfectly wellbred she was reserved cold and had nothing to say for herself beyond the most commonplace inquiry or remark conversation however was not wanted for sir john was very chatty and lady middleton had taken the wise precaution of bringing with her their eldest child a fine little boy about six years old by which means there was one subject always to be recurred to by the ladies in case of extremity for they had to enquire his name and age admire his beauty and ask him questions which his mother answered for him while he hung about her and held down his head to the great surprise of her ladyship who wondered at his being so shy before company as he could make noise enough at home on every formal visit a child ought to be of the party by way of provision for discourse in the present case it took up ten minutes to determine whether the boy were most like his father or mother and in what particular he resembled either for of course every body differed and every body was astonished at the opinion of the others an opportunity was soon to be given to the dashwoods of debating on the rest of the children as sir john would not leave the house without securing their promise of dining at the park the next day chapter  barton park was about half a mile from the cottage the ladies had passed near it in their way along the valley but it was screened from their view at home by the projection of a hill the house was large and handsome and the middletons lived in a style of equal hospitality and elegance the former was for sir johns gratification the latter for that of his lady they were scarcely ever without some friends staying with them in the house and they kept more company of every kind than any other family in the neighbourhood it was necessary to the happiness of both for however dissimilar in temper and outward behaviour they strongly resembled each other in that total want of talent and taste which confined their employments unconnected with such as society produced within a very narrow compass he hunted and shot and she humoured her children and these were their only resources lady middleton had the advantage of being able to spoil her children all the year round while sir johns independent employments were in existence only half the time continual engagements at home and abroad however supplied all the deficiencies of nature and education supported the good spirits of sir john and gave exercise to the good breeding of his wife lady middleton piqued herself upon the elegance of her table and of all her domestic arrangements and from this kind of vanity was her greatest enjoyment in any of their parties but sir johns satisfaction in society was much more real he delighted in collecting about him more young people than his house would hold and the noisier they were the better was he pleased he was a blessing to all the juvenile part of the neighbourhood for in summer he was for ever forming parties to eat cold ham and chicken out of doors and in winter his private balls were numerous enough for any young lady who was not suffering under the unsatiable appetite of fifteen
till yesterday i believe she never doubted his regard and even now perhapsbut i am almost convinced that he never was really attached to her and in some points there seems a hardness of heart about him but your sister does noti think you said soshe does not consider quite as you do you know her disposition and may believe how eagerly she would still justify him if she could he made no answer and soon afterwards by the removal of the teathings and the arrangement of the card parties the subject was necessarily dropped jennings who had watched them with pleasure while they were talking and who expected to see the effect of miss dashwoods communication in such an instantaneous gaiety on colonel brandons side as might have become a man in the bloom of youth of hope and happiness saw him with amazement remain the whole evening more serious and thoughtful than usual chapter  from a night of more sleep than she had expected marianne awoke the next morning to the same consciousness of misery in which she had closed her eyes elinor encouraged her as much as possible to talk of what she felt and before breakfast was ready they had gone through the subject again and again and with the same steady conviction and affectionate counsel on elinors side the same impetuous feelings and varying opinions on mariannes as before sometimes she could believe willoughby to be as unfortunate and as innocent as herself and at others lost every consolation in the impossibility of acquitting him at one moment she was absolutely indifferent to the observation of all the world at another she would seclude herself from it for ever and at a third could resist it with energy in one thing however she was uniform when it came to the point in avoiding where it was possible the presence of mrs jennings and in a determined silence when obliged to endure it jenningss entering into her sorrows with any compassion her kindness is not sympathy her goodnature is not tenderness all that she wants is gossip and she only likes me now because i supply it elinor had not needed this to be assured of the injustice to which her sister was often led in her opinion of others by the irritable refinement of her own mind and the too great importance placed by her on the delicacies of a strong sensibility and the graces of a polished manner like half the rest of the world if more than half there be that are clever and good marianne with excellent abilities and an excellent disposition was neither reasonable nor candid she expected from other people the same opinions and feelings as her own and she judged of their motives by the immediate effect of their actions on herself thus a circumstance occurred while the sisters were together in their own room after breakfast which sunk the heart of mrs jennings still lower in her estimation because through her own weakness it chanced to prove a source of fresh pain to herself though mrs
furthermore as his windpipe solely opens into the tube of his spouting canal and as that long canallike the grand erie canalis furnished with a sort of locks that open and shut for the downward retention of air or the upward exclusion of water therefore the whale has no voice unless you insult him by saying that when he so strangely rumbles he talks through his nose seldom have i known any profound being that had anything to say to this world unless forced to stammer out something by way of getting a living now the spouting canal of the sperm whale chiefly intended as it is for the conveyance of air and for several feet laid along horizontally just beneath the upper surface of his head and a little to one side this curious canal is very much like a gaspipe laid down in a city on one side of a street but the question returns whether this gaspipe is also a waterpipe in other words whether the spout of the sperm whale is the mere vapour of the exhaled breath or whether that exhaled breath is mixed with water taken in at the mouth and discharged through the spiracle it is certain that the mouth indirectly communicates with the spouting canal but it cannot be proved that this is for the purpose of discharging water through the spiracle because the greatest necessity for so doing would seem to be when in feeding he accidentally takes in water but the sperm whales food is far beneath the surface and there he cannot spout even if he would besides if you regard him very closely and time him with your watch you will find that when unmolested there is an undeviating rhyme between the periods of his jets and the ordinary periods of respiration but why pester one with all this reasoning on the subject you have seen him spout then declare what the spout is can you not tell water from air my dear sir in this world it is not so easy to settle these plain things i have ever found your plain things the knottiest of all and as for this whale spout you might almost stand in it and yet be undecided as to what it is precisely the central body of it is hidden in the snowy sparkling mist enveloping it and how can you certainly tell whether any water falls from it when always when you are close enough to a whale to get a close view of his spout he is in a prodigious commotion the water cascading all around him and if at such times you should think that you really perceived drops of moisture in the spout how do you know that they are not merely condensed from its vapour or how do you know that they are not those identical drops superficially lodged in the spouthole fissure which is countersunk into the summit of the whales head for even when tranquilly swimming through the midday sea in a calm with his elevated hump sundried as a dromedarys in the desert even then the whale always carries a small basin of water on his head as under a blazing sun you will sometimes see a cavity in a rock filled up with rain nor is it at all prudent for the hunter to be over curious touching the precise nature of the whale spout it will not do for him to be peering into it and putting his face in it you cannot go with your pitcher to this fountain and fill it and bring it away for even when coming into slight contact with the outer vapoury shreds of the jet which will often happen your skin will feverishly smart from the acridness of the thing so touching it
she continued in very agitated reflections till the sound of lady catherines carriage made her feel how unequal she was to encounter charlottes observation and hurried her away to her room chapter  elizabeth awoke the next morning to the same thoughts and meditations which had at length closed her eyes she could not yet recover from the surprise of what had happened it was impossible to think of anything else and totally indisposed for employment she resolved soon after breakfast to indulge herself in air and exercise she was proceeding directly to her favourite walk when the recollection of mr darcys sometimes coming there stopped her and instead of entering the park she turned up the lane which led farther from the turnpikeroad the park paling was still the boundary on one side and she soon passed one of the gates into the ground after walking two or three times along that part of the lane she was tempted by the pleasantness of the morning to stop at the gates and look into the park the five weeks which she had now passed in kent had made a great difference in the country and every day was adding to the verdure of the early trees she was on the point of continuing her walk when she caught a glimpse of a gentleman within the sort of grove which edged the park he was moving that way and fearful of its being mr but the person who advanced was now near enough to see her and stepping forward with eagerness pronounced her name she had turned away but on hearing herself called though in a voice which proved it to be mr he had by that time reached it also and holding out a letter which she instinctively took said with a look of haughty composure i have been walking in the grove some time in the hope of meeting you and then with a slight bow turned again into the plantation and was soon out of sight with no expectation of pleasure but with the strongest curiosity elizabeth opened the letter and to her still increasing wonder perceived an envelope containing two sheets of letterpaper written quite through in a very close hand it was dated from rosings at eight oclock in the morning and was as follows be not alarmed madam on receiving this letter by the apprehension of its containing any repetition of those sentiments or renewal of those offers which were last night so disgusting to you i write without any intention of paining you or humbling myself by dwelling on wishes which for the happiness of both cannot be too soon forgotten and the effort which the formation and the perusal of this letter must occasion should have been spared had not my character required it to be written and read you must therefore pardon the freedom with which i demand your attention your feelings i know will bestow it unwillingly but i demand it of your justice two offenses of a very different nature and by no means of equal magnitude you last night laid to my charge the first mentioned was that regardless of the sentiments of either i had detached mr bingley from your sister and the other that i had in defiance of various claims in defiance of honour and humanity ruined the immediate prosperity and blasted the prospects of mr
whether fagged by the three days running chase and the resistance to his swimming in the knotted hamper he bore or whether it was some latent deceitfulness and malice in him whichever was true the white whales way now began to abate as it seemed from the boat so rapidly nearing him once more though indeed the whales last start had not been so long a one as before and still as ahab glided over the waves the unpitying sharks accompanied him and so pertinaciously stuck to the boat and so continually bit at the plying oars that the blades became jagged and crunched and left small splinters in the sea at almost every dip tis the better rest the sharks jaw than the yielding water but at every bite sir the thin blades grow smaller and smaller but who can tell he mutteredwhether these sharks swim to feast on the whale or on ahab let me passand so saying two of the oarsmen helped him forward to the bows of the still flying boat at length as the craft was cast to one side and ran ranging along with the white whales flank he seemed strangely oblivious of its advanceas the whale sometimes willand ahab was fairly within the smoky mountain mist which thrown off from the whales spout curled round his great monadnock hump he was even thus close to him when with body arched back and both arms lengthwise highlifted to the poise he darted his fierce iron and his far fiercer curse into the hated whale as both steel and curse sank to the socket as if sucked into a morass moby dick sideways writhed spasmodically rolled his nigh flank against the bow and without staving a hole in it so suddenly canted the boat over that had it not been for the elevated part of the gunwale to which he then clung ahab would once more have been tossed into the sea as it was three of the oarsmenwho foreknew not the precise instant of the dart and were therefore unprepared for its effectsthese were flung out but so fell that in an instant two of them clutched the gunwale again and rising to its level on a combing wave hurled themselves bodily inboard again the third man helplessly dropping astern but still afloat and swimming almost simultaneously with a mighty volition of ungraduated instantaneous swiftness the white whale darted through the weltering sea but when ahab cried out to the steersman to take new turns with the line and hold it so and commanded the crew to turn round on their seats and tow the boat up to the mark the moment the treacherous line felt that double strain and tug it snapped in the empty air hearing the tremendous rush of the seacrashing boat the whale wheeled round to present his blank forehead at bay but in that evolution catching sight of the nearing black hull of the ship seemingly seeing in it the source of all his persecutions bethinking itit may bea larger and nobler foe of a sudden he bore down upon its advancing prow smiting his jaws amid fiery showers of foam slope downwards to thy depths o sea that ere it be for ever too late ahab may slide this last last time upon his mark but as the oarsmen violently forced their boat through the sledgehammering seas the before whalesmitten bowends of two planks burst through and in an instant almost the temporarily disabled boat lay nearly level with the waves its halfwading splashing crew trying hard to stop the gap and bale out the pouring water meantime for that one beholding instant tashtegos masthead hammer remained suspended in his hand and the red flag halfwrapping him as with a plaid then streamed itself straight out from him as his own forwardflowing heart while starbuck and stubb standing upon the bowsprit beneath caught sight of the downcoming monster just as soon as he let not starbuck die if die he must in a womans fainting fit oh his unappeasable brow drives on towards one whose duty tells him he cannot depart stand not by me but stand under me whoever you are that will now help stubb for stubb too sticks here who ever helped stubb or kept stubb awake but stubbs own unwinking eye and now poor stubb goes to bed upon a mattrass that is all too soft would it were stuffed with brushwood
it was possible and sometimes she thought it probable that his affection might be reanimated and the influence of his friends successfully combated by the more natural influence of janes attractions miss bennet accepted her aunts invitation with pleasure and the bingleys were no otherwise in her thoughts at the same time than as she hoped by carolines not living in the same house with her brother she might occasionally spend a morning with her without any danger of seeing him the gardiners stayed a week at longbourn and what with the phillipses the lucases and the officers there was not a day without its engagement bennet had so carefully provided for the entertainment of her brother and sister that they did not once sit down to a family dinner when the engagement was for home some of the officers always made part of itof which officers mr wickham was sure to be one and on these occasions mrs gardiner rendered suspicious by elizabeths warm commendation narrowly observed them both without supposing them from what she saw to be very seriously in love their preference of each other was plain enough to make her a little uneasy and she resolved to speak to elizabeth on the subject before she left hertfordshire and represent to her the imprudence of encouraging such an attachment gardiner wickham had one means of affording pleasure unconnected with his general powers about ten or a dozen years ago before her marriage she had spent a considerable time in that very part of derbyshire to which he belonged they had therefore many acquaintances in common and though wickham had been little there since the death of darcys father it was yet in his power to give her fresher intelligence of her former friends than she had been in the way of procuring here consequently was an inexhaustible subject of discourse in comparing her recollection of pemberley with the minute description which wickham could give and in bestowing her tribute of praise on the character of its late possessor she was delighting both him and herself darcys treatment of him she tried to remember some of that gentlemans reputed disposition when quite a lad which might agree with it and was confident at last that she recollected having heard mr fitzwilliam darcy formerly spoken of as a very proud illnatured boy gardiners caution to elizabeth was punctually and kindly given on the first favourable opportunity of speaking to her alone after honestly telling her what she thought she thus went on you are too sensible a girl lizzy to fall in love merely because you are warned against it and therefore i am not afraid of speaking openly do not involve yourself or endeavour to involve him in an affection which the want of fortune would make so very imprudent i have nothing to say against him he is a most interesting young man and if he had the fortune he ought to have i should think you could not do better but as it is you must not let your fancy run away with you your father would depend on your resolution and good conduct i am sure
in this situation elinor roused from sleep by her agitation and sobs first perceived her and after observing her for a few moments with silent anxiety said in a tone of the most considerate gentleness marianne may i ask no elinor she replied ask nothing you will soon know all the sort of desperate calmness with which this was said lasted no longer than while she spoke and was immediately followed by a return of the same excessive affliction it was some minutes before she could go on with her letter and the frequent bursts of grief which still obliged her at intervals to withhold her pen were proofs enough of her feeling how more than probable it was that she was writing for the last time to willoughby elinor paid her every quiet and unobtrusive attention in her power and she would have tried to sooth and tranquilize her still more had not marianne entreated her with all the eagerness of the most nervous irritability not to speak to her for the world in such circumstances it was better for both that they should not be long together and the restless state of mariannes mind not only prevented her from remaining in the room a moment after she was dressed but requiring at once solitude and continual change of place made her wander about the house till breakfast time avoiding the sight of every body at breakfast she neither ate nor attempted to eat any thing and elinors attention was then all employed not in urging her not in pitying her nor in appearing to regard her but in endeavouring to engage mrs jennings it lasted a considerable time and they were just setting themselves after it round the common working table when a letter was delivered to marianne which she eagerly caught from the servant and turning of a deathlike paleness instantly ran out of the room elinor who saw as plainly by this as if she had seen the direction that it must come from willoughby felt immediately such a sickness at heart as made her hardly able to hold up her head and sat in such a general tremour as made her fear it impossible to escape mrs that good lady however saw only that marianne had received a letter from willoughby which appeared to her a very good joke and which she treated accordingly by hoping with a laugh that she would find it to her liking of elinors distress she was too busily employed in measuring lengths of worsted for her rug to see any thing at all and calmly continuing her talk as soon as marianne disappeared she said upon my word i never saw a young woman so desperately in love in my life my girls were nothing to her and yet they used to be foolish enough but as for miss marianne she is quite an altered creature i hope from the bottom of my heart he wont keep her waiting much longer for it is quite grievous to see her look so ill and forlorn elinor though never less disposed to speak than at that moment obliged herself to answer such an attack as this and therefore trying to smile replied and have you really maam talked yourself into a persuasion of my sisters being engaged to mr i thought it had been only a joke but so serious a question seems to imply more and i must beg therefore that you will not deceive yourself any longer i do assure you that nothing would surprise me more than to hear of their being going to be married dont we all know that it must be a match that they were over head and ears in love with each other from the first moment they met did not i see them together in devonshire every day and all day long and did not i know that your sister came to town with me on purpose to buy wedding clothes because you are so sly about it yourself you think nobody else has any senses but it is no such thing i can tell you for it has been known all over town this ever so long indeed maam said elinor very seriously you are mistaken
i think elinor she presently added we must employ edward to take care of us in our return to barton in a week or two i suppose we shall be going and i trust edward will not be very unwilling to accept the charge poor edward muttered something but what it was nobody knew not even himself but marianne who saw his agitation and could easily trace it to whatever cause best pleased herself was perfectly satisfied and soon talked of something else we spent such a day edward in harley street yesterday but i have much to say to you on that head which cannot be said now and with this admirable discretion did she defer the assurance of her finding their mutual relatives more disagreeable than ever and of her being particularly disgusted with his mother till they were more in private perhaps miss marianne cried lucy eager to take some revenge on her you think young men never stand upon engagements if they have no mind to keep them little as well as great elinor was very angry but marianne seemed entirely insensible of the sting for she calmly replied not so indeed for seriously speaking i am very sure that conscience only kept edward from harley street and i really believe he has the most delicate conscience in the world the most scrupulous in performing every engagement however minute and however it may make against his interest or pleasure he is the most fearful of giving pain of wounding expectation and the most incapable of being selfish of any body i ever saw then you must be no friend of mine for those who will accept of my love and esteem must submit to my open commendation the nature of her commendation in the present case however happened to be particularly illsuited to the feelings of two thirds of her auditors and was so very unexhilarating to edward that he very soon got up to go away and drawing him a little aside she whispered her persuasion that lucy could not stay much longer but even this encouragement failed for he would go and lucy who would have outstaid him had his visit lasted two hours soon afterwards went away we were all his friends and lucy has been the longest known to him of any it is but natural that he should like to see her as well as ourselves marianne looked at her steadily and said you know elinor that this is a kind of talking which i cannot bear if you only hope to have your assertion contradicted as i must suppose to be the case you ought to recollect that i am the last person in the world to do it i cannot descend to be tricked out of assurances that are not really wanted
as this glad ship of good luck bore down upon the moody pequod the barbarian sound of enormous drums came from her forecastle and drawing still nearer a crowd of her men were seen standing round her huge trypots which covered with the parchmentlike poke or stomach skin of the black fish gave forth a loud roar to every stroke of the clenched hands of the crew on the quarterdeck the mates and harpooneers were dancing with the olivehued girls who had eloped with them from the polynesian isles while suspended in an ornamented boat firmly secured aloft between the foremast and mainmast three long island negroes with glittering fiddlebows of whale ivory were presiding over the hilarious jig meanwhile others of the ships company were tumultuously busy at the masonry of the tryworks from which the huge pots had been removed you would have almost thought they were pulling down the cursed bastille such wild cries they raised as the now useless brick and mortar were being hurled into the sea lord and master over all this scene the captain stood erect on the ships elevated quarterdeck so that the whole rejoicing drama was full before him and seemed merely contrived for his own individual diversion and ahab he too was standing on his quarterdeck shaggy and black with a stubborn gloom and as the two ships crossed each others wakesone all jubilations for things passed the other all forebodings as to things to cometheir two captains in themselves impersonated the whole striking contrast of the scene cried the gay bachelors commander lifting a glass and a bottle in the air no only heard of him but dont believe in him at all said the other goodhumoredly not enough to speak oftwo islanders thats allbut come aboard old hearty come along come along will ye merrys the play a full ship and homewardbound muttered ahab then aloud thou art a full ship and homeward bound thou sayst well then call me an empty ship and outwardbound and thus while the one ship went cheerily before the breeze the other stubbornly fought against it and so the two vessels parted the crew of the pequod looking with grave lingering glances towards the receding bachelor but the bachelors men never heeding their gaze for the lively revelry they were in and as ahab leaning over the taffrail eyed the homewardbound craft he took from his pocket a small vial of sand and then looking from the ship to the vial seemed thereby bringing two remote associations together for that vial was filled with nantucket soundings not seldom in this life when on the right side fortunes favourites sail close by us we though all adroop before catch somewhat of the rushing breeze and joyfully feel our bagging sails fill out for next day after encountering the gay bachelor whales were seen and four were slain and one of them by ahab it was far down the afternoon and when all the spearings of the crimson fight were done and floating in the lovely sunset sea and sky sun and whale both stilly died together then such a sweetness and such plaintiveness such inwreathing orisons curled up in that rosy air that it almost seemed as if far over from the deep green convent valleys of the manilla isles the spanish landbreeze wantonly turned sailor had gone to sea freighted with these vesper hymns soothed again but only soothed to deeper gloom ahab who had sterned off from the whale sat intently watching his final wanings from the now tranquil boat for that strange spectacle observable in all sperm whales dyingthe turning sunwards of the head and so expiringthat strange spectacle beheld of such a placid evening somehow to ahab conveyed a wondrousness unknown before he turns and turns him to ithow slowly but how steadfastly his homagerendering and invoking brow with his last dying motions he too worships fire most faithful broad baronial vassal of the sun
one evening in particular about a week after colonel brandon left the country his heart seemed more than usually open to every feeling of attachment to the objects around him and on mrs dashwoods happening to mention her design of improving the cottage in the spring he warmly opposed every alteration of a place which affection had established as perfect with him not a stone must be added to its walls not an inch to its size if my feelings are regarded  do not be alarmed said miss dashwood nothing of the kind will be done for my mother will never have money enough to attempt it may she always be poor if she can employ her riches no better but you may be assured that i would not sacrifice one sentiment of local attachment of yours or of any one whom i loved for all the improvements in the world depend upon it that whatever unemployed sum may remain when i make up my accounts in the spring i would even rather lay it uselessly by than dispose of it in a manner so painful to you but are you really so attached to this place as to see no defect in it nay more i consider it as the only form of building in which happiness is attainable and were i rich enough i would instantly pull combe down and build it up again in the exact plan of this cottage with dark narrow stairs and a kitchen that smokes i suppose said elinor yes cried he in the same eager tone with all and every thing belonging to itin no one convenience or inconvenience about it should the least variation be perceptible then and then only under such a roof i might perhaps be as happy at combe as i have been at barton i flatter myself replied elinor that even under the disadvantage of better rooms and a broader staircase you will hereafter find your own house as faultless as you now do this there certainly are circumstances said willoughby which might greatly endear it to me but this place will always have one claim of my affection which no other can possibly share dashwood looked with pleasure at marianne whose fine eyes were fixed so expressively on willoughby as plainly denoted how well she understood him how often did i wish added he when i was at allenham this time twelvemonth that barton cottage were inhabited i never passed within view of it without admiring its situation and grieving that no one should live in it how little did i then think that the very first news i should hear from mrs smith when i next came into the country would be that barton cottage was taken and i felt an immediate satisfaction and interest in the event which nothing but a kind of prescience of what happiness i should experience from it can account for then continuing his former tone he said and yet this house you would spoil mrs
the rent of this cottage is said to be low but we have it on very hard terms if we are to dine at the park whenever any one is staying either with them or with us they mean no less to be civil and kind to us now said elinor by these frequent invitations than by those which we received from them a few weeks ago the alteration is not in them if their parties are grown tedious and dull chapter  as the miss dashwoods entered the drawingroom of the park the next day at one door mrs palmer came running in at the other looking as good humoured and merry as before she took them all most affectionately by the hand and expressed great delight in seeing them again said she seating herself between elinor and marianne for it is so bad a day i was afraid you might not come which would be a shocking thing as we go away again tomorrow we must go for the westons come to us next week you know it was quite a sudden thing our coming at all and i knew nothing of it till the carriage was coming to the door and then mr i am so sorry we cannot stay longer however we shall meet again in town very soon i hope they were obliged to put an end to such an expectation palmer with a laugh i shall be quite disappointed if you do not i could get the nicest house in the world for you next door to ours in hanoversquare i am sure i shall be very happy to chaperon you at any time till i am confined if mrs they thanked her but were obliged to resist all her entreaties palmer to her husband who just then entered the roomyou must help me to persuade the miss dashwoods to go to town this winter  her love made no answer and after slightly bowing to the ladies began complaining of the weather such weather makes every thing and every body disgusting dullness is as much produced within doors as without by rain what the devil does sir john mean by not having a billiard room in his house
there were moments in abundance when if not by the absence of her mother and sisters at least by the nature of their employments conversation was forbidden among them and every effect of solitude was produced her mind was inevitably at liberty her thoughts could not be chained elsewhere and the past and the future on a subject so interesting must be before her must force her attention and engross her memory her reflection and her fancy from a reverie of this kind as she sat at her drawingtable she was roused one morning soon after edwards leaving them by the arrival of company the closing of the little gate at the entrance of the green court in front of the house drew her eyes to the window and she saw a large party walking up to the door amongst them were sir john and lady middleton and mrs jennings but there were two others a gentleman and lady who were quite unknown to her she was sitting near the window and as soon as sir john perceived her he left the rest of the party to the ceremony of knocking at the door and stepping across the turf obliged her to open the casement to speak to him though the space was so short between the door and the window as to make it hardly possible to speak at one without being heard at the other as elinor was certain of seeing her in a couple of minutes without taking that liberty she begged to be excused jennings who had not patience enough to wait till the door was opened before she told her story she came hallooing to the window how do you do my dear you will be glad of a little company to sit with you i have brought my other son and daughter to see you i thought i heard a carriage last night while we were drinking our tea but it never entered my head that it could be them i thought of nothing but whether it might not be colonel brandon come back again so i said to sir john i do think i hear a carriage perhaps it is colonel brandon come back again  elinor was obliged to turn from her in the middle of her story to receive the rest of the party lady middleton introduced the two strangers mrs dashwood and margaret came down stairs at the same time and they all sat down to look at one another while mrs jennings continued her story as she walked through the passage into the parlour attended by sir john palmer was several years younger than lady middleton and totally unlike her in every respect she was short and plump had a very pretty face and the finest expression of good humour in it that could possibly be her manners were by no means so elegant as her sisters but they were much more prepossessing she came in with a smile smiled all the time of her visit except when she laughed and smiled when she went away
standing in iron hoops nailed to the mast they swayed and swung over a fathomless sea and though when the ship slowly glided close under our stern we six men in the air came so nigh to each other that we might almost have leaped from the mastheads of one ship to those of the other yet those forlornlooking fishermen mildly eyeing us as they passed said not one word to our own lookouts while the quarterdeck hail was being heard from below but as the strange captain leaning over the pallid bulwarks was in the act of putting his trumpet to his mouth it somehow fell from his hand into the sea and the wind now rising amain he in vain strove to make himself heard without it meantime his ship was still increasing the distance between while in various silent ways the seamen of the pequod were evincing their observance of this ominous incident at the first mere mention of the white whales name to another ship ahab for a moment paused it almost seemed as though he would have lowered a boat to board the stranger had not the threatening wind forbade but taking advantage of his windward position he again seized his trumpet and knowing by her aspect that the stranger vessel was a nantucketer and shortly bound home he loudly hailedahoy there tell them to address all future letters to the pacific ocean and this time three years if i am not at home tell them to address them to at that moment the two wakes were fairly crossed and instantly then in accordance with their singular ways shoals of small harmless fish that for some days before had been placidly swimming by our side darted away with what seemed shuddering fins and ranged themselves fore and aft with the strangers flanks though in the course of his continual voyagings ahab must often before have noticed a similar sight yet to any monomaniac man the veriest trifles capriciously carry meanings there seemed but little in the words but the tone conveyed more of deep helpless sadness than the insane old man had ever before evinced but turning to the steersman who thus far had been holding the ship in the wind to diminish her headway he cried out in his old lion voiceup helm there is much in that sound to inspire proud feelings but whereto does all that circumnavigation conduct only through numberless perils to the very point whence we started where those that we left behind secure were all the time before us were this world an endless plain and by sailing eastward we could for ever reach new distances and discover sights more sweet and strange than any cyclades or islands of king solomon then there were promise in the voyage but in pursuit of those far mysteries we dream of or in tormented chase of that demon phantom that some time or other swims before all human hearts while chasing such over this round globe they either lead us on in barren mazes or midway leave us whelmed the ostensible reason why ahab did not go on board of the whaler we had spoken was this the wind and sea betokened storms but even had this not been the case he would not after all perhaps have boarded herjudging by his subsequent conduct on similar occasionsif so it had been that by the process of hailing he had obtained a negative answer to the question he put for as it eventually turned out he cared not to consort even for five minutes with any stranger captain except he could contribute some of that information he so absorbingly sought but all this might remain inadequately estimated were not something said here of the peculiar usages of whalingvessels when meeting each other in foreign seas and especially on a common cruisingground if two strangers crossing the pine barrens in new york state or the equally desolate salisbury plain in england if casually encountering each other in such inhospitable wilds these twain for the life of them cannot well avoid a mutual salutation and stopping for a moment to interchange the news and perhaps sitting down for a while and resting in concert then how much more natural that upon the illimitable pine barrens and salisbury plains of the sea two whaling vessels descrying each other at the ends of the earthoff lone fannings island or the far away kings mills how much more natural i say that under such circumstances these ships should not only interchange hails but come into still closer more friendly and sociable contact and especially would this seem to be a matter of course in the case of vessels owned in one seaport and whose captains officers and not a few of the men are personally known to each other and consequently have all sorts of dear domestic things to talk about
yet the misery for which years of happiness were to offer no compensation received soon afterwards material relief from observing how much the beauty of her sister rekindled the admiration of her former lover when first he came in he had spoken to her but little but every five minutes seemed to be giving her more of his attention he found her as handsome as she had been last year as good natured and as unaffected though not quite so chatty jane was anxious that no difference should be perceived in her at all and was really persuaded that she talked as much as ever but her mind was so busily engaged that she did not always know when she was silent bennet was mindful of her intended civility and they were invited and engaged to dine at longbourn in a few days time bingley she added for when you went to town last winter you promised to take a family dinner with us as soon as you returned i have not forgot you see and i assure you i was very much disappointed that you did not come back and keep your engagement bingley looked a little silly at this reflection and said something of his concern at having been prevented by business bennet had been strongly inclined to ask them to stay and dine there that day but though she always kept a very good table she did not think anything less than two courses could be good enough for a man on whom she had such anxious designs or satisfy the appetite and pride of one who had ten thousand a year chapter  as soon as they were gone elizabeth walked out to recover her spirits or in other words to dwell without interruption on those subjects that must deaden them more why if he came only to be silent grave and indifferent said she did he come at all she could settle it in no way that gave her pleasure he could be still amiable still pleasing to my uncle and aunt when he was in town and why not to me her resolution was for a short time involuntarily kept by the approach of her sister who joined her with a cheerful look which showed her better satisfied with their visitors than elizabeth now said she that this first meeting is over i feel perfectly easy i know my own strength and i shall never be embarrassed again by his coming it will then be publicly seen that on both sides we meet only as common and indifferent acquaintance yes very indifferent indeed said elizabeth laughingly my dear lizzy you cannot think me so weak as to be in danger now
dashwood his hand passed so directly before her as to make a ring with a plait of hair in the centre very conspicuous on one of his fingers i never saw you wear a ring before edward she cried marianne spoke inconsiderately what she really feltbut when she saw how much she had pained edward her own vexation at her want of thought could not be surpassed by his he coloured very deeply and giving a momentary glance at elinor replied yes it is my sisters hair the setting always casts a different shade on it you know elinor had met his eye and looked conscious likewise that the hair was her own she instantaneously felt as well satisfied as marianne the only difference in their conclusions was that what marianne considered as a free gift from her sister elinor was conscious must have been procured by some theft or contrivance unknown to herself she was not in a humour however to regard it as an affront and affecting to take no notice of what passed by instantly talking of something else she internally resolved henceforward to catch every opportunity of eyeing the hair and of satisfying herself beyond all doubt that it was exactly the shade of her own edwards embarrassment lasted some time and it ended in an absence of mind still more settled marianne severely censured herself for what she had said but her own forgiveness might have been more speedy had she known how little offence it had given her sister before the middle of the day they were visited by sir john and mrs jennings who having heard of the arrival of a gentleman at the cottage came to take a survey of the guest with the assistance of his motherinlaw sir john was not long in discovering that the name of ferrars began with an f and this prepared a future mine of raillery against the devoted elinor which nothing but the newness of their acquaintance with edward could have prevented from being immediately sprung but as it was she only learned from some very significant looks how far their penetration founded on margarets instructions extended sir john never came to the dashwoods without either inviting them to dine at the park the next day or to drink tea with them that evening on the present occasion for the better entertainment of their visitor towards whose amusement he felt himself bound to contribute he wished to engage them for both you must drink tea with us to night said he for we shall be quite aloneand tomorrow you must absolutely dine with us for we shall be a large party why yourselves and the careys and whitakers to be sure you thought nobody could dance because a certain person that shall be nameless is gone
i only wonder that i am alive after what i have suffered for edwards sake these last four years every thing in such suspense and uncertainty and seeing him so seldomwe can hardly meet above twice ayear here she took out her handkerchief but elinor did not feel very compassionate continued lucy after wiping her eyes i think whether it would not be better for us both to break off the matter entirely as she said this she looked directly at her companion but then at other times i have not resolution enough for it  i cannot bear the thoughts of making him so miserable as i know the very mention of such a thing would do and on my own account tooso dear as he is to mei dont think i could be equal to it what would you advise me to do in such a case miss dashwood pardon me replied elinor startled by the question but i can give you no advice under such circumstances to be sure continued lucy after a few minutes silence on both sides his mother must provide for him sometime or other but poor edward is so cast down by it did you not think him dreadful lowspirited when he was at barton he was so miserable when he left us at longstaple to go to you that i was afraid you would think him quite ill did he come from your uncles then when he visited us no replied elinor most feelingly sensible of every fresh circumstance in favour of lucys veracity i remember he told us that he had been staying a fortnight with some friends near plymouth she remembered too her own surprise at the time at his mentioning nothing farther of those friends at his total silence with respect even to their names we did indeed particularly so when he first arrived i begged him to exert himself for fear you should suspect what was the matter but it made him so melancholy not being able to stay more than a fortnight with us and seeing me so much affected i am afraid it is just the same with him now for he writes in wretched spirits i heard from him just before i left exeter taking a letter from her pocket and carelessly showing the direction to elinor
but at last when turning to the eastward the cape winds began howling around us and we rose and fell upon the long troubled seas that are there when the ivorytusked pequod sharply bowed to the blast and gored the dark waves in her madness till like showers of silver chips the foamflakes flew over her bulwarks then all this desolate vacuity of life went away but gave place to sights more dismal than before close to our bows strange forms in the water darted hither and thither before us while thick in our rear flew the inscrutable searavens and every morning perched on our stays rows of these birds were seen and spite of our hootings for a long time obstinately clung to the hemp as though they deemed our ship some drifting uninhabited craft a thing appointed to desolation and therefore fit roostingplace for their homeless selves and heaved and heaved still unrestingly heaved the black sea as if its vast tides were a conscience and the great mundane soul were in anguish and remorse for the long sin and suffering it had bred rather cape tormentoto as called of yore for long allured by the perfidious silences that before had attended us we found ourselves launched into this tormented sea where guilty beings transformed into those fowls and these fish seemed condemned to swim on everlastingly without any haven in store or beat that black air without any horizon but calm snowwhite and unvarying still directing its fountain of feathers to the sky still beckoning us on from before the solitary jet would at times be descried during all this blackness of the elements ahab though assuming for the time the almost continual command of the drenched and dangerous deck manifested the gloomiest reserve and more seldom than ever addressed his mates in tempestuous times like these after everything above and aloft has been secured nothing more can be done but passively to await the issue of the gale so with his ivory leg inserted into its accustomed hole and with one hand firmly grasping a shroud ahab for hours and hours would stand gazing dead to windward while an occasional squall of sleet or snow would all but congeal his very eyelashes together meantime the crew driven from the forward part of the ship by the perilous seas that burstingly broke over its bows stood in a line along the bulwarks in the waist and the better to guard against the leaping waves each man had slipped himself into a sort of bowline secured to the rail in which he swung as in a loosened belt few or no words were spoken and the silent ship as if manned by painted sailors in wax day after day tore on through all the swift madness and gladness of the demoniac waves by night the same muteness of humanity before the shrieks of the ocean prevailed still in silence the men swung in the bowlines still wordless ahab stood up to the blast even when wearied nature seemed demanding repose he would not seek that repose in his hammock never could starbuck forget the old mans aspect when one night going down into the cabin to mark how the barometer stood he saw him with closed eyes sitting straight in his floorscrewed chair the rain and halfmelted sleet of the storm from which he had some time before emerged still slowly dripping from the unremoved hat and coat on the table beside him lay unrolled one of those charts of tides and currents which have previously been spoken of though the body was erect the head was thrown back so that the closed eyes were pointed towards the needle of the telltale that swung from a beam in the ceiling  the cabincompass is called the telltale because without going to the compass at the helm the captain while below can inform himself of the course of the ship thought starbuck with a shudder sleeping in this gale still thou steadfastly eyest thy purpose southeastward from the cape off the distant crozetts a good cruising ground for right whalemen a sail loomed ahead the goney albatross by name as she slowly drew nigh from my lofty perch at the foremasthead i had a good view of that sight so remarkable to a tyro in the far ocean fisheriesa whaler at sea and long absent from home
if your bitterest foe were walking straight towards you with dagger uplifted in broad day you would not be able to see him any more than if he were stealing upon you from behind in a word you would have two backs so to speak but at the same time also two fronts side fronts for what is it that makes the front of a manwhat indeed but his eyes moreover while in most other animals that i can now think of the eyes are so planted as imperceptibly to blend their visual power so as to produce one picture and not two to the brain the peculiar position of the whales eyes effectually divided as they are by many cubic feet of solid head which towers between them like a great mountain separating two lakes in valleys this of course must wholly separate the impressions which each independent organ imparts the whale therefore must see one distinct picture on this side and another distinct picture on that side while all between must be profound darkness and nothingness to him man may in effect be said to look out on the world from a sentrybox with two joined sashes for his window but with the whale these two sashes are separately inserted making two distinct windows but sadly impairing the view this peculiarity of the whales eyes is a thing always to be borne in mind in the fishery and to be remembered by the reader in some subsequent scenes a curious and most puzzling question might be started concerning this visual matter as touching the leviathan so long as a mans eyes are open in the light the act of seeing is involuntary that is he cannot then help mechanically seeing whatever objects are before him nevertheless any ones experience will teach him that though he can take in an undiscriminating sweep of things at one glance it is quite impossible for him attentively and completely to examine any two thingshowever large or however smallat one and the same instant of time never mind if they lie side by side and touch each other but if you now come to separate these two objects and surround each by a circle of profound darkness then in order to see one of them in such a manner as to bring your mind to bear on it the other will be utterly excluded from your contemporary consciousness true both his eyes in themselves must simultaneously act but is his brain so much more comprehensive combining and subtle than mans that he can at the same moment of time attentively examine two distinct prospects one on one side of him and the other in an exactly opposite direction if he can then is it as marvellous a thing in him as if a man were able simultaneously to go through the demonstrations of two distinct problems in euclid nor strictly investigated is there any incongruity in this comparison it may be but an idle whim but it has always seemed to me that the extraordinary vacillations of movement displayed by some whales when beset by three or four boats the timidity and liability to queer frights so common to such whales i think that all this indirectly proceeds from the helpless perplexity of volition in which their divided and diametrically opposite powers of vision must involve them but the ear of the whale is full as curious as the eye if you are an entire stranger to their race you might hunt over these two heads for hours and never discover that organ the ear has no external leaf whatever and into the hole itself you can hardly insert a quill so wondrously minute is it with respect to their ears this important difference is to be observed between the sperm whale and the right while the ear of the former has an external opening that of the latter is entirely and evenly covered over with a membrane so as to be quite imperceptible from without
she could think of nothing else and yet whether bingleys regard had really died away or were suppressed by his friends interference whether he had been aware of janes attachment or whether it had escaped his observation whatever were the case though her opinion of him must be materially affected by the difference her sisters situation remained the same her peace equally wounded a day or two passed before jane had courage to speak of her feelings to elizabeth but at last on mrs bennets leaving them together after a longer irritation than usual about netherfield and its master she could not help saying oh that my dear mother had more command over herself she can have no idea of the pain she gives me by her continual reflections on him he will be forgot and we shall all be as we were before elizabeth looked at her sister with incredulous solicitude but said nothing you doubt me cried jane slightly colouring indeed you have no reason he may live in my memory as the most amiable man of my acquaintance but that is all i have nothing either to hope or fear and nothing to reproach him with a little time thereforei shall certainly try to get the better with a stronger voice she soon added i have this comfort immediately that it has not been more than an error of fancy on my side and that it has done no harm to anyone but myself your sweetness and disinterestedness are really angelic i do not know what to say to you i feel as if i had never done you justice or loved you as you deserve miss bennet eagerly disclaimed all extraordinary merit and threw back the praise on her sisters warm affection you wish to think all the world respectable and are hurt if i speak ill of anybody i only want to think you perfect and you set yourself against it do not be afraid of my running into any excess of my encroaching on your privilege of universal goodwill there are few people whom i really love and still fewer of whom i think well the more i see of the world the more am i dissatisfied with it and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense i have met with two instances lately one i will not mention the other is charlottes marriage
secondly people ashore have indeed some indefinite idea that a whale is an enormous creature of enormous power but i have ever found that when narrating to them some specific example of this twofold enormousness they have significantly complimented me upon my facetiousness when i declare upon my soul i had no more idea of being facetious than moses when he wrote the history of the plagues of egypt but fortunately the special point i here seek can be established upon testimony entirely independent of my own that point is this the sperm whale is in some cases sufficiently powerful knowing and judiciously malicious as with direct aforethought to stave in utterly destroy and sink a large ship and what is more the sperm whale has done it first in the year  the ship essex captain pollard of nantucket was cruising in the pacific ocean one day she saw spouts lowered her boats and gave chase to a shoal of sperm whales ere long several of the whales were wounded when suddenly a very large whale escaping from the boats issued from the shoal and bore directly down upon the ship dashing his forehead against her hull he so stove her in that in less than ten minutes she settled down and fell over after the severest exposure part of the crew reached the land in their boats being returned home at last captain pollard once more sailed for the pacific in command of another ship but the gods shipwrecked him again upon unknown rocks and breakers for the second time his ship was utterly lost and forthwith forswearing the sea he has never tempted it since at this day captain pollard is a resident of nantucket i have seen owen chace who was chief mate of the essex at the time of the tragedy i have read his plain and faithful narrative i have conversed with his son and all this within a few miles of the scene of the catastrophe  the following are extracts from chaces narrative every fact seemed to warrant me in concluding that it was anything but chance which directed his operations he made two several attacks upon the ship at a short interval between them both of which according to their direction were calculated to do us the most injury by being made ahead and thereby combining the speed of the two objects for the shock to effect which the exact manoeuvres which he made were necessary his aspect was most horrible and such as indicated resentment and fury he came directly from the shoal which we had just before entered and in which we had struck three of his companions as if fired with revenge for their sufferings again at all events the whole circumstances taken together all happening before my own eyes and producing at the time impressions in my mind of decided calculating mischief on the part of the whale many of which impressions i cannot now recall induce me to be satisfied that i am correct in my opinion here are his reflections some time after quitting the ship during a black night in an open boat when almost despairing of reaching any hospitable shore the dark ocean and swelling waters were nothing the fears of being swallowed up by some dreadful tempest or dashed upon hidden rocks with all the other ordinary subjects of fearful contemplation seemed scarcely entitled to a moments thought the dismal looking wreck and the horrid aspect and revenge of the whale wholly engrossed my reflections until day again made its appearance he speaks of the mysterious and mortal attack of the animal secondly the ship union also of nantucket was in the year  totally lost off the azores by a similar onset but the authentic particulars of this catastrophe i have never chanced to encounter though from the whale hunters i have now and then heard casual allusions to it thirdly some eighteen or twenty years ago commodore j then commanding an american sloopofwar of the first class happened to be dining with a party of whaling captains on board a nantucket ship in the harbor of oahu sandwich islands
heated and irritated as he was by his spasmodic toil at the pumps for all his first nameless feeling of forbearance the sweating steelkilt could but ill brook this bearing in the mate but somehow still smothering the conflagration within him without speaking he remained doggedly rooted to his seat till at last the incensed radney shook the hammer within a few inches of his face furiously commanding him to do his bidding steelkilt rose and slowly retreating round the windlass steadily followed by the mate with his menacing hammer deliberately repeated his intention not to obey seeing however that his forbearance had not the slightest effect by an awful and unspeakable intimation with his twisted hand he warned off the foolish and infatuated man but it was to no purpose and in this way the two went once slowly round the windlass when resolved at last no longer to retreat bethinking him that he had now forborne as much as comported with his humor the lakeman paused on the hatches and thus spoke to the officer   mr but the predestinated mate coming still closer to him where the lakeman stood fixed now shook the heavy hammer within an inch of his teeth meanwhile repeating a string of insufferable maledictions retreating not the thousandth part of an inch stabbing him in the eye with the unflinching poniard of his glance steelkilt clenching his right hand behind him and creepingly drawing it back told his persecutor that if the hammer but grazed his cheek he steelkilt would murder him but gentlemen the fool had been branded for the slaughter by the gods immediately the hammer touched the cheek the next instant the lower jaw of the mate was stove in his head he fell on the hatch spouting blood like a whale ere the cry could go aft steelkilt was shaking one of the backstays leading far aloft to where two of his comrades were standing their mastheads we have seen many whaleships in our harbours but never heard of your canallers canallers don are the boatmen belonging to our grand erie canal    nay senor hereabouts in this dull warm most lazy and hereditary land we know but little of your vigorous north your chichas very fine and ere proceeding further i will tell ye what our canallers are for such information may throw sidelight upon my story    for three hundred and sixty miles gentlemen through the entire breadth of the state of new york through numerous populous cities and most thriving villages through long dismal uninhabited swamps and affluent cultivated fields unrivalled for fertility by billiardroom and barroom through the holyofholies of great forests on roman arches over indian rivers through sun and shade by happy hearts or broken through all the wide contrasting scenery of those noble mohawk counties and especially by rows of snowwhite chapels whose spires stand almost like milestones flows one continual stream of venetianly corrupt and often lawless life theres your true ashantee gentlemen there howl your pagans where you ever find them next door to you under the longflung shadow and the snug patronising lee of churches for by some curious fatality as it is often noted of your metropolitan freebooters that they ever encamp around the halls of justice so sinners gentlemen most abound in holiest vicinities  said don pedro looking downwards into the crowded plazza with humorous concern well for our northern friend dame isabella s inquisition wanes in lima laughed don sebastian in the name of all us limeese i but desire to express to you sir sailor that we have by no means overlooked your delicacy in not substituting present lima for distant venice in your corrupt comparison do not bow and look surprised you know the proverb all along this coast corrupt as lima
darcy who was leaning against the mantelpiece with his eyes fixed on her face seemed to catch her words with no less resentment than surprise his complexion became pale with anger and the disturbance of his mind was visible in every feature he was struggling for the appearance of composure and would not open his lips till he believed himself to have attained it at length with a voice of forced calmness he said and this is all the reply which i am to have the honour of expecting i might perhaps wish to be informed why with so little endeavour at civility i am thus rejected i might as well inquire replied she why with so evident a desire of offending and insulting me you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will against your reason and even against your character was not this some excuse for incivility if i was uncivil had not my feelings decided against youhad they been indifferent or had they even been favourable do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man who has been the means of ruining perhaps for ever the happiness of a most beloved sister darcy changed colour but the emotion was short and he listened without attempting to interrupt her while she continued i have every reason in the world to think ill of you no motive can excuse the unjust and ungenerous part you acted there you dare not you cannot deny that you have been the principal if not the only means of dividing them from each otherof exposing one to the censure of the world for caprice and instability and the other to its derision for disappointed hopes and involving them both in misery of the acutest kind she paused and saw with no slight indignation that he was listening with an air which proved him wholly unmoved by any feeling of remorse he even looked at her with a smile of affected incredulity with assumed tranquillity he then replied i have no wish of denying that i did everything in my power to separate my friend from your sister or that i rejoice in my success elizabeth disdained the appearance of noticing this civil reflection but its meaning did not escape nor was it likely to conciliate her but it is not merely this affair she continued on which my dislike is founded long before it had taken place my opinion of you was decided your character was unfolded in the recital which i received many months ago from mr in what imaginary act of friendship can you here defend yourself or under what misrepresentation can you here impose upon others
had he been in his right senses he could not have thought of such a thing as begging you to give away half your fortune from your own child he did not stipulate for any particular sum my dear fanny he only requested me in general terms to assist them and make their situation more comfortable than it was in his power to do perhaps it would have been as well if he had left it wholly to myself but as he required the promise i could not do less than give it at least i thought so at the time the promise therefore was given and must be performed something must be done for them whenever they leave norland and settle in a new home well then let something be done for them but that something need not be three thousand pounds consider she added that when the money is once parted with it never can return your sisters will marry and it will be gone for ever if indeed it could be restored to our poor little boy why to be sure said her husband very gravely that would make great difference the time may come when harry will regret that so large a sum was parted with if he should have a numerous family for instance it would be a very convenient addition perhaps then it would be better for all parties if the sum were diminished one half five hundred pounds would be a prodigious increase to their fortunes what brother on earth would do half so much for his sisters even if really his sisters one had rather on such occasions do too much than too little no one at least can think i have not done enough for them even themselves they can hardly expect more there is no knowing what they may expect said the lady but we are not to think of their expectations the question is what you can afford to do certainlyand i think i may afford to give them five hundred pounds apiece as it is without any addition of mine they will each have about three thousand pounds on their mothers deatha very comfortable fortune for any young woman
 she would not be so weak as to throw away the comfort of a child and yet retain the anxiety of a parent elinor said john your reasoning is very good but it is founded on ignorance of human nature when edwards unhappy match takes place depend upon it his mother will feel as much as if she had never discarded him and therefore every circumstance that may accelerate that dreadful event must be concealed from her as much as possible you surprise me i should think it must nearly have escaped her memory by this time ferrars is one of the most affectionate mothers in the world dashwood after a short pause of roberts marrying miss morton elinor smiling at the grave and decisive importance of her brothers tone calmly replied the lady i suppose has no choice in the affair i only mean that i suppose from your manner of speaking it must be the same to miss morton whether she marry edward or robert certainly there can be no difference for robert will now to all intents and purposes be considered as the eldest sonand as to any thing else they are both very agreeable young men i do not know that one is superior to the other elinor said no more and john was also for a short time silent of one thing my dear sister kindly taking her hand and speaking in an awful whisperi may assure youand i will do it because i know it must gratify you i have good reason to thinkindeed i have it from the best authority or i should not repeat it for otherwise it would be very wrong to say any thing about itbut i have it from the very best authoritynot that i ever precisely heard mrs ferrars say it herselfbut her daughter did and i have it from herthat in short whatever objections there might be against a certaina certain connectionyou understand meit would have been far preferable to her it would not have given her half the vexation that this does ferrars considered it in that lighta very gratifying circumstance you know to us all it would have been beyond comparison she said the least evil of the two and she would be glad to compound now for nothing worse but however all that is quite out of the questionnot to be thought of or mentionedas to any attachment you knowit never could beall that is gone by but i thought i would just tell you of this because i knew how much it must please you not that you have any reason to regret my dear elinor there is no doubt of your doing exceedingly wellquite as well or better perhaps all things considered  elinor had heard enough if not to gratify her vanity and raise her selfimportance to agitate her nerves and fill her mindand she was therefore glad to be spared from the necessity of saying much in reply herself and from the danger of hearing any thing more from her brother by the entrance of mr
there is a leviathanic museum they tell me in hull england one of the whaling ports of that country where they have some fine specimens of finbacks and other whales likewise i have heard that in the museum of manchester in new hampshire they have what the proprietors call the only perfect specimen of a greenland or river whale in the united states moreover at a place in yorkshire england burton constable by name a certain sir clifford constable has in his possession the skeleton of a sperm whale but of moderate size by no means of the fullgrown magnitude of my friend king tranquos in both cases the stranded whales to which these two skeletons belonged were originally claimed by their proprietors upon similar grounds king tranquo seizing his because he wanted it and sir clifford because he was lord of the seignories of those parts sir cliffords whale has been articulated throughout so that like a great chest of drawers you can open and shut him in all his bony cavitiesspread out his ribs like a gigantic fanand swing all day upon his lower jaw locks are to be put upon some of his trapdoors and shutters and a footman will show round future visitors with a bunch of keys at his side sir clifford thinks of charging twopence for a peep at the whispering gallery in the spinal column threepence to hear the echo in the hollow of his cerebellum and sixpence for the unrivalled view from his forehead the skeleton dimensions i shall now proceed to set down are copied verbatim from my right arm where i had them tattooed as in my wild wanderings at that period there was no other secure way of preserving such valuable statistics but as i was crowded for space and wished the other parts of my body to remain a blank page for a poem i was then composingat least what untattooed parts might remaini did not trouble myself with the odd inches nor indeed should inches at all enter into a congenial admeasurement of the whale in the first place i wish to lay before you a particular plain statement touching the living bulk of this leviathan whose skeleton we are briefly to exhibit according to a careful calculation i have made and which i partly base upon captain scoresbys estimate of seventy tons for the largest sized greenland whale of sixty feet in length according to my careful calculation i say a sperm whale of the largest magnitude between eightyfive and ninety feet in length and something less than forty feet in its fullest circumference such a whale will weigh at least ninety tons so that reckoning thirteen men to a ton he would considerably outweigh the combined population of a whole village of one thousand one hundred inhabitants think you not then that brains like yoked cattle should be put to this leviathan to make him at all budge to any landsmans imagination having already in various ways put before you his skull spouthole jaw teeth tail forehead fins and divers other parts i shall now simply point out what is most interesting in the general bulk of his unobstructed bones but as the colossal skull embraces so very large a proportion of the entire extent of the skeleton as it is by far the most complicated part and as nothing is to be repeated concerning it in this chapter you must not fail to carry it in your mind or under your arm as we proceed otherwise you will not gain a complete notion of the general structure we are about to view in length the sperm whales skeleton at tranque measured seventytwo feet so that when fully invested and extended in life he must have been ninety feet long for in the whale the skeleton loses about one fifth in length compared with the living body of this seventytwo feet his skull and jaw comprised some twenty feet leaving some fifty feet of plain backbone attached to this backbone for something less than a third of its length was the mighty circular basket of ribs which once enclosed his vitals to me this vast ivoryribbed chest with the long unrelieved spine extending far away from it in a straight line not a little resembled the hull of a great ship newlaid upon the stocks when only some twenty of her naked bowribs are inserted and the keel is otherwise for the time but a long disconnected timber the first to begin from the neck was nearly six feet long the second third and fourth were each successively longer till you came to the climax of the fifth or one of the middle ribs which measured eight feet and some inches
so close behind some promontory lie      the huge leviathan to attend their prey      and give no chance but swallow in the fry      which through their gaping jaws mistake the way while the whale is floating at the stern of the ship they cut off his head and tow it with a boat as near the shore as it will come but it will be aground in twelve or thirteen feet water in their way they saw many whales sporting in the ocean and in wantonness fuzzing up the water through their pipes and vents which nature has placed on their shoulders here they saw such huge troops of whales that they were forced to proceed with a great deal of caution for fear they should run their ship upon them some say the whale cant open his mouth but that is a fable they frequently climb up the masts to see whether they can see a whale for the first discoverer has a ducat for his pains i was told of a whale taken near shetland that had above a barrel of herrings in his belly one of our harpooneers told me that he caught once a whale in spitzbergen that was white all over several whales have come in upon this coast fife anno  one eighty feet in length of the whalebone kind came in which as i was informed besides a vast quantity of oil did afford  weight of baleen the jaws of it stand for a gate in the garden of pitferren myself have agreed to try whether i can master and kill this spermaceti whale for i could never hear of any of that sort that was killed by any man such is his fierceness and swiftness we saw also abundance of large whales there being more in those southern seas as i may say by a hundred to one than we have to the northward of us and the breath of the whale is frequently attended with such an insupportable smell as to bring on a disorder of the brain to fifty chosen sylphs of special note      we trust the important charge the petticoat oft have we known that sevenfold fence to fail      tho stuffed with hoops and armed with ribs of whale if we compare land animals in respect to magnitude with those that take up their abode in the deep we shall find they will appear contemptible in the comparison the whale is doubtless the largest animal in creation if you should write a fable for little fishes you would make them speak like great wales in the afternoon we saw what was supposed to be a rock but it was found to be a dead whale which some asiatics had killed and were then towing ashore they seemed to endeavor to conceal themselves behind the whale in order to avoid being seen by us
when convinced on that article miss bennet had nothing further to wish now i am quite happy said she for you will be as happy as myself were it for nothing but his love of you i must always have esteemed him but now as bingleys friend and your husband there can be only bingley and yourself more dear to me but lizzy you have been very sly very reserved with me how little did you tell me of what passed at pemberley and lambton she had been unwilling to mention bingley and the unsettled state of her own feelings had made her equally avoid the name of his friend but now she would no longer conceal from her his share in lydias marriage all was acknowledged and half the night spent in conversation bennet as she stood at a window the next morning if that disagreeable mr darcy is not coming here again with our dear bingley what can he mean by being so tiresome as to be always coming here i had no notion but he would go ashooting or something or other and not disturb us with his company lizzy you must walk out with him again that he may not be in bingleys way elizabeth could hardly help laughing at so convenient a proposal yet was really vexed that her mother should be always giving him such an epithet as soon as they entered bingley looked at her so expressively and shook hands with such warmth as left no doubt of his good information and he soon afterwards said aloud mrs bennet have you no more lanes hereabouts in which lizzy may lose her way again today bingley but i am sure it will be too much for kitty darcy professed a great curiosity to see the view from the mount and elizabeth silently consented bennet followed her saying i am quite sorry lizzy that you should be forced to have that disagreeable man all to yourself but i hope you will not mind it it is all for janes sake you know and there is no occasion for talking to him except just now and then
it was then about twelve oclock and she returned to her sisters apartment to wait for the arrival of the apothecary and to watch by her the rest of the night hour after hour passed away in sleepless pain and delirium on mariannes side and in the most cruel anxiety on elinors before mr her apprehensions once raised paid by their excess for all her former security and the servant who sat up with her for she would not allow mrs jennings to be called only tortured her more by hints of what her mistress had always thought mariannes ideas were still at intervals fixed incoherently on her mother and whenever she mentioned her name it gave a pang to the heart of poor elinor who reproaching herself for having trifled with so many days of illness and wretched for some immediate relief fancied that all relief might soon be in vain that every thing had been delayed too long and pictured to herself her suffering mother arriving too late to see this darling child or to see her rational harris or if he could not come for some other advice when the formerbut not till after five oclockarrived his opinion however made some little amends for his delay for though acknowledging a very unexpected and unpleasant alteration in his patient he would not allow the danger to be material and talked of the relief which a fresh mode of treatment must procure with a confidence which in a lesser degree was communicated to elinor he promised to call again in the course of three or four hours and left both the patient and her anxious attendant more composed than he had found them with strong concern and with many reproaches for not being called to their aid did mrs her former apprehensions now with greater reason restored left her no doubt of the event and though trying to speak comfort to elinor her conviction of her sisters danger would not allow her to offer the comfort of hope the rapid decay the early death of a girl so young so lovely as marianne must have struck a less interested person with concern she had been for three months her companion was still under her care and she was known to have been greatly injured and long unhappy the distress of her sister too particularly a favourite was before herand as for their mother when mrs jennings considered that marianne might probably be to her what charlotte was to herself her sympathy in her sufferings was very sincere harris was punctual in his second visitbut he came to be disappointed in his hopes of what the last would produce his medicines had failedthe fever was unabated and marianne only more quietnot more herselfremained in a heavy stupor elinor catching all and more than all his fears in a moment proposed to call in further advice but he judged it unnecessary he had still something more to try some more fresh application of whose success he was as confident as the last and his visit concluded with encouraging assurances which reached the ear but could not enter the heart of miss dashwood she was calm except when she thought of her mother but she was almost hopeless and in this state she continued till noon scarcely stirring from her sisters bed her thoughts wandering from one image of grief one suffering friend to another and her spirits oppressed to the utmost by the conversation of mrs jennings who scrupled not to attribute the severity and danger of this attack to the many weeks of previous indisposition which mariannes disappointment had brought on
elinor saw and pitied her for the neglect of abilities which education might have rendered so respectable but she saw with less tenderness of feeling the thorough want of delicacy of rectitude and integrity of mind which her attentions her assiduities her flatteries at the park betrayed and she could have no lasting satisfaction in the company of a person who joined insincerity with ignorance whose want of instruction prevented their meeting in conversation on terms of equality and whose conduct toward others made every shew of attention and deference towards herself perfectly valueless you will think my question an odd one i dare say said lucy to her one day as they were walking together from the park to the cottagebut pray are you personally acquainted with your sisterinlaws mother mrs  elinor did think the question a very odd one and her countenance expressed it as she answered that she had never seen mrs replied lucy i wonder at that for i thought you must have seen her at norland sometimes then perhaps you cannot tell me what sort of a woman she is no returned elinor cautious of giving her real opinion of edwards mother and not very desirous of satisfying what seemed impertinent curiosity i know nothing of her i am sure you think me very strange for enquiring about her in such a way said lucy eyeing elinor attentively as she spoke but perhaps there may be reasonsi wish i might venture but however i hope you will do me the justice of believing that i do not mean to be impertinent elinor made her a civil reply and they walked on for a few minutes in silence it was broken by lucy who renewed the subject again by saying with some hesitation i cannot bear to have you think me impertinently curious i am sure i would rather do any thing in the world than be thought so by a person whose good opinion is so well worth having as yours and i am sure i should not have the smallest fear of trusting you indeed i should be very glad of your advice how to manage in such an uncomfortable situation as i am but however there is no occasion to trouble you i am sorry i do not said elinor in great astonishment if it could be of any use to you to know my opinion of her but really i never understood that you were at all connected with that family and therefore i am a little surprised i confess at so serious an inquiry into her character i dare say you are and i am sure i do not at all wonder at it but if i dared tell you all you would not be so much surprised ferrars is certainly nothing to me at presentbut the time may comehow soon it will come must depend upon herselfwhen we may be very intimately connected she looked down as she said this amiably bashful with only one side glance at her companion to observe its effect on her and she did not feel much delighted with the idea of such a sisterinlaw robert ferrarsi never saw him in my life but fixing her eyes upon elinor to his eldest brother astonishment that would have been as painful as it was strong had not an immediate disbelief of the assertion attended it
from the ship the smoke of the torments of the boiling whale is going up like the smoke over a village of smithies and to windward a black cloud rising up with earnest of squalls and rains seems to quicken the activity of the excited seamen of whales in paint in teeth in wood in sheetiron in stone in mountains in stars on towerhill as you go down to the london docks you may have seen a crippled beggar or kedger as the sailors say holding a painted board before him representing the tragic scene in which he lost his leg there are three whales and three boats and one of the boats presumed to contain the missing leg in all its original integrity is being crunched by the jaws of the foremost whale any time these ten years they tell me has that man held up that picture and exhibited that stump to an incredulous world his three whales are as good whales as were ever published in wapping at any rate and his stump as unquestionable a stump as any you will find in the western clearings but though for ever mounted on that stump never a stumpspeech does the poor whaleman make but with downcast eyes stands ruefully contemplating his own amputation throughout the pacific and also in nantucket and new bedford and sag harbor you will come across lively sketches of whales and whalingscenes graven by the fishermen themselves on sperm whaleteeth or ladies busks wrought out of the right whalebone and other like skrimshander articles as the whalemen call the numerous little ingenious contrivances they elaborately carve out of the rough material in their hours of ocean leisure some of them have little boxes of dentisticallooking implements specially intended for the skrimshandering business but in general they toil with their jackknives alone and with that almost omnipotent tool of the sailor they will turn you out anything you please in the way of a mariners fancy long exile from christendom and civilization inevitably restores a man to that condition in which god placed him i your true whalehunter is as much a savage as an iroquois i myself am a savage owning no allegiance but to the king of the cannibals and ready at any moment to rebel against him now one of the peculiar characteristics of the savage in his domestic hours is his wonderful patience of industry an ancient hawaiian warclub or spearpaddle in its full multiplicity and elaboration of carving is as great a trophy of human perseverance as a latin lexicon for with but a bit of broken seashell or a sharks tooth that miraculous intricacy of wooden network has been achieved and it has cost steady years of steady application as with the hawaiian savage so with the white sailorsavage with the same marvellous patience and with the same single sharks tooth of his one poor jackknife he will carve you a bit of bone sculpture not quite as workmanlike but as close packed in its maziness of design as the greek savage achilless shield and full of barbaric spirit and suggestiveness as the prints of that fine old dutch savage albert durer wooden whales or whales cut in profile out of the small dark slabs of the noble south sea warwood are frequently met with in the forecastles of american whalers at some old gableroofed country houses you will see brass whales hung by the tail for knockers to the roadside door
almost forgetting for the moment all thoughts of moby dick we now gazed at the most wondrous phenomenon which the secret seas have hitherto revealed to mankind a vast pulpy mass furlongs in length and breadth of a glancing creamcolour lay floating on the water innumerable long arms radiating from its centre and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas as if blindly to clutch at any hapless object within reach no perceptible face or front did it have no conceivable token of either sensation or instinct but undulated there on the billows an unearthly formless chancelike apparition of life as with a low sucking sound it slowly disappeared again starbuck still gazing at the agitated waters where it had sunk with a wild voice exclaimedalmost rather had i seen moby dick and fought him than to have seen thee thou white ghost the great live squid which they say few whaleships ever beheld and returned to their ports to tell of it but ahab said nothing turning his boat he sailed back to the vessel the rest as silently following whatever superstitions the sperm whalemen in general have connected with the sight of this object certain it is that a glimpse of it being so very unusual that circumstance has gone far to invest it with portentousness so rarely is it beheld that though one and all of them declare it to be the largest animated thing in the ocean yet very few of them have any but the most vague ideas concerning its true nature and form notwithstanding they believe it to furnish to the sperm whale his only food for though other species of whales find their food above water and may be seen by man in the act of feeding the spermaceti whale obtains his whole food in unknown zones below the surface and only by inference is it that any one can tell of what precisely that food consists at times when closely pursued he will disgorge what are supposed to be the detached arms of the squid some of them thus exhibited exceeding twenty and thirty feet in length they fancy that the monster to which these arms belonged ordinarily clings by them to the bed of the ocean and that the sperm whale unlike other species is supplied with teeth in order to attack and tear it there seems some ground to imagine that the great kraken of bishop pontoppodan may ultimately resolve itself into squid the manner in which the bishop describes it as alternately rising and sinking with some other particulars he narrates in all this the two correspond but much abatement is necessary with respect to the incredible bulk he assigns it by some naturalists who have vaguely heard rumors of the mysterious creature here spoken of it is included among the class of cuttlefish to which indeed in certain external respects it would seem to belong but only as the anak of the tribe with reference to the whaling scene shortly to be described as well as for the better understanding of all similar scenes elsewhere presented i have here to speak of the magical sometimes horrible whaleline the line originally used in the fishery was of the best hemp slightly vapoured with tar not impregnated with it as in the case of ordinary ropes for while tar as ordinarily used makes the hemp more pliable to the ropemaker and also renders the rope itself more convenient to the sailor for common ship use yet not only would the ordinary quantity too much stiffen the whaleline for the close coiling to which it must be subjected but as most seamen are beginning to learn tar in general by no means adds to the ropes durability or strength however much it may give it compactness and gloss of late years the manilla rope has in the american fishery almost entirely superseded hemp as a material for whalelines for though not so durable as hemp it is stronger and far more soft and elastic and i will add since there is an aesthetics in all things is much more handsome and becoming to the boat than hemp hemp is a dusky dark fellow a sort of indian but manilla is as a goldenhaired circassian to behold the whaleline is only twothirds of an inch in thickness
this only need be saidthat when they all sat down to table at four oclock about three hours after his arrival he had secured his lady engaged her mothers consent and was not only in the rapturous profession of the lover but in the reality of reason and truth one of the happiest of men he had more than the ordinary triumph of accepted love to swell his heart and raise his spirits he was released without any reproach to himself from an entanglement which had long formed his misery from a woman whom he had long ceased to loveand elevated at once to that security with another which he must have thought of almost with despair as soon as he had learnt to consider it with desire he was brought not from doubt or suspense but from misery to happinessand the change was openly spoken in such a genuine flowing grateful cheerfulness as his friends had never witnessed in him before his heart was now open to elinor all its weaknesses all its errors confessed and his first boyish attachment to lucy treated with all the philosophic dignity of twentyfour it was a foolish idle inclination on my side said he the consequence of ignorance of the worldand want of employment had my mother given me some active profession when i was removed at eighteen from the care of mr pratt i thinknay i am sure it would never have happened for though i left longstaple with what i thought at the time a most unconquerable preference for his niece yet had i then had any pursuit any object to engage my time and keep me at a distance from her for a few months i should very soon have outgrown the fancied attachment especially by mixing more with the world as in such case i must have done but instead of having any thing to do instead of having any profession chosen for me or being allowed to chuse any myself i returned home to be completely idle and for the first twelvemonth afterwards i had not even the nominal employment which belonging to the university would have given me for i was not entered at oxford till i was nineteen i had therefore nothing in the world to do but to fancy myself in love and as my mother did not make my home in every respect comfortable as i had no friend no companion in my brother and disliked new acquaintance it was not unnatural for me to be very often at longstaple where i always felt myself at home and was always sure of a welcome and accordingly i spent the greatest part of my time there from eighteen to nineteen lucy appeared everything that was amiable and obliging she was pretty tooat least i thought so then and i had seen so little of other women that i could make no comparisons and see no defects considering everything therefore i hope foolish as our engagement was foolish as it has since in every way been proved it was not at the time an unnatural or an inexcusable piece of folly the change which a few hours had wrought in the minds and the happiness of the dashwoods was suchso greatas promised them all the satisfaction of a sleepless night dashwood too happy to be comfortable knew not how to love edward nor praise elinor enough how to be enough thankful for his release without wounding his delicacy nor how at once to give them leisure for unrestrained conversation together and yet enjoy as she wished the sight and society of both comparisons would occurregrets would ariseand her joy though sincere as her love for her sister was of a kind to give her neither spirits nor language from the moment of learning that lucy was married to another that edward was free to the moment of his justifying the hopes which had so instantly followed she was every thing by turns but tranquil but when the second moment had passed when she found every doubt every solicitude removed compared her situation with what so lately it had beensaw him honourably released from his former engagement saw him instantly profiting by the release to address herself and declare an affection as tender as constant as she had ever supposed it to beshe was oppressed she was overcome by her own felicityand happily disposed as is the human mind to be easily familiarized with any change for the better it required several hours to give sedateness to her spirits or any degree of tranquillity to her heart edward was now fixed at the cottage at least for a weekfor whatever other claims might be made on him it was impossible that less than a week should be given up to the enjoyment of elinors company or suffice to say half that was to be said of the past the present and the futurefor though a very few hours spent in the hard labor of incessant talking will despatch more subjects than can really be in common between any two rational creatures yet with lovers it is different between them no subject is finished no communication is even made till it has been made at least twenty times over lucys marriage the unceasing and reasonable wonder among them all formed of course one of the earliest discussions of the loversand elinors particular knowledge of each party made it appear to her in every view as one of the most extraordinary and unaccountable circumstances she had ever heard
huge hills and mountains of casks on casks were piled upon her wharves and side by side the worldwandering whale ships lay silent and safely moored at last while from others came a sound of carpenters and coopers with blended noises of fires and forges to melt the pitch all betokening that new cruises were on the start that one most perilous and long voyage ended only begins a second and a second ended only begins a third and so on for ever and for aye such is the endlessness yea the intolerableness of all earthly effort gaining the more open water the bracing breeze waxed fresh the little moss tossed the quick foam from her bows as a young colt his snortings that common highway all over dented with the marks of slavish heels and hoofs and turned me to admire the magnanimity of the sea which will permit no records at the same foamfountain queequeg seemed to drink and reel with me his dusky nostrils swelled apart he showed his filed and pointed teeth on on we flew and our offing gained the moss did homage to the blast ducked and dived her bows as a slave before the sultan sideways leaning we sideways darted every ropeyarn tingling like a wire the two tall masts buckling like indian canes in land tornadoes so full of this reeling scene were we as we stood by the plunging bowsprit that for some time we did not notice the jeering glances of the passengers a lubberlike assembly who marvelled that two fellow beings should be so companionable as though a white man were anything more dignified than a whitewashed negro but there were some boobies and bumpkins there who by their intense greenness must have come from the heart and centre of all verdure queequeg caught one of these young saplings mimicking him behind his back dropping his harpoon the brawny savage caught him in his arms and by an almost miraculous dexterity and strength sent him high up bodily into the air then slightly tapping his stern in midsomerset the fellow landed with bursting lungs upon his feet while queequeg turning his back upon him lighted his tomahawk pipe and passed it to me for a puff yelled the bumpkin running towards that officer capting capting heres the devil hallo you sir cried the captain a gaunt rib of the sea stalking up to queequeg what in thunder do you mean by that he say said i that you came near kille that man there pointing to the still shivering greenhorn kille cried queequeg twisting his tattooed face into an unearthly expression of disdain ah him bevy smalle fishe queequeg no kille so smalle fishe queequeg kille big whale look you roared the captain ill kille you you cannibal if you try any more of your tricks aboard here so mind your eye but it so happened just then that it was high time for the captain to mind his own eye the prodigious strain upon the mainsail had parted the weathersheet and the tremendous boom was now flying from side to side completely sweeping the entire after part of the deck
squaring her yards she bore down ranged abeam under the pequods lee and lowered a boat it soon drew nigh but as the sideladder was being rigged by starbucks order to accommodate the visiting captain the stranger in question waved his hand from his boats stern in token of that proceeding being entirely unnecessary it turned out that the jeroboam had a malignant epidemic on board and that mayhew her captain was fearful of infecting the pequods company for though himself and boats crew remained untainted and though his ship was half a rifleshot off and an incorruptible sea and air rolling and flowing between yet conscientiously adhering to the timid quarantine of the land he peremptorily refused to come into direct contact with the pequod but this did by no means prevent all communications preserving an interval of some few yards between itself and the ship the jeroboams boat by the occasional use of its oars contrived to keep parallel to the pequod as she heavily forged through the sea for by this time it blew very fresh with her maintopsail aback though indeed at times by the sudden onset of a large rolling wave the boat would be pushed some way ahead but would be soon skilfully brought to her proper bearings again subject to this and other the like interruptions now and then a conversation was sustained between the two parties but at intervals not without still another interruption of a very different sort pulling an oar in the jeroboams boat was a man of a singular appearance even in that wild whaling life where individual notabilities make up all totalities he was a small short youngish man sprinkled all over his face with freckles and wearing redundant yellow hair a longskirted cabalisticallycut coat of a faded walnut tinge enveloped him the overlapping sleeves of which were rolled up on his wrists so soon as this figure had been first descried stubb had exclaimedthats he the longtogged scaramouch the townhos company told us of  stubb here alluded to a strange story told of the jeroboam and a certain man among her crew some time previous when the pequod spoke the townho according to this account and what was subsequently learned it seemed that the scaramouch in question had gained a wonderful ascendency over almost everybody in the jeroboam his story was this he had been originally nurtured among the crazy society of neskyeuna shakers where he had been a great prophet in their cracked secret meetings having several times descended from heaven by the way of a trapdoor announcing the speedy opening of the seventh vial which he carried in his vestpocket but which instead of containing gunpowder was supposed to be charged with laudanum a strange apostolic whim having seized him he had left neskyeuna for nantucket where with that cunning peculiar to craziness he assumed a steady commonsense exterior and offered himself as a greenhand candidate for the jeroboams whaling voyage they engaged him but straightway upon the ships getting out of sight of land his insanity broke out in a freshet he announced himself as the archangel gabriel and commanded the captain to jump overboard he published his manifesto whereby he set himself forth as the deliverer of the isles of the sea and vicargeneral of all oceanica the unflinching earnestness with which he declared these thingsthe dark daring play of his sleepless excited imagination and all the preternatural terrors of real delirium united to invest this gabriel in the minds of the majority of the ignorant crew with an atmosphere of sacredness as such a man however was not of much practical use in the ship especially as he refused to work except when he pleased the incredulous captain would fain have been rid of him but apprised that that individuals intention was to land him in the first convenient port the archangel forthwith opened all his seals and vialsdevoting the ship and all hands to unconditional perdition in case this intention was carried out
her own situation gained in the comparison for while she could esteem edward as much as ever however they might be divided in future her mind might be always supported but every circumstance that could embitter such an evil seemed uniting to heighten the misery of marianne in a final separation from willoughbyin an immediate and irreconcilable rupture with him chapter  before the housemaid had lit their fire the next day or the sun gained any power over a cold gloomy morning in january marianne only half dressed was kneeling against one of the windowseats for the sake of all the little light she could command from it and writing as fast as a continual flow of tears would permit her in this situation elinor roused from sleep by her agitation and sobs first perceived her and after observing her for a few moments with silent anxiety said in a tone of the most considerate gentleness marianne may i ask no elinor she replied ask nothing you will soon know all the sort of desperate calmness with which this was said lasted no longer than while she spoke and was immediately followed by a return of the same excessive affliction it was some minutes before she could go on with her letter and the frequent bursts of grief which still obliged her at intervals to withhold her pen were proofs enough of her feeling how more than probable it was that she was writing for the last time to willoughby elinor paid her every quiet and unobtrusive attention in her power and she would have tried to sooth and tranquilize her still more had not marianne entreated her with all the eagerness of the most nervous irritability not to speak to her for the world in such circumstances it was better for both that they should not be long together and the restless state of mariannes mind not only prevented her from remaining in the room a moment after she was dressed but requiring at once solitude and continual change of place made her wander about the house till breakfast time avoiding the sight of every body at breakfast she neither ate nor attempted to eat any thing and elinors attention was then all employed not in urging her not in pitying her nor in appearing to regard her but in endeavouring to engage mrs jennings it lasted a considerable time and they were just setting themselves after it round the common working table when a letter was delivered to marianne which she eagerly caught from the servant and turning of a deathlike paleness instantly ran out of the room elinor who saw as plainly by this as if she had seen the direction that it must come from willoughby felt immediately such a sickness at heart as made her hardly able to hold up her head and sat in such a general tremour as made her fear it impossible to escape mrs that good lady however saw only that marianne had received a letter from willoughby which appeared to her a very good joke and which she treated accordingly by hoping with a laugh that she would find it to her liking of elinors distress she was too busily employed in measuring lengths of worsted for her rug to see any thing at all and calmly continuing her talk as soon as marianne disappeared she said upon my word i never saw a young woman so desperately in love in my life my girls were nothing to her and yet they used to be foolish enough but as for miss marianne she is quite an altered creature i hope from the bottom of my heart he wont keep her waiting much longer for it is quite grievous to see her look so ill and forlorn elinor though never less disposed to speak than at that moment obliged herself to answer such an attack as this and therefore trying to smile replied and have you really maam talked yourself into a persuasion of my sisters being engaged to mr i thought it had been only a joke but so serious a question seems to imply more and i must beg therefore that you will not deceive yourself any longer i do assure you that nothing would surprise me more than to hear of their being going to be married dont we all know that it must be a match that they were over head and ears in love with each other from the first moment they met
another reason which sagharbor he went by that name urged for his want of faith in this matter of the prophet was something obscurely in reference to his incarcerated body and the whales gastric juices but this objection likewise falls to the ground because a german exegetist supposes that jonah must have taken refuge in the floating body of a dead whaleeven as the french soldiers in the russian campaign turned their dead horses into tents and crawled into them besides it has been divined by other continental commentators that when jonah was thrown overboard from the joppa ship he straightway effected his escape to another vessel near by some vessel with a whale for a figurehead and i would add possibly called the whale as some craft are nowadays christened the shark the gull the eagle nor have there been wanting learned exegetists who have opined that the whale mentioned in the book of jonah merely meant a lifepreserveran inflated bag of windwhich the endangered prophet swam to and so was saved from a watery doom but he had still another reason for his want of faith it was this if i remember right jonah was swallowed by the whale in the mediterranean sea and after three days he was vomited up somewhere within three days journey of nineveh a city on the tigris very much more than three days journey across from the nearest point of the mediterranean coast but was there no other way for the whale to land the prophet within that short distance of nineveh he might have carried him round by the way of the cape of good hope but not to speak of the passage through the whole length of the mediterranean and another passage up the persian gulf and red sea such a supposition would involve the complete circumnavigation of all africa in three days not to speak of the tigris waters near the site of nineveh being too shallow for any whale to swim in besides this idea of jonahs weathering the cape of good hope at so early a day would wrest the honour of the discovery of that great headland from bartholomew diaz its reputed discoverer and so make modern history a liar but all these foolish arguments of old sagharbor only evinced his foolish pride of reasona thing still more reprehensible in him seeing that he had but little learning except what he had picked up from the sun and the sea i say it only shows his foolish impious pride and abominable devilish rebellion against the reverend clergy for by a portuguese catholic priest this very idea of jonahs going to nineveh via the cape of good hope was advanced as a signal magnification of the general miracle besides to this day the highly enlightened turks devoutly believe in the historical story of jonah and some three centuries ago an english traveller in old harriss voyages speaks of a turkish mosque built in honour of jonah in which mosque was a miraculous lamp that burnt without any oil to make them run easily and swiftly the axles of carriages are anointed and for much the same purpose some whalers perform an analogous operation upon their boat they grease the bottom nor is it to be doubted that as such a procedure can do no harm it may possibly be of no contemptible advantage considering that oil and water are hostile that oil is a sliding thing and that the object in view is to make the boat slide bravely queequeg believed strongly in anointing his boat and one morning not long after the german ship jungfrau disappeared took more than customary pains in that occupation crawling under its bottom where it hung over the side and rubbing in the unctuousness as though diligently seeking to insure a crop of hair from the crafts bald keel he seemed to be working in obedience to some particular presentiment towards noon whales were raised but so soon as the ship sailed down to them they turned and fled with swift precipitancy a disordered flight as of cleopatras barges from actium
edward seemed a second willoughby and acknowledging as elinor did that she had loved him most sincerely could she feel less than herself as for lucy steele she considered her so totally unamiable so absolutely incapable of attaching a sensible man that she could not be persuaded at first to believe and afterwards to pardon any former affection of edward for her she would not even admit it to have been natural and elinor left her to be convinced that it was so by that which only could convince her a better knowledge of mankind her first communication had reached no farther than to state the fact of the engagement and the length of time it had existed mariannes feelings had then broken in and put an end to all regularity of detail and for some time all that could be done was to soothe her distress lessen her alarms and combat her resentment the first question on her side which led to farther particulars was how long has this been known to you elinor when lucy first came to barton park last november she told me in confidence of her engagement at these words mariannes eyes expressed the astonishment which her lips could not utter while attending me in all my misery has this been on your heart  it was not fit that you should then know how much i was the reverse i owed it to her therefore to avoid giving any hint of the truth and i owed it to my family and friends not to create in them a solicitude about me which it could not be in my power to satisfy i have very often wished to undeceive yourself and my mother added elinor and once or twice i have attempted itbut without betraying my trust i never could have convinced you but i did not love only himand while the comfort of others was dear to me i was glad to spare them from knowing how much i felt now i can think and speak of it with little emotion i would not have you suffer on my account for i assure you i no longer suffer materially myself i am not conscious of having provoked the disappointment by any imprudence of my own i have borne it as much as possible without spreading it farther i wish him very happy and i am so sure of his always doing his duty that though now he may harbour some regret in the end he must become so lucy does not want sense and that is the foundation on which every thing good may be built and after all marianne after all that is bewitching in the idea of a single and constant attachment and all that can be said of ones happiness depending entirely on any particular person it is not meantit is not fitit is not possible that it should be so  edward will marry lucy he will marry a woman superior in person and understanding to half her sex and time and habit will teach him to forget that he ever thought another superior to her
they were off saturday night about twelve as is conjectured but were not missed till yesterday morning at eight my dear lizzy they must have passed within ten miles of us colonel forster gives us reason to expect him here soon lydia left a few lines for his wife informing her of their intention i must conclude for i cannot be long from my poor mother i am afraid you will not be able to make it out but i hardly know what i have written without allowing herself time for consideration and scarcely knowing what she felt elizabeth on finishing this letter instantly seized the other and opening it with the utmost impatience read as follows it had been written a day later than the conclusion of the first by this time my dearest sister you have received my hurried letter i wish this may be more intelligible but though not confined for time my head is so bewildered that i cannot answer for being coherent dearest lizzy i hardly know what i would write but i have bad news for you and it cannot be delayed wickham and our poor lydia would be we are now anxious to be assured it has taken place for there is but too much reason to fear they are not gone to scotland colonel forster came yesterday having left brighton the day before not many hours after the express gave them to understand that they were going to gretna green something was dropped by denny expressing his belief that w never intended to go there or to marry lydia at all which was repeated to colonel f he did trace them easily to clapham but no further for on entering that place they removed into a hackney coach and dismissed the chaise that brought them from epsom all that is known after this is that they were seen to continue the london road after making every possible inquiry on that side london colonel f came on into hertfordshire anxiously renewing them at all the turnpikes and at the inns in barnet and hatfield but without any successno such people had been seen to pass through with the kindest concern he came on to longbourn and broke his apprehensions to us in a manner most creditable to his heart my father and mother believe the worst but i cannot think so ill of him many circumstances might make it more eligible for them to be married privately in town than to pursue their first plan and even if he could form such a design against a young woman of lydias connections which is not likely can i suppose her so lost to everything
bingley his two sisters the husband of the eldest and another young man bingley was goodlooking and gentlemanlike he had a pleasant countenance and easy unaffected manners his sisters were fine women with an air of decided fashion hurst merely looked the gentleman but his friend mr darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine tall person handsome features noble mien and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance of his having ten thousand a year the gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man the ladies declared he was much handsomer than mr bingley and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity for he was discovered to be proud to be above his company and above being pleased and not all his large estate in derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding disagreeable countenance and being unworthy to be compared with his friend bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal people in the room he was lively and unreserved danced every dance was angry that the ball closed so early and talked of giving one himself at netherfield hurst and once with miss bingley declined being introduced to any other lady and spent the rest of the evening in walking about the room speaking occasionally to one of his own party he was the proudest most disagreeable man in the world and everybody hoped that he would never come there again bennet whose dislike of his general behaviour was sharpened into particular resentment by his having slighted one of her daughters elizabeth bennet had been obliged by the scarcity of gentlemen to sit down for two dances and during part of that time mr darcy had been standing near enough for her to hear a conversation between him and mr bingley who came from the dance for a few minutes to press his friend to join it i hate to see you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner you know how i detest it unless i am particularly acquainted with my partner at such an assembly as this it would be insupportable your sisters are engaged and there is not another woman in the room whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with upon my honour i never met with so many pleasant girls in my life as i have this evening and there are several of them you see uncommonly pretty you are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room said mr
darcy the latter of whom however could not be prevailed on to join in their censure of her in spite of all miss bingleys witticisms on fine eyes chapter  the day passed much as the day before had done hurst and miss bingley had spent some hours of the morning with the invalid who continued though slowly to mend and in the evening elizabeth joined their party in the drawingroom darcy was writing and miss bingley seated near him was watching the progress of his letter and repeatedly calling off his attention by messages to his sister elizabeth took up some needlework and was sufficiently amused in attending to what passed between darcy and his companion the perpetual commendations of the lady either on his handwriting or on the evenness of his lines or on the length of his letter with the perfect unconcern with which her praises were received formed a curious dialogue and was exactly in union with her opinion of each how delighted miss darcy will be to receive such a letter how many letters you must have occasion to write in the course of a year it is fortunate then that they fall to my lot instead of yours tell your sister i am delighted to hear of her improvement on the harp and pray let her know that i am quite in raptures with her beautiful little design for a table and i think it infinitely superior to miss grantleys will you give me leave to defer your raptures till i write again but do you always write such charming long letters to her mr they are generally long but whether always charming it is not for me to determine it is a rule with me that a person who can write a long letter with ease cannot write ill that will not do for a compliment to darcy caroline cried her brother because he does not write with ease cried miss bingley charles writes in the most careless way imaginable my ideas flow so rapidly that i have not time to express themby which means my letters sometimes convey no ideas at all to my correspondents nothing is more deceitful said darcy than the appearance of humility it is often only carelessness of opinion and sometimes an indirect boast and which of the two do you call my little recent piece of modesty
she instantly saw that it was not unnoticed by him that he even observed marianne as she quitted the room with such astonishment and concern as hardly left him the recollection of what civility demanded towards herself elinor answered in some distress that she was and then talked of headaches low spirits and over fatigues and of every thing to which she could decently attribute her sisters behaviour he heard her with the most earnest attention but seeming to recollect himself said no more on the subject and began directly to speak of his pleasure at seeing them in london making the usual inquiries about their journey and the friends they had left behind in this calm kind of way with very little interest on either side they continued to talk both of them out of spirits and the thoughts of both engaged elsewhere elinor wished very much to ask whether willoughby were then in town but she was afraid of giving him pain by any enquiry after his rival and at length by way of saying something she asked if he had been in london ever since she had seen him last yes he replied with some embarrassment almost ever since i have been once or twice at delaford for a few days but it has never been in my power to return to barton this and the manner in which it was said immediately brought back to her remembrance all the circumstances of his quitting that place with the uneasiness and suspicions they had caused to mrs jennings and she was fearful that her question had implied much more curiosity on the subject than she had ever felt colonel said she with her usual noisy cheerfulness i am monstrous glad to see yousorry i could not come beforebeg your pardon but i have been forced to look about me a little and settle my matters for it is a long while since i have been at home and you know one has always a world of little odd things to do after one has been away for any time and then i have had cartwright to settle with lord i have been as busy as a bee ever since dinner but pray colonel how came you to conjure out that i should be in town today oh you did well and how do they all do at their house palmer appeared quite well and i am commissioned to tell you that you will certainly see her tomorrow well colonel i have brought two young ladies with me you seethat is you see but one of them now but there is another somewhere your friend miss marianne toowhich you will not be sorry to hear i was young once but i never was very handsomeworse luck for me however i got a very good husband and i dont know what the greatest beauty can do more he replied with his accustomary mildness to all her inquiries but without satisfying her in any elinor now began to make the tea and marianne was obliged to appear again after her entrance colonel brandon became more thoughtful and silent than he had been before and mrs no other visitor appeared that evening and the ladies were unanimous in agreeing to go early to bed
to consult with colonel brandon on the best means of effecting the latter was a thought which immediately followed the resolution of its performance and as soon she had rung up the maid to take her place by her sister she hastened down to the drawingroom where she knew he was generally to be found at a much later hour than the present her fears and her difficulties were immediately before him her fears he had no courage no confidence to attempt the removal ofhe listened to them in silent despondencebut her difficulties were instantly obviated for with a readiness that seemed to speak the occasion and the service prearranged in his mind he offered himself as the messenger who should fetch mrs elinor made no resistance that was not easily overcome she thanked him with brief though fervent gratitude and while he went to hurry off his servant with a message to mr harris and an order for posthorses directly she wrote a few lines to her mother the comfort of such a friend at that moment as colonel brandonor such a companion for her motherhow gratefully was it felt a companion whose judgment would guide whose attendance must relieve and whose friendship might soothe her as far as the shock of such a summons could be lessened to her his presence his manners his assistance would lessen it he meanwhile whatever he might feel acted with all the firmness of a collected mind made every necessary arrangement with the utmost despatch and calculated with exactness the time in which she might look for his return the horses arrived even before they were expected and colonel brandon only pressing her hand with a look of solemnity and a few words spoken too low to reach her ear hurried into the carriage it was then about twelve oclock and she returned to her sisters apartment to wait for the arrival of the apothecary and to watch by her the rest of the night hour after hour passed away in sleepless pain and delirium on mariannes side and in the most cruel anxiety on elinors before mr her apprehensions once raised paid by their excess for all her former security and the servant who sat up with her for she would not allow mrs jennings to be called only tortured her more by hints of what her mistress had always thought mariannes ideas were still at intervals fixed incoherently on her mother and whenever she mentioned her name it gave a pang to the heart of poor elinor who reproaching herself for having trifled with so many days of illness and wretched for some immediate relief fancied that all relief might soon be in vain that every thing had been delayed too long and pictured to herself her suffering mother arriving too late to see this darling child or to see her rational harris or if he could not come for some other advice when the formerbut not till after five oclockarrived his opinion however made some little amends for his delay for though acknowledging a very unexpected and unpleasant alteration in his patient he would not allow the danger to be material and talked of the relief which a fresh mode of treatment must procure with a confidence which in a lesser degree was communicated to elinor he promised to call again in the course of three or four hours and left both the patient and her anxious attendant more composed than he had found them with strong concern and with many reproaches for not being called to their aid did mrs
will it not be advisable before we proceed on this subject to arrange with rather more precision the degree of importance which is to appertain to this request as well as the degree of intimacy subsisting between the parties by all means cried bingley let us hear all the particulars not forgetting their comparative height and size for that will have more weight in the argument miss bennet than you may be aware of i assure you that if darcy were not such a great tall fellow in comparison with myself i should not pay him half so much deference i declare i do not know a more awful object than darcy on particular occasions and in particular places at his own house especially and of a sunday evening when he has nothing to do darcy smiled but elizabeth thought she could perceive that he was rather offended and therefore checked her laugh miss bingley warmly resented the indignity he had received in an expostulation with her brother for talking such nonsense if you and miss bennet will defer yours till i am out of the room i shall be very thankful and then you may say whatever you like of me what you ask said elizabeth is no sacrifice on my side and mr when that business was over he applied to miss bingley and elizabeth for an indulgence of some music miss bingley moved with some alacrity to the pianoforte and after a polite request that elizabeth would lead the way which the other as politely and more earnestly negatived she seated herself hurst sang with her sister and while they were thus employed elizabeth could not help observing as she turned over some musicbooks that lay on the instrument how frequently mr she hardly knew how to suppose that she could be an object of admiration to so great a man and yet that he should look at her because he disliked her was still more strange she could only imagine however at last that she drew his notice because there was something more wrong and reprehensible according to his ideas of right than in any other person present she liked him too little to care for his approbation after playing some italian songs miss bingley varied the charm by a lively scotch air and soon afterwards mr darcy drawing near elizabeth said to her do not you feel a great inclination miss bennet to seize such an opportunity of dancing a reel he repeated the question with some surprise at her silence said she i heard you before but i could not immediately determine what to say in reply you wanted me i know to say yes that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste but i always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes and cheating a person of their premeditated contempt i have therefore made up my mind to tell you that i do not want to dance a reel at alland now despise me if you dare
so with poor queequeg who as harpooneer must not only face all the rage of the living whale butas we have elsewhere seenmount his dead back in a rolling sea and finally descend into the gloom of the hold and bitterly sweating all day in that subterraneous confinement resolutely manhandle the clumsiest casks and see to their stowage to be short among whalemen the harpooneers are the holders so called when the ship was about half disembowelled you should have stooped over the hatchway and peered down upon him there where stripped to his woollen drawers the tattooed savage was crawling about amid that dampness and slime like a green spotted lizard at the bottom of a well and a well or an icehouse it somehow proved to him poor pagan where strange to say for all the heat of his sweatings he caught a terrible chill which lapsed into a fever and at last after some days suffering laid him in his hammock close to the very sill of the door of death how he wasted and wasted away in those few longlingering days till there seemed but little left of him but his frame and tattooing but as all else in him thinned and his cheekbones grew sharper his eyes nevertheless seemed growing fuller and fuller they became of a strange softness of lustre and mildly but deeply looked out at you there from his sickness a wondrous testimony to that immortal health in him which could not die or be weakened and like circles on the water which as they grow fainter expand so his eyes seemed rounding and rounding like the rings of eternity an awe that cannot be named would steal over you as you sat by the side of this waning savage and saw as strange things in his face as any beheld who were bystanders when zoroaster died for whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man never yet was put into words or books and the drawing near of death which alike levels all alike impresses all with a last revelation which only an author from the dead could adequately tell so thatlet us say it againno dying chaldee or greek had higher and holier thoughts than those whose mysterious shades you saw creeping over the face of poor queequeg as he quietly lay in his swaying hammock and the rolling sea seemed gently rocking him to his final rest and the oceans invisible floodtide lifted him higher and higher towards his destined heaven not a man of the crew but gave him up and as for queequeg himself what he thought of his case was forcibly shown by a curious favour he asked he called one to him in the grey morning watch when the day was just breaking and taking his hand said that while in nantucket he had chanced to see certain little canoes of dark wood like the rich warwood of his native isle and upon inquiry he had learned that all whalemen who died in nantucket were laid in those same dark canoes and that the fancy of being so laid had much pleased him for it was not unlike the custom of his own race who after embalming a dead warrior stretched him out in his canoe and so left him to be floated away to the starry archipelagoes for not only do they believe that the stars are isles but that far beyond all visible horizons their own mild uncontinented seas interflow with the blue heavens and so form the white breakers of the milky way he added that he shuddered at the thought of being buried in his hammock according to the usual seacustom tossed like something vile to the deathdevouring sharks no he desired a canoe like those of nantucket all the more congenial to him being a whaleman that like a whaleboat these coffincanoes were without a keel though that involved but uncertain steering and much leeway adown the dim ages now when this strange circumstance was made known aft the carpenter was at once commanded to do queequegs bidding whatever it might include there was some heathenish coffincoloured old lumber aboard which upon a long previous voyage had been cut from the aboriginal groves of the lackaday islands and from these dark planks the coffin was recommended to be made no sooner was the carpenter apprised of the order than taking his rule he forthwith with all the indifferent promptitude of his character proceeded into the forecastle and took queequegs measure with great accuracy regularly chalking queequegs person as he shifted the rule hell have to die now ejaculated the long island sailor going to his vicebench the carpenter for convenience sake and general reference now transferringly measured on it the exact length the coffin was to be and then made the transfer permanent by cutting two notches at its extremities
while settling this point she was suddenly roused by the sound of the doorbell and her spirits were a little fluttered by the idea of its being colonel fitzwilliam himself who had once before called late in the evening and might now come to inquire particularly after her but this idea was soon banished and her spirits were very differently affected when to her utter amazement she saw mr in an hurried manner he immediately began an inquiry after her health imputing his visit to a wish of hearing that she were better he sat down for a few moments and then getting up walked about the room after a silence of several minutes he came towards her in an agitated manner and thus began in vain i have struggled you must allow me to tell you how ardently i admire and love you this he considered sufficient encouragement and the avowal of all that he felt and had long felt for her immediately followed he spoke well but there were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed and he was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride his sense of her inferiorityof its being a degradationof the family obstacles which had always opposed to inclination were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence he was wounding but was very unlikely to recommend his suit in spite of her deeplyrooted dislike she could not be insensible to the compliment of such a mans affection and though her intentions did not vary for an instant she was at first sorry for the pain he was to receive till roused to resentment by his subsequent language she lost all compassion in anger she tried however to compose herself to answer him with patience when he should have done he concluded with representing to her the strength of that attachment which in spite of all his endeavours he had found impossible to conquer and with expressing his hope that it would now be rewarded by her acceptance of his hand as he said this she could easily see that he had no doubt of a favourable answer he spoke of apprehension and anxiety but his countenance expressed real security such a circumstance could only exasperate farther and when he ceased the colour rose into her cheeks and she said in such cases as this it is i believe the established mode to express a sense of obligation for the sentiments avowed however unequally they may be returned it is natural that obligation should be felt and if i could feel gratitude i would now thank you but i cannoti have never desired your good opinion and you have certainly bestowed it most unwillingly it has been most unconsciously done however and i hope will be of short duration the feelings which you tell me have long prevented the acknowledgment of your regard can have little difficulty in overcoming it after this explanation darcy who was leaning against the mantelpiece with his eyes fixed on her face seemed to catch her words with no less resentment than surprise
it is not the object of this work to give a description of derbyshire nor of any of the remarkable places through which their route thither lay oxford blenheim warwick kenilworth birmingham etc a small part of derbyshire is all the present concern gardiners former residence and where she had lately learned some acquaintance still remained they bent their steps after having seen all the principal wonders of the country and within five miles of lambton elizabeth found from her aunt that pemberley was situated it was not in their direct road nor more than a mile or two out of it gardiner expressed an inclination to see the place again gardiner declared his willingness and elizabeth was applied to for her approbation my love should not you like to see a place of which you have heard so much said her aunt a place too with which so many of your acquaintances are connected she felt that she had no business at pemberley and was obliged to assume a disinclination for seeing it she must own that she was tired of seeing great houses after going over so many she really had no pleasure in fine carpets or satin curtains if it were merely a fine house richly furnished said she i should not care about it myself but the grounds are delightful elizabeth said no morebut her mind could not acquiesce she blushed at the very idea and thought it would be better to speak openly to her aunt than to run such a risk but against this there were objections and she finally resolved that it could be the last resource if her private inquiries to the absence of the family were unfavourably answered accordingly when she retired at night she asked the chambermaid whether pemberley were not a very fine place and with no little alarm whether the family were down for the summer a most welcome negative followed the last questionand her alarms now being removed she was at leisure to feel a great deal of curiosity to see the house herself and when the subject was revived the next morning and she was again applied to could readily answer and with a proper air of indifference that she had not really any dislike to the scheme chapter  elizabeth as they drove along watched for the first appearance of pemberley woods with some perturbation and when at length they turned in at the lodge her spirits were in a high flutter the park was very large and contained great variety of ground they entered it in one of its lowest points and drove for some time through a beautiful wood stretching over a wide extent
on the contrary every particular relative to his sister was meant to be kept as much as possible to myself and if i endeavour to undeceive people as to the rest of his conduct who will believe me darcy is so violent that it would be the death of half the good people in meryton to attempt to place him in an amiable light wickham will soon be gone and therefore it will not signify to anyone here what he really is some time hence it will be all found out and then we may laugh at their stupidity in not knowing it before to have his errors made public might ruin him for ever he is now perhaps sorry for what he has done and anxious to reestablish a character the tumult of elizabeths mind was allayed by this conversation she had got rid of two of the secrets which had weighed on her for a fortnight and was certain of a willing listener in jane whenever she might wish to talk again of either but there was still something lurking behind of which prudence forbade the disclosure darcys letter nor explain to her sister how sincerely she had been valued by her friend here was knowledge in which no one could partake and she was sensible that nothing less than a perfect understanding between the parties could justify her in throwing off this last encumbrance of mystery and then said she if that very improbable event should ever take place i shall merely be able to tell what bingley may tell in a much more agreeable manner himself the liberty of communication cannot be mine till it has lost all its value she was now on being settled at home at leisure to observe the real state of her sisters spirits she still cherished a very tender affection for bingley having never even fancied herself in love before her regard had all the warmth of first attachment and from her age and disposition greater steadiness than most first attachments often boast and so fervently did she value his remembrance and prefer him to every other man that all her good sense and all her attention to the feelings of her friends were requisite to check the indulgence of those regrets which must have been injurious to her own health and their tranquillity bennet one day what is your opinion now of this sad business of janes for my part i am determined never to speak of it again to anybody but i cannot find out that jane saw anything of him in london well he is a very undeserving young manand i do not suppose theres the least chance in the world of her ever getting him now
long says that netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of england that he came down on monday in a chaise and four to see the place and was so much delighted with it that he agreed with mr morris immediately that he is to take possession before michaelmas and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week a single man of large fortune four or five thousand a year you must know that i am thinking of his marrying one of them but it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes you and the girls may go or you may send them by themselves which perhaps will be still better for as you are as handsome as any of them mr i certainly have had my share of beauty but i do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now when a woman has five grownup daughters she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty in such cases a woman has not often much beauty to think of only think what an establishment it would be for one of them sir william and lady lucas are determined to go merely on that account for in general you know they visit no newcomers indeed you must go for it will be impossible for us to visit him if you do not bingley will be very glad to see you and i will send a few lines by you to assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying whichever he chooses of the girls though i must throw in a good word for my little lizzy lizzy is not a bit better than the others and i am sure she is not half so handsome as jane nor half so goodhumoured as lydia they have none of them much to recommend them replied he they are all silly and ignorant like other girls but lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters bennet how can you abuse your own children in such a way i have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least but i hope you will get over it and live to see many young men of four thousand a year come into the neighbourhood it will be no use to us if twenty such should come since you will not visit them depend upon it my dear that when there are twenty i will visit them all
she would not allow the presence of lucy nor the consciousness of some injustice towards herself to deter her from saying that she was happy to see him and that she had very much regretted being from home when he called before in berkeley street she would not be frightened from paying him those attentions which as a friend and almost a relation were his due by the observant eyes of lucy though she soon perceived them to be narrowly watching her her manners gave some reassurance to edward and he had courage enough to sit down but his embarrassment still exceeded that of the ladies in a proportion which the case rendered reasonable though his sex might make it rare for his heart had not the indifference of lucys nor could his conscience have quite the ease of elinors lucy with a demure and settled air seemed determined to make no contribution to the comfort of the others and would not say a word and almost every thing that was said proceeded from elinor who was obliged to volunteer all the information about her mothers health their coming to town c which edward ought to have inquired about but never did her exertions did not stop here for she soon afterwards felt herself so heroically disposed as to determine under pretence of fetching marianne to leave the others by themselves and she really did it and that in the handsomest manner for she loitered away several minutes on the landingplace with the most highminded fortitude before she went to her sister when that was once done however it was time for the raptures of edward to cease for mariannes joy hurried her into the drawingroom immediately her pleasure in seeing him was like every other of her feelings strong in itself and strongly spoken she met him with a hand that would be taken and a voice that expressed the affection of a sister edward tried to return her kindness as it deserved but before such witnesses he dared not say half what he really felt again they all sat down and for a moment or two all were silent while marianne was looking with the most speaking tenderness sometimes at edward and sometimes at elinor regretting only that their delight in each other should be checked by lucys unwelcome presence edward was the first to speak and it was to notice mariannes altered looks and express his fear of her not finding london agree with her she replied with spirited earnestness though her eyes were filled with tears as she spoke dont think of my health this remark was not calculated to make edward or elinor more easy nor to conciliate the good will of lucy who looked up at marianne with no very benignant expression said edward willing to say any thing that might introduce another subject i expected much pleasure in it but i have found none the sight of you edward is the only comfort it has afforded and thank heaven i think elinor she presently added we must employ edward to take care of us in our return to barton in a week or two i suppose we shall be going and i trust edward will not be very unwilling to accept the charge poor edward muttered something but what it was nobody knew not even himself
elinor would not argue upon the propriety of overcoming such feelingsshe only endeavoured to counteract them by working on othersrepresented it therefore as a measure which would fix the time of her returning to that dear mother whom she so much wished to see in a more eligible more comfortable manner than any other plan could do and perhaps without any greater delay from cleveland which was within a few miles of bristol the distance to barton was not beyond one day though a long days journey and their mothers servant might easily come there to attend them down and as there could be no occasion of their staying above a week at cleveland they might now be at home in little more than three weeks time as mariannes affection for her mother was sincere it must triumph with little difficulty over the imaginary evils she had started jennings was so far from being weary of her guests that she pressed them very earnestly to return with her again from cleveland elinor was grateful for the attention but it could not alter her design and their mothers concurrence being readily gained every thing relative to their return was arranged as far as it could beand marianne found some relief in drawing up a statement of the hours that were yet to divide her from barton colonel i do not know what you and i shall do without the miss dashwoods was mrs jenningss address to him when he first called on her after their leaving her was settledfor they are quite resolved upon going home from the palmersand how forlorn we shall be when i come back we shall sit and gape at one another as dull as two cats jennings was in hopes by this vigorous sketch of their future ennui to provoke him to make that offer which might give himself an escape from itand if so she had soon afterwards good reason to think her object gained for on elinors moving to the window to take more expeditiously the dimensions of a print which she was going to copy for her friend he followed her to it with a look of particular meaning and conversed with her there for several minutes the effect of his discourse on the lady too could not escape her observation for though she was too honorable to listen and had even changed her seat on purpose that she might not hear to one close by the piano forte on which marianne was playing she could not keep herself from seeing that elinor changed colour attended with agitation and was too intent on what he said to pursue her employment  still farther in confirmation of her hopes in the interval of mariannes turning from one lesson to another some words of the colonels inevitably reached her ear in which he seemed to be apologising for the badness of his house she wondered indeed at his thinking it necessary to do so but supposed it to be the proper etiquette what elinor said in reply she could not distinguish but judged from the motion of her lips that she did not think that any material objectionand mrs jennings commended her in her heart for being so honest they then talked on for a few minutes longer without her catching a syllable when another lucky stop in mariannes performance brought her these words in the colonels calm voice i am afraid it cannot take place very soon astonished and shocked at so unloverlike a speech she was almost ready to cry out lord but checking her desire confined herself to this silent ejaculation this delay on the colonels side however did not seem to offend or mortify his fair companion in the least for on their breaking up the conference soon afterwards and moving different ways mrs jennings very plainly heard elinor say and with a voice which shewed her to feel what she said i shall always think myself very much obliged to you jennings was delighted with her gratitude and only wondered that after hearing such a sentence the colonel should be able to take leave of them as he immediately did with the utmost sangfroid and go away without making her any reply
without shutting herself up from her family or leaving the house in determined solitude to avoid them or lying awake the whole night to indulge meditation elinor found every day afforded her leisure enough to think of edward and of edwards behaviour in every possible variety which the different state of her spirits at different times could producewith tenderness pity approbation censure and doubt there were moments in abundance when if not by the absence of her mother and sisters at least by the nature of their employments conversation was forbidden among them and every effect of solitude was produced her mind was inevitably at liberty her thoughts could not be chained elsewhere and the past and the future on a subject so interesting must be before her must force her attention and engross her memory her reflection and her fancy from a reverie of this kind as she sat at her drawingtable she was roused one morning soon after edwards leaving them by the arrival of company the closing of the little gate at the entrance of the green court in front of the house drew her eyes to the window and she saw a large party walking up to the door amongst them were sir john and lady middleton and mrs jennings but there were two others a gentleman and lady who were quite unknown to her she was sitting near the window and as soon as sir john perceived her he left the rest of the party to the ceremony of knocking at the door and stepping across the turf obliged her to open the casement to speak to him though the space was so short between the door and the window as to make it hardly possible to speak at one without being heard at the other as elinor was certain of seeing her in a couple of minutes without taking that liberty she begged to be excused jennings who had not patience enough to wait till the door was opened before she told her story she came hallooing to the window how do you do my dear you will be glad of a little company to sit with you i have brought my other son and daughter to see you i thought i heard a carriage last night while we were drinking our tea but it never entered my head that it could be them i thought of nothing but whether it might not be colonel brandon come back again so i said to sir john i do think i hear a carriage perhaps it is colonel brandon come back again  elinor was obliged to turn from her in the middle of her story to receive the rest of the party lady middleton introduced the two strangers mrs dashwood and margaret came down stairs at the same time and they all sat down to look at one another while mrs jennings continued her story as she walked through the passage into the parlour attended by sir john palmer was several years younger than lady middleton and totally unlike her in every respect she was short and plump had a very pretty face and the finest expression of good humour in it that could possibly be her manners were by no means so elegant as her sisters but they were much more prepossessing
elinor flattered herself that some one of their connections in london would write to them to announce the event and give farther particularsbut day after day passed off and brought no letter no tidings though uncertain that any one were to blame she found fault with every absent friend was an inquiry which sprung from the impatience of her mind to have something going on i wrote to him my love last week and rather expect to see than to hear from him again i earnestly pressed his coming to us and should not be surprised to see him walk in today or tomorrow or any day this was gaining something something to look forward to scarcely had she so determined it when the figure of a man on horseback drew her eyes to the window now she could hear more and she trembled in expectation of it butit was not colonel brandonneither his airnor his height he had just dismountedshe could not be mistakenit was edward in a moment she perceived that the others were likewise aware of the mistake she saw her mother and marianne change colour saw them look at herself and whisper a few sentences to each other she would have given the world to be able to speakand to make them understand that she hoped no coolness no slight would appear in their behaviour to himbut she had no utterance and was obliged to leave all to their own discretion they all waited in silence for the appearance of their visitor his footsteps were heard along the gravel path in a moment he was in the passage and in another he was before them his countenance as he entered the room was not too happy even for elinor his complexion was white with agitation and he looked as if fearful of his reception and conscious that he merited no kind one dashwood however conforming as she trusted to the wishes of that daughter by whom she then meant in the warmth of her heart to be guided in every thing met with a look of forced complacency gave him her hand and wished him joy he coloured and stammered out an unintelligible reply elinors lips had moved with her mothers and when the moment of action was over she wished that she had shaken hands with him too
elinor had often wished for an opportunity of attempting to weaken her mothers dependence on the attachment of edward and herself that the shock might be less when the whole truth were revealed and now on this attack though almost hopeless of success she forced herself to begin her design by saying as calmly as she could i like edward ferrars very much and shall always be glad to see him but as to the rest of the family it is a matter of perfect indifference to me whether i am ever known to them or not marianne lifted up her eyes in astonishment and elinor conjectured that she might as well have held her tongue after very little farther discourse it was finally settled that the invitation should be fully accepted jennings received the information with a great deal of joy and many assurances of kindness and care nor was it a matter of pleasure merely to her sir john was delighted for to a man whose prevailing anxiety was the dread of being alone the acquisition of two to the number of inhabitants in london was something even lady middleton took the trouble of being delighted which was putting herself rather out of her way and as for the miss steeles especially lucy they had never been so happy in their lives as this intelligence made them elinor submitted to the arrangement which counteracted her wishes with less reluctance than she had expected to feel with regard to herself it was now a matter of unconcern whether she went to town or not and when she saw her mother so thoroughly pleased with the plan and her sister exhilarated by it in look voice and manner restored to all her usual animation and elevated to more than her usual gaiety she could not be dissatisfied with the cause and would hardly allow herself to distrust the consequence mariannes joy was almost a degree beyond happiness so great was the perturbation of her spirits and her impatience to be gone her unwillingness to quit her mother was her only restorative to calmness and at the moment of parting her grief on that score was excessive her mothers affliction was hardly less and elinor was the only one of the three who seemed to consider the separation as any thing short of eternal their departure took place in the first week in january the miss steeles kept their station at the park and were to quit it only with the rest of the family chapter  elinor could not find herself in the carriage with mrs jennings and beginning a journey to london under her protection and as her guest without wondering at her own situation so short had their acquaintance with that lady been so wholly unsuited were they in age and disposition and so many had been her objections against such a measure only a few days before but these objections had all with that happy ardour of youth which marianne and her mother equally shared been overcome or overlooked and elinor in spite of every occasional doubt of willoughbys constancy could not witness the rapture of delightful expectation which filled the whole soul and beamed in the eyes of marianne without feeling how blank was her own prospect how cheerless her own state of mind in the comparison and how gladly she would engage in the solicitude of mariannes situation to have the same animating object in view the same possibility of hope a short a very short time however must now decide what willoughbys intentions were in all probability he was already in town mariannes eagerness to be gone declared her dependence on finding him there and elinor was resolved not only upon gaining every new light as to his character which her own observation or the intelligence of others could give her but likewise upon watching his behaviour to her sister with such zealous attention as to ascertain what he was and what he meant before many meetings had taken place should the result of her observations be unfavourable she was determined at all events to open the eyes of her sister should it be otherwise her exertions would be of a different natureshe must then learn to avoid every selfish comparison and banish every regret which might lessen her satisfaction in the happiness of marianne they were three days on their journey and mariannes behaviour as they travelled was a happy specimen of what future complaisance and companionableness to mrs
i did not see it to advantage for nothing could be more forlorn than the furniturebut if it were newly fitted upa couple of hundred pounds willoughby says would make it one of the pleasantest summerrooms in england could elinor have listened to her without interruption from the others she would have described every room in the house with equal delight chapter  the sudden termination of colonel brandons visit at the park with his steadiness in concealing its cause filled the mind and raised the wonder of mrs jennings for two or three days she was a great wonderer as every one must be who takes a very lively interest in all the comings and goings of all their acquaintance she wondered with little intermission what could be the reason of it was sure there must be some bad news and thought over every kind of distress that could have befallen him with a fixed determination that he should not escape them all something very melancholy must be the matter i am sure said she the estate at delaford was never reckoned more than two thousand a year and his brother left everything sadly involved i do think he must have been sent for about money matters for what else can it be perhaps it is about miss williams and by the bye i dare say it is because he looked so conscious when i mentioned her may be she is ill in town nothing in the world more likely for i have a notion she is always rather sickly it is not so very likely he should be distressed in his circumstances now for he is a very prudent man and to be sure must have cleared the estate by this time may be his sister is worse at avignon and has sent for him over well i wish him out of all his trouble with all my heart and a good wife into the bargain her opinion varying with every fresh conjecture and all seeming equally probable as they arose elinor though she felt really interested in the welfare of colonel brandon could not bestow all the wonder on his going so suddenly away which mrs jennings was desirous of her feeling for besides that the circumstance did not in her opinion justify such lasting amazement or variety of speculation her wonder was otherwise disposed of it was engrossed by the extraordinary silence of her sister and willoughby on the subject which they must know to be peculiarly interesting to them all as this silence continued every day made it appear more strange and more incompatible with the disposition of both why they should not openly acknowledge to her mother and herself what their constant behaviour to each other declared to have taken place elinor could not imagine she could easily conceive that marriage might not be immediately in their power for though willoughby was independent there was no reason to believe him rich
whatever superstitions the sperm whalemen in general have connected with the sight of this object certain it is that a glimpse of it being so very unusual that circumstance has gone far to invest it with portentousness so rarely is it beheld that though one and all of them declare it to be the largest animated thing in the ocean yet very few of them have any but the most vague ideas concerning its true nature and form notwithstanding they believe it to furnish to the sperm whale his only food for though other species of whales find their food above water and may be seen by man in the act of feeding the spermaceti whale obtains his whole food in unknown zones below the surface and only by inference is it that any one can tell of what precisely that food consists at times when closely pursued he will disgorge what are supposed to be the detached arms of the squid some of them thus exhibited exceeding twenty and thirty feet in length they fancy that the monster to which these arms belonged ordinarily clings by them to the bed of the ocean and that the sperm whale unlike other species is supplied with teeth in order to attack and tear it there seems some ground to imagine that the great kraken of bishop pontoppodan may ultimately resolve itself into squid the manner in which the bishop describes it as alternately rising and sinking with some other particulars he narrates in all this the two correspond but much abatement is necessary with respect to the incredible bulk he assigns it by some naturalists who have vaguely heard rumors of the mysterious creature here spoken of it is included among the class of cuttlefish to which indeed in certain external respects it would seem to belong but only as the anak of the tribe with reference to the whaling scene shortly to be described as well as for the better understanding of all similar scenes elsewhere presented i have here to speak of the magical sometimes horrible whaleline the line originally used in the fishery was of the best hemp slightly vapoured with tar not impregnated with it as in the case of ordinary ropes for while tar as ordinarily used makes the hemp more pliable to the ropemaker and also renders the rope itself more convenient to the sailor for common ship use yet not only would the ordinary quantity too much stiffen the whaleline for the close coiling to which it must be subjected but as most seamen are beginning to learn tar in general by no means adds to the ropes durability or strength however much it may give it compactness and gloss of late years the manilla rope has in the american fishery almost entirely superseded hemp as a material for whalelines for though not so durable as hemp it is stronger and far more soft and elastic and i will add since there is an aesthetics in all things is much more handsome and becoming to the boat than hemp hemp is a dusky dark fellow a sort of indian but manilla is as a goldenhaired circassian to behold the whaleline is only twothirds of an inch in thickness at first sight you would not think it so strong as it really is by experiment its one and fifty yarns will each suspend a weight of one hundred and twenty pounds so that the whole rope will bear a strain nearly equal to three tons in length the common sperm whaleline measures something over two hundred fathoms towards the stern of the boat it is spirally coiled away in the tub not like the wormpipe of a still though but so as to form one round cheeseshaped mass of densely bedded sheaves or layers of concentric spiralizations without any hollow but the heart or minute vertical tube formed at the axis of the cheese as the least tangle or kink in the coiling would in running out infallibly take somebodys arm leg or entire body off the utmost precaution is used in stowing the line in its tub some harpooneers will consume almost an entire morning in this business carrying the line high aloft and then reeving it downwards through a block towards the tub so as in the act of coiling to free it from all possible wrinkles and twists
heaven knows what i should have done without your friendship  elinor tried to make a civil answer though doubting her own success but it seemed to satisfy lucy for she directly replied indeed i am perfectly convinced of your regard for me and next to edwards love it is the greatest comfort i have but now there is one good thing we shall be able to meet and meet pretty often for lady middletons delighted with mrs dashwood so we shall be a good deal in harley street i dare say and edward spends half his time with his sisterbesides lady middleton and mrs ferrars and your sister were both so good to say more than once they should always be glad to see me i am sure if ever you tell your sister what i think of her you cannot speak too high but elinor would not give her any encouragement to hope that she should tell her sister if she had only made me a formal courtesy for instance without saying a word and never after had took any notice of me and never looked at me in a pleasant wayyou know what i meanif i had been treated in that forbidding sort of way i should have gave it all up in despair for where she does dislike i know it is most violent elinor was prevented from making any reply to this civil triumph by the doors being thrown open the servants announcing mr it was a very awkward moment and the countenance of each shewed that it was so they all looked exceedingly foolish and edward seemed to have as great an inclination to walk out of the room again as to advance farther into it the very circumstance in its unpleasantest form which they would each have been most anxious to avoid had fallen on them they were not only all three together but were together without the relief of any other person it was not lucys business to put herself forward and the appearance of secrecy must still be kept up she could therefore only look her tenderness and after slightly addressing him said no more but elinor had more to do and so anxious was she for his sake and her own to do it well that she forced herself after a moments recollection to welcome him with a look and manner that were almost easy and almost open and another struggle another effort still improved them she would not allow the presence of lucy nor the consciousness of some injustice towards herself to deter her from saying that she was happy to see him and that she had very much regretted being from home when he called before in berkeley street she would not be frightened from paying him those attentions which as a friend and almost a relation were his due by the observant eyes of lucy though she soon perceived them to be narrowly watching her
you take an eager interest in that gentlemans concerns said darcy in a less tranquil tone and with a heightened colour who that knows what his misfortunes have been can help feeling an interest in him repeated darcy contemptuously yes his misfortunes have been great indeed you have reduced him to his present state of povertycomparative poverty you have withheld the advantages which you must know to have been designed for him you have deprived the best years of his life of that independence which was no less his due than his desert and yet you can treat the mention of his misfortune with contempt and ridicule and this cried darcy as he walked with quick steps across the room is your opinion of me my faults according to this calculation are heavy indeed but perhaps added he stopping in his walk and turning towards her these offenses might have been overlooked had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design these bitter accusations might have been suppressed had i with greater policy concealed my struggles and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified unalloyed inclination by reason by reflection by everything could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections to congratulate myself on the hope of relations whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own elizabeth felt herself growing more angry every moment yet she tried to the utmost to speak with composure when she said you are mistaken mr darcy if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way than as it spared me the concern which i might have felt in refusing you had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner she saw him start at this but he said nothing and she continued you could not have made the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it again his astonishment was obvious and he looked at her with an expression of mingled incredulity and mortification she went on from the very beginningfrom the first moment i may almost sayof my acquaintance with you your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance your conceit and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike and i had not known you a month before i felt that you were the last man in the world whom i could ever be prevailed on to marry i perfectly comprehend your feelings and have now only to be ashamed of what my own have been forgive me for having taken up so much of your time and accept my best wishes for your health and happiness
the house too as described by sir john was on so simple a scale and the rent so uncommonly moderate as to leave her no right of objection on either point and therefore though it was not a plan which brought any charm to her fancy though it was a removal from the vicinity of norland beyond her wishes she made no attempt to dissuade her mother from sending a letter of acquiescence chapter  no sooner was her answer dispatched than mrs dashwood indulged herself in the pleasure of announcing to her soninlaw and his wife that she was provided with a house and should incommode them no longer than till every thing were ready for her inhabiting it john dashwood said nothing but her husband civilly hoped that she would not be settled far from norland she had great satisfaction in replying that she was going into devonshire edward turned hastily towards her on hearing this and in a voice of surprise and concern which required no explanation to her repeated devonshire it is but a cottage she continued but i hope to see many of my friends in it a room or two can easily be added and if my friends find no difficulty in travelling so far to see me i am sure i will find none in accommodating them john dashwood to visit her at barton and to edward she gave one with still greater affection though her late conversation with her daughterinlaw had made her resolve on remaining at norland no longer than was unavoidable it had not produced the smallest effect on her in that point to which it principally tended to separate edward and elinor was as far from being her object as ever and she wished to show mrs john dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother how totally she disregarded her disapprobation of the match john dashwood told his mother again and again how exceedingly sorry he was that she had taken a house at such a distance from norland as to prevent his being of any service to her in removing her furniture he really felt conscientiously vexed on the occasion for the very exertion to which he had limited the performance of his promise to his father was by this arrangement rendered impracticable it chiefly consisted of household linen plate china and books with a handsome pianoforte of mariannes john dashwood saw the packages depart with a sigh she could not help feeling it hard that as mrs dashwoods income would be so trifling in comparison with their own she should have any handsome article of furniture dashwood took the house for a twelvemonth it was ready furnished and she might have immediate possession no difficulty arose on either side in the agreement and she waited only for the disposal of her effects at norland and to determine her future household before she set off for the west and this as she was exceedingly rapid in the performance of everything that interested her was soon done the horses which were left her by her husband had been sold soon after his death and an opportunity now offering of disposing of her carriage she agreed to sell that likewise at the earnest advice of her eldest daughter
but it is a mild mild wind and a mild looking sky and the air smells now as if it blew from a faraway meadow they have been making hay somewhere under the slopes of the andes starbuck and the mowers are sleeping among the newmown hay aye toil we how we may we all sleep at last on the field aye and rust amid greenness as last years scythes flung down and left in the halfcut swathsstarbuck but blanched to a corpses hue with despair the mate had stolen away ahab crossed the deck to gaze over on the other side but started at two reflected fixed eyes in the water there fedallah was motionlessly leaning over the same rail that night in the midwatch when the old manas his wont at intervalsstepped forth from the scuttle in which he leaned and went to his pivothole he suddenly thrust out his face fiercely snuffing up the sea air as a sagacious ships dog will in drawing nigh to some barbarous isle soon that peculiar odor sometimes to a great distance given forth by the living sperm whale was palpable to all the watch nor was any mariner surprised when after inspecting the compass and then the dogvane and then ascertaining the precise bearing of the odor as nearly as possible ahab rapidly ordered the ships course to be slightly altered and the sail to be shortened the acute policy dictating these movements was sufficiently vindicated at daybreak by the sight of a long sleek on the sea directly and lengthwise ahead smooth as oil and resembling in the pleated watery wrinkles bordering it the polished metalliclike marks of some swift tiderip at the mouth of a deep rapid stream thundering with the butts of three clubbed handspikes on the forecastle deck daggoo roused the sleepers with such judgment claps that they seemed to exhale from the scuttle so instantaneously did they appear with their clothes in their hands all sail being set he now cast loose the lifeline reserved for swaying him to the main royalmast head and in a few moments they were hoisting him thither when while but two thirds of the way aloft and while peering ahead through the horizontal vacancy between the maintopsail and topgallantsail he raised a gulllike cry in the air fired by the cry which seemed simultaneously taken up by the three lookouts the men on deck rushed to the rigging to behold the famous whale they had so long been pursuing ahab had now gained his final perch some feet above the other lookouts tashtego standing just beneath him on the cap of the topgallantmast so that the indians head was almost on a level with ahabs heel from this height the whale was now seen some mile or so ahead at every roll of the sea revealing his high sparkling hump and regularly jetting his silent spout into the air to the credulous mariners it seemed the same silent spout they had so long ago beheld in the moonlit atlantic and indian oceans i saw him almost that same instant sir that captain ahab did and i cried out said tashtego not the same instant not the sameno the doubloon is mine fate reserved the doubloon for me i only none of ye could have raised the white whale first he cried in longdrawn lingering methodic tones attuned to the gradual prolongings of the whales visible jets he is heading straight to leeward sir cried stubb right away from us cannot have seen the ship yet
now as this law under a modified form is to this day in force in england and as it offers in various respects a strange anomaly touching the general law of fast and loosefish it is here treated of in a separate chapter on the same courteous principle that prompts the english railways to be at the expense of a separate car specially reserved for the accommodation of royalty in the first place in curious proof of the fact that the abovementioned law is still in force i proceed to lay before you a circumstance that happened within the last two years it seems that some honest mariners of dover or sandwich or some one of the cinque ports had after a hard chase succeeded in killing and beaching a fine whale which they had originally descried afar off from the shore now the cinque ports are partially or somehow under the jurisdiction of a sort of policeman or beadle called a lord warden holding the office directly from the crown i believe all the royal emoluments incident to the cinque port territories become by assignment his because the lord warden is busily employed at times in fobbing his perquisites which are his chiefly by virtue of that same fobbing of them now when these poor sunburnt mariners barefooted and with their trowsers rolled high up on their eely legs had wearily hauled their fat fish high and dry promising themselves a good l from the precious oil and bone and in fantasy sipping rare tea with their wives and good ale with their cronies upon the strength of their respective shares up steps a very learned and most christian and charitable gentleman with a copy of blackstone under his arm and laying it upon the whales head he sayshands off  upon this the poor mariners in their respectful consternationso truly englishknowing not what to say fall to vigorously scratching their heads all round meanwhile ruefully glancing from the whale to the stranger but that did in nowise mend the matter or at all soften the hard heart of the learned gentleman with the copy of blackstone at length one of them after long scratching about for his ideas made bold to speak please sir who is the lord warden but the duke had nothing to do with taking this fish we have been at great trouble and peril and some expense and is all that to go to the dukes benefit we getting nothing at all for our pains but our blisters is the duke so very poor as to be forced to this desperate mode of getting a livelihood i thought to relieve my old bedridden mother by part of my share of this whale in a word the whale was seized and sold and his grace the duke of wellington received the money thinking that viewed in some particular lights the case might by a bare possibility in some small degree be deemed under the circumstances a rather hard one an honest clergyman of the town respectfully addressed a note to his grace begging him to take the case of those unfortunate mariners into full consideration to which my lord duke in substance replied both letters were published that he had already done so and received the money and would be obliged to the reverend gentleman if for the future he the reverend gentleman would decline meddling with other peoples business is this the still militant old man standing at the corners of the three kingdoms on all hands coercing alms of beggars it will readily be seen that in this case the alleged right of the duke to the whale was a delegated one from the sovereign we must needs inquire then on what principle the sovereign is originally invested with that right
she took the first opportunity of affronting her motherinlaw on the occasion talking to her so expressively of her brothers great expectations of mrs ferrarss resolution that both her sons should marry well and of the danger attending any young woman who attempted to draw him in that mrs dashwood could neither pretend to be unconscious nor endeavor to be calm she gave her an answer which marked her contempt and instantly left the room resolving that whatever might be the inconvenience or expense of so sudden a removal her beloved elinor should not be exposed another week to such insinuations in this state of her spirits a letter was delivered to her from the post which contained a proposal particularly well timed it was the offer of a small house on very easy terms belonging to a relation of her own a gentleman of consequence and property in devonshire the letter was from this gentleman himself and written in the true spirit of friendly accommodation he understood that she was in need of a dwelling and though the house he now offered her was merely a cottage he assured her that everything should be done to it which she might think necessary if the situation pleased her he earnestly pressed her after giving the particulars of the house and garden to come with her daughters to barton park the place of his own residence from whence she might judge herself whether barton cottage for the houses were in the same parish could by any alteration be made comfortable to her he seemed really anxious to accommodate them and the whole of his letter was written in so friendly a style as could not fail of giving pleasure to his cousin more especially at a moment when she was suffering under the cold and unfeeling behaviour of her nearer connections the situation of barton in a county so far distant from sussex as devonshire which but a few hours before would have been a sufficient objection to outweigh every possible advantage belonging to the place was now its first recommendation to quit the neighbourhood of norland was no longer an evil it was an object of desire it was a blessing in comparison of the misery of continuing her daughterinlaws guest and to remove for ever from that beloved place would be less painful than to inhabit or visit it while such a woman was its mistress she instantly wrote sir john middleton her acknowledgment of his kindness and her acceptance of his proposal and then hastened to shew both letters to her daughters that she might be secure of their approbation before her answer were sent elinor had always thought it would be more prudent for them to settle at some distance from norland than immediately amongst their present acquaintance on that head therefore it was not for her to oppose her mothers intention of removing into devonshire the house too as described by sir john was on so simple a scale and the rent so uncommonly moderate as to leave her no right of objection on either point and therefore though it was not a plan which brought any charm to her fancy though it was a removal from the vicinity of norland beyond her wishes she made no attempt to dissuade her mother from sending a letter of acquiescence chapter  no sooner was her answer dispatched than mrs dashwood indulged herself in the pleasure of announcing to her soninlaw and his wife that she was provided with a house and should incommode them no longer than till every thing were ready for her inhabiting it john dashwood said nothing but her husband civilly hoped that she would not be settled far from norland she had great satisfaction in replying that she was going into devonshire
her former apprehensions now with greater reason restored left her no doubt of the event and though trying to speak comfort to elinor her conviction of her sisters danger would not allow her to offer the comfort of hope the rapid decay the early death of a girl so young so lovely as marianne must have struck a less interested person with concern she had been for three months her companion was still under her care and she was known to have been greatly injured and long unhappy the distress of her sister too particularly a favourite was before herand as for their mother when mrs jennings considered that marianne might probably be to her what charlotte was to herself her sympathy in her sufferings was very sincere harris was punctual in his second visitbut he came to be disappointed in his hopes of what the last would produce his medicines had failedthe fever was unabated and marianne only more quietnot more herselfremained in a heavy stupor elinor catching all and more than all his fears in a moment proposed to call in further advice but he judged it unnecessary he had still something more to try some more fresh application of whose success he was as confident as the last and his visit concluded with encouraging assurances which reached the ear but could not enter the heart of miss dashwood she was calm except when she thought of her mother but she was almost hopeless and in this state she continued till noon scarcely stirring from her sisters bed her thoughts wandering from one image of grief one suffering friend to another and her spirits oppressed to the utmost by the conversation of mrs jennings who scrupled not to attribute the severity and danger of this attack to the many weeks of previous indisposition which mariannes disappointment had brought on elinor felt all the reasonableness of the idea and it gave fresh misery to her reflections about noon however she beganbut with a cautiona dread of disappointment which for some time kept her silent even to her friendto fancy to hope she could perceive a slight amendment in her sisters pulseshe waited watched and examined it again and againand at last with an agitation more difficult to bury under exterior calmness than all her foregoing distress ventured to communicate her hopes jennings though forced on examination to acknowledge a temporary revival tried to keep her young friend from indulging a thought of its continuanceand elinor conning over every injunction of distrust told herself likewise not to hope hope had already entered and feeling all its anxious flutter she bent over her sister to watchshe hardly knew for what half an hour passed away and the favourable symptom yet blessed her her breath her skin her lips all flattered elinor with signs of amendment and marianne fixed her eyes on her with a rational though languid gaze anxiety and hope now oppressed her in equal degrees and left her no moment of tranquillity till the arrival of mr harris at four oclockwhen his assurances his felicitations on a recovery in her sister even surpassing his expectation gave her confidence comfort and tears of joy marianne was in every respect materially better and he declared her entirely out of danger
jennings from seeing her sisters thoughts as clearly as she did i dare say we shall have sir john and lady middleton in town by the end of next week and now silently conjectured elinor she will write to combe by this days post but if she did the letter was written and sent away with a privacy which eluded all her watchfulness to ascertain the fact whatever the truth of it might be and far as elinor was from feeling thorough contentment about it yet while she saw marianne in spirits she could not be very uncomfortable herself and marianne was in spirits happy in the mildness of the weather and still happier in her expectation of a frost the morning was chiefly spent in leaving cards at the houses of mrs jenningss acquaintance to inform them of her being in town and marianne was all the time busy in observing the direction of the wind watching the variations of the sky and imagining an alteration in the air dont you find it colder than it was in the morning elinor the clouds seem parting too the sun will be out in a moment and we shall have a clear afternoon elinor was alternately diverted and pained but marianne persevered and saw every night in the brightness of the fire and every morning in the appearance of the atmosphere the certain symptoms of approaching frost the miss dashwoods had no greater reason to be dissatisfied with mrs jenningss style of living and set of acquaintance than with her behaviour to themselves which was invariably kind every thing in her household arrangements was conducted on the most liberal plan and excepting a few old city friends whom to lady middletons regret she had never dropped she visited no one to whom an introduction could at all discompose the feelings of her young companions pleased to find herself more comfortably situated in that particular than she had expected elinor was very willing to compound for the want of much real enjoyment from any of their evening parties which whether at home or abroad formed only for cards could have little to amuse her colonel brandon who had a general invitation to the house was with them almost every day he came to look at marianne and talk to elinor who often derived more satisfaction from conversing with him than from any other daily occurrence but who saw at the same time with much concern his continued regard for her sister it grieved her to see the earnestness with which he often watched marianne and his spirits were certainly worse than when at barton about a week after their arrival it became certain that willoughby was also arrived his card was on the table when they came in from the mornings drive elinor rejoiced to be assured of his being in london now ventured to say depend upon it he will call again tomorrow this event while it raised the spirits of elinor restored to those of her sister all and more than all their former agitation
darcy acknowledged that the partridges were remarkably well done and i suppose he has two or three french cooks at least and my dear jane i never saw you look in greater beauty long said so too for i asked her whether you did not long is as good a creature as ever livedand her nieces are very pretty behaved girls and not at all handsome i like them prodigiously bennet in short was in very great spirits she had seen enough of bingleys behaviour to jane to be convinced that she would get him at last and her expectations of advantage to her family when in a happy humour were so far beyond reason that she was quite disappointed at not seeing him there again the next day to make his proposals it has been a very agreeable day said miss bennet to elizabeth the party seemed so well selected so suitable one with the other i assure you that i have now learnt to enjoy his conversation as an agreeable and sensible young man without having a wish beyond it i am perfectly satisfied from what his manners now are that he never had any design of engaging my affection it is only that he is blessed with greater sweetness of address and a stronger desire of generally pleasing than any other man you are very cruel said her sister you will not let me smile and are provoking me to it every moment but why should you wish to persuade me that i feel more than i acknowledge that is a question which i hardly know how to answer we all love to instruct though we can teach only what is not worth knowing forgive me and if you persist in indifference do not make me your confidante his friend had left him that morning for london but was to return home in ten days time he sat with them above an hour and was in remarkably good spirits bennet invited him to dine with them but with many expressions of concern he confessed himself engaged elsewhere next time you call said she i hope we shall be more lucky  and if she would give him leave would take an early opportunity of waiting on them
at length with a voice of forced calmness he said and this is all the reply which i am to have the honour of expecting i might perhaps wish to be informed why with so little endeavour at civility i am thus rejected i might as well inquire replied she why with so evident a desire of offending and insulting me you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will against your reason and even against your character was not this some excuse for incivility if i was uncivil had not my feelings decided against youhad they been indifferent or had they even been favourable do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man who has been the means of ruining perhaps for ever the happiness of a most beloved sister darcy changed colour but the emotion was short and he listened without attempting to interrupt her while she continued i have every reason in the world to think ill of you no motive can excuse the unjust and ungenerous part you acted there you dare not you cannot deny that you have been the principal if not the only means of dividing them from each otherof exposing one to the censure of the world for caprice and instability and the other to its derision for disappointed hopes and involving them both in misery of the acutest kind she paused and saw with no slight indignation that he was listening with an air which proved him wholly unmoved by any feeling of remorse he even looked at her with a smile of affected incredulity with assumed tranquillity he then replied i have no wish of denying that i did everything in my power to separate my friend from your sister or that i rejoice in my success elizabeth disdained the appearance of noticing this civil reflection but its meaning did not escape nor was it likely to conciliate her but it is not merely this affair she continued on which my dislike is founded long before it had taken place my opinion of you was decided your character was unfolded in the recital which i received many months ago from mr in what imaginary act of friendship can you here defend yourself or under what misrepresentation can you here impose upon others you take an eager interest in that gentlemans concerns said darcy in a less tranquil tone and with a heightened colour who that knows what his misfortunes have been can help feeling an interest in him repeated darcy contemptuously yes his misfortunes have been great indeed
but there was no peculiar disgrace in this for it was very much the case with the chief of their visitors who almost all laboured under one or other of these disqualifications for being agreeablewant of sense either natural or improvedwant of elegancewant of spiritsor want of temper when the ladies withdrew to the drawingroom after dinner this poverty was particularly evident for the gentlemen had supplied the discourse with some varietythe variety of politics inclosing land and breaking horsesbut then it was all over and one subject only engaged the ladies till coffee came in which was the comparative heights of harry dashwood and lady middletons second son william who were nearly of the same age had both the children been there the affair might have been determined too easily by measuring them at once but as harry only was present it was all conjectural assertion on both sides and every body had a right to be equally positive in their opinion and to repeat it over and over again as often as they liked the parties stood thus the two mothers though each really convinced that her own son was the tallest politely decided in favour of the other the two grandmothers with not less partiality but more sincerity were equally earnest in support of their own descendant lucy who was hardly less anxious to please one parent than the other thought the boys were both remarkably tall for their age and could not conceive that there could be the smallest difference in the world between them and miss steele with yet greater address gave it as fast as she could in favour of each elinor having once delivered her opinion on williams side by which she offended mrs ferrars and fanny still more did not see the necessity of enforcing it by any farther assertion and marianne when called on for hers offended them all by declaring that she had no opinion to give as she had never thought about it before her removing from norland elinor had painted a very pretty pair of screens for her sisterinlaw which being now just mounted and brought home ornamented her present drawing room and these screens catching the eye of john dashwood on his following the other gentlemen into the room were officiously handed by him to colonel brandon for his admiration these are done by my eldest sister said he and you as a man of taste will i dare say be pleased with them i do not know whether you have ever happened to see any of her performances before but she is in general reckoned to draw extremely well the colonel though disclaiming all pretensions to connoisseurship warmly admired the screens as he would have done any thing painted by miss dashwood and on the curiosity of the others being of course excited they were handed round for general inspection ferrars not aware of their being elinors work particularly requested to look at them and after they had received gratifying testimony of lady middletonss approbation fanny presented them to her mother considerately informing her at the same time that they were done by miss dashwood ferrarsvery prettyand without regarding them at all returned them to her daughter perhaps fanny thought for a moment that her mother had been quite rude enoughfor colouring a little she immediately said they are very pretty maamant they but then again the dread of having been too civil too encouraging herself probably came over her for she presently added do you not think they are something in miss mortons style of painting maam ferrars and such illtimed praise of another at elinors expense though she had not any notion of what was principally meant by it provoked her immediately to say with warmth this is admiration of a very particular kind and so saying she took the screens out of her sisterinlaws hands to admire them herself as they ought to be admired ferrars looked exceedingly angry and drawing herself up more stiffly than ever pronounced in retort this bitter philippic miss morton is lord mortons daughter fanny looked very angry too and her husband was all in a fright at his sisters audacity
but when the swift pequod with a fresh leading wind was herself in hot chase how very kind of these tawny philanthropists to assist in speeding her on to her own chosen pursuitmere ridingwhips and rowels to her that they were as with glass under arm ahab toandfro paced the deck in his forward turn beholding the monsters he chased and in the after one the bloodthirsty pirates chasing him some such fancy as the above seemed his and when he glanced upon the green walls of the watery defile in which the ship was then sailing and bethought him that through that gate lay the route to his vengeance and beheld how that through that same gate he was now both chasing and being chased to his deadly end and not only that but a herd of remorseless wild pirates and inhuman atheistical devils were infernally cheering him on with their curseswhen all these conceits had passed through his brain ahabs brow was left gaunt and ribbed like the black sand beach after some stormy tide has been gnawing it without being able to drag the firm thing from its place but thoughts like these troubled very few of the reckless crew and when after steadily dropping and dropping the pirates astern the pequod at last shot by the vivid green cockatoo point on the sumatra side emerging at last upon the broad waters beyond then the harpooneers seemed more to grieve that the swift whales had been gaining upon the ship than to rejoice that the ship had so victoriously gained upon the malays but still driving on in the wake of the whales at length they seemed abating their speed gradually the ship neared them and the wind now dying away word was passed to spring to the boats but no sooner did the herd by some presumed wonderful instinct of the sperm whale become notified of the three keels that were after themthough as yet a mile in their rearthan they rallied again and forming in close ranks and battalions so that their spouts all looked like flashing lines of stacked bayonets moved on with redoubled velocity stripped to our shirts and drawers we sprang to the whiteash and after several hours pulling were almost disposed to renounce the chase when a general pausing commotion among the whales gave animating token that they were now at last under the influence of that strange perplexity of inert irresolution which when the fishermen perceive it in the whale they say he is gallied the compact martial columns in which they had been hitherto rapidly and steadily swimming were now broken up in one measureless rout and like king porus elephants in the indian battle with alexander they seemed going mad with consternation in all directions expanding in vast irregular circles and aimlessly swimming hither and thither by their short thick spoutings they plainly betrayed their distraction of panic this was still more strangely evinced by those of their number who completely paralysed as it were helplessly floated like waterlogged dismantled ships on the sea had these leviathans been but a flock of simple sheep pursued over the pasture by three fierce wolves they could not possibly have evinced such excessive dismay but this occasional timidity is characteristic of almost all herding creatures though banding together in tens of thousands the lionmaned buffaloes of the west have fled before a solitary horseman witness too all human beings how when herded together in the sheepfold of a theatres pit they will at the slightest alarm of fire rush helterskelter for the outlets crowding trampling jamming and remorselessly dashing each other to death best therefore withhold any amazement at the strangely gallied whales before us for there is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men though many of the whales as has been said were in violent motion yet it is to be observed that as a whole the herd neither advanced nor retreated but collectively remained in one place as is customary in those cases the boats at once separated each making for some one lone whale on the outskirts of the shoal in about three minutes time queequegs harpoon was flung the stricken fish darted blinding spray in our faces and then running away with us like light steered straight for the heart of the herd though such a movement on the part of the whale struck under such circumstances is in no wise unprecedented and indeed is almost always more or less anticipated yet does it present one of the more perilous vicissitudes of the fishery for as the swift monster drags you deeper and deeper into the frantic shoal you bid adieu to circumspect life and only exist in a delirious throb
gardiner did not write again till he had received an answer from colonel forster and then he had nothing of a pleasant nature to send it was not known that wickham had a single relationship with whom he kept up any connection and it was certain that he had no near one living his former acquaintances had been numerous but since he had been in the militia it did not appear that he was on terms of particular friendship with any of them there was no one therefore who could be pointed out as likely to give any news of him and in the wretched state of his own finances there was a very powerful motive for secrecy in addition to his fear of discovery by lydias relations for it had just transpired that he had left gaming debts behind him to a very considerable amount colonel forster believed that more than a thousand pounds would be necessary to clear his expenses at brighton he owed a good deal in town but his debts of honour were still more formidable gardiner did not attempt to conceal these particulars from the longbourn family gardiner added in his letter that they might expect to see their father at home on the following day which was saturday rendered spiritless by the illsuccess of all their endeavours he had yielded to his brotherinlaws entreaty that he would return to his family and leave it to him to do whatever occasion might suggest to be advisable for continuing their pursuit bennet was told of this she did not express so much satisfaction as her children expected considering what her anxiety for his life had been before sure he will not leave london before he has found them who is to fight wickham and make him marry her if he comes away gardiner began to wish to be at home it was settled that she and the children should go to london at the same time that mr the coach therefore took them the first stage of their journey and brought its master back to longbourn gardiner went away in all the perplexity about elizabeth and her derbyshire friend that had attended her from that part of the world his name had never been voluntarily mentioned before them by her niece and the kind of halfexpectation which mrs gardiner had formed of their being followed by a letter from him had ended in nothing elizabeth had received none since her return that could come from pemberley the present unhappy state of the family rendered any other excuse for the lowness of her spirits unnecessary nothing therefore could be fairly conjectured from that though elizabeth who was by this time tolerably well acquainted with her own feelings was perfectly aware that had she known nothing of darcy she could have borne the dread of lydias infamy somewhat better
her thoughts were silently fixed on the irreparable injury which too early an independence and its consequent habits of idleness dissipation and luxury had made in the mind the character the happiness of a man who to every advantage of person and talents united a disposition naturally open and honest and a feeling affectionate temper the world had made him extravagant and vainextravagance and vanity had made him coldhearted and selfish vanity while seeking its own guilty triumph at the expense of another had involved him in a real attachment which extravagance or at least its offspring necessity had required to be sacrificed each faulty propensity in leading him to evil had led him likewise to punishment the attachment from which against honour against feeling against every better interest he had outwardly torn himself now when no longer allowable governed every thought and the connection for the sake of which he had with little scruple left her sister to misery was likely to prove a source of unhappiness to himself of a far more incurable nature from a reverie of this kind she was recalled at the end of some minutes by willoughby who rousing himself from a reverie at least equally painful started up in preparation for going and said there is no use in staying here i must be off i have business there from thence to town in a day or two she could not refuse to give him hershe pressed it with affection and you do think something better of me than you did said he letting it fall and leaning against the mantelpiece as if forgetting he was to go elinor assured him that she didthat she forgave pitied wished him wellwas even interested in his happinessand added some gentle counsel as to the behaviour most likely to promote it as to that said he i must rub through the world as well as i can if however i am allowed to think that you and yours feel an interest in my fate and actions it may be the meansit may put me on my guardat least it may be something to live for were i even by any blessed chance at liberty again elinor stopped him with a reproof and if that some one should be the very he whom of all others i could least bearbut i will not stay to rob myself of all your compassionate goodwill by shewing that where i have most injured i can least forgive chapter  elinor for some time after he left her for some time even after the sound of his carriage had died away remained too much oppressed by a crowd of ideas widely differing in themselves but of which sadness was the general result to think even of her sister willoughby he whom only half an hour ago she had abhorred as the most worthless of men willoughby in spite of all his faults excited a degree of commiseration for the sufferings produced by them which made her think of him as now separated for ever from her family with a tenderness a regret rather in proportion as she soon acknowledged within herselfto his wishes than to his merits she felt that his influence over her mind was heightened by circumstances which ought not in reason to have weight by that person of uncommon attraction that open affectionate and lively manner which it was no merit to possess and by that still ardent love for marianne which it was not even innocent to indulge but she felt that it was so long long before she could feel his influence less when at last she returned to the unconscious marianne she found her just awaking refreshed by so long and sweet a sleep to the extent of her hopes
they were of a respectable family in the north of england a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brothers fortune and their own had been acquired by trade bingley inherited property to the amount of nearly a hundred thousand pounds from his father who had intended to purchase an estate but did not live to do it bingley intended it likewise and sometimes made choice of his county but as he was now provided with a good house and the liberty of a manor it was doubtful to many of those who best knew the easiness of his temper whether he might not spend the remainder of his days at netherfield and leave the next generation to purchase his sisters were anxious for his having an estate of his own but though he was now only established as a tenant miss bingley was by no means unwilling to preside at his tablenor was mrs hurst who had married a man of more fashion than fortune less disposed to consider his house as her home when it suited her bingley had not been of age two years when he was tempted by an accidental recommendation to look at netherfield house he did look at it and into it for halfanhourwas pleased with the situation and the principal rooms satisfied with what the owner said in its praise and took it immediately between him and darcy there was a very steady friendship in spite of great opposition of character bingley was endeared to darcy by the easiness openness and ductility of his temper though no disposition could offer a greater contrast to his own and though with his own he never appeared dissatisfied on the strength of darcys regard bingley had the firmest reliance and of his judgement the highest opinion bingley was by no means deficient but darcy was clever he was at the same time haughty reserved and fastidious and his manners though wellbred were not inviting in that respect his friend had greatly the advantage bingley was sure of being liked wherever he appeared darcy was continually giving offense the manner in which they spoke of the meryton assembly was sufficiently characteristic bingley had never met with more pleasant people or prettier girls in his life everybody had been most kind and attentive to him there had been no formality no stiffness he had soon felt acquainted with all the room and as to miss bennet he could not conceive an angel more beautiful darcy on the contrary had seen a collection of people in whom there was little beauty and no fashion for none of whom he had felt the smallest interest and from none received either attention or pleasure miss bennet he acknowledged to be pretty but she smiled too much hurst and her sister allowed it to be sobut still they admired her and liked her and pronounced her to be a sweet girl and one whom they would not object to know more of miss bennet was therefore established as a sweet girl and their brother felt authorized by such commendation to think of her as he chose
this morning i had fully intended to call on you if i could possibly find a spare half hour but one has always so much to do on first coming to town but tomorrow i think i shall certainly be able to call in berkeley street and be introduced to your friend mrs and the middletons too you must introduce me to them as my motherinlaws relations i shall be happy to show them every respect they are excellent neighbours to you in the country i understand their attention to our comfort their friendliness in every particular is more than i can express i am extremely glad to hear it upon my word extremely glad indeed but so it ought to be they are people of large fortune they are related to you and every civility and accommodation that can serve to make your situation pleasant might be reasonably expected and so you are most comfortably settled in your little cottage and want for nothing edward brought us a most charming account of the place the most complete thing of its kind he said that ever was and you all seemed to enjoy it beyond any thing it was a great satisfaction to us to hear it i assure you elinor did feel a little ashamed of her brother and was not sorry to be spared the necessity of answering him by the arrival of mrs jenningss servant who came to tell her that his mistress waited for them at the door dashwood attended them down stairs was introduced to mrs jennings at the door of her carriage and repeating his hope of being able to call on them the next day took leave he came with a pretence at an apology from their sisterinlaw for not coming too but she was so much engaged with her mother that really she had no leisure for going any where jennings however assured him directly that she should not stand upon ceremony for they were all cousins or something like it and she should certainly wait on mrs john dashwood very soon and bring her sisters to see her his manners to them though calm were perfectly kind to mrs jennings most attentively civil and on colonel brandons coming in soon after himself he eyed him with a curiosity which seemed to say that he only wanted to know him to be rich to be equally civil to him
gardiner after general assurances of his affection for her and all her family told her that he meant to be in london the very next day and would assist mr do not give way to useless alarm added he though it is right to be prepared for the worst there is no occasion to look on it as certain in a few days more we may gain some news of them and till we know that they are not married and have no design of marrying do not let us give the matter over as lost as soon as i get to town i shall go to my brother and make him come home with me to gracechurch street and then we may consult together as to what is to be done and now do when you get to town find them out wherever they may be and if they are not married already make them marry and as for wedding clothes do not let them wait for that but tell lydia she shall have as much money as she chooses to buy them after they are married tell him what a dreadful state i am in that i am frighted out of my witsand have such tremblings such flutterings all over mesuch spasms in my side and pains in my head and such beatings at heart that i can get no rest by night nor by day and tell my dear lydia not to give any directions about her clothes till she has seen me for she does not know which are the best warehouses gardiner though he assured her again of his earnest endeavours in the cause could not avoid recommending moderation to her as well in her hopes as her fear and after talking with her in this manner till dinner was on the table they all left her to vent all her feelings on the housekeeper who attended in the absence of her daughters though her brother and sister were persuaded that there was no real occasion for such a seclusion from the family they did not attempt to oppose it for they knew that she had not prudence enough to hold her tongue before the servants while they waited at table and judged it better that one only of the household and the one whom they could most trust should comprehend all her fears and solicitude on the subject in the diningroom they were soon joined by mary and kitty who had been too busily engaged in their separate apartments to make their appearance before one came from her books and the other from her toilette the faces of both however were tolerably calm and no change was visible in either except that the loss of her favourite sister or the anger which she had herself incurred in this business had given more of fretfulness than usual to the accents of kitty as for mary she was mistress enough of herself to whisper to elizabeth with a countenance of grave reflection soon after they were seated at table this is a most unfortunate affair and will probably be much talked of but we must stem the tide of malice and pour into the wounded bosoms of each other the balm of sisterly consolation then perceiving in elizabeth no inclination of replying she added unhappy as the event must be for lydia we may draw from it this useful lesson that loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable that one false step involves her in endless ruin that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex elizabeth lifted up her eyes in amazement but was too much oppressed to make any reply mary however continued to console herself with such kind of moral extractions from the evil before them in the afternoon the two elder miss bennets were able to be for halfanhour by themselves and elizabeth instantly availed herself of the opportunity of making any inquiries which jane was equally eager to satisfy after joining in general lamentations over the dreadful sequel of this event which elizabeth considered as all but certain and miss bennet could not assert to be wholly impossible the former continued the subject by saying but tell me all and everything about it which i have not already heard
i cannot find out that i hate her at all or that i am in the least unwilling to think her a very good sort of girl my watchfulness has been effectual and though i certainly should be a more interesting object to all my acquaintances were i distractedly in love with him i cannot say that i regret my comparative insignificance kitty and lydia take his defection much more to heart than i do they are young in the ways of the world and not yet open to the mortifying conviction that handsome young men must have something to live on as well as the plain chapter  with no greater events than these in the longbourn family and otherwise diversified by little beyond the walks to meryton sometimes dirty and sometimes cold did january and february pass away she had not at first thought very seriously of going thither but charlotte she soon found was depending on the plan and she gradually learned to consider it herself with greater pleasure as well as greater certainty absence had increased her desire of seeing charlotte again and weakened her disgust of mr there was novelty in the scheme and as with such a mother and such uncompanionable sisters home could not be faultless a little change was not unwelcome for its own sake the journey would moreover give her a peep at jane and in short as the time drew near she would have been very sorry for any delay everything however went on smoothly and was finally settled according to charlottes first sketch she was to accompany sir william and his second daughter the improvement of spending a night in london was added in time and the plan became perfect as plan could be the only pain was in leaving her father who would certainly miss her and who when it came to the point so little liked her going that he told her to write to him and almost promised to answer her letter wickham was perfectly friendly on his side even more his present pursuit could not make him forget that elizabeth had been the first to excite and to deserve his attention the first to listen and to pity the first to be admired and in his manner of bidding her adieu wishing her every enjoyment reminding her of what she was to expect in lady catherine de bourgh and trusting their opinion of hertheir opinion of everybodywould always coincide there was a solicitude an interest which she felt must ever attach her to him with a most sincere regard and she parted from him convinced that whether married or single he must always be her model of the amiable and pleasing her fellowtravellers the next day were not of a kind to make her think him less agreeable sir william lucas and his daughter maria a goodhumoured girl but as emptyheaded as himself had nothing to say that could be worth hearing and were listened to with about as much delight as the rattle of the chaise elizabeth loved absurdities but she had known sir williams too long he could tell her nothing new of the wonders of his presentation and knighthood and his civilities were worn out like his information it was a journey of only twentyfour miles and they began it so early as to be in gracechurch street by noon
jane resolutely kept her place at the table but elizabeth to satisfy her mother went to the windowshe lookedshe saw mr there is a gentleman with him mamma said kitty who can it be some acquaintance or other my dear i suppose i am sure i do not know replied kitty it looks just like that man that used to be with him before bingleys will always be welcome here to be sure but else i must say that i hate the very sight of him she knew but little of their meeting in derbyshire and therefore felt for the awkwardness which must attend her sister in seeing him almost for the first time after receiving his explanatory letter each felt for the other and of course for themselves and their mother talked on of her dislike of mr darcy and her resolution to be civil to him only as mr bingleys friend without being heard by either of them but elizabeth had sources of uneasiness which could not be suspected by jane to whom she had never yet had courage to shew mrs gardiners letter or to relate her own change of sentiment towards him to jane he could be only a man whose proposals she had refused and whose merit she had undervalued but to her own more extensive information he was the person to whom the whole family were indebted for the first of benefits and whom she regarded herself with an interest if not quite so tender at least as reasonable and just as what jane felt for bingley her astonishment at his comingat his coming to netherfield to longbourn and voluntarily seeking her again was almost equal to what she had known on first witnessing his altered behaviour in derbyshire the colour which had been driven from her face returned for half a minute with an additional glow and a smile of delight added lustre to her eyes as she thought for that space of time that his affection and wishes must still be unshaken let me first see how he behaves said she it will then be early enough for expectation she sat intently at work striving to be composed and without daring to lift up her eyes till anxious curiosity carried them to the face of her sister as the servant was approaching the door jane looked a little paler than usual but more sedate than elizabeth had expected on the gentlemens appearing her colour increased yet she received them with tolerable ease and with a propriety of behaviour equally free from any symptom of resentment or any unnecessary complaisance elizabeth said as little to either as civility would allow and sat down again to her work with an eagerness which it did not often command he looked serious as usual and she thought more as he had been used to look in hertfordshire than as she had seen him at pemberley
gardiner did a question which she could not answer without confusion said scarcely anything he was not seated by her perhaps that was the reason of his silence but it had not been so in derbyshire there he had talked to her friends when he could not to herself but now several minutes elapsed without bringing the sound of his voice and when occasionally unable to resist the impulse of curiosity she raised her eyes to his face she as often found him looking at jane as at herself and frequently on no object but the ground more thoughtfulness and less anxiety to please than when they last met were plainly expressed she was disappointed and angry with herself for being so she was in no humour for conversation with anyone but himself and to him she had hardly courage to speak i began to be afraid you would never come back again people did say you meant to quit the place entirely at michaelmas but however i hope it is not true a great many changes have happened in the neighbourhood since you went away i suppose you have heard of it indeed you must have seen it in the papers it was in the times and the courier i know though it was not put in as it ought to be to miss lydia bennet without there being a syllable said of her father or the place where she lived or anything it was my brother gardiners drawing up too and i wonder how he came to make such an awkward business of it bingley replied that he did and made his congratulations it is a delightful thing to be sure to have a daughter well married continued her mother but at the same time mr bingley it is very hard to have her taken such a way from me they are gone down to newcastle a place quite northward it seems and there they are to stay i do not know how long his regiment is there for i suppose you have heard of his leaving the shire and of his being gone into the regulars he has some friends though perhaps not so many as he deserves
and now that at the proper time and place after so long and wide a preliminary cruise ahaball other whaling waters sweptseemed to have chased his foe into an oceanfold to slay him the more securely there now that he found himself hard by the very latitude and longitude where his tormenting wound had been inflicted now that a vessel had been spoken which on the very day preceding had actually encountered moby dickand now that all his successive meetings with various ships contrastingly concurred to show the demoniac indifference with which the white whale tore his hunters whether sinning or sinned against now it was that there lurked a something in the old mans eyes which it was hardly sufferable for feeble souls to see as the unsetting polar star which through the livelong arctic six months night sustains its piercing steady central gaze so ahabs purpose now fixedly gleamed down upon the constant midnight of the gloomy crew it domineered above them so that all their bodings doubts misgivings fears were fain to hide beneath their souls and not sprout forth a single spear or leaf in this foreshadowing interval too all humor forced or natural vanished stubb no more strove to raise a smile starbuck no more strove to check one alike joy and sorrow hope and fear seemed ground to finest dust and powdered for the time in the clamped mortar of ahabs iron soul like machines they dumbly moved about the deck ever conscious that the old mans despot eye was on them but did you deeply scan him in his more secret confidential hours when he thought no glance but one was on him then you would have seen that even as ahabs eyes so awed the crews the inscrutable parsees glance awed his or somehow at least in some wild way at times affected it such an added gliding strangeness began to invest the thin fedallah now such ceaseless shudderings shook him that the men looked dubious at him half uncertain as it seemed whether indeed he were a mortal substance or else a tremulous shadow cast upon the deck by some unseen beings body for not by night even had fedallah ever certainly been known to slumber or go below he would stand still for hours but never sat or leaned his wan but wondrous eyes did plainly saywe two watchmen never rest nor at any time by night or day could the mariners now step upon the deck unless ahab was before them either standing in his pivothole or exactly pacing the planks between two undeviating limitsthe mainmast and the mizen or else they saw him standing in the cabinscuttlehis living foot advanced upon the deck as if to step his hat slouched heavily over his eyes so that however motionless he stood however the days and nights were added on that he had not swung in his hammock yet hidden beneath that slouching hat they could never tell unerringly whether for all this his eyes were really closed at times or whether he was still intently scanning them no matter though he stood so in the scuttle for a whole hour on the stretch and the unheeded nightdamp gathered in beads of dew upon that stonecarved coat and hat the clothes that the night had wet the next days sunshine dried upon him and so day after day and night after night he went no more beneath the planks whatever he wanted from the cabin that thing he sent for he ate in the same open air that is his two only mealsbreakfast and dinner supper he never touched nor reaped his beard which darkly grew all gnarled as unearthed roots of trees blown over which still grow idly on at naked base though perished in the upper verdure but though his whole life was now become one watch on deck and though the parsees mystic watch was without intermission as his own yet these two never seemed to speakone man to the otherunless at long intervals some passing unmomentous matter made it necessary though such a potent spell seemed secretly to join the twain openly and to the awestruck crew they seemed polelike asunder if by day they chanced to speak one word by night dumb men were both so far as concerned the slightest verbal interchange at times for longest hours without a single hail they stood far parted in the starlight ahab in his scuttle the parsee by the mainmast but still fixedly gazing upon each other as if in the parsee ahab saw his forethrown shadow in ahab the parsee his abandoned substance and yet somehow did ahabin his own proper self as daily hourly and every instant commandingly revealed to his subordinatesahab seemed an independent lord the parsee but his slave still again both seemed yoked together and an unseen tyrant driving them the lean shade siding the solid rib
therefore in his other moods symbolize whatever grand or gracious thing he will by whiteness no man can deny that in its profoundest idealized significance it calls up a peculiar apparition to the soul but though without dissent this point be fixed how is mortal man to account for it can we then by the citation of some of those instances wherein this thing of whitenessthough for the time either wholly or in great part stripped of all direct associations calculated to impart to it aught fearful but nevertheless is found to exert over us the same sorcery however modifiedcan we thus hope to light upon some chance clue to conduct us to the hidden cause we seek but in a matter like this subtlety appeals to subtlety and without imagination no man can follow another into these halls and though doubtless some at least of the imaginative impressions about to be presented may have been shared by most men yet few perhaps were entirely conscious of them at the time and therefore may not be able to recall them now why to the man of untutored ideality who happens to be but loosely acquainted with the peculiar character of the day does the bare mention of whitsuntide marshal in the fancy such long dreary speechless processions of slowpacing pilgrims downcast and hooded with newfallen snow or to the unread unsophisticated protestant of the middle american states why does the passing mention of a white friar or a white nun evoke such an eyeless statue in the soul or what is there apart from the traditions of dungeoned warriors and kings which will not wholly account for it that makes the white tower of london tell so much more strongly on the imagination of an untravelled american than those other storied structures its neighborsthe byward tower or even the bloody and those sublimer towers the white mountains of new hampshire whence in peculiar moods comes that gigantic ghostliness over the soul at the bare mention of that name while the thought of virginias blue ridge is full of a soft dewy distant dreaminess or why irrespective of all latitudes and longitudes does the name of the white sea exert such a spectralness over the fancy while that of the yellow sea lulls us with mortal thoughts of long lacquered mild afternoons on the waves followed by the gaudiest and yet sleepiest of sunsets or to choose a wholly unsubstantial instance purely addressed to the fancy why in reading the old fairy tales of central europe does the tall pale man of the hartz forests whose changeless pallor unrustlingly glides through the green of the groveswhy is this phantom more terrible than all the whooping imps of the blocksburg nor is it altogether the remembrance of her cathedraltoppling earthquakes nor the stampedoes of her frantic seas nor the tearlessness of arid skies that never rain nor the sight of her wide field of leaning spires wrenched copestones and crosses all adroop like canted yards of anchored fleets and her suburban avenues of housewalls lying over upon each other as a tossed pack of cardsit is not these things alone which make tearless lima the strangest saddest city thou canst see for lima has taken the white veil and there is a higher horror in this whiteness of her woe old as pizarro this whiteness keeps her ruins for ever new admits not the cheerful greenness of complete decay spreads over her broken ramparts the rigid pallor of an apoplexy that fixes its own distortions i know that to the common apprehension this phenomenon of whiteness is not confessed to be the prime agent in exaggerating the terror of objects otherwise terrible nor to the unimaginative mind is there aught of terror in those appearances whose awfulness to another mind almost solely consists in this one phenomenon especially when exhibited under any form at all approaching to muteness or universality what i mean by these two statements may perhaps be respectively elucidated by the following examples first the mariner when drawing nigh the coasts of foreign lands if by night he hear the roar of breakers starts to vigilance and feels just enough of trepidation to sharpen all his faculties but under precisely similar circumstances let him be called from his hammock to view his ship sailing through a midnight sea of milky whitenessas if from encircling headlands shoals of combed white bears were swimming round him then he feels a silent superstitious dread the shrouded phantom of the whitened waters is horrible to him as a real ghost in vain the lead assures him he is still off soundings heart and helm they both go down he never rests till blue water is under him again yet where is the mariner who will tell thee sir it was not so much the fear of striking hidden rocks as the fear of that hideous whiteness that so stirred me second to the native indian of peru the continual sight of the snowhowdahed andes conveys naught of dread except perhaps in the mere fancying of the eternal frosted desolateness reigning at such vast altitudes and the natural conceit of what a fearfulness it would be to lose oneself in such inhuman solitudes much the same is it with the backwoodsman of the west who with comparative indifference views an unbounded prairie sheeted with driven snow no shadow of tree or twig to break the fixed trance of whiteness
upon this information they instantly passed through the hall once more and ran across the lawn after their father who was deliberately pursuing his way towards a small wood on one side of the paddock jane who was not so light nor so much in the habit of running as elizabeth soon lagged behind while her sister panting for breath came up with him and eagerly cried out oh papa what newswhat news read it aloud said their father for i hardly know myself what it is about my dear brother at last i am able to send you some tidings of my niece and such as upon the whole i hope it will give you satisfaction soon after you left me on saturday i was fortunate enough to find out in what part of london they were the particulars i reserve till we meet it is enough to know they are discovered i have seen them both then it is as i always hoped cried jane they are married they are not married nor can i find there was any intention of being so but if you are willing to perform the engagements which i have ventured to make on your side i hope it will not be long before they are all that is required of you is to assure to your daughter by settlement her equal share of the five thousand pounds secured among your children after the decease of yourself and my sister and moreover to enter into an engagement of allowing her during your life one hundred pounds per annum these are conditions which considering everything i had no hesitation in complying with as far as i thought myself privileged for you i shall send this by express that no time may be lost in bringing me your answer you will easily comprehend from these particulars that mr wickhams circumstances are not so hopeless as they are generally believed to be the world has been deceived in that respect and i am happy to say there will be some little money even when all his debts are discharged to settle on my niece in addition to her own fortune if as i conclude will be the case you send me full powers to act in your name throughout the whole of this business i will immediately give directions to haggerston for preparing a proper settlement there will not be the smallest occasion for your coming to town again therefore stay quiet at longbourn and depend on my diligence and care send back your answer as fast as you can and be careful to write explicitly we have judged it best that my niece should be married from this house of which i hope you will approve i shall write again as soon as anything more is determined on wickham is not so undeserving then as we thought him said her sister
wickham was the happy man towards whom almost every female eye was turned and elizabeth was the happy woman by whom he finally seated himself and the agreeable manner in which he immediately fell into conversation though it was only on its being a wet night made her feel that the commonest dullest most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the skill of the speaker collins seemed to sink into insignificance to the young ladies he certainly was nothing but he had still at intervals a kind listener in mrs phillips and was by her watchfulness most abundantly supplied with coffee and muffin when the cardtables were placed he had the opportunity of obliging her in turn by sitting down to whist i know little of the game at present said he but i shall be glad to improve myself for in my situation in life mrs phillips was very glad for his compliance but could not wait for his reason wickham did not play at whist and with ready delight was he received at the other table between elizabeth and lydia at first there seemed danger of lydias engrossing him entirely for she was a most determined talker but being likewise extremely fond of lottery tickets she soon grew too much interested in the game too eager in making bets and exclaiming after prizes to have attention for anyone in particular wickham was therefore at leisure to talk to elizabeth and she was very willing to hear him though what she chiefly wished to hear she could not hope to be toldthe history of his acquaintance with mr he inquired how far netherfield was from meryton and after receiving her answer asked in a hesitating manner how long mr about a month said elizabeth and then unwilling to let the subject drop added he is a man of very large property in derbyshire i understand you could not have met with a person more capable of giving you certain information on that head than myself for i have been connected with his family in a particular manner from my infancy you may well be surprised miss bennet at such an assertion after seeing as you probably might the very cold manner of our meeting yesterday as much as i ever wish to be cried elizabeth very warmly i have spent four days in the same house with him and i think him very disagreeable i have no right to give my opinion said wickham as to his being agreeable or otherwise i have known him too long and too well to be a fair judge but i believe your opinion of him would in general astonishand perhaps you would not express it quite so strongly anywhere else upon my word i say no more here than i might say in any house in the neighbourhood except netherfield you will not find him more favourably spoken of by anyone
the power of displaying the grandeur of his patroness to his wondering visitors and of letting them see her civility towards himself and his wife was exactly what he had wished for and that an opportunity of doing it should be given so soon was such an instance of lady catherines condescension as he knew not how to admire enough i confess said he that i should not have been at all surprised by her ladyships asking us on sunday to drink tea and spend the evening at rosings i rather expected from my knowledge of her affability that it would happen but who could have foreseen such an attention as this who could have imagined that we should receive an invitation to dine there an invitation moreover including the whole party so immediately after your arrival i am the less surprised at what has happened replied sir william from that knowledge of what the manners of the great really are which my situation in life has allowed me to acquire about the court such instances of elegant breeding are not uncommon scarcely anything was talked of the whole day or next morning but their visit to rosings collins was carefully instructing them in what they were to expect that the sight of such rooms so many servants and so splendid a dinner might not wholly overpower them when the ladies were separating for the toilette he said to elizabeth do not make yourself uneasy my dear cousin about your apparel lady catherine is far from requiring that elegance of dress in us which becomes herself and her daughter i would advise you merely to put on whatever of your clothes is superior to the restthere is no occasion for anything more lady catherine will not think the worse of you for being simply dressed she likes to have the distinction of rank preserved while they were dressing he came two or three times to their different doors to recommend their being quick as lady catherine very much objected to be kept waiting for her dinner such formidable accounts of her ladyship and her manner of living quite frightened maria lucas who had been little used to company and she looked forward to her introduction at rosings with as much apprehension as her father had done to his presentation at st as the weather was fine they had a pleasant walk of about half a mile across the park every park has its beauty and its prospects and elizabeth saw much to be pleased with though she could not be in such raptures as mr collins expected the scene to inspire and was but slightly affected by his enumeration of the windows in front of the house and his relation of what the glazing altogether had originally cost sir lewis de bourgh when they ascended the steps to the hall marias alarm was every moment increasing and even sir william did not look perfectly calm
his name he replied was willoughby and his present home was at allenham from whence he hoped she would allow him the honour of calling tomorrow to enquire after miss dashwood the honour was readily granted and he then departed to make himself still more interesting in the midst of a heavy rain his manly beauty and more than common gracefulness were instantly the theme of general admiration and the laugh which his gallantry raised against marianne received particular spirit from his exterior attractions  marianne herself had seen less of his mama the rest for the confusion which crimsoned over her face on his lifting her up had robbed her of the power of regarding him after their entering the house but she had seen enough of him to join in all the admiration of the others and with an energy which always adorned her praise his person and air were equal to what her fancy had ever drawn for the hero of a favourite story and in his carrying her into the house with so little previous formality there was a rapidity of thought which particularly recommended the action to her every circumstance belonging to him was interesting his name was good his residence was in their favourite village and she soon found out that of all manly dresses a shootingjacket was the most becoming her imagination was busy her reflections were pleasant and the pain of a sprained ankle was disregarded sir john called on them as soon as the next interval of fair weather that morning allowed him to get out of doors and mariannes accident being related to him he was eagerly asked whether he knew any gentleman of the name of willoughby at allenham that is good news however i will ride over tomorrow and ask him to dinner on thursday as good a kind of fellow as ever lived i assure you a very decent shot and there is not a bolder rider in england but what are his manners on more intimate acquaintance upon my soul said he i do not know much about him as to all that but he is a pleasant good humoured fellow and has got the nicest little black bitch of a pointer i ever saw but marianne could no more satisfy him as to the colour of mr willoughbys pointer than he could describe to her the shades of his mind on this point sir john could give more certain intelligence and he told them that mr willoughby had no property of his own in the country that he resided there only while he was visiting the old lady at allenham court to whom he was related and whose possessions he was to inherit adding yes yes he is very well worth catching i can tell you miss dashwood he has a pretty little estate of his own in somersetshire besides and if i were you i would not give him up to my younger sister in spite of all this tumbling down hills
take my word for it that if i am alive i shall be paying a visit at delaford parsonage before michaelmas and i am sure i shant go if lucy ant there elinor was quite of her opinion as to the probability of their not waiting for any thing more chapter  edward having carried his thanks to colonel brandon proceeded with his happiness to lucy and such was the excess of it by the time he reached bartletts buildings that she was able to assure mrs jennings who called on her again the next day with her congratulations that she had never seen him in such spirits before in her life her own happiness and her own spirits were at least very certain and she joined mrs jennings most heartily in her expectation of their being all comfortably together in delaford parsonage before michaelmas so far was she at the same time from any backwardness to give elinor that credit which edward would give her that she spoke of her friendship for them both with the most grateful warmth was ready to own all their obligation to her and openly declared that no exertion for their good on miss dashwoods part either present or future would ever surprise her for she believed her capable of doing any thing in the world for those she really valued as for colonel brandon she was not only ready to worship him as a saint but was moreover truly anxious that he should be treated as one in all worldly concerns anxious that his tithes should be raised to the utmost and scarcely resolved to avail herself at delaford as far as she possibly could of his servants his carriage his cows and his poultry it was now above a week since john dashwood had called in berkeley street and as since that time no notice had been taken by them of his wifes indisposition beyond one verbal enquiry elinor began to feel it necessary to pay her a visit this was an obligation however which not only opposed her own inclination but which had not the assistance of any encouragement from her companions marianne not contented with absolutely refusing to go herself was very urgent to prevent her sisters going at all and mrs jennings though her carriage was always at elinors service so very much disliked mrs john dashwood that not even her curiosity to see how she looked after the late discovery nor her strong desire to affront her by taking edwards part could overcome her unwillingness to be in her company again the consequence was that elinor set out by herself to pay a visit for which no one could really have less inclination and to run the risk of a teteatete with a woman whom neither of the others had so much reason to dislike dashwood was denied but before the carriage could turn from the house her husband accidentally came out he expressed great pleasure in meeting elinor told her that he had been just going to call in berkeley street and assuring her that fanny would be very glad to see her invited her to come in fanny is in her own room i suppose said hei will go to her presently for i am sure she will not have the least objection in the world to seeing you now especially there cannot bebut however you and marianne were always great favourites i am not sorry to see you alone he replied for i have a good deal to say to you i heard it yesterday by chance and was coming to you on purpose to enquire farther about it
on one side lit by a dull lantern a space has been left clear for the workmen they generally go in pairsa pikeandgaffman and a spademan the whalingpike is similar to a frigates boardingweapon of the same name with his gaff the gaffman hooks on to a sheet of blubber and strives to hold it from slipping as the ship pitches and lurches about meanwhile the spademan stands on the sheet itself perpendicularly chopping it into the portable horsepieces this spade is sharp as hone can make it the spademans feet are shoeless the thing he stands on will sometimes irresistibly slide away from him like a sledge if he cuts off one of his own toes or one of his assistants would you be very much astonished had you stepped on board the pequod at a certain juncture of this postmortemizing of the whale and had you strolled forward nigh the windlass pretty sure am i that you would have scanned with no small curiosity a very strange enigmatical object which you would have seen there lying along lengthwise in the lee scuppers not the wondrous cistern in the whales huge head not the prodigy of his unhinged lower jaw not the miracle of his symmetrical tail none of these would so surprise you as half a glimpse of that unaccountable conelonger than a kentuckian is tall nigh a foot in diameter at the base and jetblack as yojo the ebony idol of queequeg and an idol indeed it is or rather in old times its likeness was such an idol as that found in the secret groves of queen maachah in judea and for worshipping which king asa her son did depose her and destroyed the idol and burnt it for an abomination at the brook kedron as darkly set forth in the th chapter of the first book of kings look at the sailor called the mincer who now comes along and assisted by two allies heavily backs the grandissimus as the mariners call it and with bowed shoulders staggers off with it as if he were a grenadier carrying a dead comrade from the field extending it upon the forecastle deck he now proceeds cylindrically to remove its dark pelt as an african hunter the pelt of a boa this done he turns the pelt inside out like a pantaloon leg gives it a good stretching so as almost to double its diameter and at last hangs it well spread in the rigging to dry ere long it is taken down when removing some three feet of it towards the pointed extremity and then cutting two slits for armholes at the other end he lengthwise slips himself bodily into it the mincer now stands before you invested in the full canonicals of his calling immemorial to all his order this investiture alone will adequately protect him while employed in the peculiar functions of his office that office consists in mincing the horsepieces of blubber for the pots an operation which is conducted at a curious wooden horse planted endwise against the bulwarks and with a capacious tub beneath it into which the minced pieces drop fast as the sheets from a rapt orators desk arrayed in decent black occupying a conspicuous pulpit intent on bible leaves what a candidate for an archbishopric what a lad for a pope were this mincer this is the invariable cry from the mates to the mincer
in good time nevertheless as the ardour of youth declines as years and dumps increase as reflection lends her solemn pauses in short as a general lassitude overtakes the sated turk then a love of ease and virtue supplants the love for maidens our ottoman enters upon the impotent repentant admonitory stage of life forswears disbands the harem and grown to an exemplary sulky old soul goes about all alone among the meridians and parallels saying his prayers and warning each young leviathan from his amorous errors now as the harem of whales is called by the fishermen a school so is the lord and master of that school technically known as the schoolmaster it is therefore not in strict character however admirably satirical that after going to school himself he should then go abroad inculcating not what he learned there but the folly of it his title schoolmaster would very naturally seem derived from the name bestowed upon the harem itself but some have surmised that the man who first thus entitled this sort of ottoman whale must have read the memoirs of vidocq and informed himself what sort of a countryschoolmaster that famous frenchman was in his younger days and what was the nature of those occult lessons he inculcated into some of his pupils the same secludedness and isolation to which the schoolmaster whale betakes himself in his advancing years is true of all aged sperm whales almost universally a lone whaleas a solitary leviathan is calledproves an ancient one like venerable mossbearded daniel boone he will have no one near him but nature herself and her he takes to wife in the wilderness of waters and the best of wives she is though she keeps so many moody secrets the schools composing none but young and vigorous males previously mentioned offer a strong contrast to the harem schools for while those female whales are characteristically timid the young males or fortybarrelbulls as they call them are by far the most pugnacious of all leviathans and proverbially the most dangerous to encounter excepting those wondrous greyheaded grizzled whales sometimes met and these will fight you like grim fiends exasperated by a penal gout the fortybarrelbull schools are larger than the harem schools like a mob of young collegians they are full of fight fun and wickedness tumbling round the world at such a reckless rollicking rate that no prudent underwriter would insure them any more than he would a riotous lad at yale or harvard they soon relinquish this turbulence though and when about threefourths grown break up and separately go about in quest of settlements that is harems another point of difference between the male and female schools is still more characteristic of the sexes but strike a member of the harem school and her companions swim around her with every token of concern sometimes lingering so near her and so long as themselves to fall a prey the allusion to the waif and waifpoles in the last chapter but one necessitates some account of the laws and regulations of the whale fishery of which the waif may be deemed the grand symbol and badge it frequently happens that when several ships are cruising in company a whale may be struck by one vessel then escape and be finally killed and captured by another vessel and herein are indirectly comprised many minor contingencies all partaking of this one grand feature for exampleafter a weary and perilous chase and capture of a whale the body may get loose from the ship by reason of a violent storm and drifting far away to leeward be retaken by a second whaler who in a calm snugly tows it alongside without risk of life or line thus the most vexatious and violent disputes would often arise between the fishermen were there not some written or unwritten universal undisputed law applicable to all cases perhaps the only formal whaling code authorized by legislative enactment was that of holland but though no other nation has ever had any written whaling law yet the american fishermen have been their own legislators and lawyers in this matter
but my dearest jane you cannot seriously imagine that because miss bingley tells you her brother greatly admires miss darcy he is in the smallest degree less sensible of your merit than when he took leave of you on tuesday or that it will be in her power to persuade him that instead of being in love with you he is very much in love with her friend if we thought alike of miss bingley replied jane your representation of all this might make me quite easy caroline is incapable of wilfully deceiving anyone and all that i can hope in this case is that she is deceiving herself you could not have started a more happy idea since you will not take comfort in mine you have now done your duty by her and must fret no longer but my dear sister can i be happy even supposing the best in accepting a man whose sisters and friends are all wishing him to marry elsewhere you must decide for yourself said elizabeth and if upon mature deliberation you find that the misery of disobliging his two sisters is more than equivalent to the happiness of being his wife i advise you by all means to refuse him you must know that though i should be exceedingly grieved at their disapprobation i could not hesitate i did not think you would and that being the case i cannot consider your situation with much compassion but if he returns no more this winter my choice will never be required the idea of his returning no more elizabeth treated with the utmost contempt it appeared to her merely the suggestion of carolines interested wishes and she could not for a moment suppose that those wishes however openly or artfully spoken could influence a young man so totally independent of everyone she represented to her sister as forcibly as possible what she felt on the subject and had soon the pleasure of seeing its happy effect janes temper was not desponding and she was gradually led to hope though the diffidence of affection sometimes overcame the hope that bingley would return to netherfield and answer every wish of her heart bennet should only hear of the departure of the family without being alarmed on the score of the gentlemans conduct but even this partial communication gave her a great deal of concern and she bewailed it as exceedingly unlucky that the ladies should happen to go away just as they were all getting so intimate together after lamenting it however at some length she had the consolation that mr bingley would be soon down again and soon dining at longbourn and the conclusion of all was the comfortable declaration that though he had been invited only to a family dinner she would take care to have two full courses chapter  the bennets were engaged to dine with the lucases and again during the chief of the day was miss lucas so kind as to listen to mr it keeps him in good humour said she and i am more obliged to you than i can express charlotte assured her friend of her satisfaction in being useful and that it amply repaid her for the little sacrifice of her time
i am guilty i confess of having often wished you to treat our acquaintance in general with greater attention but when have i advised you to adopt their sentiments or to conform to their judgment in serious matters you have not been able to bring your sister over to your plan of general civility said edward to elinor quite the contrary replied elinor looking expressively at marianne my judgment he returned is all on your side of the question but i am afraid my practice is much more on your sisters i never wish to offend but i am so foolishly shy that i often seem negligent when i am only kept back by my natural awkwardness i have frequently thought that i must have been intended by nature to be fond of low company i am so little at my ease among strangers of gentility marianne has not shyness to excuse any inattention of hers said elinor she knows her own worth too well for false shame replied edward shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other if i could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful i should not be shy but you would still be reserved said marianne and that is worse elinor looked surprised at his emotion but trying to laugh off the subject she said to him do not you know my sister well enough to understand what she means do not you know she calls every one reserved who does not talk as fast and admire what she admires as rapturously as herself his gravity and thoughtfulness returned on him in their fullest extentand he sat for some time silent and dull chapter  elinor saw with great uneasiness the low spirits of her friend his visit afforded her but a very partial satisfaction while his own enjoyment in it appeared so imperfect it was evident that he was unhappy she wished it were equally evident that he still distinguished her by the same affection which once she had felt no doubt of inspiring but hitherto the continuance of his preference seemed very uncertain and the reservedness of his manner towards her contradicted one moment what a more animated look had intimated the preceding one he joined her and marianne in the breakfastroom the next morning before the others were down and marianne who was always eager to promote their happiness as far as she could soon left them to themselves but before she was half way upstairs she heard the parlour door open and turning round was astonished to see edward himself come out i am going into the village to see my horses said he as you are not yet ready for breakfast i shall be back again presently
and still deeper the meaning of that story of narcissus who because he could not grasp the tormenting mild image he saw in the fountain plunged into it and was drowned but that same image we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans it is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life and this is the key to it all now when i say that i am in the habit of going to sea whenever i begin to grow hazy about the eyes and begin to be over conscious of my lungs i do not mean to have it inferred that i ever go to sea as a passenger for to go as a passenger you must needs have a purse and a purse is but a rag unless you have something in it besides passengers get seasickgrow quarrelsomedont sleep of nightsdo not enjoy themselves much as a general thingno i never go as a passenger nor though i am something of a salt do i ever go to sea as a commodore or a captain or a cook i abandon the glory and distinction of such offices to those who like them for my part i abominate all honourable respectable toils trials and tribulations of every kind whatsoever it is quite as much as i can do to take care of myself without taking care of ships barques brigs schooners and what not and as for going as cookthough i confess there is considerable glory in that a cook being a sort of officer on shipboardyet somehow i never fancied broiling fowlsthough once broiled judiciously buttered and judgmatically salted and peppered there is no one who will speak more respectfully not to say reverentially of a broiled fowl than i will it is out of the idolatrous dotings of the old egyptians upon broiled ibis and roasted river horse that you see the mummies of those creatures in their huge bakehouses the pyramids no when i go to sea i go as a simple sailor right before the mast plumb down into the forecastle aloft there to the royal masthead true they rather order me about some and make me jump from spar to spar like a grasshopper in a may meadow and at first this sort of thing is unpleasant enough it touches ones sense of honour particularly if you come of an old established family in the land the van rensselaers or randolphs or hardicanutes and more than all if just previous to putting your hand into the tarpot you have been lording it as a country schoolmaster making the tallest boys stand in awe of you the transition is a keen one i assure you from a schoolmaster to a sailor and requires a strong decoction of seneca and the stoics to enable you to grin and bear it what of it if some old hunks of a seacaptain orders me to get a broom and sweep down the decks what does that indignity amount to weighed i mean in the scales of the new testament do you think the archangel gabriel thinks anything the less of me because i promptly and respectfully obey that old hunks in that particular instance
here tossed about by the sea the beginner feels about as cosy as he would standing on a bulls horns to be sure in cold weather you may carry your house aloft with you in the shape of a watchcoat but properly speaking the thickest watchcoat is no more of a house than the unclad body for as the soul is glued inside of its fleshy tabernacle and cannot freely move about in it nor even move out of it without running great risk of perishing like an ignorant pilgrim crossing the snowy alps in winter so a watchcoat is not so much of a house as it is a mere envelope or additional skin encasing you you cannot put a shelf or chest of drawers in your body and no more can you make a convenient closet of your watchcoat concerning all this it is much to be deplored that the mastheads of a southern whale ship are unprovided with those enviable little tents or pulpits called crowsnests in which the lookouts of a greenland whaler are protected from the inclement weather of the frozen seas in the fireside narrative of captain sleet entitled a voyage among the icebergs in quest of the greenland whale and incidentally for the rediscovery of the lost icelandic colonies of old greenland in this admirable volume all standers of mastheads are furnished with a charmingly circumstantial account of the then recently invented crowsnest of the glacier which was the name of captain sleets good craft he called it the sleets crowsnest in honour of himself he being the original inventor and patentee and free from all ridiculous false delicacy and holding that if we call our own children after our own names we fathers being the original inventors and patentees so likewise should we denominate after ourselves any other apparatus we may beget in shape the sleets crowsnest is something like a large tierce or pipe it is open above however where it is furnished with a movable sidescreen to keep to windward of your head in a hard gale being fixed on the summit of the mast you ascend into it through a little traphatch in the bottom on the after side or side next the stern of the ship is a comfortable seat with a locker underneath for umbrellas comforters and coats in front is a leather rack in which to keep your speaking trumpet pipe telescope and other nautical conveniences when captain sleet in person stood his masthead in this crowsnest of his he tells us that he always had a rifle with him also fixed in the rack together with a powder flask and shot for the purpose of popping off the stray narwhales or vagrant sea unicorns infesting those waters for you cannot successfully shoot at them from the deck owing to the resistance of the water but to shoot down upon them is a very different thing now it was plainly a labor of love for captain sleet to describe as he does all the little detailed conveniences of his crowsnest but though he so enlarges upon many of these and though he treats us to a very scientific account of his experiments in this crowsnest with a small compass he kept there for the purpose of counteracting the errors resulting from what is called the local attraction of all binnacle magnets an error ascribable to the horizontal vicinity of the iron in the ships planks and in the glaciers case perhaps to there having been so many brokendown blacksmiths among her crew i say that though the captain is very discreet and scientific here yet for all his learned binnacle deviations azimuth compass observations and approximate errors he knows very well captain sleet that he was not so much immersed in those profound magnetic meditations as to fail being attracted occasionally towards that well replenished little casebottle so nicely tucked in on one side of his crows nest within easy reach of his hand though upon the whole i greatly admire and even love the brave the honest and learned captain yet i take it very ill of him that he should so utterly ignore that casebottle seeing what a faithful friend and comforter it must have been while with mittened fingers and hooded head he was studying the mathematics aloft there in that birds nest within three or four perches of the pole but if we southern whalefishers are not so snugly housed aloft as captain sleet and his greenlandmen were yet that disadvantage is greatly counterbalanced by the widely contrasting serenity of those seductive seas in which we south fishers mostly float for one i used to lounge up the rigging very leisurely resting in the top to have a chat with queequeg or any one else off duty whom i might find there then ascending a little way further and throwing a lazy leg over the topsail yard take a preliminary view of the watery pastures and so at last mount to my ultimate destination let me make a clean breast of it here and frankly admit that i kept but sorry guard with the problem of the universe revolving in me how could ibeing left completely to myself at such a thoughtengendering altitudehow could i but lightly hold my obligations to observe all whaleships standing orders keep your weather eye open and sing out every time and let me in this place movingly admonish you ye shipowners of nantucket beware of enlisting in your vigilant fisheries any lad with lean brow and hollow eye given to unseasonable meditativeness and who offers to ship with the phaedon instead of bowditch in his head beware of such an one i say your whales must be seen before they can be killed and this sunkeneyed young platonist will tow you ten wakes round the world and never make you one pint of sperm the richer
slowly wading through the meadows of brit the pequod still held on her way northeastward towards the island of java a gentle air impelling her keel so that in the surrounding serenity her three tall tapering masts mildly waved to that languid breeze as three mild palms on a plain and still at wide intervals in the silvery night the lonely alluring jet would be seen but one transparent blue morning when a stillness almost preternatural spread over the sea however unattended with any stagnant calm when the long burnished sunglade on the waters seemed a golden finger laid across them enjoining some secrecy when the slippered waves whispered together as they softly ran on in this profound hush of the visible sphere a strange spectre was seen by daggoo from the mainmasthead in the distance a great white mass lazily rose and rising higher and higher and disentangling itself from the azure at last gleamed before our prow like a snowslide new slid from the hills thus glistening for a moment as slowly it subsided and sank again the phantom went down but on reappearing once more with a stilettolike cry that startled every man from his nod the negro yelled outthere  upon this the seamen rushed to the yardarms as in swarmingtime the bees rush to the boughs bareheaded in the sultry sun ahab stood on the bowsprit and with one hand pushed far behind in readiness to wave his orders to the helmsman cast his eager glance in the direction indicated aloft by the outstretched motionless arm of daggoo whether the flitting attendance of the one still and solitary jet had gradually worked upon ahab so that he was now prepared to connect the ideas of mildness and repose with the first sight of the particular whale he pursued however this was or whether his eagerness betrayed him whichever way it might have been no sooner did he distinctly perceive the white mass than with a quick intensity he instantly gave orders for lowering the four boats were soon on the water ahabs in advance and all swiftly pulling towards their prey soon it went down and while with oars suspended we were awaiting its reappearance lo in the same spot where it sank once more it slowly rose almost forgetting for the moment all thoughts of moby dick we now gazed at the most wondrous phenomenon which the secret seas have hitherto revealed to mankind a vast pulpy mass furlongs in length and breadth of a glancing creamcolour lay floating on the water innumerable long arms radiating from its centre and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas as if blindly to clutch at any hapless object within reach no perceptible face or front did it have no conceivable token of either sensation or instinct but undulated there on the billows an unearthly formless chancelike apparition of life as with a low sucking sound it slowly disappeared again starbuck still gazing at the agitated waters where it had sunk with a wild voice exclaimedalmost rather had i seen moby dick and fought him than to have seen thee thou white ghost the great live squid which they say few whaleships ever beheld and returned to their ports to tell of it but ahab said nothing turning his boat he sailed back to the vessel the rest as silently following whatever superstitions the sperm whalemen in general have connected with the sight of this object certain it is that a glimpse of it being so very unusual that circumstance has gone far to invest it with portentousness so rarely is it beheld that though one and all of them declare it to be the largest animated thing in the ocean yet very few of them have any but the most vague ideas concerning its true nature and form notwithstanding they believe it to furnish to the sperm whale his only food
willoughbys and if they were one day to be your own marianne you would not be justified in what you have done she blushed at this hint but it was even visibly gratifying to her and after a ten minutes interval of earnest thought she came to her sister again and said with great good humour perhaps elinor it was rather illjudged in me to go to allenham but mr willoughby wanted particularly to shew me the place and it is a charming house i assure you there is one remarkably pretty sitting room up stairs of a nice comfortable size for constant use and with modern furniture it would be delightful on one side you look across the bowlinggreen behind the house to a beautiful hanging wood and on the other you have a view of the church and village and beyond them of those fine bold hills that we have so often admired i did not see it to advantage for nothing could be more forlorn than the furniturebut if it were newly fitted upa couple of hundred pounds willoughby says would make it one of the pleasantest summerrooms in england could elinor have listened to her without interruption from the others she would have described every room in the house with equal delight chapter  the sudden termination of colonel brandons visit at the park with his steadiness in concealing its cause filled the mind and raised the wonder of mrs jennings for two or three days she was a great wonderer as every one must be who takes a very lively interest in all the comings and goings of all their acquaintance she wondered with little intermission what could be the reason of it was sure there must be some bad news and thought over every kind of distress that could have befallen him with a fixed determination that he should not escape them all something very melancholy must be the matter i am sure said she the estate at delaford was never reckoned more than two thousand a year and his brother left everything sadly involved i do think he must have been sent for about money matters for what else can it be perhaps it is about miss williams and by the bye i dare say it is because he looked so conscious when i mentioned her may be she is ill in town nothing in the world more likely for i have a notion she is always rather sickly it is not so very likely he should be distressed in his circumstances now for he is a very prudent man and to be sure must have cleared the estate by this time may be his sister is worse at avignon and has sent for him over well i wish him out of all his trouble with all my heart and a good wife into the bargain her opinion varying with every fresh conjecture and all seeming equally probable as they arose elinor though she felt really interested in the welfare of colonel brandon could not bestow all the wonder on his going so suddenly away which mrs
now it was plainly a labor of love for captain sleet to describe as he does all the little detailed conveniences of his crowsnest but though he so enlarges upon many of these and though he treats us to a very scientific account of his experiments in this crowsnest with a small compass he kept there for the purpose of counteracting the errors resulting from what is called the local attraction of all binnacle magnets an error ascribable to the horizontal vicinity of the iron in the ships planks and in the glaciers case perhaps to there having been so many brokendown blacksmiths among her crew i say that though the captain is very discreet and scientific here yet for all his learned binnacle deviations azimuth compass observations and approximate errors he knows very well captain sleet that he was not so much immersed in those profound magnetic meditations as to fail being attracted occasionally towards that well replenished little casebottle so nicely tucked in on one side of his crows nest within easy reach of his hand though upon the whole i greatly admire and even love the brave the honest and learned captain yet i take it very ill of him that he should so utterly ignore that casebottle seeing what a faithful friend and comforter it must have been while with mittened fingers and hooded head he was studying the mathematics aloft there in that birds nest within three or four perches of the pole but if we southern whalefishers are not so snugly housed aloft as captain sleet and his greenlandmen were yet that disadvantage is greatly counterbalanced by the widely contrasting serenity of those seductive seas in which we south fishers mostly float for one i used to lounge up the rigging very leisurely resting in the top to have a chat with queequeg or any one else off duty whom i might find there then ascending a little way further and throwing a lazy leg over the topsail yard take a preliminary view of the watery pastures and so at last mount to my ultimate destination let me make a clean breast of it here and frankly admit that i kept but sorry guard with the problem of the universe revolving in me how could ibeing left completely to myself at such a thoughtengendering altitudehow could i but lightly hold my obligations to observe all whaleships standing orders keep your weather eye open and sing out every time and let me in this place movingly admonish you ye shipowners of nantucket beware of enlisting in your vigilant fisheries any lad with lean brow and hollow eye given to unseasonable meditativeness and who offers to ship with the phaedon instead of bowditch in his head beware of such an one i say your whales must be seen before they can be killed and this sunkeneyed young platonist will tow you ten wakes round the world and never make you one pint of sperm the richer for nowadays the whalefishery furnishes an asylum for many romantic melancholy and absentminded young men disgusted with the carking cares of earth and seeking sentiment in tar and blubber childe harold not unfrequently perches himself upon the masthead of some luckless disappointed whaleship and in moody phrase ejaculates roll on thou deep and dark blue ocean roll ten thousand blubberhunters sweep over thee in vain very often do the captains of such ships take those absentminded young philosophers to task upbraiding them with not feeling sufficient interest in the voyage halfhinting that they are so hopelessly lost to all honourable ambition as that in their secret souls they would rather not see whales than otherwise but all in vain those young platonists have a notion that their vision is imperfect they are shortsighted what use then to strain the visual nerve why thou monkey said a harpooneer to one of these lads weve been cruising now hard upon three years and thou hast not raised a whale yet whales are scarce as hens teeth whenever thou art up here perhaps they were or perhaps there might have been shoals of them in the far horizon but lulled into such an opiumlike listlessness of vacant unconscious reverie is this absentminded youth by the blending cadence of waves with thoughts that at last he loses his identity takes the mystic ocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep blue bottomless soul pervading mankind and nature and every strange halfseen gliding beautiful thing that eludes him every dimlydiscovered uprising fin of some undiscernible form seems to him the embodiment of those elusive thoughts that only people the soul by continually flitting through it in this enchanted mood thy spirit ebbs away to whence it came becomes diffused through time and space like crammersthomas cranmer sprinkled pantheistic ashes forming at last a part of every shore the round globe over there is no life in thee now except that rocking life imparted by a gently rolling ship by her borrowed from the sea by the sea from the inscrutable tides of god but while this sleep this dream is on ye move your foot or hand an inch slip your hold at all and your identity comes back in horror
collinss triumph in consequence of this invitation was complete the power of displaying the grandeur of his patroness to his wondering visitors and of letting them see her civility towards himself and his wife was exactly what he had wished for and that an opportunity of doing it should be given so soon was such an instance of lady catherines condescension as he knew not how to admire enough i confess said he that i should not have been at all surprised by her ladyships asking us on sunday to drink tea and spend the evening at rosings i rather expected from my knowledge of her affability that it would happen but who could have foreseen such an attention as this who could have imagined that we should receive an invitation to dine there an invitation moreover including the whole party so immediately after your arrival i am the less surprised at what has happened replied sir william from that knowledge of what the manners of the great really are which my situation in life has allowed me to acquire about the court such instances of elegant breeding are not uncommon scarcely anything was talked of the whole day or next morning but their visit to rosings collins was carefully instructing them in what they were to expect that the sight of such rooms so many servants and so splendid a dinner might not wholly overpower them when the ladies were separating for the toilette he said to elizabeth do not make yourself uneasy my dear cousin about your apparel lady catherine is far from requiring that elegance of dress in us which becomes herself and her daughter i would advise you merely to put on whatever of your clothes is superior to the restthere is no occasion for anything more lady catherine will not think the worse of you for being simply dressed she likes to have the distinction of rank preserved while they were dressing he came two or three times to their different doors to recommend their being quick as lady catherine very much objected to be kept waiting for her dinner such formidable accounts of her ladyship and her manner of living quite frightened maria lucas who had been little used to company and she looked forward to her introduction at rosings with as much apprehension as her father had done to his presentation at st as the weather was fine they had a pleasant walk of about half a mile across the park every park has its beauty and its prospects and elizabeth saw much to be pleased with though she could not be in such raptures as mr collins expected the scene to inspire and was but slightly affected by his enumeration of the windows in front of the house and his relation of what the glazing altogether had originally cost sir lewis de bourgh
to no creature had it been revealed where secrecy was possible except to elizabeth and from all bingleys connections her brother was particularly anxious to conceal it from the very wish which elizabeth had long ago attributed to him of their becoming hereafter her own he had certainly formed such a plan and without meaning that it should affect his endeavour to separate him from miss bennet it is probable that it might add something to his lively concern for the welfare of his friend elizabeths collected behaviour however soon quieted his emotion and as miss bingley vexed and disappointed dared not approach nearer to wickham georgiana also recovered in time though not enough to be able to speak any more her brother whose eye she feared to meet scarcely recollected her interest in the affair and the very circumstance which had been designed to turn his thoughts from elizabeth seemed to have fixed them on her more and more cheerfully their visit did not continue long after the question and answer above mentioned and while mr darcy was attending them to their carriage miss bingley was venting her feelings in criticisms on elizabeths person behaviour and dress her brothers recommendation was enough to ensure her favour his judgement could not err and he had spoken in such terms of elizabeth as to leave georgiana without the power of finding her otherwise than lovely and amiable when darcy returned to the saloon miss bingley could not help repeating to him some part of what she had been saying to his sister how very ill miss eliza bennet looks this morning mr darcy she cried i never in my life saw anyone so much altered as she is since the winter louisa and i were agreeing that we should not have known her again darcy might have liked such an address he contented himself with coolly replying that he perceived no other alteration than her being rather tanned no miraculous consequence of travelling in the summer for my own part she rejoined i must confess that i never could see any beauty in her her face is too thin her complexion has no brilliancy and her features are not at all handsome her nose wants characterthere is nothing marked in its lines her teeth are tolerable but not out of the common way and as for her eyes which have sometimes been called so fine i could never see anything extraordinary in them they have a sharp shrewish look which i do not like at all and in her air altogether there is a selfsufficiency without fashion which is intolerable persuaded as miss bingley was that darcy admired elizabeth this was not the best method of recommending herself but angry people are not always wise and in seeing him at last look somewhat nettled she had all the success she expected he was resolutely silent however and from a determination of making him speak she continued i remember when we first knew her in hertfordshire how amazed we all were to find that she was a reputed beauty and i particularly recollect your saying one night after they had been dining at netherfield she a beauty
we were clear from the carcase sail had been made the wind was freshening the wild ocean darkness was intense but that darkness was licked up by the fierce flames which at intervals forked forth from the sooty flues and illuminated every lofty rope in the rigging as with the famed greek fire the burning ship drove on as if remorselessly commissioned to some vengeful deed so the pitch and sulphurfreighted brigs of the bold hydriote canaris issuing from their midnight harbors with broad sheets of flame for sails bore down upon the turkish frigates and folded them in conflagrations the hatch removed from the top of the works now afforded a wide hearth in front of them standing on this were the tartarean shapes of the pagan harpooneers always the whaleships stokers with huge pronged poles they pitched hissing masses of blubber into the scalding pots or stirred up the fires beneath till the snaky flames darted curling out of the doors to catch them by the feet to every pitch of the ship there was a pitch of the boiling oil which seemed all eagerness to leap into their faces opposite the mouth of the works on the further side of the wide wooden hearth was the windlass here lounged the watch when not otherwise employed looking into the red heat of the fire till their eyes felt scorched in their heads their tawny features now all begrimed with smoke and sweat their matted beards and the contrasting barbaric brilliancy of their teeth all these were strangely revealed in the capricious emblazonings of the works as they narrated to each other their unholy adventures their tales of terror told in words of mirth as their uncivilized laughter forked upwards out of them like the flames from the furnace as to and fro in their front the harpooneers wildly gesticulated with their huge pronged forks and dippers as the wind howled on and the sea leaped and the ship groaned and dived and yet steadfastly shot her red hell further and further into the blackness of the sea and the night and scornfully champed the white bone in her mouth and viciously spat round her on all sides then the rushing pequod freighted with savages and laden with fire and burning a corpse and plunging into that blackness of darkness seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commanders soul so seemed it to me as i stood at her helm and for long hours silently guided the way of this fireship on the sea wrapped for that interval in darkness myself i but the better saw the redness the madness the ghastliness of others the continual sight of the fiend shapes before me capering half in smoke and half in fire these at last begat kindred visions in my soul so soon as i began to yield to that unaccountable drowsiness which ever would come over me at a midnight helm but that night in particular a strange and ever since inexplicable thing occurred to me starting from a brief standing sleep i was horribly conscious of something fatally wrong the jawbone tiller smote my side which leaned against it in my ears was the low hum of sails just beginning to shake in the wind i thought my eyes were open i was half conscious of putting my fingers to the lids and mechanically stretching them still further apart but spite of all this i could see no compass before me to steer by though it seemed but a minute since i had been watching the card by the steady binnacle lamp illuminating it nothing seemed before me but a jet gloom now and then made ghastly by flashes of redness
dashwood who did not chuse to dine with them oftener than they dined at the cottage absolutely refused on her own account her daughters might do as they pleased palmer ate their dinner and no expectation of pleasure from them in any other way they attempted therefore likewise to excuse themselves the weather was uncertain and not likely to be good but sir john would not be satisfiedthe carriage should be sent for them and they must come lady middleton too though she did not press their mother pressed them palmer joined their entreaties all seemed equally anxious to avoid a family party and the young ladies were obliged to yield the rent of this cottage is said to be low but we have it on very hard terms if we are to dine at the park whenever any one is staying either with them or with us they mean no less to be civil and kind to us now said elinor by these frequent invitations than by those which we received from them a few weeks ago the alteration is not in them if their parties are grown tedious and dull chapter  as the miss dashwoods entered the drawingroom of the park the next day at one door mrs palmer came running in at the other looking as good humoured and merry as before she took them all most affectionately by the hand and expressed great delight in seeing them again said she seating herself between elinor and marianne for it is so bad a day i was afraid you might not come which would be a shocking thing as we go away again tomorrow we must go for the westons come to us next week you know it was quite a sudden thing our coming at all and i knew nothing of it till the carriage was coming to the door and then mr i am so sorry we cannot stay longer however we shall meet again in town very soon i hope they were obliged to put an end to such an expectation palmer with a laugh i shall be quite disappointed if you do not i could get the nicest house in the world for you next door to ours in hanoversquare i am sure i shall be very happy to chaperon you at any time till i am confined if mrs
but however prolonged and exhausting the chase the harpooneer is expected to pull his oar meanwhile to the uttermost indeed he is expected to set an example of superhuman activity to the rest not only by incredible rowing but by repeated loud and intrepid exclamations and what it is to keep shouting at the top of ones compass while all the other muscles are strained and half startedwhat that is none know but those who have tried it for one i cannot bawl very heartily and work very recklessly at one and the same time in this straining bawling state then with his back to the fish all at once the exhausted harpooneer hears the exciting crystand up and give it to him  he now has to drop and secure his oar turn round on his centre half way seize his harpoon from the crotch and with what little strength may remain he essays to pitch it somehow into the whale no wonder taking the whole fleet of whalemen in a body that out of fifty fair chances for a dart not five are successful no wonder that so many hapless harpooneers are madly cursed and disrated no wonder that some of them actually burst their bloodvessels in the boat no wonder that some sperm whalemen are absent four years with four barrels no wonder that to many ship owners whaling is but a losing concern for it is the harpooneer that makes the voyage and if you take the breath out of his body how can you expect to find it there when most wanted again if the dart be successful then at the second critical instant that is when the whale starts to run the boatheader and harpooneer likewise start to running fore and aft to the imminent jeopardy of themselves and every one else it is then they change places and the headsman the chief officer of the little craft takes his proper station in the bows of the boat now i care not who maintains the contrary but all this is both foolish and unnecessary the headsman should stay in the bows from first to last he should both dart the harpoon and the lance and no rowing whatever should be expected of him except under circumstances obvious to any fisherman i know that this would sometimes involve a slight loss of speed in the chase but long experience in various whalemen of more than one nation has convinced me that in the vast majority of failures in the fishery it has not by any means been so much the speed of the whale as the before described exhaustion of the harpooneer that has caused them to insure the greatest efficiency in the dart the harpooneers of this world must start to their feet from out of idleness and not from out of toil out of the trunk the branches grow out of them the twigs the crotch alluded to on a previous page deserves independent mention it is a notched stick of a peculiar form some two feet in length which is perpendicularly inserted into the starboard gunwale near the bow for the purpose of furnishing a rest for the wooden extremity of the harpoon whose other naked barbed end slopingly projects from the prow thereby the weapon is instantly at hand to its hurler who snatches it up as readily from its rest as a backwoodsman swings his rifle from the wall it is customary to have two harpoons reposing in the crotch respectively called the first and second irons but these two harpoons each by its own cord are both connected with the line the object being this to dart them both if possible one instantly after the other into the same whale so that if in the coming drag one should draw out the other may still retain a hold but it very often happens that owing to the instantaneous violent convulsive running of the whale upon receiving the first iron it becomes impossible for the harpooneer however lightninglike in his movements to pitch the second iron into him nevertheless as the second iron is already connected with the line and the line is running hence that weapon must at all events be anticipatingly tossed out of the boat somehow and somewhere else the most terrible jeopardy would involve all hands tumbled into the water it accordingly is in such cases the spare coils of box line mentioned in a preceding chapter making this feat in most instances prudently practicable
but that was certainly very coolly done by him and every one knows that in most peoples estimation to do anything coolly is to do it genteelly we will not speak of all queequegs peculiarities here how he eschewed coffee and hot rolls and applied his undivided attention to beefsteaks done rare enough that when breakfast was over he withdrew like the rest into the public room lighted his tomahawkpipe and was sitting there quietly digesting and smoking with his inseparable hat on when i sallied out for a stroll if i had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of so outlandish an individual as queequeg circulating among the polite society of a civilized town that astonishment soon departed upon taking my first daylight stroll through the streets of new bedford in thoroughfares nigh the docks any considerable seaport will frequently offer to view the queerest looking nondescripts from foreign parts even in broadway and chestnut streets mediterranean mariners will sometimes jostle the affrighted ladies regent street is not unknown to lascars and malays and at bombay in the apollo green live yankees have often scared the natives in these lastmentioned haunts you see only sailors but in new bedford actual cannibals stand chatting at street corners savages outright many of whom yet carry on their bones unholy flesh but besides the feegeeans tongatobooarrs erromanggoans pannangians and brighggians and besides the wild specimens of the whalingcraft which unheeded reel about the streets you will see other sights still more curious certainly more comical there weekly arrive in this town scores of green vermonters and new hampshire men all athirst for gain and glory in the fishery they are mostly young of stalwart frames fellows who have felled forests and now seek to drop the axe and snatch the whalelance many are as green as the green mountains whence they came in some things you would think them but a few hours old he wears a beaver hat and swallowtailed coat girdled with a sailorbelt and sheathknife here comes another with a souwester and a bombazine cloak no townbred dandy will compare with a countrybred onei mean a downright bumpkin dandya fellow that in the dogdays will mow his two acres in buckskin gloves for fear of tanning his hands now when a country dandy like this takes it into his head to make a distinguished reputation and joins the great whalefishery you should see the comical things he does upon reaching the seaport in bespeaking his seaoutfit he orders bellbuttons to his waistcoats straps to his canvas trowsers how bitterly will burst those straps in the first howling gale when thou art driven straps buttons and all down the throat of the tempest but think not that this famous town has only harpooneers cannibals and bumpkins to show her visitors
the magnetic energy as developed in the mariners needle is as all know essentially one with the electricity beheld in heaven hence it is not to be much marvelled at that such things should be instances where the lightning has actually struck the vessel so as to smite down some of the spars and rigging the effect upon the needle has at times been still more fatal all its loadstone virtue being annihilated so that the before magnetic steel was of no more use than an old wifes knitting needle but in either case the needle never again of itself recovers the original virtue thus marred or lost and if the binnacle compasses be affected the same fate reaches all the others that may be in the ship even were the lowermost one inserted into the kelson deliberately standing before the binnacle and eyeing the transpointed compasses the old man with the sharp of his extended hand now took the precise bearing of the sun and satisfied that the needles were exactly inverted shouted out his orders for the ships course to be changed accordingly the yards were hard up and once more the pequod thrust her undaunted bows into the opposing wind for the supposed fair one had only been juggling her meanwhile whatever were his own secret thoughts starbuck said nothing but quietly he issued all requisite orders while stubb and flaskwho in some small degree seemed then to be sharing his feelingslikewise unmurmuringly acquiesced as for the men though some of them lowly rumbled their fear of ahab was greater than their fear of fate but as ever before the pagan harpooneers remained almost wholly unimpressed or if impressed it was only with a certain magnetism shot into their congenial hearts from inflexible ahabs for a space the old man walked the deck in rolling reveries but chancing to slip with his ivory heel he saw the crushed copper sighttubes of the quadrant he had the day before dashed to the deck yesterday i wrecked thee and today the compasses would fain have wrecked me starbucka lance without a pole a topmaul and the smallest of the sailmakers needles accessory perhaps to the impulse dictating the thing he was now about to do were certain prudential motives whose object might have been to revive the spirits of his crew by a stroke of his subtile skill in a matter so wondrous as that of the inverted compasses besides the old man well knew that to steer by transpointed needles though clumsily practicable was not a thing to be passed over by superstitious sailors without some shudderings and evil portents men said he steadily turning upon the crew as the mate handed him the things he had demanded my men the thunder turned old ahabs needles but out of this bit of steel ahab can make one of his own that will point as true as any abashed glances of servile wonder were exchanged by the sailors as this was said and with fascinated eyes they awaited whatever magic might follow with a blow from the topmaul ahab knocked off the steel head of the lance and then handing to the mate the long iron rod remaining bade him hold it upright without its touching the deck then with the maul after repeatedly smiting the upper end of this iron rod he placed the blunted needle endwise on the top of it and less strongly hammered that several times the mate still holding the rod as before then going through some small strange motions with itwhether indispensable to the magnetizing of the steel or merely intended to augment the awe of the crew is uncertainhe called for linen thread and moving to the binnacle slipped out the two reversed needles there and horizontally suspended the sailneedle by its middle over one of the compasscards at first the steel went round and round quivering and vibrating at either end but at last it settled to its place when ahab who had been intently watching for this result stepped frankly back from the binnacle and pointing his stretched arm towards it exclaimedlook ye for yourselves if ahab be not lord of the level loadstone
dear sir   i must trouble you once more for congratulations miss bingleys congratulations to her brother on his approaching marriage were all that was affectionate and insincere she wrote even to jane on the occasion to express her delight and repeat all her former professions of regard jane was not deceived but she was affected and though feeling no reliance on her could not help writing her a much kinder answer than she knew was deserved the joy which miss darcy expressed on receiving similar information was as sincere as her brothers in sending it four sides of paper were insufficient to contain all her delight and all her earnest desire of being loved by her sister collins or any congratulations to elizabeth from his wife the longbourn family heard that the collinses were come themselves to lucas lodge lady catherine had been rendered so exceedingly angry by the contents of her nephews letter that charlotte really rejoicing in the match was anxious to get away till the storm was blown over at such a moment the arrival of her friend was a sincere pleasure to elizabeth though in the course of their meetings she must sometimes think the pleasure dearly bought when she saw mr darcy exposed to all the parading and obsequious civility of her husband he could even listen to sir william lucas when he complimented him on carrying away the brightest jewel of the country and expressed his hopes of their all meeting frequently at st if he did shrug his shoulders it was not till sir william was out of sight phillipss vulgarity was another and perhaps a greater tax on his forbearance and though mrs phillips as well as her sister stood in too much awe of him to speak with the familiarity which bingleys good humour encouraged yet whenever she did speak she must be vulgar nor was her respect for him though it made her more quiet at all likely to make her more elegant elizabeth did all she could to shield him from the frequent notice of either and was ever anxious to keep him to herself and to those of her family with whom he might converse without mortification and though the uncomfortable feelings arising from all this took from the season of courtship much of its pleasure it added to the hope of the future and she looked forward with delight to the time when they should be removed from society so little pleasing to either to all the comfort and elegance of their family party at pemberley chapter  happy for all her maternal feelings was the day on which mrs with what delighted pride she afterwards visited mrs i wish i could say for the sake of her family that the accomplishment of her earnest desire in the establishment of so many of her children produced so happy an effect as to make her a sensible amiable wellinformed woman for the rest of her life though perhaps it was lucky for her husband who might not have relished domestic felicity in so unusual a form that she still was occasionally nervous and invariably silly bennet missed his second daughter exceedingly his affection for her drew him oftener from home than anything else could do
very little was said by either kitty was too much afraid of him to talk elizabeth was secretly forming a desperate resolution and perhaps he might be doing the same they walked towards the lucases because kitty wished to call upon maria and as elizabeth saw no occasion for making it a general concern when kitty left them she went boldly on with him alone now was the moment for her resolution to be executed and while her courage was high she immediately said mr darcy i am a very selfish creature and for the sake of giving relief to my own feelings care not how much i may be wounding yours i can no longer help thanking you for your unexampled kindness to my poor sister ever since i have known it i have been most anxious to acknowledge to you how gratefully i feel it were it known to the rest of my family i should not have merely my own gratitude to express i am sorry exceedingly sorry replied darcy in a tone of surprise and emotion that you have ever been informed of what may in a mistaken light have given you uneasiness lydias thoughtlessness first betrayed to me that you had been concerned in the matter and of course i could not rest till i knew the particulars let me thank you again and again in the name of all my family for that generous compassion which induced you to take so much trouble and bear so many mortifications for the sake of discovering them if you will thank me he replied let it be for yourself alone that the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on i shall not attempt to deny much as i respect them i believe i thought only of you after a short pause her companion added you are too generous to trifle with me if your feelings are still what they were last april tell me so at once my affections and wishes are unchanged but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever elizabeth feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation now forced herself to speak and immediately though not very fluently gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change since the period to which he alluded as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances the happiness which this reply produced was such as he had probably never felt before and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do had elizabeth been able to encounter his eye she might have seen how well the expression of heartfelt delight diffused over his face became him but though she could not look she could listen and he told her of feelings which in proving of what importance she was to him made his affection every moment more valuable there was too much to be thought and felt and said for attention to any other objects
certainly not but if you observe people always live for ever when there is an annuity to be paid them and she is very stout and healthy and hardly forty an annuity is a very serious business it comes over and over every year and there is no getting rid of it i have known a great deal of the trouble of annuities for my mother was clogged with the payment of three to old superannuated servants by my fathers will and it is amazing how disagreeable she found it twice every year these annuities were to be paid and then there was the trouble of getting it to them and then one of them was said to have died and afterwards it turned out to be no such thing her income was not her own she said with such perpetual claims on it and it was the more unkind in my father because otherwise the money would have been entirely at my mothers disposal without any restriction whatever it has given me such an abhorrence of annuities that i am sure i would not pin myself down to the payment of one for all the world dashwood to have those kind of yearly drains on ones income ones fortune as your mother justly says is not ones own to be tied down to the regular payment of such a sum on every rent day is by no means desirable it takes away ones independence undoubtedly and after all you have no thanks for it they think themselves secure you do no more than what is expected and it raises no gratitude at all if i were you whatever i did should be done at my own discretion entirely i would not bind myself to allow them any thing yearly it may be very inconvenient some years to spare a hundred or even fifty pounds from our own expenses i believe you are right my love it will be better that there should be no annuity in the case whatever i may give them occasionally will be of far greater assistance than a yearly allowance because they would only enlarge their style of living if they felt sure of a larger income and would not be sixpence the richer for it at the end of the year a present of fifty pounds now and then will prevent their ever being distressed for money and will i think be amply discharging my promise to my father indeed to say the truth i am convinced within myself that your father had no idea of your giving them any money at all the assistance he thought of i dare say was only such as might be reasonably expected of you for instance such as looking out for a comfortable small house for them helping them to move their things and sending them presents of fish and game and so forth whenever they are in season ill lay my life that he meant nothing farther indeed it would be very strange and unreasonable if he did dashwood how excessively comfortable your motherinlaw and her daughters may live on the interest of seven thousand pounds besides the thousand pounds belonging to each of the girls which brings them in fifty pounds a year apiece and of course they will pay their mother for their board out of it
but more surprising is it to know as has been proved by experiment that the blood of a polar whale is warmer than that of a borneo negro in summer it does seem to me that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality and the rare virtue of thick walls and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness be cool at the equator keep thy blood fluid at the pole but how easy and how hopeless to teach these fine things the peeled white body of the beheaded whale flashes like a marble sepulchre though changed in hue it has not perceptibly lost anything in bulk slowly it floats more and more away the water round it torn and splashed by the insatiate sharks and the air above vexed with rapacious flights of screaming fowls whose beaks are like so many insulting poniards in the whale the vast white headless phantom floats further and further from the ship and every rod that it so floats what seem square roods of sharks and cubic roods of fowls augment the murderous din for hours and hours from the almost stationary ship that hideous sight is seen beneath the unclouded and mild azure sky upon the fair face of the pleasant sea wafted by the joyous breezes that great mass of death floats on and on till lost in infinite perspectives the seavultures all in pious mourning the airsharks all punctiliously in black or speckled in life but few of them would have helped the whale i ween if peradventure he had needed it but upon the banquet of his funeral they most piously do pounce desecrated as the body is a vengeful ghost survives and hovers over it to scare espied by some timid manofwar or blundering discoveryvessel from afar when the distance obscuring the swarming fowls nevertheless still shows the white mass floating in the sun and the white spray heaving high against it straightway the whales unharming corpse with trembling fingers is set down in the logshoals rocks and breakers hereabouts beware and for years afterwards perhaps ships shun the place leaping over it as silly sheep leap over a vacuum because their leader originally leaped there when a stick was held theres your law of precedents theres your utility of traditions theres the story of your obstinate survival of old beliefs never bottomed on the earth and now not even hovering in the air thus while in life the great whales body may have been a real terror to his foes in his death his ghost becomes a powerless panic to a world there are other ghosts than the cocklane one and far deeper men than doctor johnson who believe in them it should not have been omitted that previous to completely stripping the body of the leviathan he was beheaded now the beheading of the sperm whale is a scientific anatomical feat upon which experienced whale surgeons very much pride themselves and not without reason consider that the whale has nothing that can properly be called a neck on the contrary where his head and body seem to join there in that very place is the thickest part of him
but as he destroyed ships as well as for other reasons he must have been a whale and i am strongly inclined to think a sperm whale for a long time i fancied that the sperm whale had been always unknown in the mediterranean and the deep waters connecting with it even now i am certain that those seas are not and perhaps never can be in the present constitution of things a place for his habitual gregarious resort but further investigations have recently proved to me that in modern times there have been isolated instances of the presence of the sperm whale in the mediterranean i am told on good authority that on the barbary coast a commodore davis of the british navy found the skeleton of a sperm whale now as a vessel of war readily passes through the dardanelles hence a sperm whale could by the same route pass out of the mediterranean into the propontis in the propontis as far as i can learn none of that peculiar substance called brit is to be found the aliment of the right whale but i have every reason to believe that the food of the sperm whalesquid or cuttlefishlurks at the bottom of that sea because large creatures but by no means the largest of that sort have been found at its surface if then you properly put these statements together and reason upon them a bit you will clearly perceive that according to all human reasoning procopiuss seamonster that for half a century stove the ships of a roman emperor must in all probability have been a sperm whale though consumed with the hot fire of his purpose ahab in all his thoughts and actions ever had in view the ultimate capture of moby dick though he seemed ready to sacrifice all mortal interests to that one passion nevertheless it may have been that he was by nature and long habituation far too wedded to a fiery whalemans ways altogether to abandon the collateral prosecution of the voyage or at least if this were otherwise there were not wanting other motives much more influential with him it would be refining too much perhaps even considering his monomania to hint that his vindictiveness towards the white whale might have possibly extended itself in some degree to all sperm whales and that the more monsters he slew by so much the more he multiplied the chances that each subsequently encountered whale would prove to be the hated one he hunted but if such an hypothesis be indeed exceptionable there were still additional considerations which though not so strictly according with the wildness of his ruling passion yet were by no means incapable of swaying him to accomplish his object ahab must use tools and of all tools used in the shadow of the moon men are most apt to get out of order he knew for example that however magnetic his ascendency in some respects was over starbuck yet that ascendency did not cover the complete spiritual man any more than mere corporeal superiority involves intellectual mastership for to the purely spiritual the intellectual but stand in a sort of corporeal relation starbucks body and starbucks coerced will were ahabs so long as ahab kept his magnet at starbucks brain still he knew that for all this the chief mate in his soul abhorred his captains quest and could he would joyfully disintegrate himself from it or even frustrate it it might be that a long interval would elapse ere the white whale was seen during that long interval starbuck would ever be apt to fall into open relapses of rebellion against his captains leadership unless some ordinary prudential circumstantial influences were brought to bear upon him not only that but the subtle insanity of ahab respecting moby dick was noways more significantly manifested than in his superlative sense and shrewdness in foreseeing that for the present the hunt should in some way be stripped of that strange imaginative impiousness which naturally invested it that the full terror of the voyage must be kept withdrawn into the obscure background for few mens courage is proof against protracted meditation unrelieved by action that when they stood their long night watches his officers and men must have some nearer things to think of than moby dick for however eagerly and impetuously the savage crew had hailed the announcement of his quest yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliablethey live in the varying outer weather and they inhale its ficklenessand when retained for any object remote and blank in the pursuit however promissory of life and passion in the end it is above all things requisite that temporary interests and employments should intervene and hold them healthily suspended for the final dash
he scarcely ever spoke to her and the assiduous attentions which he had been so sensible of himself were transferred for the rest of the day to miss lucas whose civility in listening to him was a seasonable relief to them all and especially to her friend elizabeth had hoped that his resentment might shorten his visit but his plan did not appear in the least affected by it he was always to have gone on saturday and to saturday he meant to stay after breakfast the girls walked to meryton to inquire if mr wickham were returned and to lament over his absence from the netherfield ball he joined them on their entering the town and attended them to their aunts where his regret and vexation and the concern of everybody was well talked over to elizabeth however he voluntarily acknowledged that the necessity of his absence had been selfimposed i found said he as the time drew near that i had better not meet mr darcy that to be in the same room the same party with him for so many hours together might be more than i could bear and that scenes might arise unpleasant to more than myself she highly approved his forbearance and they had leisure for a full discussion of it and for all the commendation which they civilly bestowed on each other as wickham and another officer walked back with them to longbourn and during the walk he particularly attended to her his accompanying them was a double advantage she felt all the compliment it offered to herself and it was most acceptable as an occasion of introducing him to her father and mother soon after their return a letter was delivered to miss bennet it came from netherfield the envelope contained a sheet of elegant little hotpressed paper well covered with a ladys fair flowing hand and elizabeth saw her sisters countenance change as she read it and saw her dwelling intently on some particular passages jane recollected herself soon and putting the letter away tried to join with her usual cheerfulness in the general conversation but elizabeth felt an anxiety on the subject which drew off her attention even from wickham and no sooner had he and his companion taken leave than a glance from jane invited her to follow her up stairs when they had gained their own room jane taking out the letter said this is from caroline bingley what it contains has surprised me a good deal the whole party have left netherfield by this time and are on their way to townand without any intention of coming back again she then read the first sentence aloud which comprised the information of their having just resolved to follow their brother to town directly and of their meaning to dine in grosvenor street where mr the next was in these words i do not pretend to regret anything i shall leave in hertfordshire except your society my dearest friend but we will hope at some future period to enjoy many returns of that delightful intercourse we have known and in the meanwhile may lessen the pain of separation by a very frequent and most unreserved correspondence to these highflown expressions elizabeth listened with all the insensibility of distrust and though the suddenness of their removal surprised her she saw nothing in it really to lament it was not to be supposed that their absence from netherfield would prevent mr bingleys being there and as to the loss of their society she was persuaded that jane must cease to regard it in the enjoyment of his
the isolated subterraneousness of the cabin made a certain humming silence to reign there though it was hooped round by all the roar of the elements the loaded muskets in the rack were shiningly revealed as they stood upright against the forward bulkhead starbuck was an honest upright man but out of starbucks heart at that instant when he saw the muskets there strangely evolved an evil thought but so blent with its neutral or good accompaniments that for the instant he hardly knew it for itself he would have shot me once he murmured yes theres the very musket that he pointed at methat one with the studded stock let me touch itlift it strange that i who have handled so many deadly lances strange that i should shake so now its a fair wind thats only fair for that accursed fish the very one this onei hold it here he would have killed me with the very thing i handle now does he not say he will not strike his spars to any gale and in these same perilous seas gropes he not his way by mere dead reckoning of the errorabounding log and in this very typhoon did he not swear that he would have no lightningrods but shall this crazed old man be tamely suffered to drag a whole ships company down to doom with him yes it would make him the wilful murderer of thirty men and more if this ship come to any deadly harm and come to deadly harm my soul swears this ship will if ahab have his way if then he were this instantput aside that crime would not be his not reasoning not remonstrance not entreaty wilt thou hearken to all this thou scornest flat obedience to thy own flat commands this is all thou breathest aye and sayst the men have vowd thy vow sayst all of us are ahabs hope to wrest this old mans living power from his own living hands say he were pinioned even knotted all over with ropes and hawsers chained down to ringbolts on this cabin floor he would be more hideous than a caged tiger then i could not endure the sight could not possibly fly his howlings all comfort sleep itself inestimable reason would leave me on the long intolerable voyage the land is hundreds of leagues away and locked japan the nearest
reynolds replied that he was adding but we expect him tomorrow with a large party of friends how rejoiced was elizabeth that their own journey had not by any circumstance been delayed a day wickham suspended amongst several other miniatures over the mantelpiece the housekeeper came forward and told them it was a picture of a young gentleman the son of her late masters steward who had been brought up by him at his own expense he is now gone into the army she added but i am afraid he has turned out very wild gardiner looked at her niece with a smile but elizabeth could not return it reynolds pointing to another of the miniatures is my masterand very like him it was drawn at the same time as the otherabout eight years ago i have heard much of your masters fine person said mrs gardiner looking at the picture it is a handsome face but lizzy you can tell us whether it is like or not reynolds respect for elizabeth seemed to increase on this intimation of her knowing her master and do not you think him a very handsome gentleman maam i am sure i know none so handsome but in the gallery up stairs you will see a finer larger picture of him than this this room was my late masters favourite room and these miniatures are just as they used to be then reynolds then directed their attention to one of miss darcy drawn when she was only eight years old yesthe handsomest young lady that ever was seen and so accomplished in the next room is a new instrument just come down for hera present from my master she comes here tomorrow with him gardiner whose manners were very easy and pleasant encouraged her communicativeness by his questions and remarks mrs reynolds either by pride or attachment had evidently great pleasure in talking of her master and his sister
pull then do pull never mind the brimstonedevils are good fellows enough so so there you are now thats the stroke for a thousand pounds thats the stroke to sweep the stakes the devil fetch ye ye ragamuffin rapscallions ye are all asleep why in the name of gudgeons and gingercakes dont ye pull whipping out the sharp knife from his girdle every mothers son of ye draw his knife and pull with the blade between his teeth now ye do something that looks like it my steelbits stubbs exordium to his crew is given here at large because he had rather a peculiar way of talking to them in general and especially in inculcating the religion of rowing but you must not suppose from this specimen of his sermonizings that he ever flew into downright passions with his congregation not at all and therein consisted his chief peculiarity he would say the most terrific things to his crew in a tone so strangely compounded of fun and fury and the fury seemed so calculated merely as a spice to the fun that no oarsman could hear such queer invocations without pulling for dear life and yet pulling for the mere joke of the thing besides he all the time looked so easy and indolent himself so loungingly managed his steeringoar and so broadly gapedopenmouthed at timesthat the mere sight of such a yawning commander by sheer force of contrast acted like a charm upon the crew then again stubb was one of those odd sort of humorists whose jollity is sometimes so curiously ambiguous as to put all inferiors on their guard in the matter of obeying them in obedience to a sign from ahab starbuck was now pulling obliquely across stubbs bow and when for a minute or so the two boats were pretty near to each other stubb hailed the mate returned starbuck turning round not a single inch as he spoke still earnestly but whisperingly urging his crew his face set like a flint from stubbs  in a whisper to his crew then speaking out loud again a sad business mr aye aye i thought as much soliloquized stubb when the boats diverged as soon as i clapt eye on em i thought so aye and thats what he went into the after hold for so often as doughboy long suspected now the advent of these outlandish strangers at such a critical instant as the lowering of the boats from the deck this had not unreasonably awakened a sort of superstitious amazement in some of the ships company but archys fancied discovery having some time previous got abroad among them though indeed not credited then this had in some small measure prepared them for the event it took off the extreme edge of their wonder and so what with all this and stubbs confident way of accounting for their appearance they were for the time freed from superstitious surmisings though the affair still left abundant room for all manner of wild conjectures as to dark ahabs precise agency in the matter from the beginning for me i silently recalled the mysterious shadows i had seen creeping on board the pequod during the dim nantucket dawn as well as the enigmatical hintings of the unaccountable elijah
but he cannot in any degree breathe through his mouth for in his ordinary attitude the sperm whales mouth is buried at least eight feet beneath the surface and what is still more his windpipe has no connexion with his mouth no he breathes through his spiracle alone and this is on the top of his head if i say that in any creature breathing is only a function indispensable to vitality inasmuch as it withdraws from the air a certain element which being subsequently brought into contact with the blood imparts to the blood its vivifying principle i do not think i shall err though i may possibly use some superfluous scientific words assume it and it follows that if all the blood in a man could be aerated with one breath he might then seal up his nostrils and not fetch another for a considerable time that is to say he would then live without breathing anomalous as it may seem this is precisely the case with the whale who systematically lives by intervals his full hour and more when at the bottom without drawing a single breath or so much as in any way inhaling a particle of air for remember he has no gills between his ribs and on each side of his spine he is supplied with a remarkable involved cretan labyrinth of vermicellilike vessels which vessels when he quits the surface are completely distended with oxygenated blood so that for an hour or more a thousand fathoms in the sea he carries a surplus stock of vitality in him just as the camel crossing the waterless desert carries a surplus supply of drink for future use in its four supplementary stomachs the anatomical fact of this labyrinth is indisputable and that the supposition founded upon it is reasonable and true seems the more cogent to me when i consider the otherwise inexplicable obstinacy of that leviathan in having his spoutings out as the fishermen phrase it if unmolested upon rising to the surface the sperm whale will continue there for a period of time exactly uniform with all his other unmolested risings say he stays eleven minutes and jets seventy times that is respires seventy breaths then whenever he rises again he will be sure to have his seventy breaths over again to a minute now if after he fetches a few breaths you alarm him so that he sounds he will be always dodging up again to make good his regular allowance of air and not till those seventy breaths are told will he finally go down to stay out his full term below remark however that in different individuals these rates are different but in any one they are alike now why should the whale thus insist upon having his spoutings out unless it be to replenish his reservoir of air ere descending for good how obvious is it too that this necessity for the whales rising exposes him to all the fatal hazards of the chase for not by hook or by net could this vast leviathan be caught when sailing a thousand fathoms beneath the sunlight not so much thy skill then o hunter as the great necessities that strike the victory to thee in man breathing is incessantly going onone breath only serving for two or three pulsations so that whatever other business he has to attend to waking or sleeping breathe he must or die he will but the sperm whale only breathes about one seventh or sunday of his time
between the marble cenotaphs on either hand of the pulpit the wall which formed its back was adorned with a large painting representing a gallant ship beating against a terrible storm off a lee coast of black rocks and snowy breakers but high above the flying scud and darkrolling clouds there floated a little isle of sunlight from which beamed forth an angels face and this bright face shed a distinct spot of radiance upon the ships tossed deck something like that silver plate now inserted into the victorys plank where nelson fell ah noble ship the angel seemed to say beat on beat on thou noble ship and bear a hardy helm for lo the sun is breaking through the clouds are rolling offserenest azure is at hand nor was the pulpit itself without a trace of the same seataste that had achieved the ladder and the picture its panelled front was in the likeness of a ships bluff bows and the holy bible rested on a projecting piece of scroll work fashioned after a ships fiddleheaded beak for the pulpit is ever this earths foremost part all the rest comes in its rear the pulpit leads the world from thence it is the storm of gods quick wrath is first descried and the bow must bear the earliest brunt from thence it is the god of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favourable winds yes the worlds a ship on its passage out and not a voyage complete and the pulpit is its prow father mapple rose and in a mild voice of unassuming authority ordered the scattered people to condense there was a low rumbling of heavy seaboots among the benches and a still slighter shuffling of womens shoes and all was quiet again and every eye on the preacher he paused a little then kneeling in the pulpits bows folded his large brown hands across his chest uplifted his closed eyes and offered a prayer so deeply devout that he seemed kneeling and praying at the bottom of the sea this ended in prolonged solemn tones like the continual tolling of a bell in a ship that is foundering at sea in a fogin such tones he commenced reading the following hymn but changing his manner towards the concluding stanzas burst forth with a pealing exultation and joy the ribs and terrors in the whale      arched over me a dismal gloom      while all gods sunlit waves rolled by      and lift me deepening down to doom i saw the opening maw of hell with endless pains and sorrows there which none but they that feel can tell oh i was plunging to despair in black distress i called my god      when i could scarce believe him mine      he bowed his ear to my complaints      no more the whale did me confine with speed he flew to my relief as on a radiant dolphin borne awful yet bright as lightning shone the face of my deliverer god my song for ever shall record      that terrible that joyful hour      i give the glory to my god      his all the mercy and the power nearly all joined in singing this hymn which swelled high above the howling of the storm a brief pause ensued the preacher slowly turned over the leaves of the bible and at last folding his hand down upon the proper page said beloved shipmates clinch the last verse of the first chapter of jonahand god had prepared a great fish to swallow up jonah
now were even poor pip here i could endure it but hes missing neither lock nor bolt nor bar and yet theres no opening it it must be the spell he told me to stay here aye and told me this screwed chair was mine here then ill seat me against the transom in the ships full middle all her keel and her three masts before me here our old sailors say in their black seventyfours great admirals sometimes sit at table and lord it over rows of captains and lieutenants pass round the decanters glad to see ye fill up monsieurs what an odd feeling now when a black boys host to white men with gold lace upon their coats a little negro lad five feet high hangdog look and cowardly well then fill up again captains and lets drink shame upon all cowards but here ill stay though this stern strikes rocks and they bulge through and oysters come to join me and now that at the proper time and place after so long and wide a preliminary cruise ahaball other whaling waters sweptseemed to have chased his foe into an oceanfold to slay him the more securely there now that he found himself hard by the very latitude and longitude where his tormenting wound had been inflicted now that a vessel had been spoken which on the very day preceding had actually encountered moby dickand now that all his successive meetings with various ships contrastingly concurred to show the demoniac indifference with which the white whale tore his hunters whether sinning or sinned against now it was that there lurked a something in the old mans eyes which it was hardly sufferable for feeble souls to see as the unsetting polar star which through the livelong arctic six months night sustains its piercing steady central gaze so ahabs purpose now fixedly gleamed down upon the constant midnight of the gloomy crew it domineered above them so that all their bodings doubts misgivings fears were fain to hide beneath their souls and not sprout forth a single spear or leaf in this foreshadowing interval too all humor forced or natural vanished stubb no more strove to raise a smile starbuck no more strove to check one alike joy and sorrow hope and fear seemed ground to finest dust and powdered for the time in the clamped mortar of ahabs iron soul like machines they dumbly moved about the deck ever conscious that the old mans despot eye was on them but did you deeply scan him in his more secret confidential hours when he thought no glance but one was on him then you would have seen that even as ahabs eyes so awed the crews the inscrutable parsees glance awed his or somehow at least in some wild way at times affected it such an added gliding strangeness began to invest the thin fedallah now such ceaseless shudderings shook him that the men looked dubious at him half uncertain as it seemed whether indeed he were a mortal substance or else a tremulous shadow cast upon the deck by some unseen beings body for not by night even had fedallah ever certainly been known to slumber or go below
gardiner looked at her niece desirous of knowing how she whom the invitation most concerned felt disposed as to its acceptance but elizabeth had turned away her head presuming however that this studied avoidance spoke rather a momentary embarrassment than any dislike of the proposal and seeing in her husband who was fond of society a perfect willingness to accept it she ventured to engage for her attendance and the day after the next was fixed on bingley expressed great pleasure in the certainty of seeing elizabeth again having still a great deal to say to her and many inquiries to make after all their hertfordshire friends elizabeth construing all this into a wish of hearing her speak of her sister was pleased and on this account as well as some others found herself when their visitors left them capable of considering the last halfhour with some satisfaction though while it was passing the enjoyment of it had been little eager to be alone and fearful of inquiries or hints from her uncle and aunt she stayed with them only long enough to hear their favourable opinion of bingley and then hurried away to dress gardiners curiosity it was not their wish to force her communication it was evident that she was much better acquainted with mr darcy than they had before any idea of it was evident that he was very much in love with her they saw much to interest but nothing to justify inquiry darcy it was now a matter of anxiety to think well and as far as their acquaintance reached there was no fault to find they could not be untouched by his politeness and had they drawn his character from their own feelings and his servants report without any reference to any other account the circle in hertfordshire to which he was known would not have recognized it for mr there was now an interest however in believing the housekeeper and they soon became sensible that the authority of a servant who had known him since he was four years old and whose own manners indicated respectability was not to be hastily rejected neither had anything occurred in the intelligence of their lambton friends that could materially lessen its weight they had nothing to accuse him of but pride pride he probably had and if not it would certainly be imputed by the inhabitants of a small markettown where the family did not visit it was acknowledged however that he was a liberal man and did much good among the poor with respect to wickham the travellers soon found that he was not held there in much estimation for though the chief of his concerns with the son of his patron were imperfectly understood it was yet a wellknown fact that on his quitting derbyshire he had left many debts behind him which mr as for elizabeth her thoughts were at pemberley this evening more than the last and the evening though as it passed it seemed long was not long enough to determine her feelings towards one in that mansion and she lay awake two whole hours endeavouring to make them out no hatred had vanished long ago and she had almost as long been ashamed of ever feeling a dislike against him that could be so called the respect created by the conviction of his valuable qualities though at first unwillingly admitted had for some time ceased to be repugnant to her feeling and it was now heightened into somewhat of a friendlier nature by the testimony so highly in his favour and bringing forward his disposition in so amiable a light which yesterday had produced but above all above respect and esteem there was a motive within her of goodwill which could not be overlooked
 i tell ye what it is men cried stubb to his crewits against my religion to get mad but id like to eat that villainous yarmanpullwont ye whos that been dropping an anchor overboardwe dont budge an inchwere becalmed halloo heres grass growing in the boats bottomand by the lord the mast theres budding the short and long of it is men will ye spit fire or not cried flask dancing up and downwhat a humpoh do pile on the beeflays like a log my lads do springslapjacks and quahogs for supper you know my ladsbaked clams and muffinsoh do do springhes a hundred barrellerdont lose him nowdont oh dont see that yarmanoh wont ye pull for your duff my ladssuch a sog  at this moment derick was in the act of pitching his lampfeeder at the advancing boats and also his oilcan perhaps with the double view of retarding his rivals way and at the same time economically accelerating his own by the momentary impetus of the backward toss pull now men like fifty thousand lineofbattleship loads of redhaired devils what dye say tashtego are you the man to snap your spine in twoandtwenty pieces for the honour of old gayhead fiercely but evenly incited by the taunts of the german the pequods three boats now began ranging almost abreast and so disposed momentarily neared him in that fine loose chivalrous attitude of the headsman when drawing near to his prey the three mates stood up proudly occasionally backing the after oarsman with an exhilarating cry of there she slides now but so decided an original start had derick had that spite of all their gallantry he would have proved the victor in this race had not a righteous judgment descended upon him in a crab which caught the blade of his midship oarsman while this clumsy lubber was striving to free his whiteash and while in consequence dericks boat was nigh to capsizing and he thundering away at his men in a mighty ragethat was a good time for starbuck stubb and flask with a shout they took a mortal start forwards and slantingly ranged up on the germans quarter an instant more and all four boats were diagonically in the whales immediate wake while stretching from them on both sides was the foaming swell that he made it was a terrific most pitiable and maddening sight the whale was now going head out and sending his spout before him in a continual tormented jet while his one poor fin beat his side in an agony of fright now to this hand now to that he yawed in his faltering flight and still at every billow that he broke he spasmodically sank in the sea or sideways rolled towards the sky his one beating fin so have i seen a bird with clipped wing making affrighted broken circles in the air vainly striving to escape the piratical hawks
he was like one of those unreasoning but still highly useful multum in parvo sheffield contrivances assuming the exteriorthough a little swelledof a common pocket knife but containing not only blades of various sizes but also screwdrivers corkscrews tweezers awls pens rulers nailfilers countersinkers so if his superiors wanted to use the carpenter for a screwdriver all they had to do was to open that part of him and the screw was fast or if for tweezers take him up by the legs and there they were yet as previously hinted this omnitooled openandshut carpenter was after all no mere machine of an automaton if he did not have a common soul in him he had a subtle something that somehow anomalously did its duty what that was whether essence of quicksilver or a few drops of hartshorn there is no telling but there it was and there it had abided for now some sixty years or more and this it was this same unaccountable cunning lifeprinciple in him this it was that kept him a great part of the time soliloquizing but only like an unreasoning wheel which also hummingly soliloquizes or rather his body was a sentrybox and this soliloquizer on guard there and talking all the time to keep himself awake carpenter standing before his vicebench and by the light of two lanterns busily filing the ivory joist for the leg which joist is firmly fixed in the vice slabs of ivory leather straps pads screws and various tools of all sorts lying about the bench forward the red flame of the forge is seen where the blacksmith is at work that is hard which should be soft and that is soft which should be hard halloa this bone dust is sneezeswhy its sneezesyes its sneezesbless my soul it wont let me speak this is what an old fellow gets now for working in dead lumber saw a live tree and you dont get this dust amputate a live bone and you dont get it sneezes come come you old smut there bear a hand and lets have that ferule and bucklescrew ill be ready for them presently lucky now sneezes theres no kneejoint to make that might puzzle a little but a mere shinbonewhy its easy as making hoppoles only i should like to put a good finish on time time if i but only had the time i could turn him out as neat a leg now as ever sneezes scraped to a lady in a parlor those buckskin legs and calves of legs ive seen in shop windows wouldnt compare at all they soak water they do and of course get rheumatic and have to be doctored sneezes with washes and lotions just like live legs there before i saw it off now i must call his old mogulship and see whether the length will be all right too short if anything i guess
for however eagerly and impetuously the savage crew had hailed the announcement of his quest yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliablethey live in the varying outer weather and they inhale its ficklenessand when retained for any object remote and blank in the pursuit however promissory of life and passion in the end it is above all things requisite that temporary interests and employments should intervene and hold them healthily suspended for the final dash in times of strong emotion mankind disdain all base considerations but such times are evanescent the permanent constitutional condition of the manufactured man thought ahab is sordidness granting that the white whale fully incites the hearts of this my savage crew and playing round their savageness even breeds a certain generous knighterrantism in them still while for the love of it they give chase to moby dick they must also have food for their more common daily appetites for even the high lifted and chivalric crusaders of old times were not content to traverse two thousand miles of land to fight for their holy sepulchre without committing burglaries picking pockets and gaining other pious perquisites by the way had they been strictly held to their one final and romantic objectthat final and romantic object too many would have turned from in disgust i will not strip these men thought ahab of all hopes of cashaye cash they may scorn cash now but let some months go by and no perspective promise of it to them and then this same quiescent cash all at once mutinying in them this same cash would soon cashier ahab nor was there wanting still another precautionary motive more related to ahab personally having impulsively it is probable and perhaps somewhat prematurely revealed the prime but private purpose of the pequods voyage ahab was now entirely conscious that in so doing he had indirectly laid himself open to the unanswerable charge of usurpation and with perfect impunity both moral and legal his crew if so disposed and to that end competent could refuse all further obedience to him and even violently wrest from him the command from even the barely hinted imputation of usurpation and the possible consequences of such a suppressed impression gaining ground ahab must of course have been most anxious to protect himself that protection could only consist in his own predominating brain and heart and hand backed by a heedful closely calculating attention to every minute atmospheric influence which it was possible for his crew to be subjected to for all these reasons then and others perhaps too analytic to be verbally developed here ahab plainly saw that he must still in a good degree continue true to the natural nominal purpose of the pequods voyage observe all customary usages and not only that but force himself to evince all his well known passionate interest in the general pursuit of his profession be all this as it may his voice was now often heard hailing the three mastheads and admonishing them to keep a bright lookout and not omit reporting even a porpoise it was a cloudy sultry afternoon the seamen were lazily lounging about the decks or vacantly gazing over into the leadcoloured waters queequeg and i were mildly employed weaving what is called a swordmat for an additional lashing to our boat so still and subdued and yet somehow preluding was all the scene and such an incantation of reverie lurked in the air that each silent sailor seemed resolved into his own invisible self i was the attendant or page of queequeg while busy at the mat as i kept passing and repassing the filling or woof of marline between the long yarns of the warp using my own hand for the shuttle and as queequeg standing sideways ever and anon slid his heavy oaken sword between the threads and idly looking off upon the water carelessly and unthinkingly drove home every yarn i say so strange a dreaminess did there then reign all over the ship and all over the sea only broken by the intermitting dull sound of the sword that it seemed as if this were the loom of time and i myself were a shuttle mechanically weaving and weaving away at the fates there lay the fixed threads of the warp subject to but one single ever returning unchanging vibration and that vibration merely enough to admit of the crosswise interblending of other threads with its own
she then took a large house in edwardstreet and has since maintained herself by letting lodgings younge was he knew intimately acquainted with wickham and he went to her for intelligence of him as soon as he got to town but it was two or three days before he could get from her what he wanted she would not betray her trust i suppose without bribery and corruption for she really did know where her friend was to be found wickham indeed had gone to her on their first arrival in london and had she been able to receive them into her house they would have taken up their abode with her at length however our kind friend procured the wishedfor direction he saw wickham and afterwards insisted on seeing lydia his first object with her he acknowledged had been to persuade her to quit her present disgraceful situation and return to her friends as soon as they could be prevailed on to receive her offering his assistance as far as it would go but he found lydia absolutely resolved on remaining where she was she cared for none of her friends she wanted no help of his she would not hear of leaving wickham she was sure they should be married some time or other and it did not much signify when since such were her feelings it only remained he thought to secure and expedite a marriage which in his very first conversation with wickham he easily learnt had never been his design he confessed himself obliged to leave the regiment on account of some debts of honour which were very pressing and scrupled not to lay all the illconsequences of lydias flight on her own folly alone he meant to resign his commission immediately and as to his future situation he could conjecture very little about it he must go somewhere but he did not know where and he knew he should have nothing to live on darcy asked him why he had not married your sister at once bennet was not imagined to be very rich he would have been able to do something for him and his situation must have been benefited by marriage but he found in reply to this question that wickham still cherished the hope of more effectually making his fortune by marriage in some other country under such circumstances however he was not likely to be proof against the temptation of immediate relief they met several times for there was much to be discussed
whether marching amid his aides and marshals in the van of countless cohorts that endlessly streamed it over the plains like an ohio or whether with his circumambient subjects browsing all around at the horizon the white steed gallopingly reviewed them with warm nostrils reddening through his cool milkiness in whatever aspect he presented himself always to the bravest indians he was the object of trembling reverence and awe nor can it be questioned from what stands on legendary record of this noble horse that it was his spiritual whiteness chiefly which so clothed him with divineness and that this divineness had that in it which though commanding worship at the same time enforced a certain nameless terror but there are other instances where this whiteness loses all that accessory and strange glory which invests it in the white steed and albatross what is it that in the albino man so peculiarly repels and often shocks the eye as that sometimes he is loathed by his own kith and kin it is that whiteness which invests him a thing expressed by the name he bears the albino is as well made as other menhas no substantive deformityand yet this mere aspect of allpervading whiteness makes him more strangely hideous than the ugliest abortion nor in quite other aspects does nature in her least palpable but not the less malicious agencies fail to enlist among her forces this crowning attribute of the terrible from its snowy aspect the gauntleted ghost of the southern seas has been denominated the white squall nor in some historic instances has the art of human malice omitted so potent an auxiliary how wildly it heightens the effect of that passage in froissart when masked in the snowy symbol of their faction the desperate white hoods of ghent murder their bailiff in the marketplace nor in some things does the common hereditary experience of all mankind fail to bear witness to the supernaturalism of this hue it cannot well be doubted that the one visible quality in the aspect of the dead which most appals the gazer is the marble pallor lingering there as if indeed that pallor were as much like the badge of consternation in the other world as of mortal trepidation here and from that pallor of the dead we borrow the expressive hue of the shroud in which we wrap them nor even in our superstitions do we fail to throw the same snowy mantle round our phantoms all ghosts rising in a milkwhite fogyea while these terrors seize us let us add that even the king of terrors when personified by the evangelist rides on his pallid horse therefore in his other moods symbolize whatever grand or gracious thing he will by whiteness no man can deny that in its profoundest idealized significance it calls up a peculiar apparition to the soul but though without dissent this point be fixed how is mortal man to account for it can we then by the citation of some of those instances wherein this thing of whitenessthough for the time either wholly or in great part stripped of all direct associations calculated to impart to it aught fearful but nevertheless is found to exert over us the same sorcery however modifiedcan we thus hope to light upon some chance clue to conduct us to the hidden cause we seek but in a matter like this subtlety appeals to subtlety and without imagination no man can follow another into these halls and though doubtless some at least of the imaginative impressions about to be presented may have been shared by most men yet few perhaps were entirely conscious of them at the time and therefore may not be able to recall them now why to the man of untutored ideality who happens to be but loosely acquainted with the peculiar character of the day does the bare mention of whitsuntide marshal in the fancy such long dreary speechless processions of slowpacing pilgrims downcast and hooded with newfallen snow
this lovely light it lights not me all loveliness is anguish to me since i can neer enjoy gifted with the high perception i lack the low enjoying power damned most subtly and most malignantly i thought to find one stubborn at the least but my one cogged circle fits into all their various wheels and they revolve or if you will like so many anthills of powder they all stand before me and i their match that to fire others the match itself must needs be wasting what i ve dared ive willed and what ive willed ill do they think me madstarbuck does but im demoniac i am madness maddened that wild madness thats only calm to comprehend itself the prophecy was that i should be dismembered andaye i now prophesy that i will dismember my dismemberer i laugh and hoot at ye ye cricketplayers ye pugilists ye deaf burkes and blinded bendigoes i will not say as schoolboys do to bulliestake some one of your own size dont pommel me no yeve knocked me down and i am up again but ye have run and hidden come ahabs compliments to ye come and see if ye can swerve me the path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails whereon my soul is grooved to run over unsounded gorges through the rifled hearts of mountains under torrents beds unerringly i rush naughts an obstacle naughts an angle to the iron way my soul is more than matched shes overmanned and by a madman insufferable sting that sanity should ground arms on such a field but he drilled deep down and blasted all my reason out of me
after its first blunderborn discovery by a dutchman all other ships long shunned those shores as pestiferously barbarous but the whaleship touched there the whaleship is the true mother of that now mighty colony moreover in the infancy of the first australian settlement the emigrants were several times saved from starvation by the benevolent biscuit of the whaleship luckily dropping an anchor in their waters the uncounted isles of all polynesia confess the same truth and do commercial homage to the whaleship that cleared the way for the missionary and the merchant and in many cases carried the primitive missionaries to their first destinations if that doublebolted land japan is ever to become hospitable it is the whaleship alone to whom the credit will be due for already she is on the threshold but if in the face of all this you still declare that whaling has no aesthetically noble associations connected with it then am i ready to shiver fifty lances with you there and unhorse you with a split helmet every time the whale has no famous author and whaling no famous chronicler you will say the whale no famous author and whaling no famous chronicler and who composed the first narrative of a whalingvoyage who but no less a prince than alfred the great who with his own royal pen took down the words from other the norwegian whalehunter of those times and who pronounced our glowing eulogy in parliament true enough but then whalemen themselves are poor devils they have no good blood in their veins the grandmother of benjamin franklin was mary morrel afterwards by marriage mary folger one of the old settlers of nantucket and the ancestress to a long line of folgers and harpooneersall kith and kin to noble benjaminthis day darting the barbed iron from one side of the world to the other good again but then all confess that somehow whaling is not respectable by old english statutory law the whale is declared a royal fish the whale himself has never figured in any grand imposing way in one of the mighty triumphs given to a roman general upon his entering the worlds capital the bones of a whale brought all the way from the syrian coast were the most conspicuous object in the cymballed procession  see subsequent chapters for something more on this head grant it since you cite it but say what you will there is no real dignity in whaling drive down your hat in presence of the czar and take it off to queequeg
to all the objections i have already urged i have still another to add i am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sisters infamous elopement i know it all that the young mans marrying her was a patchedup business at the expence of your father and uncles is her husband is the son of his late fathers steward to be his brother you can now have nothing further to say she resentfully answered you have no regard then for the honour and credit of my nephew do you not consider that a connection with you must disgrace him in the eyes of everybody i am only resolved to act in that manner which will in my own opinion constitute my happiness without reference to you or to any person so wholly unconnected with me you refuse to obey the claims of duty honour and gratitude you are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends and make him the contempt of the world neither duty nor honour nor gratitude replied elizabeth have any possible claim on me in the present instance no principle of either would be violated by my marriage with mr and with regard to the resentment of his family or the indignation of the world if the former were excited by his marrying me it would not give me one moments concernand the world in general would have too much sense to join in the scorn do not imagine miss bennet that your ambition will ever be gratified i hoped to find you reasonable but depend upon it i will carry my point in this manner lady catherine talked on till they were at the door of the carriage when turning hastily round she added i take no leave of you miss bennet elizabeth made no answer and without attempting to persuade her ladyship to return into the house walked quietly into it herself she heard the carriage drive away as she proceeded up stairs her mother impatiently met her at the door of the dressingroom to ask why lady catherine would not come in again and rest herself she did not choose it said her daughter she would go
but though to landsmen in general the native inhabitants of the seas have ever been regarded with emotions unspeakably unsocial and repelling though we know the sea to be an everlasting terra incognita so that columbus sailed over numberless unknown worlds to discover his one superficial western one though by vast odds the most terrific of all mortal disasters have immemorially and indiscriminately befallen tens and hundreds of thousands of those who have gone upon the waters though but a moments consideration will teach that however baby man may brag of his science and skill and however much in a flattering future that science and skill may augment yet for ever and for ever to the crack of doom the sea will insult and murder him and pulverize the stateliest stiffest frigate he can make nevertheless by the continual repetition of these very impressions man has lost that sense of the full awfulness of the sea which aboriginally belongs to it the first boat we read of floated on an ocean that with portuguese vengeance had whelmed a whole world without leaving so much as a widow that same ocean rolls now that same ocean destroyed the wrecked ships of last year yea foolish mortals noahs flood is not yet subsided two thirds of the fair world it yet covers wherein differ the sea and the land that a miracle upon one is not a miracle upon the other preternatural terrors rested upon the hebrews when under the feet of korah and his company the live ground opened and swallowed them up for ever yet not a modern sun ever sets but in precisely the same manner the live sea swallows up ships and crews but not only is the sea such a foe to man who is an alien to it but it is also a fiend to its own offspring worse than the persian host who murdered his own guests sparing not the creatures which itself hath spawned like a savage tigress that tossing in the jungle overlays her own cubs so the sea dashes even the mightiest whales against the rocks and leaves them there side by side with the split wrecks of ships panting and snorting like a mad battle steed that has lost its rider the masterless ocean overruns the globe consider the subtleness of the sea how its most dreaded creatures glide under water unapparent for the most part and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks consider once more the universal cannibalism of the sea all whose creatures prey upon each other carrying on eternal war since the world began consider all this and then turn to this green gentle and most docile earth consider them both the sea and the land and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself for as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land so in the soul of man there lies one insular tahiti full of peace and joy but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life push not off from that isle thou canst never return slowly wading through the meadows of brit the pequod still held on her way northeastward towards the island of java a gentle air impelling her keel so that in the surrounding serenity her three tall tapering masts mildly waved to that languid breeze as three mild palms on a plain and still at wide intervals in the silvery night the lonely alluring jet would be seen but one transparent blue morning when a stillness almost preternatural spread over the sea however unattended with any stagnant calm when the long burnished sunglade on the waters seemed a golden finger laid across them enjoining some secrecy when the slippered waves whispered together as they softly ran on in this profound hush of the visible sphere a strange spectre was seen by daggoo from the mainmasthead in the distance a great white mass lazily rose and rising higher and higher and disentangling itself from the azure at last gleamed before our prow like a snowslide new slid from the hills thus glistening for a moment as slowly it subsided and sank
bennet but it is a comfort to think that whatever of that kind may befall you you have an affectionate mother who will make the most of it wickhams society was of material service in dispelling the gloom which the late perverse occurrences had thrown on many of the longbourn family they saw him often and to his other recommendations was now added that of general unreserve the whole of what elizabeth had already heard his claims on mr darcy and all that he had suffered from him was now openly acknowledged and publicly canvassed and everybody was pleased to know how much they had always disliked mr miss bennet was the only creature who could suppose there might be any extenuating circumstances in the case unknown to the society of hertfordshire her mild and steady candour always pleaded for allowances and urged the possibility of mistakesbut by everybody else mr chapter  after a week spent in professions of love and schemes of felicity mr collins was called from his amiable charlotte by the arrival of saturday the pain of separation however might be alleviated on his side by preparations for the reception of his bride as he had reason to hope that shortly after his return into hertfordshire the day would be fixed that was to make him the happiest of men he took leave of his relations at longbourn with as much solemnity as before wished his fair cousins health and happiness again and promised their father another letter of thanks bennet had the pleasure of receiving her brother and his wife who came as usual to spend the christmas at longbourn gardiner was a sensible gentlemanlike man greatly superior to his sister as well by nature as education the netherfield ladies would have had difficulty in believing that a man who lived by trade and within view of his own warehouses could have been so wellbred and agreeable phillips was an amiable intelligent elegant woman and a great favourite with all her longbourn nieces between the two eldest and herself especially there subsisted a particular regard gardiners business on her arrival was to distribute her presents and describe the newest fashions when this was done she had a less active part to play bennet had many grievances to relate and much to complain of they had all been very illused since she last saw her sister two of her girls had been upon the point of marriage and after all there was nothing in it
she was sure it was very illit cried and fretted and was all over pimples my dear says i it is nothing in the world but the red gum and nurse said just the same donavan was sent for and luckily he happened to just come in from harley street so he stepped over directly and as soon as ever mama he said just as we did that it was nothing in the world but the red gum and then charlotte was easy and so just as he was going away again it came into my head i am sure i do not know how i happened to think of it but it came into my head to ask him if there was any news so upon that he smirked and simpered and looked grave and seemed to know something or other and at last he said in a whisper for fear any unpleasant report should reach the young ladies under your care as to their sisters indisposition i think it advisable to say that i believe there is no great reason for alarm i hope mrs  so then it all came out and the long and the short of the matter by all i can learn seems to be this edward ferrars the very young man i used to joke with you about but however as it turns out i am monstrous glad there was never any thing in it mr edward ferrars it seems has been engaged above this twelvemonth to my cousin lucy and not a creature knowing a syllable of the matter except nancy  there is no great wonder in their liking one another but that matters should be brought so forward between them and nobody suspect it i never happened to see them together or i am sure i should have found it out directly well and so this was kept a great secret for fear of mrs ferrars and neither she nor your brother or sister suspected a word of the mattertill this very morning poor nancy who you know is a wellmeaning creature but no conjurer popt it all out  thinks she to herself they are all so fond of lucy to be sure they will make no difficulty about it and so away she went to your sister who was sitting all alone at her carpetwork little suspecting what was to comefor she had just been saying to your brother only five minutes before that she thought to make a match between edward and some lords daughter or other i forget who so you may think what a blow it was to all her vanity and pride she fell into violent hysterics immediately with such screams as reached your brothers ears as he was sitting in his own dressingroom down stairs thinking about writing a letter to his steward in the country so up he flew directly and a terrible scene took place for lucy was come to them by that time little dreaming what was going on and i must say i think she was used very hardly for your sister scolded like any fury and soon drove her into a fainting fit nancy she fell upon her knees and cried bitterly and your brother he walked about the room and said he did not know what to do dashwood declared they should not stay a minute longer in the house and your brother was forced to go down upon his knees too to persuade her to let them stay till they had packed up their clothes
bingley when questioned by jane had long ago asserted his blamelessness in the affair that proud and repulsive as were his manners she had never in the whole course of their acquaintancean acquaintance which had latterly brought them much together and given her a sort of intimacy with his waysseen anything that betrayed him to be unprincipled or unjustanything that spoke him of irreligious or immoral habits that among his own connections he was esteemed and valuedthat even wickham had allowed him merit as a brother and that she had often heard him speak so affectionately of his sister as to prove him capable of some amiable feeling that had his actions been what mr wickham represented them so gross a violation of everything right could hardly have been concealed from the world and that friendship between a person capable of it and such an amiable man as mr of neither darcy nor wickham could she think without feeling she had been blind partial prejudiced absurd she cried i who have prided myself on my discernment who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister and gratified my vanity in useless or blameable mistrust had i been in love i could not have been more wretchedly blind pleased with the preference of one and offended by the neglect of the other on the very beginning of our acquaintance i have courted prepossession and ignorance and driven reason away where either were concerned from herself to janefrom jane to bingley her thoughts were in a line which soon brought to her recollection that mr darcys explanation there had appeared very insufficient and she read it again widely different was the effect of a second perusal how could she deny that credit to his assertions in one instance which she had been obliged to give in the other he declared himself to be totally unsuspicious of her sisters attachment and she could not help remembering what charlottes opinion had always been neither could she deny the justice of his description of jane she felt that janes feelings though fervent were little displayed and that there was a constant complacency in her air and manner not often united with great sensibility when she came to that part of the letter in which her family were mentioned in terms of such mortifying yet merited reproach her sense of shame was severe the justice of the charge struck her too forcibly for denial and the circumstances to which he particularly alluded as having passed at the netherfield ball and as confirming all his first disapprobation could not have made a stronger impression on his mind than on hers the compliment to herself and her sister was not unfelt it soothed but it could not console her for the contempt which had thus been selfattracted by the rest of her family and as she considered that janes disappointment had in fact been the work of her nearest relations and reflected how materially the credit of both must be hurt by such impropriety of conduct she felt depressed beyond anything she had ever known before after wandering along the lane for two hours giving way to every variety of thoughtreconsidering events determining probabilities and reconciling herself as well as she could to a change so sudden and so important fatigue and a recollection of her long absence made her at length return home and she entered the house with the wish of appearing cheerful as usual and the resolution of repressing such reflections as must make her unfit for conversation she was immediately told that the two gentlemen from rosings had each called during her absence mr
elinor was not inclined after a little observation to give him credit for being so genuinely and unaffectedly illnatured or illbred as he wished to appear his temper might perhaps be a little soured by finding like many others of his sex that through some unaccountable bias in favour of beauty he was the husband of a very silly womanbut she knew that this kind of blunder was too common for any sensible man to be lastingly hurt by it  it was rather a wish of distinction she believed which produced his contemptuous treatment of every body and his general abuse of every thing before him it was the desire of appearing superior to other people the motive was too common to be wondered at but the means however they might succeed by establishing his superiority in illbreeding were not likely to attach any one to him except his wife palmer soon afterwards i have got such a favour to ask of you and your sister will you come and spend some time at cleveland this christmas my love applying to her husband dont you long to have the miss dashwoods come to cleveland certainly he replied with a sneeri came into devonshire with no other view they both eagerly and resolutely declined her invitation the westons will be with us and it will be quite delightful you cannot think what a sweet place cleveland is and we are so gay now for mr palmer is always going about the country canvassing against the election and so many people came to dine with us that i never saw before it is quite charming elinor could hardly keep her countenance as she assented to the hardship of such an obligation how charming it will be said charlotte when he is in parliament it will be so ridiculous to see all his letters directed to him with an m he cannot bear writing you know she continuedhe says it is quite shocking sometimes he wont speak to me for half a day together and then he comes out with something so drollall about any thing in the world she surprised elinor very much as they returned into the drawingroom by asking her whether she did not like mr palmer is excessively pleased with you and your sisters i can tell you and you cant think how disappointed he will be if you dont come to cleveland
here was knowledge in which no one could partake and she was sensible that nothing less than a perfect understanding between the parties could justify her in throwing off this last encumbrance of mystery and then said she if that very improbable event should ever take place i shall merely be able to tell what bingley may tell in a much more agreeable manner himself the liberty of communication cannot be mine till it has lost all its value she was now on being settled at home at leisure to observe the real state of her sisters spirits she still cherished a very tender affection for bingley having never even fancied herself in love before her regard had all the warmth of first attachment and from her age and disposition greater steadiness than most first attachments often boast and so fervently did she value his remembrance and prefer him to every other man that all her good sense and all her attention to the feelings of her friends were requisite to check the indulgence of those regrets which must have been injurious to her own health and their tranquillity bennet one day what is your opinion now of this sad business of janes for my part i am determined never to speak of it again to anybody but i cannot find out that jane saw anything of him in london well he is a very undeserving young manand i do not suppose theres the least chance in the world of her ever getting him now there is no talk of his coming to netherfield again in the summer and i have inquired of everybody too who is likely to know i do not believe he will ever live at netherfield any more though i shall always say he used my daughter extremely ill and if i was her i would not have put up with it well my comfort is i am sure jane will die of a broken heart and then he will be sorry for what he has done but as elizabeth could not receive comfort from any such expectation she made no answer well lizzy continued her mother soon afterwards and so the collinses live very comfortable do they if she is half as sharp as her mother she is saving enough there is nothing extravagant in their housekeeping i dare say yes yes they will take care not to outrun their income and so i suppose they often talk of having longbourn when your father is dead
yet this wild hint seemed inferentially negatived by what a grey manxman insinuated an old sepulchral man who having never before sailed out of nantucket had never ere this laid eye upon wild ahab nevertheless the old seatraditions the immemorial credulities popularly invested this old manxman with preternatural powers of discernment so that no white sailor seriously contradicted him when he said that if ever captain ahab should be tranquilly laid outwhich might hardly come to pass so he mutteredthen whoever should do that last office for the dead would find a birthmark on him from crown to sole so powerfully did the whole grim aspect of ahab affect me and the livid brand which streaked it that for the first few moments i hardly noted that not a little of this overbearing grimness was owing to the barbaric white leg upon which he partly stood it had previously come to me that this ivory leg had at sea been fashioned from the polished bone of the sperm whales jaw aye he was dismasted off japan said the old gayhead indian once but like his dismasted craft he shipped another mast without coming home for it i was struck with the singular posture he maintained upon each side of the pequods quarter deck and pretty close to the mizzen shrouds there was an auger hole bored about half an inch or so into the plank his bone leg steadied in that hole one arm elevated and holding by a shroud captain ahab stood erect looking straight out beyond the ships everpitching prow there was an infinity of firmest fortitude a determinate unsurrenderable wilfulness in the fixed and fearless forward dedication of that glance not a word he spoke nor did his officers say aught to him though by all their minutest gestures and expressions they plainly showed the uneasy if not painful consciousness of being under a troubled mastereye and not only that but moody stricken ahab stood before them with a crucifixion in his face in all the nameless regal overbearing dignity of some mighty woe ere long from his first visit in the air he withdrew into his cabin but after that morning he was every day visible to the crew either standing in his pivothole or seated upon an ivory stool he had or heavily walking the deck as the sky grew less gloomy indeed began to grow a little genial he became still less and less a recluse as if when the ship had sailed from home nothing but the dead wintry bleakness of the sea had then kept him so secluded and by and by it came to pass that he was almost continually in the air but as yet for all that he said or perceptibly did on the at last sunny deck he seemed as unnecessary there as another mast but the pequod was only making a passage now not regularly cruising nearly all whaling preparatives needing supervision the mates were fully competent to so that there was little or nothing out of himself to employ or excite ahab now and thus chase away for that one interval the clouds that layer upon layer were piled upon his brow as ever all clouds choose the loftiest peaks to pile themselves upon nevertheless ere long the warm warbling persuasiveness of the pleasant holiday weather we came to seemed gradually to charm him from his mood for as when the redcheeked dancing girls april and may trip home to the wintry misanthropic woods even the barest ruggedest most thundercloven old oak will at least send forth some few green sprouts to welcome such gladhearted visitants so ahab did in the end a little respond to the playful allurings of that girlish air more than once did he put forth the faint blossom of a look which in any other man would have soon flowered out in a smile
indeed i believe you replied elinor but i am very sure that colonel brandon has not the smallest wish of marrying me perhaps just at present he may be undecided the smallness of your fortune may make him hang back his friends may all advise him against it but some of those little attentions and encouragements which ladies can so easily give will fix him in spite of himself and there can be no reason why you should not try for him it is not to be supposed that any prior attachment on your sidein short you know as to an attachment of that kind it is quite out of the question the objections are insurmountableyou have too much sense not to see all that colonel brandon must be the man and no civility shall be wanting on my part to make him pleased with you and your family it is a match that must give universal satisfaction in short it is a kind of thing that lowering his voice to an important whisperwill be exceedingly welcome to all parties  recollecting himself however he added that is i mean to sayyour friends are all truly anxious to see you well settled fanny particularly for she has your interest very much at heart i assure you ferrars a very goodnatured woman i am sure it would give her great pleasure she said as much the other day it would be something remarkable now he continued something droll if fanny should have a brother and i a sister settling at the same time edward ferrars said elinor with resolution going to be married it is not actually settled but there is such a thing in agitation ferrars with the utmost liberality will come forward and settle on him a thousand a year if the match takes place miss morton only daughter of the late lord morton with thirty thousand pounds a very desirable connection on both sides and i have not a doubt of its taking place in time a thousand ayear is a great deal for a mother to give away to make over for ever but mrs to give you another instance of her liberalitythe other day as soon as we came to town aware that money could not be very plenty with us just now she put banknotes into fannys hands to the amount of two hundred pounds and extremely acceptable it is for we must live at a great expense while we are here he paused for her assent and compassion and she forced herself to say your expenses both in town and country must certainly be considerable but your income is a large one
it may be so but willoughby is capableat least i think he stopped a moment then added in a voice which seemed to distrust itself and your sisterhow did she her sufferings have been very severe i have only to hope that they may be proportionately short till yesterday i believe she never doubted his regard and even now perhapsbut i am almost convinced that he never was really attached to her and in some points there seems a hardness of heart about him but your sister does noti think you said soshe does not consider quite as you do you know her disposition and may believe how eagerly she would still justify him if she could he made no answer and soon afterwards by the removal of the teathings and the arrangement of the card parties the subject was necessarily dropped jennings who had watched them with pleasure while they were talking and who expected to see the effect of miss dashwoods communication in such an instantaneous gaiety on colonel brandons side as might have become a man in the bloom of youth of hope and happiness saw him with amazement remain the whole evening more serious and thoughtful than usual chapter  from a night of more sleep than she had expected marianne awoke the next morning to the same consciousness of misery in which she had closed her eyes elinor encouraged her as much as possible to talk of what she felt and before breakfast was ready they had gone through the subject again and again and with the same steady conviction and affectionate counsel on elinors side the same impetuous feelings and varying opinions on mariannes as before sometimes she could believe willoughby to be as unfortunate and as innocent as herself and at others lost every consolation in the impossibility of acquitting him at one moment she was absolutely indifferent to the observation of all the world at another she would seclude herself from it for ever and at a third could resist it with energy in one thing however she was uniform when it came to the point in avoiding where it was possible the presence of mrs jennings and in a determined silence when obliged to endure it jenningss entering into her sorrows with any compassion her kindness is not sympathy her goodnature is not tenderness all that she wants is gossip and she only likes me now because i supply it elinor had not needed this to be assured of the injustice to which her sister was often led in her opinion of others by the irritable refinement of her own mind and the too great importance placed by her on the delicacies of a strong sensibility and the graces of a polished manner like half the rest of the world if more than half there be that are clever and good marianne with excellent abilities and an excellent disposition was neither reasonable nor candid she expected from other people the same opinions and feelings as her own and she judged of their motives by the immediate effect of their actions on herself
and an idol indeed it is or rather in old times its likeness was such an idol as that found in the secret groves of queen maachah in judea and for worshipping which king asa her son did depose her and destroyed the idol and burnt it for an abomination at the brook kedron as darkly set forth in the th chapter of the first book of kings look at the sailor called the mincer who now comes along and assisted by two allies heavily backs the grandissimus as the mariners call it and with bowed shoulders staggers off with it as if he were a grenadier carrying a dead comrade from the field extending it upon the forecastle deck he now proceeds cylindrically to remove its dark pelt as an african hunter the pelt of a boa this done he turns the pelt inside out like a pantaloon leg gives it a good stretching so as almost to double its diameter and at last hangs it well spread in the rigging to dry ere long it is taken down when removing some three feet of it towards the pointed extremity and then cutting two slits for armholes at the other end he lengthwise slips himself bodily into it the mincer now stands before you invested in the full canonicals of his calling immemorial to all his order this investiture alone will adequately protect him while employed in the peculiar functions of his office that office consists in mincing the horsepieces of blubber for the pots an operation which is conducted at a curious wooden horse planted endwise against the bulwarks and with a capacious tub beneath it into which the minced pieces drop fast as the sheets from a rapt orators desk arrayed in decent black occupying a conspicuous pulpit intent on bible leaves what a candidate for an archbishopric what a lad for a pope were this mincer this is the invariable cry from the mates to the mincer it enjoins him to be careful and cut his work into as thin slices as possible inasmuch as by so doing the business of boiling out the oil is much accelerated and its quantity considerably increased besides perhaps improving it in quality besides her hoisted boats an american whaler is outwardly distinguished by her tryworks she presents the curious anomaly of the most solid masonry joining with oak and hemp in constituting the completed ship it is as if from the open field a brickkiln were transported to her planks the tryworks are planted between the foremast and mainmast the most roomy part of the deck the timbers beneath are of a peculiar strength fitted to sustain the weight of an almost solid mass of brick and mortar some ten feet by eight square and five in height the foundation does not penetrate the deck but the masonry is firmly secured to the surface by ponderous knees of iron bracing it on all sides and screwing it down to the timbers on the flanks it is cased with wood and at top completely covered by a large sloping battened hatchway removing this hatch we expose the great trypots two in number and each of several barrels capacity
the universe is finished the copestone is on and the chips were carted off a million years ago poor lazarus there chattering his teeth against the curbstone for his pillow and shaking off his tatters with his shiverings he might plug up both ears with rags and put a corncob into his mouth and yet that would not keep out the tempestuous euroclydon says old dives in his red silken wrapperhe had a redder one afterwards pooh pooh what a fine frosty night how orion glitters what northern lights let them talk of their oriental summer climes of everlasting conservatories give me the privilege of making my own summer with my own coals can he warm his blue hands by holding them up to the grand northern lights would he not far rather lay him down lengthwise along the line of the equator yea ye gods go down to the fiery pit itself in order to keep out this frost now that lazarus should lie stranded there on the curbstone before the door of dives this is more wonderful than that an iceberg should be moored to one of the moluccas yet dives himself he too lives like a czar in an ice palace made of frozen sighs and being a president of a temperance society he only drinks the tepid tears of orphans but no more of this blubbering now we are going awhaling and there is plenty of that yet to come let us scrape the ice from our frosted feet and see what sort of a place this spouter may be entering that gableended spouterinn you found yourself in a wide low straggling entry with oldfashioned wainscots reminding one of the bulwarks of some condemned old craft on one side hung a very large oilpainting so thoroughly besmoked and every way defaced that in the unequal crosslights by which you viewed it it was only by diligent study and a series of systematic visits to it and careful inquiry of the neighbors that you could any way arrive at an understanding of its purpose such unaccountable masses of shades and shadows that at first you almost thought some ambitious young artist in the time of the new england hags had endeavored to delineate chaos bewitched but by dint of much and earnest contemplation and oft repeated ponderings and especially by throwing open the little window towards the back of the entry you at last come to the conclusion that such an idea however wild might not be altogether unwarranted but what most puzzled and confounded you was a long limber portentous black mass of something hovering in the centre of the picture over three blue dim perpendicular lines floating in a nameless yeast a boggy soggy squitchy picture truly enough to drive a nervous man distracted yet was there a sort of indefinite halfattained unimaginable sublimity about it that fairly froze you to it till you involuntarily took an oath with yourself to find out what that marvellous painting meant ever and anon a bright but alas deceptive idea would dart you through
for not only do fabulous rumors naturally grow out of the very body of all surprising terrible eventsas the smitten tree gives birth to its fungi but in maritime life far more than in that of terra firma wild rumors abound wherever there is any adequate reality for them to cling to and as the sea surpasses the land in this matter so the whale fishery surpasses every other sort of maritime life in the wonderfulness and fearfulness of the rumors which sometimes circulate there for not only are whalemen as a body unexempt from that ignorance and superstitiousness hereditary to all sailors but of all sailors they are by all odds the most directly brought into contact with whatever is appallingly astonishing in the sea face to face they not only eye its greatest marvels but hand to jaw give battle to them alone in such remotest waters that though you sailed a thousand miles and passed a thousand shores you would not come to any chiseled hearthstone or aught hospitable beneath that part of the sun in such latitudes and longitudes pursuing too such a calling as he does the whaleman is wrapped by influences all tending to make his fancy pregnant with many a mighty birth no wonder then that ever gathering volume from the mere transit over the widest watery spaces the outblown rumors of the white whale did in the end incorporate with themselves all manner of morbid hints and halfformed foetal suggestions of supernatural agencies which eventually invested moby dick with new terrors unborrowed from anything that visibly appears so that in many cases such a panic did he finally strike that few who by those rumors at least had heard of the white whale few of those hunters were willing to encounter the perils of his jaw but there were still other and more vital practical influences at work not even at the present day has the original prestige of the sperm whale as fearfully distinguished from all other species of the leviathan died out of the minds of the whalemen as a body there are those this day among them who though intelligent and courageous enough in offering battle to the greenland or right whale would perhapseither from professional inexperience or incompetency or timidity decline a contest with the sperm whale at any rate there are plenty of whalemen especially among those whaling nations not sailing under the american flag who have never hostilely encountered the sperm whale but whose sole knowledge of the leviathan is restricted to the ignoble monster primitively pursued in the north seated on their hatches these men will hearken with a childish fireside interest and awe to the wild strange tales of southern whaling nor is the preeminent tremendousness of the great sperm whale anywhere more feelingly comprehended than on board of those prows which stem him and as if the now tested reality of his might had in former legendary times thrown its shadow before it we find some book naturalistsolassen and povelsondeclaring the sperm whale not only to be a consternation to every other creature in the sea but also to be so incredibly ferocious as continually to be athirst for human blood nor even down to so late a time as cuviers were these or almost similar impressions effaced for in his natural history the baron himself affirms that at sight of the sperm whale all fish sharks included are struck with the most lively terrors and often in the precipitancy of their flight dash themselves against the rocks with such violence as to cause instantaneous death and however the general experiences in the fishery may amend such reports as these yet in their full terribleness even to the bloodthirsty item of povelson the superstitious belief in them is in some vicissitudes of their vocation revived in the minds of the hunters so that overawed by the rumors and portents concerning him not a few of the fishermen recalled in reference to moby dick the earlier days of the sperm whale fishery when it was oftentimes hard to induce long practised right whalemen to embark in the perils of this new and daring warfare such men protesting that although other leviathans might be hopefully pursued yet to chase and point lance at such an apparition as the sperm whale was not for mortal man that to attempt it would be inevitably to be torn into a quick eternity on this head there are some remarkable documents that may be consulted nevertheless some there were who even in the face of these things were ready to give chase to moby dick and a still greater number who chancing only to hear of him distantly and vaguely without the specific details of any certain calamity and without superstitious accompaniments were sufficiently hardy not to flee from the battle if offered one of the wild suggestions referred to as at last coming to be linked with the white whale in the minds of the superstitiously inclined was the unearthly conceit that moby dick was ubiquitous that he had actually been encountered in opposite latitudes at one and the same instant of time nor credulous as such minds must have been was this conceit altogether without some faint show of superstitious probability
what can he mean by being so tiresome as to be always coming here i had no notion but he would go ashooting or something or other and not disturb us with his company lizzy you must walk out with him again that he may not be in bingleys way elizabeth could hardly help laughing at so convenient a proposal yet was really vexed that her mother should be always giving him such an epithet as soon as they entered bingley looked at her so expressively and shook hands with such warmth as left no doubt of his good information and he soon afterwards said aloud mrs bennet have you no more lanes hereabouts in which lizzy may lose her way again today bingley but i am sure it will be too much for kitty darcy professed a great curiosity to see the view from the mount and elizabeth silently consented bennet followed her saying i am quite sorry lizzy that you should be forced to have that disagreeable man all to yourself but i hope you will not mind it it is all for janes sake you know and there is no occasion for talking to him except just now and then bennets consent should be asked in the course of the evening elizabeth reserved to herself the application for her mothers she could not determine how her mother would take it sometimes doubting whether all his wealth and grandeur would be enough to overcome her abhorrence of the man but whether she were violently set against the match or violently delighted with it it was certain that her manner would be equally ill adapted to do credit to her sense and she could no more bear that mr darcy should hear the first raptures of her joy than the first vehemence of her disapprobation darcy rise also and follow him and her agitation on seeing it was extreme she did not fear her fathers opposition but he was going to be made unhappy and that it should be through her meansthat she his favourite child should be distressing him by her choice should be filling him with fears and regrets in disposing of herwas a wretched reflection and she sat in misery till mr darcy appeared again when looking at him she was a little relieved by his smile in a few minutes he approached the table where she was sitting with kitty and while pretending to admire her work said in a whisper go to your father he wants you in the library her father was walking about the room looking grave and anxious
they arrived in due time at the place of destination and as soon as the string of carriages before them would allow alighted ascended the stairs heard their names announced from one landingplace to another in an audible voice and entered a room splendidly lit up quite full of company and insufferably hot when they had paid their tribute of politeness by curtsying to the lady of the house they were permitted to mingle in the crowd and take their share of the heat and inconvenience to which their arrival must necessarily add after some time spent in saying little or doing less lady middleton sat down to cassino and as marianne was not in spirits for moving about she and elinor luckily succeeding to chairs placed themselves at no great distance from the table they had not remained in this manner long before elinor perceived willoughby standing within a few yards of them in earnest conversation with a very fashionable looking young woman she soon caught his eye and he immediately bowed but without attempting to speak to her or to approach marianne though he could not but see her and then continued his discourse with the same lady elinor turned involuntarily to marianne to see whether it could be unobserved by her at that moment she first perceived him and her whole countenance glowing with sudden delight she would have moved towards him instantly had not her sister caught hold of her pray pray be composed cried elinor and do not betray what you feel to every body present this however was more than she could believe herself and to be composed at such a moment was not only beyond the reach of marianne it was beyond her wish she sat in an agony of impatience which affected every feature at last he turned round again and regarded them both she started up and pronouncing his name in a tone of affection held out her hand to him he approached and addressing himself rather to elinor than marianne as if wishing to avoid her eye and determined not to observe her attitude inquired in a hurried manner after mrs elinor was robbed of all presence of mind by such an address and was unable to say a word but the feelings of her sister were instantly expressed her face was crimsoned over and she exclaimed in a voice of the greatest emotion good god he could not then avoid it but her touch seemed painful to him and he held her hand only for a moment during all this time he was evidently struggling for composure elinor watched his countenance and saw its expression becoming more tranquil i did myself the honour of calling in berkeley street last tuesday and very much regretted that i was not fortunate enough to find yourselves and mrs here is some mistake i am suresome dreadful mistake
as for elizabeth herself this invitation was so far from exciting in her the same feelings as in her mother and lydia that she considered it as the death warrant of all possibility of common sense for the latter and detestable as such a step must make her were it known she could not help secretly advising her father not to let her go she represented to him all the improprieties of lydias general behaviour the little advantage she could derive from the friendship of such a woman as mrs forster and the probability of her being yet more imprudent with such a companion at brighton where the temptations must be greater than at home he heard her attentively and then said lydia will never be easy until she has exposed herself in some public place or other and we can never expect her to do it with so little expense or inconvenience to her family as under the present circumstances if you were aware said elizabeth of the very great disadvantage to us all which must arise from the public notice of lydias unguarded and imprudent mannernay which has already arisen from it i am sure you would judge differently in the affair such squeamish youths as cannot bear to be connected with a little absurdity are not worth a regret come let me see the list of pitiful fellows who have been kept aloof by lydias folly it is not of particular but of general evils which i am now complaining our importance our respectability in the world must be affected by the wild volatility the assurance and disdain of all restraint which mark lydias character if you my dear father will not take the trouble of checking her exuberant spirits and of teaching her that her present pursuits are not to be the business of her life she will soon be beyond the reach of amendment her character will be fixed and she will at sixteen be the most determined flirt that ever made herself or her family ridiculous a flirt too in the worst and meanest degree of flirtation without any attraction beyond youth and a tolerable person and from the ignorance and emptiness of her mind wholly unable to ward off any portion of that universal contempt which her rage for admiration will excite my dear father can you suppose it possible that they will not be censured and despised wherever they are known and that their sisters will not be often involved in the disgrace bennet saw that her whole heart was in the subject and affectionately taking her hand said in reply do not make yourself uneasy my love wherever you and jane are known you must be respected and valued and you will not appear to less advantage for having a couple ofor i may say threevery silly sisters we shall have no peace at longbourn if lydia does not go to brighton colonel forster is a sensible man and will keep her out of any real mischief and she is luckily too poor to be an object of prey to anybody at brighton she will be of less importance even as a common flirt than she has been here the officers will find women better worth their notice let us hope therefore that her being there may teach her her own insignificance at any rate she cannot grow many degrees worse without authorising us to lock her up for the rest of her life
that is not an unnatural surmise said fitzwilliam but it is a lessening of the honour of my cousins triumph very sadly this was spoken jestingly but it appeared to her so just a picture of mr darcy that she would not trust herself with an answer and therefore abruptly changing the conversation talked on indifferent matters until they reached the parsonage there shut into her own room as soon as their visitor left them she could think without interruption of all that she had heard it was not to be supposed that any other people could be meant than those with whom she was connected there could not exist in the world two men over whom mr that he had been concerned in the measures taken to separate bingley and jane she had never doubted but she had always attributed to miss bingley the principal design and arrangement of them if his own vanity however did not mislead him he was the cause his pride and caprice were the cause of all that jane had suffered and still continued to suffer he had ruined for a while every hope of happiness for the most affectionate generous heart in the world and no one could say how lasting an evil he might have inflicted there were some very strong objections against the lady were colonel fitzwilliams words and those strong objections probably were her having one uncle who was a country attorney and another who was in business in london to jane herself she exclaimed there could be no possibility of objection all loveliness and goodness as she is her understanding excellent her mind improved and her manners captivating neither could anything be urged against my father who though with some peculiarities has abilities mr darcy himself need not disdain and respectability which he will probably never reach when she thought of her mother her confidence gave way a little but she would not allow that any objections there had material weight with mr darcy whose pride she was convinced would receive a deeper wound from the want of importance in his friends connections than from their want of sense and she was quite decided at last that he had been partly governed by this worst kind of pride and partly by the wish of retaining mr the agitation and tears which the subject occasioned brought on a headache and it grew so much worse towards the evening that added to her unwillingness to see mr darcy it determined her not to attend her cousins to rosings where they were engaged to drink tea collins seeing that she was really unwell did not press her to go and as much as possible prevented her husband from pressing her but mr collins could not conceal his apprehension of lady catherines being rather displeased by her staying at home
chapter  the bennets were engaged to dine with the lucases and again during the chief of the day was miss lucas so kind as to listen to mr it keeps him in good humour said she and i am more obliged to you than i can express charlotte assured her friend of her satisfaction in being useful and that it amply repaid her for the little sacrifice of her time this was very amiable but charlottes kindness extended farther than elizabeth had any conception of its object was nothing else than to secure her from any return of mr collinss addresses by engaging them towards herself such was miss lucass scheme and appearances were so favourable that when they parted at night she would have felt almost secure of success if he had not been to leave hertfordshire so very soon but here she did injustice to the fire and independence of his character for it led him to escape out of longbourn house the next morning with admirable slyness and hasten to lucas lodge to throw himself at her feet he was anxious to avoid the notice of his cousins from a conviction that if they saw him depart they could not fail to conjecture his design and he was not willing to have the attempt known till its success might be known likewise for though feeling almost secure and with reason for charlotte had been tolerably encouraging he was comparatively diffident since the adventure of wednesday his reception however was of the most flattering kind miss lucas perceived him from an upper window as he walked towards the house and instantly set out to meet him accidentally in the lane but little had she dared to hope that so much love and eloquence awaited her there collinss long speeches would allow everything was settled between them to the satisfaction of both and as they entered the house he earnestly entreated her to name the day that was to make him the happiest of men and though such a solicitation must be waived for the present the lady felt no inclination to trifle with his happiness the stupidity with which he was favoured by nature must guard his courtship from any charm that could make a woman wish for its continuance and miss lucas who accepted him solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment cared not how soon that establishment were gained sir william and lady lucas were speedily applied to for their consent and it was bestowed with a most joyful alacrity collinss present circumstances made it a most eligible match for their daughter to whom they could give little fortune and his prospects of future wealth were exceedingly fair lady lucas began directly to calculate with more interest than the matter had ever excited before how many years longer mr bennet was likely to live and sir william gave it as his decided opinion that whenever mr collins should be in possession of the longbourn estate it would be highly expedient that both he and his wife should make their appearance at st the whole family in short were properly overjoyed on the occasion the younger girls formed hopes of coming out a year or two sooner than they might otherwise have done and the boys were relieved from their apprehension of charlottes dying an old maid
poor lazarus there chattering his teeth against the curbstone for his pillow and shaking off his tatters with his shiverings he might plug up both ears with rags and put a corncob into his mouth and yet that would not keep out the tempestuous euroclydon says old dives in his red silken wrapperhe had a redder one afterwards pooh pooh what a fine frosty night how orion glitters what northern lights let them talk of their oriental summer climes of everlasting conservatories give me the privilege of making my own summer with my own coals can he warm his blue hands by holding them up to the grand northern lights would he not far rather lay him down lengthwise along the line of the equator yea ye gods go down to the fiery pit itself in order to keep out this frost now that lazarus should lie stranded there on the curbstone before the door of dives this is more wonderful than that an iceberg should be moored to one of the moluccas yet dives himself he too lives like a czar in an ice palace made of frozen sighs and being a president of a temperance society he only drinks the tepid tears of orphans but no more of this blubbering now we are going awhaling and there is plenty of that yet to come let us scrape the ice from our frosted feet and see what sort of a place this spouter may be entering that gableended spouterinn you found yourself in a wide low straggling entry with oldfashioned wainscots reminding one of the bulwarks of some condemned old craft on one side hung a very large oilpainting so thoroughly besmoked and every way defaced that in the unequal crosslights by which you viewed it it was only by diligent study and a series of systematic visits to it and careful inquiry of the neighbors that you could any way arrive at an understanding of its purpose such unaccountable masses of shades and shadows that at first you almost thought some ambitious young artist in the time of the new england hags had endeavored to delineate chaos bewitched but by dint of much and earnest contemplation and oft repeated ponderings and especially by throwing open the little window towards the back of the entry you at last come to the conclusion that such an idea however wild might not be altogether unwarranted but what most puzzled and confounded you was a long limber portentous black mass of something hovering in the centre of the picture over three blue dim perpendicular lines floating in a nameless yeast a boggy soggy squitchy picture truly enough to drive a nervous man distracted yet was there a sort of indefinite halfattained unimaginable sublimity about it that fairly froze you to it till you involuntarily took an oath with yourself to find out what that marvellous painting meant ever and anon a bright but alas deceptive idea would dart you through its the unnatural combat of the four primal elements
having already in various ways put before you his skull spouthole jaw teeth tail forehead fins and divers other parts i shall now simply point out what is most interesting in the general bulk of his unobstructed bones but as the colossal skull embraces so very large a proportion of the entire extent of the skeleton as it is by far the most complicated part and as nothing is to be repeated concerning it in this chapter you must not fail to carry it in your mind or under your arm as we proceed otherwise you will not gain a complete notion of the general structure we are about to view in length the sperm whales skeleton at tranque measured seventytwo feet so that when fully invested and extended in life he must have been ninety feet long for in the whale the skeleton loses about one fifth in length compared with the living body of this seventytwo feet his skull and jaw comprised some twenty feet leaving some fifty feet of plain backbone attached to this backbone for something less than a third of its length was the mighty circular basket of ribs which once enclosed his vitals to me this vast ivoryribbed chest with the long unrelieved spine extending far away from it in a straight line not a little resembled the hull of a great ship newlaid upon the stocks when only some twenty of her naked bowribs are inserted and the keel is otherwise for the time but a long disconnected timber the first to begin from the neck was nearly six feet long the second third and fourth were each successively longer till you came to the climax of the fifth or one of the middle ribs which measured eight feet and some inches from that part the remaining ribs diminished till the tenth and last only spanned five feet and some inches in general thickness they all bore a seemly correspondence to their length in some of the arsacides they are used for beams whereon to lay footpath bridges over small streams in considering these ribs i could not but be struck anew with the circumstance so variously repeated in this book that the skeleton of the whale is by no means the mould of his invested form the largest of the tranque ribs one of the middle ones occupied that part of the fish which in life is greatest in depth now the greatest depth of the invested body of this particular whale must have been at least sixteen feet whereas the corresponding rib measured but little more than eight feet so that this rib only conveyed half of the true notion of the living magnitude of that part besides for some way where i now saw but a naked spine all that had been once wrapped round with tons of added bulk in flesh muscle blood and bowels still more for the ample fins i here saw but a few disordered joints and in place of the weighty and majestic but boneless flukes an utter blank how vain and foolish then thought i for timid untravelled man to try to comprehend aright this wondrous whale by merely poring over his dead attenuated skeleton stretched in this peaceful wood only in the heart of quickest perils only when within the eddyings of his angry flukes only on the profound unbounded sea can the fully invested whale be truly and livingly found out for that the best way we can consider it is with a crane to pile its bones high up on end there are forty and odd vertebrae in all which in the skeleton are not locked together
elinors compassion for him increased as she had reason to suspect that the misery of disappointed love had already been known to him this suspicion was given by some words which accidentally dropped from him one evening at the park when they were sitting down together by mutual consent while the others were dancing his eyes were fixed on marianne and after a silence of some minutes he said with a faint smile your sister i understand does not approve of second attachments or rather as i believe she considers them impossible to exist but how she contrives it without reflecting on the character of her own father who had himself two wives i know not a few years however will settle her opinions on the reasonable basis of common sense and observation and then they may be more easy to define and to justify than they now are by any body but herself this will probably be the case he replied and yet there is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions there are inconveniences attending such feelings as mariannes which all the charms of enthusiasm and ignorance of the world cannot atone for her systems have all the unfortunate tendency of setting propriety at nought and a better acquaintance with the world is what i look forward to as her greatest possible advantage after a short pause he resumed the conversation by saying does your sister make no distinction in her objections against a second attachment are those who have been disappointed in their first choice whether from the inconstancy of its object or the perverseness of circumstances to be equally indifferent during the rest of their lives upon my word i am not acquainted with the minutiae of her principles i only know that i never yet heard her admit any instance of a second attachments being pardonable this said he cannot hold but a change a total change of sentimentsno no do not desire it for when the romantic refinements of a young mind are obliged to give way how frequently are they succeeded by such opinions as are but too common and too dangerous i once knew a lady who in temper and mind greatly resembled your sister who thought and judged like her but who from an inforced changefrom a series of unfortunate circumstances  here he stopt suddenly appeared to think that he had said too much and by his countenance gave rise to conjectures which might not otherwise have entered elinors head the lady would probably have passed without suspicion had he not convinced miss dashwood that what concerned her ought not to escape his lips as it was it required but a slight effort of fancy to connect his emotion with the tender recollection of past regard but marianne in her place would not have done so little the whole story would have been speedily formed under her active imagination and every thing established in the most melancholy order of disastrous love chapter  as elinor and marianne were walking together the next morning the latter communicated a piece of news to her sister which in spite of all that she knew before of mariannes imprudence and want of thought surprised her by its extravagant testimony of both
i say awakened because time and london business and dissipation had in some measure quieted it and i had been growing a fine hardened villain fancying myself indifferent to her and chusing to fancy that she too must have become indifferent to me talking to myself of our past attachment as a mere idle trifling business shrugging up my shoulders in proof of its being so and silencing every reproach overcoming every scruple by secretly saying now and then i shall be heartily glad to hear she is well married i felt that she was infinitely dearer to me than any other woman in the world and that i was using her infamously but every thing was then just settled between miss grey and me i sent no answer to marianne intending by that to preserve myself from her farther notice and for some time i was even determined not to call in berkeley streetbut at last judging it wiser to affect the air of a cool common acquaintance than anything else i watched you all safely out of the house one morning and left my name you would be surprised to hear how often i watched you how often i was on the point of falling in with you i have entered many a shop to avoid your sight as the carriage drove by lodging as i did in bond street there was hardly a day in which i did not catch a glimpse of one or other of you and nothing but the most constant watchfulness on my side a most invariably prevailing desire to keep out of your sight could have separated us so long i avoided the middletons as much as possible as well as everybody else who was likely to prove an acquaintance in common not aware of their being in town however i blundered on sir john i believe the first day of his coming and the day after i had called at mrs he asked me to a party a dance at his house in the evening had he not told me as an inducement that you and your sister were to be there i should have felt it too certain a thing to trust myself near him the next morning brought another short note from mariannestill affectionate open artless confidingeverything that could make my conduct most hateful but i thought of her i believe every moment of the day if you can pity me miss dashwood pity my situation as it was then with my head and heart full of your sister i was forced to play the happy lover to another woman well at last as i need not tell you you were forced on me and what a sweet figure i cut  marianne beautiful as an angel on one side calling me willoughby in such a tone holding out her hand to me asking me for an explanation with those bewitching eyes fixed in such speaking solicitude on my face and sophia jealous as the devil on the other hand looking all that waswell it does not signify it is over now i ran away from you all as soon as i could but not before i had seen mariannes sweet face as white as death
she would have been glad to know when these difficulties were to cease this opposition was to yieldwhen mrs ferrars would be reformed and her son be at liberty to be happy but from such vain wishes she was forced to turn for comfort to the renewal of her confidence in edwards affection to the remembrance of every mark of regard in look or word which fell from him while at barton and above all to that flattering proof of it which he constantly wore round his finger dashwood as they were at breakfast the last morning you would be a happier man if you had any profession to engage your time and give an interest to your plans and actions some inconvenience to your friends indeed might result from ityou would not be able to give them so much of your time but with a smile you would be materially benefited in one particular at leastyou would know where to go when you left them i do assure you he replied that i have long thought on this point as you think now it has been and is and probably will always be a heavy misfortune to me that i have had no necessary business to engage me no profession to give me employment or afford me any thing like independence but unfortunately my own nicety and the nicety of my friends have made me what i am an idle helpless being the law was allowed to be genteel enough many young men who had chambers in the temple made a very good appearance in the first circles and drove about town in very knowing gigs but i had no inclination for the law even in this less abstruse study of it which my family approved as for the navy it had fashion on its side but i was too old when the subject was first started to enter itand at length as there was no necessity for my having any profession at all as i might be as dashing and expensive without a red coat on my back as with one idleness was pronounced on the whole to be most advantageous and honourable and a young man of eighteen is not in general so earnestly bent on being busy as to resist the solicitations of his friends to do nothing i was therefore entered at oxford and have been properly idle ever since the consequence of which i suppose will be said mrs dashwood since leisure has not promoted your own happiness that your sons will be brought up to as many pursuits employments professions and trades as columellas they will be brought up said he in a serious accent to be as unlike myself as is possible come come this is all an effusion of immediate want of spirits edward you are in a melancholy humour and fancy that any one unlike yourself must be happy but remember that the pain of parting from friends will be felt by every body at times whatever be their education or state you want nothing but patienceor give it a more fascinating name call it hope
so that in fact you see if people do but know how to set about it every comfort may be as well enjoyed in a cottage as in the most spacious dwelling  elinor agreed to it all for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition as john dashwood had no more pleasure in music than his eldest sister his mind was equally at liberty to fix on any thing else and a thought struck him during the evening which he communicated to his wife for her approbation when they got home dennisons mistake in supposing his sisters their guests had suggested the propriety of their being really invited to become such while mrs the expense would be nothing the inconvenience not more and it was altogether an attention which the delicacy of his conscience pointed out to be requisite to its complete enfranchisement from his promise to his father i do not see how it can be done said she without affronting lady middleton for they spend every day with her otherwise i should be exceedingly glad to do it you know i am always ready to pay them any attention in my power as my taking them out this evening shews her husband but with great humility did not see the force of her objection they had already spent a week in this manner in conduit street and lady middleton could not be displeased at their giving the same number of days to such near relations fanny paused a moment and then with fresh vigor said my love i would ask them with all my heart if it was in my power but i had just settled within myself to ask the miss steeles to spend a few days with us they are very well behaved good kind of girls and i think the attention is due to them as their uncle did so very well by edward we can ask your sisters some other year you know but the miss steeles may not be in town any more i am sure you will like them indeed you do like them you know very much already and so does my mother and they are such favourites with harry he saw the necessity of inviting the miss steeles immediately and his conscience was pacified by the resolution of inviting his sisters another year at the same time however slyly suspecting that another year would make the invitation needless by bringing elinor to town as colonel brandons wife and marianne as their visitor fanny rejoicing in her escape and proud of the ready wit that had procured it wrote the next morning to lucy to request her company and her sisters for some days in harley street as soon as lady middleton could spare them this was enough to make lucy really and reasonably happy dashwood seemed actually working for her herself cherishing all her hopes and promoting all her views such an opportunity of being with edward and his family was above all things the most material to her interest and such an invitation the most gratifying to her feelings it was an advantage that could not be too gratefully acknowledged nor too speedily made use of and the visit to lady middleton which had not before had any precise limits was instantly discovered to have been always meant to end in two days time
and on the gentlemens approaching one of the girls moved closer to her than ever and said in a whisper the men shant come and part us i am determined she followed him with her eyes envied everyone to whom he spoke had scarcely patience enough to help anybody to coffee and then was enraged against herself for being so silly how could i ever be foolish enough to expect a renewal of his love is there one among the sex who would not protest against such a weakness as a second proposal to the same woman there is no indignity so abhorrent to their feelings she was a little revived however by his bringing back his coffee cup himself and she seized the opportunity of saying is your sister at pemberley still the others have been gone on to scarborough these three weeks she could think of nothing more to say but if he wished to converse with her he might have better success he stood by her however for some minutes in silence and at last on the young ladys whispering to elizabeth again he walked away when the teathings were removed and the cardtables placed the ladies all rose and elizabeth was then hoping to be soon joined by him when all her views were overthrown by seeing him fall a victim to her mothers rapacity for whist players and in a few moments after seated with the rest of the party they were confined for the evening at different tables and she had nothing to hope but that his eyes were so often turned towards her side of the room as to make him play as unsuccessfully as herself bennet had designed to keep the two netherfield gentlemen to supper but their carriage was unluckily ordered before any of the others and she had no opportunity of detaining them well girls said she as soon as they were left to themselves what say you to the day i think every thing has passed off uncommonly well i assure you the venison was roasted to a turnand everybody said they never saw so fat a haunch the soup was fifty times better than what we had at the lucases last week and even mr darcy acknowledged that the partridges were remarkably well done and i suppose he has two or three french cooks at least and my dear jane i never saw you look in greater beauty long said so too for i asked her whether you did not long is as good a creature as ever livedand her nieces are very pretty behaved girls and not at all handsome i like them prodigiously
she would not listen therefore to her daughters proposal of being carried home neither did the apothecary who arrived about the same time think it at all advisable after sitting a little while with jane on miss bingleys appearance and invitation the mother and three daughters all attended her into the breakfast parlour bennet had not found miss bennet worse than she expected you may depend upon it madam said miss bingley with cold civility that miss bennet will receive every possible attention while she remains with us i am sure she added if it was not for such good friends i do not know what would become of her for she is very ill indeed and suffers a vast deal though with the greatest patience in the world which is always the way with her for she has without exception the sweetest temper i have ever met with i often tell my other girls they are nothing to her bingley and a charming prospect over the gravel walk i do not know a place in the country that is equal to netherfield you will not think of quitting it in a hurry i hope though you have but a short lease whatever i do is done in a hurry replied he and therefore if i should resolve to quit netherfield i should probably be off in five minutes at present however i consider myself as quite fixed here that is exactly what i should have supposed of you said elizabeth i wish i might take this for a compliment but to be so easily seen through i am afraid is pitiful it does not follow that a deep intricate character is more or less estimable than such a one as yours lizzy cried her mother remember where you are and do not run on in the wild manner that you are suffered to do at home i did not know before continued bingley immediately that you were a studier of character the country said darcy can in general supply but a few subjects for such a study in a country neighbourhood you move in a very confined and unvarying society but people themselves alter so much that there is something new to be observed in them for ever bennet offended by his manner of mentioning a country neighbourhood
her indignation would have been still stronger than it was had she not witnessed that embarrassment which seemed to speak a consciousness of his own misconduct and prevented her from believing him so unprincipled as to have been sporting with the affections of her sister from the first without any design that would bear investigation absence might have weakened his regard and convenience might have determined him to overcome it but that such a regard had formerly existed she could not bring herself to doubt as for marianne on the pangs which so unhappy a meeting must already have given her and on those still more severe which might await her in its probable consequence she could not reflect without the deepest concern her own situation gained in the comparison for while she could esteem edward as much as ever however they might be divided in future her mind might be always supported but every circumstance that could embitter such an evil seemed uniting to heighten the misery of marianne in a final separation from willoughbyin an immediate and irreconcilable rupture with him chapter  before the housemaid had lit their fire the next day or the sun gained any power over a cold gloomy morning in january marianne only half dressed was kneeling against one of the windowseats for the sake of all the little light she could command from it and writing as fast as a continual flow of tears would permit her in this situation elinor roused from sleep by her agitation and sobs first perceived her and after observing her for a few moments with silent anxiety said in a tone of the most considerate gentleness marianne may i ask no elinor she replied ask nothing you will soon know all the sort of desperate calmness with which this was said lasted no longer than while she spoke and was immediately followed by a return of the same excessive affliction it was some minutes before she could go on with her letter and the frequent bursts of grief which still obliged her at intervals to withhold her pen were proofs enough of her feeling how more than probable it was that she was writing for the last time to willoughby elinor paid her every quiet and unobtrusive attention in her power and she would have tried to sooth and tranquilize her still more had not marianne entreated her with all the eagerness of the most nervous irritability not to speak to her for the world in such circumstances it was better for both that they should not be long together and the restless state of mariannes mind not only prevented her from remaining in the room a moment after she was dressed but requiring at once solitude and continual change of place made her wander about the house till breakfast time avoiding the sight of every body at breakfast she neither ate nor attempted to eat any thing and elinors attention was then all employed not in urging her not in pitying her nor in appearing to regard her but in endeavouring to engage mrs jennings it lasted a considerable time and they were just setting themselves after it round the common working table when a letter was delivered to marianne which she eagerly caught from the servant and turning of a deathlike paleness instantly ran out of the room elinor who saw as plainly by this as if she had seen the direction that it must come from willoughby felt immediately such a sickness at heart as made her hardly able to hold up her head and sat in such a general tremour as made her fear it impossible to escape mrs that good lady however saw only that marianne had received a letter from willoughby which appeared to her a very good joke and which she treated accordingly by hoping with a laugh that she would find it to her liking of elinors distress she was too busily employed in measuring lengths of worsted for her rug to see any thing at all and calmly continuing her talk as soon as marianne disappeared she said upon my word i never saw a young woman so desperately in love in my life my girls were nothing to her and yet they used to be foolish enough but as for miss marianne she is quite an altered creature i hope from the bottom of my heart he wont keep her waiting much longer for it is quite grievous to see her look so ill and forlorn elinor though never less disposed to speak than at that moment obliged herself to answer such an attack as this and therefore trying to smile replied and have you really maam talked yourself into a persuasion of my sisters being engaged to mr
this was enough to make lucy really and reasonably happy dashwood seemed actually working for her herself cherishing all her hopes and promoting all her views such an opportunity of being with edward and his family was above all things the most material to her interest and such an invitation the most gratifying to her feelings it was an advantage that could not be too gratefully acknowledged nor too speedily made use of and the visit to lady middleton which had not before had any precise limits was instantly discovered to have been always meant to end in two days time when the note was shown to elinor as it was within ten minutes after its arrival it gave her for the first time some share in the expectations of lucy for such a mark of uncommon kindness vouchsafed on so short an acquaintance seemed to declare that the goodwill towards her arose from something more than merely malice against herself and might be brought by time and address to do every thing that lucy wished her flattery had already subdued the pride of lady middleton and made an entry into the close heart of mrs john dashwood and these were effects that laid open the probability of greater the miss steeles removed to harley street and all that reached elinor of their influence there strengthened her expectation of the event sir john who called on them more than once brought home such accounts of the favour they were in as must be universally striking dashwood had never been so much pleased with any young women in her life as she was with them had given each of them a needle book made by some emigrant called lucy by her christian name and did not know whether she should ever be able to part with them at this point in the first and second editions volume ii ended palmer was so well at the end of a fortnight that her mother felt it no longer necessary to give up the whole of her time to her and contenting herself with visiting her once or twice a day returned from that period to her own home and her own habits in which she found the miss dashwoods very ready to resume their former share about the third or fourth morning after their being thus resettled in berkeley street mrs jennings on returning from her ordinary visit to mrs palmer entered the drawingroom where elinor was sitting by herself with an air of such hurrying importance as prepared her to hear something wonderful and giving her time only to form that idea began directly to justify it by saying lord palmers i found charlotte quite in a fuss about the child she was sure it was very illit cried and fretted and was all over pimples my dear says i it is nothing in the world but the red gum and nurse said just the same donavan was sent for and luckily he happened to just come in from harley street so he stepped over directly and as soon as ever mama he said just as we did that it was nothing in the world but the red gum and then charlotte was easy and so just as he was going away again it came into my head i am sure i do not know how i happened to think of it but it came into my head to ask him if there was any news
after sitting for a moment in silence she said very stiffly to elizabeth i hope you are well miss bennet my youngest of all is lately married and my eldest is somewhere about the grounds walking with a young man who i believe will soon become a part of the family you have a very small park here returned lady catherine after a short silence it is nothing in comparison of rosings my lady i dare say but i assure you it is much larger than sir william lucass this must be a most inconvenient sitting room for the evening in summer the windows are full west bennet assured her that they never sat there after dinner and then added may i take the liberty of asking your ladyship whether you left mr elizabeth now expected that she would produce a letter for her from charlotte as it seemed the only probable motive for her calling but no letter appeared and she was completely puzzled bennet with great civility begged her ladyship to take some refreshment but lady catherine very resolutely and not very politely declined eating anything and then rising up said to elizabeth miss bennet there seemed to be a prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side of your lawn i should be glad to take a turn in it if you will favour me with your company go my dear cried her mother and show her ladyship about the different walks elizabeth obeyed and running into her own room for her parasol attended her noble guest downstairs as they passed through the hall lady catherine opened the doors into the diningparlour and drawingroom and pronouncing them after a short survey to be decent looking rooms walked on her carriage remained at the door and elizabeth saw that her waitingwoman was in it they proceeded in silence along the gravel walk that led to the copse elizabeth was determined to make no effort for conversation with a woman who was now more than usually insolent and disagreeable as soon as they entered the copse lady catherine began in the following manner you can be at no loss miss bennet to understand the reason of my journey hither your own heart your own conscience must tell you why i come i have not been at all able to account for the honour of seeing you here miss bennet replied her ladyship in an angry tone you ought to know that i am not to be trifled with but however insincere you may choose to be you shall not find me so
their estate was large and their residence was at norland park in the centre of their property where for many generations they had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance the late owner of this estate was a single man who lived to a very advanced age and who for many years of his life had a constant companion and housekeeper in his sister but her death which happened ten years before his own produced a great alteration in his home for to supply her loss he invited and received into his house the family of his nephew mr henry dashwood the legal inheritor of the norland estate and the person to whom he intended to bequeath it in the society of his nephew and niece and their children the old gentlemans days were comfortably spent henry dashwood to his wishes which proceeded not merely from interest but from goodness of heart gave him every degree of solid comfort which his age could receive and the cheerfulness of the children added a relish to his existence henry dashwood had one son by his present lady three daughters the son a steady respectable young man was amply provided for by the fortune of his mother which had been large and half of which devolved on him on his coming of age by his own marriage likewise which happened soon afterwards he added to his wealth to him therefore the succession to the norland estate was not so really important as to his sisters for their fortune independent of what might arise to them from their fathers inheriting that property could be but small their mother had nothing and their father only seven thousand pounds in his own disposal for the remaining moiety of his first wifes fortune was also secured to her child and he had only a lifeinterest in it the old gentleman died his will was read and like almost every other will gave as much disappointment as pleasure he was neither so unjust nor so ungrateful as to leave his estate from his nephewbut he left it to him on such terms as destroyed half the value of the bequest dashwood had wished for it more for the sake of his wife and daughters than for himself or his sonbut to his son and his sons son a child of four years old it was secured in such a way as to leave to himself no power of providing for those who were most dear to him and who most needed a provision by any charge on the estate or by any sale of its valuable woods the whole was tied up for the benefit of this child who in occasional visits with his father and mother at norland had so far gained on the affections of his uncle by such attractions as are by no means unusual in children of two or three years old an imperfect articulation an earnest desire of having his own way many cunning tricks and a great deal of noise as to outweigh all the value of all the attention which for years he had received from his niece and her daughters he meant not to be unkind however and as a mark of his affection for the three girls he left them a thousand pounds apiece dashwoods disappointment was at first severe but his temper was cheerful and sanguine and he might reasonably hope to live many years and by living economically lay by a considerable sum from the produce of an estate already large and capable of almost immediate improvement but the fortune which had been so tardy in coming was his only one twelvemonth he survived his uncle no longer and ten thousand pounds including the late legacies was all that remained for his widow and daughters his son was sent for as soon as his danger was known and to him mr
my dear fanny her life cannot be worth half that purchase certainly not but if you observe people always live for ever when there is an annuity to be paid them and she is very stout and healthy and hardly forty an annuity is a very serious business it comes over and over every year and there is no getting rid of it i have known a great deal of the trouble of annuities for my mother was clogged with the payment of three to old superannuated servants by my fathers will and it is amazing how disagreeable she found it twice every year these annuities were to be paid and then there was the trouble of getting it to them and then one of them was said to have died and afterwards it turned out to be no such thing her income was not her own she said with such perpetual claims on it and it was the more unkind in my father because otherwise the money would have been entirely at my mothers disposal without any restriction whatever it has given me such an abhorrence of annuities that i am sure i would not pin myself down to the payment of one for all the world dashwood to have those kind of yearly drains on ones income ones fortune as your mother justly says is not ones own to be tied down to the regular payment of such a sum on every rent day is by no means desirable it takes away ones independence undoubtedly and after all you have no thanks for it they think themselves secure you do no more than what is expected and it raises no gratitude at all if i were you whatever i did should be done at my own discretion entirely i would not bind myself to allow them any thing yearly it may be very inconvenient some years to spare a hundred or even fifty pounds from our own expenses i believe you are right my love it will be better that there should be no annuity in the case whatever i may give them occasionally will be of far greater assistance than a yearly allowance because they would only enlarge their style of living if they felt sure of a larger income and would not be sixpence the richer for it at the end of the year a present of fifty pounds now and then will prevent their ever being distressed for money and will i think be amply discharging my promise to my father indeed to say the truth i am convinced within myself that your father had no idea of your giving them any money at all the assistance he thought of i dare say was only such as might be reasonably expected of you for instance such as looking out for a comfortable small house for them helping them to move their things and sending them presents of fish and game and so forth whenever they are in season ill lay my life that he meant nothing farther indeed it would be very strange and unreasonable if he did
as he spoke there was a sort of smile which elizabeth fancied she understood he must be supposing her to be thinking of jane and netherfield and she blushed as she answered i do not mean to say that a woman may not be settled too near her family the far and the near must be relative and depend on many varying circumstances where there is fortune to make the expenses of travelling unimportant distance becomes no evil collins have a comfortable income but not such a one as will allow of frequent journeysand i am persuaded my friend would not call herself near her family under less than half the present distance darcy drew his chair a little towards her and said you cannot have a right to such very strong local attachment the gentleman experienced some change of feeling he drew back his chair took a newspaper from the table and glancing over it said in a colder voice are you pleased with kent a short dialogue on the subject of the country ensued on either side calm and conciseand soon put an end to by the entrance of charlotte and her sister just returned from her walk darcy related the mistake which had occasioned his intruding on miss bennet and after sitting a few minutes longer without saying much to anybody went away my dear eliza he must be in love with you or he would never have called us in this familiar way but when elizabeth told of his silence it did not seem very likely even to charlottes wishes to be the case and after various conjectures they could at last only suppose his visit to proceed from the difficulty of finding anything to do which was the more probable from the time of year within doors there was lady catherine books and a billiardtable but gentlemen cannot always be within doors and in the nearness of the parsonage or the pleasantness of the walk to it or of the people who lived in it the two cousins found a temptation from this period of walking thither almost every day they called at various times of the morning sometimes separately sometimes together and now and then accompanied by their aunt it was plain to them all that colonel fitzwilliam came because he had pleasure in their society a persuasion which of course recommended him still more and elizabeth was reminded by her own satisfaction in being with him as well as by his evident admiration of her of her former favourite george wickham and though in comparing them she saw there was less captivating softness in colonel fitzwilliams manners she believed he might have the best informed mind darcy came so often to the parsonage it was more difficult to understand it could not be for society as he frequently sat there ten minutes together without opening his lips and when he did speak it seemed the effect of necessity rather than of choicea sacrifice to propriety not a pleasure to himself colonel fitzwilliams occasionally laughing at his stupidity proved that he was generally different which her own knowledge of him could not have told her and as she would liked to have believed this change the effect of love and the object of that love her friend eliza she set herself seriously to work to find it out she watched him whenever they were at rosings and whenever he came to hunsford but without much success he certainly looked at her friend a great deal but the expression of that look was disputable it was an earnest steadfast gaze but she often doubted whether there were much admiration in it and sometimes it seemed nothing but absence of mind she had once or twice suggested to elizabeth the possibility of his being partial to her but elizabeth always laughed at the idea and mrs
though by the repeated bloody chastisements they have received at the hands of european cruisers the audacity of these corsairs has of late been somewhat repressed yet even at the present day we occasionally hear of english and american vessels which in those waters have been remorselessly boarded and pillaged with a fair fresh wind the pequod was now drawing nigh to these straits ahab purposing to pass through them into the javan sea and thence cruising northwards over waters known to be frequented here and there by the sperm whale sweep inshore by the philippine islands and gain the far coast of japan in time for the great whaling season there by these means the circumnavigating pequod would sweep almost all the known sperm whale cruising grounds of the world previous to descending upon the line in the pacific where ahab though everywhere else foiled in his pursuit firmly counted upon giving battle to moby dick in the sea he was most known to frequent and at a season when he might most reasonably be presumed to be haunting it for a long time now the circusrunning sun has raced within his fiery ring and needs no sustenance but whats in himself while other hulls are loaded down with alien stuff to be transferred to foreign wharves the worldwandering whaleship carries no cargo but herself and crew their weapons and their wants she has a whole lakes contents bottled in her ample hold she is ballasted with utilities not altogether with unusable piglead and kentledge clear old prime nantucket water which when three years afloat the nantucketer in the pacific prefers to drink before the brackish fluid but yesterday rafted off in casks from the peruvian or indian streams hence it is that while other ships may have gone to china from new york and back again touching at a score of ports the whaleship in all that interval may not have sighted one grain of soil her crew having seen no man but floating seamen like themselves so that did you carry them the news that another flood had come they would only answerwell boys heres the ark  now as many sperm whales had been captured off the western coast of java in the near vicinity of the straits of sunda indeed as most of the ground roundabout was generally recognised by the fishermen as an excellent spot for cruising therefore as the pequod gained more and more upon java head the lookouts were repeatedly hailed and admonished to keep wide awake but though the green palmy cliffs of the land soon loomed on the starboard bow and with delighted nostrils the fresh cinnamon was snuffed in the air yet not a single jet was descried almost renouncing all thought of falling in with any game hereabouts the ship had well nigh entered the straits when the customary cheering cry was heard from aloft and ere long a spectacle of singular magnificence saluted us but here be it premised that owing to the unwearied activity with which of late they have been hunted over all four oceans the sperm whales instead of almost invariably sailing in small detached companies as in former times are now frequently met with in extensive herds sometimes embracing so great a multitude that it would almost seem as if numerous nations of them had sworn solemn league and covenant for mutual assistance and protection to this aggregation of the sperm whale into such immense caravans may be imputed the circumstance that even in the best cruising grounds you may now sometimes sail for weeks and months together without being greeted by a single spout and then be suddenly saluted by what sometimes seems thousands on thousands broad on both bows at the distance of some two or three miles and forming a great semicircle embracing one half of the level horizon a continuous chain of whalejets were upplaying and sparkling in the noonday air unlike the straight perpendicular twinjets of the right whale which dividing at top fall over in two branches like the cleft drooping boughs of a willow the single forwardslanting spout of the sperm whale presents a thick curled bush of white mist continually rising and falling away to leeward seen from the pequods deck then as she would rise on a high hill of the sea this host of vapoury spouts individually curling up into the air and beheld through a blending atmosphere of bluish haze showed like the thousand cheerful chimneys of some dense metropolis descried of a balmy autumnal morning by some horseman on a height as marching armies approaching an unfriendly defile in the mountains accelerate their march all eagerness to place that perilous passage in their rear and once more expand in comparative security upon the plain even so did this vast fleet of whales now seem hurrying forward through the straits gradually contracting the wings of their semicircle and swimming on in one solid but still crescentic centre crowding all sail the pequod pressed after them the harpooneers handling their weapons and loudly cheering from the heads of their yet suspended boats
perhaps a very little thought will now enable you to account for those repeated whaling disasterssome few of which are casually chronicledof this man or that man being taken out of the boat by the line and lost for when the line is darting out to be seated then in the boat is like being seated in the midst of the manifold whizzings of a steamengine in full play when every flying beam and shaft and wheel is grazing you it is worse for you cannot sit motionless in the heart of these perils because the boat is rocking like a cradle and you are pitched one way and the other without the slightest warning and only by a certain selfadjusting buoyancy and simultaneousness of volition and action can you escape being made a mazeppa of and run away with where the allseeing sun himself could never pierce you out again as the profound calm which only apparently precedes and prophesies of the storm is perhaps more awful than the storm itself for indeed the calm is but the wrapper and envelope of the storm and contains it in itself as the seemingly harmless rifle holds the fatal powder and the ball and the explosion so the graceful repose of the line as it silently serpentines about the oarsmen before being brought into actual playthis is a thing which carries more of true terror than any other aspect of this dangerous affair all are born with halters round their necks but it is only when caught in the swift sudden turn of death that mortals realize the silent subtle everpresent perils of life and if you be a philosopher though seated in the whaleboat you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror than though seated before your evening fire with a poker and not a harpoon by your side if to starbuck the apparition of the squid was a thing of portents to queequeg it was quite a different object when you see him quid said the savage honing his harpoon in the bow of his hoisted boat then you quick see him parm whale the next day was exceedingly still and sultry and with nothing special to engage them the pequods crew could hardly resist the spell of sleep induced by such a vacant sea for this part of the indian ocean through which we then were voyaging is not what whalemen call a lively ground that is it affords fewer glimpses of porpoises dolphins flyingfish and other vivacious denizens of more stirring waters than those off the rio de la plata or the inshore ground off peru it was my turn to stand at the foremasthead and with my shoulders leaning against the slackened royal shrouds to and fro i idly swayed in what seemed an enchanted air no resolution could withstand it in that dreamy mood losing all consciousness at last my soul went out of my body though my body still continued to sway as a pendulum will long after the power which first moved it is withdrawn ere forgetfulness altogether came over me i had noticed that the seamen at the main and mizzenmastheads were already drowsy so that at last all three of us lifelessly swung from the spars and for every swing that we made there was a nod from below from the slumbering helmsman the waves too nodded their indolent crests and across the wide trance of the sea east nodded to west and the sun over all suddenly bubbles seemed bursting beneath my closed eyes like vices my hands grasped the shrouds some invisible gracious agency preserved me with a shock i came back to life close under our lee not forty fathoms off a gigantic sperm whale lay rolling in the water like the capsized hull of a frigate his broad glossy back of an ethiopian hue glistening in the suns rays like a mirror but lazily undulating in the trough of the sea and ever and anon tranquilly spouting his vapoury jet the whale looked like a portly burgher smoking his pipe of a warm afternoon as if struck by some enchanters wand the sleepy ship and every sleeper in it all at once started into wakefulness and more than a score of voices from all parts of the vessel simultaneously with the three notes from aloft shouted forth the accustomed cry as the great fish slowly and regularly spouted the sparkling brine into the air and obeying his own order he dashed the helm down before the helmsman could handle the spokes
there is some sense in what he says about the girls however and if he is disposed to make them any amends i shall not be the person to discourage him though it is difficult said jane to guess in what way he can mean to make us the atonement he thinks our due the wish is certainly to his credit elizabeth was chiefly struck by his extraordinary deference for lady catherine and his kind intention of christening marrying and burying his parishioners whenever it were required and what can he mean by apologising for being next in the entail i have great hopes of finding him quite the reverse there is a mixture of servility and selfimportance in his letter which promises well in point of composition said mary the letter does not seem defective the idea of the olivebranch perhaps is not wholly new yet i think it is well expressed to catherine and lydia neither the letter nor its writer were in any degree interesting it was next to impossible that their cousin should come in a scarlet coat and it was now some weeks since they had received pleasure from the society of a man in any other colour collinss letter had done away much of her illwill and she was preparing to see him with a degree of composure which astonished her husband and daughters collins was punctual to his time and was received with great politeness by the whole family bennet indeed said little but the ladies were ready enough to talk and mr collins seemed neither in need of encouragement nor inclined to be silent himself he was a tall heavylooking young man of fiveandtwenty his air was grave and stately and his manners were very formal he had not been long seated before he complimented mrs bennet on having so fine a family of daughters said he had heard much of their beauty but that in this instance fame had fallen short of the truth and added that he did not doubt her seeing them all in due time disposed of in marriage this gallantry was not much to the taste of some of his hearers but mrs bennet who quarreled with no compliments answered most readily
my friend lord courtland came to me the other day on purpose to ask my advice and laid before me three different plans of bonomis my dear courtland said i immediately throwing them all into the fire do not adopt either of them but by all means build a cottage some people imagine that there can be no accommodations no space in a cottage but this is all a mistake i was last month at my friend elliotts near dartford said she my dear ferrars do tell me how it is to be managed there is not a room in this cottage that will hold ten couple and where can the supper be i immediately saw that there could be no difficulty in it so i said my dear lady elliott do not be uneasy the dining parlour will admit eighteen couple with ease cardtables may be placed in the drawingroom the library may be open for tea and other refreshments and let the supper be set out in the saloon we measured the diningroom and found it would hold exactly eighteen couple and the affair was arranged precisely after my plan so that in fact you see if people do but know how to set about it every comfort may be as well enjoyed in a cottage as in the most spacious dwelling  elinor agreed to it all for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition as john dashwood had no more pleasure in music than his eldest sister his mind was equally at liberty to fix on any thing else and a thought struck him during the evening which he communicated to his wife for her approbation when they got home dennisons mistake in supposing his sisters their guests had suggested the propriety of their being really invited to become such while mrs the expense would be nothing the inconvenience not more and it was altogether an attention which the delicacy of his conscience pointed out to be requisite to its complete enfranchisement from his promise to his father i do not see how it can be done said she without affronting lady middleton for they spend every day with her otherwise i should be exceedingly glad to do it you know i am always ready to pay them any attention in my power as my taking them out this evening shews her husband but with great humility did not see the force of her objection they had already spent a week in this manner in conduit street and lady middleton could not be displeased at their giving the same number of days to such near relations fanny paused a moment and then with fresh vigor said my love i would ask them with all my heart if it was in my power but i had just settled within myself to ask the miss steeles to spend a few days with us
do thou abide below here where they shall serve thee as if thou wert the captain aye lad thou shalt sit here in my own screwed chair another screw to it thou must be ye have not a whole body sir do ye but use poor me for your one lost leg only tread upon me sir i ask no more so i remain a part of ye spite of million villains this makes me a bigot in the fadeless fidelity of man but methinks likecureslike applies to him too he grows so sane again they tell me sir that stubb did once desert poor little pip whose drowned bones now show white for all the blackness of his living skin if thou speakest thus to me much more ahabs purpose keels up in him listen and thou wilt often hear my ivory foot upon the deck and still know that i am there true art thou lad as the circumference to its centre so god for ever bless thee and if it come to thatgod for ever save thee let what will befall  here he this instant stood i stand in his airbut im alone now were even poor pip here i could endure it but hes missing neither lock nor bolt nor bar and yet theres no opening it it must be the spell he told me to stay here aye and told me this screwed chair was mine here then ill seat me against the transom in the ships full middle all her keel and her three masts before me here our old sailors say in their black seventyfours great admirals sometimes sit at table and lord it over rows of captains and lieutenants pass round the decanters glad to see ye fill up monsieurs what an odd feeling now when a black boys host to white men with gold lace upon their coats a little negro lad five feet high hangdog look and cowardly well then fill up again captains and lets drink shame upon all cowards
as the day of his arrival drew near i begin to be sorry that he comes at all said jane to her sister it would be nothing i could see him with perfect indifference but i can hardly bear to hear it thus perpetually talked of my mother means well but she does not know no one can know how much i suffer from what she says happy shall i be when his stay at netherfield is over i wish i could say anything to comfort you replied elizabeth but it is wholly out of my power you must feel it and the usual satisfaction of preaching patience to a sufferer is denied me because you have always so much bennet through the assistance of servants contrived to have the earliest tidings of it that the period of anxiety and fretfulness on her side might be as long as it could she counted the days that must intervene before their invitation could be sent hopeless of seeing him before but on the third morning after his arrival in hertfordshire she saw him from her dressingroom window enter the paddock and ride towards the house her daughters were eagerly called to partake of her joy jane resolutely kept her place at the table but elizabeth to satisfy her mother went to the windowshe lookedshe saw mr there is a gentleman with him mamma said kitty who can it be some acquaintance or other my dear i suppose i am sure i do not know replied kitty it looks just like that man that used to be with him before bingleys will always be welcome here to be sure but else i must say that i hate the very sight of him she knew but little of their meeting in derbyshire and therefore felt for the awkwardness which must attend her sister in seeing him almost for the first time after receiving his explanatory letter each felt for the other and of course for themselves and their mother talked on of her dislike of mr darcy and her resolution to be civil to him only as mr bingleys friend without being heard by either of them but elizabeth had sources of uneasiness which could not be suspected by jane to whom she had never yet had courage to shew mrs
but she must not go round by london cried marianne in the same hurried manner elinor perceived with alarm that she was not quite herself and while attempting to soothe her eagerly felt her pulse and marianne still talking wildly of mama her alarm increased so rapidly as to determine her on sending instantly for mr harris and despatching a messenger to barton for her mother to consult with colonel brandon on the best means of effecting the latter was a thought which immediately followed the resolution of its performance and as soon she had rung up the maid to take her place by her sister she hastened down to the drawingroom where she knew he was generally to be found at a much later hour than the present her fears and her difficulties were immediately before him her fears he had no courage no confidence to attempt the removal ofhe listened to them in silent despondencebut her difficulties were instantly obviated for with a readiness that seemed to speak the occasion and the service prearranged in his mind he offered himself as the messenger who should fetch mrs elinor made no resistance that was not easily overcome she thanked him with brief though fervent gratitude and while he went to hurry off his servant with a message to mr harris and an order for posthorses directly she wrote a few lines to her mother the comfort of such a friend at that moment as colonel brandonor such a companion for her motherhow gratefully was it felt a companion whose judgment would guide whose attendance must relieve and whose friendship might soothe her as far as the shock of such a summons could be lessened to her his presence his manners his assistance would lessen it he meanwhile whatever he might feel acted with all the firmness of a collected mind made every necessary arrangement with the utmost despatch and calculated with exactness the time in which she might look for his return the horses arrived even before they were expected and colonel brandon only pressing her hand with a look of solemnity and a few words spoken too low to reach her ear hurried into the carriage it was then about twelve oclock and she returned to her sisters apartment to wait for the arrival of the apothecary and to watch by her the rest of the night hour after hour passed away in sleepless pain and delirium on mariannes side and in the most cruel anxiety on elinors before mr her apprehensions once raised paid by their excess for all her former security and the servant who sat up with her for she would not allow mrs jennings to be called only tortured her more by hints of what her mistress had always thought mariannes ideas were still at intervals fixed incoherently on her mother and whenever she mentioned her name it gave a pang to the heart of poor elinor who reproaching herself for having trifled with so many days of illness and wretched for some immediate relief fancied that all relief might soon be in vain that every thing had been delayed too long and pictured to herself her suffering mother arriving too late to see this darling child or to see her rational
if we bend down our eyes the dark vale shows her mouldy soil but if we lift them the bright sun meets our glance half way to cheer yet oh the great sun is no fixture and if at midnight we would fain snatch some sweet solace from him we gaze for him in vain this coin speaks wisely mildly truly but still sadly to me there nows the old mogul soliloquized stubb by the tryworks hes been twigging it and there goes starbuck from the same and both with faces which i should say might be somewhere within nine fathoms long and all from looking at a piece of gold which did i have it now on negro hill or in corlaers hook id not look at it very long ere spending it in my poor insignificant opinion i regard this as queer i have seen doubloons before now in my voyagings your doubloons of old spain your doubloons of peru your doubloons of chili your doubloons of bolivia your doubloons of popayan with plenty of gold moidores and pistoles and joes and half joes and quarter joes what then should there be in this doubloon of the equator that is so killing wonderful that now is what old bowditch in his epitome calls the zodiac and what my almanac below calls ditto ill get the almanac and as i have heard devils can be raised with dabolls arithmetic ill try my hand at raising a meaning out of these queer curvicues here with the massachusetts calendar hem hem hem here they arehere they goall alivearies or the ram taurus or the bull and jimimi aye here on the coin hes just crossing the threshold between two of twelve sittingrooms all in a ring you lie there the fact is you books must know your places youll do to give us the bare words and facts but we come in to supply the thoughts thats my small experience so far as the massachusetts calendar and bowditchs navigator and dabolls arithmetic go pity if there is nothing wonderful in signs and significant in wonders look you doubloon your zodiac here is the life of man in one round chapter and now ill read it off straight out of the book to begin theres aries or the ramlecherous dog he begets us then taurus or the bullhe bumps us the first thing then gemini or the twinsthat is virtue and vice we try to reach virtue when lo comes cancer the crab and drags us back and here going from virtue leo a roaring lion lies in the pathhe gives a few fierce bites and surly dabs with his paw we escape and hail virgo the virgin thats our first love we marry and think to be happy for aye when pop comes libra or the scaleshappiness weighed and found wanting and while we are very sad about that lord
theres something ever egotistical in mountaintops and towers and all other grand and lofty things look herethree peaks as proud as lucifer the firm tower that is ahab the volcano that is ahab the courageous the undaunted and victorious fowl that too is ahab all are ahab and this round gold is but the image of the rounder globe which like a magicians glass to each and every man in turn but mirrors back his own mysterious self great pains small gains for those who ask the world to solve them it cannot solve itself methinks now this coined sun wears a ruddy face but see and but six months before he wheeled out of a former equinox at aries born in throes tis fit that man should live in pains and die in pangs no fairy fingers can have pressed the gold but devils claws must have left their mouldings there since yesterday murmured starbuck to himself leaning against the bulwarks the old man seems to read belshazzars awful writing a dark valley between three mighty heavenabiding peaks that almost seem the trinity in some faint earthly symbol so in this vale of death god girds us round and over all our gloom the sun of righteousness still shines a beacon and a hope if we bend down our eyes the dark vale shows her mouldy soil but if we lift them the bright sun meets our glance half way to cheer yet oh the great sun is no fixture and if at midnight we would fain snatch some sweet solace from him we gaze for him in vain this coin speaks wisely mildly truly but still sadly to me there nows the old mogul soliloquized stubb by the tryworks hes been twigging it and there goes starbuck from the same and both with faces which i should say might be somewhere within nine fathoms long and all from looking at a piece of gold which did i have it now on negro hill or in corlaers hook id not look at it very long ere spending it in my poor insignificant opinion i regard this as queer i have seen doubloons before now in my voyagings your doubloons of old spain your doubloons of peru your doubloons of chili your doubloons of bolivia your doubloons of popayan with plenty of gold moidores and pistoles and joes and half joes and quarter joes what then should there be in this doubloon of the equator that is so killing wonderful that now is what old bowditch in his epitome calls the zodiac and what my almanac below calls ditto ill get the almanac and as i have heard devils can be raised with dabolls arithmetic ill try my hand at raising a meaning out of these queer curvicues here with the massachusetts calendar
no pride no hauteur and your sister just the sameall sweetness and affability elinor wished to talk of something else but lucy still pressed her to own that she had reason for her happiness and elinor was obliged to go on  undoubtedly if they had known your engagement said she nothing could be more flattering than their treatment of youbut as that was not the case  i guessed you would say so replied lucy quicklybut there was no reason in the world why mrs ferrars should seem to like me if she did not and her liking me is every thing i am sure it will all end well and there will be no difficulties at all to what i used to think i wonder i should never hear you say how agreeable mrs  to this elinor had no answer to make and did not attempt any i am glad of it with all my heart but really you did not look it i should be sorry to have you ill you that have been the greatest comfort to me in the world heaven knows what i should have done without your friendship  elinor tried to make a civil answer though doubting her own success but it seemed to satisfy lucy for she directly replied indeed i am perfectly convinced of your regard for me and next to edwards love it is the greatest comfort i have but now there is one good thing we shall be able to meet and meet pretty often for lady middletons delighted with mrs dashwood so we shall be a good deal in harley street i dare say and edward spends half his time with his sisterbesides lady middleton and mrs ferrars and your sister were both so good to say more than once they should always be glad to see me i am sure if ever you tell your sister what i think of her you cannot speak too high but elinor would not give her any encouragement to hope that she should tell her sister if she had only made me a formal courtesy for instance without saying a word and never after had took any notice of me and never looked at me in a pleasant wayyou know what i meanif i had been treated in that forbidding sort of way i should have gave it all up in despair for where she does dislike i know it is most violent elinor was prevented from making any reply to this civil triumph by the doors being thrown open the servants announcing mr
in the forecastle the sailors had actually caulked and pitched their chests and filled them it was humorously added that the cook had clapped a head on his largest boiler and filled it that the steward had plugged his spare coffeepot and filled it that the harpooneers had headed the sockets of their irons and filled them that indeed everything was filled with sperm except the captains pantaloons pockets and those he reserved to thrust his hands into in selfcomplacent testimony of his entire satisfaction as this glad ship of good luck bore down upon the moody pequod the barbarian sound of enormous drums came from her forecastle and drawing still nearer a crowd of her men were seen standing round her huge trypots which covered with the parchmentlike poke or stomach skin of the black fish gave forth a loud roar to every stroke of the clenched hands of the crew on the quarterdeck the mates and harpooneers were dancing with the olivehued girls who had eloped with them from the polynesian isles while suspended in an ornamented boat firmly secured aloft between the foremast and mainmast three long island negroes with glittering fiddlebows of whale ivory were presiding over the hilarious jig meanwhile others of the ships company were tumultuously busy at the masonry of the tryworks from which the huge pots had been removed you would have almost thought they were pulling down the cursed bastille such wild cries they raised as the now useless brick and mortar were being hurled into the sea lord and master over all this scene the captain stood erect on the ships elevated quarterdeck so that the whole rejoicing drama was full before him and seemed merely contrived for his own individual diversion and ahab he too was standing on his quarterdeck shaggy and black with a stubborn gloom and as the two ships crossed each others wakesone all jubilations for things passed the other all forebodings as to things to cometheir two captains in themselves impersonated the whole striking contrast of the scene cried the gay bachelors commander lifting a glass and a bottle in the air no only heard of him but dont believe in him at all said the other goodhumoredly not enough to speak oftwo islanders thats allbut come aboard old hearty come along come along will ye merrys the play a full ship and homewardbound muttered ahab then aloud thou art a full ship and homeward bound thou sayst well then call me an empty ship and outwardbound and thus while the one ship went cheerily before the breeze the other stubbornly fought against it and so the two vessels parted the crew of the pequod looking with grave lingering glances towards the receding bachelor but the bachelors men never heeding their gaze for the lively revelry they were in and as ahab leaning over the taffrail eyed the homewardbound craft he took from his pocket a small vial of sand and then looking from the ship to the vial seemed thereby bringing two remote associations together for that vial was filled with nantucket soundings not seldom in this life when on the right side fortunes favourites sail close by us we though all adroop before catch somewhat of the rushing breeze and joyfully feel our bagging sails fill out for next day after encountering the gay bachelor whales were seen and four were slain and one of them by ahab it was far down the afternoon and when all the spearings of the crimson fight were done and floating in the lovely sunset sea and sky sun and whale both stilly died together then such a sweetness and such plaintiveness such inwreathing orisons curled up in that rosy air that it almost seemed as if far over from the deep green convent valleys of the manilla isles the spanish landbreeze wantonly turned sailor had gone to sea freighted with these vesper hymns soothed again but only soothed to deeper gloom ahab who had sterned off from the whale sat intently watching his final wanings from the now tranquil boat for that strange spectacle observable in all sperm whales dyingthe turning sunwards of the head and so expiringthat strange spectacle beheld of such a placid evening somehow to ahab conveyed a wondrousness unknown before he turns and turns him to ithow slowly but how steadfastly his homagerendering and invoking brow with his last dying motions
his present pursuit could not make him forget that elizabeth had been the first to excite and to deserve his attention the first to listen and to pity the first to be admired and in his manner of bidding her adieu wishing her every enjoyment reminding her of what she was to expect in lady catherine de bourgh and trusting their opinion of hertheir opinion of everybodywould always coincide there was a solicitude an interest which she felt must ever attach her to him with a most sincere regard and she parted from him convinced that whether married or single he must always be her model of the amiable and pleasing her fellowtravellers the next day were not of a kind to make her think him less agreeable sir william lucas and his daughter maria a goodhumoured girl but as emptyheaded as himself had nothing to say that could be worth hearing and were listened to with about as much delight as the rattle of the chaise elizabeth loved absurdities but she had known sir williams too long he could tell her nothing new of the wonders of his presentation and knighthood and his civilities were worn out like his information it was a journey of only twentyfour miles and they began it so early as to be in gracechurch street by noon gardiners door jane was at a drawingroom window watching their arrival when they entered the passage she was there to welcome them and elizabeth looking earnestly in her face was pleased to see it healthful and lovely as ever on the stairs were a troop of little boys and girls whose eagerness for their cousins appearance would not allow them to wait in the drawingroom and whose shyness as they had not seen her for a twelvemonth prevented their coming lower the day passed most pleasantly away the morning in bustle and shopping and the evening at one of the theatres their first object was her sister and she was more grieved than astonished to hear in reply to her minute inquiries that though jane always struggled to support her spirits there were periods of dejection it was reasonable however to hope that they would not continue long gardiner gave her the particulars also of miss bingleys visit in gracechurch street and repeated conversations occurring at different times between jane and herself which proved that the former had from her heart given up the acquaintance gardiner then rallied her niece on wickhams desertion and complimented her on bearing it so well but my dear elizabeth she added what sort of girl is miss king pray my dear aunt what is the difference in matrimonial affairs between the mercenary and the prudent motive last christmas you were afraid of his marrying me because it would be imprudent and now because he is trying to get a girl with only ten thousand pounds you want to find out that he is mercenary if you will only tell me what sort of girl miss king is i shall know what to think but he paid her not the smallest attention till her grandfathers death made her mistress of this fortune if it were not allowable for him to gain my affections because i had no money what occasion could there be for making love to a girl whom he did not care about and who was equally poor but there seems an indelicacy in directing his attentions towards her so soon after this event
she joined them sometimes at sir johns sometimes at her own house but wherever it was she always came in excellent spirits full of delight and importance attributing charlottes well doing to her own care and ready to give so exact so minute a detail of her situation as only miss steele had curiosity enough to desire one thing did disturb her and of that she made her daily complaint palmer maintained the common but unfatherly opinion among his sex of all infants being alike and though she could plainly perceive at different times the most striking resemblance between this baby and every one of his relations on both sides there was no convincing his father of it no persuading him to believe that it was not exactly like every other baby of the same age nor could he even be brought to acknowledge the simple proposition of its being the finest child in the world i come now to the relation of a misfortune which about this time befell mrs jennings were first calling on her in harley street another of her acquaintance had dropt ina circumstance in itself not apparently likely to produce evil to her but while the imaginations of other people will carry them away to form wrong judgments of our conduct and to decide on it by slight appearances ones happiness must in some measure be always at the mercy of chance in the present instance this lastarrived lady allowed her fancy to so far outrun truth and probability that on merely hearing the name of the miss dashwoods and understanding them to be mr dashwoods sisters she immediately concluded them to be staying in harley street and this misconstruction produced within a day or two afterwards cards of invitation for them as well as for their brother and sister to a small musical party at her house john dashwood was obliged to submit not only to the exceedingly great inconvenience of sending her carriage for the miss dashwoods but what was still worse must be subject to all the unpleasantness of appearing to treat them with attention and who could tell that they might not expect to go out with her a second time the power of disappointing them it was true must always be hers but that was not enough for when people are determined on a mode of conduct which they know to be wrong they feel injured by the expectation of any thing better from them marianne had now been brought by degrees so much into the habit of going out every day that it was become a matter of indifference to her whether she went or not and she prepared quietly and mechanically for every evenings engagement though without expecting the smallest amusement from any and very often without knowing till the last moment where it was to take her to her dress and appearance she was grown so perfectly indifferent as not to bestow half the consideration on it during the whole of her toilet which it received from miss steele in the first five minutes of their being together when it was finished nothing escaped her minute observation and general curiosity she saw every thing and asked every thing was never easy till she knew the price of every part of mariannes dress could have guessed the number of her gowns altogether with better judgment than marianne herself and was not without hopes of finding out before they parted how much her washing cost per week and how much she had every year to spend upon herself the impertinence of these kind of scrutinies moreover was generally concluded with a compliment which though meant as its douceur was considered by marianne as the greatest impertinence of all for after undergoing an examination into the value and make of her gown the colour of her shoes and the arrangement of her hair she was almost sure of being told that upon her word she looked vastly smart and she dared to say she would make a great many conquests with such encouragement as this was she dismissed on the present occasion to her brothers carriage which they were ready to enter five minutes after it stopped at the door a punctuality not very agreeable to their sisterinlaw who had preceded them to the house of her acquaintance and was there hoping for some delay on their part that might inconvenience either herself or her coachman the events of this evening were not very remarkable the party like other musical parties comprehended a great many people who had real taste for the performance and a great many more who had none at all and the performers themselves were as usual in their own estimation and that of their immediate friends the first private performers in england as elinor was neither musical nor affecting to be so she made no scruple of turning her eyes from the grand pianoforte whenever it suited her and unrestrained even by the presence of a harp and violoncello would fix them at pleasure on any other object in the room in one of these excursive glances she perceived among a group of young men the very he who had given them a lecture on toothpickcases at grays
who didst not refuse to the swart convict bunyan the pale poetic pearl thou who didst clothe with doubly hammered leaves of finest gold the stumped and paupered arm of old cervantes thou who didst pick up andrew jackson from the pebbles who didst hurl him upon a warhorse who didst thunder him higher than a throne thou who in all thy mighty earthly marchings ever cullest thy selectest champions from the kingly commons bear me out in it o god he was a native of cape cod and hence according to local usage was called a capecodman a happygolucky neither craven nor valiant taking perils as they came with an indifferent air and while engaged in the most imminent crisis of the chase toiling away calm and collected as a journeyman joiner engaged for the year goodhumored easy and careless he presided over his whaleboat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner and his crew all invited guests he was as particular about the comfortable arrangement of his part of the boat as an old stagedriver is about the snugness of his box when close to the whale in the very deathlock of the fight he handled his unpitying lance coolly and offhandedly as a whistling tinker his hammer he would hum over his old rigadig tunes while flank and flank with the most exasperated monster long usage had for this stubb converted the jaws of death into an easy chair what he thought of death itself there is no telling whether he ever thought of it at all might be a question but if he ever did chance to cast his mind that way after a comfortable dinner no doubt like a good sailor he took it to be a sort of call of the watch to tumble aloft and bestir themselves there about something which he would find out when he obeyed the order and not sooner what perhaps with other things made stubb such an easygoing unfearing man so cheerily trudging off with the burden of life in a world full of grave pedlars all bowed to the ground with their packs what helped to bring about that almost impious goodhumor of his that thing must have been his pipe for like his nose his short black little pipe was one of the regular features of his face you would almost as soon have expected him to turn out of his bunk without his nose as without his pipe he kept a whole row of pipes there ready loaded stuck in a rack within easy reach of his hand and whenever he turned in he smoked them all out in succession lighting one from the other to the end of the chapter then loading them again to be in readiness anew for when stubb dressed instead of first putting his legs into his trowsers he put his pipe into his mouth i say this continual smoking must have been one cause at least of his peculiar disposition for every one knows that this earthly air whether ashore or afloat is terribly infected with the nameless miseries of the numberless mortals who have died exhaling it and as in time of the cholera some people go about with a camphorated handkerchief to their mouths so likewise against all mortal tribulations stubbs tobacco smoke might have operated as a sort of disinfecting agent the third mate was flask a native of tisbury in marthas vineyard a short stout ruddy young fellow very pugnacious concerning whales who somehow seemed to think that the great leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him and therefore it was a sort of point of honour with him to destroy them whenever encountered so utterly lost was he to all sense of reverence for the many marvels of their majestic bulk and mystic ways and so dead to anything like an apprehension of any possible danger from encountering them that in his poor opinion the wondrous whale was but a species of magnified mouse or at least waterrat requiring only a little circumvention and some small application of time and trouble in order to kill and boil
but you are not entitled to know mine nor will such behaviour as this ever induce me to be explicit this match to which you have the presumption to aspire can never take place only this that if he is so you can have no reason to suppose he will make an offer to me lady catherine hesitated for a moment and then replied the engagement between them is of a peculiar kind from their infancy they have been intended for each other it was the favourite wish of his mother as well as of hers while in their cradles we planned the union and now at the moment when the wishes of both sisters would be accomplished in their marriage to be prevented by a young woman of inferior birth of no importance in the world and wholly unallied to the family are you lost to every feeling of propriety and delicacy have you not heard me say that from his earliest hours he was destined for his cousin if there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew i shall certainly not be kept from it by knowing that his mother and aunt wished him to marry miss de bourgh you both did as much as you could in planning the marriage darcy is neither by honour nor inclination confined to his cousin why is not he to make another choice because honour decorum prudence nay interest forbid it yes miss bennet interest for do not expect to be noticed by his family or friends if you wilfully act against the inclinations of all you will be censured slighted and despised by everyone connected with him your alliance will be a disgrace your name will never even be mentioned by any of us darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation that she could upon the whole have no cause to repine is this your gratitude for my attentions to you last spring you are to understand miss bennet that i came here with the determined resolution of carrying my purpose nor will i be dissuaded from it i have not been used to submit to any persons whims
hardly had he done so when he was surrounded by the three junior mates and the four harpooneers who all crowded him to the deck but sliding down the ropes like baleful comets the two canallers rushed into the uproar and sought to drag their man out of it towards the forecastle others of the sailors joined with them in this attempt and a twisted turmoil ensued while standing out of harms way the valiant captain danced up and down with a whalepike calling upon his officers to manhandle that atrocious scoundrel and smoke him along to the quarterdeck at intervals he ran close up to the revolving border of the confusion and prying into the heart of it with his pike sought to prick out the object of his resentment but steelkilt and his desperadoes were too much for them all they succeeded in gaining the forecastle deck where hastily slewing about three or four large casks in a line with the windlass these seaparisians entrenched themselves behind the barricade roared the captain now menacing them with a pistol in each hand just brought to him by the steward steelkilt leaped on the barricade and striding up and down there defied the worst the pistols could do but gave the captain to understand distinctly that his steelkilts death would be the signal for a murderous mutiny on the part of all hands fearing in his heart lest this might prove but too true the captain a little desisted but still commanded the insurgents instantly to return to their duty do you want to sink the ship by knocking off at a time like this not a man of us turns to unless you swear not to raise a ropeyarn against us the lakeman now patrolled the barricade all the while keeping his eye on the captain and jerking out such sentences as theseits not our fault we didnt want it i told him to take his hammer away it was boys business he might have known me before this i told him not to prick the buffalo i believe i have broken a finger here against his cursed jaw aint those mincing knives down in the forecastle there men captain by god look to yourself say the word dont be a fool forget it all we are ready to turn to treat us decently and were your men but we wont be flogged look ye now cried the lakeman flinging out his arm towards him there are a few of us here and i am one of them who have shipped for the cruise dye see now as you well know sir we can claim our discharge as soon as the anchor is down so we dont want a row its not our interest we want to be peaceable we are ready to work but we wont be flogged steelkilt glanced round him a moment and then saidi tell you what it is now captain rather than kill ye and be hung for such a shabby rascal we wont lift a hand against ye unless ye attack us but till you say the word about not flogging us we dont do a hands turn    down into the forecastle then down with ye i ll keep ye there till yere sick of it most of them were against it but at length in obedience to steelkilt they preceded him down into their dark den growlingly disappearing like bears into a cave as the lakemans bare head was just level with the planks the captain and his posse leaped the barricade and rapidly drawing over the slide of the scuttle planted their group of hands upon it and loudly called for the steward to bring the heavy brass padlock belonging to the companionway then opening the slide a little the captain whispered something down the crack closed it and turned the key upon themten in numberleaving on deck some twenty or more who thus far had remained neutral all night a wideawake watch was kept by all the officers forward and aft especially about the forecastle scuttle and fore hatchway at which last place it was feared the insurgents might emerge after breaking through the bulkhead below but the hours of darkness passed in peace the men who still remained at their duty toiling hard at the pumps whose clinking and clanking at intervals through the dreary night dismally resounded through the ship
their affectionate mother shared all their grief she remembered what she had herself endured on a similar occasion fiveandtwenty years ago i am sure said she i cried for two days together when colonel millers regiment went away and my aunt phillips is sure it would do me a great deal of good added kitty such were the kind of lamentations resounding perpetually through longbourn house elizabeth tried to be diverted by them but all sense of pleasure was lost in shame darcys objections and never had she been so much disposed to pardon his interference in the views of his friend but the gloom of lydias prospect was shortly cleared away for she received an invitation from mrs forster the wife of the colonel of the regiment to accompany her to brighton this invaluable friend was a very young woman and very lately married a resemblance in good humour and good spirits had recommended her and lydia to each other and out of their three months acquaintance they had been intimate two the rapture of lydia on this occasion her adoration of mrs bennet and the mortification of kitty are scarcely to be described wholly inattentive to her sisters feelings lydia flew about the house in restless ecstasy calling for everyones congratulations and laughing and talking with more violence than ever whilst the luckless kitty continued in the parlour repined at her fate in terms as unreasonable as her accent was peevish forster should not ask me as well as lydia said she though i am not her particular friend i have just as much right to be asked as she has and more too for i am two years older in vain did elizabeth attempt to make her reasonable and jane to make her resigned as for elizabeth herself this invitation was so far from exciting in her the same feelings as in her mother and lydia that she considered it as the death warrant of all possibility of common sense for the latter and detestable as such a step must make her were it known she could not help secretly advising her father not to let her go she represented to him all the improprieties of lydias general behaviour the little advantage she could derive from the friendship of such a woman as mrs forster and the probability of her being yet more imprudent with such a companion at brighton where the temptations must be greater than at home he heard her attentively and then said lydia will never be easy until she has exposed herself in some public place or other and we can never expect her to do it with so little expense or inconvenience to her family as under the present circumstances
you may think with what emotions then the seamen beheld this old oriental perched aloft at such unusual hours his turban and the moon companions in one sky but when after spending his uniform interval there for several successive nights without uttering a single sound when after all this silence his unearthly voice was heard announcing that silvery moonlit jet every reclining mariner started to his feet as if some winged spirit had lighted in the rigging and hailed the mortal crew had the trump of judgment blown they could not have quivered more yet still they felt no terror rather pleasure for though it was a most unwonted hour yet so impressive was the cry and so deliriously exciting that almost every soul on board instinctively desired a lowering walking the deck with quick sidelunging strides ahab commanded the tgallant sails and royals to be set and every stunsail spread then with every masthead manned the piledup craft rolled down before the wind the strange upheaving lifting tendency of the taffrail breeze filling the hollows of so many sails made the buoyant hovering deck to feel like air beneath the feet while still she rushed along as if two antagonistic influences were struggling in herone to mount direct to heaven the other to drive yawingly to some horizontal goal and had you watched ahabs face that night you would have thought that in him also two different things were warring while his one live leg made lively echoes along the deck every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a coffintap but though the ship so swiftly sped and though from every eye like arrows the eager glances shot yet the silvery jet was no more seen that night every sailor swore he saw it once but not a second time this midnightspout had almost grown a forgotten thing when some days after lo at the same silent hour it was again announced again it was descried by all but upon making sail to overtake it once more it disappeared as if it had never been and so it served us night after night till no one heeded it but to wonder at it mysteriously jetted into the clear moonlight or starlight as the case might be disappearing again for one whole day or two days or three and somehow seeming at every distinct repetition to be advancing still further and further in our van this solitary jet seemed for ever alluring us on nor with the immemorial superstition of their race and in accordance with the preternaturalness as it seemed which in many things invested the pequod were there wanting some of the seamen who swore that whenever and wherever descried at however remote times or in however far apart latitudes and longitudes that unnearable spout was cast by one selfsame whale and that whale moby dick for a time there reigned too a sense of peculiar dread at this flitting apparition as if it were treacherously beckoning us on and on in order that the monster might turn round upon us and rend us at last in the remotest and most savage seas these temporary apprehensions so vague but so awful derived a wondrous potency from the contrasting serenity of the weather in which beneath all its blue blandness some thought there lurked a devilish charm as for days and days we voyaged along through seas so wearily lonesomely mild that all space in repugnance to our vengeful errand seemed vacating itself of life before our urnlike prow but at last when turning to the eastward the cape winds began howling around us and we rose and fell upon the long troubled seas that are there when the ivorytusked pequod sharply bowed to the blast and gored the dark waves in her madness till like showers of silver chips the foamflakes flew over her bulwarks then all this desolate vacuity of life went away but gave place to sights more dismal than before close to our bows strange forms in the water darted hither and thither before us while thick in our rear flew the inscrutable searavens
green the first day i brought ye thence now worn and wilted quite hear i the roaring streams from pirohitees peak of spears when they leap down the crags and drown the villages the winds are just crossing swords pellmell they ll go lunging presently hes no more afraid than the isle fort at cattegat put there to fight the baltic with stormlashed guns on which the seasalt cakes i heard old ahab tell him he must always kill a squall something as they burst a waterspout with a pistolfire your ship right into it pines are the hardest sort of tree to live when shifted to any other soil and here theres none but the crews cursed clay this is the sort of weather when brave hearts snap ashore and keeled hulls split at sea our captain has his birthmark look yonder boys theres another in the skyluridlike ye see all else pitch black  aye harpooneer thy race is the undeniable dark side of mankinddevilish dark at that but that cant be or else in his one case our old moguls firewaters are somewhat long in working a row alow and a row aloftgods and menboth brawlers its worse than being in the whirled woods the last day of the year but those chaps there are worse yetthey are your white squalls they here have i heard all their chat just now and the white whaleshirr and only this eveningit makes me jingle all over like my tambourinethat anaconda of an old man swore em in to hunt him oh thou big white god aloft there somewhere in yon darkness have mercy on this small black boy down here preserve him from all men that have no bowels to feel fear i ishmael was one of that crew my shouts had gone up with the rest my oath had been welded with theirs and stronger i shouted and more did i hammer and clinch my oath because of the dread in my soul a wild mystical sympathetical feeling was in me ahab s quenchless feud seemed mine with greedy ears i learned the history of that murderous monster against whom i and all the others had taken our oaths of violence and revenge for some time past though at intervals only the unaccompanied secluded white whale had haunted those uncivilized seas mostly frequented by the sperm whale fishermen
is her son determined to submit to this and to all the tediousness of the many years of suspense in which it may involve you rather than run the risk of her displeasure for a while by owning the truth if we could be certain that it would be only for a while ferrars is a very headstrong proud woman and in her first fit of anger upon hearing it would very likely secure every thing to robert and the idea of that for edwards sake frightens away all my inclination for hasty measures and for your own sake too or you are carrying your disinterestedness beyond reason not at alli never saw him but i fancy he is very unlike his brothersilly and a great coxcomb repeated miss steele whose ear had caught those words by a sudden pause in mariannes music  oh they are talking of their favourite beaux i dare say no sister cried lucy you are mistaken there our favourite beaux are not great coxcombs i can answer for it that miss dashwoods is not said mrs jennings laughing heartily for he is one of the modestest prettiest behaved young men i ever saw but as for lucy she is such a sly little creature there is no finding out who she likes oh cried miss steele looking significantly round at them i dare say lucys beau is quite as modest and pretty behaved as miss dashwoods lucy first put an end to it by saying in a lower tone though marianne was then giving them the powerful protection of a very magnificent concerto i will honestly tell you of one scheme which has lately come into my head for bringing matters to bear indeed i am bound to let you into the secret for you are a party concerned i dare say you have seen enough of edward to know that he would prefer the church to every other profession now my plan is that he should take orders as soon as he can and then through your interest which i am sure you would be kind enough to use out of friendship for him and i hope out of some regard to me your brother might be persuaded to give him norland living which i understand is a very good one and the present incumbent not likely to live a great while that would be enough for us to marry upon and we might trust to time and chance for the rest i should always be happy replied elinor to show any mark of my esteem and friendship for mr ferrars but do you not perceive that my interest on such an occasion would be perfectly unnecessary john dashwoodthat must be recommendation enough to her husband john dashwood would not much approve of edwards going into orders then i rather suspect that my interest would do very little at length lucy exclaimed with a deep sigh i believe it would be the wisest way to put an end to the business at once by dissolving the engagement
that instant the white whale made a sudden rush among the remaining tangles of the other lines by so doing irresistibly dragged the more involved boats of stubb and flask towards his flukes dashed them together like two rolling husks on a surfbeaten beach and then diving down into the sea disappeared in a boiling maelstrom in which for a space the odorous cedar chips of the wrecks danced round and round like the grated nutmeg in a swiftly stirred bowl of punch while the two crews were yet circling in the waters reaching out after the revolving linetubs oars and other floating furniture while aslope little flask bobbed up and down like an empty vial twitching his legs upwards to escape the dreaded jaws of sharks and stubb was lustily singing out for some one to ladle him up and while the old mans linenow partingadmitted of his pulling into the creamy pool to rescue whom he couldin that wild simultaneousness of a thousand concreted perilsahabs yet unstricken boat seemed drawn up towards heaven by invisible wiresas arrowlike shooting perpendicularly from the sea the white whale dashed his broad forehead against its bottom and sent it turning over and over into the air till it fell againgunwale downwardsand ahab and his men struggled out from under it like seals from a seaside cave the first uprising momentum of the whalemodifying its direction as he struck the surfaceinvoluntarily launched him along it to a little distance from the centre of the destruction he had made and with his back to it he now lay for a moment slowly feeling with his flukes from side to side and whenever a stray oar bit of plank the least chip or crumb of the boats touched his skin his tail swiftly drew back and came sideways smiting the sea but soon as if satisfied that his work for that time was done he pushed his pleated forehead through the ocean and trailing after him the intertangled lines continued his leeward way at a travellers methodic pace as before the attentive ship having descried the whole fight again came bearing down to the rescue and dropping a boat picked up the floating mariners tubs oars and whatever else could be caught at and safely landed them on her decks some sprained shoulders wrists and ankles livid contusions wrenched harpoons and lances inextricable intricacies of rope shattered oars and planks all these were there but no fatal or even serious ill seemed to have befallen any one as with fedallah the day before so ahab was now found grimly clinging to his boats broken half which afforded a comparatively easy float nor did it so exhaust him as the previous days mishap but when he was helped to the deck all eyes were fastened upon him as instead of standing by himself he still halfhung upon the shoulder of starbuck who had thus far been the foremost to assist him his ivory leg had been snapped off leaving but one short sharp splinter aye aye starbuck tis sweet to lean sometimes be the leaner who he will and would old ahab had leaned oftener than he has the ferrule has not stood sir said the carpenter now coming up i put good work into that leg but no bones broken sir i hope said stubb with true concern but even with a broken bone old ahab is untouched and i account no living bone of mine one jot more me than this dead one thats lost nor white whale nor man nor fiend can so much as graze old ahab in his own proper and inaccessible being can any lead touch yonder floor any mast scrape yonder roof that the unconquerable captain in the soul should have such a craven mate give me something for a canethere that shivered lance will do upon mustering the company the parsee was not there cried stubbhe must have been caught in the black vomit wrench thee run all of ye above alow cabin forecastlefind himnot gonenot gone
the starred and stately nights seemed haughty dames in jewelled velvets nursing at home in lonely pride the memory of their absent conquering earls the golden helmeted suns for sleeping man twas hard to choose between such winsome days and such seducing nights but all the witcheries of that unwaning weather did not merely lend new spells and potencies to the outward world inward they turned upon the soul especially when the still mild hours of eve came on then memory shot her crystals as the clear ice most forms of noiseless twilights and all these subtle agencies more and more they wrought on ahab s texture old age is always wakeful as if the longer linked with life the less man has to do with aught that looks like death among seacommanders the old greybeards will oftenest leave their berths to visit the nightcloaked deck it was so with ahab only that now of late he seemed so much to live in the open air that truly speaking his visits were more to the cabin than from the cabin to the planks it feels like going down into ones tomb he would mutter to himselffor an old captain like me to be descending this narrow scuttle to go to my gravedug berth  so almost every twentyfour hours when the watches of the night were set and the band on deck sentinelled the slumbers of the band below and when if a rope was to be hauled upon the forecastle the sailors flung it not rudely down as by day but with some cautiousness dropt it to its place for fear of disturbing their slumbering shipmates when this sort of steady quietude would begin to prevail habitually the silent steersman would watch the cabinscuttle and ere long the old man would emerge gripping at the iron banister to help his crippled way some considering touch of humanity was in him for at times like these he usually abstained from patrolling the quarterdeck because to his wearied mates seeking repose within six inches of his ivory heel such would have been the reverberating crack and din of that bony step that their dreams would have been on the crunching teeth of sharks but once the mood was on him too deep for common regardings and as with heavy lumberlike pace he was measuring the ship from taffrail to mainmast stubb the old second mate came up from below with a certain unassured deprecating humorousness hinted that if captain ahab was pleased to walk the planks then no one could say nay but there might be some way of muffling the noise hinting something indistinctly and hesitatingly about a globe of tow and the insertion into it of the ivory heel am i a cannonball stubb said ahab that thou wouldst wad me that fashion below to thy nightly grave where such as ye sleep between shrouds to use ye to the filling one at last starting at the unforseen concluding exclamation of the so suddenly scornful old man stubb was speechless a moment then said excitedly i am not used to be spoken to that way sir i do but less than half like it sir gritted ahab between his set teeth and violently moving away as if to avoid some passionate temptation no sir not yet said stubb emboldened i will not tamely be called a dog sir then be called ten times a donkey and a mule and an ass and begone or ill clear the world of thee as he said this ahab advanced upon him with such overbearing terrors in his aspect that stubb involuntarily retreated i was never served so before without giving a hard blow for it muttered stubb as he found himself descending the cabinscuttle
besides it was the stronger men in the townho that had been divided into gangs taking turns at the pumps and being the most athletic seaman of them all steelkilt had been regularly assigned captain of one of the gangs consequently he should have been freed from any trivial business not connected with truly nautical duties such being the case with his comrades i mention all these particulars so that you may understand exactly how this affair stood between the two men but there was more than this the order about the shovel was almost as plainly meant to sting and insult steelkilt as though radney had spat in his face any man who has gone sailor in a whaleship will understand this and all this and doubtless much more the lakeman fully comprehended when the mate uttered his command but as he sat still for a moment and as he steadfastly looked into the mates malignant eye and perceived the stacks of powdercasks heaped up in him and the slowmatch silently burning along towards them as he instinctively saw all this that strange forbearance and unwillingness to stir up the deeper passionateness in any already ireful beinga repugnance most felt when felt at all by really valiant men even when aggrievedthis nameless phantom feeling gentlemen stole over steelkilt therefore in his ordinary tone only a little broken by the bodily exhaustion he was temporarily in he answered him saying that sweeping the deck was not his business and he would not do it and then without at all alluding to the shovel he pointed to three lads as the customary sweepers who not being billeted at the pumps had done little or nothing all day to this radney replied with an oath in a most domineering and outrageous manner unconditionally reiterating his command meanwhile advancing upon the still seated lakeman with an uplifted coopers club hammer which he had snatched from a cask near by heated and irritated as he was by his spasmodic toil at the pumps for all his first nameless feeling of forbearance the sweating steelkilt could but ill brook this bearing in the mate but somehow still smothering the conflagration within him without speaking he remained doggedly rooted to his seat till at last the incensed radney shook the hammer within a few inches of his face furiously commanding him to do his bidding steelkilt rose and slowly retreating round the windlass steadily followed by the mate with his menacing hammer deliberately repeated his intention not to obey seeing however that his forbearance had not the slightest effect by an awful and unspeakable intimation with his twisted hand he warned off the foolish and infatuated man but it was to no purpose and in this way the two went once slowly round the windlass when resolved at last no longer to retreat bethinking him that he had now forborne as much as comported with his humor the lakeman paused on the hatches and thus spoke to the officer   mr but the predestinated mate coming still closer to him where the lakeman stood fixed now shook the heavy hammer within an inch of his teeth meanwhile repeating a string of insufferable maledictions retreating not the thousandth part of an inch stabbing him in the eye with the unflinching poniard of his glance steelkilt clenching his right hand behind him and creepingly drawing it back told his persecutor that if the hammer but grazed his cheek he steelkilt would murder him but gentlemen the fool had been branded for the slaughter by the gods immediately the hammer touched the cheek the next instant the lower jaw of the mate was stove in his head he fell on the hatch spouting blood like a whale ere the cry could go aft steelkilt was shaking one of the backstays leading far aloft to where two of his comrades were standing their mastheads we have seen many whaleships in our harbours but never heard of your canallers canallers don are the boatmen belonging to our grand erie canal    nay senor hereabouts in this dull warm most lazy and hereditary land we know but little of your vigorous north
bingley was goodlooking and gentlemanlike he had a pleasant countenance and easy unaffected manners his sisters were fine women with an air of decided fashion hurst merely looked the gentleman but his friend mr darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine tall person handsome features noble mien and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance of his having ten thousand a year the gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man the ladies declared he was much handsomer than mr bingley and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity for he was discovered to be proud to be above his company and above being pleased and not all his large estate in derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding disagreeable countenance and being unworthy to be compared with his friend bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal people in the room he was lively and unreserved danced every dance was angry that the ball closed so early and talked of giving one himself at netherfield hurst and once with miss bingley declined being introduced to any other lady and spent the rest of the evening in walking about the room speaking occasionally to one of his own party he was the proudest most disagreeable man in the world and everybody hoped that he would never come there again bennet whose dislike of his general behaviour was sharpened into particular resentment by his having slighted one of her daughters elizabeth bennet had been obliged by the scarcity of gentlemen to sit down for two dances and during part of that time mr darcy had been standing near enough for her to hear a conversation between him and mr bingley who came from the dance for a few minutes to press his friend to join it i hate to see you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner you know how i detest it unless i am particularly acquainted with my partner at such an assembly as this it would be insupportable your sisters are engaged and there is not another woman in the room whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with upon my honour i never met with so many pleasant girls in my life as i have this evening and there are several of them you see uncommonly pretty you are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room said mr but there is one of her sisters sitting down just behind you who is very pretty and i dare say very agreeable
thrusting his head half way into the binnacle ahab caught one glimpse of the compasses his uplifted arm slowly fell for a moment he almost seemed to stagger the two compasses pointed east and the pequod was as infallibly going west but ere the first wild alarm could get out abroad among the crew the old man with a rigid laugh exclaimed i have it starbuck last nights thunder turned our compassesthats all thou hast before now heard of such a thing i take it aye but never before has it happened to me sir said the pale mate gloomily here it must needs be said that accidents like this have in more than one case occurred to ships in violent storms the magnetic energy as developed in the mariners needle is as all know essentially one with the electricity beheld in heaven hence it is not to be much marvelled at that such things should be instances where the lightning has actually struck the vessel so as to smite down some of the spars and rigging the effect upon the needle has at times been still more fatal all its loadstone virtue being annihilated so that the before magnetic steel was of no more use than an old wifes knitting needle but in either case the needle never again of itself recovers the original virtue thus marred or lost and if the binnacle compasses be affected the same fate reaches all the others that may be in the ship even were the lowermost one inserted into the kelson deliberately standing before the binnacle and eyeing the transpointed compasses the old man with the sharp of his extended hand now took the precise bearing of the sun and satisfied that the needles were exactly inverted shouted out his orders for the ships course to be changed accordingly the yards were hard up and once more the pequod thrust her undaunted bows into the opposing wind for the supposed fair one had only been juggling her meanwhile whatever were his own secret thoughts starbuck said nothing but quietly he issued all requisite orders while stubb and flaskwho in some small degree seemed then to be sharing his feelingslikewise unmurmuringly acquiesced as for the men though some of them lowly rumbled their fear of ahab was greater than their fear of fate but as ever before the pagan harpooneers remained almost wholly unimpressed or if impressed it was only with a certain magnetism shot into their congenial hearts from inflexible ahabs for a space the old man walked the deck in rolling reveries but chancing to slip with his ivory heel he saw the crushed copper sighttubes of the quadrant he had the day before dashed to the deck yesterday i wrecked thee and today the compasses would fain have wrecked me starbucka lance without a pole a topmaul and the smallest of the sailmakers needles accessory perhaps to the impulse dictating the thing he was now about to do were certain prudential motives whose object might have been to revive the spirits of his crew by a stroke of his subtile skill in a matter so wondrous as that of the inverted compasses
 she looks very unwell has lost her colour and is grown quite thin she is not well she has had a nervous complaint on her for several weeks at her time of life any thing of an illness destroys the bloom for ever she was as handsome a girl last september as i ever saw and as likely to attract the man there was something in her style of beauty to please them particularly i remember fanny used to say that she would marry sooner and better than you did not but what she is exceedingly fond of you but so it happened to strike her i question whether marianne now will marry a man worth more than five or six hundred ayear at the utmost and i am very much deceived if you do not do better i know very little of dorsetshire but my dear elinor i shall be exceedingly glad to know more of it and i think i can answer for your having fanny and myself among the earliest and best pleased of your visitors elinor tried very seriously to convince him that there was no likelihood of her marrying colonel brandon but it was an expectation of too much pleasure to himself to be relinquished and he was really resolved on seeking an intimacy with that gentleman and promoting the marriage by every possible attention he had just compunction enough for having done nothing for his sisters himself to be exceedingly anxious that everybody else should do a great deal and an offer from colonel brandon or a legacy from mrs jennings was the easiest means of atoning for his own neglect they were lucky enough to find lady middleton at home and sir john came in before their visit ended dashwood did not seem to know much about horses he soon set him down as a very goodnatured fellow while lady middleton saw enough of fashion in his appearance to think his acquaintance worth having and mr i shall have a charming account to carry to fanny said he as he walked back with his sister such a woman as i am sure fanny will be glad to know jennings too an exceedingly wellbehaved woman though not so elegant as her daughter your sister need not have any scruple even of visiting her which to say the truth has been a little the case and very naturally for we only knew that mrs jennings was the widow of a man who had got all his money in a low way and fanny and mrs ferrars were both strongly prepossessed that neither she nor her daughters were such kind of women as fanny would like to associate with but now i can carry her a most satisfactory account of both
at first the steel went round and round quivering and vibrating at either end but at last it settled to its place when ahab who had been intently watching for this result stepped frankly back from the binnacle and pointing his stretched arm towards it exclaimedlook ye for yourselves if ahab be not lord of the level loadstone  one after another they peered in for nothing but their own eyes could persuade such ignorance as theirs and one after another they slunk away in his fiery eyes of scorn and triumph you then saw ahab in all his fatal pride while now the fated pequod had been so long afloat this voyage the log and line had but very seldom been in use owing to a confident reliance upon other means of determining the vessels place some merchantmen and many whalemen especially when cruising wholly neglect to heave the log though at the same time and frequently more for forms sake than anything else regularly putting down upon the customary slate the course steered by the ship as well as the presumed average rate of progression every hour the wooden reel and angular log attached hung long untouched just beneath the railing of the after bulwarks rains and spray had damped it sun and wind had warped it all the elements had combined to rot a thing that hung so idly but heedless of all this his mood seized ahab as he happened to glance upon the reel not many hours after the magnet scene and he remembered how his quadrant was no more and recalled his frantic oath about the level log and line the ship was sailing plungingly astern the billows rolled in riots they went towards the extreme stern on the ships lee side where the deck with the oblique energy of the wind was now almost dipping into the creamy sidelongrushing sea the manxman took the reel and holding it high up by the projecting handleends of the spindle round which the spool of line revolved so stood with the angular log hanging downwards till ahab advanced to him ahab stood before him and was lightly unwinding some thirty or forty turns to form a preliminary handcoil to toss overboard when the old manxman who was intently eyeing both him and the line made bold to speak sir i mistrust it this line looks far gone long heat and wet have spoiled it with these grey hairs of mine tis not worth while disputing specially with a superior wholl neer confess there nows a patched professor in queen natures granitefounded college but methinks hes too subservient heres a man from man a man born in once independent man and now unmanned of man which is sucked inby what the dead blind wall butts all inquiring heads at last the loose coils rapidly straightened out in a long dragging line astern and then instantly the reel began to whirl in turn jerkingly raised and lowered by the rolling billows the towing resistance of the log caused the old reelman to stagger strangely the overstrained line sagged down in one long festoon the tugging log was gone
mariannes feelings had then broken in and put an end to all regularity of detail and for some time all that could be done was to soothe her distress lessen her alarms and combat her resentment the first question on her side which led to farther particulars was how long has this been known to you elinor when lucy first came to barton park last november she told me in confidence of her engagement at these words mariannes eyes expressed the astonishment which her lips could not utter while attending me in all my misery has this been on your heart  it was not fit that you should then know how much i was the reverse i owed it to her therefore to avoid giving any hint of the truth and i owed it to my family and friends not to create in them a solicitude about me which it could not be in my power to satisfy i have very often wished to undeceive yourself and my mother added elinor and once or twice i have attempted itbut without betraying my trust i never could have convinced you but i did not love only himand while the comfort of others was dear to me i was glad to spare them from knowing how much i felt now i can think and speak of it with little emotion i would not have you suffer on my account for i assure you i no longer suffer materially myself i am not conscious of having provoked the disappointment by any imprudence of my own i have borne it as much as possible without spreading it farther i wish him very happy and i am so sure of his always doing his duty that though now he may harbour some regret in the end he must become so lucy does not want sense and that is the foundation on which every thing good may be built and after all marianne after all that is bewitching in the idea of a single and constant attachment and all that can be said of ones happiness depending entirely on any particular person it is not meantit is not fitit is not possible that it should be so  edward will marry lucy he will marry a woman superior in person and understanding to half her sex and time and habit will teach him to forget that he ever thought another superior to her  if such is your way of thinking said marianne if the loss of what is most valued is so easily to be made up by something else your resolution your selfcommand are perhaps a little less to be wondered at for four months marianne i have had all this hanging on my mind without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature knowing that it would make you and my mother most unhappy whenever it were explained to you yet unable to prepare you for it in the least  it was told meit was in a manner forced on me by the very person herself whose prior engagement ruined all my prospects and told me as i thought with triumph  this persons suspicions therefore i have had to oppose by endeavouring to appear indifferent where i have been most deeply interestedand it has not been only oncei have had her hopes and exultation to listen to again and again
there leviathan hugest of living creatures in the deep stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims and seems a moving land and at his gills draws in and at his breath spouts out a sea the mighty whales which swim in a sea of water and have a sea of oil swimming in them so close behind some promontory lie      the huge leviathan to attend their prey      and give no chance but swallow in the fry      which through their gaping jaws mistake the way while the whale is floating at the stern of the ship they cut off his head and tow it with a boat as near the shore as it will come but it will be aground in twelve or thirteen feet water in their way they saw many whales sporting in the ocean and in wantonness fuzzing up the water through their pipes and vents which nature has placed on their shoulders here they saw such huge troops of whales that they were forced to proceed with a great deal of caution for fear they should run their ship upon them some say the whale cant open his mouth but that is a fable they frequently climb up the masts to see whether they can see a whale for the first discoverer has a ducat for his pains i was told of a whale taken near shetland that had above a barrel of herrings in his belly one of our harpooneers told me that he caught once a whale in spitzbergen that was white all over several whales have come in upon this coast fife anno  one eighty feet in length of the whalebone kind came in which as i was informed besides a vast quantity of oil did afford  weight of baleen the jaws of it stand for a gate in the garden of pitferren myself have agreed to try whether i can master and kill this spermaceti whale for i could never hear of any of that sort that was killed by any man such is his fierceness and swiftness we saw also abundance of large whales there being more in those southern seas as i may say by a hundred to one than we have to the northward of us and the breath of the whale is frequently attended with such an insupportable smell as to bring on a disorder of the brain to fifty chosen sylphs of special note      we trust the important charge the petticoat oft have we known that sevenfold fence to fail      tho stuffed with hoops and armed with ribs of whale if we compare land animals in respect to magnitude with those that take up their abode in the deep we shall find they will appear contemptible in the comparison the whale is doubtless the largest animal in creation if you should write a fable for little fishes you would make them speak like great wales
the consequence of this upon a mind so young so lively so inexperienced as mrs she resigned herself at first to all the misery of her situation and happy had it been if she had not lived to overcome those regrets which the remembrance of me occasioned but can we wonder that with such a husband to provoke inconstancy and without a friend to advise or restrain her for my father lived only a few months after their marriage and i was with my regiment in the east indies she should fall had i remained in england perhapsbut i meant to promote the happiness of both by removing from her for years and for that purpose had procured my exchange the shock which her marriage had given me he continued in a voice of great agitation was of trifling weightwas nothing to what i felt when i heard about two years afterwards of her divorce it was that which threw this gloomeven now the recollection of what i suffered he could say no more and rising hastily walked for a few minutes about the room elinor affected by his relation and still more by his distress could not speak he saw her concern and coming to her took her hand pressed it and kissed it with grateful respect a few minutes more of silent exertion enabled him to proceed with composure it was nearly three years after this unhappy period before i returned to england my first care when i did arrive was of course to seek for her but the search was as fruitless as it was melancholy i could not trace her beyond her first seducer and there was every reason to fear that she had removed from him only to sink deeper in a life of sin her legal allowance was not adequate to her fortune nor sufficient for her comfortable maintenance and i learnt from my brother that the power of receiving it had been made over some months before to another person he imagined and calmly could he imagine it that her extravagance and consequent distress had obliged her to dispose of it for some immediate relief at last however and after i had been six months in england i did find her regard for a former servant of my own who had since fallen into misfortune carried me to visit him in a spunginghouse where he was confined for debt and there in the same house under a similar confinement was my unfortunate sister so alteredso fadedworn down by acute suffering of every kind hardly could i believe the melancholy and sickly figure before me to be the remains of the lovely blooming healthful girl on whom i had once doted what i endured in so beholding herbut i have no right to wound your feelings by attempting to describe iti have pained you too much already that she was to all appearance in the last stage of a consumption wasyes in such a situation it was my greatest comfort
for all his old age and his one arm and his blind eyes he must die the death and be murdered in order to light the gay bridals and other merrymakings of men and also to illuminate the solemn churches that preach unconditional inoffensiveness by all to all still rolling in his blood at last he partially disclosed a strangely discoloured bunch or protuberance the size of a bushel low down on the flank a nice spot cried flask just let me prick him there once at the instant of the dart an ulcerous jet shot from this cruel wound and goaded by it into more than sufferable anguish the whale now spouting thick blood with swift fury blindly darted at the craft bespattering them and their glorying crews all over with showers of gore capsizing flasks boat and marring the bows for by this time so spent was he by loss of blood that he helplessly rolled away from the wreck he had made lay panting on his side impotently flapped with his stumped fin then over and over slowly revolved like a waning world turned up the white secrets of his belly lay like a log and died as when by unseen hands the water is gradually drawn off from some mighty fountain and with halfstifled melancholy gurglings the spraycolumn lowers and lowers to the groundso the last long dying spout of the whale soon while the crews were awaiting the arrival of the ship the body showed symptoms of sinking with all its treasures unrifled immediately by starbucks orders lines were secured to it at different points so that ere long every boat was a buoy the sunken whale being suspended a few inches beneath them by the cords by very heedful management when the ship drew nigh the whale was transferred to her side and was strongly secured there by the stiffest flukechains for it was plain that unless artificially upheld the body would at once sink to the bottom it so chanced that almost upon first cutting into him with the spade the entire length of a corroded harpoon was found imbedded in his flesh on the lower part of the bunch before described but as the stumps of harpoons are frequently found in the dead bodies of captured whales with the flesh perfectly healed around them and no prominence of any kind to denote their place therefore there must needs have been some other unknown reason in the present case fully to account for the ulceration alluded to but still more curious was the fact of a lancehead of stone being found in him not far from the buried iron the flesh perfectly firm about it it might have been darted by some nor west indian long before america was discovered what other marvels might have been rummaged out of this monstrous cabinet there is no telling but a sudden stop was put to further discoveries by the ships being unprecedentedly dragged over sideways to the sea owing to the bodys immensely increasing tendency to sink however starbuck who had the ordering of affairs hung on to it to the last hung on to it so resolutely indeed that when at length the ship would have been capsized if still persisting in locking arms with the body then when the command was given to break clear from it such was the immovable strain upon the timberheads to which the flukechains and cables were fastened that it was impossible to cast them off to cross to the other side of the deck was like walking up the steep gabled roof of a house many of the ivory inlayings of her bulwarks and cabins were started from their places by the unnatural dislocation in vain handspikes and crows were brought to bear upon the immovable flukechains to pry them adrift from the timberheads and so low had the whale now settled that the submerged ends could not be at all approached while every moment whole tons of ponderosity seemed added to the sinking bulk and the ship seemed on the point of going over cried stubb to the body dont be in such a devil of a hurry to sink
elizabeth feeling it incumbent on her to relieve him from so unpleasant a situation now put herself forward to confirm his account by mentioning her prior knowledge of it from charlotte herself and endeavoured to put a stop to the exclamations of her mother and sisters by the earnestness of her congratulations to sir william in which she was readily joined by jane and by making a variety of remarks on the happiness that might be expected from the match the excellent character of mr collins and the convenient distance of hunsford from london bennet was in fact too much overpowered to say a great deal while sir william remained but no sooner had he left them than her feelings found a rapid vent in the first place she persisted in disbelieving the whole of the matter secondly she was very sure that mr collins had been taken in thirdly she trusted that they would never be happy together and fourthly that the match might be broken off two inferences however were plainly deduced from the whole one that elizabeth was the real cause of the mischief and the other that she herself had been barbarously misused by them all and on these two points she principally dwelt during the rest of the day nothing could console and nothing could appease her a week elapsed before she could see elizabeth without scolding her a month passed away before she could speak to sir william or lady lucas without being rude and many months were gone before she could at all forgive their daughter bennets emotions were much more tranquil on the occasion and such as he did experience he pronounced to be of a most agreeable sort for it gratified him he said to discover that charlotte lucas whom he had been used to think tolerably sensible was as foolish as his wife and more foolish than his daughter jane confessed herself a little surprised at the match but she said less of her astonishment than of her earnest desire for their happiness nor could elizabeth persuade her to consider it as improbable kitty and lydia were far from envying miss lucas for mr collins was only a clergyman and it affected them in no other way than as a piece of news to spread at meryton lady lucas could not be insensible of triumph on being able to retort on mrs bennet the comfort of having a daughter well married and she called at longbourn rather oftener than usual to say how happy she was though mrs bennets sour looks and illnatured remarks might have been enough to drive happiness away between elizabeth and charlotte there was a restraint which kept them mutually silent on the subject and elizabeth felt persuaded that no real confidence could ever subsist between them again her disappointment in charlotte made her turn with fonder regard to her sister of whose rectitude and delicacy she was sure her opinion could never be shaken and for whose happiness she grew daily more anxious as bingley had now been gone a week and nothing more was heard of his return jane had sent caroline an early answer to her letter and was counting the days till she might reasonably hope to hear again collins arrived on tuesday addressed to their father and written with all the solemnity of gratitude which a twelvemonths abode in the family might have prompted after discharging his conscience on that head he proceeded to inform them with many rapturous expressions of his happiness in having obtained the affection of their amiable neighbour miss lucas and then explained that it was merely with the view of enjoying her society that he had been so ready to close with their kind wish of seeing him again at longbourn whither he hoped to be able to return on monday fortnight for lady catherine he added so heartily approved his marriage that she wished it to take place as soon as possible which he trusted would be an unanswerable argument with his amiable charlotte to name an early day for making him the happiest of men
her brother whose eye she feared to meet scarcely recollected her interest in the affair and the very circumstance which had been designed to turn his thoughts from elizabeth seemed to have fixed them on her more and more cheerfully their visit did not continue long after the question and answer above mentioned and while mr darcy was attending them to their carriage miss bingley was venting her feelings in criticisms on elizabeths person behaviour and dress her brothers recommendation was enough to ensure her favour his judgement could not err and he had spoken in such terms of elizabeth as to leave georgiana without the power of finding her otherwise than lovely and amiable when darcy returned to the saloon miss bingley could not help repeating to him some part of what she had been saying to his sister how very ill miss eliza bennet looks this morning mr darcy she cried i never in my life saw anyone so much altered as she is since the winter louisa and i were agreeing that we should not have known her again darcy might have liked such an address he contented himself with coolly replying that he perceived no other alteration than her being rather tanned no miraculous consequence of travelling in the summer for my own part she rejoined i must confess that i never could see any beauty in her her face is too thin her complexion has no brilliancy and her features are not at all handsome her nose wants characterthere is nothing marked in its lines her teeth are tolerable but not out of the common way and as for her eyes which have sometimes been called so fine i could never see anything extraordinary in them they have a sharp shrewish look which i do not like at all and in her air altogether there is a selfsufficiency without fashion which is intolerable persuaded as miss bingley was that darcy admired elizabeth this was not the best method of recommending herself but angry people are not always wise and in seeing him at last look somewhat nettled she had all the success she expected he was resolutely silent however and from a determination of making him speak she continued i remember when we first knew her in hertfordshire how amazed we all were to find that she was a reputed beauty and i particularly recollect your saying one night after they had been dining at netherfield she a beauty  but afterwards she seemed to improve on you and i believe you thought her rather pretty at one time yes replied darcy who could contain himself no longer but that was only when i first saw her for it is many months since i have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance he then went away and miss bingley was left to all the satisfaction of having forced him to say what gave no one any pain but herself
again his astonishment was obvious and he looked at her with an expression of mingled incredulity and mortification she went on from the very beginningfrom the first moment i may almost sayof my acquaintance with you your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance your conceit and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike and i had not known you a month before i felt that you were the last man in the world whom i could ever be prevailed on to marry i perfectly comprehend your feelings and have now only to be ashamed of what my own have been forgive me for having taken up so much of your time and accept my best wishes for your health and happiness and with these words he hastily left the room and elizabeth heard him the next moment open the front door and quit the house she knew not how to support herself and from actual weakness sat down and cried for halfanhour her astonishment as she reflected on what had passed was increased by every review of it that she should receive an offer of marriage from mr that he should have been in love with her for so many months so much in love as to wish to marry her in spite of all the objections which had made him prevent his friends marrying her sister and which must appear at least with equal force in his own casewas almost incredible it was gratifying to have inspired unconsciously so strong an affection but his pride his abominable pridehis shameless avowal of what he had done with respect to janehis unpardonable assurance in acknowledging though he could not justify it and the unfeeling manner in which he had mentioned mr wickham his cruelty towards whom he had not attempted to deny soon overcame the pity which the consideration of his attachment had for a moment excited she continued in very agitated reflections till the sound of lady catherines carriage made her feel how unequal she was to encounter charlottes observation and hurried her away to her room chapter  elizabeth awoke the next morning to the same thoughts and meditations which had at length closed her eyes she could not yet recover from the surprise of what had happened it was impossible to think of anything else and totally indisposed for employment she resolved soon after breakfast to indulge herself in air and exercise she was proceeding directly to her favourite walk when the recollection of mr darcys sometimes coming there stopped her and instead of entering the park she turned up the lane which led farther from the turnpikeroad the park paling was still the boundary on one side and she soon passed one of the gates into the ground after walking two or three times along that part of the lane she was tempted by the pleasantness of the morning to stop at the gates and look into the park
dashwoods visit to lady middleton took place the next day and two of her daughters went with her but marianne excused herself from being of the party under some trifling pretext of employment and her mother who concluded that a promise had been made by willoughby the night before of calling on her while they were absent was perfectly satisfied with her remaining at home on their return from the park they found willoughbys curricle and servant in waiting at the cottage and mrs dashwood was convinced that her conjecture had been just so far it was all as she had foreseen but on entering the house she beheld what no foresight had taught her to expect they were no sooner in the passage than marianne came hastily out of the parlour apparently in violent affliction with her handkerchief at her eyes and without noticing them ran up stairs surprised and alarmed they proceeded directly into the room she had just quitted where they found only willoughby who was leaning against the mantelpiece with his back towards them he turned round on their coming in and his countenance shewed that he strongly partook of the emotion which overpowered marianne  i hope not he replied trying to look cheerful and with a forced smile presently added it is i who may rather expect to be illfor i am now suffering under a very heavy disappointment smith has this morning exercised the privilege of riches upon a poor dependent cousin by sending me on business to london i have just received my dispatches and taken my farewell of allenham and by way of exhilaration i am now come to take my farewell of you smith must be obligedand her business will not detain you from us long i hope he coloured as he replied you are very kind but i have no idea of returning into devonshire immediately is allenham the only house in the neighbourhood to which you will be welcome for shame willoughby can you wait for an invitation here his colour increased and with his eyes fixed on the ground he only replied you are too good i have only to add my dear willoughby that at barton cottage you will always be welcome for i will not press you to return here immediately because you only can judge how far that might be pleasing to mrs smith and on this head i shall be no more disposed to question your judgment than to doubt your inclination my engagements at present replied willoughby confusedly are of such a naturethati dare not flatter myself  he stopt dashwood was too much astonished to speak and another pause succeeded this was broken by willoughby who said with a faint smile it is folly to linger in this manner
when sir john returned he joined most heartily in the general regret on so unfortunate an event concluding however by observing that as they were all got together they must do something by way of being happy and after some consultation it was agreed that although happiness could only be enjoyed at whitwell they might procure a tolerable composure of mind by driving about the country the carriages were then ordered willoughbys was first and marianne never looked happier than when she got into it he drove through the park very fast and they were soon out of sight and nothing more of them was seen till their return which did not happen till after the return of all the rest they both seemed delighted with their drive but said only in general terms that they had kept in the lanes while the others went on the downs it was settled that there should be a dance in the evening and that every body should be extremely merry all day long some more of the careys came to dinner and they had the pleasure of sitting down nearly twenty to table which sir john observed with great contentment willoughby took his usual place between the two elder miss dashwoods jennings sat on elinors right hand and they had not been long seated before she leant behind her and willoughby and said to marianne loud enough for them both to hear i have found you out in spite of all your tricks marianne coloured and replied very hastily where pray  did not you know said willoughby that we had been out in my curricle impudence i know that very well and i was determined to find out where you had been to it is a very large one i know and when i come to see you i hope you will have newfurnished it for it wanted it very much when i was there six years ago jennings laughed heartily and elinor found that in her resolution to know where they had been she had actually made her own woman enquire of mr willoughbys groom and that she had by that method been informed that they had gone to allenham and spent a considerable time there in walking about the garden and going all over the house elinor could hardly believe this to be true as it seemed very unlikely that willoughby should propose or marianne consent to enter the house while mrs smith was in it with whom marianne had not the smallest acquaintance as soon as they left the diningroom elinor enquired of her about it and great was her surprise when she found that every circumstance related by mrs why should you imagine elinor that we did not go there or that we did not see the house is not it what you have often wished to do yourself smith was there and with no other companion than mr
had you descended from the pequods tryworks to the pequods forecastle where the off duty watch were sleeping for one single moment you would have almost thought you were standing in some illuminated shrine of canonized kings and counsellors there they lay in their triangular oaken vaults each mariner a chiselled muteness a score of lamps flashing upon his hooded eyes in merchantmen oil for the sailor is more scarce than the milk of queens to dress in the dark and eat in the dark and stumble in darkness to his pallet this is his usual lot but the whaleman as he seeks the food of light so he lives in light he makes his berth an aladdins lamp and lays him down in it so that in the pitchiest night the ships black hull still houses an illumination see with what entire freedom the whaleman takes his handful of lampsoften but old bottles and vials thoughto the copper cooler at the tryworks and replenishes them there as mugs of ale at a vat he burns too the purest of oil in its unmanufactured and therefore unvitiated state a fluid unknown to solar lunar or astral contrivances ashore he goes and hunts for his oil so as to be sure of its freshness and genuineness even as the traveller on the prairie hunts up his own supper of game already has it been related how the great leviathan is afar off descried from the masthead how he is chased over the watery moors and slaughtered in the valleys of the deep how he is then towed alongside and beheaded and how on the principle which entitled the headsman of old to the garments in which the beheaded was killed his great padded surtout becomes the property of his executioner how in due time he is condemned to the pots and like shadrach meshach and abednego his spermaceti oil and bone pass unscathed through the firebut now it remains to conclude the last chapter of this part of the description by rehearsingsinging if i maythe romantic proceeding of decanting off his oil into the casks and striking them down into the hold where once again leviathan returns to his native profundities sliding along beneath the surface as before but alas while still warm the oil like hot punch is received into the sixbarrel casks and while perhaps the ship is pitching and rolling this way and that in the midnight sea the enormous casks are slewed round and headed over end for end and sometimes perilously scoot across the slippery deck like so many land slides till at last manhandled and stayed in their course and all round the hoops rap rap go as many hammers as can play upon them for now ex officio every sailor is a cooper at length when the last pint is casked and all is cool then the great hatchways are unsealed the bowels of the ship are thrown open and down go the casks to their final rest in the sea this done the hatches are replaced and hermetically closed like a closet walled up in the sperm fishery this is perhaps one of the most remarkable incidents in all the business of whaling one day the planks stream with freshets of blood and oil on the sacred quarterdeck enormous masses of the whales head are profanely piled great rusty casks lie about as in a brewery yard the smoke from the tryworks has besooted all the bulwarks the mariners go about suffused with unctuousness the entire ship seems great leviathan himself while on all hands the din is deafening but a day or two after you look about you and prick your ears in this selfsame ship and were it not for the telltale boats and tryworks you would all but swear you trod some silent merchant vessel with a most scrupulously neat commander the unmanufactured sperm oil possesses a singularly cleansing virtue this is the reason why the decks never look so white as just after what they call an affair of oil besides from the ashes of the burned scraps of the whale a potent lye is readily made and whenever any adhesiveness from the back of the whale remains clinging to the side that lye quickly exterminates it hands go diligently along the bulwarks and with buckets of water and rags restore them to their full tidiness
i had reason to believe myself secure of my present wife if i chose to address her and i persuaded myself to think that nothing else in common prudence remained for me to do a heavy scene however awaited me before i could leave devonshirei was engaged to dine with you on that very day some apology was therefore necessary for my breaking this engagement but whether i should write this apology or deliver it in person was a point of long debate to see marianne i felt would be dreadful and i even doubted whether i could see her again and keep to my resolution in that point however i undervalued my own magnanimity as the event declared for i went i saw her and saw her miserable and left her miserableand left her hoping never to see her again said elinor reproachfully a note would have answered every purpose i could not bear to leave the country in a manner that might lead you or the rest of the neighbourhood to suspect any part of what had really passed between mrs smith and myselfand i resolved therefore on calling at the cottage in my way to honiton the sight of your dear sister however was really dreadful and to heighten the matter i found her alone i had left her only the evening before so fully so firmly resolved within my self on doing right a few hours were to have engaged her to me for ever and i remember how happy how gay were my spirits as i walked from the cottage to allenham satisfied with myself delighted with every body but in this our last interview of friendship i approached her with a sense of guilt that almost took from me the power of dissembling her sorrow her disappointment her deep regret when i told her that i was obliged to leave devonshire so immediatelyi never shall forget itunited too with such reliance such confidence in me i do not know what i told her he replied impatiently less than was due to the past beyond a doubt and in all likelihood much more than was justified by the future then came your dear mother to torture me farther with all her kindness and confidence miss dashwood you cannot have an idea of the comfort it gives me to look back on my own misery i owe such a grudge to myself for the stupid rascally folly of my own heart that all my past sufferings under it are only triumph and exultation to me now well i went left all that i loved and went to those to whom at best i was only indifferent my journey to towntravelling with my own horses and therefore so tediouslyno creature to speak tomy own reflections so cheerfulwhen i looked forward every thing so inviting when i looked back at barton the picture so soothing
and especially would this seem to be a matter of course in the case of vessels owned in one seaport and whose captains officers and not a few of the men are personally known to each other and consequently have all sorts of dear domestic things to talk about for the long absent ship the outwardbounder perhaps has letters on board at any rate she will be sure to let her have some papers of a date a year or two later than the last one on her blurred and thumbworn files and in return for that courtesy the outwardbound ship would receive the latest whaling intelligence from the cruisingground to which she may be destined a thing of the utmost importance to her and in degree all this will hold true concerning whaling vessels crossing each others track on the cruisingground itself even though they are equally long absent from home for one of them may have received a transfer of letters from some third and now far remote vessel and some of those letters may be for the people of the ship she now meets besides they would exchange the whaling news and have an agreeable chat for not only would they meet with all the sympathies of sailors but likewise with all the peculiar congenialities arising from a common pursuit and mutually shared privations and perils nor would difference of country make any very essential difference that is so long as both parties speak one language as is the case with americans and english though to be sure from the small number of english whalers such meetings do not very often occur and when they do occur there is too apt to be a sort of shyness between them for your englishman is rather reserved and your yankee he does not fancy that sort of thing in anybody but himself besides the english whalers sometimes affect a kind of metropolitan superiority over the american whalers regarding the long lean nantucketer with his nondescript provincialisms as a sort of seapeasant but where this superiority in the english whalemen does really consist it would be hard to say seeing that the yankees in one day collectively kill more whales than all the english collectively in ten years but this is a harmless little foible in the english whalehunters which the nantucketer does not take much to heart probably because he knows that he has a few foibles himself so then we see that of all ships separately sailing the sea the whalers have most reason to be sociableand they are so whereas some merchant ships crossing each others wake in the midatlantic will oftentimes pass on without so much as a single word of recognition mutually cutting each other on the high seas like a brace of dandies in broadway and all the time indulging perhaps in finical criticism upon each others rig as for menofwar when they chance to meet at sea they first go through such a string of silly bowings and scrapings such a ducking of ensigns that there does not seem to be much rightdown hearty goodwill and brotherly love about it at all as touching slaveships meeting why they are in such a prodigious hurry they run away from each other as soon as possible and as for pirates when they chance to cross each others crossbones the first hail ishow many skulls  and that question once answered pirates straightway steer apart for they are infernal villains on both sides and dont like to see overmuch of each others villanous likenesses but look at the godly honest unostentatious hospitable sociable freeandeasy whaler what does the whaler do when she meets another whaler in any sort of decent weather
john dashwood wished it likewise but in the mean while till one of these superior blessings could be attained it would have quieted her ambition to see him driving a barouche all his wishes centered in domestic comfort and the quiet of private life fortunately he had a younger brother who was more promising edward had been staying several weeks in the house before he engaged much of mrs dashwoods attention for she was at that time in such affliction as rendered her careless of surrounding objects she saw only that he was quiet and unobtrusive and she liked him for it he did not disturb the wretchedness of her mind by illtimed conversation she was first called to observe and approve him farther by a reflection which elinor chanced one day to make on the difference between him and his sister it was a contrast which recommended him most forcibly to her mother it is enough said she to say that he is unlike fanny is enough i think you will like him said elinor when you know more of him i feel no sentiment of approbation inferior to love i have never yet known what it was to separate esteem and love her manners were attaching and soon banished his reserve she speedily comprehended all his merits the persuasion of his regard for elinor perhaps assisted her penetration but she really felt assured of his worth and even that quietness of manner which militated against all her established ideas of what a young mans address ought to be was no longer uninteresting when she knew his heart to be warm and his temper affectionate no sooner did she perceive any symptom of love in his behaviour to elinor than she considered their serious attachment as certain and looked forward to their marriage as rapidly approaching said she elinor will in all probability be settled for life we shall live within a few miles of each other and shall meet every day of our lives you will gain a brother a real affectionate brother i have the highest opinion in the world of edwards heart
gardiners hope of lydias being soon married her joy burst forth and every following sentence added to its exuberance she was now in an irritation as violent from delight as she had ever been fidgety from alarm and vexation to know that her daughter would be married was enough she was disturbed by no fear for her felicity nor humbled by any remembrance of her misconduct i will write to my sister gardiner about them directly lizzy my dear run down to your father and ask him how much he will give her her eldest daughter endeavoured to give some relief to the violence of these transports by leading her thoughts to the obligations which mr for we must attribute this happy conclusion she added in a great measure to his kindness we are persuaded that he has pledged himself to assist mr well cried her mother it is all very right who should do it but her own uncle if he had not had a family of his own i and my children must have had all his money you know and it is the first time we have ever had anything from him except a few presents my dear jane i am in such a flutter that i am sure i cant write so i will dictate and you write for me we will settle with your father about the money afterwards but the things should be ordered immediately she was then proceeding to all the particulars of calico muslin and cambric and would shortly have dictated some very plentiful orders had not jane though with some difficulty persuaded her to wait till her father was at leisure to be consulted one days delay she observed would be of small importance and her mother was too happy to be quite so obstinate as usual i will go to meryton said she as soon as i am dressed and tell the good good news to my sister philips and as i come back i can call on lady lucas and mrs an airing would do me a great deal of good i am sure miss lydia is going to be married and you shall all have a bowl of punch to make merry at her wedding elizabeth received her congratulations amongst the rest and then sick of this folly took refuge in her own room that she might think with freedom
a short account of myself i believe will be necessary and it shall be a short one on such a subject sighing heavily can i have little temptation to be diffuse he stopt a moment for recollection and then with another sigh went on you have probably entirely forgotten a conversationit is not to be supposed that it could make any impression on youa conversation between us one evening at barton parkit was the evening of a dancein which i alluded to a lady i had once known as resembling in some measure your sister marianne he looked pleased by this remembrance and added if i am not deceived by the uncertainty the partiality of tender recollection there is a very strong resemblance between them as well in mind as person the same warmth of heart the same eagerness of fancy and spirits this lady was one of my nearest relations an orphan from her infancy and under the guardianship of my father our ages were nearly the same and from our earliest years we were playfellows and friends i cannot remember the time when i did not love eliza and my affection for her as we grew up was such as perhaps judging from my present forlorn and cheerless gravity you might think me incapable of having ever felt hers for me was i believe fervent as the attachment of your sister to mr willoughby and it was though from a different cause no less unfortunate she was marriedmarried against her inclination to my brother her fortune was large and our family estate much encumbered and this i fear is all that can be said for the conduct of one who was at once her uncle and guardian my brother did not deserve her he did not even love her i had hoped that her regard for me would support her under any difficulty and for some time it did but at last the misery of her situation for she experienced great unkindness overcame all her resolution and though she had promised me that nothingbut how blindly i relate we were within a few hours of eloping together for scotland the treachery or the folly of my cousins maid betrayed us i was banished to the house of a relation far distant and she was allowed no liberty no society no amusement till my fathers point was gained i had depended on her fortitude too far and the blow was a severe onebut had her marriage been happy so young as i then was a few months must have reconciled me to it or at least i should not have now to lament it
if he should be so far stimulated by your genius as to learn to draw himself how delightful it would be she could not consider her partiality for edward in so prosperous a state as marianne had believed it there was at times a want of spirits about him which if it did not denote indifference spoke of something almost as unpromising a doubt of her regard supposing him to feel it need not give him more than inquietude it would not be likely to produce that dejection of mind which frequently attended him a more reasonable cause might be found in the dependent situation which forbade the indulgence of his affection she knew that his mother neither behaved to him so as to make his home comfortable at present nor to give him any assurance that he might form a home for himself without strictly attending to her views for his aggrandizement with such a knowledge as this it was impossible for elinor to feel easy on the subject she was far from depending on that result of his preference of her which her mother and sister still considered as certain nay the longer they were together the more doubtful seemed the nature of his regard and sometimes for a few painful minutes she believed it to be no more than friendship but whatever might really be its limits it was enough when perceived by his sister to make her uneasy and at the same time which was still more common to make her uncivil she took the first opportunity of affronting her motherinlaw on the occasion talking to her so expressively of her brothers great expectations of mrs ferrarss resolution that both her sons should marry well and of the danger attending any young woman who attempted to draw him in that mrs dashwood could neither pretend to be unconscious nor endeavor to be calm she gave her an answer which marked her contempt and instantly left the room resolving that whatever might be the inconvenience or expense of so sudden a removal her beloved elinor should not be exposed another week to such insinuations in this state of her spirits a letter was delivered to her from the post which contained a proposal particularly well timed it was the offer of a small house on very easy terms belonging to a relation of her own a gentleman of consequence and property in devonshire the letter was from this gentleman himself and written in the true spirit of friendly accommodation he understood that she was in need of a dwelling and though the house he now offered her was merely a cottage he assured her that everything should be done to it which she might think necessary if the situation pleased her he earnestly pressed her after giving the particulars of the house and garden to come with her daughters to barton park the place of his own residence from whence she might judge herself whether barton cottage for the houses were in the same parish could by any alteration be made comfortable to her
the happiness anticipated by catherine and lydia depended less on any single event or any particular person for though they each like elizabeth meant to dance half the evening with mr wickham he was by no means the only partner who could satisfy them and a ball was at any rate a ball and even mary could assure her family that she had no disinclination for it while i can have my mornings to myself said she it is enoughi think it is no sacrifice to join occasionally in evening engagements society has claims on us all and i profess myself one of those who consider intervals of recreation and amusement as desirable for everybody elizabeths spirits were so high on this occasion that though she did not often speak unnecessarily to mr collins she could not help asking him whether he intended to accept mr bingleys invitation and if he did whether he would think it proper to join in the evenings amusement and she was rather surprised to find that he entertained no scruple whatever on that head and was very far from dreading a rebuke either from the archbishop or lady catherine de bourgh by venturing to dance i am by no means of the opinion i assure you said he that a ball of this kind given by a young man of character to respectable people can have any evil tendency and i am so far from objecting to dancing myself that i shall hope to be honoured with the hands of all my fair cousins in the course of the evening and i take this opportunity of soliciting yours miss elizabeth for the two first dances especially a preference which i trust my cousin jane will attribute to the right cause and not to any disrespect for her wickhams happiness and her own were perforce delayed a little longer and mr collinss proposal accepted with as good a grace as she could she was not the better pleased with his gallantry from the idea it suggested of something more it now first struck her that she was selected from among her sisters as worthy of being mistress of hunsford parsonage and of assisting to form a quadrille table at rosings in the absence of more eligible visitors the idea soon reached to conviction as she observed his increasing civilities toward herself and heard his frequent attempt at a compliment on her wit and vivacity and though more astonished than gratified herself by this effect of her charms it was not long before her mother gave her to understand that the probability of their marriage was extremely agreeable to her elizabeth however did not choose to take the hint being well aware that a serious dispute must be the consequence of any reply collins might never make the offer and till he did it was useless to quarrel about him if there had not been a netherfield ball to prepare for and talk of the younger miss bennets would have been in a very pitiable state at this time for from the day of the invitation to the day of the ball there was such a succession of rain as prevented their walking to meryton once no aunt no officers no news could be sought afterthe very shoeroses for netherfield were got by proxy even elizabeth might have found some trial of her patience in weather which totally suspended the improvement of her acquaintance with mr wickham and nothing less than a dance on tuesday could have made such a friday saturday sunday and monday endurable to kitty and lydia
i do assure you that the news does not affect me either with pleasure or pain i am glad of one thing that he comes alone because we shall see the less of him not that i am afraid of myself but i dread other peoples remarks had she not seen him in derbyshire she might have supposed him capable of coming there with no other view than what was acknowledged but she still thought him partial to jane and she wavered as to the greater probability of his coming there with his friends permission or being bold enough to come without it yet it is hard she sometimes thought that this poor man cannot come to a house which he has legally hired without raising all this speculation in spite of what her sister declared and really believed to be her feelings in the expectation of his arrival elizabeth could easily perceive that her spirits were affected by it they were more disturbed more unequal than she had often seen them the subject which had been so warmly canvassed between their parents about a twelvemonth ago was now brought forward again you forced me into visiting him last year and promised if i went to see him he should marry one of my daughters but it ended in nothing and i will not be sent on a fools errand again his wife represented to him how absolutely necessary such an attention would be from all the neighbouring gentlemen on his returning to netherfield i will not spend my hours in running after my neighbours every time they go away and come back again well all i know is that it will be abominably rude if you do not wait on him but however that shant prevent my asking him to dine here i am determined that will make thirteen with ourselves so there will be just room at table for him consoled by this resolution she was the better able to bear her husbands incivility though it was very mortifying to know that her neighbours might all see mr as the day of his arrival drew near i begin to be sorry that he comes at all said jane to her sister it would be nothing i could see him with perfect indifference but i can hardly bear to hear it thus perpetually talked of my mother means well but she does not know no one can know how much i suffer from what she says happy shall i be when his stay at netherfield is over
in the instance where three years intervened between the flinging of the two harpoons and i think it may have been something more than that the man who darted them happening in the interval to go in a trading ship on a voyage to africa went ashore there joined a discovery party and penetrated far into the interior where he travelled for a period of nearly two years often endangered by serpents savages tigers poisonous miasmas with all the other common perils incident to wandering in the heart of unknown regions meanwhile the whale he had struck must also have been on its travels no doubt it had thrice circumnavigated the globe brushing with its flanks all the coasts of africa but to no purpose this man and this whale again came together and the one vanquished the other i say i myself have known three instances similar to this that is in two of them i saw the whales struck and upon the second attack saw the two irons with the respective marks cut in them afterwards taken from the dead fish in the threeyear instance it so fell out that i was in the boat both times first and last and the last time distinctly recognised a peculiar sort of huge mole under the whales eye which i had observed there three years previous i say three years but i am pretty sure it was more than that here are three instances then which i personally know the truth of but i have heard of many other instances from persons whose veracity in the matter there is no good ground to impeach secondly it is well known in the sperm whale fishery however ignorant the world ashore may be of it that there have been several memorable historical instances where a particular whale in the ocean has been at distant times and places popularly cognisable why such a whale became thus marked was not altogether and originally owing to his bodily peculiarities as distinguished from other whales for however peculiar in that respect any chance whale may be they soon put an end to his peculiarities by killing him and boiling him down into a peculiarly valuable oil no the reason was this that from the fatal experiences of the fishery there hung a terrible prestige of perilousness about such a whale as there did about rinaldo rinaldini insomuch that most fishermen were content to recognise him by merely touching their tarpaulins when he would be discovered lounging by them on the sea without seeking to cultivate a more intimate acquaintance like some poor devils ashore that happen to know an irascible great man they make distant unobtrusive salutations to him in the street lest if they pursued the acquaintance further they might receive a summary thump for their presumption but not only did each of these famous whales enjoy great individual celebritynay you may call it an oceanwide renown not only was he famous in life and now is immortal in forecastle stories after death but he was admitted into all the rights privileges and distinctions of a name had as much a name indeed as cambyses or caesar thou famed leviathan scarred like an iceberg who so long didst lurk in the oriental straits of that name whose spout was oft seen from the palmy beach of ombay thou terror of all cruisers that crossed their wakes in the vicinity of the tattoo land king of japan whose lofty jet they say at times assumed the semblance of a snowwhite cross against the sky thou chilian whale marked like an old tortoise with mystic hieroglyphics upon the back in plain prose here are four whales as well known to the students of cetacean history as marius or sylla to the classic scholar new zealand tom and don miguel after at various times creating great havoc among the boats of different vessels were finally gone in quest of systematically hunted out chased and killed by valiant whaling captains who heaved up their anchors with that express object as much in view as in setting out through the narragansett woods captain butler of old had it in his mind to capture that notorious murderous savage annawon the headmost warrior of the indian king philip i do not know where i can find a better place than just here to make mention of one or two other things which to me seem important as in printed form establishing in all respects the reasonableness of the whole story of the white whale more especially the catastrophe for this is one of those disheartening instances where truth requires full as much bolstering as error
chartering a small native schooner he returned with them to his vessel and finding all right there again resumed his cruisings where steelkilt now is gentlemen none know but upon the island of nantucket the widow of radney still turns to the sea which refuses to give up its dead still in dreams sees the awful white whale that destroyed him then i entreat you tell me if to the best of your own convictions this your story is in substance really true    also bear with all of us sir sailor for we all join in don sebastian s suit cried the company with exceeding interest is there a copy of the holy evangelists in the golden inn gentlemen    nay said don sebastian but i know a worthy priest near by who will quickly procure one for me will you be so good as to bring the priest also don    though there are no autodafe s in lima now said one of the company to another i fear our sailor friend runs risk of the archiepiscopacy excuse me for running after you don sebastian but may i also beg that you will be particular in procuring the largest sized evangelists you can    this is the priest he brings you the evangelists said don sebastian gravely returning with a tall and solemn figure now venerable priest further into the light and hold the holy book before me that i may touch it so help me heaven and on my honour the story i have told ye gentlemen is in substance and its great items true i know it to be true it happened on this ball i trod the ship i knew the crew i have seen and talked with steelkilt since the death of radney i shall ere long paint to you as well as one can without canvas something like the true form of the whale as he actually appears to the eye of the whaleman when in his own absolute body the whale is moored alongside the whaleship so that he can be fairly stepped upon there it may be worth while therefore previously to advert to those curious imaginary portraits of him which even down to the present day confidently challenge the faith of the landsman it is time to set the world right in this matter by proving such pictures of the whale all wrong it may be that the primal source of all those pictorial delusions will be found among the oldest hindoo egyptian and grecian sculptures for ever since those inventive but unscrupulous times when on the marble panellings of temples the pedestals of statues and on shields medallions cups and coins the dolphin was drawn in scales of chainarmor like saladins and a helmeted head like st georges ever since then has something of the same sort of license prevailed not only in most popular pictures of the whale but in many scientific presentations of him now by all odds the most ancient extant portrait anyways purporting to be the whales is to be found in the famous cavernpagoda of elephanta in india
in turn jerkingly raised and lowered by the rolling billows the towing resistance of the log caused the old reelman to stagger strangely the overstrained line sagged down in one long festoon the tugging log was gone i crush the quadrant the thunder turns the needles and now the mad sea parts the logline and look ye let the carpenter make another log and mend thou the line there he goes now to him nothings happened but to me the skewer seems loosening out of the middle of the world these lines run whole and whirling out come in broken and dragging slow lets see now if ye havent fished him up here fisherman peace thou crazy loon cried the manxman seizing him by the arm the greater idiot ever scolds the lesser muttered ahab advancing i see not my reflection in the vacant pupils of thy eyes that man should be a thing for immortal souls to sieve through one hundred pounds of clay reward for pip five feet highlooks cowardlyquickest known by that ye did beget this luckless child and have abandoned him ye creative libertines here boy ahabs cabin shall be pips home henceforth while ahab lives thou touchest my inmost centre boy thou art tied to me by cords woven of my heartstrings heres velvet sharkskin intently gazing at ahabs hand and feeling it ah now had poor pip but felt so kind a thing as this perhaps he had neer been lost this seems to me sir as a manrope something that weak souls may hold by oh sir let old perth now come and rivet these two hands together the black one with the white for i will not let this go oh boy nor will i thee unless i should thereby drag thee to worse horrors than are here
and in return for an acknowledgment which must give me some pain you cannot deny me the privilege of disliking him as much as ever dashwood or her daughters imagined when they first came into devonshire that so many engagements would arise to occupy their time as shortly presented themselves or that they should have such frequent invitations and such constant visitors as to leave them little leisure for serious employment when marianne was recovered the schemes of amusement at home and abroad which sir john had been previously forming were put into execution the private balls at the park then began and parties on the water were made and accomplished as often as a showery october would allow in every meeting of the kind willoughby was included and the ease and familiarity which naturally attended these parties were exactly calculated to give increasing intimacy to his acquaintance with the dashwoods to afford him opportunity of witnessing the excellencies of marianne of marking his animated admiration of her and of receiving in her behaviour to himself the most pointed assurance of her affection she only wished that it were less openly shewn and once or twice did venture to suggest the propriety of some selfcommand to marianne but marianne abhorred all concealment where no real disgrace could attend unreserve and to aim at the restraint of sentiments which were not in themselves illaudable appeared to her not merely an unnecessary effort but a disgraceful subjection of reason to commonplace and mistaken notions willoughby thought the same and their behaviour at all times was an illustration of their opinions when he was present she had no eyes for any one else if their evenings at the park were concluded with cards he cheated himself and all the rest of the party to get her a good hand if dancing formed the amusement of the night they were partners for half the time and when obliged to separate for a couple of dances were careful to stand together and scarcely spoke a word to any body else such conduct made them of course most exceedingly laughed at but ridicule could not shame and seemed hardly to provoke them dashwood entered into all their feelings with a warmth which left her no inclination for checking this excessive display of them to her it was but the natural consequence of a strong affection in a young and ardent mind her heart was devoted to willoughby and the fond attachment to norland which she brought with her from sussex was more likely to be softened than she had thought it possible before by the charms which his society bestowed on her present home her heart was not so much at ease nor her satisfaction in their amusements so pure they afforded her no companion that could make amends for what she had left behind nor that could teach her to think of norland with less regret than ever jennings could supply to her the conversation she missed although the latter was an everlasting talker and from the first had regarded her with a kindness which ensured her a large share of her discourse she had already repeated her own history to elinor three or four times and had elinors memory been equal to her means of improvement she might have known very early in their acquaintance all the particulars of mr jenningss last illness and what he said to his wife a few minutes before he died
jennings leaning forward towards elinor and speaking in a low voice as if she meant to be heard by no one else though they were seated on different sides of the room but however i cant help wishing they had not travelled quite so fast nor made such a long journey of it for they came all round by london upon account of some business for you know nodding significantly and pointing to her daughter it was wrong in her situation i wanted her to stay at home and rest this morning but she would come with us she longed so much to see you all palmer laughed and said it would not do her any harm she expects to be confined in february continued mrs lady middleton could no longer endure such a conversation and therefore exerted herself to ask mr he immediately went into the passage opened the front door and ushered her in himself jennings asked her as soon as she appeared if she had not been to allenham and mrs palmer laughed so heartily at the question as to show she understood it palmer looked up on her entering the room stared at her some minutes and then returned to his newspaper palmers eye was now caught by the drawings which hung round the room i declare they are quite charming i could look at them for ever and then sitting down again she very soon forgot that there were any such things in the room palmer rose also laid down the newspaper stretched himself and looked at them all around he made her no answer and only observed after again examining the room that it was very low pitched and that the ceiling was crooked sir john had been very urgent with them all to spend the next day at the park dashwood who did not chuse to dine with them oftener than they dined at the cottage absolutely refused on her own account her daughters might do as they pleased palmer ate their dinner and no expectation of pleasure from them in any other way they attempted therefore likewise to excuse themselves the weather was uncertain and not likely to be good but sir john would not be satisfiedthe carriage should be sent for them and they must come lady middleton too though she did not press their mother pressed them
 i left off gentlemen where the lakeman shook the backstay hardly had he done so when he was surrounded by the three junior mates and the four harpooneers who all crowded him to the deck but sliding down the ropes like baleful comets the two canallers rushed into the uproar and sought to drag their man out of it towards the forecastle others of the sailors joined with them in this attempt and a twisted turmoil ensued while standing out of harms way the valiant captain danced up and down with a whalepike calling upon his officers to manhandle that atrocious scoundrel and smoke him along to the quarterdeck at intervals he ran close up to the revolving border of the confusion and prying into the heart of it with his pike sought to prick out the object of his resentment but steelkilt and his desperadoes were too much for them all they succeeded in gaining the forecastle deck where hastily slewing about three or four large casks in a line with the windlass these seaparisians entrenched themselves behind the barricade roared the captain now menacing them with a pistol in each hand just brought to him by the steward steelkilt leaped on the barricade and striding up and down there defied the worst the pistols could do but gave the captain to understand distinctly that his steelkilts death would be the signal for a murderous mutiny on the part of all hands fearing in his heart lest this might prove but too true the captain a little desisted but still commanded the insurgents instantly to return to their duty do you want to sink the ship by knocking off at a time like this not a man of us turns to unless you swear not to raise a ropeyarn against us the lakeman now patrolled the barricade all the while keeping his eye on the captain and jerking out such sentences as theseits not our fault we didnt want it i told him to take his hammer away it was boys business he might have known me before this i told him not to prick the buffalo i believe i have broken a finger here against his cursed jaw aint those mincing knives down in the forecastle there men captain by god look to yourself say the word dont be a fool forget it all we are ready to turn to treat us decently and were your men but we wont be flogged look ye now cried the lakeman flinging out his arm towards him there are a few of us here and i am one of them who have shipped for the cruise dye see now as you well know sir we can claim our discharge as soon as the anchor is down so we dont want a row its not our interest we want to be peaceable we are ready to work but we wont be flogged steelkilt glanced round him a moment and then saidi tell you what it is now captain rather than kill ye and be hung for such a shabby rascal we wont lift a hand against ye unless ye attack us but till you say the word about not flogging us we dont do a hands turn    down into the forecastle then down with ye i ll keep ye there till yere sick of it most of them were against it but at length in obedience to steelkilt they preceded him down into their dark den growlingly disappearing like bears into a cave as the lakemans bare head was just level with the planks the captain and his posse leaped the barricade and rapidly drawing over the slide of the scuttle planted their group of hands upon it and loudly called for the steward to bring the heavy brass padlock belonging to the companionway then opening the slide a little the captain whispered something down the crack closed it and turned the key upon themten in numberleaving on deck some twenty or more who thus far had remained neutral all night a wideawake watch was kept by all the officers forward and aft especially about the forecastle scuttle and fore hatchway at which last place it was feared the insurgents might emerge after breaking through the bulkhead below
do you want to sink the ship by knocking off at a time like this not a man of us turns to unless you swear not to raise a ropeyarn against us the lakeman now patrolled the barricade all the while keeping his eye on the captain and jerking out such sentences as theseits not our fault we didnt want it i told him to take his hammer away it was boys business he might have known me before this i told him not to prick the buffalo i believe i have broken a finger here against his cursed jaw aint those mincing knives down in the forecastle there men captain by god look to yourself say the word dont be a fool forget it all we are ready to turn to treat us decently and were your men but we wont be flogged look ye now cried the lakeman flinging out his arm towards him there are a few of us here and i am one of them who have shipped for the cruise dye see now as you well know sir we can claim our discharge as soon as the anchor is down so we dont want a row its not our interest we want to be peaceable we are ready to work but we wont be flogged steelkilt glanced round him a moment and then saidi tell you what it is now captain rather than kill ye and be hung for such a shabby rascal we wont lift a hand against ye unless ye attack us but till you say the word about not flogging us we dont do a hands turn    down into the forecastle then down with ye i ll keep ye there till yere sick of it most of them were against it but at length in obedience to steelkilt they preceded him down into their dark den growlingly disappearing like bears into a cave as the lakemans bare head was just level with the planks the captain and his posse leaped the barricade and rapidly drawing over the slide of the scuttle planted their group of hands upon it and loudly called for the steward to bring the heavy brass padlock belonging to the companionway then opening the slide a little the captain whispered something down the crack closed it and turned the key upon themten in numberleaving on deck some twenty or more who thus far had remained neutral all night a wideawake watch was kept by all the officers forward and aft especially about the forecastle scuttle and fore hatchway at which last place it was feared the insurgents might emerge after breaking through the bulkhead below but the hours of darkness passed in peace the men who still remained at their duty toiling hard at the pumps whose clinking and clanking at intervals through the dreary night dismally resounded through the ship at sunrise the captain went forward and knocking on the deck summoned the prisoners to work but with a yell they refused water was then lowered down to them and a couple of handfuls of biscuit were tossed after it when again turning the key upon them and pocketing it the captain returned to the quarterdeck twice every day for three days this was repeated but on the fourth morning a confused wrangling and then a scuffling was heard as the customary summons was delivered and suddenly four men burst up from the forecastle saying they were ready to turn to the fetid closeness of the air and a famishing diet united perhaps to some fears of ultimate retribution had constrained them to surrender at discretion emboldened by this the captain reiterated his demand to the rest but steelkilt shouted up to him a terrific hint to stop his babbling and betake himself where he belonged on the fifth morning three others of the mutineers bolted up into the air from the desperate arms below that sought to restrain them it was at this point gentlemen that enraged by the defection of seven of his former associates and stung by the mocking voice that had last hailed him and maddened by his long entombment in a place as black as the bowels of despair it was then that steelkilt proposed to the two canallers thus far apparently of one mind with him to burst out of their hole at the next summoning of the garrison and armed with their keen mincing knives long crescentic heavy implements with a handle at each end run amuck from the bowsprit to the taffrail and if by any devilishness of desperation possible seize the ship for himself he would do this he said whether they joined him or not
and even sir johns joking intelligence must have had some weight but indeed while elinor remained so well assured within herself of being really beloved by edward it required no other consideration of probabilities to make it natural that lucy should be jealous and that she was so her very confidence was a proof what other reason for the disclosure of the affair could there be but that elinor might be informed by it of lucys superior claims on edward and be taught to avoid him in future she had little difficulty in understanding thus much of her rivals intentions and while she was firmly resolved to act by her as every principle of honour and honesty directed to combat her own affection for edward and to see him as little as possible she could not deny herself the comfort of endeavouring to convince lucy that her heart was unwounded and as she could now have nothing more painful to hear on the subject than had already been told she did not mistrust her own ability of going through a repetition of particulars with composure but it was not immediately that an opportunity of doing so could be commanded though lucy was as well disposed as herself to take advantage of any that occurred for the weather was not often fine enough to allow of their joining in a walk where they might most easily separate themselves from the others and though they met at least every other evening either at the park or cottage and chiefly at the former they could not be supposed to meet for the sake of conversation such a thought would never enter either sir john or lady middletons head and therefore very little leisure was ever given for a general chat and none at all for particular discourse they met for the sake of eating drinking and laughing together playing at cards or consequences or any other game that was sufficiently noisy one or two meetings of this kind had taken place without affording elinor any chance of engaging lucy in private when sir john called at the cottage one morning to beg in the name of charity that they would all dine with lady middleton that day as he was obliged to attend the club at exeter and she would otherwise be quite alone except her mother and the two miss steeles elinor who foresaw a fairer opening for the point she had in view in such a party as this was likely to be more at liberty among themselves under the tranquil and wellbred direction of lady middleton than when her husband united them together in one noisy purpose immediately accepted the invitation margaret with her mothers permission was equally compliant and marianne though always unwilling to join any of their parties was persuaded by her mother who could not bear to have her seclude herself from any chance of amusement to go likewise the young ladies went and lady middleton was happily preserved from the frightful solitude which had threatened her the insipidity of the meeting was exactly such as elinor had expected it produced not one novelty of thought or expression and nothing could be less interesting than the whole of their discourse both in the dining parlour and drawing room to the latter the children accompanied them and while they remained there she was too well convinced of the impossibility of engaging lucys attention to attempt it they quitted it only with the removal of the teathings the cardtable was then placed and elinor began to wonder at herself for having ever entertained a hope of finding time for conversation at the park i am glad said lady middleton to lucy you are not going to finish poor little annamarias basket this evening for i am sure it must hurt your eyes to work filigree by candlelight and we will make the dear little love some amends for her disappointment tomorrow and then i hope she will not much mind it this hint was enough lucy recollected herself instantly and replied indeed you are very much mistaken lady middleton i am only waiting to know whether you can make your party without me or i should have been at my filigree already i would not disappoint the little angel for all the world and if you want me at the cardtable now i am resolved to finish the basket after supper you are very good i hope it wont hurt your eyeswill you ring the bell for some working candles my poor little girl would be sadly disappointed i know if the basket was not finished tomorrow for though i told her it certainly would not i am sure she depends upon having it done
when that was once done however it was time for the raptures of edward to cease for mariannes joy hurried her into the drawingroom immediately her pleasure in seeing him was like every other of her feelings strong in itself and strongly spoken she met him with a hand that would be taken and a voice that expressed the affection of a sister edward tried to return her kindness as it deserved but before such witnesses he dared not say half what he really felt again they all sat down and for a moment or two all were silent while marianne was looking with the most speaking tenderness sometimes at edward and sometimes at elinor regretting only that their delight in each other should be checked by lucys unwelcome presence edward was the first to speak and it was to notice mariannes altered looks and express his fear of her not finding london agree with her she replied with spirited earnestness though her eyes were filled with tears as she spoke dont think of my health this remark was not calculated to make edward or elinor more easy nor to conciliate the good will of lucy who looked up at marianne with no very benignant expression said edward willing to say any thing that might introduce another subject i expected much pleasure in it but i have found none the sight of you edward is the only comfort it has afforded and thank heaven i think elinor she presently added we must employ edward to take care of us in our return to barton in a week or two i suppose we shall be going and i trust edward will not be very unwilling to accept the charge poor edward muttered something but what it was nobody knew not even himself but marianne who saw his agitation and could easily trace it to whatever cause best pleased herself was perfectly satisfied and soon talked of something else we spent such a day edward in harley street yesterday but i have much to say to you on that head which cannot be said now and with this admirable discretion did she defer the assurance of her finding their mutual relatives more disagreeable than ever and of her being particularly disgusted with his mother till they were more in private perhaps miss marianne cried lucy eager to take some revenge on her you think young men never stand upon engagements if they have no mind to keep them little as well as great elinor was very angry but marianne seemed entirely insensible of the sting for she calmly replied not so indeed for seriously speaking i am very sure that conscience only kept edward from harley street
the three men were then cut down all hands were turned to and sullenly worked by the moody seamen the iron pumps clanged as before just after dark that day when one watch had retired below a clamor was heard in the forecastle and the two trembling traitors running up besieged the cabin door saying they durst not consort with the crew entreaties cuffs and kicks could not drive them back so at their own instance they were put down in the ships run for salvation on the contrary it seemed that mainly at steelkilts instigation they had resolved to maintain the strictest peacefulness obey all orders to the last and when the ship reached port desert her in a body but in order to insure the speediest end to the voyage they all agreed to another thingnamely not to sing out for whales in case any should be discovered for spite of her leak and spite of all her other perils the townho still maintained her mastheads and her captain was just as willing to lower for a fish that moment as on the day his craft first struck the cruising ground and radney the mate was quite as ready to change his berth for a boat and with his bandaged mouth seek to gag in death the vital jaw of the whale but though the lakeman had induced the seamen to adopt this sort of passiveness in their conduct he kept his own counsel at least till all was over concerning his own proper and private revenge upon the man who had stung him in the ventricles of his heart he was in radney the chief mates watch and as if the infatuated man sought to run more than half way to meet his doom after the scene at the rigging he insisted against the express counsel of the captain upon resuming the head of his watch at night upon this and one or two other circumstances steelkilt systematically built the plan of his revenge during the night radney had an unseamanlike way of sitting on the bulwarks of the quarterdeck and leaning his arm upon the gunwale of the boat which was hoisted up there a little above the ships side in this attitude it was well known he sometimes dozed there was a considerable vacancy between the boat and the ship and down between this was the sea steelkilt calculated his time and found that his next trick at the helm would come round at two oclock in the morning of the third day from that in which he had been betrayed at his leisure he employed the interval in braiding something very carefully in his watches below    like a lanyard for your bag but it s an odd one seems to me  yes rather oddish said the lakeman holding it at arms length before him but i think it will answer then i must get some from old rad and he rose to go aft do you think he wont do me a turn when its to help himself in the end shipmate  and going to the mate he looked at him quietly and asked him for some twine to mend his hammock it was given himneither twine nor lanyard were seen again but the next night an iron ball closely netted partly rolled from the pocket of the lakemans monkey jacket as he was tucking the coat into his hammock for a pillow
flask i take that fedallah to be the devil in disguise do you believe that cock and bull story about his having been stowed away on board ship the reason why you dont see his tail is because he tucks it up out of sight he carries it coiled away in his pocket i guess now that i think of it hes always wanting oakum to stuff into the toes of his boots he hasnt got any hammock but ive seen him lay of nights in a coil of rigging no doubt and its because of his cursed tail he coils it down do ye see in the eye of the rigging why do ye see the old man is hard bent after that white whale and the devil there is trying to come round him and get him to swap away his silver watch or his soul or something of that sort and then hell surrender moby dick i dont know flask but the devil is a curious chap and a wicked one i tell ye why they say as how he went a sauntering into the old flagship once switching his tail about devilish easy and gentlemanlike and inquiring if the old governor was at home well he was at home and asked the devil what he wanted the devil switching his hoofs up and says i want john what business is that of yours says the devil getting madi want to use him  take him says the governorand by the lord flask if the devil didnt give john the asiatic cholera before he got through with him ill eat this whale in one mouthful well then pull ahead and lets get the whale alongside i think i remember some such story as you were telling said flask when at last the two boats were slowly advancing with their burden towards the ship but i cant remember where but now tell me stubb do you suppose that that devil you was speaking of just now was the same you say is now on board the pequod doesnt the devil live for ever who ever heard that the devil was dead did you ever see any parson a wearing mourning for the devil and if the devil has a latchkey to get into the admirals cabin dont you suppose he can crawl into a porthole pointing to the ship well thats the figure one now take all the hoops in the pequods hold and string along in a row with that mast for oughts do you see well that wouldnt begin to be fedallahs age
she found him however perfectly the gentleman in his behaviour to all his visitors and only occasionally rude to his wife and her mother she found him very capable of being a pleasant companion and only prevented from being so always by too great an aptitude to fancy himself as much superior to people in general as he must feel himself to be to mrs for the rest of his character and habits they were marked as far as elinor could perceive with no traits at all unusual in his sex and time of life he was nice in his eating uncertain in his hours fond of his child though affecting to slight it and idled away the mornings at billiards which ought to have been devoted to business she liked him however upon the whole much better than she had expected and in her heart was not sorry that she could like him no morenot sorry to be driven by the observation of his epicurism his selfishness and his conceit to rest with complacency on the remembrance of edwards generous temper simple taste and diffident feelings of edward or at least of some of his concerns she now received intelligence from colonel brandon who had been into dorsetshire lately and who treating her at once as the disinterested friend of mr ferrars and the kind confidante of himself talked to her a great deal of the parsonage at delaford described its deficiencies and told her what he meant to do himself towards removing them his behaviour to her in this as well as in every other particular his open pleasure in meeting her after an absence of only ten days his readiness to converse with her and his deference for her opinion might very well justify mrs jenningss persuasion of his attachment and would have been enough perhaps had not elinor still as from the first believed marianne his real favourite to make her suspect it herself but as it was such a notion had scarcely ever entered her head except by mrs jenningss suggestion and she could not help believing herself the nicest observer of the twoshe watched his eyes while mrs jennings thought only of his behaviourand while his looks of anxious solicitude on mariannes feeling in her head and throat the beginning of a heavy cold because unexpressed by words entirely escaped the latter ladys observationshe could discover in them the quick feelings and needless alarm of a lover two delightful twilight walks on the third and fourth evenings of her being there not merely on the dry gravel of the shrubbery but all over the grounds and especially in the most distant parts of them where there was something more of wildness than in the rest where the trees were the oldest and the grass was the longest and wettest hadassisted by the still greater imprudence of sitting in her wet shoes and stockingsgiven marianne a cold so violent as though for a day or two trifled with or denied would force itself by increasing ailments on the concern of every body and the notice of herself prescriptions poured in from all quarters and as usual were all declined though heavy and feverish with a pain in her limbs and a cough and a sore throat a good nights rest was to cure her entirely and it was with difficulty that elinor prevailed on her when she went to bed to try one or two of the simplest of the remedies chapter  marianne got up the next morning at her usual time to every inquiry replied that she was better and tried to prove herself so by engaging in her accustomary employments but a day spent in sitting shivering over the fire with a book in her hand which she was unable to read or in lying weary and languid on a sofa did not speak much in favour of her amendment and when at last she went early to bed more and more indisposed colonel brandon was only astonished at her sisters composure who though attending and nursing her the whole day against mariannes inclination and forcing proper medicines on her at night trusted like marianne to the certainty and efficacy of sleep and felt no real alarm a very restless and feverish night however disappointed the expectation of both and when marianne after persisting in rising confessed herself unable to sit up and returned voluntarily to her bed elinor was very ready to adopt mrs jenningss advice of sending for the palmers apothecary he came examined his patient and though encouraging miss dashwood to expect that a very few days would restore her sister to health yet by pronouncing her disorder to have a putrid tendency and allowing the word infection to pass his lips gave instant alarm to mrs jennings who had been inclined from the first to think mariannes complaint more serious than elinor now looked very grave on mr
jennings to the middletons he has been long and intimately known they equally love and respect him and even my own knowledge of him though lately acquired is very considerable and so highly do i value and esteem him that if marianne can be happy with him i shall be as ready as yourself to think our connection the greatest blessing to us in the world my love i could not then talk of hope to him or to myself his was an involuntary confidence an irrepressible effusion to a soothing friendnot an application to a parent yet after a time i did say for at first i was quite overcomethat if she lived as i trusted she might my greatest happiness would lie in promoting their marriage and since our arrival since our delightful security i have repeated it to him more fully have given him every encouragement in my power time a very little time i tell him will do everythingmariannes heart is not to be wasted for ever on such a man as willoughby to judge from the colonels spirits however you have not yet made him equally sanguine he thinks mariannes affection too deeply rooted for any change in it under a great length of time and even supposing her heart again free is too diffident of himself to believe that with such a difference of age and disposition he could ever attach her his age is only so much beyond hers as to be an advantage as to make his character and principles fixedand his disposition i am well convinced is exactly the very one to make your sister happy and his person his manners too are all in his favour my partiality does not blind me he certainly is not so handsome as willoughbybut at the same time there is something much more pleasing in his countenance  there was always a somethingif you rememberin willoughbys eyes at times which i did not like elinor could not remember itbut her mother without waiting for her assent continued and his manners the colonels manners are not only more pleasing to me than willoughbys ever were but they are of a kind i well know to be more solidly attaching to marianne their gentleness their genuine attention to other people and their manly unstudied simplicity is much more accordant with her real disposition than the livelinessoften artificial and often illtimed of the other i am very sure myself that had willoughby turned out as really amiable as he has proved himself the contrary marianne would yet never have been so happy with him as she will be with colonel brandon her daughter could not quite agree with her but her dissent was not heard and therefore gave no offence at delaford she will be within an easy distance of me added mrs dashwood even if i remain at barton and in all probabilityfor i hear it is a large villageindeed there certainly must be some small house or cottage close by that would suit us quite as well as our present situation for at my time of life you know everybody cares about thatand though i neither know nor desire to know what it really is i am sure it must be a good one here they were interrupted by the entrance of a third person and elinor withdrew to think it all over in private to wish success to her friend and yet in wishing it to feel a pang for willoughby chapter  mariannes illness though weakening in its kind had not been long enough to make her recovery slow and with youth natural strength and her mothers presence in aid it proceeded so smoothly as to enable her to remove within four days after the arrival of the latter into mrs
they are mostly young of stalwart frames fellows who have felled forests and now seek to drop the axe and snatch the whalelance many are as green as the green mountains whence they came in some things you would think them but a few hours old he wears a beaver hat and swallowtailed coat girdled with a sailorbelt and sheathknife here comes another with a souwester and a bombazine cloak no townbred dandy will compare with a countrybred onei mean a downright bumpkin dandya fellow that in the dogdays will mow his two acres in buckskin gloves for fear of tanning his hands now when a country dandy like this takes it into his head to make a distinguished reputation and joins the great whalefishery you should see the comical things he does upon reaching the seaport in bespeaking his seaoutfit he orders bellbuttons to his waistcoats straps to his canvas trowsers how bitterly will burst those straps in the first howling gale when thou art driven straps buttons and all down the throat of the tempest but think not that this famous town has only harpooneers cannibals and bumpkins to show her visitors had it not been for us whalemen that tract of land would this day perhaps have been in as howling condition as the coast of labrador as it is parts of her back country are enough to frighten one they look so bony the town itself is perhaps the dearest place to live in in all new england it is a land of oil true enough but not like canaan a land also of corn and wine the streets do not run with milk nor in the springtime do they pave them with fresh eggs yet in spite of this nowhere in all america will you find more patricianlike houses parks and gardens more opulent than in new bedford how planted upon this once scraggy scoria of a country go and gaze upon the iron emblematical harpoons round yonder lofty mansion and your question will be answered yes all these brave houses and flowery gardens came from the atlantic pacific and indian oceans one and all they were harpooned and dragged up hither from the bottom of the sea
dashwoods and elinors appetites were equally lost and margaret might think herself very well off that with so much uneasiness as both her sisters had lately experienced so much reason as they had often had to be careless of their meals she had never been obliged to go without her dinner before when the dessert and the wine were arranged and mrs dashwood and elinor were left by themselves they remained long together in a similarity of thoughtfulness and silence dashwood feared to hazard any remark and ventured not to offer consolation she now found that she had erred in relying on elinors representation of herself and justly concluded that every thing had been expressly softened at the time to spare her from an increase of unhappiness suffering as she then had suffered for marianne she found that she had been misled by the careful the considerate attention of her daughter to think the attachment which once she had so well understood much slighter in reality than she had been wont to believe or than it was now proved to be she feared that under this persuasion she had been unjust inattentive nay almost unkind to her elinorthat mariannes affliction because more acknowledged more immediately before her had too much engrossed her tenderness and led her away to forget that in elinor she might have a daughter suffering almost as much certainly with less selfprovocation and greater fortitude chapter  elinor now found the difference between the expectation of an unpleasant event however certain the mind may be told to consider it and certainty itself she now found that in spite of herself she had always admitted a hope while edward remained single that something would occur to prevent his marrying lucy that some resolution of his own some mediation of friends or some more eligible opportunity of establishment for the lady would arise to assist the happiness of all but he was now married and she condemned her heart for the lurking flattery which so much heightened the pain of the intelligence that he should be married soon before as she imagined he could be in orders and consequently before he could be in possession of the living surprised her a little at first but she soon saw how likely it was that lucy in her selfprovident care in her haste to secure him should overlook every thing but the risk of delay they were married married in town and now hastening down to her uncles what had edward felt on being within four miles from barton on seeing her mothers servant on hearing lucys message they would soon she supposed be settled at delaford delafordthat place in which so much conspired to give her an interest which she wished to be acquainted with and yet desired to avoid she saw them in an instant in their parsonagehouse saw in lucy the active contriving manager uniting at once a desire of smart appearance with the utmost frugality and ashamed to be suspected of half her economical practicespursuing her own interest in every thought courting the favour of colonel brandon of mrs in edwardshe knew not what she saw nor what she wished to seehappy or unhappynothing pleased her she turned away her head from every sketch of him elinor flattered herself that some one of their connections in london would write to them to announce the event and give farther particularsbut day after day passed off and brought no letter no tidings though uncertain that any one were to blame she found fault with every absent friend
i can comprehend your going on charmingly when you had once made a beginning but what could set you off in the first place i cannot fix on the hour or the spot or the look or the words which laid the foundation my beauty you had early withstood and as for my mannersmy behaviour to you was at least always bordering on the uncivil and i never spoke to you without rather wishing to give you pain than not now be sincere did you admire me for my impertinence the fact is that you were sick of civility of deference of officious attention you were disgusted with the women who were always speaking and looking and thinking for your approbation alone i roused and interested you because i was so unlike them had you not been really amiable you would have hated me for it but in spite of the pains you took to disguise yourself your feelings were always noble and just and in your heart you thoroughly despised the persons who so assiduously courted you therei have saved you the trouble of accounting for it and really all things considered i begin to think it perfectly reasonable to be sure you knew no actual good of mebut nobody thinks of that when they fall in love was there no good in your affectionate behaviour to jane while she was ill at netherfield my good qualities are under your protection and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible and in return it belongs to me to find occasions for teasing and quarrelling with you as often as may be and i shall begin directly by asking you what made you so unwilling to come to the point at last what made you so shy of me when you first called and afterwards dined here why especially when you called did you look as if you did not care about me because you were grave and silent and gave me no encouragement you might have talked to me more when you came to dinner how unlucky that you should have a reasonable answer to give and that i should be so reasonable as to admit it but i wonder how long you would have gone on if you had been left to yourself i wonder when you would have spoken if i had not asked you my resolution of thanking you for your kindness to lydia had certainly great effect
she rated his abilities much higher than any of the others there was a solidity in his reflections which often struck her and though by no means so clever as herself she thought that if encouraged to read and improve himself by such an example as hers he might become a very agreeable companion but on the following morning every hope of this kind was done away miss lucas called soon after breakfast and in a private conference with elizabeth related the event of the day before collinss fancying himself in love with her friend had once occurred to elizabeth within the last day or two but that charlotte could encourage him seemed almost as far from possibility as she could encourage him herself and her astonishment was consequently so great as to overcome at first the bounds of decorum and she could not help crying out engaged to mr the steady countenance which miss lucas had commanded in telling her story gave way to a momentary confusion here on receiving so direct a reproach though as it was no more than she expected she soon regained her composure and calmly replied why should you be surprised my dear eliza collins should be able to procure any womans good opinion because he was not so happy as to succeed with you but elizabeth had now recollected herself and making a strong effort for it was able to assure with tolerable firmness that the prospect of their relationship was highly grateful to her and that she wished her all imaginable happiness you must be surprised very much surprisedso lately as mr but when you have had time to think it over i hope you will be satisfied with what i have done collinss character connection and situation in life i am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state elizabeth quietly answered undoubtedly and after an awkward pause they returned to the rest of the family charlotte did not stay much longer and elizabeth was then left to reflect on what she had heard it was a long time before she became at all reconciled to the idea of so unsuitable a match collinss making two offers of marriage within three days was nothing in comparison of his being now accepted she had always felt that charlottes opinion of matrimony was not exactly like her own but she had not supposed it to be possible that when called into action she would have sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantage and to the pang of a friend disgracing herself and sunk in her esteem was added the distressing conviction that it was impossible for that friend to be tolerably happy in the lot she had chosen chapter  elizabeth was sitting with her mother and sisters reflecting on what she had heard and doubting whether she was authorised to mention it when sir william lucas himself appeared sent by his daughter to announce her engagement to the family with many compliments to them and much selfgratulation on the prospect of a connection between the houses he unfolded the matterto an audience not merely wondering but incredulous for mrs bennet with more perseverance than politeness protested he must be entirely mistaken and lydia always unguarded and often uncivil boisterously exclaimed good lord nothing less than the complaisance of a courtier could have borne without anger such treatment but sir williams good breeding carried him through it all and though he begged leave to be positive as to the truth of his information he listened to all their impertinence with the most forbearing courtesy
do not my dearest elinor let your kindness defend what i know your judgment must censure my illness has made me think it has given me leisure and calmness for serious recollection long before i was enough recovered to talk i was perfectly able to reflect i considered the past i saw in my own behaviour since the beginning of our acquaintance with him last autumn nothing but a series of imprudence towards myself and want of kindness to others i saw that my own feelings had prepared my sufferings and that my want of fortitude under them had almost led me to the grave my illness i well knew had been entirely brought on by myself by such negligence of my own health as i had felt even at the time to be wrong i did not know my danger till the danger was removed but with such feelings as these reflections gave me i wonder at my recoverywonder that the very eagerness of my desire to live to have time for atonement to my god and to you all did not kill me at once had i diedin what peculiar misery should i have left you my nurse my friend my sister you who had seen all the fretful selfishness of my latter days who had known all the murmurings of my heart whenever i looked towards the past i saw some duty neglected or some failing indulged to the middletons to the palmers the steeles to every common acquaintance even i had been insolent and unjust with a heart hardened against their merits and a temper irritated by their very attention to john to fannyyes even to them little as they deserve i had given less than their due but youyou above all above my mother had been wronged by me i and only i knew your heart and its sorrows yet to what did it influence me not to any compassion that could benefit you or myself did i imitate your forbearance or lessen your restraints by taking any part in those offices of general complaisance or particular gratitude which you had hitherto been left to discharge alone nonot less when i knew you to be unhappy than when i had believed you at ease did i turn away from every exertion of duty or friendship scarcely allowing sorrow to exist but with me regretting only that heart which had deserted and wronged me and leaving you for whom i professed an unbounded affection to be miserable for my sake here ceased the rapid flow of her selfreproving spirit and elinor impatient to soothe though too honest to flatter gave her instantly that praise and support which her frankness and her contrition so well deserved marianne pressed her hand and replied you are very good i have laid down my plan and if i am capable of adhering to itmy feelings shall be governed and my temper improved
the chaplain had not yet arrived and there these silent islands of men and women sat steadfastly eyeing several marble tablets with black borders masoned into the wall on either side the pulpit three of them ran something like the following but i do not pretend to quote sacred to the memory of john talbot who at the age of eighteen was lost overboard near the isle of desolation off patagonia november st  sacred to the memory of robert long willis ellery nathan coleman walter canny seth macy and samuel gleig forming one of the boats crews of the ship eliza who were towed out of sight by a whale on the offshore ground in the pacific december st  this marble is here placed by their surviving shipmates sacred to the memory of the late captain ezekiel hardy who in the bows of his boat was killed by a sperm whale on the coast of japan august d  shaking off the sleet from my iceglazed hat and jacket i seated myself near the door and turning sideways was surprised to see queequeg near me affected by the solemnity of the scene there was a wondering gaze of incredulous curiosity in his countenance this savage was the only person present who seemed to notice my entrance because he was the only one who could not read and therefore was not reading those frigid inscriptions on the wall whether any of the relatives of the seamen whose names appeared there were now among the congregation i knew not but so many are the unrecorded accidents in the fishery and so plainly did several women present wear the countenance if not the trappings of some unceasing grief that i feel sure that here before me were assembled those in whose unhealing hearts the sight of those bleak tablets sympathetically caused the old wounds to bleed afresh ye whose dead lie buried beneath the green grass who standing among flowers can sayhere here lies my beloved ye know not the desolation that broods in bosoms like these what bitter blanks in those blackbordered marbles which cover no ashes what deadly voids and unbidden infidelities in the lines that seem to gnaw upon all faith and refuse resurrections to the beings who have placelessly perished without a grave as well might those tablets stand in the cave of elephanta as here in what census of living creatures the dead of mankind are included why it is that a universal proverb says of them that they tell no tales though containing more secrets than the goodwin sands how it is that to his name who yesterday departed for the other world we prefix so significant and infidel a word and yet do not thus entitle him if he but embarks for the remotest indies of this living earth why the life insurance companies pay deathforfeitures upon immortals in what eternal unstirring paralysis and deadly hopeless trance yet lies antique adam who died sixty round centuries ago how it is that we still refuse to be comforted for those who we nevertheless maintain are dwelling in unspeakable bliss why all the living so strive to hush all the dead wherefore but the rumor of a knocking in a tomb will terrify a whole city but faith like a jackal feeds among the tombs and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope it needs scarcely to be told with what feelings on the eve of a nantucket voyage i regarded those marble tablets and by the murky light of that darkened doleful day read the fate of the whalemen who had gone before me delightful inducements to embark fine chance for promotion it seemsaye a stove boat will make me an immortal by brevet yes there is death in this business of whalinga speechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into eternity methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of life and death methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance
she is the sort of woman whom one cannot regard with too much deference the evening was spent chiefly in talking over hertfordshire news and telling again what had already been written and when it closed elizabeth in the solitude of her chamber had to meditate upon charlottes degree of contentment to understand her address in guiding and composure in bearing with her husband and to acknowledge that it was all done very well she had also to anticipate how her visit would pass the quiet tenor of their usual employments the vexatious interruptions of mr collins and the gaieties of their intercourse with rosings about the middle of the next day as she was in her room getting ready for a walk a sudden noise below seemed to speak the whole house in confusion and after listening a moment she heard somebody running up stairs in a violent hurry and calling loudly after her she opened the door and met maria in the landing place who breathless with agitation cried out oh my dear eliza pray make haste and come into the diningroom for there is such a sight to be seen elizabeth asked questions in vain maria would tell her nothing more and down they ran into the diningroom which fronted the lane in quest of this wonder it was two ladies stopping in a low phaeton at the garden gate i expected at least that the pigs were got into the garden and here is nothing but lady catherine and her daughter my dear said maria quite shocked at the mistake it is not lady catherine jenkinson who lives with them the other is miss de bourgh who would have thought that she could be so thin and small she is abominably rude to keep charlotte out of doors in all this wind it is the greatest of favours when miss de bourgh comes in i like her appearance said elizabeth struck with other ideas collins and charlotte were both standing at the gate in conversation with the ladies and sir william to elizabeths high diversion was stationed in the doorway in earnest contemplation of the greatness before him and constantly bowing whenever miss de bourgh looked that way at length there was nothing more to be said the ladies drove on and the others returned into the house collins no sooner saw the two girls than he began to congratulate them on their good fortune which charlotte explained by letting them know that the whole party was asked to dine at rosings the next day collinss triumph in consequence of this invitation was complete the power of displaying the grandeur of his patroness to his wondering visitors and of letting them see her civility towards himself and his wife was exactly what he had wished for and that an opportunity of doing it should be given so soon was such an instance of lady catherines condescension as he knew not how to admire enough
consider once more the universal cannibalism of the sea all whose creatures prey upon each other carrying on eternal war since the world began consider all this and then turn to this green gentle and most docile earth consider them both the sea and the land and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself for as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land so in the soul of man there lies one insular tahiti full of peace and joy but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life push not off from that isle thou canst never return slowly wading through the meadows of brit the pequod still held on her way northeastward towards the island of java a gentle air impelling her keel so that in the surrounding serenity her three tall tapering masts mildly waved to that languid breeze as three mild palms on a plain and still at wide intervals in the silvery night the lonely alluring jet would be seen but one transparent blue morning when a stillness almost preternatural spread over the sea however unattended with any stagnant calm when the long burnished sunglade on the waters seemed a golden finger laid across them enjoining some secrecy when the slippered waves whispered together as they softly ran on in this profound hush of the visible sphere a strange spectre was seen by daggoo from the mainmasthead in the distance a great white mass lazily rose and rising higher and higher and disentangling itself from the azure at last gleamed before our prow like a snowslide new slid from the hills thus glistening for a moment as slowly it subsided and sank again the phantom went down but on reappearing once more with a stilettolike cry that startled every man from his nod the negro yelled outthere  upon this the seamen rushed to the yardarms as in swarmingtime the bees rush to the boughs bareheaded in the sultry sun ahab stood on the bowsprit and with one hand pushed far behind in readiness to wave his orders to the helmsman cast his eager glance in the direction indicated aloft by the outstretched motionless arm of daggoo whether the flitting attendance of the one still and solitary jet had gradually worked upon ahab so that he was now prepared to connect the ideas of mildness and repose with the first sight of the particular whale he pursued however this was or whether his eagerness betrayed him whichever way it might have been no sooner did he distinctly perceive the white mass than with a quick intensity he instantly gave orders for lowering the four boats were soon on the water ahabs in advance and all swiftly pulling towards their prey soon it went down and while with oars suspended we were awaiting its reappearance lo in the same spot where it sank once more it slowly rose almost forgetting for the moment all thoughts of moby dick we now gazed at the most wondrous phenomenon which the secret seas have hitherto revealed to mankind a vast pulpy mass furlongs in length and breadth of a glancing creamcolour lay floating on the water innumerable long arms radiating from its centre and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas as if blindly to clutch at any hapless object within reach no perceptible face or front did it have no conceivable token of either sensation or instinct but undulated there on the billows an unearthly formless chancelike apparition of life as with a low sucking sound it slowly disappeared again starbuck still gazing at the agitated waters where it had sunk with a wild voice exclaimedalmost rather had i seen moby dick and fought him than to have seen thee thou white ghost
anne cried her sister you can talk of nothing but beauxyou will make miss dashwood believe you think of nothing else and then to turn the discourse she began admiring the house and the furniture the vulgar freedom and folly of the eldest left her no recommendation and as elinor was not blinded by the beauty or the shrewd look of the youngest to her want of real elegance and artlessness she left the house without any wish of knowing them better they came from exeter well provided with admiration for the use of sir john middleton his family and all his relations and no niggardly proportion was now dealt out to his fair cousins whom they declared to be the most beautiful elegant accomplished and agreeable girls they had ever beheld and with whom they were particularly anxious to be better acquainted  and to be better acquainted therefore elinor soon found was their inevitable lot for as sir john was entirely on the side of the miss steeles their party would be too strong for opposition and that kind of intimacy must be submitted to which consists of sitting an hour or two together in the same room almost every day sir john could do no more but he did not know that any more was required to be together was in his opinion to be intimate and while his continual schemes for their meeting were effectual he had not a doubt of their being established friends to do him justice he did every thing in his power to promote their unreserve by making the miss steeles acquainted with whatever he knew or supposed of his cousins situations in the most delicate particularsand elinor had not seen them more than twice before the eldest of them wished her joy on her sisters having been so lucky as to make a conquest of a very smart beau since she came to barton twill be a fine thing to have her married so young to be sure said she and i hear he is quite a beau and prodigious handsome and i hope you may have as good luck yourself soonbut perhaps you may have a friend in the corner already elinor could not suppose that sir john would be more nice in proclaiming his suspicions of her regard for edward than he had been with respect to marianne indeed it was rather his favourite joke of the two as being somewhat newer and more conjectural and since edwards visit they had never dined together without his drinking to her best affections with so much significancy and so many nods and winks as to excite general attention the letter fhad been likewise invariably brought forward and found productive of such countless jokes that its character as the wittiest letter in the alphabet had been long established with elinor the miss steeles as she expected had now all the benefit of these jokes and in the eldest of them they raised a curiosity to know the name of the gentleman alluded to which though often impertinently expressed was perfectly of a piece with her general inquisitiveness into the concerns of their family but sir john did not sport long with the curiosity which he delighted to raise for he had at least as much pleasure in telling the name as miss steele had in hearing it his name is ferrars said he in a very audible whisper but pray do not tell it for its a great secret a very agreeable young man to be sure i know him very well cried lucy who generally made an amendment to all her sisters assertions though we have seen him once or twice at my uncles it is rather too much to pretend to know him very well she wished very much to have the subject continued though she did not chuse to join in it herself but nothing more of it was said and for the first time in her life she thought mrs jennings deficient either in curiosity after petty information or in a disposition to communicate it the manner in which miss steele had spoken of edward increased her curiosity for it struck her as being rather illnatured and suggested the suspicion of that ladys knowing or fancying herself to know something to his disadvantage
jennings had supposed her to do made very light of at least as far as regarded its size the smallness of the house said she i cannot imagine any inconvenience to them for it will be in proportion to their family and income by which the colonel was surprised to find that she was considering mr ferrarss marriage as the certain consequence of the presentation for he did not suppose it possible that delaford living could supply such an income as anybody in his style of life would venture to settle onand he said so ferrars comfortable as a bachelor it cannot enable him to marry i am sorry to say that my patronage ends with this and my interest is hardly more extensive if however by an unforeseen chance it should be in my power to serve him farther i must think very differently of him from what i now do if i am not as ready to be useful to him then as i sincerely wish i could be at present what i am now doing indeed seems nothing at all since it can advance him so little towards what must be his principal his only object of happiness his marriage must still be a distant goodat least i am afraid it cannot take place very soon  such was the sentence which when misunderstood so justly offended the delicate feelings of mrs jennings but after this narration of what really passed between colonel brandon and elinor while they stood at the window the gratitude expressed by the latter on their parting may perhaps appear in general not less reasonably excited nor less properly worded than if it had arisen from an offer of marriage jennings sagaciously smiling as soon as the gentleman had withdrawn i do not ask you what the colonel has been saying to you for though upon my honour i tried to keep out of hearing i could not help catching enough to understand his business and i assure you i never was better pleased in my life and i wish you joy of it with all my heart it is a matter of great joy to me and i feel the goodness of colonel brandon most sensibly there are not many men who would act as he has done i ant the least astonished at it in the world for i have often thought of late there was nothing more likely to happen you judged from your knowledge of the colonels general benevolence but at least you could not foresee that the opportunity would so very soon occur as to that when a man has once made up his mind to such a thing somehow or other he will soon find an opportunity well my dear i wish you joy of it again and again and if ever there was a happy couple in the world i think i shall soon know where to look for them  you mean to go to delaford after them i suppose said elinor with a faint smile
willoughby very blamable said elinor while her voice in spite of herself betrayed her compassionate emotion you ought not to speak in this way either of mrs your wife has a claim to your politeness to your respect at least she must be attached to you or she would not have married you to treat her with unkindness to speak of her slightingly is no atonement to mariannenor can i suppose it a relief to your own conscience do not talk to me of my wife said he with a heavy sigh well married we were and came down to combe magna to be happy and afterwards returned to town to be gay  am ibe it only one degreeam i less guilty in your opinion than i was before  you have proved yourself on the whole less faulty than i had believed you you have proved your heart less wicked much less wicked but i hardly knowthe misery that you have inflictedi hardly know what could have made it worse will you repeat to your sister when she is recovered what i have been telling you let me be a little lightened too in her opinion as well as in yours let me be able to fancy that a better knowledge of my heart and of my present feelings will draw from her a more spontaneous more natural more gentle less dignified forgiveness tell her of my misery and my penitencetell her that my heart was never inconstant to her and if you will that at this moment she is dearer to me than ever i will tell her all that is necessary to what may comparatively be called your justification but you have not explained to me the particular reason of your coming now nor how you heard of her illness last night in drury lane lobby i ran against sir john middleton and when he saw who i wasfor the first time these two monthshe spoke to me that he had cut me ever since my marriage i had seen without surprise or resentment now however his goodnatured honest stupid soul full of indignation against me and concern for your sister could not resist the temptation of telling me what he knew ought tothough probably he did not think it wouldvex me horridly as bluntly as he could speak it therefore he told me that marianne dashwood was dying of a putrid fever at clevelanda letter that morning received from mrs
besides it was very convenient on an excursion much better than those gardenchairs which are convertible into walkingsticks upon occasion a chief calling his attendant and desiring him to make a settee of himself under a spreading tree perhaps in some damp marshy place while narrating these things every time queequeg received the tomahawk from me he flourished the hatchetside of it over the sleepers head he was going on with some wild reminiscences about his tomahawkpipe which it seemed had in its two uses both brained his foes and soothed his soul when we were directly attracted to the sleeping rigger the strong vapour now completely filling the contracted hole it began to tell upon him he breathed with a sort of muffledness then seemed troubled in the nose then revolved over once or twice then sat up and rubbed his eyes i was going to ask him some further questions concerning ahab when we heard a noise on deck hes a lively chief mate that good man and a pious but all alive now i must turn to soon the crew came on board in twos and threes the riggers bestirred themselves the mates were actively engaged and several of the shore people were busy in bringing various last things on board meanwhile captain ahab remained invisibly enshrined within his cabin at length towards noon upon the final dismissal of the ships riggers and after the pequod had been hauled out from the wharf and after the everthoughtful charity had come off in a whaleboat with her last gifta nightcap for stubb the second mate her brotherinlaw and a spare bible for the stewardafter all this the two captains peleg and bildad issued from the cabin and turning to the chief mate peleg said now mr captain ahab is all readyjust spoke to himnothing more to be got from shore eh no need of profane words however great the hurry peleg said bildad but away with thee friend starbuck and do our bidding here upon the very point of starting for the voyage captain peleg and captain bildad were going it with a high hand on the quarterdeck just as if they were to be jointcommanders at sea as well as to all appearances in port and as for captain ahab no sign of him was yet to be seen only they said he was in the cabin but then the idea was that his presence was by no means necessary in getting the ship under weigh and steering her well out to sea indeed as that was not at all his proper business but the pilots and as he was not yet completely recoveredso they saidtherefore captain ahab stayed below and all this seemed natural enough especially as in the merchant service many captains never show themselves on deck for a considerable time after heaving up the anchor but remain over the cabin table having a farewell merrymaking with their shore friends before they quit the ship for good with the pilot but there was not much chance to think over the matter for captain peleg was now all alive he seemed to do most of the talking and commanding and not bildad aft here ye sons of bachelors he cried as the sailors lingered at the mainmast
unfortunately an only son for many years an only child i was spoilt by my parents who though good themselves my father particularly all that was benevolent and amiable allowed encouraged almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing to care for none beyond my own family circle to think meanly of all the rest of the world to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own such i was from eight to eight and twenty and such i might still have been but for you dearest loveliest elizabeth you taught me a lesson hard indeed at first but most advantageous you showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased i believed you to be wishing expecting my addresses my manners must have been in fault but not intentionally i assure you i never meant to deceive you but my spirits might often lead me wrong i was angry perhaps at first but my anger soon began to take a proper direction i am almost afraid of asking what you thought of me when we met at pemberley your surprise could not be greater than mine in being noticed by you my conscience told me that i deserved no extraordinary politeness and i confess that i did not expect to receive more than my due my object then replied darcy was to show you by every civility in my power that i was not so mean as to resent the past and i hoped to obtain your forgiveness to lessen your ill opinion by letting you see that your reproofs had been attended to how soon any other wishes introduced themselves i can hardly tell but i believe in about half an hour after i had seen you he then told her of georgianas delight in her acquaintance and of her disappointment at its sudden interruption which naturally leading to the cause of that interruption she soon learnt that his resolution of following her from derbyshire in quest of her sister had been formed before he quitted the inn and that his gravity and thoughtfulness there had arisen from no other struggles than what such a purpose must comprehend she expressed her gratitude again but it was too painful a subject to each to be dwelt on farther after walking several miles in a leisurely manner and too busy to know anything about it they found at last on examining their watches that it was time to be at home was a wonder which introduced the discussion of their affairs darcy was delighted with their engagement his friend had given him the earliest information of it and though he exclaimed at the term she found that it had been pretty much the case on the evening before my going to london said he i made a confession to him which i believe i ought to have made long ago
so my daughter middleton told me for it seems sir john met him somewhere in the street this morning impatient in this situation to be doing something that might lead to her sisters relief elinor resolved to write the next morning to her mother and hoped by awakening her fears for the health of marianne to procure those inquiries which had been so long delayed and she was still more eagerly bent on this measure by perceiving after breakfast on the morrow that marianne was again writing to willoughby for she could not suppose it to be to any other person jennings went out by herself on business and elinor began her letter directly while marianne too restless for employment too anxious for conversation walked from one window to the other or sat down by the fire in melancholy meditation elinor was very earnest in her application to her mother relating all that had passed her suspicions of willoughbys inconstancy urging her by every plea of duty and affection to demand from marianne an account of her real situation with respect to him her letter was scarcely finished when a rap foretold a visitor and colonel brandon was announced marianne who had seen him from the window and who hated company of any kind left the room before he entered it he looked more than usually grave and though expressing satisfaction at finding miss dashwood alone as if he had somewhat in particular to tell her sat for some time without saying a word elinor persuaded that he had some communication to make in which her sister was concerned impatiently expected its opening it was not the first time of her feeling the same kind of conviction for more than once before beginning with the observation of your sister looks unwell today or your sister seems out of spirits he had appeared on the point either of disclosing or of inquiring something particular about her after a pause of several minutes their silence was broken by his asking her in a voice of some agitation when he was to congratulate her on the acquisition of a brother elinor was not prepared for such a question and having no answer ready was obliged to adopt the simple and common expedient of asking what he meant he tried to smile as he replied your sisters engagement to mr it cannot be generally known returned elinor for her own family do not know it he looked surprised and said i beg your pardon i am afraid my inquiry has been impertinent but i had not supposed any secrecy intended as they openly correspond and their marriage is universally talked of by manyby some of whom you know nothing by others with whom you are most intimate mrs but still i might not have believed it for where the mind is perhaps rather unwilling to be convinced it will always find something to support its doubts if i had not when the servant let me in today accidentally seen a letter in his hand directed to mr i came to inquire but i was convinced before i could ask the question but i have no right and i could have no chance of succeeding i believe i have been wrong in saying so much but i hardly know what to do and on your prudence i have the strongest dependence tell me that it is all absolutely resolved on that any attempt that in short concealment if concealment be possible is all that remains
wickham should invent such a history of himself as he gave me last night names facts everything mentioned without ceremony but jane could think with certainty on only one pointthat mr bingley if he had been imposed on would have much to suffer when the affair became public the two young ladies were summoned from the shrubbery where this conversation passed by the arrival of the very persons of whom they had been speaking mr bingley and his sisters came to give their personal invitation for the longexpected ball at netherfield which was fixed for the following tuesday the two ladies were delighted to see their dear friend again called it an age since they had met and repeatedly asked what she had been doing with herself since their separation to the rest of the family they paid little attention avoiding mrs bennet as much as possible saying not much to elizabeth and nothing at all to the others they were soon gone again rising from their seats with an activity which took their brother by surprise and hurrying off as if eager to escape from mrs the prospect of the netherfield ball was extremely agreeable to every female of the family bennet chose to consider it as given in compliment to her eldest daughter and was particularly flattered by receiving the invitation from mr jane pictured to herself a happy evening in the society of her two friends and the attentions of their brother and elizabeth thought with pleasure of dancing a great deal with mr wickham and of seeing a confirmation of everything in mr the happiness anticipated by catherine and lydia depended less on any single event or any particular person for though they each like elizabeth meant to dance half the evening with mr wickham he was by no means the only partner who could satisfy them and a ball was at any rate a ball and even mary could assure her family that she had no disinclination for it while i can have my mornings to myself said she it is enoughi think it is no sacrifice to join occasionally in evening engagements society has claims on us all and i profess myself one of those who consider intervals of recreation and amusement as desirable for everybody elizabeths spirits were so high on this occasion that though she did not often speak unnecessarily to mr collins she could not help asking him whether he intended to accept mr
it exactly answers my idea of a fine country because it unites beauty with utilityand i dare say it is a picturesque one too because you admire it i can easily believe it to be full of rocks and promontories grey moss and brush wood but these are all lost on me i am afraid it is but too true said marianne but why should you boast of it i suspect said elinor that to avoid one kind of affectation edward here falls into another because he believes many people pretend to more admiration of the beauties of nature than they really feel and is disgusted with such pretensions he affects greater indifference and less discrimination in viewing them himself than he possesses he is fastidious and will have an affectation of his own it is very true said marianne that admiration of landscape scenery is become a mere jargon every body pretends to feel and tries to describe with the taste and elegance of him who first defined what picturesque beauty was i detest jargon of every kind and sometimes i have kept my feelings to myself because i could find no language to describe them in but what was worn and hackneyed out of all sense and meaning i am convinced said edward that you really feel all the delight in a fine prospect which you profess to feel but in return your sister must allow me to feel no more than i profess i like a fine prospect but not on picturesque principles i admire them much more if they are tall straight and flourishing i am not fond of nettles or thistles or heath blossoms i have more pleasure in a snug farmhouse than a watchtowerand a troop of tidy happy villages please me better than the finest banditti in the world marianne looked with amazement at edward with compassion at her sister the subject was continued no farther and marianne remained thoughtfully silent till a new object suddenly engaged her attention she was sitting by edward and in taking his tea from mrs dashwood his hand passed so directly before her as to make a ring with a plait of hair in the centre very conspicuous on one of his fingers i never saw you wear a ring before edward she cried marianne spoke inconsiderately what she really feltbut when she saw how much she had pained edward her own vexation at her want of thought could not be surpassed by his
their taking her home and affording her their personal protection and countenance is such a sacrifice to her advantage as years of gratitude cannot enough acknowledge if such goodness does not make her miserable now she will never deserve to be happy we must endeavour to forget all that has passed on either side said jane i hope and trust they will yet be happy his consenting to marry her is a proof i will believe that he is come to a right way of thinking their mutual affection will steady them and i flatter myself they will settle so quietly and live in so rational a manner as may in time make their past imprudence forgotten their conduct has been such replied elizabeth as neither you nor i nor anybody can ever forget it now occurred to the girls that their mother was in all likelihood perfectly ignorant of what had happened they went to the library therefore and asked their father whether he would not wish them to make it known to her he was writing and without raising his head coolly replied just as you please elizabeth took the letter from his writingtable and they went up stairs together bennet one communication would therefore do for all after a slight preparation for good news the letter was read aloud gardiners hope of lydias being soon married her joy burst forth and every following sentence added to its exuberance she was now in an irritation as violent from delight as she had ever been fidgety from alarm and vexation to know that her daughter would be married was enough she was disturbed by no fear for her felicity nor humbled by any remembrance of her misconduct i will write to my sister gardiner about them directly lizzy my dear run down to your father and ask him how much he will give her her eldest daughter endeavoured to give some relief to the violence of these transports by leading her thoughts to the obligations which mr for we must attribute this happy conclusion she added in a great measure to his kindness
with a prodigious noise the door flew open and the knob slamming against the wall sent the plaster to the ceiling and there good heavens there sat queequeg altogether cool and selfcollected right in the middle of the room squatting on his hams and holding yojo on top of his head he looked neither one way nor the other way but sat like a carved image with scarce a sign of active life queequeg said i going up to him queequeg whats the matter with you but all we said not a word could we drag out of him i almost felt like pushing him over so as to change his position for it was almost intolerable it seemed so painfully and unnaturally constrained especially as in all probability he had been sitting so for upwards of eight or ten hours going too without his regular meals hussey said i hes alive at all events so leave us if you please and i will see to this strange affair myself closing the door upon the landlady i endeavored to prevail upon queequeg to take a chair but in vain there he sat and all he could dofor all my polite arts and blandishmentshe would not move a peg nor say a single word nor even look at me nor notice my presence in the slightest way i wonder thought i if this can possibly be a part of his ramadan do they fast on their hams that way in his native island it must be so yes its part of his creed i suppose well then let him rest hell get up sooner or later no doubt it cant last for ever thank god and his ramadan only comes once a year and i dont believe its very punctual then after sitting a long time listening to the long stories of some sailors who had just come from a plumpudding voyage as they called it that is a short whalingvoyage in a schooner or brig confined to the north of the line in the atlantic ocean only after listening to these plumpuddingers till nearly eleven oclock i went up stairs to go to bed feeling quite sure by this time queequeg must certainly have brought his ramadan to a termination but no there he was just where i had left him he had not stirred an inch i began to grow vexed with him it seemed so downright senseless and insane to be sitting there all day and half the night on his hams in a cold room holding a piece of wood on his head for heavens sake queequeg get up and shake yourself get up and have some supper despairing of him therefore i determined to go to bed and to sleep and no doubt before a great while he would follow me but previous to turning in i took my heavy bearskin jacket and threw it over him as it promised to be a very cold night and he had nothing but his ordinary round jacket on for some time do all i would i could not get into the faintest doze i had blown out the candle and the mere thought of queequegnot four feet offsitting there in that uneasy position stark alone in the cold and dark this made me really wretched think of it sleeping all night in the same room with a wide awake pagan on his hams in this dreary unaccountable ramadan
whereupon this accomplished swordsman warning all hands to stand off once more makes a scientific dash at the mass and with a few sidelong desperate lunging slicings severs it completely in twain so that while the short lower part is still fast the long upper strip called a blanketpiece swings clear and is all ready for lowering the heavers forward now resume their song and while the one tackle is peeling and hoisting a second strip from the whale the other is slowly slackened away and down goes the first strip through the main hatchway right beneath into an unfurnished parlor called the blubberroom into this twilight apartment sundry nimble hands keep coiling away the long blanketpiece as if it were a great live mass of plaited serpents and thus the work proceeds the two tackles hoisting and lowering simultaneously both whale and windlass heaving the heavers singing the blubberroom gentlemen coiling the mates scarfing the ship straining and all hands swearing occasionally by way of assuaging the general friction i have given no small attention to that not unvexed subject the skin of the whale i have had controversies about it with experienced whalemen afloat and learned naturalists ashore my original opinion remains unchanged but it is only an opinion the question is what and where is the skin of the whale that blubber is something of the consistence of firm closegrained beef but tougher more elastic and compact and ranges from eight or ten to twelve and fifteen inches in thickness now however preposterous it may at first seem to talk of any creatures skin as being of that sort of consistence and thickness yet in point of fact these are no arguments against such a presumption because you cannot raise any other dense enveloping layer from the whales body but that same blubber and the outermost enveloping layer of any animal if reasonably dense what can that be but the skin true from the unmarred dead body of the whale you may scrape off with your hand an infinitely thin transparent substance somewhat resembling the thinnest shreds of isinglass only it is almost as flexible and soft as satin that is previous to being dried when it not only contracts and thickens but becomes rather hard and brittle i have several such dried bits which i use for marks in my whalebooks it is transparent as i said before and being laid upon the printed page i have sometimes pleased myself with fancying it exerted a magnifying influence at any rate it is pleasant to read about whales through their own spectacles as you may say that same infinitely thin isinglass substance which i admit invests the entire body of the whale is not so much to be regarded as the skin of the creature as the skin of the skin so to speak for it were simply ridiculous to say that the proper skin of the tremendous whale is thinner and more tender than the skin of a newborn child assuming the blubber to be the skin of the whale then when this skin as in the case of a very large sperm whale will yield the bulk of one hundred barrels of oil and when it is considered that in quantity or rather weight that oil in its expressed state is only three fourths and not the entire substance of the coat some idea may hence be had of the enormousness of that animated mass a mere part of whose mere integument yields such a lake of liquid as that reckoning ten barrels to the ton you have ten tons for the net weight of only three quarters of the stuff of the whales skin in life the visible surface of the sperm whale is not the least among the many marvels he presents almost invariably it is all over obliquely crossed and recrossed with numberless straight marks in thick array something like those in the finest italian line engravings but these marks do not seem to be impressed upon the isinglass substance above mentioned but seem to be seen through it as if they were engraved upon the body itself
yet ill contribute to raise rods on the himmalehs and andes that all the world may be secured but out on privileges all the yardarms were tipped with a pallid fire and touched at each tripointed lightningrodend with three tapering white flames each of the three tall masts was silently burning in that sulphurous air like three gigantic wax tapers before an altar cried stubb at this instant as a swashing sea heaved up under his own little craft so that its gunwale violently jammed his hand as he was passing a lashing but slipping backward on the deck his uplifted eyes caught the flames and immediately shifting his tone he criedthe corpusants have mercy on us all  to sailors oaths are household words they will swear in the trance of the calm and in the teeth of the tempest they will imprecate curses from the topsailyardarms when most they teeter over to a seething sea but in all my voyagings seldom have i heard a common oath when gods burning finger has been laid on the ship when his mene mene tekel upharsin has been woven into the shrouds and the cordage while this pallidness was burning aloft few words were heard from the enchanted crew who in one thick cluster stood on the forecastle all their eyes gleaming in that pale phosphorescence like a far away constellation of stars relieved against the ghostly light the gigantic jet negro daggoo loomed up to thrice his real stature and seemed the black cloud from which the thunder had come the parted mouth of tashtego revealed his sharkwhite teeth which strangely gleamed as if they too had been tipped by corpusants while lit up by the preternatural light queequegs tattooing burned like satanic blue flames on his body the tableau all waned at last with the pallidness aloft and once more the pequod and every soul on her decks were wrapped in a pall a moment or two passed when starbuck going forward pushed against some one what thinkest thou now man i heard thy cry it was not the same in the song no no it wasnt i said the corpusants have mercy on us all and i hope they will still hear me then i take that masthead flame we saw for a sign of good luck for those masts are rooted in a hold that is going to be chock a block with spermoil dye see and so all that sperm will work up into the masts like sap in a tree yes our three masts will yet be as three spermaceti candlesthats the good promise we saw at that moment starbuck caught sight of stubbs face slowly beginning to glimmer into sight and once more the high tapering flames were beheld with what seemed redoubled supernaturalness in their pallor the corpusants have mercy on us all cried stubb again at the base of the mainmast full beneath the doubloon and the flame the parsee was kneeling in ahabs front but with his head bowed away from him while near by from the arched and overhanging rigging where they had just been engaged securing a spar a number of the seamen arrested by the glare now cohered together and hung pendulous like a knot of numbed wasps from a drooping orchard twig in various enchanted attitudes like the standing or stepping or running skeletons in herculaneum others remained rooted to the deck but all their eyes upcast look up at it mark it well the white flame but lights the way to the white whale
every body pretends to feel and tries to describe with the taste and elegance of him who first defined what picturesque beauty was i detest jargon of every kind and sometimes i have kept my feelings to myself because i could find no language to describe them in but what was worn and hackneyed out of all sense and meaning i am convinced said edward that you really feel all the delight in a fine prospect which you profess to feel but in return your sister must allow me to feel no more than i profess i like a fine prospect but not on picturesque principles i admire them much more if they are tall straight and flourishing i am not fond of nettles or thistles or heath blossoms i have more pleasure in a snug farmhouse than a watchtowerand a troop of tidy happy villages please me better than the finest banditti in the world marianne looked with amazement at edward with compassion at her sister the subject was continued no farther and marianne remained thoughtfully silent till a new object suddenly engaged her attention she was sitting by edward and in taking his tea from mrs dashwood his hand passed so directly before her as to make a ring with a plait of hair in the centre very conspicuous on one of his fingers i never saw you wear a ring before edward she cried marianne spoke inconsiderately what she really feltbut when she saw how much she had pained edward her own vexation at her want of thought could not be surpassed by his he coloured very deeply and giving a momentary glance at elinor replied yes it is my sisters hair the setting always casts a different shade on it you know elinor had met his eye and looked conscious likewise that the hair was her own she instantaneously felt as well satisfied as marianne the only difference in their conclusions was that what marianne considered as a free gift from her sister elinor was conscious must have been procured by some theft or contrivance unknown to herself she was not in a humour however to regard it as an affront and affecting to take no notice of what passed by instantly talking of something else she internally resolved henceforward to catch every opportunity of eyeing the hair and of satisfying herself beyond all doubt that it was exactly the shade of her own edwards embarrassment lasted some time and it ended in an absence of mind still more settled
to atone for this conduct therefore elinor took immediate possession of the post of civility which she had assigned herself behaved with the greatest attention to mrs jennings talked with her laughed with her and listened to her whenever she could and mrs jennings on her side treated them both with all possible kindness was solicitous on every occasion for their ease and enjoyment and only disturbed that she could not make them choose their own dinners at the inn nor extort a confession of their preferring salmon to cod or boiled fowls to veal cutlets they reached town by three oclock the third day glad to be released after such a journey from the confinement of a carriage and ready to enjoy all the luxury of a good fire the house was handsome and handsomely fitted up and the young ladies were immediately put in possession of a very comfortable apartment it had formerly been charlottes and over the mantelpiece still hung a landscape in coloured silks of her performance in proof of her having spent seven years at a great school in town to some effect as dinner was not to be ready in less than two hours from their arrival elinor determined to employ the interval in writing to her mother and sat down for that purpose i am writing home marianne said elinor had not you better defer your letter for a day or two i am not going to write to my mother replied marianne hastily and as if wishing to avoid any farther inquiry elinor said no more it immediately struck her that she must then be writing to willoughby and the conclusion which as instantly followed was that however mysteriously they might wish to conduct the affair they must be engaged this conviction though not entirely satisfactory gave her pleasure and she continued her letter with greater alacrity mariannes was finished in a very few minutes in length it could be no more than a note it was then folded up sealed and directed with eager rapidity elinor thought she could distinguish a large w in the direction and no sooner was it complete than marianne ringing the bell requested the footman who answered it to get that letter conveyed for her to the twopenny post her spirits still continued very high but there was a flutter in them which prevented their giving much pleasure to her sister and this agitation increased as the evening drew on she could scarcely eat any dinner and when they afterwards returned to the drawing room seemed anxiously listening to the sound of every carriage jennings by being much engaged in her own room could see little of what was passing the tea things were brought in and already had marianne been disappointed more than once by a rap at a neighbouring door when a loud one was suddenly heard which could not be mistaken for one at any other house elinor felt secure of its announcing willoughbys approach and marianne starting up moved towards the door every thing was silent this could not be borne many seconds she opened the door advanced a few steps towards the stairs and after listening half a minute returned into the room in all the agitation which a conviction of having heard him would naturally produce in the ecstasy of her feelings at that instant she could not help exclaiming oh elinor it is willoughby indeed it is and seemed almost ready to throw herself into his arms when colonel brandon appeared it was too great a shock to be borne with calmness and she immediately left the room
this circumstance was a growing attachment between her eldest girl and the brother of mrs john dashwood a gentlemanlike and pleasing young man who was introduced to their acquaintance soon after his sisters establishment at norland and who had since spent the greatest part of his time there some mothers might have encouraged the intimacy from motives of interest for edward ferrars was the eldest son of a man who had died very rich and some might have repressed it from motives of prudence for except a trifling sum the whole of his fortune depended on the will of his mother dashwood was alike uninfluenced by either consideration it was enough for her that he appeared to be amiable that he loved her daughter and that elinor returned the partiality it was contrary to every doctrine of hers that difference of fortune should keep any couple asunder who were attracted by resemblance of disposition and that elinors merit should not be acknowledged by every one who knew her was to her comprehension impossible edward ferrars was not recommended to their good opinion by any peculiar graces of person or address he was not handsome and his manners required intimacy to make them pleasing he was too diffident to do justice to himself but when his natural shyness was overcome his behaviour gave every indication of an open affectionate heart his understanding was good and his education had given it solid improvement but he was neither fitted by abilities nor disposition to answer the wishes of his mother and sister who longed to see him distinguishedasthey hardly knew what they wanted him to make a fine figure in the world in some manner or other his mother wished to interest him in political concerns to get him into parliament or to see him connected with some of the great men of the day john dashwood wished it likewise but in the mean while till one of these superior blessings could be attained it would have quieted her ambition to see him driving a barouche all his wishes centered in domestic comfort and the quiet of private life fortunately he had a younger brother who was more promising edward had been staying several weeks in the house before he engaged much of mrs dashwoods attention for she was at that time in such affliction as rendered her careless of surrounding objects she saw only that he was quiet and unobtrusive and she liked him for it he did not disturb the wretchedness of her mind by illtimed conversation
nor at the time had it failed to enter his monomaniac mind that all the anguish of that then present suffering was but the direct issue of a former woe and he too plainly seemed to see that as the most poisonous reptile of the marsh perpetuates his kind as inevitably as the sweetest songster of the grove so equally with every felicity all miserable events do naturally beget their like yea more than equally thought ahab since both the ancestry and posterity of grief go further than the ancestry and posterity of joy for not to hint of this that it is an inference from certain canonic teachings that while some natural enjoyments here shall have no children born to them for the other world but on the contrary shall be followed by the joychildlessness of all hells despair whereas some guilty mortal miseries shall still fertilely beget to themselves an eternally progressive progeny of griefs beyond the grave not at all to hint of this there still seems an inequality in the deeper analysis of the thing for thought ahab while even the highest earthly felicities ever have a certain unsignifying pettiness lurking in them but at bottom all heartwoes a mystic significance and in some men an archangelic grandeur so do their diligent tracingsout not belie the obvious deduction to trail the genealogies of these high mortal miseries carries us at last among the sourceless primogenitures of the gods so that in the face of all the glad haymaking suns and soft cymballing round harvestmoons we must needs give in to this that the gods themselves are not for ever glad the ineffaceable sad birthmark in the brow of man is but the stamp of sorrow in the signers unwittingly here a secret has been divulged which perhaps might more properly in set way have been disclosed before with many other particulars concerning ahab always had it remained a mystery to some why it was that for a certain period both before and after the sailing of the pequod he had hidden himself away with such grandlamalike exclusiveness and for that one interval sought speechless refuge as it were among the marble senate of the dead captain pelegs bruited reason for this thing appeared by no means adequate though indeed as touching all ahabs deeper part every revelation partook more of significant darkness than of explanatory light but in the end it all came out this one matter did at least that direful mishap was at the bottom of his temporary recluseness and not only this but to that evercontracting dropping circle ashore who for any reason possessed the privilege of a less banned approach to him to that timid circle the above hinted casualtyremaining as it did moodily unaccounted for by ahabinvested itself with terrors not entirely underived from the land of spirits and of wails so that through their zeal for him they had all conspired so far as in them lay to muffle up the knowledge of this thing from others and hence it was that not till a considerable interval had elapsed did it transpire upon the pequods decks but be all this as it may let the unseen ambiguous synod in the air or the vindictive princes and potentates of fire have to do or not with earthly ahab yet in this present matter of his leg he took plain practical procedureshe called the carpenter and when that functionary appeared before him he bade him without delay set about making a new leg and directed the mates to see him supplied with all the studs and joists of jawivory sperm whale which had thus far been accumulated on the voyage in order that a careful selection of the stoutest clearestgrained stuff might be secured this done the carpenter received orders to have the leg completed that night and to provide all the fittings for it independent of those pertaining to the distrusted one in use moreover the ships forge was ordered to be hoisted out of its temporary idleness in the hold and to accelerate the affair the blacksmith was commanded to proceed at once to the forging of whatever iron contrivances might be needed seat thyself sultanically among the moons of saturn and take high abstracted man alone and he seems a wonder a grandeur and a woe but from the same point take mankind in mass and for the most part they seem a mob of unnecessary duplicates both contemporary and hereditary but most humble though he was and far from furnishing an example of the high humane abstraction the pequods carpenter was no duplicate hence he now comes in person on this stage
but against this there were objections and she finally resolved that it could be the last resource if her private inquiries to the absence of the family were unfavourably answered accordingly when she retired at night she asked the chambermaid whether pemberley were not a very fine place and with no little alarm whether the family were down for the summer a most welcome negative followed the last questionand her alarms now being removed she was at leisure to feel a great deal of curiosity to see the house herself and when the subject was revived the next morning and she was again applied to could readily answer and with a proper air of indifference that she had not really any dislike to the scheme chapter  elizabeth as they drove along watched for the first appearance of pemberley woods with some perturbation and when at length they turned in at the lodge her spirits were in a high flutter the park was very large and contained great variety of ground they entered it in one of its lowest points and drove for some time through a beautiful wood stretching over a wide extent elizabeths mind was too full for conversation but she saw and admired every remarkable spot and point of view they gradually ascended for halfamile and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence where the wood ceased and the eye was instantly caught by pemberley house situated on the opposite side of a valley into which the road with some abruptness wound it was a large handsome stone building standing well on rising ground and backed by a ridge of high woody hills and in front a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater but without any artificial appearance she had never seen a place for which nature had done more or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste they were all of them warm in their admiration and at that moment she felt that to be mistress of pemberley might be something they descended the hill crossed the bridge and drove to the door and while examining the nearer aspect of the house all her apprehension of meeting its owner returned on applying to see the place they were admitted into the hall and elizabeth as they waited for the housekeeper had leisure to wonder at her being where she was the housekeeper came a respectablelooking elderly woman much less fine and more civil than she had any notion of finding her it was a large well proportioned room handsomely fitted up elizabeth after slightly surveying it went to a window to enjoy its prospect the hill crowned with wood which they had descended receiving increased abruptness from the distance was a beautiful object every disposition of the ground was good and she looked on the whole scene the river the trees scattered on its banks and the winding of the valley as far as she could trace it with delight as they passed into other rooms these objects were taking different positions but from every window there were beauties to be seen
the family were assembled in the breakfast room to receive them bennet as the carriage drove up to the door her husband looked impenetrably grave her daughters alarmed anxious uneasy lydias voice was heard in the vestibule the door was thrown open and she ran into the room her mother stepped forwards embraced her and welcomed her with rapture gave her hand with an affectionate smile to wickham who followed his lady and wished them both joy with an alacrity which shewed no doubt of their happiness bennet to whom they then turned was not quite so cordial his countenance rather gained in austerity and he scarcely opened his lips the easy assurance of the young couple indeed was enough to provoke him elizabeth was disgusted and even miss bennet was shocked lydia was lydia still untamed unabashed wild noisy and fearless she turned from sister to sister demanding their congratulations and when at length they all sat down looked eagerly round the room took notice of some little alteration in it and observed with a laugh that it was a great while since she had been there wickham was not at all more distressed than herself but his manners were always so pleasing that had his character and his marriage been exactly what they ought his smiles and his easy address while he claimed their relationship would have delighted them all elizabeth had not before believed him quite equal to such assurance but she sat down resolving within herself to draw no limits in future to the impudence of an impudent man she blushed and jane blushed but the cheeks of the two who caused their confusion suffered no variation of colour the bride and her mother could neither of them talk fast enough and wickham who happened to sit near elizabeth began inquiring after his acquaintance in that neighbourhood with a good humoured ease which she felt very unable to equal in her replies they seemed each of them to have the happiest memories in the world nothing of the past was recollected with pain and lydia led voluntarily to subjects which her sisters would not have alluded to for the world only think of its being three months she cried since i went away it seems but a fortnight i declare and yet there have been things enough happened in the time when i went away i am sure i had no more idea of being married till i came back again though i thought it would be very good fun if i was elizabeth looked expressively at lydia but she who never heard nor saw anything of which she chose to be insensible gaily continued oh
within doors there was lady catherine books and a billiardtable but gentlemen cannot always be within doors and in the nearness of the parsonage or the pleasantness of the walk to it or of the people who lived in it the two cousins found a temptation from this period of walking thither almost every day they called at various times of the morning sometimes separately sometimes together and now and then accompanied by their aunt it was plain to them all that colonel fitzwilliam came because he had pleasure in their society a persuasion which of course recommended him still more and elizabeth was reminded by her own satisfaction in being with him as well as by his evident admiration of her of her former favourite george wickham and though in comparing them she saw there was less captivating softness in colonel fitzwilliams manners she believed he might have the best informed mind darcy came so often to the parsonage it was more difficult to understand it could not be for society as he frequently sat there ten minutes together without opening his lips and when he did speak it seemed the effect of necessity rather than of choicea sacrifice to propriety not a pleasure to himself colonel fitzwilliams occasionally laughing at his stupidity proved that he was generally different which her own knowledge of him could not have told her and as she would liked to have believed this change the effect of love and the object of that love her friend eliza she set herself seriously to work to find it out she watched him whenever they were at rosings and whenever he came to hunsford but without much success he certainly looked at her friend a great deal but the expression of that look was disputable it was an earnest steadfast gaze but she often doubted whether there were much admiration in it and sometimes it seemed nothing but absence of mind she had once or twice suggested to elizabeth the possibility of his being partial to her but elizabeth always laughed at the idea and mrs collins did not think it right to press the subject from the danger of raising expectations which might only end in disappointment for in her opinion it admitted not of a doubt that all her friends dislike would vanish if she could suppose him to be in her power in her kind schemes for elizabeth she sometimes planned her marrying colonel fitzwilliam he was beyond comparison the most pleasant man he certainly admired her and his situation in life was most eligible but to counterbalance these advantages mr darcy had considerable patronage in the church and his cousin could have none at all chapter  more than once did elizabeth in her ramble within the park unexpectedly meet mr she felt all the perverseness of the mischance that should bring him where no one else was brought and to prevent its ever happening again took care to inform him at first that it was a favourite haunt of hers how it could occur a second time therefore was very odd it seemed like wilful illnature or a voluntary penance for on these occasions it was not merely a few formal inquiries and an awkward pause and then away but he actually thought it necessary to turn back and walk with her he never said a great deal nor did she give herself the trouble of talking or of listening much but it struck her in the course of their third rencontre that he was asking some odd unconnected questionsabout her pleasure in being at hunsford her love of solitary walks and her opinion of mr collinss happiness and that in speaking of rosings and her not perfectly understanding the house he seemed to expect that whenever she came into kent again she would be staying there too
dashing it to the deck no longer will i guide my earthly way by thee the level ships compass and the level deadreckoning by log and by line these shall conduct me and show me my place on the sea aye lighting from the boat to the deck thus i trample on thee thou paltry thing that feebly pointest on high thus i split and destroy thee as the frantic old man thus spoke and thus trampled with his live and dead feet a sneering triumph that seemed meant for ahab and a fatalistic despair that seemed meant for himselfthese passed over the mute motionless parsees face unobserved he rose and glided away while awestruck by the aspect of their commander the seamen clustered together on the forecastle till ahab troubledly pacing the deck shouted outto the braces  in an instant the yards swung round and as the ship halfwheeled upon her heel her three firmseated graceful masts erectly poised upon her long ribbed hull seemed as the three horatii pirouetting on one sufficient steed standing between the knightheads starbuck watched the pequods tumultuous way and ahabs also as he went lurching along the deck i have sat before the dense coal fire and watched it all aglow full of its tormented flaming life and i have seen it wane at last down down to dumbest dust of all this fiery life of thine what will at length remain but one little heap of ashes well well i heard ahab mutter here some one thrusts these cards into these old hands of mine swears that i must play them and no others  and damn me ahab but thou actest right live in the game and die in it warmest climes but nurse the cruellest fangs the tiger of bengal crouches in spiced groves of ceaseless verdure skies the most effulgent but basket the deadliest thunders gorgeous cuba knows tornadoes that never swept tame northern lands so too it is that in these resplendent japanese seas the mariner encounters the direst of all storms the typhoon it will sometimes burst from out that cloudless sky like an exploding bomb upon a dazed and sleepy town towards evening of that day the pequod was torn of her canvas and barepoled was left to fight a typhoon which had struck her directly ahead when darkness came on sky and sea roared and split with the thunder and blazed with the lightning that showed the disabled masts fluttering here and there with the rags which the first fury of the tempest had left for its after sport holding by a shroud starbuck was standing on the quarterdeck at every flash of the lightning glancing aloft to see what additional disaster might have befallen the intricate hamper there while stubb and flask were directing the men in the higher hoisting and firmer lashing of the boats though lifted to the very top of the cranes the windward quarter boat ahabs did not escape a great rolling sea dashing high up against the reeling ships high teetering side stove in the boats bottom at the stern and left it again all dripping through like a sieve starbuck said stubb regarding the wreck but the sea will have its way
while the contents of the first letter remained in her mind she was all surpriseall astonishment that wickham should marry a girl whom it was impossible he could marry for money and how lydia could ever have attached him had appeared incomprehensible for such an attachment as this she might have sufficient charms and though she did not suppose lydia to be deliberately engaging in an elopement without the intention of marriage she had no difficulty in believing that neither her virtue nor her understanding would preserve her from falling an easy prey she had never perceived while the regiment was in hertfordshire that lydia had any partiality for him but she was convinced that lydia wanted only encouragement to attach herself to anybody sometimes one officer sometimes another had been her favourite as their attentions raised them in her opinion her affections had continually been fluctuating but never without an object the mischief of neglect and mistaken indulgence towards such a girloh she was wild to be at hometo hear to see to be upon the spot to share with jane in the cares that must now fall wholly upon her in a family so deranged a father absent a mother incapable of exertion and requiring constant attendance and though almost persuaded that nothing could be done for lydia her uncles interference seemed of the utmost importance and till he entered the room her impatience was severe gardiner had hurried back in alarm supposing by the servants account that their niece was taken suddenly ill but satisfying them instantly on that head she eagerly communicated the cause of their summons reading the two letters aloud and dwelling on the postscript of the last with trembling energy though lydia had never been a favourite with them mr not lydia only but all were concerned in it and after the first exclamations of surprise and horror mr elizabeth though expecting no less thanked him with tears of gratitude and all three being actuated by one spirit everything relating to their journey was speedily settled yes and i told him we should not be able to keep our engagement repeated the other as she ran into her room to prepare and are they upon such terms as for her to disclose the real truth but wishes were vain or at least could only serve to amuse her in the hurry and confusion of the following hour had elizabeth been at leisure to be idle she would have remained certain that all employment was impossible to one so wretched as herself but she had her share of business as well as her aunt and amongst the rest there were notes to be written to all their friends at lambton with false excuses for their sudden departure gardiner meanwhile having settled his account at the inn nothing remained to be done but to go and elizabeth after all the misery of the morning found herself in a shorter space of time than she could have supposed seated in the carriage and on the road to longbourn chapter  i have been thinking it over again elizabeth said her uncle as they drove from the town and really upon serious consideration i am much more inclined than i was to judge as your eldest sister does on the matter it appears to me so very unlikely that any young man should form such a design against a girl who is by no means unprotected or friendless and who was actually staying in his colonels family that i am strongly inclined to hope the best could he expect that her friends would not step forward
and i declare if she is not gone away without finishing her wine i am sure if i knew of any thing she would like i would send all over the town for it well it is the oddest thing to me that a man should use such a pretty girl so ill but when there is plenty of money on one side and next to none on the other lord bless you  the lady thenmiss grey i think you called heris very rich i remember her aunt very well biddy henshawe she married a very wealthy man and by all accounts it wont come before its wanted for they say he is all to pieces well it dont signify talking but when a young man be who he will comes and makes love to a pretty girl and promises marriage he has no business to fly off from his word only because he grows poor and a richer girl is ready to have him why dont he in such a case sell his horses let his house turn off his servants and make a thorough reform at once i warrant you miss marianne would have been ready to wait till matters came round but that wont do nowadays nothing in the way of pleasure can ever be given up by the young men of this age i never heard any harm of her indeed i hardly ever heard her mentioned except that mrs taylor did say this morning that one day miss walker hinted to her that she believed mr ellison would not be sorry to have miss grey married for she and mrs but now she is of age and may choose for herself and a pretty choice she has made what now after pausing a momentyour poor sister is gone to her own room i suppose to moan by herself well byandby we shall have a few friends and that will amuse her a little she hates whist i know but is there no round game she cares for marianne i dare say will not leave her room again this evening i shall persuade her if i can to go early to bed for i am sure she wants rest
elinor thought it wisest to make no answer to this lest they might provoke each other to an unsuitable increase of ease and unreserve and was even partly determined never to mention the subject again another pause therefore of many minutes duration succeeded this speech and lucy was still the first to end it i am sorry for that returned the other while her eyes brightened at the information it would have gave me such pleasure to meet you there to be sure your brother and sister will ask you to come to them it will not be in my power to accept their invitation if they do anne and me are to go the latter end of january to some relations who have been wanting us to visit them these several years he will be there in february otherwise london would have no charms for me i have not spirits for it elinor was soon called to the cardtable by the conclusion of the first rubber and the confidential discourse of the two ladies was therefore at an end to which both of them submitted without any reluctance for nothing had been said on either side to make them dislike each other less than they had done before and 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 selfinterest alone could induce a woman to keep a man to an engagement of which she seemed so thoroughly aware that he was weary from this time the subject was never revived by elinor and when entered on by lucy who seldom missed an opportunity of introducing it and was particularly careful to inform her confidante of her happiness whenever she received a letter from edward it was treated by the former with calmness and caution and dismissed as soon as civility would allow for she felt such conversations to be an indulgence which lucy did not deserve and which were dangerous to herself the visit of the miss steeles at barton park was lengthened far beyond what the first invitation implied their favour increased they could not be spared sir john would not hear of their going and in spite of their numerous and long arranged engagements in exeter in spite of the absolute necessity of returning to fulfill them immediately which was in full force at the end of every week they were prevailed on to stay nearly two months at the park and to assist in the due celebration of that festival which requires a more than ordinary share of private balls and large dinners to proclaim its importance jennings was in the habit of spending a large portion of the year at the houses of her children and friends she was not without a settled habitation of her own since the death of her husband who had traded with success in a less elegant part of the town she had resided every winter in a house in one of the streets near portman square towards this home she began on the approach of january to turn her thoughts and thither she one day abruptly and very unexpectedly by them asked the elder misses dashwood to accompany her elinor without observing the varying complexion of her sister and the animated look which spoke no indifference to the plan immediately gave a grateful but absolute denial for both in which she believed herself to be speaking their united inclinations the reason alleged was their determined resolution of not leaving their mother at that time of the year jennings received the refusal with some surprise and repeated her invitation immediately i am sure your mother can spare you very well and i do beg you will favour me with your company for ive quite set my heart upon it dont fancy that you will be any inconvenience to me for i shant put myself at all out of my way for you it will only be sending betty by the coach and i hope i can afford that
elizabeth saw what he was doing and at the first convenient pause turned to him with an arch smile and said you mean to frighten me mr i will not be alarmed though your sister does play so well there is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others my courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me i shall not say you are mistaken he replied because you could not really believe me to entertain any design of alarming you and i have had the pleasure of your acquaintance long enough to know that you find great enjoyment in occasionally professing opinions which in fact are not your own elizabeth laughed heartily at this picture of herself and said to colonel fitzwilliam your cousin will give you a very pretty notion of me and teach you not to believe a word i say i am particularly unlucky in meeting with a person so able to expose my real character in a part of the world where i had hoped to pass myself off with some degree of credit darcy it is very ungenerous in you to mention all that you knew to my disadvantage in hertfordshireand give me leave to say very impolitic toofor it is provoking me to retaliate and such things may come out as will shock your relations to hear pray let me hear what you have to accuse him of cried colonel fitzwilliam i should like to know how he behaves among strangers you shall hear thenbut prepare yourself for something very dreadful the first time of my ever seeing him in hertfordshire you must know was at a balland at this ball what do you think he did he danced only four dances though gentlemen were scarce and to my certain knowledge more than one young lady was sitting down in want of a partner i had not at that time the honour of knowing any lady in the assembly beyond my own party true and nobody can ever be introduced in a ballroom perhaps said darcy i should have judged better had i sought an introduction but i am illqualified to recommend myself to strangers said elizabeth still addressing colonel fitzwilliam shall we ask him why a man of sense and education and who has lived in the world is ill qualified to recommend himself to strangers i can answer your question said fitzwilliam without applying to him i certainly have not the talent which some people possess said darcy of conversing easily with those i have never seen before
he was such a creature as civilized domestic people in the temperate zone only see in their dreams and that but dimly but the like of whom now and then glide among the unchanging asiatic communities especially the oriental isles to the east of the continentthose insulated immemorial unalterable countries which even in these modern days still preserve much of the ghostly aboriginalness of earths primal generations when the memory of the first man was a distinct recollection and all men his descendants unknowing whence he came eyed each other as real phantoms and asked of the sun and the moon why they were created and to what end when though according to genesis the angels indeed consorted with the daughters of men the devils also add the uncanonical rabbins indulged in mundane amours days weeks passed and under easy sail the ivory pequod had slowly swept across four several cruisinggrounds that off the azores off the cape de verdes on the plate so called being off the mouth of the rio de la plata and the carrol ground an unstaked watery locality southerly from st it was while gliding through these latter waters that one serene and moonlight night when all the waves rolled by like scrolls of silver and by their soft suffusing seethings made what seemed a silvery silence not a solitude on such a silent night a silvery jet was seen far in advance of the white bubbles at the bow lit up by the moon it looked celestial seemed some plumed and glittering god uprising from the sea for of these moonlight nights it was his wont to mount to the mainmast head and stand a lookout there with the same precision as if it had been day and yet though herds of whales were seen by night not one whaleman in a hundred would venture a lowering for them you may think with what emotions then the seamen beheld this old oriental perched aloft at such unusual hours his turban and the moon companions in one sky but when after spending his uniform interval there for several successive nights without uttering a single sound when after all this silence his unearthly voice was heard announcing that silvery moonlit jet every reclining mariner started to his feet as if some winged spirit had lighted in the rigging and hailed the mortal crew had the trump of judgment blown they could not have quivered more yet still they felt no terror rather pleasure for though it was a most unwonted hour yet so impressive was the cry and so deliriously exciting that almost every soul on board instinctively desired a lowering walking the deck with quick sidelunging strides ahab commanded the tgallant sails and royals to be set and every stunsail spread then with every masthead manned the piledup craft rolled down before the wind the strange upheaving lifting tendency of the taffrail breeze filling the hollows of so many sails made the buoyant hovering deck to feel like air beneath the feet while still she rushed along as if two antagonistic influences were struggling in herone to mount direct to heaven the other to drive yawingly to some horizontal goal and had you watched ahabs face that night you would have thought that in him also two different things were warring while his one live leg made lively echoes along the deck every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a coffintap but though the ship so swiftly sped and though from every eye like arrows the eager glances shot yet the silvery jet was no more seen that night every sailor swore he saw it once but not a second time this midnightspout had almost grown a forgotten thing when some days after lo at the same silent hour it was again announced again it was descried by all but upon making sail to overtake it once more it disappeared as if it had never been and so it served us night after night till no one heeded it but to wonder at it
the vulgar freedom and folly of the eldest left her no recommendation and as elinor was not blinded by the beauty or the shrewd look of the youngest to her want of real elegance and artlessness she left the house without any wish of knowing them better they came from exeter well provided with admiration for the use of sir john middleton his family and all his relations and no niggardly proportion was now dealt out to his fair cousins whom they declared to be the most beautiful elegant accomplished and agreeable girls they had ever beheld and with whom they were particularly anxious to be better acquainted  and to be better acquainted therefore elinor soon found was their inevitable lot for as sir john was entirely on the side of the miss steeles their party would be too strong for opposition and that kind of intimacy must be submitted to which consists of sitting an hour or two together in the same room almost every day sir john could do no more but he did not know that any more was required to be together was in his opinion to be intimate and while his continual schemes for their meeting were effectual he had not a doubt of their being established friends to do him justice he did every thing in his power to promote their unreserve by making the miss steeles acquainted with whatever he knew or supposed of his cousins situations in the most delicate particularsand elinor had not seen them more than twice before the eldest of them wished her joy on her sisters having been so lucky as to make a conquest of a very smart beau since she came to barton twill be a fine thing to have her married so young to be sure said she and i hear he is quite a beau and prodigious handsome and i hope you may have as good luck yourself soonbut perhaps you may have a friend in the corner already elinor could not suppose that sir john would be more nice in proclaiming his suspicions of her regard for edward than he had been with respect to marianne indeed it was rather his favourite joke of the two as being somewhat newer and more conjectural and since edwards visit they had never dined together without his drinking to her best affections with so much significancy and so many nods and winks as to excite general attention the letter fhad been likewise invariably brought forward and found productive of such countless jokes that its character as the wittiest letter in the alphabet had been long established with elinor the miss steeles as she expected had now all the benefit of these jokes and in the eldest of them they raised a curiosity to know the name of the gentleman alluded to which though often impertinently expressed was perfectly of a piece with her general inquisitiveness into the concerns of their family but sir john did not sport long with the curiosity which he delighted to raise for he had at least as much pleasure in telling the name as miss steele had in hearing it his name is ferrars said he in a very audible whisper but pray do not tell it for its a great secret a very agreeable young man to be sure i know him very well cried lucy who generally made an amendment to all her sisters assertions though we have seen him once or twice at my uncles it is rather too much to pretend to know him very well she wished very much to have the subject continued though she did not chuse to join in it herself but nothing more of it was said and for the first time in her life she thought mrs jennings deficient either in curiosity after petty information or in a disposition to communicate it the manner in which miss steele had spoken of edward increased her curiosity for it struck her as being rather illnatured and suggested the suspicion of that ladys knowing or fancying herself to know something to his disadvantage but her curiosity was unavailing for no farther notice was taken of mr ferrarss name by miss steele when alluded to or even openly mentioned by sir john
such an idol as that found in the secret groves of queen maachah in judea and for worshipping which king asa her son did depose her and destroyed the idol and burnt it for an abomination at the brook kedron as darkly set forth in the th chapter of the first book of kings look at the sailor called the mincer who now comes along and assisted by two allies heavily backs the grandissimus as the mariners call it and with bowed shoulders staggers off with it as if he were a grenadier carrying a dead comrade from the field extending it upon the forecastle deck he now proceeds cylindrically to remove its dark pelt as an african hunter the pelt of a boa this done he turns the pelt inside out like a pantaloon leg gives it a good stretching so as almost to double its diameter and at last hangs it well spread in the rigging to dry ere long it is taken down when removing some three feet of it towards the pointed extremity and then cutting two slits for armholes at the other end he lengthwise slips himself bodily into it the mincer now stands before you invested in the full canonicals of his calling immemorial to all his order this investiture alone will adequately protect him while employed in the peculiar functions of his office that office consists in mincing the horsepieces of blubber for the pots an operation which is conducted at a curious wooden horse planted endwise against the bulwarks and with a capacious tub beneath it into which the minced pieces drop fast as the sheets from a rapt orators desk arrayed in decent black occupying a conspicuous pulpit intent on bible leaves what a candidate for an archbishopric what a lad for a pope were this mincer this is the invariable cry from the mates to the mincer it enjoins him to be careful and cut his work into as thin slices as possible inasmuch as by so doing the business of boiling out the oil is much accelerated and its quantity considerably increased besides perhaps improving it in quality besides her hoisted boats an american whaler is outwardly distinguished by her tryworks she presents the curious anomaly of the most solid masonry joining with oak and hemp in constituting the completed ship it is as if from the open field a brickkiln were transported to her planks the tryworks are planted between the foremast and mainmast the most roomy part of the deck the timbers beneath are of a peculiar strength fitted to sustain the weight of an almost solid mass of brick and mortar some ten feet by eight square and five in height the foundation does not penetrate the deck but the masonry is firmly secured to the surface by ponderous knees of iron bracing it on all sides and screwing it down to the timbers on the flanks it is cased with wood and at top completely covered by a large sloping battened hatchway removing this hatch we expose the great trypots two in number and each of several barrels capacity sometimes they are polished with soapstone and sand till they shine within like silver punchbowls
it was quite out of the benevolence of her heart that she had asked these young women to her house merely because she thought they deserved some attention were harmless wellbehaved girls and would be pleasant companions for otherwise we both wished very much to have invited you and marianne to be with us while your kind friend there was attending her daughter i wish with all my heart says poor fanny in her affectionate way that we had asked your sisters instead of them  here he stopped to be thanked which being done he went on ferrars suffered when first fanny broke it to her is not to be described while she with the truest affection had been planning a most eligible connection for him was it to be supposed that he could be all the time secretly engaged to another person if she suspected any prepossession elsewhere it could not be in that quarter there to be sure said she i might have thought myself safe we consulted together however as to what should be done and at last she determined to send for edward ferrars could say to make him put an end to the engagement assisted too as you may well suppose by my arguments and fannys entreaties was of no avail i never thought edward so stubborn so unfeeling before his mother explained to him her liberal designs in case of his marrying miss morton told him she would settle on him the norfolk estate which clear of landtax brings in a good thousand ayear offered even when matters grew desperate to make it twelve hundred and in opposition to this if he still persisted in this low connection represented to him the certain penury that must attend the match his own two thousand pounds she protested should be his all she would never see him again and so far would she be from affording him the smallest assistance that if he were to enter into any profession with a view of better support she would do all in her power to prevent him advancing in it here marianne in an ecstasy of indignation clapped her hands together and cried gracious god well may you wonder marianne replied her brother at the obstinacy which could resist such arguments as these marianne was going to retort but she remembered her promises and forbore edward said very little but what he did say was in the most determined manner nothing should prevail on him to give up his engagement jennings with blunt sincerity no longer able to be silent he has acted like an honest man dashwood but if he had done otherwise i should have thought him a rascal i have some little concern in the business as well as yourself for lucy steele is my cousin and i believe there is not a better kind of girl in the world nor one who more deserves a good husband
he had more than the ordinary triumph of accepted love to swell his heart and raise his spirits he was released without any reproach to himself from an entanglement which had long formed his misery from a woman whom he had long ceased to loveand elevated at once to that security with another which he must have thought of almost with despair as soon as he had learnt to consider it with desire he was brought not from doubt or suspense but from misery to happinessand the change was openly spoken in such a genuine flowing grateful cheerfulness as his friends had never witnessed in him before his heart was now open to elinor all its weaknesses all its errors confessed and his first boyish attachment to lucy treated with all the philosophic dignity of twentyfour it was a foolish idle inclination on my side said he the consequence of ignorance of the worldand want of employment had my mother given me some active profession when i was removed at eighteen from the care of mr pratt i thinknay i am sure it would never have happened for though i left longstaple with what i thought at the time a most unconquerable preference for his niece yet had i then had any pursuit any object to engage my time and keep me at a distance from her for a few months i should very soon have outgrown the fancied attachment especially by mixing more with the world as in such case i must have done but instead of having any thing to do instead of having any profession chosen for me or being allowed to chuse any myself i returned home to be completely idle and for the first twelvemonth afterwards i had not even the nominal employment which belonging to the university would have given me for i was not entered at oxford till i was nineteen i had therefore nothing in the world to do but to fancy myself in love and as my mother did not make my home in every respect comfortable as i had no friend no companion in my brother and disliked new acquaintance it was not unnatural for me to be very often at longstaple where i always felt myself at home and was always sure of a welcome and accordingly i spent the greatest part of my time there from eighteen to nineteen lucy appeared everything that was amiable and obliging she was pretty tooat least i thought so then and i had seen so little of other women that i could make no comparisons and see no defects considering everything therefore i hope foolish as our engagement was foolish as it has since in every way been proved it was not at the time an unnatural or an inexcusable piece of folly the change which a few hours had wrought in the minds and the happiness of the dashwoods was suchso greatas promised them all the satisfaction of a sleepless night dashwood too happy to be comfortable knew not how to love edward nor praise elinor enough how to be enough thankful for his release without wounding his delicacy nor how at once to give them leisure for unrestrained conversation together and yet enjoy as she wished the sight and society of both comparisons would occurregrets would ariseand her joy though sincere as her love for her sister was of a kind to give her neither spirits nor language from the moment of learning that lucy was married to another that edward was free to the moment of his justifying the hopes which had so instantly followed she was every thing by turns but tranquil but when the second moment had passed when she found every doubt every solicitude removed compared her situation with what so lately it had beensaw him honourably released from his former engagement saw him instantly profiting by the release to address herself and declare an affection as tender as constant as she had ever supposed it to beshe was oppressed she was overcome by her own felicityand happily disposed as is the human mind to be easily familiarized with any change for the better it required several hours to give sedateness to her spirits or any degree of tranquillity to her heart edward was now fixed at the cottage at least for a weekfor whatever other claims might be made on him it was impossible that less than a week should be given up to the enjoyment of elinors company or suffice to say half that was to be said of the past the present and the futurefor though a very few hours spent in the hard labor of incessant talking will despatch more subjects than can really be in common between any two rational creatures yet with lovers it is different between them no subject is finished no communication is even made till it has been made at least twenty times over lucys marriage the unceasing and reasonable wonder among them all formed of course one of the earliest discussions of the loversand elinors particular knowledge of each party made it appear to her in every view as one of the most extraordinary and unaccountable circumstances she had ever heard how they could be thrown together and by what attraction robert could be drawn on to marry a girl of whose beauty she had herself heard him speak without any admirationa girl too already engaged to his brother and on whose account that brother had been thrown off by his familyit was beyond her comprehension to make out
the eldest miss bennet beyond a doubt there cannot be two opinions on that point well that is very decided indeedthat does seem as ifbut however it may all come to nothing you know my overhearings were more to the purpose than yours eliza said charlotte darcy is not so well worth listening to as his friend is he i beg you would not put it into lizzys head to be vexed by his illtreatment for he is such a disagreeable man that it would be quite a misfortune to be liked by him long told me last night that he sat close to her for halfanhour without once opening his lips ayebecause she asked him at last how he liked netherfield and he could not help answering her but she said he seemed quite angry at being spoke to miss bingley told me said jane that he never speaks much unless among his intimate acquaintances if he had been so very agreeable he would have talked to mrs but i can guess how it was everybody says that he is eat up with pride and i dare say he had heard somehow that mrs long does not keep a carriage and had come to the ball in a hack chaise long said miss lucas but i wish he had danced with eliza another time lizzy said her mother i would not dance with him if i were you i believe maam i may safely promise you never to dance with him his pride said miss lucas does not offend me so much as pride often does because there is an excuse for it one cannot wonder that so very fine a young man with family fortune everything in his favour should think highly of himself that is very true replied elizabeth and i could easily forgive his pride if he had not mortified mine pride observed mary who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections is a very common failing i believe by all that i have ever read i am convinced that it is very common indeed that human nature is particularly prone to it and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of selfcomplacency on the score of some quality or other real or imaginary vanity and pride are different things though the words are often used synonymously
but it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes you and the girls may go or you may send them by themselves which perhaps will be still better for as you are as handsome as any of them mr i certainly have had my share of beauty but i do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now when a woman has five grownup daughters she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty in such cases a woman has not often much beauty to think of only think what an establishment it would be for one of them sir william and lady lucas are determined to go merely on that account for in general you know they visit no newcomers indeed you must go for it will be impossible for us to visit him if you do not bingley will be very glad to see you and i will send a few lines by you to assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying whichever he chooses of the girls though i must throw in a good word for my little lizzy lizzy is not a bit better than the others and i am sure she is not half so handsome as jane nor half so goodhumoured as lydia they have none of them much to recommend them replied he they are all silly and ignorant like other girls but lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters bennet how can you abuse your own children in such a way i have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least but i hope you will get over it and live to see many young men of four thousand a year come into the neighbourhood it will be no use to us if twenty such should come since you will not visit them depend upon it my dear that when there are twenty i will visit them all bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts sarcastic humour reserve and caprice that the experience of threeandtwenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character she was a woman of mean understanding little information and uncertain temper when she was discontented she fancied herself nervous the business of her life was to get her daughters married its solace was visiting and news
jennings recollected that there was a lady at the other end of the street on whom she ought to call and as she had no business at grays it was resolved that while her young friends transacted theirs she should pay her visit and return for them on ascending the stairs the miss dashwoods found so many people before them in the room that there was not a person at liberty to tend to their orders and they were obliged to wait all that could be done was to sit down at that end of the counter which seemed to promise the quickest succession one gentleman only was standing there and it is probable that elinor was not without hope of exciting his politeness to a quicker despatch but the correctness of his eye and the delicacy of his taste proved to be beyond his politeness he was giving orders for a toothpickcase for himself and till its size shape and ornaments were determined all of which after examining and debating for a quarter of an hour over every toothpickcase in the shop were finally arranged by his own inventive fancy he had no leisure to bestow any other attention on the two ladies than what was comprised in three or four very broad stares a kind of notice which served to imprint on elinor the remembrance of a person and face of strong natural sterling insignificance though adorned in the first style of fashion marianne was spared from the troublesome feelings of contempt and resentment on this impertinent examination of their features and on the puppyism of his manner in deciding on all the different horrors of the different toothpickcases presented to his inspection by remaining unconscious of it all for she was as well able to collect her thoughts within herself and be as ignorant of what was passing around her in mr the ivory the gold and the pearls all received their appointment and the gentleman having named the last day on which his existence could be continued without the possession of the toothpickcase drew on his gloves with leisurely care and bestowing another glance on the miss dashwoods but such a one as seemed rather to demand than express admiration walked off with a happy air of real conceit and affected indifference elinor lost no time in bringing her business forward was on the point of concluding it when another gentleman presented himself at her side she turned her eyes towards his face and found him with some surprise to be her brother their affection and pleasure in meeting was just enough to make a very creditable appearance in mr john dashwood was really far from being sorry to see his sisters again it rather gave them satisfaction and his inquiries after their mother were respectful and attentive elinor found that he and fanny had been in town two days i wished very much to call upon you yesterday said he but it was impossible for we were obliged to take harry to see the wild beasts at exeter exchange and we spent the rest of the day with mrs this morning i had fully intended to call on you if i could possibly find a spare half hour but one has always so much to do on first coming to town but tomorrow i think i shall certainly be able to call in berkeley street and be introduced to your friend mrs and the middletons too you must introduce me to them as my motherinlaws relations i shall be happy to show them every respect they are excellent neighbours to you in the country i understand their attention to our comfort their friendliness in every particular is more than i can express i am extremely glad to hear it upon my word extremely glad indeed
jennings no language within her reach in her moments of happiest eloquence could have expressed and now she could reproach her only by the tears which streamed from her eyes with passionate violencea reproach however so entirely lost on its object that after many expressions of pity she withdrew still referring her to the letter of comfort but the letter when she was calm enough to read it brought little comfort her mother still confident of their engagement and relying as warmly as ever on his constancy had only been roused by elinors application to intreat from marianne greater openness towards them both and this with such tenderness towards her such affection for willoughby and such a conviction of their future happiness in each other that she wept with agony through the whole of it all her impatience to be at home again now returned her mother was dearer to her than ever dearer through the very excess of her mistaken confidence in willoughby and she was wildly urgent to be gone elinor unable herself to determine whether it were better for marianne to be in london or at barton offered no counsel of her own except of patience till their mothers wishes could be known and at length she obtained her sisters consent to wait for that knowledge jennings left them earlier than usual for she could not be easy till the middletons and palmers were able to grieve as much as herself and positively refusing elinors offered attendance went out alone for the rest of the morning elinor with a very heavy heart aware of the pain she was going to communicate and perceiving by mariannes letter how ill she had succeeded in laying any foundation for it then sat down to write her mother an account of what had passed and entreat her directions for the future while marianne who came into the drawingroom on mrs jenningss going away remained fixed at the table where elinor wrote watching the advancement of her pen grieving over her for the hardship of such a task and grieving still more fondly over its effect on her mother in this manner they had continued about a quarter of an hour when marianne whose nerves could not then bear any sudden noise was startled by a rap at the door i will not trust to that retreating to her own room a man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others the event proved her conjecture right though it was founded on injustice and error for colonel brandon did come in and elinor who was convinced that solicitude for marianne brought him thither and who saw that solicitude in his disturbed and melancholy look and in his anxious though brief inquiry after her could not forgive her sister for esteeming him so lightly jennings in bond street said he after the first salutation and she encouraged me to come on and i was the more easily encouraged because i thought it probable that i might find you alone which i was very desirous of doing my objectmy wishmy sole wish in desiring iti hope i believe it isis to be a means of giving comfortno i must not say comfortnot present comfortbut conviction lasting conviction to your sisters mind my regard for her for yourself for your motherwill you allow me to prove it by relating some circumstances which nothing but a very sincere regardnothing but an earnest desire of being usefuli think i am justifiedthough where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that i am right is there not some reason to fear i may be wrong your telling it will be the greatest act of friendship that can be shewn marianne my gratitude will be insured immediately by any information tending to that end and hers must be gained by it in time you shall and to be brief when i quitted barton last octoberbut this will give you no ideai must go farther back you will find me a very awkward narrator miss dashwood i hardly know where to begin a short account of myself i believe will be necessary and it shall be a short one
at that moment in one of the intervals of profound darkness following the flashes a voice was heard at his side and almost at the same instant a volley of thunder peals rolled overhead said ahab groping his way along the bulwarks to his pivothole but suddenly finding his path made plain to him by elbowed lances of fire now as the lightning rod to a spire on shore is intended to carry off the perilous fluid into the soil so the kindred rod which at sea some ships carry to each mast is intended to conduct it into the water but as this conductor must descend to considerable depth that its end may avoid all contact with the hull and as moreover if kept constantly towing there it would be liable to many mishaps besides interfering not a little with some of the rigging and more or less impeding the vessels way in the water because of all this the lower parts of a ships lightningrods are not always overboard but are generally made in long slender links so as to be the more readily hauled up into the chains outside or thrown down into the sea as occasion may require cried starbuck to the crew suddenly admonished to vigilance by the vivid lightning that had just been darting flambeaux to light ahab to his post cried ahab lets have fair play here though we be the weaker side yet ill contribute to raise rods on the himmalehs and andes that all the world may be secured but out on privileges all the yardarms were tipped with a pallid fire and touched at each tripointed lightningrodend with three tapering white flames each of the three tall masts was silently burning in that sulphurous air like three gigantic wax tapers before an altar cried stubb at this instant as a swashing sea heaved up under his own little craft so that its gunwale violently jammed his hand as he was passing a lashing but slipping backward on the deck his uplifted eyes caught the flames and immediately shifting his tone he criedthe corpusants have mercy on us all  to sailors oaths are household words they will swear in the trance of the calm and in the teeth of the tempest they will imprecate curses from the topsailyardarms when most they teeter over to a seething sea but in all my voyagings seldom have i heard a common oath when gods burning finger has been laid on the ship when his mene mene tekel upharsin has been woven into the shrouds and the cordage while this pallidness was burning aloft few words were heard from the enchanted crew who in one thick cluster stood on the forecastle all their eyes gleaming in that pale phosphorescence like a far away constellation of stars relieved against the ghostly light the gigantic jet negro daggoo loomed up to thrice his real stature and seemed the black cloud from which the thunder had come the parted mouth of tashtego revealed his sharkwhite teeth which strangely gleamed as if they too had been tipped by corpusants while lit up by the preternatural light queequegs tattooing burned like satanic blue flames on his body the tableau all waned at last with the pallidness aloft and once more the pequod and every soul on her decks were wrapped in a pall a moment or two passed when starbuck going forward pushed against some one what thinkest thou now man i heard thy cry it was not the same in the song no no it wasnt i said the corpusants have mercy on us all and i hope they will still hear me then i take that masthead flame we saw for a sign of good luck for those masts are rooted in a hold that is going to be chock a block with spermoil dye see and so all that sperm will work up into the masts like sap in a tree yes our three masts will yet be as three spermaceti candlesthats the good promise we saw
he was beyond comparison the most pleasant man he certainly admired her and his situation in life was most eligible but to counterbalance these advantages mr darcy had considerable patronage in the church and his cousin could have none at all chapter  more than once did elizabeth in her ramble within the park unexpectedly meet mr she felt all the perverseness of the mischance that should bring him where no one else was brought and to prevent its ever happening again took care to inform him at first that it was a favourite haunt of hers how it could occur a second time therefore was very odd it seemed like wilful illnature or a voluntary penance for on these occasions it was not merely a few formal inquiries and an awkward pause and then away but he actually thought it necessary to turn back and walk with her he never said a great deal nor did she give herself the trouble of talking or of listening much but it struck her in the course of their third rencontre that he was asking some odd unconnected questionsabout her pleasure in being at hunsford her love of solitary walks and her opinion of mr collinss happiness and that in speaking of rosings and her not perfectly understanding the house he seemed to expect that whenever she came into kent again she would be staying there too she supposed if he meant anything he must mean an allusion to what might arise in that quarter it distressed her a little and she was quite glad to find herself at the gate in the pales opposite the parsonage she was engaged one day as she walked in perusing janes last letter and dwelling on some passages which proved that jane had not written in spirits when instead of being again surprised by mr darcy she saw on looking up that colonel fitzwilliam was meeting her putting away the letter immediately and forcing a smile she said i did not know before that you ever walked this way i have been making the tour of the park he replied as i generally do every year and intend to close it with a call at the parsonage and accordingly she did turn and they walked towards the parsonage together and if not able to please himself in the arrangement he has at least pleasure in the great power of choice i do not know anybody who seems more to enjoy the power of doing what he likes than mr he likes to have his own way very well replied colonel fitzwilliam it is only that he has better means of having it than many others because he is rich and many others are poor a younger son you know must be inured to selfdenial and dependence
as we have seen god came upon him in the whale and swallowed him down to living gulfs of doom and with swift slantings tore him along into the midst of the seas where the eddying depths sucked him ten thousand fathoms down and the weeds were wrapped about his head and all the watery world of woe bowled over him yet even then beyond the reach of any plummetout of the belly of hellwhen the whale grounded upon the oceans utmost bones even then god heard the engulphed repenting prophet when he cried then god spake unto the fish and from the shuddering cold and blackness of the sea the whale came breeching up towards the warm and pleasant sun and all the delights of air and earth and vomited out jonah upon the dry land when the word of the lord came a second time and jonah bruised and beatenhis ears like two seashells still multitudinously murmuring of the oceanjonah did the almightys bidding this shipmates this is that other lesson and woe to that pilot of the living god who slights it woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when god has brewed them into a gale woe to him who seeks to please rather than to appal woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness woe to him who would not be true even though to be false were salvation yea woe to him who as the great pilot paul has it while preaching to others is himself a castaway  he dropped and fell away from himself for a moment then lifting his face to them again showed a deep joy in his eyes as he cried out with a heavenly enthusiasmbut oh on the starboard hand of every woe there is a sure delight and higher the top of that delight than the bottom of the woe is deep delight is to hima far far upward and inward delightwho against the proud gods and commodores of this earth ever stands forth his own inexorable self delight is to him whose strong arms yet support him when the ship of this base treacherous world has gone down beneath him delight is to him who gives no quarter in the truth and kills burns and destroys all sin though he pluck it out from under the robes of senators and judges delighttopgallant delight is to him who acknowledges no law or lord but the lord his god and is only a patriot to heaven delight is to him whom all the waves of the billows of the seas of the boisterous mob can never shake from this sure keel of the ages and eternal delight and deliciousness will be his who coming to lay him down can say with his final breatho father chiefly known to me by thy rodmortal or immortal here i die i have striven to be thine more than to be this worlds or mine own yet this is nothing i leave eternity to thee for what is man that he should live out the lifetime of his god
the evening was spent chiefly in talking over hertfordshire news and telling again what had already been written and when it closed elizabeth in the solitude of her chamber had to meditate upon charlottes degree of contentment to understand her address in guiding and composure in bearing with her husband and to acknowledge that it was all done very well she had also to anticipate how her visit would pass the quiet tenor of their usual employments the vexatious interruptions of mr collins and the gaieties of their intercourse with rosings about the middle of the next day as she was in her room getting ready for a walk a sudden noise below seemed to speak the whole house in confusion and after listening a moment she heard somebody running up stairs in a violent hurry and calling loudly after her she opened the door and met maria in the landing place who breathless with agitation cried out oh my dear eliza pray make haste and come into the diningroom for there is such a sight to be seen elizabeth asked questions in vain maria would tell her nothing more and down they ran into the diningroom which fronted the lane in quest of this wonder it was two ladies stopping in a low phaeton at the garden gate i expected at least that the pigs were got into the garden and here is nothing but lady catherine and her daughter my dear said maria quite shocked at the mistake it is not lady catherine jenkinson who lives with them the other is miss de bourgh who would have thought that she could be so thin and small she is abominably rude to keep charlotte out of doors in all this wind it is the greatest of favours when miss de bourgh comes in i like her appearance said elizabeth struck with other ideas collins and charlotte were both standing at the gate in conversation with the ladies and sir william to elizabeths high diversion was stationed in the doorway in earnest contemplation of the greatness before him and constantly bowing whenever miss de bourgh looked that way at length there was nothing more to be said the ladies drove on and the others returned into the house collins no sooner saw the two girls than he began to congratulate them on their good fortune which charlotte explained by letting them know that the whole party was asked to dine at rosings the next day collinss triumph in consequence of this invitation was complete the power of displaying the grandeur of his patroness to his wondering visitors and of letting them see her civility towards himself and his wife was exactly what he had wished for and that an opportunity of doing it should be given so soon was such an instance of lady catherines condescension as he knew not how to admire enough i confess said he that i should not have been at all surprised by her ladyships asking us on sunday to drink tea and spend the evening at rosings
she then joined them soon enough to see lydia with anxious parade walk up to her mothers right hand and hear her say to her eldest sister ah jane i take your place now and you must go lower because i am a married woman it was not to be supposed that time would give lydia that embarrassment from which she had been so wholly free at first phillips the lucases and all their other neighbours and to hear herself called mrs wickham by each of them and in the mean time she went after dinner to show her ring and boast of being married to mrs well mamma said she when they were all returned to the breakfast room and what do you think of my husband but my dear lydia i dont at all like your going such a way off you and papa and my sisters must come down and see us we shall be at newcastle all the winter and i dare say there will be some balls and i will take care to get good partners for them all and then when you go away you may leave one or two of my sisters behind you and i dare say i shall get husbands for them before the winter is over i thank you for my share of the favour said elizabeth but i do not particularly like your way of getting husbands their visitors were not to remain above ten days with them wickham had received his commission before he left london and he was to join his regiment at the end of a fortnight bennet regretted that their stay would be so short and she made the most of the time by visiting about with her daughter and having very frequent parties at home these parties were acceptable to all to avoid a family circle was even more desirable to such as did think than such as did not wickhams affection for lydia was just what elizabeth had expected to find it not equal to lydias for him she had scarcely needed her present observation to be satisfied from the reason of things that their elopement had been brought on by the strength of her love rather than by his and she would have wondered why without violently caring for her he chose to elope with her at all had she not felt certain that his flight was rendered necessary by distress of circumstances and if that were the case he was not the young man to resist an opportunity of having a companion he was her dear wickham on every occasion no one was to be put in competition with him he did every thing best in the world and she was sure he would kill more birds on the first of september than any body else in the country one morning soon after their arrival as she was sitting with her two elder sisters she said to elizabeth lizzy i never gave you an account of my wedding i believe
it was a very awkward moment and the countenance of each shewed that it was so they all looked exceedingly foolish and edward seemed to have as great an inclination to walk out of the room again as to advance farther into it the very circumstance in its unpleasantest form which they would each have been most anxious to avoid had fallen on them they were not only all three together but were together without the relief of any other person it was not lucys business to put herself forward and the appearance of secrecy must still be kept up she could therefore only look her tenderness and after slightly addressing him said no more but elinor had more to do and so anxious was she for his sake and her own to do it well that she forced herself after a moments recollection to welcome him with a look and manner that were almost easy and almost open and another struggle another effort still improved them she would not allow the presence of lucy nor the consciousness of some injustice towards herself to deter her from saying that she was happy to see him and that she had very much regretted being from home when he called before in berkeley street she would not be frightened from paying him those attentions which as a friend and almost a relation were his due by the observant eyes of lucy though she soon perceived them to be narrowly watching her her manners gave some reassurance to edward and he had courage enough to sit down but his embarrassment still exceeded that of the ladies in a proportion which the case rendered reasonable though his sex might make it rare for his heart had not the indifference of lucys nor could his conscience have quite the ease of elinors lucy with a demure and settled air seemed determined to make no contribution to the comfort of the others and would not say a word and almost every thing that was said proceeded from elinor who was obliged to volunteer all the information about her mothers health their coming to town c which edward ought to have inquired about but never did her exertions did not stop here for she soon afterwards felt herself so heroically disposed as to determine under pretence of fetching marianne to leave the others by themselves and she really did it and that in the handsomest manner for she loitered away several minutes on the landingplace with the most highminded fortitude before she went to her sister when that was once done however it was time for the raptures of edward to cease for mariannes joy hurried her into the drawingroom immediately her pleasure in seeing him was like every other of her feelings strong in itself and strongly spoken she met him with a hand that would be taken and a voice that expressed the affection of a sister edward tried to return her kindness as it deserved but before such witnesses he dared not say half what he really felt again they all sat down and for a moment or two all were silent while marianne was looking with the most speaking tenderness sometimes at edward and sometimes at elinor regretting only that their delight in each other should be checked by lucys unwelcome presence edward was the first to speak and it was to notice mariannes altered looks and express his fear of her not finding london agree with her she replied with spirited earnestness though her eyes were filled with tears as she spoke dont think of my health
and after thinking it all over and over again he said it seemed to him as if now he had no fortune and no nothing at all it would be quite unkind to keep her on to the engagement because it must be for her loss for he had nothing but two thousand pounds and no hope of any thing else and if he was to go into orders as he had some thoughts he could get nothing but a curacy and how was they to live upon that he could not bear to think of her doing no better and so he begged if she had the least mind for it to put an end to the matter directly and leave him shift for himself i heard him say all this as plain as could possibly be and it was entirely for her sake and upon her account that he said a word about being off and not upon his own i will take my oath he never dropt a syllable of being tired of her or of wishing to marry miss morton or any thing like it but to be sure lucy would not give ear to such kind of talking so she told him directly with a great deal about sweet and love you know and all thatoh la one cant repeat such kind of things you knowshe told him directly she had not the least mind in the world to be off for she could live with him upon a trifle and how little so ever he might have she should be very glad to have it all you know or something of the kind so then he was monstrous happy and talked on some time about what they should do and they agreed he should take orders directly and they must wait to be married till he got a living and just then i could not hear any more for my cousin called from below to tell me mrs richardson was come in her coach and would take one of us to kensington gardens so i was forced to go into the room and interrupt them to ask lucy if she would like to go but she did not care to leave edward so i just run up stairs and put on a pair of silk stockings and came off with the richardsons i do not understand what you mean by interrupting them said elinor you were all in the same room together were not you miss dashwood do you think people make love when any body else is by no no they were shut up in the drawingroom together and all i heard was only by listening at the door cried elinor have you been repeating to me what you only learnt yourself by listening at the door i am sorry i did not know it before for i certainly would not have suffered you to give me particulars of a conversation which you ought not to have known yourself and i am sure lucy would have done just the same by me for a year or two back when martha sharpe and i had so many secrets together she never made any bones of hiding in a closet or behind a chimneyboard on purpose to hear what we said elinor tried to talk of something else but miss steele could not be kept beyond a couple of minutes from what was uppermost in her mind edward talks of going to oxford soon said she but now he is lodging at no however i shant say anything against them to you and to be sure they did send us home in their own chariot which was more than i looked for and for my part i was all in a fright for fear your sister should ask us for the huswifes she had gave us a day or two before but however nothing was said about them and i took care to keep mine out of sight
palmer and colonel brandon would get farther than reading that night elinor however little concerned in it joined in their discourse and marianne who had the knack of finding her way in every house to the library however it might be avoided by the family in general soon procured herself a book palmers side that constant and friendly good humour could do to make them feel themselves welcome the openness and heartiness of her manner more than atoned for that want of recollection and elegance which made her often deficient in the forms of politeness her kindness recommended by so pretty a face was engaging her folly though evident was not disgusting because it was not conceited and elinor could have forgiven every thing but her laugh the two gentlemen arrived the next day to a very late dinner affording a pleasant enlargement of the party and a very welcome variety to their conversation which a long morning of the same continued rain had reduced very low palmer and in that little had seen so much variety in his address to her sister and herself that she knew not what to expect to find him in his own family she found him however perfectly the gentleman in his behaviour to all his visitors and only occasionally rude to his wife and her mother she found him very capable of being a pleasant companion and only prevented from being so always by too great an aptitude to fancy himself as much superior to people in general as he must feel himself to be to mrs for the rest of his character and habits they were marked as far as elinor could perceive with no traits at all unusual in his sex and time of life he was nice in his eating uncertain in his hours fond of his child though affecting to slight it and idled away the mornings at billiards which ought to have been devoted to business she liked him however upon the whole much better than she had expected and in her heart was not sorry that she could like him no morenot sorry to be driven by the observation of his epicurism his selfishness and his conceit to rest with complacency on the remembrance of edwards generous temper simple taste and diffident feelings of edward or at least of some of his concerns she now received intelligence from colonel brandon who had been into dorsetshire lately and who treating her at once as the disinterested friend of mr ferrars and the kind confidante of himself talked to her a great deal of the parsonage at delaford described its deficiencies and told her what he meant to do himself towards removing them his behaviour to her in this as well as in every other particular his open pleasure in meeting her after an absence of only ten days his readiness to converse with her and his deference for her opinion might very well justify mrs jenningss persuasion of his attachment and would have been enough perhaps had not elinor still as from the first believed marianne his real favourite to make her suspect it herself but as it was such a notion had scarcely ever entered her head except by mrs jenningss suggestion and she could not help believing herself the nicest observer of the twoshe watched his eyes while mrs jennings thought only of his behaviourand while his looks of anxious solicitude on mariannes feeling in her head and throat the beginning of a heavy cold because unexpressed by words entirely escaped the latter ladys observationshe could discover in them the quick feelings and needless alarm of a lover two delightful twilight walks on the third and fourth evenings of her being there not merely on the dry gravel of the shrubbery but all over the grounds and especially in the most distant parts of them where there was something more of wildness than in the rest where the trees were the oldest and the grass was the longest and wettest hadassisted by the still greater imprudence of sitting in her wet shoes and stockingsgiven marianne a cold so violent as though for a day or two trifled with or denied would force itself by increasing ailments on the concern of every body and the notice of herself prescriptions poured in from all quarters and as usual were all declined though heavy and feverish with a pain in her limbs and a cough and a sore throat a good nights rest was to cure her entirely and it was with difficulty that elinor prevailed on her when she went to bed to try one or two of the simplest of the remedies
the miss steeles removed to harley street and all that reached elinor of their influence there strengthened her expectation of the event sir john who called on them more than once brought home such accounts of the favour they were in as must be universally striking dashwood had never been so much pleased with any young women in her life as she was with them had given each of them a needle book made by some emigrant called lucy by her christian name and did not know whether she should ever be able to part with them at this point in the first and second editions volume ii ended palmer was so well at the end of a fortnight that her mother felt it no longer necessary to give up the whole of her time to her and contenting herself with visiting her once or twice a day returned from that period to her own home and her own habits in which she found the miss dashwoods very ready to resume their former share about the third or fourth morning after their being thus resettled in berkeley street mrs jennings on returning from her ordinary visit to mrs palmer entered the drawingroom where elinor was sitting by herself with an air of such hurrying importance as prepared her to hear something wonderful and giving her time only to form that idea began directly to justify it by saying lord palmers i found charlotte quite in a fuss about the child she was sure it was very illit cried and fretted and was all over pimples my dear says i it is nothing in the world but the red gum and nurse said just the same donavan was sent for and luckily he happened to just come in from harley street so he stepped over directly and as soon as ever mama he said just as we did that it was nothing in the world but the red gum and then charlotte was easy and so just as he was going away again it came into my head i am sure i do not know how i happened to think of it but it came into my head to ask him if there was any news so upon that he smirked and simpered and looked grave and seemed to know something or other and at last he said in a whisper for fear any unpleasant report should reach the young ladies under your care as to their sisters indisposition i think it advisable to say that i believe there is no great reason for alarm i hope mrs  so then it all came out and the long and the short of the matter by all i can learn seems to be this edward ferrars the very young man i used to joke with you about but however as it turns out i am monstrous glad there was never any thing in it mr edward ferrars it seems has been engaged above this twelvemonth to my cousin lucy and not a creature knowing a syllable of the matter except nancy  there is no great wonder in their liking one another but that matters should be brought so forward between them and nobody suspect it i never happened to see them together or i am sure i should have found it out directly
elinor while she waited in silence and immovable gravity the conclusion of such folly could not restrain her eyes from being fixed on him with a look that spoke all the contempt it excited it was a look however very well bestowed for it relieved her own feelings and gave no intelligence to him he was recalled from wit to wisdom not by any reproof of hers but by his own sensibility we may treat it as a joke said he at last recovering from the affected laugh which had considerably lengthened out the genuine gaiety of the momentbut upon my soul it is a most serious business i am extremely sorry for itfor i know him to be a very goodhearted creature as wellmeaning a fellow perhaps as any in the world you must not judge of him miss dashwood from your slight acquaintance his manners are certainly not the happiest in nature but we are not all born you know with the same powersthe same address but upon my soul i believe he has as good a heart as any in the kingdom and i declare and protest to you i never was so shocked in my life as when it all burst forth  my mother was the first person who told me of it and i feeling myself called on to act with resolution immediately said to her my dear madam i do not know what you may intend to do on the occasion but as for myself i must say that if edward does marry this young woman i never will see him again he has done for himself completelyshut himself out for ever from all decent society but as i directly said to my mother i am not in the least surprised at it from his style of education it was always to be expected yes once while she was staying in this house i happened to drop in for ten minutes and i saw quite enough of her the merest awkward country girl without style or elegance and almost without beauty just the kind of girl i should suppose likely to captivate poor edward i offered immediately as soon as my mother related the affair to me to talk to him myself and dissuade him from the match but it was too late then i found to do any thing for unluckily i was not in the way at first and knew nothing of it till after the breach had taken place when it was not for me you know to interfere but had i been informed of it a few hours earlieri think it is most probablethat something might have been hit on i certainly should have represented it to edward in a very strong light my dear fellow i should have said consider what you are doing you are making a most disgraceful connection and such a one as your family are unanimous in disapproving
the ladies had passed near it in their way along the valley but it was screened from their view at home by the projection of a hill the house was large and handsome and the middletons lived in a style of equal hospitality and elegance the former was for sir johns gratification the latter for that of his lady they were scarcely ever without some friends staying with them in the house and they kept more company of every kind than any other family in the neighbourhood it was necessary to the happiness of both for however dissimilar in temper and outward behaviour they strongly resembled each other in that total want of talent and taste which confined their employments unconnected with such as society produced within a very narrow compass he hunted and shot and she humoured her children and these were their only resources lady middleton had the advantage of being able to spoil her children all the year round while sir johns independent employments were in existence only half the time continual engagements at home and abroad however supplied all the deficiencies of nature and education supported the good spirits of sir john and gave exercise to the good breeding of his wife lady middleton piqued herself upon the elegance of her table and of all her domestic arrangements and from this kind of vanity was her greatest enjoyment in any of their parties but sir johns satisfaction in society was much more real he delighted in collecting about him more young people than his house would hold and the noisier they were the better was he pleased he was a blessing to all the juvenile part of the neighbourhood for in summer he was for ever forming parties to eat cold ham and chicken out of doors and in winter his private balls were numerous enough for any young lady who was not suffering under the unsatiable appetite of fifteen the arrival of a new family in the country was always a matter of joy to him and in every point of view he was charmed with the inhabitants he had now procured for his cottage at barton the miss dashwoods were young pretty and unaffected it was enough to secure his good opinion for to be unaffected was all that a pretty girl could want to make her mind as captivating as her person the friendliness of his disposition made him happy in accommodating those whose situation might be considered in comparison with the past as unfortunate in showing kindness to his cousins therefore he had the real satisfaction of a good heart and in settling a family of females only in his cottage he had all the satisfaction of a sportsman for a sportsman though he esteems only those of his sex who are sportsmen likewise is not often desirous of encouraging their taste by admitting them to a residence within his own manor dashwood and her daughters were met at the door of the house by sir john who welcomed them to barton park with unaffected sincerity and as he attended them to the drawing room repeated to the young ladies the concern which the same subject had drawn from him the day before at being unable to get any smart young men to meet them they would see he said only one gentleman there besides himself a particular friend who was staying at the park but who was neither very young nor very gay he hoped they would all excuse the smallness of the party and could assure them it should never happen so again he had been to several families that morning in hopes of procuring some addition to their number but it was moonlight and every body was full of engagements
such as it is however my pleasure in presenting it to him will be very great  elinors astonishment at this commission could hardly have been greater had the colonel been really making her an offer of his hand the preferment which only two days before she had considered as hopeless for edward was already provided to enable him to marryand she of all people in the world was fixed on to bestow it jennings had attributed to a very different causebut whatever minor feelings less pure less pleasing might have a share in that emotion her esteem for the general benevolence and her gratitude for the particular friendship which together prompted colonel brandon to this act were strongly felt and warmly expressed she thanked him for it with all her heart spoke of edwards principles and disposition with that praise which she knew them to deserve and promised to undertake the commission with pleasure if it were really his wish to put off so agreeable an office to another but at the same time she could not help thinking that no one could so well perform it as himself it was an office in short from which unwilling to give edward the pain of receiving an obligation from her she would have been very glad to be spared herself but colonel brandon on motives of equal delicacy declining it likewise still seemed so desirous of its being given through her means that she would not on any account make farther opposition edward she believed was still in town and fortunately she had heard his address from miss steele she could undertake therefore to inform him of it in the course of the day after this had been settled colonel brandon began to talk of his own advantage in securing so respectable and agreeable a neighbour and then it was that he mentioned with regret that the house was small and indifferentan evil which elinor as mrs jennings had supposed her to do made very light of at least as far as regarded its size the smallness of the house said she i cannot imagine any inconvenience to them for it will be in proportion to their family and income by which the colonel was surprised to find that she was considering mr ferrarss marriage as the certain consequence of the presentation for he did not suppose it possible that delaford living could supply such an income as anybody in his style of life would venture to settle onand he said so ferrars comfortable as a bachelor it cannot enable him to marry i am sorry to say that my patronage ends with this and my interest is hardly more extensive if however by an unforeseen chance it should be in my power to serve him farther i must think very differently of him from what i now do if i am not as ready to be useful to him then as i sincerely wish i could be at present what i am now doing indeed seems nothing at all since it can advance him so little towards what must be his principal his only object of happiness his marriage must still be a distant goodat least i am afraid it cannot take place very soon  such was the sentence which when misunderstood so justly offended the delicate feelings of mrs
no difficulty arose on either side in the agreement and she waited only for the disposal of her effects at norland and to determine her future household before she set off for the west and this as she was exceedingly rapid in the performance of everything that interested her was soon done the horses which were left her by her husband had been sold soon after his death and an opportunity now offering of disposing of her carriage she agreed to sell that likewise at the earnest advice of her eldest daughter for the comfort of her children had she consulted only her own wishes she would have kept it but the discretion of elinor prevailed her wisdom too limited the number of their servants to three two maids and a man with whom they were speedily provided from amongst those who had formed their establishment at norland the man and one of the maids were sent off immediately into devonshire to prepare the house for their mistresss arrival for as lady middleton was entirely unknown to mrs dashwood she preferred going directly to the cottage to being a visitor at barton park and she relied so undoubtingly on sir johns description of the house as to feel no curiosity to examine it herself till she entered it as her own her eagerness to be gone from norland was preserved from diminution by the evident satisfaction of her daughterinlaw in the prospect of her removal a satisfaction which was but feebly attempted to be concealed under a cold invitation to her to defer her departure now was the time when her soninlaws promise to his father might with particular propriety be fulfilled since he had neglected to do it on first coming to the estate their quitting his house might be looked on as the most suitable period for its accomplishment dashwood began shortly to give over every hope of the kind and to be convinced from the general drift of his discourse that his assistance extended no farther than their maintenance for six months at norland he so frequently talked of the increasing expenses of housekeeping and of the perpetual demands upon his purse which a man of any consequence in the world was beyond calculation exposed to that he seemed rather to stand in need of more money himself than to have any design of giving money away in a very few weeks from the day which brought sir john middletons first letter to norland every thing was so far settled in their future abode as to enable mrs many were the tears shed by them in their last adieus to a place so much beloved said marianne as she wandered alone before the house on the last evening of their being there when shall i cease to regret you happy house could you know what i suffer in now viewing you from this spot from whence perhaps i may view you no more no leaf will decay because we are removed nor any branch become motionless although we can observe you no longer no you will continue the same unconscious of the pleasure or the regret you occasion and insensible of any change in those who walk under your shade chapter  the first part of their journey was performed in too melancholy a disposition to be otherwise than tedious and unpleasant but as they drew towards the end of it their interest in the appearance of a country which they were to inhabit overcame their dejection and a view of barton valley as they entered it gave them cheerfulness it was a pleasant fertile spot well wooded and rich in pasture
i think every one must admire it replied elinor who ever saw the place though it is not to be supposed that any one can estimate its beauties as we do i suppose you have not so many in this part of the world for my part i think they are a vast addition always but why should you think said lucy looking ashamed of her sister that there are not as many genteel young men in devonshire as sussex nay my dear im sure i dont pretend to say that there ant im sure theres a vast many smart beaux in exeter but you know how could i tell what smart beaux there might be about norland and i was only afraid the miss dashwoods might find it dull at barton if they had not so many as they used to have but perhaps you young ladies may not care about the beaux and had as lief be without them as with them for my part i think they are vastly agreeable provided they dress smart and behave civil rose at exeter a prodigious smart young man quite a beau clerk to mr simpson you know and yet if you do but meet him of a morning he is not fit to be seen  i suppose your brother was quite a beau miss dashwood before he married as he was so rich upon my word replied elinor i cannot tell you for i do not perfectly comprehend the meaning of the word but this i can say that if he ever was a beau before he married he is one still for there is not the smallest alteration in him one never thinks of married mens being beauxthey have something else to do anne cried her sister you can talk of nothing but beauxyou will make miss dashwood believe you think of nothing else and then to turn the discourse she began admiring the house and the furniture the vulgar freedom and folly of the eldest left her no recommendation and as elinor was not blinded by the beauty or the shrewd look of the youngest to her want of real elegance and artlessness she left the house without any wish of knowing them better they came from exeter well provided with admiration for the use of sir john middleton his family and all his relations and no niggardly proportion was now dealt out to his fair cousins whom they declared to be the most beautiful elegant accomplished and agreeable girls they had ever beheld and with whom they were particularly anxious to be better acquainted  and to be better acquainted therefore elinor soon found was their inevitable lot for as sir john was entirely on the side of the miss steeles their party would be too strong for opposition and that kind of intimacy must be submitted to which consists of sitting an hour or two together in the same room almost every day sir john could do no more but he did not know that any more was required to be together was in his opinion to be intimate and while his continual schemes for their meeting were effectual he had not a doubt of their being established friends to do him justice he did every thing in his power to promote their unreserve by making the miss steeles acquainted with whatever he knew or supposed of his cousins situations in the most delicate particularsand elinor had not seen them more than twice before the eldest of them wished her joy on her sisters having been so lucky as to make a conquest of a very smart beau since she came to barton
suddenly he came to a halt by the bulwarks and inserting his bone leg into the augerhole there and with one hand grasping a shroud he ordered starbuck to send everybody aft said the mate astonished at an order seldom or never given on shipboard except in some extraordinary case when the entire ships company were assembled and with curious and not wholly unapprehensive faces were eyeing him for he looked not unlike the weather horizon when a storm is coming up ahab after rapidly glancing over the bulwarks and then darting his eyes among the crew started from his standpoint and as though not a soul were nigh him resumed his heavy turns upon the deck with bent head and halfslouched hat he continued to pace unmindful of the wondering whispering among the men till stubb cautiously whispered to flask that ahab must have summoned them there for the purpose of witnessing a pedestrian feat vehemently pausing he cried what do ye do when ye see a whale men was the impulsive rejoinder from a score of clubbed voices cried ahab with a wild approval in his tones observing the hearty animation into which his unexpected question had so magnetically thrown them more and more strangely and fiercely glad and approving grew the countenance of the old man at every shout while the mariners began to gaze curiously at each other as if marvelling how it was that they themselves became so excited at such seemingly purposeless questions but they were all eagerness again as ahab now halfrevolving in his pivothole with one hand reaching high up a shroud and tightly almost convulsively grasping it addressed them thus all ye mastheaders have before now heard me give orders about a white whale holding up a broad bright coin to the sunit is a sixteen dollar piece men  while the mate was getting the hammer ahab without speaking was slowly rubbing the gold piece against the skirts of his jacket as if to heighten its lustre and without using any words was meanwhile lowly humming to himself producing a sound so strangely muffled and inarticulate that it seemed the mechanical humming of the wheels of his vitality in him receiving the topmaul from starbuck he advanced towards the mainmast with the hammer uplifted in one hand exhibiting the gold with the other and with a high raised voice exclaiming whosoever of ye raises me a whiteheaded whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw whosoever of ye raises me that whiteheaded whale with three holes punctured in his starboard flukelook ye whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale he shall have this gold ounce my boys cried the seamen as with swinging tarpaulins they hailed the act of nailing the gold to the mast its a white whale i say resumed ahab as he threw down the topmaul a white whale skin your eyes for him men look sharp for white water if ye see but a bubble sing out all this while tashtego daggoo and queequeg had looked on with even more intense interest and surprise than the rest and at the mention of the wrinkled brow and crooked jaw they had started as if each was separately touched by some specific recollection captain ahab said tashtego that white whale must be the same that some call moby dick does he fantail a little curious sir before he goes down and has he a curious spout too said daggoo very bushy even for a parmacetty and mighty quick captain ahab good many iron in him hide too captain cried queequeg disjointedly all twisketee betwisk like himhim faltering hard for a word and screwing his hand round and round as though uncorking a bottlelike himhim corkscrew
chapter  convinced as elizabeth now was that miss bingleys dislike of her had originated in jealousy she could not help feeling how unwelcome her appearance at pemberley must be to her and was curious to know with how much civility on that ladys side the acquaintance would now be renewed on reaching the house they were shown through the hall into the saloon whose northern aspect rendered it delightful for summer its windows opening to the ground admitted a most refreshing view of the high woody hills behind the house and of the beautiful oaks and spanish chestnuts which were scattered over the intermediate lawn in this house they were received by miss darcy who was sitting there with mrs hurst and miss bingley and the lady with whom she lived in london georgianas reception of them was very civil but attended with all the embarrassment which though proceeding from shyness and the fear of doing wrong would easily give to those who felt themselves inferior the belief of her being proud and reserved gardiner and her niece however did her justice and pitied her hurst and miss bingley they were noticed only by a curtsey and on their being seated a pause awkward as such pauses must always be succeeded for a few moments annesley a genteel agreeablelooking woman whose endeavour to introduce some kind of discourse proved her to be more truly wellbred than either of the others and between her and mrs gardiner with occasional help from elizabeth the conversation was carried on miss darcy looked as if she wished for courage enough to join in it and sometimes did venture a short sentence when there was least danger of its being heard elizabeth soon saw that she was herself closely watched by miss bingley and that she could not speak a word especially to miss darcy without calling her attention this observation would not have prevented her from trying to talk to the latter had they not been seated at an inconvenient distance but she was not sorry to be spared the necessity of saying much she expected every moment that some of the gentlemen would enter the room she wished she feared that the master of the house might be amongst them and whether she wished or feared it most she could scarcely determine after sitting in this manner a quarter of an hour without hearing miss bingleys voice elizabeth was roused by receiving from her a cold inquiry after the health of her family she answered with equal indifference and brevity and the other said no more the next variation which their visit afforded was produced by the entrance of servants with cold meat cake and a variety of all the finest fruits in season but this did not take place till after many a significant look and smile from mrs annesley to miss darcy had been given to remind her of her post there was now employment for the whole partyfor though they could not all talk they could all eat and the beautiful pyramids of grapes nectarines and peaches soon collected them round the table
something of the salt sea yet lingered in old bildads language heterogeneously mixed with scriptural and domestic phrases avast there avast there bildad avast now spoiling our harpooneer cried peleg pious harpooneers never make good voyagersit takes the shark out of em no harpooneer is worth a straw who aint pretty sharkish there was young nat swaine once the bravest boatheader out of all nantucket and the vineyard he joined the meeting and never came to good he got so frightened about his plaguy soul that he shrinked and sheered away from whales for fear of afterclaps in case he got stove and went to davy jones said bildad lifting his eyes and hands thou thyself as i myself hast seen many a perilous time thou knowest peleg what it is to have the fear of death how then canst thou prate in this ungodly guise tell me when this same pequod here had her three masts overboard in that typhoon on japan that same voyage when thou went mate with captain ahab didst thou not think of death and the judgment then hear him hear him now cried peleg marching across the cabin and thrusting his hands far down into his pocketshear him all of ye with all three masts making such an everlasting thundering against the side and every sea breaking over us fore and aft life was what captain ahab and i was thinking of and how to save all handshow to rig jurymastshow to get into the nearest port that was what i was thinking of  bildad said no more but buttoning up his coat stalked on deck where we followed him there he stood very quietly overlooking some sailmakers who were mending a topsail in the waist now and then he stooped to pick up a patch or save an end of tarred twine which otherwise might have been wasted queequeg and i had just left the pequod and were sauntering away from the water for the moment each occupied with his own thoughts when the above words were put to us by a stranger who pausing before us levelled his massive forefinger at the vessel in question he was but shabbily apparelled in faded jacket and patched trowsers a rag of a black handkerchief investing his neck a confluent smallpox had in all directions flowed over his face and left it like the complicated ribbed bed of a torrent when the rushing waters have been dried up you mean the ship pequod i suppose said i trying to gain a little more time for an uninterrupted look at him aye the pequodthat ship there he said drawing back his whole arm and then rapidly shoving it straight out from him with the fixed bayonet of his pointed finger darted full at the object no matter though i know many chaps that havnt got anygood luck to em and they are all the better off for it hes got enough though to make up for all deficiencies of that sort in other chaps abruptly said the stranger placing a nervous emphasis upon the word he
darcy might have liked such an address he contented himself with coolly replying that he perceived no other alteration than her being rather tanned no miraculous consequence of travelling in the summer for my own part she rejoined i must confess that i never could see any beauty in her her face is too thin her complexion has no brilliancy and her features are not at all handsome her nose wants characterthere is nothing marked in its lines her teeth are tolerable but not out of the common way and as for her eyes which have sometimes been called so fine i could never see anything extraordinary in them they have a sharp shrewish look which i do not like at all and in her air altogether there is a selfsufficiency without fashion which is intolerable persuaded as miss bingley was that darcy admired elizabeth this was not the best method of recommending herself but angry people are not always wise and in seeing him at last look somewhat nettled she had all the success she expected he was resolutely silent however and from a determination of making him speak she continued i remember when we first knew her in hertfordshire how amazed we all were to find that she was a reputed beauty and i particularly recollect your saying one night after they had been dining at netherfield she a beauty  but afterwards she seemed to improve on you and i believe you thought her rather pretty at one time yes replied darcy who could contain himself no longer but that was only when i first saw her for it is many months since i have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance he then went away and miss bingley was left to all the satisfaction of having forced him to say what gave no one any pain but herself gardiner and elizabeth talked of all that had occurred during their visit as they returned except what had particularly interested them both the look and behaviour of everybody they had seen were discussed except of the person who had mostly engaged their attention they talked of his sister his friends his house his fruitof everything but himself yet elizabeth was longing to know what mrs gardiner would have been highly gratified by her nieces beginning the subject chapter  elizabeth had been a good deal disappointed in not finding a letter from jane on their first arrival at lambton and this disappointment had been renewed on each of the mornings that had now been spent there but on the third her repining was over and her sister justified by the receipt of two letters from her at once on one of which was marked that it had been missent elsewhere elizabeth was not surprised at it as jane had written the direction remarkably ill they had just been preparing to walk as the letters came in and her uncle and aunt leaving her to enjoy them in quiet set off by themselves the one missent must first be attended to it had been written five days ago the beginning contained an account of all their little parties and engagements with such news as the country afforded but the latter half which was dated a day later and written in evident agitation gave more important intelligence
with regard to herself it was now a matter of unconcern whether she went to town or not and when she saw her mother so thoroughly pleased with the plan and her sister exhilarated by it in look voice and manner restored to all her usual animation and elevated to more than her usual gaiety she could not be dissatisfied with the cause and would hardly allow herself to distrust the consequence mariannes joy was almost a degree beyond happiness so great was the perturbation of her spirits and her impatience to be gone her unwillingness to quit her mother was her only restorative to calmness and at the moment of parting her grief on that score was excessive her mothers affliction was hardly less and elinor was the only one of the three who seemed to consider the separation as any thing short of eternal their departure took place in the first week in january the miss steeles kept their station at the park and were to quit it only with the rest of the family chapter  elinor could not find herself in the carriage with mrs jennings and beginning a journey to london under her protection and as her guest without wondering at her own situation so short had their acquaintance with that lady been so wholly unsuited were they in age and disposition and so many had been her objections against such a measure only a few days before but these objections had all with that happy ardour of youth which marianne and her mother equally shared been overcome or overlooked and elinor in spite of every occasional doubt of willoughbys constancy could not witness the rapture of delightful expectation which filled the whole soul and beamed in the eyes of marianne without feeling how blank was her own prospect how cheerless her own state of mind in the comparison and how gladly she would engage in the solicitude of mariannes situation to have the same animating object in view the same possibility of hope a short a very short time however must now decide what willoughbys intentions were in all probability he was already in town mariannes eagerness to be gone declared her dependence on finding him there and elinor was resolved not only upon gaining every new light as to his character which her own observation or the intelligence of others could give her but likewise upon watching his behaviour to her sister with such zealous attention as to ascertain what he was and what he meant before many meetings had taken place should the result of her observations be unfavourable she was determined at all events to open the eyes of her sister should it be otherwise her exertions would be of a different natureshe must then learn to avoid every selfish comparison and banish every regret which might lessen her satisfaction in the happiness of marianne they were three days on their journey and mariannes behaviour as they travelled was a happy specimen of what future complaisance and companionableness to mrs she sat in silence almost all the way wrapt in her own meditations and scarcely ever voluntarily speaking except when any object of picturesque beauty within their view drew from her an exclamation of delight exclusively addressed to her sister to atone for this conduct therefore elinor took immediate possession of the post of civility which she had assigned herself behaved with the greatest attention to mrs jennings talked with her laughed with her and listened to her whenever she could and mrs jennings on her side treated them both with all possible kindness was solicitous on every occasion for their ease and enjoyment and only disturbed that she could not make them choose their own dinners at the inn nor extort a confession of their preferring salmon to cod or boiled fowls to veal cutlets they reached town by three oclock the third day glad to be released after such a journey from the confinement of a carriage and ready to enjoy all the luxury of a good fire the house was handsome and handsomely fitted up and the young ladies were immediately put in possession of a very comfortable apartment it had formerly been charlottes and over the mantelpiece still hung a landscape in coloured silks of her performance in proof of her having spent seven years at a great school in town to some effect
ferrars and fanny still more did not see the necessity of enforcing it by any farther assertion and marianne when called on for hers offended them all by declaring that she had no opinion to give as she had never thought about it before her removing from norland elinor had painted a very pretty pair of screens for her sisterinlaw which being now just mounted and brought home ornamented her present drawing room and these screens catching the eye of john dashwood on his following the other gentlemen into the room were officiously handed by him to colonel brandon for his admiration these are done by my eldest sister said he and you as a man of taste will i dare say be pleased with them i do not know whether you have ever happened to see any of her performances before but she is in general reckoned to draw extremely well the colonel though disclaiming all pretensions to connoisseurship warmly admired the screens as he would have done any thing painted by miss dashwood and on the curiosity of the others being of course excited they were handed round for general inspection ferrars not aware of their being elinors work particularly requested to look at them and after they had received gratifying testimony of lady middletonss approbation fanny presented them to her mother considerately informing her at the same time that they were done by miss dashwood ferrarsvery prettyand without regarding them at all returned them to her daughter perhaps fanny thought for a moment that her mother had been quite rude enoughfor colouring a little she immediately said they are very pretty maamant they but then again the dread of having been too civil too encouraging herself probably came over her for she presently added do you not think they are something in miss mortons style of painting maam ferrars and such illtimed praise of another at elinors expense though she had not any notion of what was principally meant by it provoked her immediately to say with warmth this is admiration of a very particular kind and so saying she took the screens out of her sisterinlaws hands to admire them herself as they ought to be admired ferrars looked exceedingly angry and drawing herself up more stiffly than ever pronounced in retort this bitter philippic miss morton is lord mortons daughter fanny looked very angry too and her husband was all in a fright at his sisters audacity elinor was much more hurt by mariannes warmth than she had been by what produced it but colonel brandons eyes as they were fixed on marianne declared that he noticed only what was amiable in it the affectionate heart which could not bear to see a sister slighted in the smallest point ferrarss general behaviour to her sister seemed to her to foretell such difficulties and distresses to elinor as her own wounded heart taught her to think of with horror and urged by a strong impulse of affectionate sensibility she moved after a moment to her sisters chair and putting one arm round her neck and one cheek close to hers said in a low but eager voice dear dear elinor dont mind them she could say no more her spirits were quite overcome and hiding her face on elinors shoulder she burst into tears every bodys attention was called and almost every body was concerned colonel brandon rose up and went to them without knowing what he did poor dear immediately gave her her salts and sir john felt so desperately enraged against the author of this nervous distress that he instantly changed his seat to one close by lucy steele and gave her in a whisper a brief account of the whole shocking affair in a few minutes however marianne was recovered enough to put an end to the bustle and sit down among the rest though her spirits retained the impression of what had passed the whole evening
and it is the more to be lamented because there is reason to suppose as my dear charlotte informs me that this licentiousness of behaviour in your daughter has proceeded from a faulty degree of indulgence though at the same time for the consolation of yourself and mrs bennet i am inclined to think that her own disposition must be naturally bad or she could not be guilty of such an enormity at so early an age howsoever that may be you are grievously to be pitied in which opinion i am not only joined by mrs collins but likewise by lady catherine and her daughter to whom i have related the affair they agree with me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others for who as lady catherine herself condescendingly says will connect themselves with such a family and this consideration leads me moreover to reflect with augmented satisfaction on a certain event of last november for had it been otherwise i must have been involved in all your sorrow and disgrace let me then advise you dear sir to console yourself as much as possible to throw off your unworthy child from your affection for ever and leave her to reap the fruits of her own heinous offense gardiner did not write again till he had received an answer from colonel forster and then he had nothing of a pleasant nature to send it was not known that wickham had a single relationship with whom he kept up any connection and it was certain that he had no near one living his former acquaintances had been numerous but since he had been in the militia it did not appear that he was on terms of particular friendship with any of them there was no one therefore who could be pointed out as likely to give any news of him and in the wretched state of his own finances there was a very powerful motive for secrecy in addition to his fear of discovery by lydias relations for it had just transpired that he had left gaming debts behind him to a very considerable amount colonel forster believed that more than a thousand pounds would be necessary to clear his expenses at brighton he owed a good deal in town but his debts of honour were still more formidable gardiner did not attempt to conceal these particulars from the longbourn family gardiner added in his letter that they might expect to see their father at home on the following day which was saturday rendered spiritless by the illsuccess of all their endeavours he had yielded to his brotherinlaws entreaty that he would return to his family and leave it to him to do whatever occasion might suggest to be advisable for continuing their pursuit bennet was told of this she did not express so much satisfaction as her children expected considering what her anxiety for his life had been before sure he will not leave london before he has found them who is to fight wickham and make him marry her if he comes away
the idea of edwards being a clergyman and living in a small parsonagehouse diverted him beyond measureand when to that was added the fanciful imagery of edward reading prayers in a white surplice and publishing the banns of marriage between john smith and mary brown he could conceive nothing more ridiculous elinor while she waited in silence and immovable gravity the conclusion of such folly could not restrain her eyes from being fixed on him with a look that spoke all the contempt it excited it was a look however very well bestowed for it relieved her own feelings and gave no intelligence to him he was recalled from wit to wisdom not by any reproof of hers but by his own sensibility we may treat it as a joke said he at last recovering from the affected laugh which had considerably lengthened out the genuine gaiety of the momentbut upon my soul it is a most serious business i am extremely sorry for itfor i know him to be a very goodhearted creature as wellmeaning a fellow perhaps as any in the world you must not judge of him miss dashwood from your slight acquaintance his manners are certainly not the happiest in nature but we are not all born you know with the same powersthe same address but upon my soul i believe he has as good a heart as any in the kingdom and i declare and protest to you i never was so shocked in my life as when it all burst forth  my mother was the first person who told me of it and i feeling myself called on to act with resolution immediately said to her my dear madam i do not know what you may intend to do on the occasion but as for myself i must say that if edward does marry this young woman i never will see him again he has done for himself completelyshut himself out for ever from all decent society but as i directly said to my mother i am not in the least surprised at it from his style of education it was always to be expected yes once while she was staying in this house i happened to drop in for ten minutes and i saw quite enough of her the merest awkward country girl without style or elegance and almost without beauty just the kind of girl i should suppose likely to captivate poor edward i offered immediately as soon as my mother related the affair to me to talk to him myself and dissuade him from the match but it was too late then i found to do any thing for unluckily i was not in the way at first and knew nothing of it till after the breach had taken place when it was not for me you know to interfere but had i been informed of it a few hours earlieri think it is most probablethat something might have been hit on i certainly should have represented it to edward in a very strong light my dear fellow i should have said consider what you are doing
he says hes our man bildad said peleg he wants to ship said bildad in a hollow tone and turning round to me i dost said i unconsciously he was so intense a quaker hell do said bildad eyeing me and then went on spelling away at his book in a mumbling tone quite audible i thought him the queerest old quaker i ever saw especially as peleg his friend and old shipmate seemed such a blusterer peleg now threw open a chest and drawing forth the ships articles placed pen and ink before him and seated himself at a little table i began to think it was high time to settle with myself at what terms i would be willing to engage for the voyage i was already aware that in the whaling business they paid no wages but all hands including the captain received certain shares of the profits called lays and that these lays were proportioned to the degree of importance pertaining to the respective duties of the ships company i was also aware that being a green hand at whaling my own lay would not be very large but considering that i was used to the sea could steer a ship splice a rope and all that i made no doubt that from all i had heard i should be offered at least the th laythat is the th part of the clear net proceeds of the voyage whatever that might eventually amount to and though the th lay was what they call a rather long lay yet it was better than nothing and if we had a lucky voyage might pretty nearly pay for the clothing i would wear out on it not to speak of my three years beef and board for which i would not have to pay one stiver it might be thought that this was a poor way to accumulate a princely fortuneand so it was a very poor way indeed but i am one of those that never take on about princely fortunes and am quite content if the world is ready to board and lodge me while i am putting up at this grim sign of the thunder cloud upon the whole i thought that the th lay would be about the fair thing but would not have been surprised had i been offered the th considering i was of a broadshouldered make but one thing nevertheless that made me a little distrustful about receiving a generous share of the profits was this ashore i had heard something of both captain peleg and his unaccountable old crony bildad how that they being the principal proprietors of the pequod therefore the other and more inconsiderable and scattered owners left nearly the whole management of the ships affairs to these two and i did not know but what the stingy old bildad might have a mighty deal to say about shipping hands especially as i now found him on board the pequod quite at home there in the cabin and reading his bible as if at his own fireside now while peleg was vainly trying to mend a pen with his jackknife old bildad to my no small surprise considering that he was such an interested party in these proceedings bildad never heeded us but went on mumbling to himself out of his book lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth well captain bildad interrupted peleg what dye say what lay shall we give this young man thou knowest best was the sepulchral reply the seven hundred and seventyseventh wouldnt be too much would it where moth and rust do corrupt but lay lay indeed thought i and such a lay well old bildad you are determined that i for one shall not lay up many lays here below where moth and rust do corrupt it was an exceedingly long lay that indeed and though from the magnitude of the figure it might at first deceive a landsman yet the slightest consideration will show that though seven hundred and seventyseven is a pretty large number yet when you come to make a teenth of it you will then see i say that the seven hundred and seventyseventh part of a farthing is a good deal less than seven hundred and seventyseven gold doubloons and so i thought at the time
nothing new was heard by them for a day or two afterwards of affairs in harley street or bartletts buildings but though so much of the matter was known to them already that mrs jennings might have had enough to do in spreading that knowledge farther without seeking after more she had resolved from the first to pay a visit of comfort and inquiry to her cousins as soon as she could and nothing but the hindrance of more visitors than usual had prevented her going to them within that time the third day succeeding their knowledge of the particulars was so fine so beautiful a sunday as to draw many to kensington gardens though it was only the second week in march jennings and elinor were of the number but marianne who knew that the willoughbys were again in town and had a constant dread of meeting them chose rather to stay at home than venture into so public a place jennings joined them soon after they entered the gardens and elinor was not sorry that by her continuing with them and engaging all mrs jenningss conversation she was herself left to quiet reflection she saw nothing of the willoughbys nothing of edward and for some time nothing of anybody who could by any chance whether grave or gay be interesting to her but at last she found herself with some surprise accosted by miss steele who though looking rather shy expressed great satisfaction in meeting them and on receiving encouragement from the particular kindness of mrs jennings left her own party for a short time to join theirs jennings immediately whispered to elinor get it all out of her my dear jenningss curiosity and elinors too that she would tell any thing without being asked for nothing would otherwise have been learnt i am so glad to meet you said miss steele taking her familiarly by the armfor i wanted to see you of all things in the world she vowed at first she would never trim me up a new bonnet nor do any thing else for me again so long as she lived but now she is quite come to and we are as good friends as ever look she made me this bow to my hat and put in the feather last night i do not care if it is the doctors favourite colour i am sure for my part i should never have known he did like it better than any other colour if he had not happened to say so i declare sometimes i do not know which way to look before them she had wandered away to a subject on which elinor had nothing to say and therefore soon judged it expedient to find her way back again to the first well but miss dashwood speaking triumphantly people may say what they chuse about mr
against staying longer however elizabeth was positively resolvednor did she much expect it would be asked and fearful on the contrary as being considered as intruding themselves needlessly long she urged jane to borrow mr bingleys carriage immediately and at length it was settled that their original design of leaving netherfield that morning should be mentioned and the request made the communication excited many professions of concern and enough was said of wishing them to stay at least till the following day to work on jane and till the morrow their going was deferred miss bingley was then sorry that she had proposed the delay for her jealousy and dislike of one sister much exceeded her affection for the other the master of the house heard with real sorrow that they were to go so soon and repeatedly tried to persuade miss bennet that it would not be safe for herthat she was not enough recovered but jane was firm where she felt herself to be right darcy it was welcome intelligenceelizabeth had been at netherfield long enough she attracted him more than he likedand miss bingley was uncivil to her and more teasing than usual to himself he wisely resolved to be particularly careful that no sign of admiration should now escape him nothing that could elevate her with the hope of influencing his felicity sensible that if such an idea had been suggested his behaviour during the last day must have material weight in confirming or crushing it steady to his purpose he scarcely spoke ten words to her through the whole of saturday and though they were at one time left by themselves for halfanhour he adhered most conscientiously to his book and would not even look at her on sunday after morning service the separation so agreeable to almost all took place miss bingleys civility to elizabeth increased at last very rapidly as well as her affection for jane and when they parted after assuring the latter of the pleasure it would always give her to see her either at longbourn or netherfield and embracing her most tenderly she even shook hands with the former elizabeth took leave of the whole party in the liveliest of spirits they were not welcomed home very cordially by their mother bennet wondered at their coming and thought them very wrong to give so much trouble and was sure jane would have caught cold again but their father though very laconic in his expressions of pleasure was really glad to see them he had felt their importance in the family circle the evening conversation when they were all assembled had lost much of its animation and almost all its sense by the absence of jane and elizabeth they found mary as usual deep in the study of thoroughbass and human nature and had some extracts to admire and some new observations of threadbare morality to listen to catherine and lydia had information for them of a different sort much had been done and much had been said in the regiment since the preceding wednesday several of the officers had dined lately with their uncle a private had been flogged and it had actually been hinted that colonel forster was going to be married bennet to his wife as they were at breakfast the next morning that you have ordered a good dinner today because i have reason to expect an addition to our family party
jenningss kindness though its effusions were often distressing and sometimes almost ridiculous made her those acknowledgments and returned her those civilities which her sister could not make or return for herself their good friend saw that marianne was unhappy and felt that every thing was due to her which might make her at all less so she treated her therefore with all the indulgent fondness of a parent towards a favourite child on the last day of its holidays marianne was to have the best place by the fire was to be tempted to eat by every delicacy in the house and to be amused by the relation of all the news of the day had not elinor in the sad countenance of her sister seen a check to all mirth she could have been entertained by mrs jenningss endeavours to cure a disappointment in love by a variety of sweetmeats and olives and a good fire as soon however as the consciousness of all this was forced by continual repetition on marianne she could stay no longer with a hasty exclamation of misery and a sign to her sister not to follow her she directly got up and hurried out of the room jennings as soon as she was gone how it grieves me to see her and i declare if she is not gone away without finishing her wine i am sure if i knew of any thing she would like i would send all over the town for it well it is the oddest thing to me that a man should use such a pretty girl so ill but when there is plenty of money on one side and next to none on the other lord bless you  the lady thenmiss grey i think you called heris very rich i remember her aunt very well biddy henshawe she married a very wealthy man and by all accounts it wont come before its wanted for they say he is all to pieces well it dont signify talking but when a young man be who he will comes and makes love to a pretty girl and promises marriage he has no business to fly off from his word only because he grows poor and a richer girl is ready to have him why dont he in such a case sell his horses let his house turn off his servants and make a thorough reform at once i warrant you miss marianne would have been ready to wait till matters came round but that wont do nowadays nothing in the way of pleasure can ever be given up by the young men of this age
bennets leaving them together after a longer irritation than usual about netherfield and its master she could not help saying oh that my dear mother had more command over herself she can have no idea of the pain she gives me by her continual reflections on him he will be forgot and we shall all be as we were before elizabeth looked at her sister with incredulous solicitude but said nothing you doubt me cried jane slightly colouring indeed you have no reason he may live in my memory as the most amiable man of my acquaintance but that is all i have nothing either to hope or fear and nothing to reproach him with a little time thereforei shall certainly try to get the better with a stronger voice she soon added i have this comfort immediately that it has not been more than an error of fancy on my side and that it has done no harm to anyone but myself your sweetness and disinterestedness are really angelic i do not know what to say to you i feel as if i had never done you justice or loved you as you deserve miss bennet eagerly disclaimed all extraordinary merit and threw back the praise on her sisters warm affection you wish to think all the world respectable and are hurt if i speak ill of anybody i only want to think you perfect and you set yourself against it do not be afraid of my running into any excess of my encroaching on your privilege of universal goodwill there are few people whom i really love and still fewer of whom i think well the more i see of the world the more am i dissatisfied with it and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense i have met with two instances lately one i will not mention the other is charlottes marriage my dear lizzy do not give way to such feelings as these you do not make allowance enough for difference of situation and temper
they were three days on their journey and mariannes behaviour as they travelled was a happy specimen of what future complaisance and companionableness to mrs she sat in silence almost all the way wrapt in her own meditations and scarcely ever voluntarily speaking except when any object of picturesque beauty within their view drew from her an exclamation of delight exclusively addressed to her sister to atone for this conduct therefore elinor took immediate possession of the post of civility which she had assigned herself behaved with the greatest attention to mrs jennings talked with her laughed with her and listened to her whenever she could and mrs jennings on her side treated them both with all possible kindness was solicitous on every occasion for their ease and enjoyment and only disturbed that she could not make them choose their own dinners at the inn nor extort a confession of their preferring salmon to cod or boiled fowls to veal cutlets they reached town by three oclock the third day glad to be released after such a journey from the confinement of a carriage and ready to enjoy all the luxury of a good fire the house was handsome and handsomely fitted up and the young ladies were immediately put in possession of a very comfortable apartment it had formerly been charlottes and over the mantelpiece still hung a landscape in coloured silks of her performance in proof of her having spent seven years at a great school in town to some effect as dinner was not to be ready in less than two hours from their arrival elinor determined to employ the interval in writing to her mother and sat down for that purpose i am writing home marianne said elinor had not you better defer your letter for a day or two i am not going to write to my mother replied marianne hastily and as if wishing to avoid any farther inquiry elinor said no more it immediately struck her that she must then be writing to willoughby and the conclusion which as instantly followed was that however mysteriously they might wish to conduct the affair they must be engaged this conviction though not entirely satisfactory gave her pleasure and she continued her letter with greater alacrity mariannes was finished in a very few minutes in length it could be no more than a note it was then folded up sealed and directed with eager rapidity elinor thought she could distinguish a large w in the direction and no sooner was it complete than marianne ringing the bell requested the footman who answered it to get that letter conveyed for her to the twopenny post her spirits still continued very high but there was a flutter in them which prevented their giving much pleasure to her sister and this agitation increased as the evening drew on she could scarcely eat any dinner and when they afterwards returned to the drawing room seemed anxiously listening to the sound of every carriage jennings by being much engaged in her own room could see little of what was passing the tea things were brought in and already had marianne been disappointed more than once by a rap at a neighbouring door when a loud one was suddenly heard which could not be mistaken for one at any other house elinor felt secure of its announcing willoughbys approach and marianne starting up moved towards the door every thing was silent this could not be borne many seconds she opened the door advanced a few steps towards the stairs and after listening half a minute returned into the room in all the agitation which a conviction of having heard him would naturally produce in the ecstasy of her feelings at that instant she could not help exclaiming oh elinor it is willoughby indeed it is
the certainty of meeting him had not been checked by any of those recollections that might not unreasonably have alarmed her she had dressed with more than usual care and prepared in the highest spirits for the conquest of all that remained unsubdued of his heart trusting that it was not more than might be won in the course of the evening but in an instant arose the dreadful suspicion of his being purposely omitted for mr darcys pleasure in the bingleys invitation to the officers and though this was not exactly the case the absolute fact of his absence was pronounced by his friend denny to whom lydia eagerly applied and who told them that wickham had been obliged to go to town on business the day before and was not yet returned adding with a significant smile i do not imagine his business would have called him away just now if he had not wanted to avoid a certain gentleman here this part of his intelligence though unheard by lydia was caught by elizabeth and as it assured her that darcy was not less answerable for wickhams absence than if her first surmise had been just every feeling of displeasure against the former was so sharpened by immediate disappointment that she could hardly reply with tolerable civility to the polite inquiries which he directly afterwards approached to make attendance forbearance patience with darcy was injury to wickham she was resolved against any sort of conversation with him and turned away with a degree of illhumour which she could not wholly surmount even in speaking to mr but elizabeth was not formed for illhumour and though every prospect of her own was destroyed for the evening it could not dwell long on her spirits and having told all her griefs to charlotte lucas whom she had not seen for a week she was soon able to make a voluntary transition to the oddities of her cousin and to point him out to her particular notice the first two dances however brought a return of distress they were dances of mortification collins awkward and solemn apologising instead of attending and often moving wrong without being aware of it gave her all the shame and misery which a disagreeable partner for a couple of dances can give she danced next with an officer and had the refreshment of talking of wickham and of hearing that he was universally liked when those dances were over she returned to charlotte lucas and was in conversation with her when she found herself suddenly addressed by mr darcy who took her so much by surprise in his application for her hand that without knowing what she did she accepted him he walked away again immediately and she was left to fret over her own want of presence of mind charlotte tried to console her i dare say you will find him very agreeable to find a man agreeable whom one is determined to hate when the dancing recommenced however and darcy approached to claim her hand charlotte could not help cautioning her in a whisper not to be a simpleton and allow her fancy for wickham to make her appear unpleasant in the eyes of a man ten times his consequence elizabeth made no answer and took her place in the set amazed at the dignity to which she was arrived in being allowed to stand opposite to mr darcy and reading in her neighbours looks their equal amazement in beholding it they stood for some time without speaking a word and she began to imagine that their silence was to last through the two dances and at first was resolved not to break it till suddenly fancying that it would be the greater punishment to her partner to oblige him to talk she made some slight observation on the dance after a pause of some minutes she addressed him a second time withit is your turn to say something now mr
truth obliged her to acknowledge some small share in the action but she was at the same time so unwilling to appear as the benefactress of edward that she acknowledged it with hesitation which probably contributed to fix that suspicion in his mind which had recently entered it for a short time he sat deep in thought after elinor had ceased to speakat last and as if it were rather an effort he said colonel brandon seems a man of great worth and respectability i have always heard him spoken of as such and your brother i know esteems him highly he is undoubtedly a sensible man and in his manners perfectly the gentleman indeed replied elinor i believe that you will find him on farther acquaintance all that you have heard him to be and as you will be such very near neighbours for i understand the parsonage is almost close to the mansionhouse it is particularly important that he should be all this edward made no answer but when she had turned away her head gave her a look so serious so earnest so uncheerful as seemed to say that he might hereafter wish the distance between the parsonage and the mansionhouse much greater james street said he soon afterwards rising from his chair i must hurry away then to give him those thanks which you will not allow me to give you to assure him that he has made me a veryan exceedingly happy man elinor did not offer to detain him and they parted with a very earnest assurance on her side of her unceasing good wishes for his happiness in every change of situation that might befall him on his with rather an attempt to return the same good will than the power of expressing it when i see him again said elinor to herself as the door shut him out i shall see him the husband of lucy and with this pleasing anticipation she sat down to reconsider the past recall the words and endeavour to comprehend all the feelings of edward and of course to reflect on her own with discontent jennings came home though she returned from seeing people whom she had never seen before and of whom therefore she must have a great deal to say her mind was so much more occupied by the important secret in her possession than by anything else that she reverted to it again as soon as elinor appeared and i suppose you had no great difficultyyou did not find him very unwilling to accept your proposal really said elinor i know so little of these kind of forms that i can hardly even conjecture as to the time or the preparation necessary but i suppose two or three months will complete his ordination my dear how calmly you talk of it and can the colonel wait two or three months and though one would be very glad to do a kindness by poor mr ferrars i do think it is not worth while to wait two or three months for him sure somebody else might be found that would do as well somebody that is in orders already my dear maam said elinor what can you be thinking of  why colonel brandons only object is to be of use to mr
chapter  happy for all her maternal feelings was the day on which mrs with what delighted pride she afterwards visited mrs i wish i could say for the sake of her family that the accomplishment of her earnest desire in the establishment of so many of her children produced so happy an effect as to make her a sensible amiable wellinformed woman for the rest of her life though perhaps it was lucky for her husband who might not have relished domestic felicity in so unusual a form that she still was occasionally nervous and invariably silly bennet missed his second daughter exceedingly his affection for her drew him oftener from home than anything else could do he delighted in going to pemberley especially when he was least expected bingley and jane remained at netherfield only a twelvemonth so near a vicinity to her mother and meryton relations was not desirable even to his easy temper or her affectionate heart the darling wish of his sisters was then gratified he bought an estate in a neighbouring county to derbyshire and jane and elizabeth in addition to every other source of happiness were within thirty miles of each other kitty to her very material advantage spent the chief of her time with her two elder sisters in society so superior to what she had generally known her improvement was great she was not of so ungovernable a temper as lydia and removed from the influence of lydias example she became by proper attention and management less irritable less ignorant and less insipid from the further disadvantage of lydias society she was of course carefully kept and though mrs wickham frequently invited her to come and stay with her with the promise of balls and young men her father would never consent to her going mary was the only daughter who remained at home and she was necessarily drawn from the pursuit of accomplishments by mrs mary was obliged to mix more with the world but she could still moralize over every morning visit and as she was no longer mortified by comparisons between her sisters beauty and her own it was suspected by her father that she submitted to the change without much reluctance as for wickham and lydia their characters suffered no revolution from the marriage of her sisters he bore with philosophy the conviction that elizabeth must now become acquainted with whatever of his ingratitude and falsehood had before been unknown to her and in spite of every thing was not wholly without hope that darcy might yet be prevailed on to make his fortune the congratulatory letter which elizabeth received from lydia on her marriage explained to her that by his wife at least if not by himself such a hope was cherished the letter was to this effect my dear lizzy   i wish you joy darcy half as well as i do my dear wickham you must be very happy
consider the subtleness of the sea how its most dreaded creatures glide under water unapparent for the most part and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks consider once more the universal cannibalism of the sea all whose creatures prey upon each other carrying on eternal war since the world began consider all this and then turn to this green gentle and most docile earth consider them both the sea and the land and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself for as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land so in the soul of man there lies one insular tahiti full of peace and joy but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life push not off from that isle thou canst never return slowly wading through the meadows of brit the pequod still held on her way northeastward towards the island of java a gentle air impelling her keel so that in the surrounding serenity her three tall tapering masts mildly waved to that languid breeze as three mild palms on a plain and still at wide intervals in the silvery night the lonely alluring jet would be seen but one transparent blue morning when a stillness almost preternatural spread over the sea however unattended with any stagnant calm when the long burnished sunglade on the waters seemed a golden finger laid across them enjoining some secrecy when the slippered waves whispered together as they softly ran on in this profound hush of the visible sphere a strange spectre was seen by daggoo from the mainmasthead in the distance a great white mass lazily rose and rising higher and higher and disentangling itself from the azure at last gleamed before our prow like a snowslide new slid from the hills thus glistening for a moment as slowly it subsided and sank again the phantom went down but on reappearing once more with a stilettolike cry that startled every man from his nod the negro yelled outthere  upon this the seamen rushed to the yardarms as in swarmingtime the bees rush to the boughs bareheaded in the sultry sun ahab stood on the bowsprit and with one hand pushed far behind in readiness to wave his orders to the helmsman cast his eager glance in the direction indicated aloft by the outstretched motionless arm of daggoo whether the flitting attendance of the one still and solitary jet had gradually worked upon ahab so that he was now prepared to connect the ideas of mildness and repose with the first sight of the particular whale he pursued however this was or whether his eagerness betrayed him whichever way it might have been no sooner did he distinctly perceive the white mass than with a quick intensity he instantly gave orders for lowering the four boats were soon on the water ahabs in advance and all swiftly pulling towards their prey soon it went down and while with oars suspended we were awaiting its reappearance lo in the same spot where it sank once more it slowly rose almost forgetting for the moment all thoughts of moby dick we now gazed at the most wondrous phenomenon which the secret seas have hitherto revealed to mankind a vast pulpy mass furlongs in length and breadth of a glancing creamcolour lay floating on the water innumerable long arms radiating from its centre and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas as if blindly to clutch at any hapless object within reach
from this time the subject was never revived by elinor and when entered on by lucy who seldom missed an opportunity of introducing it and was particularly careful to inform her confidante of her happiness whenever she received a letter from edward it was treated by the former with calmness and caution and dismissed as soon as civility would allow for she felt such conversations to be an indulgence which lucy did not deserve and which were dangerous to herself the visit of the miss steeles at barton park was lengthened far beyond what the first invitation implied their favour increased they could not be spared sir john would not hear of their going and in spite of their numerous and long arranged engagements in exeter in spite of the absolute necessity of returning to fulfill them immediately which was in full force at the end of every week they were prevailed on to stay nearly two months at the park and to assist in the due celebration of that festival which requires a more than ordinary share of private balls and large dinners to proclaim its importance jennings was in the habit of spending a large portion of the year at the houses of her children and friends she was not without a settled habitation of her own since the death of her husband who had traded with success in a less elegant part of the town she had resided every winter in a house in one of the streets near portman square towards this home she began on the approach of january to turn her thoughts and thither she one day abruptly and very unexpectedly by them asked the elder misses dashwood to accompany her elinor without observing the varying complexion of her sister and the animated look which spoke no indifference to the plan immediately gave a grateful but absolute denial for both in which she believed herself to be speaking their united inclinations the reason alleged was their determined resolution of not leaving their mother at that time of the year jennings received the refusal with some surprise and repeated her invitation immediately i am sure your mother can spare you very well and i do beg you will favour me with your company for ive quite set my heart upon it dont fancy that you will be any inconvenience to me for i shant put myself at all out of my way for you it will only be sending betty by the coach and i hope i can afford that we three shall be able to go very well in my chaise and when we are in town if you do not like to go wherever i do well and good you may always go with one of my daughters i am sure your mother will not object to it for i have had such good luck in getting my own children off my hands that she will think me a very fit person to have the charge of you and if i dont get one of you at least well married before i have done with you it shall not be my fault i shall speak a good word for you to all the young men you may depend upon it i have a notion said sir john that miss marianne would not object to such a scheme if her elder sister would come into it it is very hard indeed that she should not have a little pleasure because miss dashwood does not wish it so i would advise you two to set off for town when you are tired of barton without saying a word to miss dashwood about it jennings i am sure i shall be monstrous glad of miss mariannes company whether miss dashwood will go or not only the more the merrier say i and i thought it would be more comfortable for them to be together because if they got tired of me they might talk to one another and laugh at my old ways behind my back but one or the other if not both of them i must have
his being so sure of succeeding was wrong said she and certainly ought not to have appeared but consider how much it must increase his disappointment indeed replied elizabeth i am heartily sorry for him but he has other feelings which will probably soon drive away his regard for me but you blame me for having spoken so warmly of wickham noi do not know that you were wrong in saying what you did but you will know it when i tell you what happened the very next day she then spoke of the letter repeating the whole of its contents as far as they concerned george wickham who would willingly have gone through the world without believing that so much wickedness existed in the whole race of mankind as was here collected in one individual nor was darcys vindication though grateful to her feelings capable of consoling her for such discovery most earnestly did she labour to prove the probability of error and seek to clear the one without involving the other this will not do said elizabeth you never will be able to make both of them good for anything take your choice but you must be satisfied with only one there is but such a quantity of merit between them just enough to make one good sort of man and of late it has been shifting about pretty much for my part i am inclined to believe it all darcys but you shall do as you choose it was some time however before a smile could be extorted from jane i do not know when i have been more shocked said she dear lizzy only consider what he must have suffered no my regret and compassion are all done away by seeing you so full of both i know you will do him such ample justice that i am growing every moment more unconcerned and indifferent your profusion makes me saving and if you lament over him much longer my heart will be as light as a feather there is such an expression of goodness in his countenance
and by the means of this continual though gentle vent was able not only to see the miss dashwoods from the first without the smallest emotion but very soon to see them without recollecting a word of the matter and having thus supported the dignity of her own sex and spoken her decided censure of what was wrong in the other she thought herself at liberty to attend to the interest of her own assemblies and therefore determined though rather against the opinion of sir john that as mrs willoughby would at once be a woman of elegance and fortune to leave her card with her as soon as she married colonel brandons delicate unobtrusive enquiries were never unwelcome to miss dashwood he had abundantly earned the privilege of intimate discussion of her sisters disappointment by the friendly zeal with which he had endeavoured to soften it and they always conversed with confidence his chief reward for the painful exertion of disclosing past sorrows and present humiliations was given in the pitying eye with which marianne sometimes observed him and the gentleness of her voice whenever though it did not often happen she was obliged or could oblige herself to speak to him these assured him that his exertion had produced an increase of goodwill towards himself and these gave elinor hopes of its being farther augmented hereafter but mrs jennings who knew nothing of all this who knew only that the colonel continued as grave as ever and that she could neither prevail on him to make the offer himself nor commission her to make it for him began at the end of two days to think that instead of midsummer they would not be married till michaelmas and by the end of a week that it would not be a match at all the good understanding between the colonel and miss dashwood seemed rather to declare that the honours of the mulberrytree the canal and the yew arbour would all be made over to her and mrs jennings had for some time ceased to think at all of mrs early in february within a fortnight from the receipt of willoughbys letter elinor had the painful office of informing her sister that he was married she had taken care to have the intelligence conveyed to herself as soon as it was known that the ceremony was over as she was desirous that marianne should not receive the first notice of it from the public papers which she saw her eagerly examining every morning she received the news with resolute composure made no observation on it and at first shed no tears but after a short time they would burst out and for the rest of the day she was in a state hardly less pitiable than when she first learnt to expect the event the willoughbys left town as soon as they were married and elinor now hoped as there could be no danger of her seeing either of them to prevail on her sister who had never yet left the house since the blow first fell to go out again by degrees as she had done before about this time the two miss steeles lately arrived at their cousins house in bartletts buildings holburn presented themselves again before their more grand relations in conduit and berkeley streets and were welcomed by them all with great cordiality their presence always gave her pain and she hardly knew how to make a very gracious return to the overpowering delight of lucy in finding her still in town i should have been quite disappointed if i had not found you here still said she repeatedly with a strong emphasis on the word i was almost sure you would not leave london yet awhile though you told me you know at barton that you should not stay above a month but i thought at the time that you would most likely change your mind when it came to the point it would have been such a great pity to have went away before your brother and sister came and now to be sure you will be in no hurry to be gone
ferrarss general behaviour to her sister seemed to her to foretell such difficulties and distresses to elinor as her own wounded heart taught her to think of with horror and urged by a strong impulse of affectionate sensibility she moved after a moment to her sisters chair and putting one arm round her neck and one cheek close to hers said in a low but eager voice dear dear elinor dont mind them she could say no more her spirits were quite overcome and hiding her face on elinors shoulder she burst into tears every bodys attention was called and almost every body was concerned colonel brandon rose up and went to them without knowing what he did poor dear immediately gave her her salts and sir john felt so desperately enraged against the author of this nervous distress that he instantly changed his seat to one close by lucy steele and gave her in a whisper a brief account of the whole shocking affair in a few minutes however marianne was recovered enough to put an end to the bustle and sit down among the rest though her spirits retained the impression of what had passed the whole evening said her brother to colonel brandon in a low voice as soon as he could secure his attention she has not such good health as her sistershe is very nervousshe has not elinors constitutionand one must allow that there is something very trying to a young woman who has been a beauty in the loss of her personal attractions you would not think it perhaps but marianne was remarkably handsome a few months ago quite as handsome as elinor  she had found in her every thing that could tend to make a farther connection between the families undesirable  she had seen enough of her pride her meanness and her determined prejudice against herself to comprehend all the difficulties that must have perplexed the engagement and retarded the marriage of edward and herself had he been otherwise freeand she had seen almost enough to be thankful for her own sake that one greater obstacle preserved her from suffering under any other of mrs ferrarss creation preserved her from all dependence upon her caprice or any solicitude for her good opinion or at least if she did not bring herself quite to rejoice in edwards being fettered to lucy she determined that had lucy been more amiable she ought to have rejoiced she wondered that lucys spirits could be so very much elevated by the civility of mrs ferrarsthat her interest and her vanity should so very much blind her as to make the attention which seemed only paid her because she was not elinor appear a compliment to herselfor to allow her to derive encouragement from a preference only given her because her real situation was unknown but that it was so had not only been declared by lucys eyes at the time but was declared over again the next morning more openly for at her particular desire lady middleton set her down in berkeley street on the chance of seeing elinor alone to tell her how happy she was the chance proved a lucky one for a message from mrs my dear friend cried lucy as soon as they were by themselves i come to talk to you of my happiness you know how i dreaded the thoughts of seeing herbut the very moment i was introduced there was such an affability in her behaviour as really should seem to say she had quite took a fancy to me  you saw it all and was not you quite struck with it such kindness as fell to the share of nobody but me
now at this time it was that my poor pagan companion and fast bosomfriend queequeg was seized with a fever which brought him nigh to his endless end be it said that in this vocation of whaling sinecures are unknown dignity and danger go hand in hand till you get to be captain the higher you rise the harder you toil so with poor queequeg who as harpooneer must not only face all the rage of the living whale butas we have elsewhere seenmount his dead back in a rolling sea and finally descend into the gloom of the hold and bitterly sweating all day in that subterraneous confinement resolutely manhandle the clumsiest casks and see to their stowage to be short among whalemen the harpooneers are the holders so called when the ship was about half disembowelled you should have stooped over the hatchway and peered down upon him there where stripped to his woollen drawers the tattooed savage was crawling about amid that dampness and slime like a green spotted lizard at the bottom of a well and a well or an icehouse it somehow proved to him poor pagan where strange to say for all the heat of his sweatings he caught a terrible chill which lapsed into a fever and at last after some days suffering laid him in his hammock close to the very sill of the door of death how he wasted and wasted away in those few longlingering days till there seemed but little left of him but his frame and tattooing but as all else in him thinned and his cheekbones grew sharper his eyes nevertheless seemed growing fuller and fuller they became of a strange softness of lustre and mildly but deeply looked out at you there from his sickness a wondrous testimony to that immortal health in him which could not die or be weakened and like circles on the water which as they grow fainter expand so his eyes seemed rounding and rounding like the rings of eternity an awe that cannot be named would steal over you as you sat by the side of this waning savage and saw as strange things in his face as any beheld who were bystanders when zoroaster died for whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man never yet was put into words or books and the drawing near of death which alike levels all alike impresses all with a last revelation which only an author from the dead could adequately tell so thatlet us say it againno dying chaldee or greek had higher and holier thoughts than those whose mysterious shades you saw creeping over the face of poor queequeg as he quietly lay in his swaying hammock and the rolling sea seemed gently rocking him to his final rest and the oceans invisible floodtide lifted him higher and higher towards his destined heaven not a man of the crew but gave him up and as for queequeg himself what he thought of his case was forcibly shown by a curious favour he asked he called one to him in the grey morning watch when the day was just breaking and taking his hand said that while in nantucket he had chanced to see certain little canoes of dark wood like the rich warwood of his native isle and upon inquiry he had learned that all whalemen who died in nantucket were laid in those same dark canoes and that the fancy of being so laid had much pleased him for it was not unlike the custom of his own race who after embalming a dead warrior stretched him out in his canoe and so left him to be floated away to the starry archipelagoes for not only do they believe that the stars are isles but that far beyond all visible horizons their own mild uncontinented seas interflow with the blue heavens and so form the white breakers of the milky way he added that he shuddered at the thought of being buried in his hammock according to the usual seacustom tossed like something vile to the deathdevouring sharks no he desired a canoe like those of nantucket all the more congenial to him being a whaleman that like a whaleboat these coffincanoes were without a keel though that involved but uncertain steering and much leeway adown the dim ages now when this strange circumstance was made known aft the carpenter was at once commanded to do queequegs bidding whatever it might include there was some heathenish coffincoloured old lumber aboard which upon a long previous voyage had been cut from the aboriginal groves of the lackaday islands and from these dark planks the coffin was recommended to be made no sooner was the carpenter apprised of the order than taking his rule he forthwith with all the indifferent promptitude of his character proceeded into the forecastle and took queequegs measure with great accuracy regularly chalking queequegs person as he shifted the rule
something must be done for them whenever they leave norland and settle in a new home well then let something be done for them but that something need not be three thousand pounds consider she added that when the money is once parted with it never can return your sisters will marry and it will be gone for ever if indeed it could be restored to our poor little boy why to be sure said her husband very gravely that would make great difference the time may come when harry will regret that so large a sum was parted with if he should have a numerous family for instance it would be a very convenient addition perhaps then it would be better for all parties if the sum were diminished one half five hundred pounds would be a prodigious increase to their fortunes what brother on earth would do half so much for his sisters even if really his sisters one had rather on such occasions do too much than too little no one at least can think i have not done enough for them even themselves they can hardly expect more there is no knowing what they may expect said the lady but we are not to think of their expectations the question is what you can afford to do certainlyand i think i may afford to give them five hundred pounds apiece as it is without any addition of mine they will each have about three thousand pounds on their mothers deatha very comfortable fortune for any young woman to be sure it is and indeed it strikes me that they can want no addition at all they will have ten thousand pounds divided amongst them if they marry they will be sure of doing well and if they do not they may all live very comfortably together on the interest of ten thousand pounds that is very true and therefore i do not know whether upon the whole it would not be more advisable to do something for their mother while she lives rather than for themsomething of the annuity kind i mean my sisters would feel the good effects of it as well as herself
you must therefore allow me to follow the dictates of my conscience on this occasion which leads me to perform what i look on as a point of duty pardon me for neglecting to profit by your advice which on every other subject shall be my constant guide though in the case before us i consider myself more fitted by education and habitual study to decide on what is right than a young lady like yourself darcy whose reception of his advances she eagerly watched and whose astonishment at being so addressed was very evident her cousin prefaced his speech with a solemn bow and though she could not hear a word of it she felt as if hearing it all and saw in the motion of his lips the words apology hunsford and lady catherine de bourgh it vexed her to see him expose himself to such a man darcy was eyeing him with unrestrained wonder and when at last mr collins allowed him time to speak replied with an air of distant civility collins however was not discouraged from speaking again and mr darcys contempt seemed abundantly increasing with the length of his second speech and at the end of it he only made him a slight bow and moved another way i have no reason i assure you said he to be dissatisfied with my reception he answered me with the utmost civility and even paid me the compliment of saying that he was so well convinced of lady catherines discernment as to be certain she could never bestow a favour unworthily as elizabeth had no longer any interest of her own to pursue she turned her attention almost entirely on her sister and mr bingley and the train of agreeable reflections which her observations gave birth to made her perhaps almost as happy as jane she saw her in idea settled in that very house in all the felicity which a marriage of true affection could bestow and she felt capable under such circumstances of endeavouring even to like bingleys two sisters her mothers thoughts she plainly saw were bent the same way and she determined not to venture near her lest she might hear too much when they sat down to supper therefore she considered it a most unlucky perverseness which placed them within one of each other and deeply was she vexed to find that her mother was talking to that one person lady lucas freely openly and of nothing else but her expectation that jane would soon be married to mr bennet seemed incapable of fatigue while enumerating the advantages of the match his being such a charming young man and so rich and living but three miles from them were the first points of selfgratulation and then it was such a comfort to think how fond the two sisters were of jane and to be certain that they must desire the connection as much as she could do it was moreover such a promising thing for her younger daughters as janes marrying so greatly must throw them in the way of other rich men and lastly it was so pleasant at her time of life to be able to consign her single daughters to the care of their sister that she might not be obliged to go into company more than she liked it was necessary to make this circumstance a matter of pleasure because on such occasions it is the etiquette but no one was less likely than mrs
chapter  the sudden termination of colonel brandons visit at the park with his steadiness in concealing its cause filled the mind and raised the wonder of mrs jennings for two or three days she was a great wonderer as every one must be who takes a very lively interest in all the comings and goings of all their acquaintance she wondered with little intermission what could be the reason of it was sure there must be some bad news and thought over every kind of distress that could have befallen him with a fixed determination that he should not escape them all something very melancholy must be the matter i am sure said she the estate at delaford was never reckoned more than two thousand a year and his brother left everything sadly involved i do think he must have been sent for about money matters for what else can it be perhaps it is about miss williams and by the bye i dare say it is because he looked so conscious when i mentioned her may be she is ill in town nothing in the world more likely for i have a notion she is always rather sickly it is not so very likely he should be distressed in his circumstances now for he is a very prudent man and to be sure must have cleared the estate by this time may be his sister is worse at avignon and has sent for him over well i wish him out of all his trouble with all my heart and a good wife into the bargain her opinion varying with every fresh conjecture and all seeming equally probable as they arose elinor though she felt really interested in the welfare of colonel brandon could not bestow all the wonder on his going so suddenly away which mrs jennings was desirous of her feeling for besides that the circumstance did not in her opinion justify such lasting amazement or variety of speculation her wonder was otherwise disposed of it was engrossed by the extraordinary silence of her sister and willoughby on the subject which they must know to be peculiarly interesting to them all as this silence continued every day made it appear more strange and more incompatible with the disposition of both why they should not openly acknowledge to her mother and herself what their constant behaviour to each other declared to have taken place elinor could not imagine she could easily conceive that marriage might not be immediately in their power for though willoughby was independent there was no reason to believe him rich his estate had been rated by sir john at about six or seven hundred a year but he lived at an expense to which that income could hardly be equal and he had himself often complained of his poverty but for this strange kind of secrecy maintained by them relative to their engagement which in fact concealed nothing at all she could not account and it was so wholly contradictory to their general opinions and practice that a doubt sometimes entered her mind of their being really engaged and this doubt was enough to prevent her making any inquiry of marianne
excuse me for running after you don sebastian but may i also beg that you will be particular in procuring the largest sized evangelists you can    this is the priest he brings you the evangelists said don sebastian gravely returning with a tall and solemn figure now venerable priest further into the light and hold the holy book before me that i may touch it so help me heaven and on my honour the story i have told ye gentlemen is in substance and its great items true i know it to be true it happened on this ball i trod the ship i knew the crew i have seen and talked with steelkilt since the death of radney i shall ere long paint to you as well as one can without canvas something like the true form of the whale as he actually appears to the eye of the whaleman when in his own absolute body the whale is moored alongside the whaleship so that he can be fairly stepped upon there it may be worth while therefore previously to advert to those curious imaginary portraits of him which even down to the present day confidently challenge the faith of the landsman it is time to set the world right in this matter by proving such pictures of the whale all wrong it may be that the primal source of all those pictorial delusions will be found among the oldest hindoo egyptian and grecian sculptures for ever since those inventive but unscrupulous times when on the marble panellings of temples the pedestals of statues and on shields medallions cups and coins the dolphin was drawn in scales of chainarmor like saladins and a helmeted head like st georges ever since then has something of the same sort of license prevailed not only in most popular pictures of the whale but in many scientific presentations of him now by all odds the most ancient extant portrait anyways purporting to be the whales is to be found in the famous cavernpagoda of elephanta in india the brahmins maintain that in the almost endless sculptures of that immemorial pagoda all the trades and pursuits every conceivable avocation of man were prefigured ages before any of them actually came into being no wonder then that in some sort our noble profession of whaling should have been there shadowed forth the hindoo whale referred to occurs in a separate department of the wall depicting the incarnation of vishnu in the form of leviathan learnedly known as the matse avatar but though this sculpture is half man and half whale so as only to give the tail of the latter yet that small section of him is all wrong it looks more like the tapering tail of an anaconda than the broad palms of the true whales majestic flukes but go to the old galleries and look now at a great christian painters portrait of this fish for he succeeds no better than the antediluvian hindoo it is guidos picture of perseus rescuing andromeda from the seamonster or whale where did guido get the model of such a strange creature as that
after mentioning the likelihood of this marriage to her ladyship last night she immediately with her usual condescension expressed what she felt on the occasion when it became apparent that on the score of some family objections on the part of my cousin she would never give her consent to what she termed so disgraceful a match i thought it my duty to give the speediest intelligence of this to my cousin that she and her noble admirer may be aware of what they are about and not run hastily into a marriage which has not been properly sanctioned collins moreover adds i am truly rejoiced that my cousin lydias sad business has been so well hushed up and am only concerned that their living together before the marriage took place should be so generally known i must not however neglect the duties of my station or refrain from declaring my amazement at hearing that you received the young couple into your house as soon as they were married it was an encouragement of vice and had i been the rector of longbourn i should very strenuously have opposed it you ought certainly to forgive them as a christian but never to admit them in your sight or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing the rest of his letter is only about his dear charlottes situation and his expectation of a young olivebranch you are not going to be missish i hope and pretend to be affronted at an idle report for what do we live but to make sport for our neighbours and laugh at them in our turn had they fixed on any other man it would have been nothing but his perfect indifference and your pointed dislike make it so delightfully absurd nay when i read a letter of his i cannot help giving him the preference even over wickham much as i value the impudence and hypocrisy of my soninlaw and pray lizzy what said lady catherine about this report to this question his daughter replied only with a laugh and as it had been asked without the least suspicion she was not distressed by his repeating it elizabeth had never been more at a loss to make her feelings appear what they were not it was necessary to laugh when she would rather have cried her father had most cruelly mortified her by what he said of mr darcys indifference and she could do nothing but wonder at such a want of penetration or fear that perhaps instead of his seeing too little she might have fancied too much chapter  instead of receiving any such letter of excuse from his friend as elizabeth half expected mr bingley to do he was able to bring darcy with him to longbourn before many days had passed after lady catherines visit bennet had time to tell him of their having seen his aunt of which her daughter sat in momentary dread bingley who wanted to be alone with jane proposed their all walking out
he did not talk to me of his own arts said fitzwilliam smiling elizabeth made no answer and walked on her heart swelling with indignation after watching her a little fitzwilliam asked her why she was so thoughtful i am thinking of what you have been telling me said she you are rather disposed to call his interference officious darcy had to decide on the propriety of his friends inclination or why upon his own judgement alone he was to determine and direct in what manner his friend was to be happy but she continued recollecting herself as we know none of the particulars it is not fair to condemn him it is not to be supposed that there was much affection in the case that is not an unnatural surmise said fitzwilliam but it is a lessening of the honour of my cousins triumph very sadly this was spoken jestingly but it appeared to her so just a picture of mr darcy that she would not trust herself with an answer and therefore abruptly changing the conversation talked on indifferent matters until they reached the parsonage there shut into her own room as soon as their visitor left them she could think without interruption of all that she had heard it was not to be supposed that any other people could be meant than those with whom she was connected there could not exist in the world two men over whom mr that he had been concerned in the measures taken to separate bingley and jane she had never doubted but she had always attributed to miss bingley the principal design and arrangement of them if his own vanity however did not mislead him he was the cause his pride and caprice were the cause of all that jane had suffered and still continued to suffer he had ruined for a while every hope of happiness for the most affectionate generous heart in the world and no one could say how lasting an evil he might have inflicted there were some very strong objections against the lady were colonel fitzwilliams words and those strong objections probably were her having one uncle who was a country attorney and another who was in business in london to jane herself she exclaimed there could be no possibility of objection all loveliness and goodness as she is her understanding excellent her mind improved and her manners captivating
collins meanwhile was meditating in solitude on what had passed he thought too well of himself to comprehend on what motives his cousin could refuse him and though his pride was hurt he suffered in no other way his regard for her was quite imaginary and the possibility of her deserving her mothers reproach prevented his feeling any regret while the family were in this confusion charlotte lucas came to spend the day with them she was met in the vestibule by lydia who flying to her cried in a half whisper i am glad you are come for there is such fun here collins has made an offer to lizzy and she will not have him charlotte hardly had time to answer before they were joined by kitty who came to tell the same news and no sooner had they entered the breakfastroom where mrs bennet was alone than she likewise began on the subject calling on miss lucas for her compassion and entreating her to persuade her friend lizzy to comply with the wishes of all her family pray do my dear miss lucas she added in a melancholy tone for nobody is on my side nobody takes part with me charlottes reply was spared by the entrance of jane and elizabeth bennet looking as unconcerned as may be and caring no more for us than if we were at york provided she can have her own way but i tell you miss lizzyif you take it into your head to go on refusing every offer of marriage in this way you will never get a husband at alland i am sure i do not know who is to maintain you when your father is dead i told you in the library you know that i should never speak to you again and you will find me as good as my word i have no pleasure in talking to undutiful children not that i have much pleasure indeed in talking to anybody people who suffer as i do from nervous complaints can have no great inclination for talking her daughters listened in silence to this effusion sensible that any attempt to reason with her or soothe her would only increase the irritation she talked on therefore without interruption from any of them till they were joined by mr collins who entered the room with an air more stately than usual and on perceiving whom she said to the girls now i do insist upon it that you all of you hold your tongues and let me and mr elizabeth passed quietly out of the room jane and kitty followed but lydia stood her ground determined to hear all she could and charlotte detained first by the civility of mr
her eagerness to be gone from norland was preserved from diminution by the evident satisfaction of her daughterinlaw in the prospect of her removal a satisfaction which was but feebly attempted to be concealed under a cold invitation to her to defer her departure now was the time when her soninlaws promise to his father might with particular propriety be fulfilled since he had neglected to do it on first coming to the estate their quitting his house might be looked on as the most suitable period for its accomplishment dashwood began shortly to give over every hope of the kind and to be convinced from the general drift of his discourse that his assistance extended no farther than their maintenance for six months at norland he so frequently talked of the increasing expenses of housekeeping and of the perpetual demands upon his purse which a man of any consequence in the world was beyond calculation exposed to that he seemed rather to stand in need of more money himself than to have any design of giving money away in a very few weeks from the day which brought sir john middletons first letter to norland every thing was so far settled in their future abode as to enable mrs many were the tears shed by them in their last adieus to a place so much beloved said marianne as she wandered alone before the house on the last evening of their being there when shall i cease to regret you happy house could you know what i suffer in now viewing you from this spot from whence perhaps i may view you no more no leaf will decay because we are removed nor any branch become motionless although we can observe you no longer no you will continue the same unconscious of the pleasure or the regret you occasion and insensible of any change in those who walk under your shade chapter  the first part of their journey was performed in too melancholy a disposition to be otherwise than tedious and unpleasant but as they drew towards the end of it their interest in the appearance of a country which they were to inhabit overcame their dejection and a view of barton valley as they entered it gave them cheerfulness it was a pleasant fertile spot well wooded and rich in pasture after winding along it for more than a mile they reached their own house a small green court was the whole of its demesne in front and a neat wicket gate admitted them into it as a house barton cottage though small was comfortable and compact but as a cottage it was defective for the building was regular the roof was tiled the window shutters were not painted green nor were the walls covered with honeysuckles a narrow passage led directly through the house into the garden behind on each side of the entrance was a sitting room about sixteen feet square and beyond them were the offices and the stairs four bedrooms and two garrets formed the rest of the house
these floated aside the broken ends drooping the crew at the sternwreck clinging to the gunwales and striving to hold fast to the oars to lash them across at that preluding moment ere the boat was yet snapped ahab the first to perceive the whales intent by the crafty upraising of his head a movement that loosed his hold for the time at that moment his hand had made one final effort to push the boat out of the bite but only slipping further into the whales mouth and tilting over sideways as it slipped the boat had shaken off his hold on the jaw spilled him out of it as he leaned to the push and so he fell flatfaced upon the sea ripplingly withdrawing from his prey moby dick now lay at a little distance vertically thrusting his oblong white head up and down in the billows and at the same time slowly revolving his whole spindled body so that when his vast wrinkled forehead rosesome twenty or more feet out of the waterthe now rising swells with all their confluent waves dazzlingly broke against it vindictively tossing their shivered spray still higher into the air  so in a gale the but half baffled channel billows only recoil from the base of the eddystone triumphantly to overleap its summit with their scud it receives its designation pitchpoling from its being likened to that preliminary upanddown poise of the whalelance in the exercise called pitchpoling previously described by this motion the whale must best and most comprehensively view whatever objects may be encircling him but soon resuming his horizontal attitude moby dick swam swiftly round and round the wrecked crew sideways churning the water in his vengeful wake as if lashing himself up to still another and more deadly assault the sight of the splintered boat seemed to madden him as the blood of grapes and mulberries cast before antiochuss elephants in the book of maccabees meanwhile ahab half smothered in the foam of the whales insolent tail and too much of a cripple to swimthough he could still keep afloat even in the heart of such a whirlpool as that helpless ahabs head was seen like a tossed bubble which the least chance shock might burst from the boats fragmentary stern fedallah incuriously and mildly eyed him the clinging crew at the other drifting end could not succor him more than enough was it for them to look to themselves for so revolvingly appalling was the white whales aspect and so planetarily swift the evercontracting circles he made that he seemed horizontally swooping upon them and though the other boats unharmed still hovered hard by still they dared not pull into the eddy to strike lest that should be the signal for the instant destruction of the jeopardized castaways ahab and all nor in that case could they themselves hope to escape with straining eyes then they remained on the outer edge of the direful zone whose centre had now become the old mans head meantime from the beginning all this had been descried from the ships mast heads and squaring her yards she had borne down upon the scene and was now so nigh that ahab in the water hailed her sail on thebut that moment a breaking sea dashed on him from moby dick and whelmed him for the time but struggling out of it again and chancing to rise on a towering crest he shoutedsail on the whale  the pequods prows were pointed and breaking up the charmed circle she effectually parted the white whale from his victim as he sullenly swam off the boats flew to the rescue dragged into stubbs boat with bloodshot blinded eyes the white brine caking in his wrinkles the long tension of ahabs bodily strength did crack and helplessly he yielded to his bodys doom for a time lying all crushed in the bottom of stubbs boat like one trodden under foot of herds of elephants
when she saw him thus seeking the acquaintance and courting the good opinion of people with whom any intercourse a few months ago would have been a disgracewhen she saw him thus civil not only to herself but to the very relations whom he had openly disdained and recollected their last lively scene in hunsford parsonagethe difference the change was so great and struck so forcibly on her mind that she could hardly restrain her astonishment from being visible never even in the company of his dear friends at netherfield or his dignified relations at rosings had she seen him so desirous to please so free from selfconsequence or unbending reserve as now when no importance could result from the success of his endeavours and when even the acquaintance of those to whom his attentions were addressed would draw down the ridicule and censure of the ladies both of netherfield and rosings their visitors stayed with them above halfanhour and when they arose to depart mr darcy called on his sister to join him in expressing their wish of seeing mr gardiner and miss bennet to dinner at pemberley before they left the country miss darcy though with a diffidence which marked her little in the habit of giving invitations readily obeyed gardiner looked at her niece desirous of knowing how she whom the invitation most concerned felt disposed as to its acceptance but elizabeth had turned away her head presuming however that this studied avoidance spoke rather a momentary embarrassment than any dislike of the proposal and seeing in her husband who was fond of society a perfect willingness to accept it she ventured to engage for her attendance and the day after the next was fixed on bingley expressed great pleasure in the certainty of seeing elizabeth again having still a great deal to say to her and many inquiries to make after all their hertfordshire friends elizabeth construing all this into a wish of hearing her speak of her sister was pleased and on this account as well as some others found herself when their visitors left them capable of considering the last halfhour with some satisfaction though while it was passing the enjoyment of it had been little eager to be alone and fearful of inquiries or hints from her uncle and aunt she stayed with them only long enough to hear their favourable opinion of bingley and then hurried away to dress gardiners curiosity it was not their wish to force her communication it was evident that she was much better acquainted with mr darcy than they had before any idea of it was evident that he was very much in love with her they saw much to interest but nothing to justify inquiry darcy it was now a matter of anxiety to think well and as far as their acquaintance reached there was no fault to find they could not be untouched by his politeness and had they drawn his character from their own feelings and his servants report without any reference to any other account the circle in hertfordshire to which he was known would not have recognized it for mr there was now an interest however in believing the housekeeper and they soon became sensible that the authority of a servant who had known him since he was four years old and whose own manners indicated respectability was not to be hastily rejected neither had anything occurred in the intelligence of their lambton friends that could materially lessen its weight they had nothing to accuse him of but pride pride he probably had and if not it would certainly be imputed by the inhabitants of a small markettown where the family did not visit
look ye here then cried ahab passionately advancing and leaning with both hands on perths shoulders look ye hereherecan ye smoothe out a seam like this blacksmith sweeping one hand across his ribbed brow if thou couldst blacksmith glad enough would i lay my head upon thy anvil and feel thy heaviest hammer between my eyes aye blacksmith it is the one aye man it is unsmoothable for though thou only seest it here in my flesh it has worked down into the bone of my skullthat is all wrinkles but away with childs play no more gaffs and pikes today jingling the leathern bag as if it were full of gold coins i too want a harpoon made one that a thousand yoke of fiends could not part perth something that will stick in a whale like his own finbone look ye blacksmith these are the gathered nailstubbs of the steel shoes of racing horses why captain ahab thou hast here then the best and stubbornest stuff we blacksmiths ever work i know it old man these stubbs will weld together like glue from the melted bones of murderers and forge me first twelve rods for its shank then wind and twist and hammer these twelve together like the yarns and strands of a towline when at last the twelve rods were made ahab tried them one by one by spiralling them with his own hand round a long heavy iron bolt this done perth was about to begin welding the twelve into one when ahab stayed his hand and said he would weld his own iron as then with regular gasping hems he hammered on the anvil perth passing to him the glowing rods one after the other and the hard pressed forge shooting up its intense straight flame the parsee passed silently and bowing over his head towards the fire seemed invoking some curse or some blessing on the toil whats that bunch of lucifers dodging about there for that parsee smells fire like a fusee and smells of it himself like a hot muskets powderpan at last the shank in one complete rod received its final heat and as perth to temper it plunged it all hissing into the cask of water near by the scalding steam shot up into ahabs bent face wincing for a moment with the pain have i been but forging my own brandingiron then pray god not that yet i fear something captain ahab but now for the barbs thou must make them thyself man here are my razorsthe best of steel here and make the barbs sharp as the needlesleet of the icy sea for a moment the old blacksmith eyed the razors as though he would fain not use them
i need not explain myself farther and though we know this anxiety to be quite needless yet if she feels it it will easily account for her behaviour to me and so deservedly dear as he is to his sister whatever anxiety she must feel on his behalf is natural and amiable i cannot but wonder however at her having any such fears now because if he had at all cared about me we must have met long ago he knows of my being in town i am certain from something she said herself and yet it would seem by her manner of talking as if she wanted to persuade herself that he is really partial to miss darcy if i were not afraid of judging harshly i should be almost tempted to say that there is a strong appearance of duplicity in all this but i will endeavour to banish every painful thought and think only of what will make me happyyour affection and the invariable kindness of my dear uncle and aunt miss bingley said something of his never returning to netherfield again of giving up the house but not with any certainty i am extremely glad that you have such pleasant accounts from our friends at hunsford this letter gave elizabeth some pain but her spirits returned as she considered that jane would no longer be duped by the sister at least all expectation from the brother was now absolutely over she would not even wish for a renewal of his attentions his character sunk on every review of it and as a punishment for him as well as a possible advantage to jane she seriously hoped he might really soon marry mr darcys sister as by wickhams account she would make him abundantly regret what he had thrown away gardiner about this time reminded elizabeth of her promise concerning that gentleman and required information and elizabeth had such to send as might rather give contentment to her aunt than to herself his apparent partiality had subsided his attentions were over he was the admirer of some one else elizabeth was watchful enough to see it all but she could see it and write of it without material pain her heart had been but slightly touched and her vanity was satisfied with believing that she would have been his only choice had fortune permitted it the sudden acquisition of ten thousand pounds was the most remarkable charm of the young lady to whom he was now rendering himself agreeable but elizabeth less clearsighted perhaps in this case than in charlottes did not quarrel with him for his wish of independence nothing on the contrary could be more natural and while able to suppose that it cost him a few struggles to relinquish her she was ready to allow it a wise and desirable measure for both and could very sincerely wish him happy gardiner and after relating the circumstances she thus went on i am now convinced my dear aunt that i have never been much in love for had i really experienced that pure and elevating passion i should at present detest his very name and wish him all manner of evil but my feelings are not only cordial towards him they are even impartial towards miss king
had he been in a situation to act independently and marry immediately it might have been odd that he should leave us without acknowledging everything to me at once but this is not the case it is an engagement in some respects not prosperously begun for their marriage must be at a very uncertain distance and even secrecy as far as it can be observed may now be very advisable they were interrupted by the entrance of margaret and elinor was then at liberty to think over the representations of her mother to acknowledge the probability of many and hope for the justice of all they saw nothing of marianne till dinner time when she entered the room and took her place at the table without saying a word her eyes were red and swollen and it seemed as if her tears were even then restrained with difficulty she avoided the looks of them all could neither eat nor speak and after some time on her mothers silently pressing her hand with tender compassion her small degree of fortitude was quite overcome she burst into tears and left the room this violent oppression of spirits continued the whole evening she was without any power because she was without any desire of command over herself the slightest mention of anything relative to willoughby overpowered her in an instant and though her family were most anxiously attentive to her comfort it was impossible for them if they spoke at all to keep clear of every subject which her feelings connected with him chapter  marianne would have thought herself very inexcusable had she been able to sleep at all the first night after parting from willoughby she would have been ashamed to look her family in the face the next morning had she not risen from her bed in more need of repose than when she lay down in it but the feelings which made such composure a disgrace left her in no danger of incurring it she was awake the whole night and she wept the greatest part of it she got up with a headache was unable to talk and unwilling to take any nourishment giving pain every moment to her mother and sisters and forbidding all attempt at consolation from either when breakfast was over she walked out by herself and wandered about the village of allenham indulging the recollection of past enjoyment and crying over the present reverse for the chief of the morning the evening passed off in the equal indulgence of feeling she played over every favourite song that she had been used to play to willoughby every air in which their voices had been oftenest joined and sat at the instrument gazing on every line of music that he had written out for her till her heart was so heavy that no farther sadness could be gained and this nourishment of grief was every day applied she spent whole hours at the pianoforte alternately singing and crying her voice often totally suspended by her tears in books too as well as in music she courted the misery which a contrast between the past and present was certain of giving she read nothing but what they had been used to read together
and if you will stay another month complete it will be in my power to take one of you as far as london for i am going there early in june for a week and as dawson does not object to the barouchebox there will be very good room for one of youand indeed if the weather should happen to be cool i should not object to taking you both as you are neither of you large you are all kindness madam but i believe we must abide by our original plan you know i always speak my mind and i cannot bear the idea of two young women travelling post by themselves i have the greatest dislike in the world to that sort of thing young women should always be properly guarded and attended according to their situation in life when my niece georgiana went to ramsgate last summer i made a point of her having two menservants go with her darcy of pemberley and lady anne could not have appeared with propriety in a different manner i am glad it occurred to me to mention it for it would really be discreditable to you to let them go alone i am very glad you have somebody who thinks of these things if you mention my name at the bell you will be attended to lady catherine had many other questions to ask respecting their journey and as she did not answer them all herself attention was necessary which elizabeth believed to be lucky for her or with a mind so occupied she might have forgotten where she was reflection must be reserved for solitary hours whenever she was alone she gave way to it as the greatest relief and not a day went by without a solitary walk in which she might indulge in all the delight of unpleasant recollections darcys letter she was in a fair way of soon knowing by heart she studied every sentence and her feelings towards its writer were at times widely different when she remembered the style of his address she was still full of indignation but when she considered how unjustly she had condemned and upbraided him her anger was turned against herself and his disappointed feelings became the object of compassion his attachment excited gratitude his general character respect but she could not approve him nor could she for a moment repent her refusal or feel the slightest inclination ever to see him again in her own past behaviour there was a constant source of vexation and regret and in the unhappy defects of her family a subject of yet heavier chagrin her father contented with laughing at them would never exert himself to restrain the wild giddiness of his youngest daughters and her mother with manners so far from right herself was entirely insensible of the evil elizabeth had frequently united with jane in an endeavour to check the imprudence of catherine and lydia but while they were supported by their mothers indulgence what chance could there be of improvement catherine weakspirited irritable and completely under lydias guidance had been always affronted by their advice and lydia selfwilled and careless would scarcely give them a hearing
as they walked across the hall towards the river elizabeth turned back to look again her uncle and aunt stopped also and while the former was conjecturing as to the date of the building the owner of it himself suddenly came forward from the road which led behind it to the stables they were within twenty yards of each other and so abrupt was his appearance that it was impossible to avoid his sight their eyes instantly met and the cheeks of both were overspread with the deepest blush he absolutely started and for a moment seemed immovable from surprise but shortly recovering himself advanced towards the party and spoke to elizabeth if not in terms of perfect composure at least of perfect civility she had instinctively turned away but stopping on his approach received his compliments with an embarrassment impossible to be overcome had his first appearance or his resemblance to the picture they had just been examining been insufficient to assure the other two that they now saw mr darcy the gardeners expression of surprise on beholding his master must immediately have told it they stood a little aloof while he was talking to their niece who astonished and confused scarcely dared lift her eyes to his face and knew not what answer she returned to his civil inquiries after her family amazed at the alteration of his manner since they last parted every sentence that he uttered was increasing her embarrassment and every idea of the impropriety of her being found there recurring to her mind the few minutes in which they continued were some of the most uncomfortable in her life nor did he seem much more at ease when he spoke his accent had none of its usual sedateness and he repeated his inquiries as to the time of her having left longbourn and of her having stayed in derbyshire so often and in so hurried a way as plainly spoke the distraction of his thoughts at length every idea seemed to fail him and after standing a few moments without saying a word he suddenly recollected himself and took leave the others then joined her and expressed admiration of his figure but elizabeth heard not a word and wholly engrossed by her own feelings followed them in silence her coming there was the most unfortunate the most illjudged thing in the world in what a disgraceful light might it not strike so vain a man it might seem as if she had purposely thrown herself in his way again or why did he thus come a day before he was expected had they been only ten minutes sooner they should have been beyond the reach of his discrimination for it was plain that he was that moment arrivedthat moment alighted from his horse or his carriage she blushed again and again over the perverseness of the meeting and his behaviour so strikingly alteredwhat could it mean but to speak with such civility to inquire after her family
jennings thought only of his behaviourand while his looks of anxious solicitude on mariannes feeling in her head and throat the beginning of a heavy cold because unexpressed by words entirely escaped the latter ladys observationshe could discover in them the quick feelings and needless alarm of a lover two delightful twilight walks on the third and fourth evenings of her being there not merely on the dry gravel of the shrubbery but all over the grounds and especially in the most distant parts of them where there was something more of wildness than in the rest where the trees were the oldest and the grass was the longest and wettest hadassisted by the still greater imprudence of sitting in her wet shoes and stockingsgiven marianne a cold so violent as though for a day or two trifled with or denied would force itself by increasing ailments on the concern of every body and the notice of herself prescriptions poured in from all quarters and as usual were all declined though heavy and feverish with a pain in her limbs and a cough and a sore throat a good nights rest was to cure her entirely and it was with difficulty that elinor prevailed on her when she went to bed to try one or two of the simplest of the remedies chapter  marianne got up the next morning at her usual time to every inquiry replied that she was better and tried to prove herself so by engaging in her accustomary employments but a day spent in sitting shivering over the fire with a book in her hand which she was unable to read or in lying weary and languid on a sofa did not speak much in favour of her amendment and when at last she went early to bed more and more indisposed colonel brandon was only astonished at her sisters composure who though attending and nursing her the whole day against mariannes inclination and forcing proper medicines on her at night trusted like marianne to the certainty and efficacy of sleep and felt no real alarm a very restless and feverish night however disappointed the expectation of both and when marianne after persisting in rising confessed herself unable to sit up and returned voluntarily to her bed elinor was very ready to adopt mrs jenningss advice of sending for the palmers apothecary he came examined his patient and though encouraging miss dashwood to expect that a very few days would restore her sister to health yet by pronouncing her disorder to have a putrid tendency and allowing the word infection to pass his lips gave instant alarm to mrs jennings who had been inclined from the first to think mariannes complaint more serious than elinor now looked very grave on mr harriss report and confirming charlottes fears and caution urged the necessity of her immediate removal with her infant and mr palmer though treating their apprehensions as idle found the anxiety and importunity of his wife too great to be withstood her departure therefore was fixed on and within an hour after mr harriss arrival she set off with her little boy and his nurse for the house of a near relation of mr palmers who lived a few miles on the other side of bath whither her husband promised at her earnest entreaty to join her in a day or two and whither she was almost equally urgent with her mother to accompany her jennings however with a kindness of heart which made elinor really love her declared her resolution of not stirring from cleveland as long as marianne remained ill and of endeavouring by her own attentive care to supply to her the place of the mother she had taken her from and elinor found her on every occasion a most willing and active helpmate desirous to share in all her fatigues and often by her better experience in nursing of material use poor marianne languid and low from the nature of her malady and feeling herself universally ill could no longer hope that tomorrow would find her recovered and the idea of what tomorrow would have produced but for this unlucky illness made every ailment severe for on that day they were to have begun their journey home and attended the whole way by a servant of mrs jennings were to have taken their mother by surprise on the following forenoon the little she said was all in lamentation of this inevitable delay though elinor tried to raise her spirits and make her believe as she then really believed herself that it would be a very short one the next day produced little or no alteration in the state of the patient she certainly was not better and except that there was no amendment did not appear worse
she had once or twice suggested to elizabeth the possibility of his being partial to her but elizabeth always laughed at the idea and mrs collins did not think it right to press the subject from the danger of raising expectations which might only end in disappointment for in her opinion it admitted not of a doubt that all her friends dislike would vanish if she could suppose him to be in her power in her kind schemes for elizabeth she sometimes planned her marrying colonel fitzwilliam he was beyond comparison the most pleasant man he certainly admired her and his situation in life was most eligible but to counterbalance these advantages mr darcy had considerable patronage in the church and his cousin could have none at all chapter  more than once did elizabeth in her ramble within the park unexpectedly meet mr she felt all the perverseness of the mischance that should bring him where no one else was brought and to prevent its ever happening again took care to inform him at first that it was a favourite haunt of hers how it could occur a second time therefore was very odd it seemed like wilful illnature or a voluntary penance for on these occasions it was not merely a few formal inquiries and an awkward pause and then away but he actually thought it necessary to turn back and walk with her he never said a great deal nor did she give herself the trouble of talking or of listening much but it struck her in the course of their third rencontre that he was asking some odd unconnected questionsabout her pleasure in being at hunsford her love of solitary walks and her opinion of mr collinss happiness and that in speaking of rosings and her not perfectly understanding the house he seemed to expect that whenever she came into kent again she would be staying there too she supposed if he meant anything he must mean an allusion to what might arise in that quarter it distressed her a little and she was quite glad to find herself at the gate in the pales opposite the parsonage she was engaged one day as she walked in perusing janes last letter and dwelling on some passages which proved that jane had not written in spirits when instead of being again surprised by mr darcy she saw on looking up that colonel fitzwilliam was meeting her putting away the letter immediately and forcing a smile she said i did not know before that you ever walked this way i have been making the tour of the park he replied as i generally do every year and intend to close it with a call at the parsonage and accordingly she did turn and they walked towards the parsonage together and if not able to please himself in the arrangement he has at least pleasure in the great power of choice i do not know anybody who seems more to enjoy the power of doing what he likes than mr
but in sorrow she must be equally carried away by her fancy and as far beyond consolation as in pleasure she was beyond alloy john dashwood did not at all approve of what her husband intended to do for his sisters to take three thousand pounds from the fortune of their dear little boy would be impoverishing him to the most dreadful degree how could he answer it to himself to rob his child and his only child too of so large a sum and what possible claim could the miss dashwoods who were related to him only by half blood which she considered as no relationship at all have on his generosity to so large an amount it was very well known that no affection was ever supposed to exist between the children of any man by different marriages and why was he to ruin himself and their poor little harry by giving away all his money to his half sisters it was my fathers last request to me replied her husband that i should assist his widow and daughters he did not know what he was talking of i dare say ten to one but he was lightheaded at the time had he been in his right senses he could not have thought of such a thing as begging you to give away half your fortune from your own child he did not stipulate for any particular sum my dear fanny he only requested me in general terms to assist them and make their situation more comfortable than it was in his power to do perhaps it would have been as well if he had left it wholly to myself but as he required the promise i could not do less than give it at least i thought so at the time the promise therefore was given and must be performed something must be done for them whenever they leave norland and settle in a new home well then let something be done for them but that something need not be three thousand pounds consider she added that when the money is once parted with it never can return your sisters will marry and it will be gone for ever if indeed it could be restored to our poor little boy why to be sure said her husband very gravely that would make great difference the time may come when harry will regret that so large a sum was parted with if he should have a numerous family for instance it would be a very convenient addition
such an opportunity of being with edward and his family was above all things the most material to her interest and such an invitation the most gratifying to her feelings it was an advantage that could not be too gratefully acknowledged nor too speedily made use of and the visit to lady middleton which had not before had any precise limits was instantly discovered to have been always meant to end in two days time when the note was shown to elinor as it was within ten minutes after its arrival it gave her for the first time some share in the expectations of lucy for such a mark of uncommon kindness vouchsafed on so short an acquaintance seemed to declare that the goodwill towards her arose from something more than merely malice against herself and might be brought by time and address to do every thing that lucy wished her flattery had already subdued the pride of lady middleton and made an entry into the close heart of mrs john dashwood and these were effects that laid open the probability of greater the miss steeles removed to harley street and all that reached elinor of their influence there strengthened her expectation of the event sir john who called on them more than once brought home such accounts of the favour they were in as must be universally striking dashwood had never been so much pleased with any young women in her life as she was with them had given each of them a needle book made by some emigrant called lucy by her christian name and did not know whether she should ever be able to part with them at this point in the first and second editions volume ii ended palmer was so well at the end of a fortnight that her mother felt it no longer necessary to give up the whole of her time to her and contenting herself with visiting her once or twice a day returned from that period to her own home and her own habits in which she found the miss dashwoods very ready to resume their former share about the third or fourth morning after their being thus resettled in berkeley street mrs jennings on returning from her ordinary visit to mrs palmer entered the drawingroom where elinor was sitting by herself with an air of such hurrying importance as prepared her to hear something wonderful and giving her time only to form that idea began directly to justify it by saying lord palmers i found charlotte quite in a fuss about the child she was sure it was very illit cried and fretted and was all over pimples my dear says i it is nothing in the world but the red gum and nurse said just the same donavan was sent for and luckily he happened to just come in from harley street so he stepped over directly and as soon as ever mama he said just as we did that it was nothing in the world but the red gum and then charlotte was easy and so just as he was going away again it came into my head i am sure i do not know how i happened to think of it but it came into my head to ask him if there was any news so upon that he smirked and simpered and looked grave and seemed to know something or other and at last he said in a whisper for fear any unpleasant report should reach the young ladies under your care as to their sisters indisposition i think it advisable to say that i believe there is no great reason for alarm i hope mrs  so then it all came out and the long and the short of the matter by all i can learn seems to be this
to this determination she was the more easily reconciled by recollecting that edward ferrars by lucys account was not to be in town before february and that their visit without any unreasonable abridgement might be previously finished you will have much pleasure in being in london and especially in being together and if elinor would ever condescend to anticipate enjoyment she would foresee it there from a variety of sources she would perhaps expect some from improving her acquaintance with her sisterinlaws family elinor had often wished for an opportunity of attempting to weaken her mothers dependence on the attachment of edward and herself that the shock might be less when the whole truth were revealed and now on this attack though almost hopeless of success she forced herself to begin her design by saying as calmly as she could i like edward ferrars very much and shall always be glad to see him but as to the rest of the family it is a matter of perfect indifference to me whether i am ever known to them or not marianne lifted up her eyes in astonishment and elinor conjectured that she might as well have held her tongue after very little farther discourse it was finally settled that the invitation should be fully accepted jennings received the information with a great deal of joy and many assurances of kindness and care nor was it a matter of pleasure merely to her sir john was delighted for to a man whose prevailing anxiety was the dread of being alone the acquisition of two to the number of inhabitants in london was something even lady middleton took the trouble of being delighted which was putting herself rather out of her way and as for the miss steeles especially lucy they had never been so happy in their lives as this intelligence made them elinor submitted to the arrangement which counteracted her wishes with less reluctance than she had expected to feel with regard to herself it was now a matter of unconcern whether she went to town or not and when she saw her mother so thoroughly pleased with the plan and her sister exhilarated by it in look voice and manner restored to all her usual animation and elevated to more than her usual gaiety she could not be dissatisfied with the cause and would hardly allow herself to distrust the consequence mariannes joy was almost a degree beyond happiness so great was the perturbation of her spirits and her impatience to be gone her unwillingness to quit her mother was her only restorative to calmness and at the moment of parting her grief on that score was excessive her mothers affliction was hardly less and elinor was the only one of the three who seemed to consider the separation as any thing short of eternal their departure took place in the first week in january the miss steeles kept their station at the park and were to quit it only with the rest of the family chapter  elinor could not find herself in the carriage with mrs jennings and beginning a journey to london under her protection and as her guest without wondering at her own situation so short had their acquaintance with that lady been so wholly unsuited were they in age and disposition and so many had been her objections against such a measure only a few days before but these objections had all with that happy ardour of youth which marianne and her mother equally shared been overcome or overlooked and elinor in spite of every occasional doubt of willoughbys constancy could not witness the rapture of delightful expectation which filled the whole soul and beamed in the eyes of marianne without feeling how blank was her own prospect how cheerless her own state of mind in the comparison and how gladly she would engage in the solicitude of mariannes situation to have the same animating object in view the same possibility of hope a short a very short time however must now decide what willoughbys intentions were in all probability he was already in town mariannes eagerness to be gone declared her dependence on finding him there and elinor was resolved not only upon gaining every new light as to his character which her own observation or the intelligence of others could give her but likewise upon watching his behaviour to her sister with such zealous attention as to ascertain what he was and what he meant before many meetings had taken place
he said much of his earnest desire of their living in the most sociable terms with his family and pressed them so cordially to dine at barton park every day till they were better settled at home that though his entreaties were carried to a point of perseverance beyond civility they could not give offence his kindness was not confined to words for within an hour after he left them a large basket full of garden stuff and fruit arrived from the park which was followed before the end of the day by a present of game he insisted moreover on conveying all their letters to and from the post for them and would not be denied the satisfaction of sending them his newspaper every day lady middleton had sent a very civil message by him denoting her intention of waiting on mrs dashwood as soon as she could be assured that her visit would be no inconvenience and as this message was answered by an invitation equally polite her ladyship was introduced to them the next day they were of course very anxious to see a person on whom so much of their comfort at barton must depend and the elegance of her appearance was favourable to their wishes lady middleton was not more than six or seven and twenty her face was handsome her figure tall and striking and her address graceful her manners had all the elegance which her husbands wanted but they would have been improved by some share of his frankness and warmth and her visit was long enough to detract something from their first admiration by shewing that though perfectly wellbred she was reserved cold and had nothing to say for herself beyond the most commonplace inquiry or remark conversation however was not wanted for sir john was very chatty and lady middleton had taken the wise precaution of bringing with her their eldest child a fine little boy about six years old by which means there was one subject always to be recurred to by the ladies in case of extremity for they had to enquire his name and age admire his beauty and ask him questions which his mother answered for him while he hung about her and held down his head to the great surprise of her ladyship who wondered at his being so shy before company as he could make noise enough at home on every formal visit a child ought to be of the party by way of provision for discourse in the present case it took up ten minutes to determine whether the boy were most like his father or mother and in what particular he resembled either for of course every body differed and every body was astonished at the opinion of the others an opportunity was soon to be given to the dashwoods of debating on the rest of the children as sir john would not leave the house without securing their promise of dining at the park the next day chapter  barton park was about half a mile from the cottage the ladies had passed near it in their way along the valley but it was screened from their view at home by the projection of a hill the house was large and handsome and the middletons lived in a style of equal hospitality and elegance the former was for sir johns gratification the latter for that of his lady they were scarcely ever without some friends staying with them in the house and they kept more company of every kind than any other family in the neighbourhood it was necessary to the happiness of both for however dissimilar in temper and outward behaviour they strongly resembled each other in that total want of talent and taste which confined their employments unconnected with such as society produced within a very narrow compass he hunted and shot and she humoured her children and these were their only resources
though we have seen him once or twice at my uncles it is rather too much to pretend to know him very well she wished very much to have the subject continued though she did not chuse to join in it herself but nothing more of it was said and for the first time in her life she thought mrs jennings deficient either in curiosity after petty information or in a disposition to communicate it the manner in which miss steele had spoken of edward increased her curiosity for it struck her as being rather illnatured and suggested the suspicion of that ladys knowing or fancying herself to know something to his disadvantage but her curiosity was unavailing for no farther notice was taken of mr ferrarss name by miss steele when alluded to or even openly mentioned by sir john chapter  marianne who had never much toleration for any thing like impertinence vulgarity inferiority of parts or even difference of taste from herself was at this time particularly illdisposed from the state of her spirits to be pleased with the miss steeles or to encourage their advances and to the invariable coldness of her behaviour towards them which checked every endeavour at intimacy on their side elinor principally attributed that preference of herself which soon became evident in the manners of both but especially of lucy who missed no opportunity of engaging her in conversation or of striving to improve their acquaintance by an easy and frank communication of her sentiments lucy was naturally clever her remarks were often just and amusing and as a companion for half an hour elinor frequently found her agreeable but her powers had received no aid from education she was ignorant and illiterate and her deficiency of all mental improvement her want of information in the most common particulars could not be concealed from miss dashwood in spite of her constant endeavour to appear to advantage elinor saw and pitied her for the neglect of abilities which education might have rendered so respectable but she saw with less tenderness of feeling the thorough want of delicacy of rectitude and integrity of mind which her attentions her assiduities her flatteries at the park betrayed and she could have no lasting satisfaction in the company of a person who joined insincerity with ignorance whose want of instruction prevented their meeting in conversation on terms of equality and whose conduct toward others made every shew of attention and deference towards herself perfectly valueless you will think my question an odd one i dare say said lucy to her one day as they were walking together from the park to the cottagebut pray are you personally acquainted with your sisterinlaws mother mrs  elinor did think the question a very odd one and her countenance expressed it as she answered that she had never seen mrs replied lucy i wonder at that for i thought you must have seen her at norland sometimes then perhaps you cannot tell me what sort of a woman she is no returned elinor cautious of giving her real opinion of edwards mother and not very desirous of satisfying what seemed impertinent curiosity i know nothing of her i am sure you think me very strange for enquiring about her in such a way said lucy eyeing elinor attentively as she spoke but perhaps there may be reasonsi wish i might venture but however i hope you will do me the justice of believing that i do not mean to be impertinent elinor made her a civil reply and they walked on for a few minutes in silence it was broken by lucy who renewed the subject again by saying with some hesitation i cannot bear to have you think me impertinently curious i am sure i would rather do any thing in the world than be thought so by a person whose good opinion is so well worth having as yours and i am sure i should not have the smallest fear of trusting you indeed i should be very glad of your advice how to manage in such an uncomfortable situation as i am but however there is no occasion to trouble you i am sorry i do not said elinor in great astonishment if it could be of any use to you to know my opinion of her
besides he thought perhaps that in this business of whaling courage was one of the great staple outfits of the ship like her beef and her bread and not to be foolishly wasted wherefore he had no fancy for lowering for whales after sundown nor for persisting in fighting a fish that too much persisted in fighting him for thought starbuck i am here in this critical ocean to kill whales for my living and not to be killed by them for theirs and that hundreds of men had been so killed starbuck well knew where in the bottomless deeps could he find the torn limbs of his brother with memories like these in him and moreover given to a certain superstitiousness as has been said the courage of this starbuck which could nevertheless still flourish must indeed have been extreme but it was not in reasonable nature that a man so organized and with such terrible experiences and remembrances as he had it was not in nature that these things should fail in latently engendering an element in him which under suitable circumstances would break out from its confinement and burn all his courage up and brave as he might be it was that sort of bravery chiefly visible in some intrepid men which while generally abiding firm in the conflict with seas or winds or whales or any of the ordinary irrational horrors of the world yet cannot withstand those more terrific because more spiritual terrors which sometimes menace you from the concentrating brow of an enraged and mighty man but were the coming narrative to reveal in any instance the complete abasement of poor starbucks fortitude scarce might i have the heart to write it for it is a thing most sorrowful nay shocking to expose the fall of valour in the soul men may seem detestable as joint stockcompanies and nations knaves fools and murderers there may be men may have mean and meagre faces but man in the ideal is so noble and so sparkling such a grand and glowing creature that over any ignominious blemish in him all his fellows should run to throw their costliest robes that immaculate manliness we feel within ourselves so far within us that it remains intact though all the outer character seem gone bleeds with keenest anguish at the undraped spectacle of a valorruined man nor can piety itself at such a shameful sight completely stifle her upbraidings against the permitting stars but this august dignity i treat of is not the dignity of kings and robes but that abounding dignity which has no robed investiture thou shalt see it shining in the arm that wields a pick or drives a spike that democratic dignity which on all hands radiates without end from god himself if then to meanest mariners and renegades and castaways i shall hereafter ascribe high qualities though dark weave round them tragic graces if even the most mournful perchance the most abased among them all shall at times lift himself to the exalted mounts if i shall touch that workmans arm with some ethereal light if i shall spread a rainbow over his disastrous set of sun then against all mortal critics bear me out in it thou just spirit of equality which hast spread one royal mantle of humanity over all my kind who didst not refuse to the swart convict bunyan the pale poetic pearl thou who didst clothe with doubly hammered leaves of finest gold the stumped and paupered arm of old cervantes thou who didst pick up andrew jackson from the pebbles who didst hurl him upon a warhorse who didst thunder him higher than a throne thou who in all thy mighty earthly marchings ever cullest thy selectest champions from the kingly commons bear me out in it o god he was a native of cape cod and hence according to local usage was called a capecodman a happygolucky neither craven nor valiant taking perils as they came with an indifferent air and while engaged in the most imminent crisis of the chase toiling away calm and collected as a journeyman joiner engaged for the year goodhumored easy and careless he presided over his whaleboat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner and his crew all invited guests he was as particular about the comfortable arrangement of his part of the boat as an old stagedriver is about the snugness of his box
we consulted together however as to what should be done and at last she determined to send for edward ferrars could say to make him put an end to the engagement assisted too as you may well suppose by my arguments and fannys entreaties was of no avail i never thought edward so stubborn so unfeeling before his mother explained to him her liberal designs in case of his marrying miss morton told him she would settle on him the norfolk estate which clear of landtax brings in a good thousand ayear offered even when matters grew desperate to make it twelve hundred and in opposition to this if he still persisted in this low connection represented to him the certain penury that must attend the match his own two thousand pounds she protested should be his all she would never see him again and so far would she be from affording him the smallest assistance that if he were to enter into any profession with a view of better support she would do all in her power to prevent him advancing in it here marianne in an ecstasy of indignation clapped her hands together and cried gracious god well may you wonder marianne replied her brother at the obstinacy which could resist such arguments as these marianne was going to retort but she remembered her promises and forbore edward said very little but what he did say was in the most determined manner nothing should prevail on him to give up his engagement jennings with blunt sincerity no longer able to be silent he has acted like an honest man dashwood but if he had done otherwise i should have thought him a rascal i have some little concern in the business as well as yourself for lucy steele is my cousin and i believe there is not a better kind of girl in the world nor one who more deserves a good husband john dashwood was greatly astonished but his nature was calm not open to provocation and he never wished to offend anybody especially anybody of good fortune he therefore replied without any resentment i would by no means speak disrespectfully of any relation of yours madam miss lucy steele is i dare say a very deserving young woman but in the present case you know the connection must be impossible and to have entered into a secret engagement with a young man under her uncles care the son of a woman especially of such very large fortune as mrs ferrars is perhaps altogether a little extraordinary in short i do not mean to reflect upon the behaviour of any person whom you have a regard for mrs ferrarss conduct throughout the whole has been such as every conscientious good mother in like circumstances would adopt
senate on the application for the erection of a breakwater at nantucket the whale fell directly over him and probably killed him in a moment the whale and his captors or the whalemans adventures and the whales biography gathered on the homeward cruise of the commodore preble if you make the least damn bit of noise replied samuel i will send you to hell life of samuel comstock the mutineer by his brother william comstock the voyages of the dutch and english to the northern ocean in order if possible to discover a passage through it to india though they failed of their main object laidopen the haunts of the whale these things are reciprocal the ball rebounds only to bound forward again for now in laying open the haunts of the whale the whalemen seem to have indirectly hit upon new clews to that same mystic northwest passage it is impossible to meet a whaleship on the ocean without being struck by her near appearance the vessel under short sail with lookouts at the mastheads eagerly scanning the wide expanse around them has a totally different air from those engaged in regular voyage pedestrians in the vicinity of london and elsewhere may recollect having seen large curved bones set upright in the earth either to form arches over gateways or entrances to alcoves and they may perhaps have been told that these were the ribs of whales it was not till the boats returned from the pursuit of these whales that the whites saw their ship in bloody possession of the savages enrolled among the crew newspaper account of the taking and retaking of the whaleship hobomack it is generally well known that out of the crews of whaling vessels american few ever return in the ships on board of which they departed suddenly a mighty mass emerged from the water and shot up perpendicularly into the air the whale is harpooned to be sure but bethink you how you would manage a powerful unbroken colt with the mere appliance of a rope tied to the root of his tail on one occasion i saw two of these monsters whales probably male and female slowly swimming one after the other within less than a stones throw of the shore terra del fuego over which the beech tree extended its branches  exclaimed the mate as upon turning his head he saw the distended jaws of a large sperm whale close to the head of the boat threatening it with instant destructionstern all for your lives so be cheery my lads let your hearts never fail while the bold harpooneer is striking the whale oh the rare old whale mid storm and gale      in his ocean home will be      a giant in might where might is right      and king of the boundless sea some years agonever mind how long preciselyhaving little or no money in my purse and nothing particular to interest me on shore i thought i would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world
it does not seem to be used like the blade of the swordfish and billfish though some sailors tell me that the narwhale employs it for a rake in turning over the bottom of the sea for food charley coffin said it was used for an icepiercer for the narwhale rising to the surface of the polar sea and finding it sheeted with ice thrusts his horn up and so breaks through but you cannot prove either of these surmises to be correct my own opinion is that however this onesided horn may really be used by the narwhalehowever that may beit would certainly be very convenient to him for a folder in reading pamphlets the narwhale i have heard called the tusked whale the horned whale and the unicorn whale he is certainly a curious example of the unicornism to be found in almost every kingdom of animated nature from certain cloistered old authors i have gathered that this same seaunicorns horn was in ancient days regarded as the great antidote against poison and as such preparations of it brought immense prices it was also distilled to a volatile salts for fainting ladies the same way that the horns of the male deer are manufactured into hartshorn originally it was in itself accounted an object of great curiosity black letter tells me that sir martin frobisher on his return from that voyage when queen bess did gallantly wave her jewelled hand to him from a window of greenwich palace as his bold ship sailed down the thames when sir martin returned from that voyage saith black letter on bended knees he presented to her highness a prodigious long horn of the narwhale which for a long period after hung in the castle at windsor an irish author avers that the earl of leicester on bended knees did likewise present to her highness another horn pertaining to a land beast of the unicorn nature the narwhale has a very picturesque leopardlike look being of a milkwhite ground colour dotted with round and oblong spots of black his oil is very superior clear and fine but there is little of it and he is seldom hunted of this whale little is precisely known to the nantucketer and nothing at all to the professed naturalist from what i have seen of him at a distance i should say that he was about the bigness of a grampus he sometimes takes the great folio whales by the lip and hangs there like a leech till the mighty brute is worried to death exception might be taken to the name bestowed upon this whale on the ground of its indistinctness for we are all killers on land and on sea bonapartes and sharks included this gentleman is famous for his tail which he uses for a ferule in thrashing his foes he mounts the folio whales back and as he swims he works his passage by flogging him as some schoolmasters get along in the world by a similar process
darcy then consider the rashness of your original intentions as atoned for by your obstinacy in adhering to it upon my word i cannot exactly explain the matter darcy must speak for himself you expect me to account for opinions which you choose to call mine but which i have never acknowledged allowing the case however to stand according to your representation you must remember miss bennet that the friend who is supposed to desire his return to the house and the delay of his plan has merely desired it asked it without offering one argument in favour of its propriety to yield readilyeasilyto the persuasion of a friend is no merit with you to yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either darcy to allow nothing for the influence of friendship and affection a regard for the requester would often make one readily yield to a request without waiting for arguments to reason one into it i am not particularly speaking of such a case as you have supposed about mr we may as well wait perhaps till the circumstance occurs before we discuss the discretion of his behaviour thereupon but in general and ordinary cases between friend and friend where one of them is desired by the other to change a resolution of no very great moment should you think ill of that person for complying with the desire without waiting to be argued into it will it not be advisable before we proceed on this subject to arrange with rather more precision the degree of importance which is to appertain to this request as well as the degree of intimacy subsisting between the parties by all means cried bingley let us hear all the particulars not forgetting their comparative height and size for that will have more weight in the argument miss bennet than you may be aware of i assure you that if darcy were not such a great tall fellow in comparison with myself i should not pay him half so much deference i declare i do not know a more awful object than darcy on particular occasions and in particular places at his own house especially and of a sunday evening when he has nothing to do darcy smiled but elizabeth thought she could perceive that he was rather offended and therefore checked her laugh miss bingley warmly resented the indignity he had received in an expostulation with her brother for talking such nonsense if you and miss bennet will defer yours till i am out of the room i shall be very thankful and then you may say whatever you like of me what you ask said elizabeth is no sacrifice on my side and mr when that business was over he applied to miss bingley and elizabeth for an indulgence of some music
jonestherefore do not be alarmed if you should hear of his having been to meand excepting a sore throat and headache there is not much the matter with me bennet when elizabeth had read the note aloud if your daughter should have a dangerous fit of illnessif she should die it would be a comfort to know that it was all in pursuit of mr i would go and see her if i could have the carriage elizabeth feeling really anxious was determined to go to her though the carriage was not to be had and as she was no horsewoman walking was her only alternative how can you be so silly cried her mother as to think of such a thing in all this dirt is this a hint to me lizzy said her father to send for the horses the distance is nothing when one has a motive only three miles i admire the activity of your benevolence observed mary but every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason and in my opinion exertion should always be in proportion to what is required we will go as far as meryton with you said catherine and lydia elizabeth accepted their company and the three young ladies set off together if we make haste said lydia as they walked along perhaps we may see something of captain carter before he goes in meryton they parted the two youngest repaired to the lodgings of one of the officers wives and elizabeth continued her walk alone crossing field after field at a quick pace jumping over stiles and springing over puddles with impatient activity and finding herself at last within view of the house with weary ankles dirty stockings and a face glowing with the warmth of exercise she was shown into the breakfastparlour where all but jane were assembled and where her appearance created a great deal of surprise that she should have walked three miles so early in the day in such dirty weather and by herself was almost incredible to mrs hurst and miss bingley and elizabeth was convinced that they held her in contempt for it she was received however very politely by them and in their brothers manners there was something better than politeness there was good humour and kindness the former was divided between admiration of the brilliancy which exercise had given to her complexion and doubt as to the occasions justifying her coming so far alone her inquiries after her sister were not very favourably answered miss bennet had slept ill and though up was very feverish and not well enough to leave her room elizabeth was glad to be taken to her immediately and jane who had only been withheld by the fear of giving alarm or inconvenience from expressing in her note how much she longed for such a visit was delighted at her entrance
so well had they recommended themselves to lady middleton so agreeable had their assiduities made them to her that though lucy was certainly not so elegant and her sister not even genteel she was as ready as sir john to ask them to spend a week or two in conduit street and it happened to be particularly convenient to the miss steeles as soon as the dashwoods invitation was known that their visit should begin a few days before the party took place john dashwood as the nieces of the gentleman who for many years had had the care of her brother might not have done much however towards procuring them seats at her table but as lady middletons guests they must be welcome and lucy who had long wanted to be personally known to the family to have a nearer view of their characters and her own difficulties and to have an opportunity of endeavouring to please them had seldom been happier in her life than she was on receiving mrs she began immediately to determine that edward who lived with his mother must be asked as his mother was to a party given by his sister and to see him for the first time after all that passed in the company of lucy these apprehensions perhaps were not founded entirely on reason and certainly not at all on truth they were relieved however not by her own recollection but by the good will of lucy who believed herself to be inflicting a severe disappointment when she told her that edward certainly would not be in harley street on tuesday and even hoped to be carrying the pain still farther by persuading her that he was kept away by the extreme affection for herself which he could not conceal when they were together the important tuesday came that was to introduce the two young ladies to this formidable motherinlaw said lucy as they walked up the stairs togetherfor the middletons arrived so directly after mrs jennings that they all followed the servant at the same timethere is nobody here but you that can feel for me in a moment i shall see the person that all my happiness depends onthat is to be my mother  elinor could have given her immediate relief by suggesting the possibility of its being miss mortons mother rather than her own whom they were about to behold but instead of doing that she assured her and with great sincerity that she did pity herto the utter amazement of lucy who though really uncomfortable herself hoped at least to be an object of irrepressible envy to elinor ferrars was a little thin woman upright even to formality in her figure and serious even to sourness in her aspect her complexion was sallow and her features small without beauty and naturally without expression but a lucky contraction of the brow had rescued her countenance from the disgrace of insipidity by giving it the strong characters of pride and ill nature she was not a woman of many words for unlike people in general she proportioned them to the number of her ideas and of the few syllables that did escape her not one fell to the share of miss dashwood whom she eyed with the spirited determination of disliking her at all events elinor could not now be made unhappy by this behaviour  a few months ago it would have hurt her exceedingly but it was not in mrs ferrars power to distress her by it nowand the difference of her manners to the miss steeles a difference which seemed purposely made to humble her more only amused her she could not but smile to see the graciousness of both mother and daughter towards the very person for lucy was particularly distinguishedwhom of all others had they known as much as she did they would have been most anxious to mortify while she herself who had comparatively no power to wound them sat pointedly slighted by both but while she smiled at a graciousness so misapplied she could not reflect on the meanspirited folly from which it sprung nor observe the studied attentions with which the miss steeles courted its continuance without thoroughly despising them all four lucy was all exultation on being so honorably distinguished and miss steele wanted only to be teazed about dr the dinner was a grand one the servants were numerous and every thing bespoke the mistresss inclination for show and the masters ability to support it
james street said he soon afterwards rising from his chair i must hurry away then to give him those thanks which you will not allow me to give you to assure him that he has made me a veryan exceedingly happy man elinor did not offer to detain him and they parted with a very earnest assurance on her side of her unceasing good wishes for his happiness in every change of situation that might befall him on his with rather an attempt to return the same good will than the power of expressing it when i see him again said elinor to herself as the door shut him out i shall see him the husband of lucy and with this pleasing anticipation she sat down to reconsider the past recall the words and endeavour to comprehend all the feelings of edward and of course to reflect on her own with discontent jennings came home though she returned from seeing people whom she had never seen before and of whom therefore she must have a great deal to say her mind was so much more occupied by the important secret in her possession than by anything else that she reverted to it again as soon as elinor appeared and i suppose you had no great difficultyyou did not find him very unwilling to accept your proposal really said elinor i know so little of these kind of forms that i can hardly even conjecture as to the time or the preparation necessary but i suppose two or three months will complete his ordination my dear how calmly you talk of it and can the colonel wait two or three months and though one would be very glad to do a kindness by poor mr ferrars i do think it is not worth while to wait two or three months for him sure somebody else might be found that would do as well somebody that is in orders already my dear maam said elinor what can you be thinking of  why colonel brandons only object is to be of use to mr sure you do not mean to persuade me that the colonel only marries you for the sake of giving ten guineas to mr the deception could not continue after this and an explanation immediately took place by which both gained considerable amusement for the moment without any material loss of happiness to either for mrs jennings only exchanged one form of delight for another and still without forfeiting her expectation of the first aye aye the parsonage is but a small one said she after the first ebullition of surprise and satisfaction was over and very likely may be out of repair but to hear a man apologising as i thought for a house that to my knowledge has five sitting rooms on the groundfloor and i think the housekeeper told me could make up fifteen beds and to you too that had been used to live in barton cottage but my dear we must touch up the colonel to do some thing to the parsonage and make it comfortable for them before lucy goes to it
that crime has been the origin of every lesser one and of all his present discontents marianne assented most feelingly to the remark and her mother was led by it to an enumeration of colonel brandons injuries and merits warm as friendship and design could unitedly dictate her daughter did not look however as if much of it were heard by her elinor according to her expectation saw on the two or three following days that marianne did not continue to gain strength as she had done but while her resolution was unsubdued and she still tried to appear cheerful and easy her sister could safely trust to the effect of time upon her health margaret returned and the family were again all restored to each other again quietly settled at the cottage and if not pursuing their usual studies with quite so much vigour as when they first came to barton at least planning a vigorous prosecution of them in future she had heard nothing of him since her leaving london nothing new of his plans nothing certain even of his present abode some letters had passed between her and her brother in consequence of mariannes illness and in the first of johns there had been this sentence we know nothing of our unfortunate edward and can make no enquiries on so prohibited a subject but conclude him to be still at oxford which was all the intelligence of edward afforded her by the correspondence for his name was not even mentioned in any of the succeeding letters she was not doomed however to be long in ignorance of his measures their manservant had been sent one morning to exeter on business and when as he waited at table he had satisfied the inquiries of his mistress as to the event of his errand this was his voluntary communication i suppose you know maam that mr marianne gave a violent start fixed her eyes upon elinor saw her turning pale and fell back in her chair in hysterics dashwood whose eyes as she answered the servants inquiry had intuitively taken the same direction was shocked to perceive by elinors countenance how much she really suffered and a moment afterwards alike distressed by mariannes situation knew not on which child to bestow her principal attention the servant who saw only that miss marianne was taken ill had sense enough to call one of the maids who with mrs dashwoods assistance supported her into the other room by that time marianne was rather better and her mother leaving her to the care of margaret and the maid returned to elinor who though still much disordered had so far recovered the use of her reason and voice as to be just beginning an inquiry of thomas as to the source of his intelligence dashwood immediately took all that trouble on herself and elinor had the benefit of the information without the exertion of seeking it ferrars myself maam this morning in exeter and his lady too miss steele as was they was stopping in a chaise at the door of the new london inn as i went there with a message from sally at the park to her brother who is one of the postboys i happened to look up as i went by the chaise and so i see directly it was the youngest miss steele so i took off my hat and she knew me and called to me and inquired after you maam and the young ladies especially miss marianne and bid me i should give her compliments and mr ferrarss their best compliments and service and how sorry they was they had not time to come on and see you but they was in a great hurry to go forwards for they was going further down for a little while but howsever when they come back theyd make sure to come and see you she smiled and said how she had changed her name since she was in these parts
elinor started at this declaration and was sorry for the warmth she had been betrayed into in speaking of him she felt that edward stood very high in her opinion she believed the regard to be mutual but she required greater certainty of it to make mariannes conviction of their attachment agreeable to her she knew that what marianne and her mother conjectured one moment they believed the nextthat with them to wish was to hope and to hope was to expect she tried to explain the real state of the case to her sister i do not attempt to deny said she that i think very highly of himthat i greatly esteem that i like him marianne here burst forth with indignation esteem him use those words again and i will leave the room this moment excuse me said she and be assured that i meant no offence to you by speaking in so quiet a way of my own feelings believe them to be stronger than i have declared believe them in short to be such as his merit and the suspicionthe hope of his affection for me may warrant without imprudence or folly there are moments when the extent of it seems doubtful and till his sentiments are fully known you cannot wonder at my wishing to avoid any encouragement of my own partiality by believing or calling it more than it is in my heart i feel littlescarcely any doubt of his preference but there are other points to be considered besides his inclination what his mother really is we cannot know but from fannys occasional mention of her conduct and opinions we have never been disposed to think her amiable and i am very much mistaken if edward is not himself aware that there would be many difficulties in his way if he were to wish to marry a woman who had not either a great fortune or high rank marianne was astonished to find how much the imagination of her mother and herself had outstripped the truth i shall not lose you so soon and edward will have greater opportunity of improving that natural taste for your favourite pursuit which must be so indispensably necessary to your future felicity if he should be so far stimulated by your genius as to learn to draw himself how delightful it would be she could not consider her partiality for edward in so prosperous a state as marianne had believed it there was at times a want of spirits about him which if it did not denote indifference spoke of something almost as unpromising a doubt of her regard supposing him to feel it need not give him more than inquietude
she thanked him for it with all her heart spoke of edwards principles and disposition with that praise which she knew them to deserve and promised to undertake the commission with pleasure if it were really his wish to put off so agreeable an office to another but at the same time she could not help thinking that no one could so well perform it as himself it was an office in short from which unwilling to give edward the pain of receiving an obligation from her she would have been very glad to be spared herself but colonel brandon on motives of equal delicacy declining it likewise still seemed so desirous of its being given through her means that she would not on any account make farther opposition edward she believed was still in town and fortunately she had heard his address from miss steele she could undertake therefore to inform him of it in the course of the day after this had been settled colonel brandon began to talk of his own advantage in securing so respectable and agreeable a neighbour and then it was that he mentioned with regret that the house was small and indifferentan evil which elinor as mrs jennings had supposed her to do made very light of at least as far as regarded its size the smallness of the house said she i cannot imagine any inconvenience to them for it will be in proportion to their family and income by which the colonel was surprised to find that she was considering mr ferrarss marriage as the certain consequence of the presentation for he did not suppose it possible that delaford living could supply such an income as anybody in his style of life would venture to settle onand he said so ferrars comfortable as a bachelor it cannot enable him to marry i am sorry to say that my patronage ends with this and my interest is hardly more extensive if however by an unforeseen chance it should be in my power to serve him farther i must think very differently of him from what i now do if i am not as ready to be useful to him then as i sincerely wish i could be at present what i am now doing indeed seems nothing at all since it can advance him so little towards what must be his principal his only object of happiness his marriage must still be a distant goodat least i am afraid it cannot take place very soon  such was the sentence which when misunderstood so justly offended the delicate feelings of mrs jennings but after this narration of what really passed between colonel brandon and elinor while they stood at the window the gratitude expressed by the latter on their parting may perhaps appear in general not less reasonably excited nor less properly worded than if it had arisen from an offer of marriage jennings sagaciously smiling as soon as the gentleman had withdrawn i do not ask you what the colonel has been saying to you for though upon my honour i tried to keep out of hearing i could not help catching enough to understand his business and i assure you i never was better pleased in my life and i wish you joy of it with all my heart it is a matter of great joy to me and i feel the goodness of colonel brandon most sensibly
much might be ruminated here concerning the essential dignity of this regal process because in common life we esteem but meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints his hair and palpably smells of that anointing in truth a mature man who uses hairoil unless medicinally that man has probably got a quoggy spot in him somewhere as a general rule he cant amount to much in his totality but the only thing to be considered here is thiswhat kind of oil is used at coronations certainly it cannot be olive oil nor macassar oil nor castor oil nor bears oil nor train oil nor codliver oil what then can it possibly be but sperm oil in its unmanufactured unpolluted state the sweetest of all oils we whalemen supply your kings and queens with coronation stuff the chief mate of the pequod was starbuck a native of nantucket and a quaker by descent he was a long earnest man and though born on an icy coast seemed well adapted to endure hot latitudes his flesh being hard as twicebaked biscuit transported to the indies his live blood would not spoil like bottled ale he must have been born in some time of general drought and famine or upon one of those fast days for which his state is famous only some thirty arid summers had he seen those summers had dried up all his physical superfluousness but this his thinness so to speak seemed no more the token of wasting anxieties and cares than it seemed the indication of any bodily blight his pure tight skin was an excellent fit and closely wrapped up in it and embalmed with inner health and strength like a revivified egyptian this starbuck seemed prepared to endure for long ages to come and to endure always as now for be it polar snow or torrid sun like a patent chronometer his interior vitality was warranted to do well in all climates looking into his eyes you seemed to see there the yet lingering images of those thousandfold perils he had calmly confronted through life a staid steadfast man whose life for the most part was a telling pantomime of action and not a tame chapter of sounds yet for all his hardy sobriety and fortitude there were certain qualities in him which at times affected and in some cases seemed well nigh to overbalance all the rest uncommonly conscientious for a seaman and endued with a deep natural reverence the wild watery loneliness of his life did therefore strongly incline him to superstition but to that sort of superstition which in some organizations seems rather to spring somehow from intelligence than from ignorance and if at times these things bent the welded iron of his soul much more did his faraway domestic memories of his young cape wife and child tend to bend him still more from the original ruggedness of his nature and open him still further to those latent influences which in some honesthearted men restrain the gush of daredevil daring so often evinced by others in the more perilous vicissitudes of the fishery i will have no man in my boat said starbuck who is not afraid of a whale
it has been most unconsciously done however and i hope will be of short duration the feelings which you tell me have long prevented the acknowledgment of your regard can have little difficulty in overcoming it after this explanation darcy who was leaning against the mantelpiece with his eyes fixed on her face seemed to catch her words with no less resentment than surprise his complexion became pale with anger and the disturbance of his mind was visible in every feature he was struggling for the appearance of composure and would not open his lips till he believed himself to have attained it at length with a voice of forced calmness he said and this is all the reply which i am to have the honour of expecting i might perhaps wish to be informed why with so little endeavour at civility i am thus rejected i might as well inquire replied she why with so evident a desire of offending and insulting me you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will against your reason and even against your character was not this some excuse for incivility if i was uncivil had not my feelings decided against youhad they been indifferent or had they even been favourable do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man who has been the means of ruining perhaps for ever the happiness of a most beloved sister darcy changed colour but the emotion was short and he listened without attempting to interrupt her while she continued i have every reason in the world to think ill of you no motive can excuse the unjust and ungenerous part you acted there you dare not you cannot deny that you have been the principal if not the only means of dividing them from each otherof exposing one to the censure of the world for caprice and instability and the other to its derision for disappointed hopes and involving them both in misery of the acutest kind she paused and saw with no slight indignation that he was listening with an air which proved him wholly unmoved by any feeling of remorse he even looked at her with a smile of affected incredulity with assumed tranquillity he then replied i have no wish of denying that i did everything in my power to separate my friend from your sister or that i rejoice in my success elizabeth disdained the appearance of noticing this civil reflection but its meaning did not escape nor was it likely to conciliate her but it is not merely this affair she continued on which my dislike is founded long before it had taken place my opinion of you was decided your character was unfolded in the recital which i received many months ago from mr
and would i be a murderer then if and slowly stealthily and half sideways looking he placed the loaded muskets end against the door on this level ahabs hammock swings within his head this way a touch and starbuck may survive to hug his wife and child again but if i wake thee not to death old man who can tell to what unsounded deeps starbucks body this day week may sink with all the crew the wind has gone down and shifted sir the fore and main topsails are reefed and set she heads her course such were the sounds that now came hurtling from out the old mans tormented sleep as if starbucks voice had caused the long dumb dream to speak the yet levelled musket shook like a drunkards arm against the panel starbuck seemed wrestling with an angel but turning from the door he placed the deathtube in its rack and left the place next morning the notyetsubsided sea rolled in long slow billows of mighty bulk and striving in the pequods gurgling track pushed her on like giants palms outspread the strong unstaggering breeze abounded so that sky and air seemed vast outbellying sails the whole world boomed before the wind muffled in the full morning light the invisible sun was only known by the spread intensity of his place where his bayonet rays moved on in stacks emblazonings as of crowned babylonian kings and queens reigned over everything the sea was as a crucible of molten gold that bubblingly leaps with light and heat long maintaining an enchanted silence ahab stood apart and every time the tetering ship loweringly pitched down her bowsprit he turned to eye the bright suns rays produced ahead and when she profoundly settled by the stern he turned behind and saw the suns rearward place and how the same yellow rays were blending with his undeviating wake thou mightest well be taken now for the seachariot of the sun all ye nations before my prow i bring the sun to ye but suddenly reined back by some counter thought he hurried towards the helm huskily demanding how the ship was heading heading east at this hour in the morning and the sun astern upon this every soul was confounded for the phenomenon just then observed by ahab had unaccountably escaped every one else but its very blinding palpableness must have been the cause thrusting his head half way into the binnacle ahab caught one glimpse of the compasses his uplifted arm slowly fell for a moment he almost seemed to stagger the two compasses pointed east and the pequod was as infallibly going west
 i own thy speechless placeless power said i not so nor was it wrung from me nor do i now drop these links take the homage of these poor eyes and shutterhands the lightning flashes through my skull mine eyeballs ache and ache my whole beaten brain seems as beheaded and rolling on some stunning ground light though thou be thou leapest out of darkness but i am darkness leaping out of light leaping out of thee but thou art but my fiery father my sweet mother i know not thou knowest not how came ye hence callest thyself unbegotten certainly knowest not thy beginning hence callest thyself unbegun i know that of me which thou knowest not of thyself oh thou omnipotent there is some unsuffusing thing beyond thee thou clear spirit to whom all thy eternity is but time all thy creativeness mechanical through thee thy flaming self my scorched eyes do dimly see it oh thou foundling fire thou hermit immemorial thou too hast thy incommunicable riddle thy unparticipated grief i leap with thee i burn with thee would fain be welded with thee defyingly i worship thee ahabs harpoon the one forged at perths fire remained firmly lashed in its conspicuous crotch so that it projected beyond his whaleboats bow but the sea that had stove its bottom had caused the loose leather sheath to drop off and from the keen steel barb there now came a levelled flame of pale forked fire as the silent harpoon burned there like a serpents tongue starbuck grasped ahab by the armgod god is against thee old man forbear ill begun ill continued let me square the yards while we may old man and make a fair wind of it homewards to go on a better voyage than this   overhearing starbuck the panicstricken crew instantly ran to the bracesthough not a sail was left aloft for the moment all the aghast mate s thoughts seemed theirs they raised a half mutinous cry but dashing the rattling lightning links to the deck and snatching the burning harpoon ahab waved it like a torch among them swearing to transfix with it the first sailor that but cast loose a ropes end petrified by his aspect and still more shrinking from the fiery dart that he held the men fell back in dismay and ahab again spoke all your oaths to hunt the white whale are as binding as mine and heart soul and body lungs and life old ahab is bound and that ye may know to what tune this heart beats look ye here thus i blow out the last fear
it was inserted there by my particular friend queequeg whose duty it was as harpooneer to descend upon the monsters back for the special purpose referred to but in very many cases circumstances require that the harpooneer shall remain on the whale till the whole flensing or stripping operation is concluded the whale be it observed lies almost entirely submerged excepting the immediate parts operated upon so down there some ten feet below the level of the deck the poor harpooneer flounders about half on the whale and half in the water as the vast mass revolves like a treadmill beneath him on the occasion in question queequeg figured in the highland costumea shirt and socksin which to my eyes at least he appeared to uncommon advantage and no one had a better chance to observe him as will presently be seen being the savages bowsman that is the person who pulled the bowoar in his boat the second one from forward it was my cheerful duty to attend upon him while taking that hardscrabble scramble upon the dead whales back you have seen italian organboys holding a dancingape by a long cord just so from the ships steep side did i hold queequeg down there in the sea by what is technically called in the fishery a monkeyrope attached to a strong strip of canvas belted round his waist it was a humorously perilous business for both of us for before we proceed further it must be said that the monkeyrope was fast at both ends fast to queequegs broad canvas belt and fast to my narrow leather one so that for better or for worse we two for the time were wedded and should poor queequeg sink to rise no more then both usage and honour demanded that instead of cutting the cord it should drag me down in his wake queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother nor could i any way get rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond entailed so strongly and metaphysically did i conceive of my situation then that while earnestly watching his motions i seemed distinctly to perceive that my own individuality was now merged in a joint stock company of two that my free will had received a mortal wound and that anothers mistake or misfortune might plunge innocent me into unmerited disaster and death therefore i saw that here was a sort of interregnum in providence for its evenhanded equity never could have so gross an injustice and yet still further ponderingwhile i jerked him now and then from between the whale and ship which would threaten to jam himstill further pondering i say i saw that this situation of mine was the precise situation of every mortal that breathes only in most cases he one way or other has this siamese connexion with a plurality of other mortals if your banker breaks you snap if your apothecary by mistake sends you poison in your pills you die true you may say that by exceeding caution you may possibly escape these and the multitudinous other evil chances of life but handle queequegs monkeyrope heedfully as i would sometimes he jerked it so that i came very near sliding overboard nor could i possibly forget that do what i would i only had the management of one end of it  the monkeyrope is found in all whalers but it was only in the pequod that the monkey and his holder were ever tied together
in old harriss collection of voyages there are some plates of whales extracted from a dutch book of voyages a  entitled a whaling voyage to spitzbergen in the ship jonas in the whale peter peterson of friesland master in one of those plates the whales like great rafts of logs are represented lying among iceisles with white bears running over their living backs in another plate the prodigious blunder is made of representing the whale with perpendicular flukes then again there is an imposing quarto written by one captain colnett a post captain in the english navy entitled a voyage round cape horn into the south seas for the purpose of extending the spermaceti whale fisheries in this book is an outline purporting to be a picture of a physeter or spermaceti whale drawn by scale from one killed on the coast of mexico august  and hoisted on deck i doubt not the captain had this veracious picture taken for the benefit of his marines to mention but one thing about it let me say that it has an eye which applied according to the accompanying scale to a full grown sperm whale would make the eye of that whale a bowwindow some five feet long ah my gallant captain why did ye not give us jonah looking out of that eye nor are the most conscientious compilations of natural history for the benefit of the young and tender free from the same heinousness of mistake look at that popular work goldsmiths animated nature in the abridged london edition of  there are plates of an alleged whale and a narwhale i do not wish to seem inelegant but this unsightly whale looks much like an amputated sow and as for the narwhale one glimpse at it is enough to amaze one that in this nineteenth century such a hippogriff could be palmed for genuine upon any intelligent public of schoolboys then again in  bernard germain count de lacepede a great naturalist published a scientific systemized whale book wherein are several pictures of the different species of the leviathan all these are not only incorrect but the picture of the mysticetus or greenland whale that is to say the right whale even scoresby a long experienced man as touching that species declares not to have its counterpart in nature but the placing of the capsheaf to all this blundering business was reserved for the scientific frederick cuvier brother to the famous baron in  he published a natural history of whales in which he gives what he calls a picture of the sperm whale before showing that picture to any nantucketer you had best provide for your summary retreat from nantucket in a word frederick cuviers sperm whale is not a sperm whale but a squash of course he never had the benefit of a whaling voyage such men seldom have but whence he derived that picture who can tell
the large importance attached to the harpooneers vocation is evinced by the fact that originally in the old dutch fishery two centuries and more ago the command of a whale ship was not wholly lodged in the person now called the captain but was divided between him and an officer called the specksynder literally this word means fatcutter usage however in time made it equivalent to chief harpooneer in those days the captains authority was restricted to the navigation and general management of the vessel while over the whalehunting department and all its concerns the specksynder or chief harpooneer reigned supreme in the british greenland fishery under the corrupted title of specksioneer this old dutch official is still retained but his former dignity is sadly abridged at present he ranks simply as senior harpooneer and as such is but one of the captains more inferior subalterns nevertheless as upon the good conduct of the harpooneers the success of a whaling voyage largely depends and since in the american fishery he is not only an important officer in the boat but under certain circumstances night watches on a whaling ground the command of the ships deck is also his therefore the grand political maxim of the sea demands that he should nominally live apart from the men before the mast and be in some way distinguished as their professional superior though always by them familiarly regarded as their social equal now the grand distinction drawn between officer and man at sea is thisthe first lives aft the last forward hence in whaleships and merchantmen alike the mates have their quarters with the captain and so too in most of the american whalers the harpooneers are lodged in the after part of the ship that is to say they take their meals in the captains cabin and sleep in a place indirectly communicating with it though the long period of a southern whaling voyage by far the longest of all voyages now or ever made by man the peculiar perils of it and the community of interest prevailing among a company all of whom high or low depend for their profits not upon fixed wages but upon their common luck together with their common vigilance intrepidity and hard work though all these things do in some cases tend to beget a less rigorous discipline than in merchantmen generally yet never mind how much like an old mesopotamian family these whalemen may in some primitive instances live together for all that the punctilious externals at least of the quarterdeck are seldom materially relaxed and in no instance done away indeed many are the nantucket ships in which you will see the skipper parading his quarterdeck with an elated grandeur not surpassed in any military navy nay extorting almost as much outward homage as if he wore the imperial purple and not the shabbiest of pilotcloth and though of all men the moody captain of the pequod was the least given to that sort of shallowest assumption and though the only homage he ever exacted was implicit instantaneous obedience though he required no man to remove the shoes from his feet ere stepping upon the quarterdeck and though there were times when owing to peculiar circumstances connected with events hereafter to be detailed he addressed them in unusual terms whether of condescension or in terrorem or otherwise yet even captain ahab was by no means unobservant of the paramount forms and usages of the sea nor perhaps will it fail to be eventually perceived that behind those forms and usages as it were he sometimes masked himself incidentally making use of them for other and more private ends than they were legitimately intended to subserve that certain sultanism of his brain which had otherwise in a good degree remained unmanifested through those forms that same sultanism became incarnate in an irresistible dictatorship for be a mans intellectual superiority what it will it can never assume the practical available supremacy over other men without the aid of some sort of external arts and entrenchments always in themselves more or less paltry and base this it is that for ever keeps gods true princes of the empire from the worlds hustings and leaves the highest honours that this air can give to those men who become famous more through their infinite inferiority to the choice hidden handful of the divine inert than through their undoubted superiority over the dead level of the mass such large virtue lurks in these small things when extreme political superstitions invest them that in some royal instances even to idiot imbecility they have imparted potency but when as in the case of nicholas the czar the ringed crown of geographical empire encircles an imperial brain then the plebeian herds crouch abased before the tremendous centralization nor will the tragic dramatist who would depict mortal indomitableness in its fullest sweep and direct swing ever forget a hint incidentally so important in his art as the one now alluded to but ahab my captain still moves before me in all his nantucket grimness and shagginess and in this episode touching emperors and kings i must not conceal that i have only to do with a poor old whalehunter like him and therefore all outward majestical trappings and housings are denied me
it was not to be supposed that any other people could be meant than those with whom she was connected there could not exist in the world two men over whom mr that he had been concerned in the measures taken to separate bingley and jane she had never doubted but she had always attributed to miss bingley the principal design and arrangement of them if his own vanity however did not mislead him he was the cause his pride and caprice were the cause of all that jane had suffered and still continued to suffer he had ruined for a while every hope of happiness for the most affectionate generous heart in the world and no one could say how lasting an evil he might have inflicted there were some very strong objections against the lady were colonel fitzwilliams words and those strong objections probably were her having one uncle who was a country attorney and another who was in business in london to jane herself she exclaimed there could be no possibility of objection all loveliness and goodness as she is her understanding excellent her mind improved and her manners captivating neither could anything be urged against my father who though with some peculiarities has abilities mr darcy himself need not disdain and respectability which he will probably never reach when she thought of her mother her confidence gave way a little but she would not allow that any objections there had material weight with mr darcy whose pride she was convinced would receive a deeper wound from the want of importance in his friends connections than from their want of sense and she was quite decided at last that he had been partly governed by this worst kind of pride and partly by the wish of retaining mr the agitation and tears which the subject occasioned brought on a headache and it grew so much worse towards the evening that added to her unwillingness to see mr darcy it determined her not to attend her cousins to rosings where they were engaged to drink tea collins seeing that she was really unwell did not press her to go and as much as possible prevented her husband from pressing her but mr collins could not conceal his apprehension of lady catherines being rather displeased by her staying at home chapter  when they were gone elizabeth as if intending to exasperate herself as much as possible against mr darcy chose for her employment the examination of all the letters which jane had written to her since her being in kent they contained no actual complaint nor was there any revival of past occurrences or any communication of present suffering but in all and in almost every line of each there was a want of that cheerfulness which had been used to characterise her style and which proceeding from the serenity of a mind at ease with itself and kindly disposed towards everyone had been scarcely ever clouded
but suddenly as he peered down and down into its depths he profoundly saw a white living spot no bigger than a white weasel with wonderful celerity uprising and magnifying as it rose till it turned and then there were plainly revealed two long crooked rows of white glistening teeth floating up from the undiscoverable bottom it was moby dicks open mouth and scrolled jaw his vast shadowed bulk still half blending with the blue of the sea the glittering mouth yawned beneath the boat like an opendoored marble tomb and giving one sidelong sweep with his steering oar ahab whirled the craft aside from this tremendous apparition then calling upon fedallah to change places with him went forward to the bows and seizing perths harpoon commanded his crew to grasp their oars and stand by to stern now by reason of this timely spinning round the boat upon its axis its bow by anticipation was made to face the whales head while yet under water but as if perceiving this stratagem moby dick with that malicious intelligence ascribed to him sidelingly transplanted himself as it were in an instant shooting his pleated head lengthwise beneath the boat through and through through every plank and each rib it thrilled for an instant the whale obliquely lying on his back in the manner of a biting shark slowly and feelingly taking its bows full within his mouth so that the long narrow scrolled lower jaw curled high up into the open air and one of the teeth caught in a rowlock the bluish pearlwhite of the inside of the jaw was within six inches of ahabs head and reached higher than that in this attitude the white whale now shook the slight cedar as a mildly cruel cat her mouse with unastonished eyes fedallah gazed and crossed his arms but the tigeryellow crew were tumbling over each others heads to gain the uttermost stern and now while both elastic gunwales were springing in and out as the whale dallied with the doomed craft in this devilish way and from his body being submerged beneath the boat he could not be darted at from the bows for the bows were almost inside of him as it were and while the other boats involuntarily paused as before a quick crisis impossible to withstand then it was that monomaniac ahab furious with this tantalizing vicinity of his foe which placed him all alive and helpless in the very jaws he hated frenzied with all this he seized the long bone with his naked hands and wildly strove to wrench it from its gripe as now he thus vainly strove the jaw slipped from him the frail gunwales bent in collapsed and snapped as both jaws like an enormous shears sliding further aft bit the craft completely in twain and locked themselves fast again in the sea midway between the two floating wrecks these floated aside the broken ends drooping the crew at the sternwreck clinging to the gunwales and striving to hold fast to the oars to lash them across at that preluding moment ere the boat was yet snapped ahab the first to perceive the whales intent by the crafty upraising of his head a movement that loosed his hold for the time at that moment his hand had made one final effort to push the boat out of the bite but only slipping further into the whales mouth and tilting over sideways as it slipped the boat had shaken off his hold on the jaw spilled him out of it as he leaned to the push and so he fell flatfaced upon the sea ripplingly withdrawing from his prey moby dick now lay at a little distance vertically thrusting his oblong white head up and down in the billows and at the same time slowly revolving his whole spindled body so that when his vast wrinkled forehead rosesome twenty or more feet out of the waterthe now rising swells with all their confluent waves dazzlingly broke against it vindictively tossing their shivered spray still higher into the air  so in a gale the but half baffled channel billows only recoil from the base of the eddystone triumphantly to overleap its summit with their scud it receives its designation pitchpoling from its being likened to that preliminary upanddown poise of the whalelance in the exercise called pitchpoling previously described by this motion the whale must best and most comprehensively view whatever objects may be encircling him but soon resuming his horizontal attitude moby dick swam swiftly round and round the wrecked crew sideways churning the water in his vengeful wake as if lashing himself up to still another and more deadly assault
it may seem ridiculous but it reminded me of general washingtons head as seen in the popular busts of him it had the same long regularly graded retreating slope from above the brows which were likewise very projecting like two long promontories thickly wooded on top queequeg was george washington cannibalistically developed whilst i was thus closely scanning him halfpretending meanwhile to be looking out at the storm from the casement he never heeded my presence never troubled himself with so much as a single glance but appeared wholly occupied with counting the pages of the marvellous book considering how sociably we had been sleeping together the night previous and especially considering the affectionate arm i had found thrown over me upon waking in the morning i thought this indifference of his very strange but savages are strange beings at times you do not know exactly how to take them at first they are overawing their calm selfcollectedness of simplicity seems a socratic wisdom i had noticed also that queequeg never consorted at all or but very little with the other seamen in the inn he made no advances whatever appeared to have no desire to enlarge the circle of his acquaintances all this struck me as mighty singular yet upon second thoughts there was something almost sublime in it here was a man some twenty thousand miles from home by the way of cape horn that iswhich was the only way he could get therethrown among people as strange to him as though he were in the planet jupiter and yet he seemed entirely at his ease preserving the utmost serenity content with his own companionship always equal to himself surely this was a touch of fine philosophy though no doubt he had never heard there was such a thing as that but perhaps to be true philosophers we mortals should not be conscious of so living or so striving so soon as i hear that such or such a man gives himself out for a philosopher i conclude that like the dyspeptic old woman he must have broken his digester as i sat there in that now lonely room the fire burning low in that mild stage when after its first intensity has warmed the air it then only glows to be looked at the evening shades and phantoms gathering round the casements and peering in upon us silent solitary twain the storm booming without in solemn swells i began to be sensible of strange feelings no more my splintered heart and maddened hand were turned against the wolfish world there he sat his very indifference speaking a nature in which there lurked no civilized hypocrisies and bland deceits wild he was a very sight of sights to see yet i began to feel myself mysteriously drawn towards him and those same things that would have repelled most others they were the very magnets that thus drew me ill try a pagan friend thought i since christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy
but in a matter like this subtlety appeals to subtlety and without imagination no man can follow another into these halls and though doubtless some at least of the imaginative impressions about to be presented may have been shared by most men yet few perhaps were entirely conscious of them at the time and therefore may not be able to recall them now why to the man of untutored ideality who happens to be but loosely acquainted with the peculiar character of the day does the bare mention of whitsuntide marshal in the fancy such long dreary speechless processions of slowpacing pilgrims downcast and hooded with newfallen snow or to the unread unsophisticated protestant of the middle american states why does the passing mention of a white friar or a white nun evoke such an eyeless statue in the soul or what is there apart from the traditions of dungeoned warriors and kings which will not wholly account for it that makes the white tower of london tell so much more strongly on the imagination of an untravelled american than those other storied structures its neighborsthe byward tower or even the bloody and those sublimer towers the white mountains of new hampshire whence in peculiar moods comes that gigantic ghostliness over the soul at the bare mention of that name while the thought of virginias blue ridge is full of a soft dewy distant dreaminess or why irrespective of all latitudes and longitudes does the name of the white sea exert such a spectralness over the fancy while that of the yellow sea lulls us with mortal thoughts of long lacquered mild afternoons on the waves followed by the gaudiest and yet sleepiest of sunsets or to choose a wholly unsubstantial instance purely addressed to the fancy why in reading the old fairy tales of central europe does the tall pale man of the hartz forests whose changeless pallor unrustlingly glides through the green of the groveswhy is this phantom more terrible than all the whooping imps of the blocksburg nor is it altogether the remembrance of her cathedraltoppling earthquakes nor the stampedoes of her frantic seas nor the tearlessness of arid skies that never rain nor the sight of her wide field of leaning spires wrenched copestones and crosses all adroop like canted yards of anchored fleets and her suburban avenues of housewalls lying over upon each other as a tossed pack of cardsit is not these things alone which make tearless lima the strangest saddest city thou canst see for lima has taken the white veil and there is a higher horror in this whiteness of her woe old as pizarro this whiteness keeps her ruins for ever new admits not the cheerful greenness of complete decay spreads over her broken ramparts the rigid pallor of an apoplexy that fixes its own distortions i know that to the common apprehension this phenomenon of whiteness is not confessed to be the prime agent in exaggerating the terror of objects otherwise terrible nor to the unimaginative mind is there aught of terror in those appearances whose awfulness to another mind almost solely consists in this one phenomenon especially when exhibited under any form at all approaching to muteness or universality what i mean by these two statements may perhaps be respectively elucidated by the following examples first the mariner when drawing nigh the coasts of foreign lands if by night he hear the roar of breakers starts to vigilance and feels just enough of trepidation to sharpen all his faculties but under precisely similar circumstances let him be called from his hammock to view his ship sailing through a midnight sea of milky whitenessas if from encircling headlands shoals of combed white bears were swimming round him then he feels a silent superstitious dread the shrouded phantom of the whitened waters is horrible to him as a real ghost in vain the lead assures him he is still off soundings heart and helm they both go down he never rests till blue water is under him again yet where is the mariner who will tell thee sir it was not so much the fear of striking hidden rocks as the fear of that hideous whiteness that so stirred me second to the native indian of peru the continual sight of the snowhowdahed andes conveys naught of dread except perhaps in the mere fancying of the eternal frosted desolateness reigning at such vast altitudes and the natural conceit of what a fearfulness it would be to lose oneself in such inhuman solitudes much the same is it with the backwoodsman of the west who with comparative indifference views an unbounded prairie sheeted with driven snow no shadow of tree or twig to break the fixed trance of whiteness not so the sailor beholding the scenery of the antarctic seas where at times by some infernal trick of legerdemain in the powers of frost and air he shivering and half shipwrecked instead of rainbows speaking hope and solace to his misery views what seems a boundless churchyard grinning upon him with its lean ice monuments and splintered crosses but thou sayest methinks that whitelead chapter about whiteness is but a white flag hung out from a craven soul thou surrenderest to a hypo ishmael tell me why this strong young colt foaled in some peaceful valley of vermont far removed from all beasts of preywhy is it that upon the sunniest day if you but shake a fresh buffalo robe behind him so that he cannot even see it but only smells its wild animal muskinesswhy will he start snort and with bursting eyes paw the ground in phrensies of affright
i know little of the game at present said he but i shall be glad to improve myself for in my situation in life mrs phillips was very glad for his compliance but could not wait for his reason wickham did not play at whist and with ready delight was he received at the other table between elizabeth and lydia at first there seemed danger of lydias engrossing him entirely for she was a most determined talker but being likewise extremely fond of lottery tickets she soon grew too much interested in the game too eager in making bets and exclaiming after prizes to have attention for anyone in particular wickham was therefore at leisure to talk to elizabeth and she was very willing to hear him though what she chiefly wished to hear she could not hope to be toldthe history of his acquaintance with mr he inquired how far netherfield was from meryton and after receiving her answer asked in a hesitating manner how long mr about a month said elizabeth and then unwilling to let the subject drop added he is a man of very large property in derbyshire i understand you could not have met with a person more capable of giving you certain information on that head than myself for i have been connected with his family in a particular manner from my infancy you may well be surprised miss bennet at such an assertion after seeing as you probably might the very cold manner of our meeting yesterday as much as i ever wish to be cried elizabeth very warmly i have spent four days in the same house with him and i think him very disagreeable i have no right to give my opinion said wickham as to his being agreeable or otherwise i have known him too long and too well to be a fair judge but i believe your opinion of him would in general astonishand perhaps you would not express it quite so strongly anywhere else upon my word i say no more here than i might say in any house in the neighbourhood except netherfield you will not find him more favourably spoken of by anyone i cannot pretend to be sorry said wickham after a short interruption that he or that any man should not be estimated beyond their deserts but with him i believe it does not often happen the world is blinded by his fortune and consequence or frightened by his high and imposing manners and sees him only as he chooses to be seen i should take him even on my slight acquaintance to be an illtempered man i wonder said he at the next opportunity of speaking whether he is likely to be in this country much longer
elinor honoured her for a plan which originated so nobly as this though smiling to see the same eager fancy which had been leading her to the extreme of languid indolence and selfish repining now at work in introducing excess into a scheme of such rational employment and virtuous selfcontrol her smile however changed to a sigh when she remembered that promise to willoughby was yet unfulfilled and feared she had that to communicate which might again unsettle the mind of marianne and ruin at least for a time this fair prospect of busy tranquillity willing therefore to delay the evil hour she resolved to wait till her sisters health were more secure before she appointed it marianne had been two or three days at home before the weather was fine enough for an invalid like herself to venture out but at last a soft genial morning appeared such as might tempt the daughters wishes and the mothers confidence and marianne leaning on elinors arm was authorised to walk as long as she could without fatigue in the lane before the house the sisters set out at a pace slow as the feebleness of marianne in an exercise hitherto untried since her illness requiredand they had advanced only so far beyond the house as to admit a full view of the hill the important hill behind when pausing with her eyes turned towards it marianne calmly said there exactly there pointing with one hand on that projecting moundthere i fell and there i first saw willoughby her voice sunk with the word but presently reviving she added i am thankful to find that i can look with so little pain on the spot as for regret said marianne i have done with that as far as he is concerned i do not mean to talk to you of what my feelings have been for him but what they are now at present if i could be satisfied on one point if i could be allowed to think that he was not always acting a part not always deceiving mebut above all if i could be assured that he never was so very wicked as my fears have sometimes fancied him since the story of that unfortunate girl  she stopt elinor joyfully treasured her words as she answered if you could be assured of that you think you should be easy my peace of mind is doubly involved in itfor not only is it horrible to suspect a person who has been what he has been to me of such designsbut what must it make me appear to myself what in a situation like mine but a most shamefully unguarded affection could expose me to  how then asked her sister would you account for his behaviour i would suppose himoh how gladly would i suppose him only fickle very very fickle she was debating within herself on the eligibility of beginning her story directly or postponing it till marianne were in stronger healthand they crept on for a few minutes in silence i am not wishing him too much good said marianne at last with a sigh when i wish his secret reflections may be no more unpleasant than my own i compare it with what it ought to have been i compare it with yours do not my dearest elinor let your kindness defend what i know your judgment must censure my illness has made me think it has given me leisure and calmness for serious recollection long before i was enough recovered to talk i was perfectly able to reflect
john dashwood as the nieces of the gentleman who for many years had had the care of her brother might not have done much however towards procuring them seats at her table but as lady middletons guests they must be welcome and lucy who had long wanted to be personally known to the family to have a nearer view of their characters and her own difficulties and to have an opportunity of endeavouring to please them had seldom been happier in her life than she was on receiving mrs she began immediately to determine that edward who lived with his mother must be asked as his mother was to a party given by his sister and to see him for the first time after all that passed in the company of lucy these apprehensions perhaps were not founded entirely on reason and certainly not at all on truth they were relieved however not by her own recollection but by the good will of lucy who believed herself to be inflicting a severe disappointment when she told her that edward certainly would not be in harley street on tuesday and even hoped to be carrying the pain still farther by persuading her that he was kept away by the extreme affection for herself which he could not conceal when they were together the important tuesday came that was to introduce the two young ladies to this formidable motherinlaw said lucy as they walked up the stairs togetherfor the middletons arrived so directly after mrs jennings that they all followed the servant at the same timethere is nobody here but you that can feel for me in a moment i shall see the person that all my happiness depends onthat is to be my mother  elinor could have given her immediate relief by suggesting the possibility of its being miss mortons mother rather than her own whom they were about to behold but instead of doing that she assured her and with great sincerity that she did pity herto the utter amazement of lucy who though really uncomfortable herself hoped at least to be an object of irrepressible envy to elinor ferrars was a little thin woman upright even to formality in her figure and serious even to sourness in her aspect her complexion was sallow and her features small without beauty and naturally without expression but a lucky contraction of the brow had rescued her countenance from the disgrace of insipidity by giving it the strong characters of pride and ill nature she was not a woman of many words for unlike people in general she proportioned them to the number of her ideas and of the few syllables that did escape her not one fell to the share of miss dashwood whom she eyed with the spirited determination of disliking her at all events elinor could not now be made unhappy by this behaviour  a few months ago it would have hurt her exceedingly but it was not in mrs ferrars power to distress her by it nowand the difference of her manners to the miss steeles a difference which seemed purposely made to humble her more only amused her she could not but smile to see the graciousness of both mother and daughter towards the very person for lucy was particularly distinguishedwhom of all others had they known as much as she did they would have been most anxious to mortify while she herself who had comparatively no power to wound them sat pointedly slighted by both but while she smiled at a graciousness so misapplied she could not reflect on the meanspirited folly from which it sprung nor observe the studied attentions with which the miss steeles courted its continuance without thoroughly despising them all four lucy was all exultation on being so honorably distinguished and miss steele wanted only to be teazed about dr the dinner was a grand one the servants were numerous and every thing bespoke the mistresss inclination for show and the masters ability to support it in spite of the improvements and additions which were making to the norland estate and in spite of its owner having once been within some thousand pounds of being obliged to sell out at a loss nothing gave any symptom of that indigence which he had tried to infer from itno poverty of any kind except of conversation appearedbut there the deficiency was considerable
and as for those who previously hearing of the white whale by chance caught sight of him in the beginning of the thing they had every one of them almost as boldly and fearlessly lowered for him as for any other whale of that species but at length such calamities did ensue in these assaultsnot restricted to sprained wrists and ankles broken limbs or devouring amputationsbut fatal to the last degree of fatality those repeated disastrous repulses all accumulating and piling their terrors upon moby dick those things had gone far to shake the fortitude of many brave hunters to whom the story of the white whale had eventually come nor did wild rumors of all sorts fail to exaggerate and still the more horrify the true histories of these deadly encounters for not only do fabulous rumors naturally grow out of the very body of all surprising terrible eventsas the smitten tree gives birth to its fungi but in maritime life far more than in that of terra firma wild rumors abound wherever there is any adequate reality for them to cling to and as the sea surpasses the land in this matter so the whale fishery surpasses every other sort of maritime life in the wonderfulness and fearfulness of the rumors which sometimes circulate there for not only are whalemen as a body unexempt from that ignorance and superstitiousness hereditary to all sailors but of all sailors they are by all odds the most directly brought into contact with whatever is appallingly astonishing in the sea face to face they not only eye its greatest marvels but hand to jaw give battle to them alone in such remotest waters that though you sailed a thousand miles and passed a thousand shores you would not come to any chiseled hearthstone or aught hospitable beneath that part of the sun in such latitudes and longitudes pursuing too such a calling as he does the whaleman is wrapped by influences all tending to make his fancy pregnant with many a mighty birth no wonder then that ever gathering volume from the mere transit over the widest watery spaces the outblown rumors of the white whale did in the end incorporate with themselves all manner of morbid hints and halfformed foetal suggestions of supernatural agencies which eventually invested moby dick with new terrors unborrowed from anything that visibly appears so that in many cases such a panic did he finally strike that few who by those rumors at least had heard of the white whale few of those hunters were willing to encounter the perils of his jaw but there were still other and more vital practical influences at work not even at the present day has the original prestige of the sperm whale as fearfully distinguished from all other species of the leviathan died out of the minds of the whalemen as a body there are those this day among them who though intelligent and courageous enough in offering battle to the greenland or right whale would perhapseither from professional inexperience or incompetency or timidity decline a contest with the sperm whale at any rate there are plenty of whalemen especially among those whaling nations not sailing under the american flag who have never hostilely encountered the sperm whale but whose sole knowledge of the leviathan is restricted to the ignoble monster primitively pursued in the north seated on their hatches these men will hearken with a childish fireside interest and awe to the wild strange tales of southern whaling nor is the preeminent tremendousness of the great sperm whale anywhere more feelingly comprehended than on board of those prows which stem him and as if the now tested reality of his might had in former legendary times thrown its shadow before it we find some book naturalistsolassen and povelsondeclaring the sperm whale not only to be a consternation to every other creature in the sea but also to be so incredibly ferocious as continually to be athirst for human blood nor even down to so late a time as cuviers were these or almost similar impressions effaced for in his natural history the baron himself affirms that at sight of the sperm whale all fish sharks included are struck with the most lively terrors and often in the precipitancy of their flight dash themselves against the rocks with such violence as to cause instantaneous death and however the general experiences in the fishery may amend such reports as these yet in their full terribleness even to the bloodthirsty item of povelson the superstitious belief in them is in some vicissitudes of their vocation revived in the minds of the hunters so that overawed by the rumors and portents concerning him not a few of the fishermen recalled in reference to moby dick the earlier days of the sperm whale fishery when it was oftentimes hard to induce long practised right whalemen to embark in the perils of this new and daring warfare such men protesting that although other leviathans might be hopefully pursued yet to chase and point lance at such an apparition as the sperm whale was not for mortal man that to attempt it would be inevitably to be torn into a quick eternity on this head there are some remarkable documents that may be consulted
they were nearly all whalemen chief mates and second mates and third mates and sea carpenters and sea coopers and sea blacksmiths and harpooneers and ship keepers a brown and brawny company with bosky beards an unshorn shaggy set all wearing monkey jackets for morning gowns you could pretty plainly tell how long each one had been ashore this young fellows healthy cheek is like a suntoasted pear in hue and would seem to smell almost as musky he cannot have been three days landed from his indian voyage that man next him looks a few shades lighter you might say a touch of satin wood is in him in the complexion of a third still lingers a tropic tawn but slightly bleached withal he doubtless has tarried whole weeks ashore which barred with various tints seemed like the andes western slope to show forth in one array contrasting climates zone by zone now cried the landlord flinging open a door and in we went to breakfast they say that men who have seen the world thereby become quite at ease in manner quite selfpossessed in company not always though ledyard the great new england traveller and mungo park the scotch one of all men they possessed the least assurance in the parlor but perhaps the mere crossing of siberia in a sledge drawn by dogs as ledyard did or the taking a long solitary walk on an empty stomach in the negro heart of africa which was the sum of poor mungos performancesthis kind of travel i say may not be the very best mode of attaining a high social polish still for the most part that sort of thing is to be had anywhere these reflections just here are occasioned by the circumstance that after we were all seated at the table and i was preparing to hear some good stories about whaling to my no small surprise nearly every man maintained a profound silence yes here were a set of seadogs many of whom without the slightest bashfulness had boarded great whales on the high seasentire strangers to themand duelled them dead without winking and yet here they sat at a social breakfast tableall of the same calling all of kindred tasteslooking round as sheepishly at each other as though they had never been out of sight of some sheepfold among the green mountains a curious sight these bashful bears these timid warrior whalemen but as for queequegwhy queequeg sat there among themat the head of the table too it so chanced as cool as an icicle his greatest admirer could not have cordially justified his bringing his harpoon into breakfast with him and using it there without ceremony reaching over the table with it to the imminent jeopardy of many heads and grappling the beefsteaks towards him but that was certainly very coolly done by him and every one knows that in most peoples estimation to do anything coolly is to do it genteelly we will not speak of all queequegs peculiarities here how he eschewed coffee and hot rolls and applied his undivided attention to beefsteaks done rare enough that when breakfast was over he withdrew like the rest into the public room lighted his tomahawkpipe and was sitting there quietly digesting and smoking with his inseparable hat on when i sallied out for a stroll if i had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of so outlandish an individual as queequeg circulating among the polite society of a civilized town that astonishment soon departed upon taking my first daylight stroll through the streets of new bedford
on his quitting the room she sat down unable to support herself and looking so miserably ill that it was impossible for darcy to leave her or to refrain from saying in a tone of gentleness and commiseration let me call your maid is there nothing you could take to give you present relief no i thank you she replied endeavouring to recover herself i am quite well i am only distressed by some dreadful news which i have just received from longbourn she burst into tears as she alluded to it and for a few minutes could not speak another word darcy in wretched suspense could only say something indistinctly of his concern and observe her in compassionate silence i have just had a letter from jane with such dreadful news my younger sister has left all her friendshas eloped has thrown herself into the power ofof mr she has no money no connections nothing that can tempt him toshe is lost for ever when i consider she added in a yet more agitated voice that i might have prevented it had i but explained some part of it onlysome part of what i learnt to my own family had his character been known this could not have happened they left brighton together on sunday night and were traced almost to london but not beyond they are certainly not gone to scotland and what has been done what has been attempted to recover her my father is gone to london and jane has written to beg my uncles immediate assistance and we shall be off i hope in halfanhour but nothing can be donei know very well that nothing can be done he seemed scarcely to hear her and was walking up and down the room in earnest meditation his brow contracted his air gloomy elizabeth soon observed and instantly understood it her power was sinking everything must sink under such a proof of family weakness such an assurance of the deepest disgrace she could neither wonder nor condemn but the belief of his selfconquest brought nothing consolatory to her bosom afforded no palliation of her distress
long is as good a creature as ever livedand her nieces are very pretty behaved girls and not at all handsome i like them prodigiously bennet in short was in very great spirits she had seen enough of bingleys behaviour to jane to be convinced that she would get him at last and her expectations of advantage to her family when in a happy humour were so far beyond reason that she was quite disappointed at not seeing him there again the next day to make his proposals it has been a very agreeable day said miss bennet to elizabeth the party seemed so well selected so suitable one with the other i assure you that i have now learnt to enjoy his conversation as an agreeable and sensible young man without having a wish beyond it i am perfectly satisfied from what his manners now are that he never had any design of engaging my affection it is only that he is blessed with greater sweetness of address and a stronger desire of generally pleasing than any other man you are very cruel said her sister you will not let me smile and are provoking me to it every moment but why should you wish to persuade me that i feel more than i acknowledge that is a question which i hardly know how to answer we all love to instruct though we can teach only what is not worth knowing forgive me and if you persist in indifference do not make me your confidante his friend had left him that morning for london but was to return home in ten days time he sat with them above an hour and was in remarkably good spirits bennet invited him to dine with them but with many expressions of concern he confessed himself engaged elsewhere next time you call said she i hope we shall be more lucky  and if she would give him leave would take an early opportunity of waiting on them yes he had no engagement at all for tomorrow and her invitation was accepted with alacrity he came and in such very good time that the ladies were none of them dressed bennet to her daughters room in her dressing gown and with her hair half finished crying out my dear jane make haste and hurry down
poor marianne languid and low from the nature of her malady and feeling herself universally ill could no longer hope that tomorrow would find her recovered and the idea of what tomorrow would have produced but for this unlucky illness made every ailment severe for on that day they were to have begun their journey home and attended the whole way by a servant of mrs jennings were to have taken their mother by surprise on the following forenoon the little she said was all in lamentation of this inevitable delay though elinor tried to raise her spirits and make her believe as she then really believed herself that it would be a very short one the next day produced little or no alteration in the state of the patient she certainly was not better and except that there was no amendment did not appear worse palmer though very unwilling to go as well from real humanity and goodnature as from a dislike of appearing to be frightened away by his wife was persuaded at last by colonel brandon to perform his promise of following her and while he was preparing to go colonel brandon himself with a much greater exertion began to talk of going likewise jennings interposed most acceptably for to send the colonel away while his love was in so much uneasiness on her sisters account would be to deprive them both she thought of every comfort and therefore telling him at once that his stay at cleveland was necessary to herself that she should want him to play at piquet of an evening while miss dashwood was above with her sister c she urged him so strongly to remain that he who was gratifying the first wish of his own heart by a compliance could not long even affect to demur especially as mrs palmer who seemed to feel a relief to himself in leaving behind him a person so well able to assist or advise miss dashwood in any emergence marianne was of course kept in ignorance of all these arrangements she knew not that she had been the means of sending the owners of cleveland away in about seven days from the time of their arrival it gave her no surprise that she saw nothing of mrs palmer and as it gave her likewise no concern she never mentioned her name palmers departure and her situation continued with little variation the same harris who attended her every day still talked boldly of a speedy recovery and miss dashwood was equally sanguine but the expectation of the others was by no means so cheerful jennings had determined very early in the seizure that marianne would never get over it and colonel brandon who was chiefly of use in listening to mrs jenningss forebodings was not in a state of mind to resist their influence he tried to reason himself out of fears which the different judgment of the apothecary seemed to render absurd but the many hours of each day in which he was left entirely alone were but too favourable for the admission of every melancholy idea and he could not expel from his mind the persuasion that he should see marianne no more on the morning of the third day however the gloomy anticipations of both were almost done away for when mr harris arrived he declared his patient materially better her pulse was much stronger and every symptom more favourable than on the preceding visit
writing to each other said lucy returning the letter into her pocket is the only comfort we have in such long separations yes i have one other comfort in his picture but poor edward has not even that i gave him a lock of my hair set in a ring when he was at longstaple last and that was some comfort to him he said but not equal to a picture i did said elinor with a composure of voice under which was concealed an emotion and distress beyond any thing she had ever felt before fortunately for her they had now reached the cottage and the conversation could be continued no farther after sitting with them a few minutes the miss steeles returned to the park and elinor was then at liberty to think and be wretched at this point in the first and second editions volume  ends  chapter  however small elinors general dependence on lucys veracity might be it was impossible for her on serious reflection to suspect it in the present case where no temptation could be answerable to the folly of inventing a falsehood of such a description what lucy had asserted to be true therefore elinor could not dared not longer doubt supported as it was too on every side by such probabilities and proofs and contradicted by nothing but her own wishes their opportunity of acquaintance in the house of mr pratt was a foundation for the rest at once indisputable and alarming and edwards visit near plymouth his melancholy state of mind his dissatisfaction at his own prospects his uncertain behaviour towards herself the intimate knowledge of the miss steeles as to norland and their family connections which had often surprised her the picture the letter the ring formed altogether such a body of evidence as overcame every fear of condemning him unfairly and established as a fact which no partiality could set aside his illtreatment of herself her resentment of such behaviour her indignation at having been its dupe for a short time made her feel only for herself but other ideas other considerations soon arose had he feigned a regard for her which he did not feel was his engagement to lucy an engagement of the heart no whatever it might once have been she could not believe it such at present her mother sisters fanny all had been conscious of his regard for her at norland it was not an illusion of her own vanity he had been blamable highly blamable in remaining at norland after he first felt her influence over him to be more than it ought to be in that he could not be defended but if he had injured her how much more had he injured himself if her case were pitiable his was hopeless his imprudence had made her miserable for a while but it seemed to have deprived himself of all chance of ever being otherwise she might in time regain tranquillity but he what had he to look forward to
my father in old tolland county cut down a pine tree once and found a silver ring grown over in it some old darkeys wedding ring and so theyll say in the resurrection when they come to fish up this old mast and find a doubloon lodged in it with bedded oysters for the shaggy bark the pequod of nantucket meets the samuel enderby of london so cried ahab once more hailing a ship showing english colours bearing down under the stern trumpet to mouth the old man was standing in his hoisted quarterboat his ivory leg plainly revealed to the stranger captain who was carelessly reclining in his own boats bow he was a darklytanned burly goodnatured finelooking man of sixty or thereabouts dressed in a spacious roundabout that hung round him in festoons of blue pilotcloth and one empty arm of this jacket streamed behind him like the broidered arm of a hussars surcoat and withdrawing it from the folds that had hidden it he held up a white arm of sperm whale bone terminating in a wooden head like a mallet cried ahab impetuously and tossing about the oars near himstand by to lower  in less than a minute without quitting his little craft he and his crew were dropped to the water and were soon alongside of the stranger in the excitement of the moment ahab had forgotten that since the loss of his leg he had never once stepped on board of any vessel at sea but his own and then it was always by an ingenious and very handy mechanical contrivance peculiar to the pequod and a thing not to be rigged and shipped in any other vessel at a moments warning now it is no very easy matter for anybodyexcept those who are almost hourly used to it like whalemento clamber up a ships side from a boat on the open sea for the great swells now lift the boat high up towards the bulwarks and then instantaneously drop it half way down to the kelson so deprived of one leg and the strange ship of course being altogether unsupplied with the kindly invention ahab now found himself abjectly reduced to a clumsy landsman again hopelessly eyeing the uncertain changeful height he could hardly hope to attain it has before been hinted perhaps that every little untoward circumstance that befell him and which indirectly sprang from his luckless mishap almost invariably irritated or exasperated ahab and in the present instance all this was heightened by the sight of the two officers of the strange ship leaning over the side by the perpendicular ladder of nailed cleets there and swinging towards him a pair of tastefullyornamented manropes for at first they did not seem to bethink them that a onelegged man must be too much of a cripple to use their sea bannisters but this awkwardness only lasted a minute because the strange captain observing at a glance how affairs stood cried out i see i see as good luck would have it they had had a whale alongside a day or two previous and the great tackles were still aloft and the massive curved blubberhook now clean and dry was still attached to the end this was quickly lowered to ahab who at once comprehending it all slid his solitary thigh into the curve of the hook it was like sitting in the fluke of an anchor or the crotch of an apple tree and then giving the word held himself fast and at the same time also helped to hoist his own weight by pulling handoverhand upon one of the running parts of the tackle soon he was carefully swung inside the high bulwarks and gently landed upon the capstan head with his ivory arm frankly thrust forth in welcome the other captain advanced and ahab putting out his ivory leg and crossing the ivory arm like two swordfish blades cried out in his walrus way aye aye hearty an arm that never can shrink dye see and a leg that never can run
darcy was not of a disposition in which happiness overflows in mirth and elizabeth agitated and confused rather knew that she was happy than felt herself to be so for besides the immediate embarrassment there were other evils before her she anticipated what would be felt in the family when her situation became known she was aware that no one liked him but jane and even feared that with the others it was a dislike which not all his fortune and consequence might do away though suspicion was very far from miss bennets general habits she was absolutely incredulous here my sole dependence was on you and i am sure nobody else will believe me if you do not perhaps i did not always love him so well as i do now but in such cases as these a good memory is unpardonable this is the last time i shall ever remember it myself elizabeth again and more seriously assured her of its truth my dear dear lizzy i wouldi do congratulate youbut are you certain forgive the questionare you quite certain that you can be happy with him it is settled between us already that we are to be the happiest couple in the world nothing could give either bingley or myself more delight are you quite sure that you feel what you ought to do you will only think i feel more than i ought to do when i tell you all why i must confess that i love him better than i do bingley let me know every thing that i am to know without delay it has been coming on so gradually that i hardly know when it began but i believe i must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at pemberley another entreaty that she would be serious however produced the desired effect and she soon satisfied jane by her solemn assurances of attachment when convinced on that article miss bennet had nothing further to wish
i have hinted that i would often jerk poor queequeg from between the whale and the shipwhere he would occasionally fall from the incessant rolling and swaying of both but this was not the only jamming jeopardy he was exposed to unappalled by the massacre made upon them during the night the sharks now freshly and more keenly allured by the before pent blood which began to flow from the carcassthe rabid creatures swarmed round it like bees in a beehive and right in among those sharks was queequeg who often pushed them aside with his floundering feet a thing altogether incredible were it not that attracted by such prey as a dead whale the otherwise miscellaneously carnivorous shark will seldom touch a man nevertheless it may well be believed that since they have such a ravenous finger in the pie it is deemed but wise to look sharp to them accordingly besides the monkeyrope with which i now and then jerked the poor fellow from too close a vicinity to the maw of what seemed a peculiarly ferocious sharkhe was provided with still another protection suspended over the side in one of the stages tashtego and daggoo continually flourished over his head a couple of keen whalespades wherewith they slaughtered as many sharks as they could reach this procedure of theirs to be sure was very disinterested and benevolent of them they meant queequegs best happiness i admit but in their hasty zeal to befriend him and from the circumstance that both he and the sharks were at times half hidden by the bloodmuddled water those indiscreet spades of theirs would come nearer amputating a leg than a tail but poor queequeg i suppose straining and gasping there with that great iron hookpoor queequeg i suppose only prayed to his yojo and gave up his life into the hands of his gods well well my dear comrade and twinbrother thought i as i drew in and then slacked off the rope to every swell of the seawhat matters it after all are you not the precious image of each and all of us men in this whaling world that unsounded ocean you gasp in is life those sharks your foes those spades your friends and what between sharks and spades you are in a sad pickle and peril poor lad for now as with blue lips and bloodshot eyes the exhausted savage at last climbs up the chains and stands all dripping and involuntarily trembling over the side the steward advances and with a benevolent consolatory glance hands himwhat yes this must be ginger peering into the as yet untasted cup then standing as if incredulous for a while he calmly walked towards the astonished steward slowly saying ginger is ginger the sort of fuel you use doughboy to kindle a fire in this shivering cannibal what the devil is ginger i say that you offer this cup to our poor queequeg here there is some sneaking temperance society movement about this business he suddenly added now approaching starbuck who had just come from forward
marianne entered the house with a heart swelling with emotion from the consciousness of being only eighty miles from barton and not thirty from combe magna and before she had been five minutes within its walls while the others were busily helping charlotte to show her child to the housekeeper she quitted it again stealing away through the winding shrubberies now just beginning to be in beauty to gain a distant eminence where from its grecian temple her eye wandering over a wide tract of country to the southeast could fondly rest on the farthest ridge of hills in the horizon and fancy that from their summits combe magna might be seen in such moments of precious invaluable misery she rejoiced in tears of agony to be at cleveland and as she returned by a different circuit to the house feeling all the happy privilege of country liberty of wandering from place to place in free and luxurious solitude she resolved to spend almost every hour of every day while she remained with the palmers in the indulgence of such solitary rambles she returned just in time to join the others as they quitted the house on an excursion through its more immediate premises and the rest of the morning was easily whiled away in lounging round the kitchen garden examining the bloom upon its walls and listening to the gardeners lamentations upon blights in dawdling through the greenhouse where the loss of her favourite plants unwarily exposed and nipped by the lingering frost raised the laughter of charlotteand in visiting her poultryyard where in the disappointed hopes of her dairymaid by hens forsaking their nests or being stolen by a fox or in the rapid decrease of a promising young brood she found fresh sources of merriment the morning was fine and dry and marianne in her plan of employment abroad had not calculated for any change of weather during their stay at cleveland with great surprise therefore did she find herself prevented by a settled rain from going out again after dinner she had depended on a twilight walk to the grecian temple and perhaps all over the grounds and an evening merely cold or damp would not have deterred her from it but a heavy and settled rain even she could not fancy dry or pleasant weather for walking their party was small and the hours passed quietly away jennings her carpetwork they talked of the friends they had left behind arranged lady middletons engagements and wondered whether mr palmer and colonel brandon would get farther than reading that night elinor however little concerned in it joined in their discourse and marianne who had the knack of finding her way in every house to the library however it might be avoided by the family in general soon procured herself a book palmers side that constant and friendly good humour could do to make them feel themselves welcome the openness and heartiness of her manner more than atoned for that want of recollection and elegance which made her often deficient in the forms of politeness her kindness recommended by so pretty a face was engaging her folly though evident was not disgusting because it was not conceited and elinor could have forgiven every thing but her laugh the two gentlemen arrived the next day to a very late dinner affording a pleasant enlargement of the party and a very welcome variety to their conversation which a long morning of the same continued rain had reduced very low palmer and in that little had seen so much variety in his address to her sister and herself that she knew not what to expect to find him in his own family she found him however perfectly the gentleman in his behaviour to all his visitors and only occasionally rude to his wife and her mother she found him very capable of being a pleasant companion and only prevented from being so always by too great an aptitude to fancy himself as much superior to people in general as he must feel himself to be to mrs for the rest of his character and habits they were marked as far as elinor could perceive with no traits at all unusual in his sex and time of life he was nice in his eating uncertain in his hours fond of his child though affecting to slight it and idled away the mornings at billiards which ought to have been devoted to business she liked him however upon the whole much better than she had expected and in her heart was not sorry that she could like him no morenot sorry to be driven by the observation of his epicurism his selfishness and his conceit to rest with complacency on the remembrance of edwards generous temper simple taste and diffident feelings of edward or at least of some of his concerns she now received intelligence from colonel brandon who had been into dorsetshire lately and who treating her at once as the disinterested friend of mr ferrars and the kind confidante of himself talked to her a great deal of the parsonage at delaford described its deficiencies and told her what he meant to do himself towards removing them
willoughby was all that her fancy had delineated in that unhappy hour and in every brighter period as capable of attaching her and his behaviour declared his wishes to be in that respect as earnest as his abilities were strong her mother too in whose mind not one speculative thought of their marriage had been raised by his prospect of riches was led before the end of a week to hope and expect it and secretly to congratulate herself on having gained two such sonsinlaw as edward and willoughby colonel brandons partiality for marianne which had so early been discovered by his friends now first became perceptible to elinor when it ceased to be noticed by them their attention and wit were drawn off to his more fortunate rival and the raillery which the other had incurred before any partiality arose was removed when his feelings began really to call for the ridicule so justly annexed to sensibility elinor was obliged though unwillingly to believe that the sentiments which mrs jennings had assigned him for her own satisfaction were now actually excited by her sister and that however a general resemblance of disposition between the parties might forward the affection of mr willoughby an equally striking opposition of character was no hindrance to the regard of colonel brandon she saw it with concern for what could a silent man of five and thirty hope when opposed to a very lively one of five and twenty and as she could not even wish him successful she heartily wished him indifferent she liked himin spite of his gravity and reserve she beheld in him an object of interest his manners though serious were mild and his reserve appeared rather the result of some oppression of spirits than of any natural gloominess of temper sir john had dropped hints of past injuries and disappointments which justified her belief of his being an unfortunate man and she regarded him with respect and compassion perhaps she pitied and esteemed him the more because he was slighted by willoughby and marianne who prejudiced against him for being neither lively nor young seemed resolved to undervalue his merits brandon is just the kind of man said willoughby one day when they were talking of him together whom every body speaks well of and nobody cares about whom all are delighted to see and nobody remembers to talk to do not boast of it however said elinor for it is injustice in both of you he is highly esteemed by all the family at the park and i never see him myself without taking pains to converse with him that he is patronised by you replied willoughby is certainly in his favour but as for the esteem of the others it is a reproach in itself who would submit to the indignity of being approved by such a woman as lady middleton and mrs jennings that could command the indifference of any body else but perhaps the abuse of such people as yourself and marianne will make amends for the regard of lady middleton and her mother
let me thank you again and again in the name of all my family for that generous compassion which induced you to take so much trouble and bear so many mortifications for the sake of discovering them if you will thank me he replied let it be for yourself alone that the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on i shall not attempt to deny much as i respect them i believe i thought only of you after a short pause her companion added you are too generous to trifle with me if your feelings are still what they were last april tell me so at once my affections and wishes are unchanged but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever elizabeth feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation now forced herself to speak and immediately though not very fluently gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change since the period to which he alluded as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances the happiness which this reply produced was such as he had probably never felt before and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do had elizabeth been able to encounter his eye she might have seen how well the expression of heartfelt delight diffused over his face became him but though she could not look she could listen and he told her of feelings which in proving of what importance she was to him made his affection every moment more valuable there was too much to be thought and felt and said for attention to any other objects she soon learnt that they were indebted for their present good understanding to the efforts of his aunt who did call on him in her return through london and there relate her journey to longbourn its motive and the substance of her conversation with elizabeth dwelling emphatically on every expression of the latter which in her ladyships apprehension peculiarly denoted her perverseness and assurance in the belief that such a relation must assist her endeavours to obtain that promise from her nephew which she had refused to give but unluckily for her ladyship its effect had been exactly contrariwise it taught me to hope said he as i had scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before i knew enough of your disposition to be certain that had you been absolutely irrevocably decided against me you would have acknowledged it to lady catherine frankly and openly elizabeth coloured and laughed as she replied yes you know enough of my frankness to believe me capable of that after abusing you so abominably to your face i could have no scruple in abusing you to all your relations for though your accusations were illfounded formed on mistaken premises my behaviour to you at the time had merited the severest reproof we will not quarrel for the greater share of blame annexed to that evening said elizabeth the conduct of neither if strictly examined will be irreproachable but since then we have both i hope improved in civility
look here said the landlady quickly putting down the vinegarcruet so as to have one hand free look here are you talking about prying open any of my doors in as calm but rapid a manner as possible i gave her to understand the whole case unconsciously clapping the vinegarcruet to one side of her nose she ruminated for an instant then exclaimedno  running to a little closet under the landing of the stairs she glanced in and returning told me that queequegs harpoon was missing its unfortnate stiggs done over againthere goes another counterpanegod pity his poor mother there betty go to snarles the painter and tell him to paint me a sign with no suicides permitted here and no smoking in the parlormight as well kill both birds at once  and running up after me she caught me as i was again trying to force open the door go for the locksmith theres one about a mile from here putting her hand in her sidepocket heres a key thatll fit i guess lets see queequegs supplemental bolt remained unwithdrawn within have to burst it open said i and was running down the entry a little for a good start when the landlady caught at me again vowing i should not break down her premises but i tore from her and with a sudden bodily rush dashed myself full against the mark with a prodigious noise the door flew open and the knob slamming against the wall sent the plaster to the ceiling and there good heavens there sat queequeg altogether cool and selfcollected right in the middle of the room squatting on his hams and holding yojo on top of his head he looked neither one way nor the other way but sat like a carved image with scarce a sign of active life queequeg said i going up to him queequeg whats the matter with you but all we said not a word could we drag out of him i almost felt like pushing him over so as to change his position for it was almost intolerable it seemed so painfully and unnaturally constrained especially as in all probability he had been sitting so for upwards of eight or ten hours going too without his regular meals hussey said i hes alive at all events so leave us if you please and i will see to this strange affair myself closing the door upon the landlady i endeavored to prevail upon queequeg to take a chair but in vain there he sat and all he could dofor all my polite arts and blandishmentshe would not move a peg nor say a single word nor even look at me nor notice my presence in the slightest way i wonder thought i if this can possibly be a part of his ramadan do they fast on their hams that way in his native island
while the ear of the former has an external opening that of the latter is entirely and evenly covered over with a membrane so as to be quite imperceptible from without is it not curious that so vast a being as the whale should see the world through so small an eye and hear the thunder through an ear which is smaller than a hares but if his eyes were broad as the lens of herschels great telescope and his ears capacious as the porches of cathedrals would that make him any longer of sight or sharper of hearing let us now with whatever levers and steamengines we have at hand cant over the sperm whales head that it may lie bottom up then ascending by a ladder to the summit have a peep down the mouth and were it not that the body is now completely separated from it with a lantern we might descend into the great kentucky mammoth cave of his stomach but let us hold on here by this tooth and look about us where we are from floor to ceiling lined or rather papered with a glistening white membrane glossy as bridal satins but come out now and look at this portentous lower jaw which seems like the long narrow lid of an immense snuffbox with the hinge at one end instead of one side if you pry it up so as to get it overhead and expose its rows of teeth it seems a terrific portcullis and such alas it proves to many a poor wight in the fishery upon whom these spikes fall with impaling force but far more terrible is it to behold when fathoms down in the sea you see some sulky whale floating there suspended with his prodigious jaw some fifteen feet long hanging straight down at rightangles with his body for all the world like a ships jibboom this whale is not dead he is only dispirited out of sorts perhaps hypochondriac and so supine that the hinges of his jaw have relaxed leaving him there in that ungainly sort of plight a reproach to all his tribe who must no doubt imprecate lockjaws upon him in most cases this lower jawbeing easily unhinged by a practised artistis disengaged and hoisted on deck for the purpose of extracting the ivory teeth and furnishing a supply of that hard white whalebone with which the fishermen fashion all sorts of curious articles including canes umbrellastocks and handles to ridingwhips with a long weary hoist the jaw is dragged on board as if it were an anchor and when the proper time comessome few days after the other workqueequeg daggoo and tashtego being all accomplished dentists are set to drawing teeth with a keen cuttingspade queequeg lances the gums then the jaw is lashed down to ringbolts and a tackle being rigged from aloft they drag out these teeth as michigan oxen drag stumps of old oaks out of wild wood lands there are generally fortytwo teeth in all in old whales much worn down but undecayed nor filled after our artificial fashion the jaw is afterwards sawn into slabs and piled away like joists for building houses crossing the deck let us now have a good long look at the right whales head as in general shape the noble sperm whales head may be compared to a roman warchariot especially in front where it is so broadly rounded so at a broad view the right whales head bears a rather inelegant resemblance to a gigantic galliottoed shoe two hundred years ago an old dutch voyager likened its shape to that of a shoemakers last and in this same last or shoe that old woman of the nursery tale with the swarming brood might very comfortably be lodged she and all her progeny
they have none of them much to recommend them replied he they are all silly and ignorant like other girls but lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters bennet how can you abuse your own children in such a way i have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least but i hope you will get over it and live to see many young men of four thousand a year come into the neighbourhood it will be no use to us if twenty such should come since you will not visit them depend upon it my dear that when there are twenty i will visit them all bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts sarcastic humour reserve and caprice that the experience of threeandtwenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character she was a woman of mean understanding little information and uncertain temper when she was discontented she fancied herself nervous the business of her life was to get her daughters married its solace was visiting and news bennet was among the earliest of those who waited on mr he had always intended to visit him though to the last always assuring his wife that he should not go and till the evening after the visit was paid she had no knowledge of it observing his second daughter employed in trimming a hat he suddenly addressed her with i hope mr bingley likes said her mother resentfully since we are not to visit but you forget mamma said elizabeth that we shall meet him at the assemblies and that mrs she is a selfish hypocritical woman and i have no opinion of her bennet and i am glad to find that you do not depend on her serving you bennet deigned not to make any reply but unable to contain herself began scolding one of her daughters kitty has no discretion in her coughs said her father she times them ill i do not cough for my own amusement replied kitty fretfully
though jeremy benthams skeleton which hangs for candelabra in the library of one of his executors correctly conveys the idea of a burlybrowed utilitarian old gentleman with all jeremys other leading personal characteristics yet nothing of this kind could be inferred from any leviathans articulated bones in fact as the great hunter says the mere skeleton of the whale bears the same relation to the fully invested and padded animal as the insect does to the chrysalis that so roundingly envelopes it this peculiarity is strikingly evinced in the head as in some part of this book will be incidentally shown it is also very curiously displayed in the side fin the bones of which almost exactly answer to the bones of the human hand minus only the thumb this fin has four regular bonefingers the index middle ring and little finger but all these are permanently lodged in their fleshy covering as the human fingers in an artificial covering however recklessly the whale may sometimes serve us said humorous stubb one day he can never be truly said to handle us without mittens for all these reasons then any way you may look at it you must needs conclude that the great leviathan is that one creature in the world which must remain unpainted to the last true one portrait may hit the mark much nearer than another but none can hit it with any very considerable degree of exactness so there is no earthly way of finding out precisely what the whale really looks like and the only mode in which you can derive even a tolerable idea of his living contour is by going a whaling yourself but by so doing you run no small risk of being eternally stove and sunk by him wherefore it seems to me you had best not be too fastidious in your curiosity touching this leviathan of the less erroneous pictures of whales and the true pictures of whaling scenes in connexion with the monstrous pictures of whales i am strongly tempted here to enter upon those still more monstrous stories of them which are to be found in certain books both ancient and modern especially in pliny purchas hackluyt harris cuvier etc i know of only four published outlines of the great sperm whale colnetts hugginss frederick cuviers and beales in the previous chapter colnett and cuvier have been referred to hugginss is far better than theirs but by great odds beales is the best all beales drawings of this whale are good excepting the middle figure in the picture of three whales in various attitudes capping his second chapter his frontispiece boats attacking sperm whales though no doubt calculated to excite the civil scepticism of some parlor men is admirably correct and lifelike in its general effect ross browne are pretty correct in contour but they are wretchedly engraved
darcy replied with great intrepidity miss elizabeth bennet that is exactly the question which i expected you to ask a ladys imagination is very rapid it jumps from admiration to love from love to matrimony in a moment nay if you are serious about it i shall consider the matter is absolutely settled you will be having a charming motherinlaw indeed and of course she will always be at pemberley with you he listened to her with perfect indifference while she chose to entertain herself in this manner and as his composure convinced her that all was safe her wit flowed long bennets property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year which unfortunately for his daughters was entailed in default of heirs male on a distant relation and their mothers fortune though ample for her situation in life could but ill supply the deficiency of his her father had been an attorney in meryton and had left her four thousand pounds phillips who had been a clerk to their father and succeeded him in the business and a brother settled in london in a respectable line of trade the village of longbourn was only one mile from meryton a most convenient distance for the young ladies who were usually tempted thither three or four times a week to pay their duty to their aunt and to a milliners shop just over the way the two youngest of the family catherine and lydia were particularly frequent in these attentions their minds were more vacant than their sisters and when nothing better offered a walk to meryton was necessary to amuse their morning hours and furnish conversation for the evening and however bare of news the country in general might be they always contrived to learn some from their aunt at present indeed they were well supplied both with news and happiness by the recent arrival of a militia regiment in the neighbourhood it was to remain the whole winter and meryton was the headquarters phillips were now productive of the most interesting intelligence every day added something to their knowledge of the officers names and connections their lodgings were not long a secret and at length they began to know the officers themselves phillips visited them all and this opened to his nieces a store of felicity unknown before bingleys large fortune the mention of which gave animation to their mother was worthless in their eyes when opposed to the regimentals of an ensign after listening one morning to their effusions on this subject mr bennet coolly observed from all that i can collect by your manner of talking you must be two of the silliest girls in the country i have suspected it some time but i am now convinced
jennings was kept away by the indisposition of her youngest daughter and for this party marianne wholly dispirited careless of her appearance and seeming equally indifferent whether she went or staid prepared without one look of hope or one expression of pleasure she sat by the drawingroom fire after tea till the moment of lady middletons arrival without once stirring from her seat or altering her attitude lost in her own thoughts and insensible of her sisters presence and when at last they were told that lady middleton waited for them at the door she started as if she had forgotten that any one was expected they arrived in due time at the place of destination and as soon as the string of carriages before them would allow alighted ascended the stairs heard their names announced from one landingplace to another in an audible voice and entered a room splendidly lit up quite full of company and insufferably hot when they had paid their tribute of politeness by curtsying to the lady of the house they were permitted to mingle in the crowd and take their share of the heat and inconvenience to which their arrival must necessarily add after some time spent in saying little or doing less lady middleton sat down to cassino and as marianne was not in spirits for moving about she and elinor luckily succeeding to chairs placed themselves at no great distance from the table they had not remained in this manner long before elinor perceived willoughby standing within a few yards of them in earnest conversation with a very fashionable looking young woman she soon caught his eye and he immediately bowed but without attempting to speak to her or to approach marianne though he could not but see her and then continued his discourse with the same lady elinor turned involuntarily to marianne to see whether it could be unobserved by her at that moment she first perceived him and her whole countenance glowing with sudden delight she would have moved towards him instantly had not her sister caught hold of her pray pray be composed cried elinor and do not betray what you feel to every body present this however was more than she could believe herself and to be composed at such a moment was not only beyond the reach of marianne it was beyond her wish she sat in an agony of impatience which affected every feature at last he turned round again and regarded them both she started up and pronouncing his name in a tone of affection held out her hand to him he approached and addressing himself rather to elinor than marianne as if wishing to avoid her eye and determined not to observe her attitude inquired in a hurried manner after mrs elinor was robbed of all presence of mind by such an address and was unable to say a word but the feelings of her sister were instantly expressed her face was crimsoned over and she exclaimed in a voice of the greatest emotion good god he could not then avoid it but her touch seemed painful to him and he held her hand only for a moment during all this time he was evidently struggling for composure elinor watched his countenance and saw its expression becoming more tranquil
i hope your plans in favour of the shire will not be affected by his being in the neighbourhood we are not on friendly terms and it always gives me pain to meet him but i have no reason for avoiding him but what i might proclaim before all the world a sense of very great illusage and most painful regrets at his being what he is darcy was one of the best men that ever breathed and the truest friend i ever had and i can never be in company with this mr darcy without being grieved to the soul by a thousand tender recollections his behaviour to myself has been scandalous but i verily believe i could forgive him anything and everything rather than his disappointing the hopes and disgracing the memory of his father elizabeth found the interest of the subject increase and listened with all her heart but the delicacy of it prevented further inquiry wickham began to speak on more general topics meryton the neighbourhood the society appearing highly pleased with all that he had yet seen and speaking of the latter with gentle but very intelligible gallantry it was the prospect of constant society and good society he added which was my chief inducement to enter the shire i knew it to be a most respectable agreeable corps and my friend denny tempted me further by his account of their present quarters and the very great attentions and excellent acquaintances meryton had procured them i have been a disappointed man and my spirits will not bear solitude a military life is not what i was intended for but circumstances have now made it eligible the church ought to have been my professioni was brought up for the church and i should at this time have been in possession of a most valuable living had it pleased the gentleman we were speaking of just now darcy bequeathed me the next presentation of the best living in his gift he meant to provide for me amply and thought he had done it but when the living fell it was given elsewhere there was just such an informality in the terms of the bequest as to give me no hope from law a man of honour could not have doubted the intention but mr darcy chose to doubt itor to treat it as a merely conditional recommendation and to assert that i had forfeited all claim to it by extravagance imprudencein short anything or nothing certain it is that the living became vacant two years ago exactly as i was of an age to hold it and that it was given to another man and no less certain is it that i cannot accuse myself of having really done anything to deserve to lose it i have a warm unguarded temper and i may have spoken my opinion of him and to him too freely but the fact is that we are very different sort of men and that he hates me
for like certain other omnivorous roving lovers that might be named my lord whale has no taste for the nursery however much for the bower and so being a great traveller he leaves his anonymous babies all over the world every baby an exotic in good time nevertheless as the ardour of youth declines as years and dumps increase as reflection lends her solemn pauses in short as a general lassitude overtakes the sated turk then a love of ease and virtue supplants the love for maidens our ottoman enters upon the impotent repentant admonitory stage of life forswears disbands the harem and grown to an exemplary sulky old soul goes about all alone among the meridians and parallels saying his prayers and warning each young leviathan from his amorous errors now as the harem of whales is called by the fishermen a school so is the lord and master of that school technically known as the schoolmaster it is therefore not in strict character however admirably satirical that after going to school himself he should then go abroad inculcating not what he learned there but the folly of it his title schoolmaster would very naturally seem derived from the name bestowed upon the harem itself but some have surmised that the man who first thus entitled this sort of ottoman whale must have read the memoirs of vidocq and informed himself what sort of a countryschoolmaster that famous frenchman was in his younger days and what was the nature of those occult lessons he inculcated into some of his pupils the same secludedness and isolation to which the schoolmaster whale betakes himself in his advancing years is true of all aged sperm whales almost universally a lone whaleas a solitary leviathan is calledproves an ancient one like venerable mossbearded daniel boone he will have no one near him but nature herself and her he takes to wife in the wilderness of waters and the best of wives she is though she keeps so many moody secrets the schools composing none but young and vigorous males previously mentioned offer a strong contrast to the harem schools for while those female whales are characteristically timid the young males or fortybarrelbulls as they call them are by far the most pugnacious of all leviathans and proverbially the most dangerous to encounter excepting those wondrous greyheaded grizzled whales sometimes met and these will fight you like grim fiends exasperated by a penal gout the fortybarrelbull schools are larger than the harem schools like a mob of young collegians they are full of fight fun and wickedness tumbling round the world at such a reckless rollicking rate that no prudent underwriter would insure them any more than he would a riotous lad at yale or harvard they soon relinquish this turbulence though and when about threefourths grown break up and separately go about in quest of settlements that is harems another point of difference between the male and female schools is still more characteristic of the sexes but strike a member of the harem school and her companions swim around her with every token of concern sometimes lingering so near her and so long as themselves to fall a prey the allusion to the waif and waifpoles in the last chapter but one necessitates some account of the laws and regulations of the whale fishery of which the waif may be deemed the grand symbol and badge it frequently happens that when several ships are cruising in company a whale may be struck by one vessel then escape and be finally killed and captured by another vessel and herein are indirectly comprised many minor contingencies all partaking of this one grand feature for exampleafter a weary and perilous chase and capture of a whale the body may get loose from the ship by reason of a violent storm and drifting far away to leeward be retaken by a second whaler who in a calm snugly tows it alongside without risk of life or line thus the most vexatious and violent disputes would often arise between the fishermen were there not some written or unwritten universal undisputed law applicable to all cases perhaps the only formal whaling code authorized by legislative enactment was that of holland
this done he turns the pelt inside out like a pantaloon leg gives it a good stretching so as almost to double its diameter and at last hangs it well spread in the rigging to dry ere long it is taken down when removing some three feet of it towards the pointed extremity and then cutting two slits for armholes at the other end he lengthwise slips himself bodily into it the mincer now stands before you invested in the full canonicals of his calling immemorial to all his order this investiture alone will adequately protect him while employed in the peculiar functions of his office that office consists in mincing the horsepieces of blubber for the pots an operation which is conducted at a curious wooden horse planted endwise against the bulwarks and with a capacious tub beneath it into which the minced pieces drop fast as the sheets from a rapt orators desk arrayed in decent black occupying a conspicuous pulpit intent on bible leaves what a candidate for an archbishopric what a lad for a pope were this mincer this is the invariable cry from the mates to the mincer it enjoins him to be careful and cut his work into as thin slices as possible inasmuch as by so doing the business of boiling out the oil is much accelerated and its quantity considerably increased besides perhaps improving it in quality besides her hoisted boats an american whaler is outwardly distinguished by her tryworks she presents the curious anomaly of the most solid masonry joining with oak and hemp in constituting the completed ship it is as if from the open field a brickkiln were transported to her planks the tryworks are planted between the foremast and mainmast the most roomy part of the deck the timbers beneath are of a peculiar strength fitted to sustain the weight of an almost solid mass of brick and mortar some ten feet by eight square and five in height the foundation does not penetrate the deck but the masonry is firmly secured to the surface by ponderous knees of iron bracing it on all sides and screwing it down to the timbers on the flanks it is cased with wood and at top completely covered by a large sloping battened hatchway removing this hatch we expose the great trypots two in number and each of several barrels capacity sometimes they are polished with soapstone and sand till they shine within like silver punchbowls during the nightwatches some cynical old sailors will crawl into them and coil themselves away there for a nap while employed in polishing themone man in each pot side by sidemany confidential communications are carried on over the iron lips it is a place also for profound mathematical meditation
the next day was exceedingly still and sultry and with nothing special to engage them the pequods crew could hardly resist the spell of sleep induced by such a vacant sea for this part of the indian ocean through which we then were voyaging is not what whalemen call a lively ground that is it affords fewer glimpses of porpoises dolphins flyingfish and other vivacious denizens of more stirring waters than those off the rio de la plata or the inshore ground off peru it was my turn to stand at the foremasthead and with my shoulders leaning against the slackened royal shrouds to and fro i idly swayed in what seemed an enchanted air no resolution could withstand it in that dreamy mood losing all consciousness at last my soul went out of my body though my body still continued to sway as a pendulum will long after the power which first moved it is withdrawn ere forgetfulness altogether came over me i had noticed that the seamen at the main and mizzenmastheads were already drowsy so that at last all three of us lifelessly swung from the spars and for every swing that we made there was a nod from below from the slumbering helmsman the waves too nodded their indolent crests and across the wide trance of the sea east nodded to west and the sun over all suddenly bubbles seemed bursting beneath my closed eyes like vices my hands grasped the shrouds some invisible gracious agency preserved me with a shock i came back to life close under our lee not forty fathoms off a gigantic sperm whale lay rolling in the water like the capsized hull of a frigate his broad glossy back of an ethiopian hue glistening in the suns rays like a mirror but lazily undulating in the trough of the sea and ever and anon tranquilly spouting his vapoury jet the whale looked like a portly burgher smoking his pipe of a warm afternoon as if struck by some enchanters wand the sleepy ship and every sleeper in it all at once started into wakefulness and more than a score of voices from all parts of the vessel simultaneously with the three notes from aloft shouted forth the accustomed cry as the great fish slowly and regularly spouted the sparkling brine into the air and obeying his own order he dashed the helm down before the helmsman could handle the spokes the sudden exclamations of the crew must have alarmed the whale and ere the boats were down majestically turning he swam away to the leeward but with such a steady tranquillity and making so few ripples as he swam that thinking after all he might not as yet be alarmed ahab gave orders that not an oar should be used and no man must speak but in whispers so seated like ontario indians on the gunwales of the boats we swiftly but silently paddled along the calm not admitting of the noiseless sails being set presently as we thus glided in chase the monster perpendicularly flitted his tail forty feet into the air and then sank out of sight like a tower swallowed up was the cry an announcement immediately followed by stubbs producing his match and igniting his pipe for now a respite was granted after the full interval of his sounding had elapsed the whale rose again and being now in advance of the smokers boat and much nearer to it than to any of the others stubb counted upon the honour of the capture it was obvious now that the whale had at length become aware of his pursuers all silence of cautiousness was therefore no longer of use paddles were dropped and oars came loudly into play
these reflections just here are occasioned by the circumstance that after we were all seated at the table and i was preparing to hear some good stories about whaling to my no small surprise nearly every man maintained a profound silence yes here were a set of seadogs many of whom without the slightest bashfulness had boarded great whales on the high seasentire strangers to themand duelled them dead without winking and yet here they sat at a social breakfast tableall of the same calling all of kindred tasteslooking round as sheepishly at each other as though they had never been out of sight of some sheepfold among the green mountains a curious sight these bashful bears these timid warrior whalemen but as for queequegwhy queequeg sat there among themat the head of the table too it so chanced as cool as an icicle his greatest admirer could not have cordially justified his bringing his harpoon into breakfast with him and using it there without ceremony reaching over the table with it to the imminent jeopardy of many heads and grappling the beefsteaks towards him but that was certainly very coolly done by him and every one knows that in most peoples estimation to do anything coolly is to do it genteelly we will not speak of all queequegs peculiarities here how he eschewed coffee and hot rolls and applied his undivided attention to beefsteaks done rare enough that when breakfast was over he withdrew like the rest into the public room lighted his tomahawkpipe and was sitting there quietly digesting and smoking with his inseparable hat on when i sallied out for a stroll if i had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of so outlandish an individual as queequeg circulating among the polite society of a civilized town that astonishment soon departed upon taking my first daylight stroll through the streets of new bedford in thoroughfares nigh the docks any considerable seaport will frequently offer to view the queerest looking nondescripts from foreign parts even in broadway and chestnut streets mediterranean mariners will sometimes jostle the affrighted ladies regent street is not unknown to lascars and malays and at bombay in the apollo green live yankees have often scared the natives in these lastmentioned haunts you see only sailors but in new bedford actual cannibals stand chatting at street corners savages outright many of whom yet carry on their bones unholy flesh but besides the feegeeans tongatobooarrs erromanggoans pannangians and brighggians and besides the wild specimens of the whalingcraft which unheeded reel about the streets you will see other sights still more curious certainly more comical there weekly arrive in this town scores of green vermonters and new hampshire men all athirst for gain and glory in the fishery they are mostly young of stalwart frames fellows who have felled forests and now seek to drop the axe and snatch the whalelance many are as green as the green mountains whence they came in some things you would think them but a few hours old he wears a beaver hat and swallowtailed coat girdled with a sailorbelt and sheathknife here comes another with a souwester and a bombazine cloak
then the two third he danced with miss king and the two fourth with maria lucas and the two fifth with jane again and the two sixth with lizzy and the boulanger if he had had any compassion for me cried her husband impatiently he would not have danced half so much oh that he had sprained his ankle in the first dance i never in my life saw anything more elegant than their dresses she was therefore obliged to seek another branch of the subject and related with much bitterness of spirit and some exaggeration the shocking rudeness of mr but i can assure you she added that lizzy does not lose much by not suiting his fancy for he is a most disagreeable horrid man not at all worth pleasing so high and so conceited that there was no enduring him he walked here and he walked there fancying himself so very great i wish you had been there my dear to have given him one of your setdowns chapter  when jane and elizabeth were alone the former who had been cautious in her praise of mr bingley before expressed to her sister just how very much she admired him he is just what a young man ought to be said she sensible goodhumoured lively and i never saw such happy manners he is also handsome replied elizabeth which a young man ought likewise to be if he possibly can i was very much flattered by his asking me to dance a second time compliments always take you by surprise and me never what could be more natural than his asking you again he could not help seeing that you were about five times as pretty as every other woman in the room well he certainly is very agreeable and i give you leave to like him you are a great deal too apt you know to like people in general i never heard you speak ill of a human being in your life i would not wish to be hasty in censuring anyone but i always speak what i think
bad indeed must the nature of mariannes affliction be when her mother could talk of fortitude mortifying and humiliating must be the origin of those regrets which she could wish her not to indulge against the interest of her own individual comfort mrs dashwood had determined that it would be better for marianne to be any where at that time than at barton where every thing within her view would be bringing back the past in the strongest and most afflicting manner by constantly placing willoughby before her such as she had always seen him there she recommended it to her daughters therefore by all means not to shorten their visit to mrs jennings the length of which though never exactly fixed had been expected by all to comprise at least five or six weeks a variety of occupations of objects and of company which could not be procured at barton would be inevitable there and might yet she hoped cheat marianne at times into some interest beyond herself and even into some amusement much as the ideas of both might now be spurned by her from all danger of seeing willoughby again her mother considered her to be at least equally safe in town as in the country since his acquaintance must now be dropped by all who called themselves her friends design could never bring them in each others way negligence could never leave them exposed to a surprise and chance had less in its favour in the crowd of london than even in the retirement of barton where it might force him before her while paying that visit at allenham on his marriage which mrs dashwood from foreseeing at first as a probable event had brought herself to expect as a certain one she had yet another reason for wishing her children to remain where they were a letter from her soninlaw had told her that he and his wife were to be in town before the middle of february and she judged it right that they should sometimes see their brother marianne had promised to be guided by her mothers opinion and she submitted to it therefore without opposition though it proved perfectly different from what she wished and expected though she felt it to be entirely wrong formed on mistaken grounds and that by requiring her longer continuance in london it deprived her of the only possible alleviation of her wretchedness the personal sympathy of her mother and doomed her to such society and such scenes as must prevent her ever knowing a moments rest but it was a matter of great consolation to her that what brought evil to herself would bring good to her sister and elinor on the other hand suspecting that it would not be in her power to avoid edward entirely comforted herself by thinking that though their longer stay would therefore militate against her own happiness it would be better for marianne than an immediate return into devonshire her carefulness in guarding her sister from ever hearing willoughbys name mentioned was not thrown away marianne though without knowing it herself reaped all its advantage for neither mrs elinor wished that the same forbearance could have extended towards herself but that was impossible and she was obliged to listen day after day to the indignation of them all a man of whom he had always had such reason to think well he did not believe there was a bolder rider in england he would not speak another word to him meet him where he might for all the world no not if it were to be by the side of barton covert and they were kept watching for two hours together
i was very unwilling to enter into it as you may imagine without the knowledge and approbation of his mother but i was too young and loved him too well to be so prudent as i ought to have been  though you do not know him so well as me miss dashwood you must have seen enough of him to be sensible he is very capable of making a woman sincerely attached to him certainly answered elinor without knowing what she said but after a moments reflection she added with revived security of edwards honour and love and her companions falsehoodengaged to mr i confess myself so totally surprised at what you tell me that reallyi beg your pardon but surely there must be some mistake of person or name ferrars of park street and brother of your sisterinlaw mrs john dashwood is the person i mean you must allow that i am not likely to be deceived as to the name of the man on who all my happiness depends it is strange replied elinor in a most painful perplexity that i should never have heard him even mention your name  you knew nothing of me or my family and therefore there could be no occasion for ever mentioning my name to you and as he was always particularly afraid of his sisters suspecting any thing that was reason enough for his not mentioning it elinors security sunk but her selfcommand did not sink with it four years you have been engaged said she with a firm voice yes and heaven knows how much longer we may have to wait then taking a small miniature from her pocket she added to prevent the possibility of mistake be so good as to look at this face it does not do him justice to be sure but yet i think you cannot be deceived as to the person it was drew for she put it into her hands as she spoke and when elinor saw the painting whatever other doubts her fear of a too hasty decision or her wish of detecting falsehood might suffer to linger in her mind she could have none of its being edwards face she returned it almost instantly acknowledging the likeness i have never been able continued lucy to give him my picture in return which i am very much vexed at for he has been always so anxious to get it but i am determined to set for it the very first opportunity i am sure said she i have no doubt in the world of your faithfully keeping this secret because you must know of what importance it is to us not to have it reach his mother for she would never approve of it i dare say i shall have no fortune and i fancy she is an exceeding proud woman i certainly did not seek your confidence said elinor but you do me no more than justice in imagining that i may be depended on
you dare not you cannot deny that you have been the principal if not the only means of dividing them from each otherof exposing one to the censure of the world for caprice and instability and the other to its derision for disappointed hopes and involving them both in misery of the acutest kind she paused and saw with no slight indignation that he was listening with an air which proved him wholly unmoved by any feeling of remorse he even looked at her with a smile of affected incredulity with assumed tranquillity he then replied i have no wish of denying that i did everything in my power to separate my friend from your sister or that i rejoice in my success elizabeth disdained the appearance of noticing this civil reflection but its meaning did not escape nor was it likely to conciliate her but it is not merely this affair she continued on which my dislike is founded long before it had taken place my opinion of you was decided your character was unfolded in the recital which i received many months ago from mr in what imaginary act of friendship can you here defend yourself or under what misrepresentation can you here impose upon others you take an eager interest in that gentlemans concerns said darcy in a less tranquil tone and with a heightened colour who that knows what his misfortunes have been can help feeling an interest in him repeated darcy contemptuously yes his misfortunes have been great indeed you have reduced him to his present state of povertycomparative poverty you have withheld the advantages which you must know to have been designed for him you have deprived the best years of his life of that independence which was no less his due than his desert and yet you can treat the mention of his misfortune with contempt and ridicule and this cried darcy as he walked with quick steps across the room is your opinion of me my faults according to this calculation are heavy indeed but perhaps added he stopping in his walk and turning towards her these offenses might have been overlooked had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design
now when these poor sunburnt mariners barefooted and with their trowsers rolled high up on their eely legs had wearily hauled their fat fish high and dry promising themselves a good l from the precious oil and bone and in fantasy sipping rare tea with their wives and good ale with their cronies upon the strength of their respective shares up steps a very learned and most christian and charitable gentleman with a copy of blackstone under his arm and laying it upon the whales head he sayshands off  upon this the poor mariners in their respectful consternationso truly englishknowing not what to say fall to vigorously scratching their heads all round meanwhile ruefully glancing from the whale to the stranger but that did in nowise mend the matter or at all soften the hard heart of the learned gentleman with the copy of blackstone at length one of them after long scratching about for his ideas made bold to speak please sir who is the lord warden but the duke had nothing to do with taking this fish we have been at great trouble and peril and some expense and is all that to go to the dukes benefit we getting nothing at all for our pains but our blisters is the duke so very poor as to be forced to this desperate mode of getting a livelihood i thought to relieve my old bedridden mother by part of my share of this whale in a word the whale was seized and sold and his grace the duke of wellington received the money thinking that viewed in some particular lights the case might by a bare possibility in some small degree be deemed under the circumstances a rather hard one an honest clergyman of the town respectfully addressed a note to his grace begging him to take the case of those unfortunate mariners into full consideration to which my lord duke in substance replied both letters were published that he had already done so and received the money and would be obliged to the reverend gentleman if for the future he the reverend gentleman would decline meddling with other peoples business is this the still militant old man standing at the corners of the three kingdoms on all hands coercing alms of beggars it will readily be seen that in this case the alleged right of the duke to the whale was a delegated one from the sovereign we must needs inquire then on what principle the sovereign is originally invested with that right says plowdon the whale so caught belongs to the king and queen because of its superior excellence and by the soundest commentators this has ever been held a cogent argument in such matters but why should the king have the head and the queen the tail in his treatise on queengold or queenpinmoney an old kings bench author one william prynne thus discourseth ye tail is ye queens that ye queens wardrobe may be supplied with ye whalebone now this was written at a time when the black limber bone of the greenland or right whale was largely used in ladies bodices but this same bone is not in the tail it is in the head which is a sad mistake for a sagacious lawyer like prynne
they would doubtless be congenial with the generality of female minds but i confess they would have no charms for mei should infinitely prefer a book she seldom listened to anybody for more than half a minute and never attended to mary at all in the afternoon lydia was urgent with the rest of the girls to walk to meryton and to see how everybody went on but elizabeth steadily opposed the scheme it should not be said that the miss bennets could not be at home half a day before they were in pursuit of the officers wickham again and was resolved to avoid it as long as possible the comfort to her of the regiments approaching removal was indeed beyond expression in a fortnight they were to goand once gone she hoped there could be nothing more to plague her on his account she had not been many hours at home before she found that the brighton scheme of which lydia had given them a hint at the inn was under frequent discussion between her parents elizabeth saw directly that her father had not the smallest intention of yielding but his answers were at the same time so vague and equivocal that her mother though often disheartened had never yet despaired of succeeding at last chapter  elizabeths impatience to acquaint jane with what had happened could no longer be overcome and at length resolving to suppress every particular in which her sister was concerned and preparing her to be surprised she related to her the next morning the chief of the scene between mr miss bennets astonishment was soon lessened by the strong sisterly partiality which made any admiration of elizabeth appear perfectly natural and all surprise was shortly lost in other feelings darcy should have delivered his sentiments in a manner so little suited to recommend them but still more was she grieved for the unhappiness which her sisters refusal must have given him his being so sure of succeeding was wrong said she and certainly ought not to have appeared but consider how much it must increase his disappointment indeed replied elizabeth i am heartily sorry for him but he has other feelings which will probably soon drive away his regard for me but you blame me for having spoken so warmly of wickham noi do not know that you were wrong in saying what you did but you will know it when i tell you what happened the very next day she then spoke of the letter repeating the whole of its contents as far as they concerned george wickham who would willingly have gone through the world without believing that so much wickedness existed in the whole race of mankind as was here collected in one individual
 perhaps you will hardly think the better of meit is worth the trial however and you shall hear every thing when i first became intimate in your family i had no other intention no other view in the acquaintance than to pass my time pleasantly while i was obliged to remain in devonshire more pleasantly than i had ever done before your sisters lovely person and interesting manners could not but please me and her behaviour to me almost from the first was of a kindit is astonishing when i reflect on what it was and what she was that my heart should have been so insensible but at first i must confess my vanity only was elevated by it careless of her happiness thinking only of my own amusement giving way to feelings which i had always been too much in the habit of indulging i endeavoured by every means in my power to make myself pleasing to her without any design of returning her affection  miss dashwood at this point turning her eyes on him with the most angry contempt stopped him by saying it is hardly worth while mr willoughby for you to relate or for me to listen any longer such a beginning as this cannot be followed by any thing  do not let me be pained by hearing any thing more on the subject i insist on you hearing the whole of it he replied my fortune was never large and i had always been expensive always in the habit of associating with people of better income than myself every year since my coming of age or even before i believe had added to my debts and though the death of my old cousin mrs smith was to set me free yet that event being uncertain and possibly far distant it had been for some time my intention to reestablish my circumstances by marrying a woman of fortune to attach myself to your sister therefore was not a thing to be thought ofand with a meanness selfishness crueltywhich no indignant no contemptuous look even of yours miss dashwood can ever reprobate too muchi was acting in this manner trying to engage her regard without a thought of returning it but one thing may be said for me even in that horrid state of selfish vanity i did not know the extent of the injury i meditated because i did not then know what it was to love well may it be doubted for had i really loved could i have sacrificed my feelings to vanity to avarice to avoid a comparative poverty which her affection and her society would have deprived of all its horrors i have by raising myself to affluence lost every thing that could make it a blessing you did then said elinor a little softened believe yourself at one time attached to her to have resisted such attractions to have withstood such tenderness yes i found myself by insensible degrees sincerely fond of her and the happiest hours of my life were what i spent with her when i felt my intentions were strictly honourable and my feelings blameless even then however when fully determined on paying my addresses to her i allowed myself most improperly to put off from day to day the moment of doing it from an unwillingness to enter into an engagement while my circumstances were so greatly embarrassed
here comes your beau nancy my cousin said tother day when she saw him crossing the street to the house aye aye that is very pretty talkingbut it wont dothe doctor is the man i see replied her cousin with affected earnestness and i beg you will contradict it if you ever hear it talked of jennings directly gave her the gratifying assurance that she certainly would not and miss steele was made completely happy i suppose you will go and stay with your brother and sister miss dashwood when they come to town said lucy returning after a cessation of hostile hints to the charge dashwood can spare you both for so long a time together i am sorry we cannot see your sister miss dashwood said miss steele i am sorry she is not well for marianne had left the room on their arrival my sister will be equally sorry to miss the pleasure of seeing you but she has been very much plagued lately with nervous headaches which make her unfit for company or conversation i think she might see us and i am sure we would not speak a word her sister was perhaps laid down upon the bed or in her dressing gown and therefore not able to come to them oh if thats all cried miss steele we can just as well go and see her elinor began to find this impertinence too much for her temper but she was saved the trouble of checking it by lucys sharp reprimand which now as on many occasions though it did not give much sweetness to the manners of one sister was of advantage in governing those of the other chapter  after some opposition marianne yielded to her sisters entreaties and consented to go out with her and mrs she expressly conditioned however for paying no visits and would do no more than accompany them to grays in sackville street where elinor was carrying on a negotiation for the exchange of a few oldfashioned jewels of her mother jennings recollected that there was a lady at the other end of the street on whom she ought to call and as she had no business at grays it was resolved that while her young friends transacted theirs she should pay her visit and return for them on ascending the stairs the miss dashwoods found so many people before them in the room that there was not a person at liberty to tend to their orders and they were obliged to wait all that could be done was to sit down at that end of the counter which seemed to promise the quickest succession one gentleman only was standing there and it is probable that elinor was not without hope of exciting his politeness to a quicker despatch but the correctness of his eye and the delicacy of his taste proved to be beyond his politeness he was giving orders for a toothpickcase for himself and till its size shape and ornaments were determined all of which after examining and debating for a quarter of an hour over every toothpickcase in the shop were finally arranged by his own inventive fancy he had no leisure to bestow any other attention on the two ladies than what was comprised in three or four very broad stares a kind of notice which served to imprint on elinor the remembrance of a person and face of strong natural sterling insignificance though adorned in the first style of fashion
if he is not here by the end of the week i shall go after him jennings and then perhaps you may find out what his business is well as you are resolved to go i wish you a good journey is there no chance of my seeing you and your sisters in town this winter miss dashwood then i must bid you farewell for a longer time than i should wish to do jennings before you go do let us know what you are going about he wished her a good morning and attended by sir john left the room the complaints and lamentations which politeness had hitherto restrained now burst forth universally and they all agreed again and again how provoking it was to be so disappointed she is a relation of the colonels my dear a very near relation we will not say how near for fear of shocking the young ladies then lowering her voice a little she said to elinor she is his natural daughter i dare say the colonel will leave her all his fortune when sir john returned he joined most heartily in the general regret on so unfortunate an event concluding however by observing that as they were all got together they must do something by way of being happy and after some consultation it was agreed that although happiness could only be enjoyed at whitwell they might procure a tolerable composure of mind by driving about the country the carriages were then ordered willoughbys was first and marianne never looked happier than when she got into it he drove through the park very fast and they were soon out of sight and nothing more of them was seen till their return which did not happen till after the return of all the rest they both seemed delighted with their drive but said only in general terms that they had kept in the lanes while the others went on the downs it was settled that there should be a dance in the evening and that every body should be extremely merry all day long some more of the careys came to dinner and they had the pleasure of sitting down nearly twenty to table which sir john observed with great contentment willoughby took his usual place between the two elder miss dashwoods jennings sat on elinors right hand and they had not been long seated before she leant behind her and willoughby and said to marianne loud enough for them both to hear i have found you out in spite of all your tricks
jennings who knew nothing of all this who knew only that the colonel continued as grave as ever and that she could neither prevail on him to make the offer himself nor commission her to make it for him began at the end of two days to think that instead of midsummer they would not be married till michaelmas and by the end of a week that it would not be a match at all the good understanding between the colonel and miss dashwood seemed rather to declare that the honours of the mulberrytree the canal and the yew arbour would all be made over to her and mrs jennings had for some time ceased to think at all of mrs early in february within a fortnight from the receipt of willoughbys letter elinor had the painful office of informing her sister that he was married she had taken care to have the intelligence conveyed to herself as soon as it was known that the ceremony was over as she was desirous that marianne should not receive the first notice of it from the public papers which she saw her eagerly examining every morning she received the news with resolute composure made no observation on it and at first shed no tears but after a short time they would burst out and for the rest of the day she was in a state hardly less pitiable than when she first learnt to expect the event the willoughbys left town as soon as they were married and elinor now hoped as there could be no danger of her seeing either of them to prevail on her sister who had never yet left the house since the blow first fell to go out again by degrees as she had done before about this time the two miss steeles lately arrived at their cousins house in bartletts buildings holburn presented themselves again before their more grand relations in conduit and berkeley streets and were welcomed by them all with great cordiality their presence always gave her pain and she hardly knew how to make a very gracious return to the overpowering delight of lucy in finding her still in town i should have been quite disappointed if i had not found you here still said she repeatedly with a strong emphasis on the word i was almost sure you would not leave london yet awhile though you told me you know at barton that you should not stay above a month but i thought at the time that you would most likely change your mind when it came to the point it would have been such a great pity to have went away before your brother and sister came and now to be sure you will be in no hurry to be gone elinor perfectly understood her and was forced to use all her selfcommand to make it appear that she did not not in the stage i assure you replied miss steele with quick exultation we came post all the way and had a very smart beau to attend us davies was coming to town and so we thought wed join him in a postchaise and he behaved very genteelly and paid ten or twelve shillings more than we did there now said miss steele affectedly simpering everybody laughs at me so about the doctor and i cannot think why my cousins say they are sure i have made a conquest but for my part i declare i never think about him from one hours end to another here comes your beau nancy my cousin said tother day when she saw him crossing the street to the house
i should say that those new england rocks on the seacoast which agassiz imagines to bear the marks of violent scraping contact with vast floating icebergsi should say that those rocks must not a little resemble the sperm whale in this particular it also seems to me that such scratches in the whale are probably made by hostile contact with other whales for i have most remarked them in the large fullgrown bulls of the species a word or two more concerning this matter of the skin or blubber of the whale it has already been said that it is stript from him in long pieces called blanketpieces like most seaterms this one is very happy and significant for the whale is indeed wrapt up in his blubber as in a real blanket or counterpane or still better an indian poncho slipt over his head and skirting his extremity it is by reason of this cosy blanketing of his body that the whale is enabled to keep himself comfortable in all weathers in all seas times and tides what would become of a greenland whale say in those shuddering icy seas of the north if unsupplied with his cosy surtout true other fish are found exceedingly brisk in those hyperborean waters but these be it observed are your coldblooded lungless fish whose very bellies are refrigerators creatures that warm themselves under the lee of an iceberg as a traveller in winter would bask before an inn fire whereas like man the whale has lungs and warm blood how wonderful is it thenexcept after explanationthat this great monster to whom corporeal warmth is as indispensable as it is to man how wonderful that he should be found at home immersed to his lips for life in those arctic waters where when seamen fall overboard they are sometimes found months afterwards perpendicularly frozen into the hearts of fields of ice as a fly is found glued in amber but more surprising is it to know as has been proved by experiment that the blood of a polar whale is warmer than that of a borneo negro in summer it does seem to me that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality and the rare virtue of thick walls and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness be cool at the equator keep thy blood fluid at the pole but how easy and how hopeless to teach these fine things the peeled white body of the beheaded whale flashes like a marble sepulchre though changed in hue it has not perceptibly lost anything in bulk slowly it floats more and more away the water round it torn and splashed by the insatiate sharks and the air above vexed with rapacious flights of screaming fowls whose beaks are like so many insulting poniards in the whale the vast white headless phantom floats further and further from the ship and every rod that it so floats what seem square roods of sharks and cubic roods of fowls augment the murderous din for hours and hours from the almost stationary ship that hideous sight is seen beneath the unclouded and mild azure sky upon the fair face of the pleasant sea wafted by the joyous breezes that great mass of death floats on and on till lost in infinite perspectives
stubb no more strove to raise a smile starbuck no more strove to check one alike joy and sorrow hope and fear seemed ground to finest dust and powdered for the time in the clamped mortar of ahabs iron soul like machines they dumbly moved about the deck ever conscious that the old mans despot eye was on them but did you deeply scan him in his more secret confidential hours when he thought no glance but one was on him then you would have seen that even as ahabs eyes so awed the crews the inscrutable parsees glance awed his or somehow at least in some wild way at times affected it such an added gliding strangeness began to invest the thin fedallah now such ceaseless shudderings shook him that the men looked dubious at him half uncertain as it seemed whether indeed he were a mortal substance or else a tremulous shadow cast upon the deck by some unseen beings body for not by night even had fedallah ever certainly been known to slumber or go below he would stand still for hours but never sat or leaned his wan but wondrous eyes did plainly saywe two watchmen never rest nor at any time by night or day could the mariners now step upon the deck unless ahab was before them either standing in his pivothole or exactly pacing the planks between two undeviating limitsthe mainmast and the mizen or else they saw him standing in the cabinscuttlehis living foot advanced upon the deck as if to step his hat slouched heavily over his eyes so that however motionless he stood however the days and nights were added on that he had not swung in his hammock yet hidden beneath that slouching hat they could never tell unerringly whether for all this his eyes were really closed at times or whether he was still intently scanning them no matter though he stood so in the scuttle for a whole hour on the stretch and the unheeded nightdamp gathered in beads of dew upon that stonecarved coat and hat the clothes that the night had wet the next days sunshine dried upon him and so day after day and night after night he went no more beneath the planks whatever he wanted from the cabin that thing he sent for he ate in the same open air that is his two only mealsbreakfast and dinner supper he never touched nor reaped his beard which darkly grew all gnarled as unearthed roots of trees blown over which still grow idly on at naked base though perished in the upper verdure but though his whole life was now become one watch on deck and though the parsees mystic watch was without intermission as his own yet these two never seemed to speakone man to the otherunless at long intervals some passing unmomentous matter made it necessary though such a potent spell seemed secretly to join the twain openly and to the awestruck crew they seemed polelike asunder if by day they chanced to speak one word by night dumb men were both so far as concerned the slightest verbal interchange at times for longest hours without a single hail they stood far parted in the starlight ahab in his scuttle the parsee by the mainmast but still fixedly gazing upon each other as if in the parsee ahab saw his forethrown shadow in ahab the parsee his abandoned substance and yet somehow did ahabin his own proper self as daily hourly and every instant commandingly revealed to his subordinatesahab seemed an independent lord the parsee but his slave still again both seemed yoked together and an unseen tyrant driving them the lean shade siding the solid rib for be this parsee what he may all rib and keel was solid ahab at the first faintest glimmering of the dawn his iron voice was heard from aftman the mastheads and all through the day till after sunset and after twilight the same voice every hour at the striking of the helmsmans bell was heardwhat dye see  but when three or four days had slided by after meeting the childrenseeking rachel and no spout had yet been seen the monomaniac old man seemed distrustful of his crews fidelity at least of nearly all except the pagan harpooneers he seemed to doubt even whether stubb and flask might not willingly overlook the sight he sought
conversation however was not wanted for sir john was very chatty and lady middleton had taken the wise precaution of bringing with her their eldest child a fine little boy about six years old by which means there was one subject always to be recurred to by the ladies in case of extremity for they had to enquire his name and age admire his beauty and ask him questions which his mother answered for him while he hung about her and held down his head to the great surprise of her ladyship who wondered at his being so shy before company as he could make noise enough at home on every formal visit a child ought to be of the party by way of provision for discourse in the present case it took up ten minutes to determine whether the boy were most like his father or mother and in what particular he resembled either for of course every body differed and every body was astonished at the opinion of the others an opportunity was soon to be given to the dashwoods of debating on the rest of the children as sir john would not leave the house without securing their promise of dining at the park the next day chapter  barton park was about half a mile from the cottage the ladies had passed near it in their way along the valley but it was screened from their view at home by the projection of a hill the house was large and handsome and the middletons lived in a style of equal hospitality and elegance the former was for sir johns gratification the latter for that of his lady they were scarcely ever without some friends staying with them in the house and they kept more company of every kind than any other family in the neighbourhood it was necessary to the happiness of both for however dissimilar in temper and outward behaviour they strongly resembled each other in that total want of talent and taste which confined their employments unconnected with such as society produced within a very narrow compass he hunted and shot and she humoured her children and these were their only resources lady middleton had the advantage of being able to spoil her children all the year round while sir johns independent employments were in existence only half the time continual engagements at home and abroad however supplied all the deficiencies of nature and education supported the good spirits of sir john and gave exercise to the good breeding of his wife lady middleton piqued herself upon the elegance of her table and of all her domestic arrangements and from this kind of vanity was her greatest enjoyment in any of their parties but sir johns satisfaction in society was much more real he delighted in collecting about him more young people than his house would hold and the noisier they were the better was he pleased he was a blessing to all the juvenile part of the neighbourhood for in summer he was for ever forming parties to eat cold ham and chicken out of doors and in winter his private balls were numerous enough for any young lady who was not suffering under the unsatiable appetite of fifteen the arrival of a new family in the country was always a matter of joy to him and in every point of view he was charmed with the inhabitants he had now procured for his cottage at barton the miss dashwoods were young pretty and unaffected it was enough to secure his good opinion for to be unaffected was all that a pretty girl could want to make her mind as captivating as her person the friendliness of his disposition made him happy in accommodating those whose situation might be considered in comparison with the past as unfortunate
your reproof so well applied i shall never forget had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner you know not you can scarcely conceive how they have tortured methough it was some time i confess before i was reasonable enough to allow their justice i was certainly very far from expecting them to make so strong an impression i had not the smallest idea of their being ever felt in such a way you thought me then devoid of every proper feeling i am sure you did the turn of your countenance i shall never forget as you said that i could not have addressed you in any possible way that would induce you to accept me i assure you that i have long been most heartily ashamed of it did it said he did it soon make you think better of me did you on reading it give any credit to its contents she explained what its effect on her had been and how gradually all her former prejudices had been removed i knew said he that what i wrote must give you pain but it was necessary there was one part especially the opening of it which i should dread your having the power of reading again i can remember some expressions which might justly make you hate me the letter shall certainly be burnt if you believe it essential to the preservation of my regard but though we have both reason to think my opinions not entirely unalterable they are not i hope quite so easily changed as that implies when i wrote that letter replied darcy i believed myself perfectly calm and cool but i am since convinced that it was written in a dreadful bitterness of spirit the letter perhaps began in bitterness but it did not end so the feelings of the person who wrote and the person who received it are now so widely different from what they were then that every unpleasant circumstance attending it ought to be forgotten think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure i cannot give you credit for any philosophy of the kind your retrospections must be so totally void of reproach that the contentment arising from them is not of philosophy but what is much better of innocence
after this had been settled colonel brandon began to talk of his own advantage in securing so respectable and agreeable a neighbour and then it was that he mentioned with regret that the house was small and indifferentan evil which elinor as mrs jennings had supposed her to do made very light of at least as far as regarded its size the smallness of the house said she i cannot imagine any inconvenience to them for it will be in proportion to their family and income by which the colonel was surprised to find that she was considering mr ferrarss marriage as the certain consequence of the presentation for he did not suppose it possible that delaford living could supply such an income as anybody in his style of life would venture to settle onand he said so ferrars comfortable as a bachelor it cannot enable him to marry i am sorry to say that my patronage ends with this and my interest is hardly more extensive if however by an unforeseen chance it should be in my power to serve him farther i must think very differently of him from what i now do if i am not as ready to be useful to him then as i sincerely wish i could be at present what i am now doing indeed seems nothing at all since it can advance him so little towards what must be his principal his only object of happiness his marriage must still be a distant goodat least i am afraid it cannot take place very soon  such was the sentence which when misunderstood so justly offended the delicate feelings of mrs jennings but after this narration of what really passed between colonel brandon and elinor while they stood at the window the gratitude expressed by the latter on their parting may perhaps appear in general not less reasonably excited nor less properly worded than if it had arisen from an offer of marriage jennings sagaciously smiling as soon as the gentleman had withdrawn i do not ask you what the colonel has been saying to you for though upon my honour i tried to keep out of hearing i could not help catching enough to understand his business and i assure you i never was better pleased in my life and i wish you joy of it with all my heart it is a matter of great joy to me and i feel the goodness of colonel brandon most sensibly there are not many men who would act as he has done i ant the least astonished at it in the world for i have often thought of late there was nothing more likely to happen you judged from your knowledge of the colonels general benevolence but at least you could not foresee that the opportunity would so very soon occur as to that when a man has once made up his mind to such a thing somehow or other he will soon find an opportunity well my dear i wish you joy of it again and again and if ever there was a happy couple in the world i think i shall soon know where to look for them
southeastward from the cape off the distant crozetts a good cruising ground for right whalemen a sail loomed ahead the goney albatross by name as she slowly drew nigh from my lofty perch at the foremasthead i had a good view of that sight so remarkable to a tyro in the far ocean fisheriesa whaler at sea and long absent from home as if the waves had been fullers this craft was bleached like the skeleton of a stranded walrus all down her sides this spectral appearance was traced with long channels of reddened rust while all her spars and her rigging were like the thick branches of trees furred over with hoarfrost a wild sight it was to see her longbearded lookouts at those three mastheads they seemed clad in the skins of beasts so torn and bepatched the raiment that had survived nearly four years of cruising standing in iron hoops nailed to the mast they swayed and swung over a fathomless sea and though when the ship slowly glided close under our stern we six men in the air came so nigh to each other that we might almost have leaped from the mastheads of one ship to those of the other yet those forlornlooking fishermen mildly eyeing us as they passed said not one word to our own lookouts while the quarterdeck hail was being heard from below but as the strange captain leaning over the pallid bulwarks was in the act of putting his trumpet to his mouth it somehow fell from his hand into the sea and the wind now rising amain he in vain strove to make himself heard without it meantime his ship was still increasing the distance between while in various silent ways the seamen of the pequod were evincing their observance of this ominous incident at the first mere mention of the white whales name to another ship ahab for a moment paused it almost seemed as though he would have lowered a boat to board the stranger had not the threatening wind forbade but taking advantage of his windward position he again seized his trumpet and knowing by her aspect that the stranger vessel was a nantucketer and shortly bound home he loudly hailedahoy there tell them to address all future letters to the pacific ocean and this time three years if i am not at home tell them to address them to at that moment the two wakes were fairly crossed and instantly then in accordance with their singular ways shoals of small harmless fish that for some days before had been placidly swimming by our side darted away with what seemed shuddering fins and ranged themselves fore and aft with the strangers flanks though in the course of his continual voyagings ahab must often before have noticed a similar sight yet to any monomaniac man the veriest trifles capriciously carry meanings there seemed but little in the words but the tone conveyed more of deep helpless sadness than the insane old man had ever before evinced but turning to the steersman who thus far had been holding the ship in the wind to diminish her headway he cried out in his old lion voiceup helm there is much in that sound to inspire proud feelings but whereto does all that circumnavigation conduct only through numberless perils to the very point whence we started where those that we left behind secure were all the time before us were this world an endless plain and by sailing eastward we could for ever reach new distances and discover sights more sweet and strange than any cyclades or islands of king solomon then there were promise in the voyage but in pursuit of those far mysteries we dream of or in tormented chase of that demon phantom that some time or other swims before all human hearts while chasing such over this round globe they either lead us on in barren mazes or midway leave us whelmed
what perhaps with other things made stubb such an easygoing unfearing man so cheerily trudging off with the burden of life in a world full of grave pedlars all bowed to the ground with their packs what helped to bring about that almost impious goodhumor of his that thing must have been his pipe for like his nose his short black little pipe was one of the regular features of his face you would almost as soon have expected him to turn out of his bunk without his nose as without his pipe he kept a whole row of pipes there ready loaded stuck in a rack within easy reach of his hand and whenever he turned in he smoked them all out in succession lighting one from the other to the end of the chapter then loading them again to be in readiness anew for when stubb dressed instead of first putting his legs into his trowsers he put his pipe into his mouth i say this continual smoking must have been one cause at least of his peculiar disposition for every one knows that this earthly air whether ashore or afloat is terribly infected with the nameless miseries of the numberless mortals who have died exhaling it and as in time of the cholera some people go about with a camphorated handkerchief to their mouths so likewise against all mortal tribulations stubbs tobacco smoke might have operated as a sort of disinfecting agent the third mate was flask a native of tisbury in marthas vineyard a short stout ruddy young fellow very pugnacious concerning whales who somehow seemed to think that the great leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him and therefore it was a sort of point of honour with him to destroy them whenever encountered so utterly lost was he to all sense of reverence for the many marvels of their majestic bulk and mystic ways and so dead to anything like an apprehension of any possible danger from encountering them that in his poor opinion the wondrous whale was but a species of magnified mouse or at least waterrat requiring only a little circumvention and some small application of time and trouble in order to kill and boil this ignorant unconscious fearlessness of his made him a little waggish in the matter of whales he followed these fish for the fun of it and a three years voyage round cape horn was only a jolly joke that lasted that length of time as a carpenters nails are divided into wrought nails and cut nails so mankind may be similarly divided little flask was one of the wrought ones made to clinch tight and last long they called him kingpost on board of the pequod because in form he could be well likened to the short square timber known by that name in arctic whalers and which by the means of many radiating side timbers inserted into it serves to brace the ship against the icy concussions of those battering seas now these three matesstarbuck stubb and flask were momentous men they it was who by universal prescription commanded three of the pequods boats as headsmen in that grand order of battle in which captain ahab would probably marshal his forces to descend on the whales these three headsmen were as captains of companies or being armed with their long keen whaling spears they were as a picked trio of lancers even as the harpooneers were flingers of javelins and since in this famous fishery each mate or headsman like a gothic knight of old is always accompanied by his boatsteerer or harpooneer who in certain conjunctures provides him with a fresh lance when the former one has been badly twisted or elbowed in the assault and moreover as there generally subsists between the two a close intimacy and friendliness it is therefore but meet that in this place we set down who the pequods harpooneers were and to what headsman each of them belonged first of all was queequeg whom starbuck the chief mate had selected for his squire next was tashtego an unmixed indian from gay head the most westerly promontory of marthas vineyard where there still exists the last remnant of a village of red men which has long supplied the neighboring island of nantucket with many of her most daring harpooneers
she then read the first sentence aloud which comprised the information of their having just resolved to follow their brother to town directly and of their meaning to dine in grosvenor street where mr the next was in these words i do not pretend to regret anything i shall leave in hertfordshire except your society my dearest friend but we will hope at some future period to enjoy many returns of that delightful intercourse we have known and in the meanwhile may lessen the pain of separation by a very frequent and most unreserved correspondence to these highflown expressions elizabeth listened with all the insensibility of distrust and though the suddenness of their removal surprised her she saw nothing in it really to lament it was not to be supposed that their absence from netherfield would prevent mr bingleys being there and as to the loss of their society she was persuaded that jane must cease to regard it in the enjoyment of his it is unlucky said she after a short pause that you should not be able to see your friends before they leave the country but may we not hope that the period of future happiness to which miss bingley looks forward may arrive earlier than she is aware and that the delightful intercourse you have known as friends will be renewed with yet greater satisfaction as sisters caroline decidedly says that none of the party will return into hertfordshire this winter i will read it to you when my brother left us yesterday he imagined that the business which took him to london might be concluded in three or four days but as we are certain it cannot be so and at the same time convinced that when charles gets to town he will be in no hurry to leave it again we have determined on following him thither that he may not be obliged to spend his vacant hours in a comfortless hotel many of my acquaintances are already there for the winter i wish that i could hear that you my dearest friend had any intention of making one of the crowdbut of that i despair i sincerely hope your christmas in hertfordshire may abound in the gaieties which that season generally brings and that your beaux will be so numerous as to prevent your feeling the loss of the three of whom we shall deprive you it is evident by this added jane that he comes back no more this winter it is only evident that miss bingley does not mean that he should i will read you the passage which particularly hurts me darcy is impatient to see his sister and to confess the truth we are scarcely less eager to meet her again i really do not think georgiana darcy has her equal for beauty elegance and accomplishments and the affection she inspires in louisa and myself is heightened into something still more interesting from the hope we dare entertain of her being hereafter our sister i do not know whether i ever before mentioned to you my feelings on this subject but i will not leave the country without confiding them and i trust you will not esteem them unreasonable my brother admires her greatly already he will have frequent opportunity now of seeing her on the most intimate footing her relations all wish the connection as much as his own and a sisters partiality is not misleading me i think when i call charles most capable of engaging any womans heart with all these circumstances to favour an attachment and nothing to prevent it am i wrong my dearest jane in indulging the hope of an event which will secure the happiness of so many does it not expressly declare that caroline neither expects nor wishes me to be her sister that she is perfectly convinced of her brothers indifference and that if she suspects the nature of my feelings for him she means most kindly miss bingley sees that her brother is in love with you and wants him to marry miss darcy
short was the time however in which that fear could affect her for within half an hour after willoughbys leaving the house she was again called down stairs by the sound of another carriage eager to save her mother from every unnecessary moments horrible suspense she ran immediately into the hall and reached the outward door just in time to receive and support her as she entered it dashwood whose terror as they drew near the house had produced almost the conviction of mariannes being no more had no voice to inquire after her no voice even for elinor but she waiting neither for salutation nor inquiry instantly gave the joyful reliefand her mother catching it with all her usual warmth was in a moment as much overcome by her happiness as she had been before by her fears she was supported into the drawingroom between her daughter and her friendand there shedding tears of joy though still unable to speak embraced elinor again and again turning from her at intervals to press colonel brandons hand with a look which spoke at once her gratitude and her conviction of his sharing with herself in the bliss of the moment he shared it however in a silence even greater than her own dashwood had recovered herself to see marianne was her first desire and in two minutes she was with her beloved child rendered dearer to her than ever by absence unhappiness and danger elinors delight as she saw what each felt in the meeting was only checked by an apprehension of its robbing marianne of farther sleepbut mrs dashwood could be calm could be even prudent when the life of a child was at stake and marianne satisfied in knowing her mother was near her and conscious of being too weak for conversation submitted readily to the silence and quiet prescribed by every nurse around her dashwood would sit up with her all night and elinor in compliance with her mothers entreaty went to bed but the rest which one night entirely sleepless and many hours of the most wearing anxiety seemed to make requisite was kept off by irritation of spirits willoughby poor willoughby as she now allowed herself to call him was constantly in her thoughts she would not but have heard his vindication for the world and now blamed now acquitted herself for having judged him so harshly before but her promise of relating it to her sister was invariably painful she dreaded the performance of it dreaded what its effect on marianne might be doubted whether after such an explanation she could ever be happy with another and for a moment wished willoughby a widower then remembering colonel brandon reproved herself felt that to his sufferings and his constancy far more than to his rivals the reward of her sister was due and wished any thing rather than mrs the shock of colonel brandons errand at barton had been much softened to mrs dashwood by her own previous alarm for so great was her uneasiness about marianne that she had already determined to set out for cleveland on that very day without waiting for any further intelligence and had so far settled her journey before his arrival that the careys were then expected every moment to fetch margaret away as her mother was unwilling to take her where there might be infection marianne continued to mend every day and the brilliant cheerfulness of mrs dashwoods looks and spirits proved her to be as she repeatedly declared herself one of the happiest women in the world elinor could not hear the declaration nor witness its proofs without sometimes wondering whether her mother ever recollected edward dashwood trusting to the temperate account of her own disappointment which elinor had sent her was led away by the exuberance of her joy to think only of what would increase it
dashwood as soon as she could be assured that her visit would be no inconvenience and as this message was answered by an invitation equally polite her ladyship was introduced to them the next day they were of course very anxious to see a person on whom so much of their comfort at barton must depend and the elegance of her appearance was favourable to their wishes lady middleton was not more than six or seven and twenty her face was handsome her figure tall and striking and her address graceful her manners had all the elegance which her husbands wanted but they would have been improved by some share of his frankness and warmth and her visit was long enough to detract something from their first admiration by shewing that though perfectly wellbred she was reserved cold and had nothing to say for herself beyond the most commonplace inquiry or remark conversation however was not wanted for sir john was very chatty and lady middleton had taken the wise precaution of bringing with her their eldest child a fine little boy about six years old by which means there was one subject always to be recurred to by the ladies in case of extremity for they had to enquire his name and age admire his beauty and ask him questions which his mother answered for him while he hung about her and held down his head to the great surprise of her ladyship who wondered at his being so shy before company as he could make noise enough at home on every formal visit a child ought to be of the party by way of provision for discourse in the present case it took up ten minutes to determine whether the boy were most like his father or mother and in what particular he resembled either for of course every body differed and every body was astonished at the opinion of the others an opportunity was soon to be given to the dashwoods of debating on the rest of the children as sir john would not leave the house without securing their promise of dining at the park the next day chapter  barton park was about half a mile from the cottage the ladies had passed near it in their way along the valley but it was screened from their view at home by the projection of a hill the house was large and handsome and the middletons lived in a style of equal hospitality and elegance the former was for sir johns gratification the latter for that of his lady they were scarcely ever without some friends staying with them in the house and they kept more company of every kind than any other family in the neighbourhood it was necessary to the happiness of both for however dissimilar in temper and outward behaviour they strongly resembled each other in that total want of talent and taste which confined their employments unconnected with such as society produced within a very narrow compass he hunted and shot and she humoured her children and these were their only resources lady middleton had the advantage of being able to spoil her children all the year round while sir johns independent employments were in existence only half the time continual engagements at home and abroad however supplied all the deficiencies of nature and education supported the good spirits of sir john and gave exercise to the good breeding of his wife lady middleton piqued herself upon the elegance of her table and of all her domestic arrangements and from this kind of vanity was her greatest enjoyment in any of their parties but sir johns satisfaction in society was much more real he delighted in collecting about him more young people than his house would hold and the noisier they were the better was he pleased
elinor was half inclined to ask her reason for thinking so because satisfied that none founded on an impartial consideration of their age characters or feelings could be givenbut her mother must always be carried away by her imagination on any interesting subject and therefore instead of an inquiry she passed it off with a smile he opened his whole heart to me yesterday as we travelled i you may well believe could talk of nothing but my childhe could not conceal his distress i saw that it equalled my own and he perhaps thinking that mere friendship as the world now goes would not justify so warm a sympathyor rather not thinking at all i supposegiving way to irresistible feelings made me acquainted with his earnest tender constant affection for marianne he has loved her my elinor ever since the first moment of seeing her here however elinor perceivednot the language not the professions of colonel brandon but the natural embellishments of her mothers active fancy which fashioned every thing delightful to her as it chose his regard for her infinitely surpassing anything that willoughby ever felt or feigned as much more warm as more sincere or constantwhich ever we are to call ithas subsisted through all the knowledge of dear mariannes unhappy prepossession for that worthless young man could he have seen her happy with anothersuch a noble mind colonel brandons character said elinor as an excellent man is well established i know it is replied her mother seriously or after such a warning i should be the last to encourage such affection or even to be pleased by it but his coming for me as he did with such active such ready friendship is enough to prove him one of the worthiest of men his character however answered elinor does not rest on one act of kindness to which his affection for marianne were humanity out of the case would have prompted him jennings to the middletons he has been long and intimately known they equally love and respect him and even my own knowledge of him though lately acquired is very considerable and so highly do i value and esteem him that if marianne can be happy with him i shall be as ready as yourself to think our connection the greatest blessing to us in the world my love i could not then talk of hope to him or to myself his was an involuntary confidence an irrepressible effusion to a soothing friendnot an application to a parent yet after a time i did say for at first i was quite overcomethat if she lived as i trusted she might my greatest happiness would lie in promoting their marriage and since our arrival since our delightful security i have repeated it to him more fully have given him every encouragement in my power time a very little time i tell him will do everythingmariannes heart is not to be wasted for ever on such a man as willoughby to judge from the colonels spirits however you have not yet made him equally sanguine he thinks mariannes affection too deeply rooted for any change in it under a great length of time and even supposing her heart again free is too diffident of himself to believe that with such a difference of age and disposition he could ever attach her his age is only so much beyond hers as to be an advantage as to make his character and principles fixedand his disposition i am well convinced is exactly the very one to make your sister happy and his person his manners too are all in his favour
when i came to you last week and found you alone i came determined to know the truth though irresolute what to do when it was known my behaviour must have seemed strange to you then but now you will comprehend it to suffer you all to be so deceived to see your sisterbut what could i do i had no hope of interfering with success and sometimes i thought your sisters influence might yet reclaim him but now after such dishonorable usage who can tell what were his designs on her whatever they may have been however she may now and hereafter doubtless will turn with gratitude towards her own condition when she compares it with that of my poor eliza when she considers the wretched and hopeless situation of this poor girl and pictures her to herself with an affection for him so strong still as strong as her own and with a mind tormented by selfreproach which must attend her through life they proceed from no misconduct and can bring no disgrace on the contrary every friend must be made still more her friend by them concern for her unhappiness and respect for her fortitude under it must strengthen every attachment use your own discretion however in communicating to her what i have told you you must know best what will be its effect but had i not seriously and from my heart believed it might be of service might lessen her regrets i would not have suffered myself to trouble you with this account of my family afflictions with a recital which may seem to have been intended to raise myself at the expense of others elinors thanks followed this speech with grateful earnestness attended too with the assurance of her expecting material advantage to marianne from the communication of what had passed i have been more pained said she by her endeavors to acquit him than by all the rest for it irritates her mind more than the most perfect conviction of his unworthiness can do now though at first she will suffer much i am sure she will soon become easier have you she continued after a short silence ever seen mr elinor startled by his manner looked at him anxiously saying what eliza had confessed to me though most reluctantly the name of her lover and when he returned to town which was within a fortnight after myself we met by appointment he to defend i to punish his conduct we returned unwounded and the meeting therefore never got abroad elinor sighed over the fancied necessity of this but to a man and a soldier she presumed not to censure it such said colonel brandon after a pause has been the unhappy resemblance between the fate of mother and daughter
this whale is often seen on the northern american coast he has been frequently captured there and towed into harbor he has a great pack on him like a peddler or you might call him the elephant and castle whale at any rate the popular name for him does not sufficiently distinguish him since the sperm whale also has a hump though a smaller one he is the most gamesome and lighthearted of all the whales making more gay foam and white water generally than any other of them of a retiring nature he eludes both hunters and philosophers though no coward he has never yet shown any part of him but his back which rises in a long sharp ridge another retiring gentleman with a brimstone belly doubtless got by scraping along the tartarian tiles in some of his profounder divings he is seldom seen at least i have never seen him except in the remoter southern seas and then always at too great a distance to study his countenance he is never chased he would run away with ropewalks of line i can say nothing more that is true of ye nor can the oldest nantucketer these embrace the whales of middling magnitude among which present may be numberedi why this book of whales is not denominated the quarto is very plain because while the whales of this order though smaller than those of the former order nevertheless retain a proportionate likeness to them in figure yet the bookbinders quarto volume in its dimensioned form does not preserve the shape of the folio volume but the octavo volume does though this fish whose loud sonorous breathing or rather blowing has furnished a proverb to landsmen is so well known a denizen of the deep yet is he not popularly classed among whales but possessing all the grand distinctive features of the leviathan most naturalists have recognised him for one he is of moderate octavo size varying from fifteen to twentyfive feet in length and of corresponding dimensions round the waist he swims in herds he is never regularly hunted though his oil is considerable in quantity and pretty good for light by some fishermen his approach is regarded as premonitory of the advance of the great sperm whale i give the popular fishermens names for all these fish for generally they are the best
the promise was readily given and willoughbys behaviour during the whole of the evening declared at once his affection and happiness i do not ask you to come in the morning for we must walk to the park to call on lady middleton dashwoods visit to lady middleton took place the next day and two of her daughters went with her but marianne excused herself from being of the party under some trifling pretext of employment and her mother who concluded that a promise had been made by willoughby the night before of calling on her while they were absent was perfectly satisfied with her remaining at home on their return from the park they found willoughbys curricle and servant in waiting at the cottage and mrs dashwood was convinced that her conjecture had been just so far it was all as she had foreseen but on entering the house she beheld what no foresight had taught her to expect they were no sooner in the passage than marianne came hastily out of the parlour apparently in violent affliction with her handkerchief at her eyes and without noticing them ran up stairs surprised and alarmed they proceeded directly into the room she had just quitted where they found only willoughby who was leaning against the mantelpiece with his back towards them he turned round on their coming in and his countenance shewed that he strongly partook of the emotion which overpowered marianne  i hope not he replied trying to look cheerful and with a forced smile presently added it is i who may rather expect to be illfor i am now suffering under a very heavy disappointment smith has this morning exercised the privilege of riches upon a poor dependent cousin by sending me on business to london i have just received my dispatches and taken my farewell of allenham and by way of exhilaration i am now come to take my farewell of you smith must be obligedand her business will not detain you from us long i hope he coloured as he replied you are very kind but i have no idea of returning into devonshire immediately is allenham the only house in the neighbourhood to which you will be welcome for shame willoughby can you wait for an invitation here his colour increased and with his eyes fixed on the ground he only replied you are too good i have only to add my dear willoughby that at barton cottage you will always be welcome for i will not press you to return here immediately because you only can judge how far that might be pleasing to mrs smith and on this head i shall be no more disposed to question your judgment than to doubt your inclination my engagements at present replied willoughby confusedly are of such a naturethati dare not flatter myself  he stopt
jennings with a thoroughly goodhumoured concern for its cause admitted the excuse most readily and elinor after seeing her safe off returned to marianne whom she found attempting to rise from the bed and whom she reached just in time to prevent her from falling on the floor faint and giddy from a long want of proper rest and food for it was many days since she had any appetite and many nights since she had really slept and now when her mind was no longer supported by the fever of suspense the consequence of all this was felt in an aching head a weakened stomach and a general nervous faintness a glass of wine which elinor procured for her directly made her more comfortable and she was at last able to express some sense of her kindness by saying poor elinor i only wish replied her sister there were any thing i could do which might be of comfort to you this as every thing else would have been was too much for marianne who could only exclaim in the anguish of her heart oh elinor i am miserable indeed before her voice was entirely lost in sobs elinor could no longer witness this torrent of unresisted grief in silence exert yourself dear marianne she cried if you would not kill yourself and all who love you think of your mother think of her misery while you suffer for her sake you must exert yourself i cannot i cannot cried marianne leave me leave me if i distress you leave me hate me forget me how easy for those who have no sorrow of their own to talk of exertion happy happy elinor you cannot have an idea of what i suffer and can you believe me to be so while i see you so wretched forgive me forgive me throwing her arms round her sisters neck i know you feel for me i know what a heart you have but yet you areyou must be happy edward loves youwhat oh what can do away such happiness as that no no no cried marianne wildly he loves you and only you i can have no pleasure while i see you in this state is your loss such as leaves no opening for consolation much as you suffer now think of what you would have suffered if the discovery of his character had been delayed to a later periodif your engagement had been carried on for months and months as it might have been before he chose to put an end to it every additional day of unhappy confidence on your side would have made the blow more dreadful it was every day implied but never professedly declared elinor said no more and turning again to the three letters which now raised a much stronger curiosity than before directly ran over the contents of all
i am by no means of the opinion i assure you said he that a ball of this kind given by a young man of character to respectable people can have any evil tendency and i am so far from objecting to dancing myself that i shall hope to be honoured with the hands of all my fair cousins in the course of the evening and i take this opportunity of soliciting yours miss elizabeth for the two first dances especially a preference which i trust my cousin jane will attribute to the right cause and not to any disrespect for her wickhams happiness and her own were perforce delayed a little longer and mr collinss proposal accepted with as good a grace as she could she was not the better pleased with his gallantry from the idea it suggested of something more it now first struck her that she was selected from among her sisters as worthy of being mistress of hunsford parsonage and of assisting to form a quadrille table at rosings in the absence of more eligible visitors the idea soon reached to conviction as she observed his increasing civilities toward herself and heard his frequent attempt at a compliment on her wit and vivacity and though more astonished than gratified herself by this effect of her charms it was not long before her mother gave her to understand that the probability of their marriage was extremely agreeable to her elizabeth however did not choose to take the hint being well aware that a serious dispute must be the consequence of any reply collins might never make the offer and till he did it was useless to quarrel about him if there had not been a netherfield ball to prepare for and talk of the younger miss bennets would have been in a very pitiable state at this time for from the day of the invitation to the day of the ball there was such a succession of rain as prevented their walking to meryton once no aunt no officers no news could be sought afterthe very shoeroses for netherfield were got by proxy even elizabeth might have found some trial of her patience in weather which totally suspended the improvement of her acquaintance with mr wickham and nothing less than a dance on tuesday could have made such a friday saturday sunday and monday endurable to kitty and lydia chapter  till elizabeth entered the drawingroom at netherfield and looked in vain for mr wickham among the cluster of red coats there assembled a doubt of his being present had never occurred to her the certainty of meeting him had not been checked by any of those recollections that might not unreasonably have alarmed her she had dressed with more than usual care and prepared in the highest spirits for the conquest of all that remained unsubdued of his heart trusting that it was not more than might be won in the course of the evening but in an instant arose the dreadful suspicion of his being purposely omitted for mr darcys pleasure in the bingleys invitation to the officers and though this was not exactly the case the absolute fact of his absence was pronounced by his friend denny to whom lydia eagerly applied and who told them that wickham had been obliged to go to town on business the day before and was not yet returned adding with a significant smile i do not imagine his business would have called him away just now if he had not wanted to avoid a certain gentleman here this part of his intelligence though unheard by lydia was caught by elizabeth and as it assured her that darcy was not less answerable for wickhams absence than if her first surmise had been just every feeling of displeasure against the former was so sharpened by immediate disappointment that she could hardly reply with tolerable civility to the polite inquiries which he directly afterwards approached to make attendance forbearance patience with darcy was injury to wickham
a man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others the event proved her conjecture right though it was founded on injustice and error for colonel brandon did come in and elinor who was convinced that solicitude for marianne brought him thither and who saw that solicitude in his disturbed and melancholy look and in his anxious though brief inquiry after her could not forgive her sister for esteeming him so lightly jennings in bond street said he after the first salutation and she encouraged me to come on and i was the more easily encouraged because i thought it probable that i might find you alone which i was very desirous of doing my objectmy wishmy sole wish in desiring iti hope i believe it isis to be a means of giving comfortno i must not say comfortnot present comfortbut conviction lasting conviction to your sisters mind my regard for her for yourself for your motherwill you allow me to prove it by relating some circumstances which nothing but a very sincere regardnothing but an earnest desire of being usefuli think i am justifiedthough where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that i am right is there not some reason to fear i may be wrong your telling it will be the greatest act of friendship that can be shewn marianne my gratitude will be insured immediately by any information tending to that end and hers must be gained by it in time you shall and to be brief when i quitted barton last octoberbut this will give you no ideai must go farther back you will find me a very awkward narrator miss dashwood i hardly know where to begin a short account of myself i believe will be necessary and it shall be a short one on such a subject sighing heavily can i have little temptation to be diffuse he stopt a moment for recollection and then with another sigh went on you have probably entirely forgotten a conversationit is not to be supposed that it could make any impression on youa conversation between us one evening at barton parkit was the evening of a dancein which i alluded to a lady i had once known as resembling in some measure your sister marianne he looked pleased by this remembrance and added if i am not deceived by the uncertainty the partiality of tender recollection there is a very strong resemblance between them as well in mind as person the same warmth of heart the same eagerness of fancy and spirits this lady was one of my nearest relations an orphan from her infancy and under the guardianship of my father our ages were nearly the same and from our earliest years we were playfellows and friends i cannot remember the time when i did not love eliza and my affection for her as we grew up was such as perhaps judging from my present forlorn and cheerless gravity you might think me incapable of having ever felt hers for me was i believe fervent as the attachment of your sister to mr willoughby and it was though from a different cause no less unfortunate
with huge pronged poles they pitched hissing masses of blubber into the scalding pots or stirred up the fires beneath till the snaky flames darted curling out of the doors to catch them by the feet to every pitch of the ship there was a pitch of the boiling oil which seemed all eagerness to leap into their faces opposite the mouth of the works on the further side of the wide wooden hearth was the windlass here lounged the watch when not otherwise employed looking into the red heat of the fire till their eyes felt scorched in their heads their tawny features now all begrimed with smoke and sweat their matted beards and the contrasting barbaric brilliancy of their teeth all these were strangely revealed in the capricious emblazonings of the works as they narrated to each other their unholy adventures their tales of terror told in words of mirth as their uncivilized laughter forked upwards out of them like the flames from the furnace as to and fro in their front the harpooneers wildly gesticulated with their huge pronged forks and dippers as the wind howled on and the sea leaped and the ship groaned and dived and yet steadfastly shot her red hell further and further into the blackness of the sea and the night and scornfully champed the white bone in her mouth and viciously spat round her on all sides then the rushing pequod freighted with savages and laden with fire and burning a corpse and plunging into that blackness of darkness seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commanders soul so seemed it to me as i stood at her helm and for long hours silently guided the way of this fireship on the sea wrapped for that interval in darkness myself i but the better saw the redness the madness the ghastliness of others the continual sight of the fiend shapes before me capering half in smoke and half in fire these at last begat kindred visions in my soul so soon as i began to yield to that unaccountable drowsiness which ever would come over me at a midnight helm but that night in particular a strange and ever since inexplicable thing occurred to me starting from a brief standing sleep i was horribly conscious of something fatally wrong the jawbone tiller smote my side which leaned against it in my ears was the low hum of sails just beginning to shake in the wind i thought my eyes were open i was half conscious of putting my fingers to the lids and mechanically stretching them still further apart but spite of all this i could see no compass before me to steer by though it seemed but a minute since i had been watching the card by the steady binnacle lamp illuminating it nothing seemed before me but a jet gloom now and then made ghastly by flashes of redness uppermost was the impression that whatever swift rushing thing i stood on was not so much bound to any haven ahead as rushing from all havens astern a stark bewildered feeling as of death came over me convulsively my hands grasped the tiller but with the crazy conceit that the tiller was somehow in some enchanted way inverted in my brief sleep i had turned myself about and was fronting the ships stern with my back to her prow and the compass in an instant i faced back just in time to prevent the vessel from flying up into the wind and very probably capsizing her how glad and how grateful the relief from this unnatural hallucination of the night and the fatal contingency of being brought by the lee
whatever may have changed him now and nothing but the blackest art employed against me can have done it i was once as dear to him as my own soul could wish this lock of hair which now he can so readily give up was begged of me with the most earnest supplication had you seen his look his manner had you heard his voice at that moment have you forgot the last evening of our being together at barton when he told me that it might be many weeks before we met againhis distresscan i ever forget his distress for a moment or two she could say no more but when this emotion had passed away she added in a firmer tone elinor i have been cruelly used but not by willoughby i could rather believe every creature of my acquaintance leagued together to ruin me in his opinion than believe his nature capable of such cruelty this woman of whom he writeswhoever she beor any one in short but your own dear self mama and edward may have been so barbarous to bely me beyond you three is there a creature in the world whom i would not rather suspect of evil than willoughby whose heart i know so well elinor would not contend and only replied whoever may have been so detestably your enemy let them be cheated of their malignant triumph my dear sister by seeing how nobly the consciousness of your own innocence and good intentions supports your spirits it is a reasonable and laudable pride which resists such malevolence no no cried marianne misery such as mine has no pride the triumph of seeing me so may be open to all the world elinor elinor they who suffer little may be proud and independent as they likemay resist insult or return mortificationbut i cannot i must feeli must be wretchedand they are welcome to enjoy the consciousness of it that can but for my mothers sake and mine i would do more than for my own elinor was employed in walking thoughtfully from the fire to the window from the window to the fire without knowing that she received warmth from one or discerning objects through the other and marianne seated at the foot of the bed with her head leaning against one of its posts again took up willoughbys letter and after shuddering over every sentence exclaimed it is too much whatever he might have heard against meought he not to have suspended his belief ought he not to have told me of it to have given me the power of clearing myself the lock of hair repeating it from the letter which you so obligingly bestowed on methat is unpardonable
nor have there been wanting learned exegetists who have opined that the whale mentioned in the book of jonah merely meant a lifepreserveran inflated bag of windwhich the endangered prophet swam to and so was saved from a watery doom but he had still another reason for his want of faith it was this if i remember right jonah was swallowed by the whale in the mediterranean sea and after three days he was vomited up somewhere within three days journey of nineveh a city on the tigris very much more than three days journey across from the nearest point of the mediterranean coast but was there no other way for the whale to land the prophet within that short distance of nineveh he might have carried him round by the way of the cape of good hope but not to speak of the passage through the whole length of the mediterranean and another passage up the persian gulf and red sea such a supposition would involve the complete circumnavigation of all africa in three days not to speak of the tigris waters near the site of nineveh being too shallow for any whale to swim in besides this idea of jonahs weathering the cape of good hope at so early a day would wrest the honour of the discovery of that great headland from bartholomew diaz its reputed discoverer and so make modern history a liar but all these foolish arguments of old sagharbor only evinced his foolish pride of reasona thing still more reprehensible in him seeing that he had but little learning except what he had picked up from the sun and the sea i say it only shows his foolish impious pride and abominable devilish rebellion against the reverend clergy for by a portuguese catholic priest this very idea of jonahs going to nineveh via the cape of good hope was advanced as a signal magnification of the general miracle besides to this day the highly enlightened turks devoutly believe in the historical story of jonah and some three centuries ago an english traveller in old harriss voyages speaks of a turkish mosque built in honour of jonah in which mosque was a miraculous lamp that burnt without any oil to make them run easily and swiftly the axles of carriages are anointed and for much the same purpose some whalers perform an analogous operation upon their boat they grease the bottom nor is it to be doubted that as such a procedure can do no harm it may possibly be of no contemptible advantage considering that oil and water are hostile that oil is a sliding thing and that the object in view is to make the boat slide bravely queequeg believed strongly in anointing his boat and one morning not long after the german ship jungfrau disappeared took more than customary pains in that occupation crawling under its bottom where it hung over the side and rubbing in the unctuousness as though diligently seeking to insure a crop of hair from the crafts bald keel he seemed to be working in obedience to some particular presentiment towards noon whales were raised but so soon as the ship sailed down to them they turned and fled with swift precipitancy a disordered flight as of cleopatras barges from actium nevertheless the boats pursued and stubbs was foremost by great exertion tashtego at last succeeded in planting one iron but the stricken whale without at all sounding still continued his horizontal flight with added fleetness such unintermitted strainings upon the planted iron must sooner or later inevitably extract it
no sooner did she perceive any symptom of love in his behaviour to elinor than she considered their serious attachment as certain and looked forward to their marriage as rapidly approaching said she elinor will in all probability be settled for life we shall live within a few miles of each other and shall meet every day of our lives you will gain a brother a real affectionate brother i have the highest opinion in the world of edwards heart but you look grave marianne do you disapprove your sisters choice perhaps said marianne i may consider it with some surprise but yethe is not the kind of young manthere is something wantinghis figure is not striking it has none of that grace which i should expect in the man who could seriously attach my sister his eyes want all that spirit that fire which at once announce virtue and intelligence and besides all this i am afraid mama he has no real taste music seems scarcely to attract him and though he admires elinors drawings very much it is not the admiration of a person who can understand their worth it is evident in spite of his frequent attention to her while she draws that in fact he knows nothing of the matter i could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own he must enter into all my feelings the same books the same music must charm us both mama how spiritless how tame was edwards manner in reading to us last night yet she bore it with so much composure she seemed scarcely to notice it to hear those beautiful lines which have frequently almost driven me wild pronounced with such impenetrable calmness such dreadful indifference he would certainly have done more justice to simple and elegant prose i thought so at the time but you would give him cowper elinor has not my feelings and therefore she may overlook it and be happy with him
some two years prior to my first learning the events which i am about rehearsing to you gentlemen the townho sperm whaler of nantucket was cruising in your pacific here not very many days sail eastward from the eaves of this good golden inn one morning upon handling the pumps according to daily usage it was observed that she made more water in her hold than common they supposed a swordfish had stabbed her gentlemen but the captain having some unusual reason for believing that rare good luck awaited him in those latitudes and therefore being very averse to quit them and the leak not being then considered at all dangerous though indeed they could not find it after searching the hold as low down as was possible in rather heavy weather the ship still continued her cruisings the mariners working at the pumps at wide and easy intervals but no good luck came more days went by and not only was the leak yet undiscovered but it sensibly increased so much so that now taking some alarm the captain making all sail stood away for the nearest harbor among the islands there to have his hull hove out and repaired though no small passage was before her yet if the commonest chance favoured he did not at all fear that his ship would founder by the way because his pumps were of the best and being periodically relieved at them those sixandthirty men of his could easily keep the ship free never mind if the leak should double on her in truth well nigh the whole of this passage being attended by very prosperous breezes the townho had all but certainly arrived in perfect safety at her port without the occurrence of the least fatality had it not been for the brutal overbearing of radney the mate a vineyarder and the bitterly provoked vengeance of steelkilt a lakeman and desperado from buffalo  said don sebastian rising in his swinging mat of grass on the eastern shore of our lake erie don buti crave your courtesymay be you shall soon hear further of all that now gentlemen in squaresail brigs and threemasted ships wellnigh as large and stout as any that ever sailed out of your old callao to far manilla this lakeman in the landlocked heart of our america had yet been nurtured by all those agrarian freebooting impressions popularly connected with the open ocean for in their interflowing aggregate those grand freshwater seas of ourserie and ontario and huron and superior and michiganpossess an oceanlike expansiveness with many of the oceans noblest traits with many of its rimmed varieties of races and of climes they contain round archipelagoes of romantic isles even as the polynesian waters do in large part are shored by two great contrasting nations as the atlantic is they furnish long maritime approaches to our numerous territorial colonies from the east dotted all round their banks here and there are frowned upon by batteries and by the goatlike craggy guns of lofty mackinaw they have heard the fleet thunderings of naval victories at intervals they yield their beaches to wild barbarians whose red painted faces flash from out their peltry wigwams for leagues and leagues are flanked by ancient and unentered forests where the gaunt pines stand like serried lines of kings in gothic genealogies those same woods harboring wild afric beasts of prey and silken creatures whose exported furs give robes to tartar emperors they mirror the paved capitals of buffalo and cleveland as well as winnebago villages they float alike the fullrigged merchant ship the armed cruiser of the state the steamer and the beech canoe they are swept by borean and dismasting blasts as direful as any that lash the salted wave they know what shipwrecks are for out of sight of land however inland they have drowned full many a midnight ship with all its shrieking crew thus gentlemen though an inlander steelkilt was wildocean born and wildocean nurtured as much of an audacious mariner as any and for radney though in his infancy he may have laid him down on the lone nantucket beach to nurse at his maternal sea though in after life he had long followed our austere atlantic and your contemplative pacific yet was he quite as vengeful and full of social quarrel as the backwoods seaman fresh from the latitudes of buckhorn handled bowieknives yet was this nantucketer a man with some goodhearted traits and this lakeman a mariner who though a sort of devil indeed might yet by inflexible firmness only tempered by that common decency of human recognition which is the meanest slaves right thus treated this steelkilt had long been retained harmless and docile at all events he had proved so thus far but radney was doomed and made mad and steelkiltbut gentlemen you shall hear it was not more than a day or two at the furthest after pointing her prow for her island haven that the townhos leak seemed again increasing but only so as to require an hour or more at the pumps every day you must know that in a settled and civilized ocean like our atlantic for example some skippers think little of pumping their whole way across it though of a still sleepy night should the officer of the deck happen to forget his duty in that respect the probability would be that he and his shipmates would never again remember it on account of all hands gently subsiding to the bottom nor in the solitary and savage seas far from you to the westward gentlemen is it altogether unusual for ships to keep clanging at their pumphandles in full chorus even for a voyage of considerable length that is if it lie along a tolerably accessible coast or if any other reasonable retreat is afforded them it is only when a leaky vessel is in some very out of the way part of those waters some really landless latitude that her captain begins to feel a little anxious
i now screwed my eyes hard towards the half hidden image feeling but ill at ease meantimeto see what was next to follow first he takes about a double handful of shavings out of his grego pocket and places them carefully before the idol then laying a bit of ship biscuit on top and applying the flame from the lamp he kindled the shavings into a sacrificial blaze presently after many hasty snatches into the fire and still hastier withdrawals of his fingers whereby he seemed to be scorching them badly he at last succeeded in drawing out the biscuit then blowing off the heat and ashes a little he made a polite offer of it to the little negro but the little devil did not seem to fancy such dry sort of fare at all he never moved his lips all these strange antics were accompanied by still stranger guttural noises from the devotee who seemed to be praying in a singsong or else singing some pagan psalmody or other during which his face twitched about in the most unnatural manner at last extinguishing the fire he took the idol up very unceremoniously and bagged it again in his grego pocket as carelessly as if he were a sportsman bagging a dead woodcock all these queer proceedings increased my uncomfortableness and seeing him now exhibiting strong symptoms of concluding his business operations and jumping into bed with me i thought it was high time now or never before the light was put out to break the spell in which i had so long been bound but the interval i spent in deliberating what to say was a fatal one taking up his tomahawk from the table he examined the head of it for an instant and then holding it to the light with his mouth at the handle he puffed out great clouds of tobacco smoke the next moment the light was extinguished and this wild cannibal tomahawk between his teeth sprang into bed with me i sang out i could not help it now and giving a sudden grunt of astonishment he began feeling me stammering out something i knew not what i rolled away from him against the wall and then conjured him whoever or whatever he might be to keep quiet and let me get up and light the lamp again but his guttural responses satisfied me at once that he but ill comprehended my meaning  and so saying the lighted tomahawk began flourishing about me in the dark again growled the cannibal while his horrid flourishings of the tomahawk scattered the hot tobacco ashes about me till i thought my linen would get on fire but thank heaven at that moment the landlord came into the room light in hand and leaping from the bed i ran up to him dont be afraid now said he grinning again queequeg here wouldnt harm a hair of your head stop your grinning shouted i and why didnt you tell me that that infernal harpooneer was a cannibal i thought ye knowd itdidnt i tell ye he was a peddlin heads around town queequeg look hereyou sabbee me i sabbeeyou this man sleepe youyou sabbee
it is only when a leaky vessel is in some very out of the way part of those waters some really landless latitude that her captain begins to feel a little anxious much this way had it been with the townho so when her leak was found gaining once more there was in truth some small concern manifested by several of her company especially by radney the mate he commanded the upper sails to be well hoisted sheeted home anew and every way expanded to the breeze now this radney i suppose was as little of a coward and as little inclined to any sort of nervous apprehensiveness touching his own person as any fearless unthinking creature on land or on sea that you can conveniently imagine gentlemen therefore when he betrayed this solicitude about the safety of the ship some of the seamen declared that it was only on account of his being a part owner in her so when they were working that evening at the pumps there was on this head no small gamesomeness slily going on among them as they stood with their feet continually overflowed by the rippling clear water clear as any mountain spring gentlementhat bubbling from the pumps ran across the deck and poured itself out in steady spouts at the lee scupperholes now as you well know it is not seldom the case in this conventional world of ourswatery or otherwise that when a person placed in command over his fellowmen finds one of them to be very significantly his superior in general pride of manhood straightway against that man he conceives an unconquerable dislike and bitterness and if he have a chance he will pull down and pulverize that subalterns tower and make a little heap of dust of it be this conceit of mine as it may gentlemen at all events steelkilt was a tall and noble animal with a head like a roman and a flowing golden beard like the tasseled housings of your last viceroys snorting charger and a brain and a heart and a soul in him gentlemen which had made steelkilt charlemagne had he been born son to charlemagnes father but radney the mate was ugly as a mule yet as hardy as stubborn as malicious espying the mate drawing near as he was toiling at the pump with the rest the lakeman affected not to notice him but unawed went on with his gay banterings aye aye my merry lads its a lively leak this hold a cannikin one of ye and lets have a taste i tell ye what men old rads investment must go for it he had best cut away his part of the hull and tow it home the fact is boys that swordfish only began the job hes come back again with a gang of shipcarpenters sawfish and filefish and what not and the whole posse of em are now hard at work cutting and slashing at the bottom making improvements i suppose if old rad were here now id tell him to jump overboard and scatter em theyre playing the devil with his estate i can tell him boys they say the rest of his property is invested in lookingglasses i wonder if hed give a poor devil like me the model of his nose  roared radney pretending not to have heard the sailors talk  and with that the pump clanged like fifty fireengines the men tossed their hats off to it and ere long that peculiar gasping of the lungs was heard which denotes the fullest tension of lifes utmost energies
in anticipating the happiness of bingley which of course was to be inferior only to his own he continued the conversation till they reached the house chapter  my dear lizzy where can you have been walking to was a question which elizabeth received from jane as soon as she entered their room and from all the others when they sat down to table she had only to say in reply that they had wandered about till she was beyond her own knowledge she coloured as she spoke but neither that nor anything else awakened a suspicion of the truth the evening passed quietly unmarked by anything extraordinary the acknowledged lovers talked and laughed the unacknowledged were silent darcy was not of a disposition in which happiness overflows in mirth and elizabeth agitated and confused rather knew that she was happy than felt herself to be so for besides the immediate embarrassment there were other evils before her she anticipated what would be felt in the family when her situation became known she was aware that no one liked him but jane and even feared that with the others it was a dislike which not all his fortune and consequence might do away though suspicion was very far from miss bennets general habits she was absolutely incredulous here my sole dependence was on you and i am sure nobody else will believe me if you do not perhaps i did not always love him so well as i do now but in such cases as these a good memory is unpardonable this is the last time i shall ever remember it myself elizabeth again and more seriously assured her of its truth my dear dear lizzy i wouldi do congratulate youbut are you certain forgive the questionare you quite certain that you can be happy with him it is settled between us already that we are to be the happiest couple in the world nothing could give either bingley or myself more delight are you quite sure that you feel what you ought to do
from such commendation as this however there was not much to be learned elinor well knew that the sweetest girls in the world were to be met with in every part of england under every possible variation of form face temper and understanding sir john wanted the whole family to walk to the park directly and look at his guests it was painful to him even to keep a third cousin to himself do come now said hepray comeyou must comei declare you shall comeyou cant think how you will like them lucy is monstrous pretty and so good humoured and agreeable the children are all hanging about her already as if she was an old acquaintance and they both long to see you of all things for they have heard at exeter that you are the most beautiful creatures in the world and i have told them it is all very true and a great deal more they have brought the whole coach full of playthings for the children you are my cousins and they are my wifes so you must be related he could only obtain a promise of their calling at the park within a day or two and then left them in amazement at their indifference to walk home and boast anew of their attractions to the miss steeles as he had been already boasting of the miss steeles to them when their promised visit to the park and consequent introduction to these young ladies took place they found in the appearance of the eldest who was nearly thirty with a very plain and not a sensible face nothing to admire but in the other who was not more than two or three and twenty they acknowledged considerable beauty her features were pretty and she had a sharp quick eye and a smartness of air which though it did not give actual elegance or grace gave distinction to her person  their manners were particularly civil and elinor soon allowed them credit for some kind of sense when she saw with what constant and judicious attention they were making themselves agreeable to lady middleton with her children they were in continual raptures extolling their beauty courting their notice and humouring their whims and such of their time as could be spared from the importunate demands which this politeness made on it was spent in admiration of whatever her ladyship was doing if she happened to be doing any thing or in taking patterns of some elegant new dress in which her appearance the day before had thrown them into unceasing delight fortunately for those who pay their court through such foibles a fond mother though in pursuit of praise for her children the most rapacious of human beings is likewise the most credulous her demands are exorbitant but she will swallow any thing and the excessive affection and endurance of the miss steeles towards her offspring were viewed therefore by lady middleton without the smallest surprise or distrust she saw with maternal complacency all the impertinent encroachments and mischievous tricks to which her cousins submitted she saw their sashes untied their hair pulled about their ears their workbags searched and their knives and scissors stolen away and felt no doubt of its being a reciprocal enjoyment it suggested no other surprise than that elinor and marianne should sit so composedly by without claiming a share in what was passing said she on his taking miss steeless pocket handkerchief and throwing it out of windowhe is full of monkey tricks  and soon afterwards on the second boys violently pinching one of the same ladys fingers she fondly observed how playful william is and here is my sweet little annamaria she added tenderly caressing a little girl of three years old who had not made a noise for the last two minutes and she is always so gentle and quietnever was there such a quiet little thing
elinor submitted to the arrangement which counteracted her wishes with less reluctance than she had expected to feel with regard to herself it was now a matter of unconcern whether she went to town or not and when she saw her mother so thoroughly pleased with the plan and her sister exhilarated by it in look voice and manner restored to all her usual animation and elevated to more than her usual gaiety she could not be dissatisfied with the cause and would hardly allow herself to distrust the consequence mariannes joy was almost a degree beyond happiness so great was the perturbation of her spirits and her impatience to be gone her unwillingness to quit her mother was her only restorative to calmness and at the moment of parting her grief on that score was excessive her mothers affliction was hardly less and elinor was the only one of the three who seemed to consider the separation as any thing short of eternal their departure took place in the first week in january the miss steeles kept their station at the park and were to quit it only with the rest of the family chapter  elinor could not find herself in the carriage with mrs jennings and beginning a journey to london under her protection and as her guest without wondering at her own situation so short had their acquaintance with that lady been so wholly unsuited were they in age and disposition and so many had been her objections against such a measure only a few days before but these objections had all with that happy ardour of youth which marianne and her mother equally shared been overcome or overlooked and elinor in spite of every occasional doubt of willoughbys constancy could not witness the rapture of delightful expectation which filled the whole soul and beamed in the eyes of marianne without feeling how blank was her own prospect how cheerless her own state of mind in the comparison and how gladly she would engage in the solicitude of mariannes situation to have the same animating object in view the same possibility of hope a short a very short time however must now decide what willoughbys intentions were in all probability he was already in town mariannes eagerness to be gone declared her dependence on finding him there and elinor was resolved not only upon gaining every new light as to his character which her own observation or the intelligence of others could give her but likewise upon watching his behaviour to her sister with such zealous attention as to ascertain what he was and what he meant before many meetings had taken place should the result of her observations be unfavourable she was determined at all events to open the eyes of her sister should it be otherwise her exertions would be of a different natureshe must then learn to avoid every selfish comparison and banish every regret which might lessen her satisfaction in the happiness of marianne they were three days on their journey and mariannes behaviour as they travelled was a happy specimen of what future complaisance and companionableness to mrs she sat in silence almost all the way wrapt in her own meditations and scarcely ever voluntarily speaking except when any object of picturesque beauty within their view drew from her an exclamation of delight exclusively addressed to her sister to atone for this conduct therefore elinor took immediate possession of the post of civility which she had assigned herself behaved with the greatest attention to mrs jennings talked with her laughed with her and listened to her whenever she could and mrs jennings on her side treated them both with all possible kindness was solicitous on every occasion for their ease and enjoyment and only disturbed that she could not make them choose their own dinners at the inn nor extort a confession of their preferring salmon to cod or boiled fowls to veal cutlets they reached town by three oclock the third day glad to be released after such a journey from the confinement of a carriage and ready to enjoy all the luxury of a good fire the house was handsome and handsomely fitted up and the young ladies were immediately put in possession of a very comfortable apartment
how languid their conversation the last evening of their being together in edwards farewell there was no distinction between elinor and me it was the good wishes of an affectionate brother to both twice did i leave them purposely together in the course of the last morning and each time did he most unaccountably follow me out of the room and elinor in quitting norland and edward cried not as i did when does she try to avoid society or appear restless and dissatisfied in it chapter  the dashwoods were now settled at barton with tolerable comfort to themselves the house and the garden with all the objects surrounding them were now become familiar and the ordinary pursuits which had given to norland half its charms were engaged in again with far greater enjoyment than norland had been able to afford since the loss of their father sir john middleton who called on them every day for the first fortnight and who was not in the habit of seeing much occupation at home could not conceal his amazement on finding them always employed their visitors except those from barton park were not many for in spite of sir johns urgent entreaties that they would mix more in the neighbourhood and repeated assurances of his carriage being always at their service the independence of mrs dashwoods spirit overcame the wish of society for her children and she was resolute in declining to visit any family beyond the distance of a walk there were but few who could be so classed and it was not all of them that were attainable about a mile and a half from the cottage along the narrow winding valley of allenham which issued from that of barton as formerly described the girls had in one of their earliest walks discovered an ancient respectable looking mansion which by reminding them a little of norland interested their imagination and made them wish to be better acquainted with it but they learnt on enquiry that its possessor an elderly lady of very good character was unfortunately too infirm to mix with the world and never stirred from home the whole country about them abounded in beautiful walks the high downs which invited them from almost every window of the cottage to seek the exquisite enjoyment of air on their summits were a happy alternative when the dirt of the valleys beneath shut up their superior beauties and towards one of these hills did marianne and margaret one memorable morning direct their steps attracted by the partial sunshine of a showery sky and unable longer to bear the confinement which the settled rain of the two preceding days had occasioned the weather was not tempting enough to draw the two others from their pencil and their book in spite of mariannes declaration that the day would be lastingly fair and that every threatening cloud would be drawn off from their hills and the two girls set off together they gaily ascended the downs rejoicing in their own penetration at every glimpse of blue sky and when they caught in their faces the animating gales of a high southwesterly wind they pitied the fears which had prevented their mother and elinor from sharing such delightful sensations is there a felicity in the world said marianne superior to this margaret agreed and they pursued their way against the wind resisting it with laughing delight for about twenty minutes longer when suddenly the clouds united over their heads and a driving rain set full in their face  chagrined and surprised they were obliged though unwillingly to turn back for no shelter was nearer than their own house
now as you well know it is not seldom the case in this conventional world of ourswatery or otherwise that when a person placed in command over his fellowmen finds one of them to be very significantly his superior in general pride of manhood straightway against that man he conceives an unconquerable dislike and bitterness and if he have a chance he will pull down and pulverize that subalterns tower and make a little heap of dust of it be this conceit of mine as it may gentlemen at all events steelkilt was a tall and noble animal with a head like a roman and a flowing golden beard like the tasseled housings of your last viceroys snorting charger and a brain and a heart and a soul in him gentlemen which had made steelkilt charlemagne had he been born son to charlemagnes father but radney the mate was ugly as a mule yet as hardy as stubborn as malicious espying the mate drawing near as he was toiling at the pump with the rest the lakeman affected not to notice him but unawed went on with his gay banterings aye aye my merry lads its a lively leak this hold a cannikin one of ye and lets have a taste i tell ye what men old rads investment must go for it he had best cut away his part of the hull and tow it home the fact is boys that swordfish only began the job hes come back again with a gang of shipcarpenters sawfish and filefish and what not and the whole posse of em are now hard at work cutting and slashing at the bottom making improvements i suppose if old rad were here now id tell him to jump overboard and scatter em theyre playing the devil with his estate i can tell him boys they say the rest of his property is invested in lookingglasses i wonder if hed give a poor devil like me the model of his nose  roared radney pretending not to have heard the sailors talk  and with that the pump clanged like fifty fireengines the men tossed their hats off to it and ere long that peculiar gasping of the lungs was heard which denotes the fullest tension of lifes utmost energies quitting the pump at last with the rest of his band the lakeman went forward all panting and sat himself down on the windlass his face fiery red his eyes bloodshot and wiping the profuse sweat from his brow now what cozening fiend it was gentlemen that possessed radney to meddle with such a man in that corporeally exasperated state i know not but so it happened intolerably striding along the deck the mate commanded him to get a broom and sweep down the planks and also a shovel and remove some offensive matters consequent upon allowing a pig to run at large now gentlemen sweeping a ships deck at sea is a piece of household work which in all times but raging gales is regularly attended to every evening it has been known to be done in the case of ships actually foundering at the time such gentlemen is the inflexibility of seausages and the instinctive love of neatness in seamen some of whom would not willingly drown without first washing their faces but in all vessels this broom business is the prescriptive province of the boys if boys there be aboard
can you yourself lizzy so wholly give him up as to believe him capable of it not perhaps of neglecting his own interest but of every other neglect i can believe him capable why should they not go on to scotland if that had been the case gardiner there is no absolute proof that they are not gone to scotland but their removing from the chaise into a hackney coach is such a presumption and besides no traces of them were to be found on the barnet road they may be there though for the purpose of concealment for no more exceptional purpose it is not likely that money should be very abundant on either side and it might strike them that they could be more economically though less expeditiously married in london than in scotland his most particular friend you see by janes account was persuaded of his never intending to marry her wickham will never marry a woman without some money and what claims has lydiawhat attraction has she beyond youth health and good humour that could make him for her sake forego every chance of benefiting himself by marrying well as to what restraint the apprehensions of disgrace in the corps might throw on a dishonourable elopement with her i am not able to judge for i know nothing of the effects that such a step might produce but as to your other objection i am afraid it will hardly hold good lydia has no brothers to step forward and he might imagine from my fathers behaviour from his indolence and the little attention he has ever seemed to give to what was going forward in his family that he would do as little and think as little about it as any father could do in such a matter but can you think that lydia is so lost to everything but love of him as to consent to live with him on any terms other than marriage it does seem and it is most shocking indeed replied elizabeth with tears in her eyes that a sisters sense of decency and virtue in such a point should admit of doubt but she is very young she has never been taught to think on serious subjects and for the last halfyear nay for a twelvemonthshe has been given up to nothing but amusement and vanity she has been allowed to dispose of her time in the most idle and frivolous manner and to adopt any opinions that came in her way since the shire were first quartered in meryton nothing but love flirtation and officers have been in her head she has been doing everything in her power by thinking and talking on the subject to give greaterwhat shall i call it
your portion is unhappily so small that it will in all likelihood undo the effects of your loveliness and amiable qualifications as i must therefore conclude that you are not serious in your rejection of me i shall choose to attribute it to your wish of increasing my love by suspense according to the usual practice of elegant females i do assure you sir that i have no pretensions whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man i would rather be paid the compliment of being believed sincere i thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in your proposals but to accept them is absolutely impossible do not consider me now as an elegant female intending to plague you but as a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart cried he with an air of awkward gallantry and i am persuaded that when sanctioned by the express authority of both your excellent parents my proposals will not fail of being acceptable to such perseverance in wilful selfdeception elizabeth would make no reply and immediately and in silence withdrew determined if he persisted in considering her repeated refusals as flattering encouragement to apply to her father whose negative might be uttered in such a manner as to be decisive and whose behaviour at least could not be mistaken for the affectation and coquetry of an elegant female collins was not left long to the silent contemplation of his successful love for mrs bennet having dawdled about in the vestibule to watch for the end of the conference no sooner saw elizabeth open the door and with quick step pass her towards the staircase than she entered the breakfastroom and congratulated both him and herself in warm terms on the happy prospect of their nearer connection collins received and returned these felicitations with equal pleasure and then proceeded to relate the particulars of their interview with the result of which he trusted he had every reason to be satisfied since the refusal which his cousin had steadfastly given him would naturally flow from her bashful modesty and the genuine delicacy of her character bennet she would have been glad to be equally satisfied that her daughter had meant to encourage him by protesting against his proposals but she dared not believe it and could not help saying so collins she added that lizzy shall be brought to reason she is a very headstrong foolish girl and does not know her own interest but i will make her know it collins but if she is really headstrong and foolish i know not whether she would altogether be a very desirable wife to a man in my situation who naturally looks for happiness in the marriage state if therefore she actually persists in rejecting my suit perhaps it were better not to force her into accepting me because if liable to such defects of temper she could not contribute much to my felicity in everything else she is as goodnatured a girl as ever lived bennet and we shall very soon settle it with her i am sure she would not give him time to reply but hurrying instantly to her husband called out as she entered the library oh bennet you are wanted immediately we are all in an uproar
what sister would think herself at liberty to do it unless there were something very objectionable if they believed him attached to me they would not try to part us if he were so they could not succeed by supposing such an affection you make everybody acting unnaturally and wrong and me most unhappy i am not ashamed of having been mistakenor at least it is light it is nothing in comparison of what i should feel in thinking ill of him or his sisters let me take it in the best light in the light in which it may be understood elizabeth could not oppose such a wish and from this time mr bingleys name was scarcely ever mentioned between them bennet still continued to wonder and repine at his returning no more and though a day seldom passed in which elizabeth did not account for it clearly there was little chance of her ever considering it with less perplexity her daughter endeavoured to convince her of what she did not believe herself that his attentions to jane had been merely the effect of a common and transient liking which ceased when he saw her no more but though the probability of the statement was admitted at the time she had the same story to repeat every day so lizzy said he one day your sister is crossed in love i find next to being married a girl likes to be crossed a little in love now and then it is something to think of and it gives her a sort of distinction among her companions here are officers enough in meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country he is a pleasant fellow and would jilt you creditably thank you sir but a less agreeable man would satisfy me bennet but it is a comfort to think that whatever of that kind may befall you you have an affectionate mother who will make the most of it wickhams society was of material service in dispelling the gloom which the late perverse occurrences had thrown on many of the longbourn family they saw him often and to his other recommendations was now added that of general unreserve the whole of what elizabeth had already heard his claims on mr darcy and all that he had suffered from him was now openly acknowledged and publicly canvassed and everybody was pleased to know how much they had always disliked mr
the dinner too in its turn was highly admired and he begged to know to which of his fair cousins the excellency of its cooking was owing bennet who assured him with some asperity that they were very well able to keep a good cook and that her daughters had nothing to do in the kitchen in a softened tone she declared herself not at all offended but he continued to apologise for about a quarter of an hour bennet scarcely spoke at all but when the servants were withdrawn he thought it time to have some conversation with his guest and therefore started a subject in which he expected him to shine by observing that he seemed very fortunate in his patroness lady catherine de bourghs attention to his wishes and consideration for his comfort appeared very remarkable the subject elevated him to more than usual solemnity of manner and with a most important aspect he protested that he had never in his life witnessed such behaviour in a person of ranksuch affability and condescension as he had himself experienced from lady catherine she had been graciously pleased to approve of both of the discourses which he had already had the honour of preaching before her she had also asked him twice to dine at rosings and had sent for him only the saturday before to make up her pool of quadrille in the evening lady catherine was reckoned proud by many people he knew but he had never seen anything but affability in her she had always spoken to him as she would to any other gentleman she made not the smallest objection to his joining in the society of the neighbourhood nor to his leaving the parish occasionally for a week or two to visit his relations she had even condescended to advise him to marry as soon as he could provided he chose with discretion and had once paid him a visit in his humble parsonage where she had perfectly approved all the alterations he had been making and had even vouchsafed to suggest some herselfsome shelves in the closet up stairs that is all very proper and civil i am sure said mrs bennet and i dare say she is a very agreeable woman it is a pity that great ladies in general are not more like her the garden in which stands my humble abode is separated only by a lane from rosings park her ladyships residence she has only one daughter the heiress of rosings and of very extensive property bennet shaking her head then she is better off than many girls lady catherine herself says that in point of true beauty miss de bourgh is far superior to the handsomest of her sex because there is that in her features which marks the young lady of distinguished birth she is unfortunately of a sickly constitution which has prevented her from making that progress in many accomplishments which she could not have otherwise failed of as i am informed by the lady who superintended her education and who still resides with them but she is perfectly amiable and often condescends to drive by my humble abode in her little phaeton and ponies
his spirits during the last two or three days though still very unequal were greatly improvedhe grew more and more partial to the house and environsnever spoke of going away without a sighdeclared his time to be wholly disengagedeven doubted to what place he should go when he left thembut still go he must never had any week passed so quicklyhe could hardly believe it to be gone he said so repeatedly other things he said too which marked the turn of his feelings and gave the lie to his actions he had no pleasure at norland he detested being in town but either to norland or london he must go he valued their kindness beyond any thing and his greatest happiness was in being with them yet he must leave them at the end of a week in spite of their wishes and his own and without any restraint on his time elinor placed all that was astonishing in this way of acting to his mothers account and it was happy for her that he had a mother whose character was so imperfectly known to her as to be the general excuse for every thing strange on the part of her son disappointed however and vexed as she was and sometimes displeased with his uncertain behaviour to herself she was very well disposed on the whole to regard his actions with all the candid allowances and generous qualifications which had been rather more painfully extorted from her for willoughbys service by her mother his want of spirits of openness and of consistency were most usually attributed to his want of independence and his better knowledge of mrs the shortness of his visit the steadiness of his purpose in leaving them originated in the same fettered inclination the same inevitable necessity of temporizing with his mother the old wellestablished grievance of duty against will parent against child was the cause of all she would have been glad to know when these difficulties were to cease this opposition was to yieldwhen mrs ferrars would be reformed and her son be at liberty to be happy but from such vain wishes she was forced to turn for comfort to the renewal of her confidence in edwards affection to the remembrance of every mark of regard in look or word which fell from him while at barton and above all to that flattering proof of it which he constantly wore round his finger dashwood as they were at breakfast the last morning you would be a happier man if you had any profession to engage your time and give an interest to your plans and actions some inconvenience to your friends indeed might result from ityou would not be able to give them so much of your time but with a smile you would be materially benefited in one particular at leastyou would know where to go when you left them i do assure you he replied that i have long thought on this point as you think now it has been and is and probably will always be a heavy misfortune to me that i have had no necessary business to engage me no profession to give me employment or afford me any thing like independence but unfortunately my own nicety and the nicety of my friends have made me what i am an idle helpless being
in revolving lady catherines expressions however she could not help feeling some uneasiness as to the possible consequence of her persisting in this interference from what she had said of her resolution to prevent their marriage it occurred to elizabeth that she must meditate an application to her nephew and how he might take a similar representation of the evils attached to a connection with her she dared not pronounce she knew not the exact degree of his affection for his aunt or his dependence on her judgment but it was natural to suppose that he thought much higher of her ladyship than she could do and it was certain that in enumerating the miseries of a marriage with one whose immediate connections were so unequal to his own his aunt would address him on his weakest side with his notions of dignity he would probably feel that the arguments which to elizabeth had appeared weak and ridiculous contained much good sense and solid reasoning if he had been wavering before as to what he should do which had often seemed likely the advice and entreaty of so near a relation might settle every doubt and determine him at once to be as happy as dignity unblemished could make him lady catherine might see him in her way through town and his engagement to bingley of coming again to netherfield must give way if therefore an excuse for not keeping his promise should come to his friend within a few days she added i shall know how to understand it i shall then give over every expectation every wish of his constancy if he is satisfied with only regretting me when he might have obtained my affections and hand i shall soon cease to regret him at all      the surprise of the rest of the family on hearing who their visitor had been was very great but they obligingly satisfied it with the same kind of supposition which had appeased mrs bennets curiosity and elizabeth was spared from much teasing on the subject the next morning as she was going downstairs she was met by her father who came out of his library with a letter in his hand lizzy said he i was going to look for you come into my room she followed him thither and her curiosity to know what he had to tell her was heightened by the supposition of its being in some manner connected with the letter he held it suddenly struck her that it might be from lady catherine and she anticipated with dismay all the consequent explanations she followed her father to the fire place and they both sat down he then said i have received a letter this morning that has astonished me exceedingly as it principally concerns yourself you ought to know its contents i did not know before that i had two daughters on the brink of matrimony let me congratulate you on a very important conquest
i take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this grand contested election for the presidency of the united states though i cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers the fates put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage when others were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies and short and easy parts in genteel comedies and jolly parts in farcesthough i cannot tell why this was exactly yet now that i recall all the circumstances i think i can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly presented to me under various disguises induced me to set about performing the part i did besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgment chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity then the wild and distant seas where he rolled his island bulk the undeliverable nameless perils of the whale these with all the attending marvels of a thousand patagonian sights and sounds helped to sway me to my wish with other men perhaps such things would not have been inducements but as for me i am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote i love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts not ignoring what is good i am quick to perceive a horror and could still be social with itwould they let mesince it is but well to be on friendly terms with all the inmates of the place one lodges in by reason of these things then the whaling voyage was welcome the great floodgates of the wonderworld swung open and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose two and two there floated into my inmost soul endless processions of the whale and mid most of them all one grand hooded phantom like a snow hill in the air i stuffed a shirt or two into my old carpetbag tucked it under my arm and started for cape horn and the pacific quitting the good city of old manhatto i duly arrived in new bedford much was i disappointed upon learning that the little packet for nantucket had already sailed and that no way of reaching that place would offer till the following monday as most young candidates for the pains and penalties of whaling stop at this same new bedford thence to embark on their voyage it may as well be related that i for one had no idea of so doing for my mind was made up to sail in no other than a nantucket craft because there was a fine boisterous something about everything connected with that famous old island which amazingly pleased me besides though new bedford has of late been gradually monopolising the business of whaling and though in this matter poor old nantucket is now much behind her yet nantucket was her great originalthe tyre of this carthagethe place where the first dead american whale was stranded where else but from nantucket did those aboriginal whalemen the redmen first sally out in canoes to give chase to the leviathan and where but from nantucket too did that first adventurous little sloop put forth partly laden with imported cobblestonesso goes the storyto throw at the whales in order to discover when they were nigh enough to risk a harpoon from the bowsprit now having a night a day and still another night following before me in new bedford ere i could embark for my destined port it became a matter of concernment where i was to eat and sleep meanwhile it was a very dubiouslooking nay a very dark and dismal night bitingly cold and cheerless with anxious grapnels i had sounded my pocket and only brought up a few pieces of silverso wherever you go ishmael said i to myself as i stood in the middle of a dreary street shouldering my bag and comparing the gloom towards the north with the darkness towards the southwherever in your wisdom you may conclude to lodge for the night my dear ishmael be sure to inquire the price and dont be too particular
so much in love as to wish to marry her in spite of all the objections which had made him prevent his friends marrying her sister and which must appear at least with equal force in his own casewas almost incredible it was gratifying to have inspired unconsciously so strong an affection but his pride his abominable pridehis shameless avowal of what he had done with respect to janehis unpardonable assurance in acknowledging though he could not justify it and the unfeeling manner in which he had mentioned mr wickham his cruelty towards whom he had not attempted to deny soon overcame the pity which the consideration of his attachment had for a moment excited she continued in very agitated reflections till the sound of lady catherines carriage made her feel how unequal she was to encounter charlottes observation and hurried her away to her room chapter  elizabeth awoke the next morning to the same thoughts and meditations which had at length closed her eyes she could not yet recover from the surprise of what had happened it was impossible to think of anything else and totally indisposed for employment she resolved soon after breakfast to indulge herself in air and exercise she was proceeding directly to her favourite walk when the recollection of mr darcys sometimes coming there stopped her and instead of entering the park she turned up the lane which led farther from the turnpikeroad the park paling was still the boundary on one side and she soon passed one of the gates into the ground after walking two or three times along that part of the lane she was tempted by the pleasantness of the morning to stop at the gates and look into the park the five weeks which she had now passed in kent had made a great difference in the country and every day was adding to the verdure of the early trees she was on the point of continuing her walk when she caught a glimpse of a gentleman within the sort of grove which edged the park he was moving that way and fearful of its being mr but the person who advanced was now near enough to see her and stepping forward with eagerness pronounced her name she had turned away but on hearing herself called though in a voice which proved it to be mr he had by that time reached it also and holding out a letter which she instinctively took said with a look of haughty composure i have been walking in the grove some time in the hope of meeting you and then with a slight bow turned again into the plantation and was soon out of sight with no expectation of pleasure but with the strongest curiosity elizabeth opened the letter and to her still increasing wonder perceived an envelope containing two sheets of letterpaper written quite through in a very close hand it was dated from rosings at eight oclock in the morning and was as follows be not alarmed madam on receiving this letter by the apprehension of its containing any repetition of those sentiments or renewal of those offers which were last night so disgusting to you i write without any intention of paining you or humbling myself by dwelling on wishes which for the happiness of both cannot be too soon forgotten and the effort which the formation and the perusal of this letter must occasion should have been spared had not my character required it to be written and read
that his anger could be carried to such a point of inconceivable resentment as to refuse his daughter a privilege without which her marriage would scarcely seem valid exceeded all she could believe possible she was more alive to the disgrace which her want of new clothes must reflect on her daughters nuptials than to any sense of shame at her eloping and living with wickham a fortnight before they took place elizabeth was now most heartily sorry that she had from the distress of the moment been led to make mr darcy acquainted with their fears for her sister for since her marriage would so shortly give the proper termination to the elopement they might hope to conceal its unfavourable beginning from all those who were not immediately on the spot she had no fear of its spreading farther through his means there were few people on whose secrecy she would have more confidently depended but at the same time there was no one whose knowledge of a sisters frailty would have mortified her so muchnot however from any fear of disadvantage from it individually to herself for at any rate there seemed a gulf impassable between them had lydias marriage been concluded on the most honourable terms it was not to be supposed that mr darcy would connect himself with a family where to every other objection would now be added an alliance and relationship of the nearest kind with a man whom he so justly scorned from such a connection she could not wonder that he would shrink the wish of procuring her regard which she had assured herself of his feeling in derbyshire could not in rational expectation survive such a blow as this she was humbled she was grieved she repented though she hardly knew of what she became jealous of his esteem when she could no longer hope to be benefited by it she wanted to hear of him when there seemed the least chance of gaining intelligence she was convinced that she could have been happy with him when it was no longer likely they should meet what a triumph for him as she often thought could he know that the proposals which she had proudly spurned only four months ago would now have been most gladly and gratefully received he was as generous she doubted not as the most generous of his sex but while he was mortal there must be a triumph she began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man who in disposition and talents would most suit her his understanding and temper though unlike her own would have answered all her wishes it was an union that must have been to the advantage of both by her ease and liveliness his mind might have been softened his manners improved and from his judgement information and knowledge of the world she must have received benefit of greater importance but no such happy marriage could now teach the admiring multitude what connubial felicity really was
her astonishment and confusion were very great on his so sudden appearance she had not seen him before since his engagement became public and therefore not since his knowing her to be acquainted with it which with the consciousness of what she had been thinking of and what she had to tell him made her feel particularly uncomfortable for some minutes he too was much distressed and they sat down together in a most promising state of embarrassment whether he had asked her pardon for his intrusion on first coming into the room he could not recollect but determining to be on the safe side he made his apology in form as soon as he could say any thing after taking a chair jennings told me said he that you wished to speak with me at least i understood her soor i certainly should not have intruded on you in such a manner though at the same time i should have been extremely sorry to leave london without seeing you and your sister especially as it will most likely be some timeit is not probable that i should soon have the pleasure of meeting you again you would not have gone however said elinor recovering herself and determined to get over what she so much dreaded as soon as possible without receiving our good wishes even if we had not been able to give them in person i have something of consequence to inform you of which i was on the point of communicating by paper i am charged with a most agreeable office breathing rather faster than usual as she spoke  colonel brandon who was here only ten minutes ago has desired me to say that understanding you mean to take orders he has great pleasure in offering you the living of delaford now just vacant and only wishes it were more valuable allow me to congratulate you on having so respectable and welljudging a friend and to join in his wish that the livingit is about two hundred ayearwere much more considerable and such as might better enable you toas might be more than a temporary accommodation to yourselfsuch in short as might establish all your views of happiness what edward felt as he could not say it himself it cannot be expected that any one else should say for him he looked all the astonishment which such unexpected such unthoughtof information could not fail of exciting but he said only these two words colonel brandon yes continued elinor gathering more resolution as some of the worst was over colonel brandon means it as a testimony of his concern for what has lately passedfor the cruel situation in which the unjustifiable conduct of your family has placed youa concern which i am sure marianne myself and all your friends must share and likewise as a proof of his high esteem for your general character and his particular approbation of your behaviour on the present occasion the unkindness of your own relations has made you astonished to find friendship any where no replied he with sudden consciousness not to find it in you for i cannot be ignorant that to you to your goodness i owe it all i feel iti would express it if i couldbut as you well know i am no orator i do assure you that you owe it entirely at least almost entirely to your own merit and colonel brandons discernment of it i did not even know till i understood his design that the living was vacant nor had it ever occurred to me that he might have had such a living in his gift as a friend of mine of my family he may perhapsindeed i know he has still greater pleasure in bestowing it but upon my word you owe nothing to my solicitation truth obliged her to acknowledge some small share in the action but she was at the same time so unwilling to appear as the benefactress of edward that she acknowledged it with hesitation which probably contributed to fix that suspicion in his mind which had recently entered it
nor at any time by night or day could the mariners now step upon the deck unless ahab was before them either standing in his pivothole or exactly pacing the planks between two undeviating limitsthe mainmast and the mizen or else they saw him standing in the cabinscuttlehis living foot advanced upon the deck as if to step his hat slouched heavily over his eyes so that however motionless he stood however the days and nights were added on that he had not swung in his hammock yet hidden beneath that slouching hat they could never tell unerringly whether for all this his eyes were really closed at times or whether he was still intently scanning them no matter though he stood so in the scuttle for a whole hour on the stretch and the unheeded nightdamp gathered in beads of dew upon that stonecarved coat and hat the clothes that the night had wet the next days sunshine dried upon him and so day after day and night after night he went no more beneath the planks whatever he wanted from the cabin that thing he sent for he ate in the same open air that is his two only mealsbreakfast and dinner supper he never touched nor reaped his beard which darkly grew all gnarled as unearthed roots of trees blown over which still grow idly on at naked base though perished in the upper verdure but though his whole life was now become one watch on deck and though the parsees mystic watch was without intermission as his own yet these two never seemed to speakone man to the otherunless at long intervals some passing unmomentous matter made it necessary though such a potent spell seemed secretly to join the twain openly and to the awestruck crew they seemed polelike asunder if by day they chanced to speak one word by night dumb men were both so far as concerned the slightest verbal interchange at times for longest hours without a single hail they stood far parted in the starlight ahab in his scuttle the parsee by the mainmast but still fixedly gazing upon each other as if in the parsee ahab saw his forethrown shadow in ahab the parsee his abandoned substance and yet somehow did ahabin his own proper self as daily hourly and every instant commandingly revealed to his subordinatesahab seemed an independent lord the parsee but his slave still again both seemed yoked together and an unseen tyrant driving them the lean shade siding the solid rib for be this parsee what he may all rib and keel was solid ahab at the first faintest glimmering of the dawn his iron voice was heard from aftman the mastheads and all through the day till after sunset and after twilight the same voice every hour at the striking of the helmsmans bell was heardwhat dye see  but when three or four days had slided by after meeting the childrenseeking rachel and no spout had yet been seen the monomaniac old man seemed distrustful of his crews fidelity at least of nearly all except the pagan harpooneers he seemed to doubt even whether stubb and flask might not willingly overlook the sight he sought but if these suspicions were really his he sagaciously refrained from verbally expressing them however his actions might seem to hint them i will have the first sight of the whale myself he said and with his own hands he rigged a nest of basketed bowlines and sending a hand aloft with a single sheaved block to secure to the mainmast head he received the two ends of the downwardreeved rope and attaching one to his basket prepared a pin for the other end in order to fasten it at the rail this done with that end yet in his hand and standing beside the pin he looked round upon his crew sweeping from one to the other pausing his glance long upon daggoo queequeg tashtego but shunning fedallah and then settling his firm relying eye upon the chief mate saidtake the rope siri give it into thy hands starbuck  then arranging his person in the basket he gave the word for them to hoist him to his perch starbuck being the one who secured the rope at last and afterwards stood near it and thus with one hand clinging round the royal mast ahab gazed abroad upon the sea for miles and milesahead astern this side and thatwithin the wide expanded circle commanded at so great a height when in working with his hands at some lofty almost isolated place in the rigging which chances to afford no foothold the sailor at sea is hoisted up to that spot and sustained there by the rope under these circumstances its fastened end on deck is always given in strict charge to some one man who has the special watch of it
can any lead touch yonder floor any mast scrape yonder roof that the unconquerable captain in the soul should have such a craven mate give me something for a canethere that shivered lance will do upon mustering the company the parsee was not there cried stubbhe must have been caught in the black vomit wrench thee run all of ye above alow cabin forecastlefind himnot gonenot gone but quickly they returned to him with the tidings that the parsee was nowhere to be found aye sir said stubbcaught among the tangles of your linei thought i saw him dragging under what deathknell rings in it that old ahab shakes as if he were the belfry the forged iron men the white whalesno no noblistered fool all hands to the rigging of the boatscollect the oarsharpooneers ill ten times girdle the unmeasured globe yea and dive straight through it but ill slay him yet but for one single instant show thyself cried starbuck never never wilt thou capture him old manin jesus name no more of this thats worse than devils madness two days chased twice stove to splinters thy very leg once more snatched from under thee thy evil shadow goneall good angels mobbing thee with warnings   what more wouldst thou have shall we keep chasing this murderous fish till he swamps the last man shall we be dragged by him to the bottom of the sea  starbuck of late ive felt strangely moved to thee ever since that hour we both sawthou knowst what in one anothers eyes but in this matter of the whale be the front of thy face to me as the palm of this handa lipless unfeatured blank twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled ye see an old man cut down to the stump leaning on a shivered lance propped up on a lonely foot
it is this decapitated end of the head also which is at last elevated out of the water and retained in that position by the enormous cutting tackles whose hempen combinations on one side make quite a wilderness of ropes in that quarter thus much being said attend now i pray you to that marvellous andin this particular instancealmost fatal operation whereby the sperm whales great heidelburgh tun is tapped nimble as a cat tashtego mounts aloft and without altering his erect posture runs straight out upon the overhanging mainyardarm to the part where it exactly projects over the hoisted tun he has carried with him a light tackle called a whip consisting of only two parts travelling through a singlesheaved block securing this block so that it hangs down from the yardarm he swings one end of the rope till it is caught and firmly held by a hand on deck then handoverhand down the other part the indian drops through the air till dexterously he lands on the summit of the head therestill high elevated above the rest of the company to whom he vivaciously crieshe seems some turkish muezzin calling the good people to prayers from the top of a tower a shorthandled sharp spade being sent up to him he diligently searches for the proper place to begin breaking into the tun in this business he proceeds very heedfully like a treasurehunter in some old house sounding the walls to find where the gold is masoned in by the time this cautious search is over a stout ironbound bucket precisely like a wellbucket has been attached to one end of the whip while the other end being stretched across the deck is there held by two or three alert hands these last now hoist the bucket within grasp of the indian to whom another person has reached up a very long pole inserting this pole into the bucket tashtego downward guides the bucket into the tun till it entirely disappears then giving the word to the seamen at the whip up comes the bucket again all bubbling like a dairymaids pail of new milk carefully lowered from its height the fullfreighted vessel is caught by an appointed hand and quickly emptied into a large tub then remounting aloft it again goes through the same round until the deep cistern will yield no more towards the end tashtego has to ram his long pole harder and harder and deeper and deeper into the tun until some twenty feet of the pole have gone down now the people of the pequod had been baling some time in this way several tubs had been filled with the fragrant sperm when all at once a queer accident happened whether it was that tashtego that wild indian was so heedless and reckless as to let go for a moment his onehanded hold on the great cabled tackles suspending the head or whether the place where he stood was so treacherous and oozy or whether the evil one himself would have it to fall out so without stating his particular reasons how it was exactly there is no telling now but on a sudden as the eightieth or ninetieth bucket came suckingly upmy god poor tashtegolike the twin reciprocating bucket in a veritable well dropped headforemost down into this great tun of heidelburgh and with a horrible oily gurgling went clean out of sight cried daggoo who amid the general consternation first came to his senses and putting one foot into it so as the better to secure his slippery handhold on the whip itself the hoisters ran him high up to the top of the head almost before tashtego could have reached its interior bottom
but he is a pleasant good humoured fellow and has got the nicest little black bitch of a pointer i ever saw but marianne could no more satisfy him as to the colour of mr willoughbys pointer than he could describe to her the shades of his mind on this point sir john could give more certain intelligence and he told them that mr willoughby had no property of his own in the country that he resided there only while he was visiting the old lady at allenham court to whom he was related and whose possessions he was to inherit adding yes yes he is very well worth catching i can tell you miss dashwood he has a pretty little estate of his own in somersetshire besides and if i were you i would not give him up to my younger sister in spite of all this tumbling down hills miss marianne must not expect to have all the men to herself willoughby will be incommoded by the attempts of either of my daughters towards what you call catching him it is not an employment to which they have been brought up i am glad to find however from what you say that he is a respectable young man and one whose acquaintance will not be ineligible he is as good a sort of fellow i believe as ever lived repeated sir john i remember last christmas at a little hop at the park he danced from eight oclock till four without once sitting down cried marianne with sparkling eyes and with elegance with spirit that is what i like that is what a young man ought to be whatever be his pursuits his eagerness in them should know no moderation and leave him no sense of fatigue aye aye i see how it will be said sir john i see how it will be you will be setting your cap at him now and never think of poor brandon that is an expression sir john said marianne warmly which i particularly dislike i abhor every commonplace phrase by which wit is intended and setting ones cap at a man or making a conquest are the most odious of all their tendency is gross and illiberal and if their construction could ever be deemed clever time has long ago destroyed all its ingenuity sir john did not much understand this reproof but he laughed as heartily as if he did and then replied ay you will make conquests enough i dare say one way or other
as yet however the sperm whale scientific or poetic lives not complete in any literature far above all other hunted whales his is an unwritten life now the various species of whales need some sort of popular comprehensive classification if only an easy outline one for the present hereafter to be filled in all its departments by subsequent laborers as no better man advances to take this matter in hand i hereupon offer my own poor endeavors i promise nothing complete because any human thing supposed to be complete must for that very reason infallibly be faulty i shall not pretend to a minute anatomical description of the various species orin this place at leastto much of any description my object here is simply to project the draught of a systematization of cetology but it is a ponderous task no ordinary lettersorter in the postoffice is equal to it to grope down into the bottom of the sea after them to have ones hands among the unspeakable foundations ribs and very pelvis of the world this is a fearful thing what am i that i should essay to hook the nose of this leviathan but i have swam through libraries and sailed through oceans i have had to do with whales with these visible hands i am in earnest and i will try first the uncertain unsettled condition of this science of cetology is in the very vestibule attested by the fact that in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish  linnaeus declares i hereby separate the whales from the fish but of my own knowledge i know that down to the year  sharks and shad alewives and herring against linnaeuss express edict were still found dividing the possession of the same seas with the leviathan the grounds upon which linnaeus would fain have banished the whales from the waters he states as follows on account of their warm bilocular heart their lungs their movable eyelids their hollow ears penem intrantem feminam mammis lactantem and finally ex lege naturae jure meritoque i submitted all this to my friends simeon macey and charley coffin of nantucket both messmates of mine in a certain voyage and they united in the opinion that the reasons set forth were altogether insufficient be it known that waiving all argument i take the good old fashioned ground that the whale is a fish and call upon holy jonah to back me this fundamental thing settled the next point is in what internal respect does the whale differ from other fish but in brief they are these lungs and warm blood whereas all other fish are lungless and cold blooded next how shall we define the whale by his obvious externals so as conspicuously to label him for all time to come
he addressed her with easy civility and twisted his head into a bow which assured her as plainly as words could have done that he was exactly the coxcomb she had heard him described to be by lucy happy had it been for her if her regard for edward had depended less on his own merit than on the merit of his nearest relations for then his brothers bow must have given the finishing stroke to what the illhumour of his mother and sister would have begun but while she wondered at the difference of the two young men she did not find that the emptiness of conceit of the one put her out of all charity with the modesty and worth of the other why they were different robert exclaimed to her himself in the course of a quarter of an hours conversation for talking of his brother and lamenting the extreme gaucherie which he really believed kept him from mixing in proper society he candidly and generously attributed it much less to any natural deficiency than to the misfortune of a private education while he himself though probably without any particular any material superiority by nature merely from the advantage of a public school was as well fitted to mix in the world as any other man upon my soul he added i believe it is nothing more and so i often tell my mother when she is grieving about it my dear madam i always say to her you must make yourself easy the evil is now irremediable and it has been entirely your own doing why would you be persuaded by my uncle sir robert against your own judgment to place edward under private tuition at the most critical time of his life if you had only sent him to westminster as well as myself instead of sending him to mr  this is the way in which i always consider the matter and my mother is perfectly convinced of her error elinor would not oppose his opinion because whatever might be her general estimation of the advantage of a public school she could not think of edwards abode in mr you reside in devonshire i think was his next observation in a cottage near dawlish elinor set him right as to its situation and it seemed rather surprising to him that anybody could live in devonshire without living near dawlish he bestowed his hearty approbation however on their species of house for my own part said he i am excessively fond of a cottage there is always so much comfort so much elegance about them and i protest if i had any money to spare i should buy a little land and build one myself within a short distance of london where i might drive myself down at any time and collect a few friends about me and be happy i advise every body who is going to build to build a cottage my friend lord courtland came to me the other day on purpose to ask my advice and laid before me three different plans of bonomis my dear courtland said i immediately throwing them all into the fire do not adopt either of them but by all means build a cottage
and thus have these naked nantucketers these sea hermits issuing from their anthill in the sea overrun and conquered the watery world like so many alexanders parcelling out among them the atlantic pacific and indian oceans as the three pirate powers did poland let america add mexico to texas and pile cuba upon canada let the english overswarm all india and hang out their blazing banner from the sun two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the nantucketers for the sea is his he owns it as emperors own empires other seamen having but a right of way through it merchant ships are but extension bridges armed ones but floating forts even pirates and privateers though following the sea as highwaymen the road they but plunder other ships other fragments of the land like themselves without seeking to draw their living from the bottomless deep itself the nantucketer he alone resides and riots on the sea he alone in bible language goes down to it in ships to and fro ploughing it as his own special plantation there is his home there lies his business which a noahs flood would not interrupt though it overwhelmed all the millions in china he lives on the sea as prairie cocks in the prairie he hides among the waves he climbs them as chamois hunters climb the alps for years he knows not the land so that when he comes to it at last it smells like another world more strangely than the moon would to an earthsman with the landless gull that at sunset folds her wings and is rocked to sleep between billows so at nightfall the nantucketer out of sight of land furls his sails and lays him to his rest while under his very pillow rush herds of walruses and whales it was quite late in the evening when the little moss came snugly to anchor and queequeg and i went ashore so we could attend to no business that day at least none but a supper and a bed the landlord of the spouterinn had recommended us to his cousin hosea hussey of the try pots whom he asserted to be the proprietor of one of the best kept hotels in all nantucket and moreover he had assured us that cousin hosea as he called him was famous for his chowders in short he plainly hinted that we could not possibly do better than try potluck at the try pots but the directions he had given us about keeping a yellow warehouse on our starboard hand till we opened a white church to the larboard and then keeping that on the larboard hand till we made a corner three points to the starboard and that done then ask the first man we met where the place was these crooked directions of his very much puzzled us at first especially as at the outset queequeg insisted that the yellow warehouseour first point of departuremust be left on the larboard hand whereas i had understood peter coffin to say it was on the starboard however by dint of beating about a little in the dark and now and then knocking up a peaceable inhabitant to inquire the way we at last came to something which there was no mistaking two enormous wooden pots painted black and suspended by asses ears swung from the crosstrees of an old topmast planted in front of an old doorway the horns of the crosstrees were sawed off on the other side so that this old topmast looked not a little like a gallows perhaps i was over sensitive to such impressions at the time but i could not help staring at this gallows with a vague misgiving a sort of crick was in my neck as i gazed up to the two remaining horns yes two of them one for queequeg and one for me a coffin my innkeeper upon landing in my first whaling port tombstones staring at me in the whalemens chapel and here a gallows are these last throwing out oblique hints touching tophet
i hope marianne continued elinor you do not consider him as deficient in general taste indeed i think i may say that you cannot for your behaviour to him is perfectly cordial and if that were your opinion i am sure you could never be civil to him she would not wound the feelings of her sister on any account and yet to say what she did not believe was impossible at length she replied do not be offended elinor if my praise of him is not in every thing equal to your sense of his merits i have not had so many opportunities of estimating the minuter propensities of his mind his inclinations and tastes as you have but i have the highest opinion in the world of his goodness and sense i am sure replied elinor with a smile that his dearest friends could not be dissatisfied with such commendation as that i do not perceive how you could express yourself more warmly marianne was rejoiced to find her sister so easily pleased of his sense and his goodness continued elinor no one can i think be in doubt who has seen him often enough to engage him in unreserved conversation the excellence of his understanding and his principles can be concealed only by that shyness which too often keeps him silent you know enough of him to do justice to his solid worth but of his minuter propensities as you call them you have from peculiar circumstances been kept more ignorant than myself he and i have been at times thrown a good deal together while you have been wholly engrossed on the most affectionate principle by my mother i have seen a great deal of him have studied his sentiments and heard his opinion on subjects of literature and taste and upon the whole i venture to pronounce that his mind is wellinformed enjoyment of books exceedingly great his imagination lively his observation just and correct and his taste delicate and pure his abilities in every respect improve as much upon acquaintance as his manners and person at first sight his address is certainly not striking and his person can hardly be called handsome till the expression of his eyes which are uncommonly good and the general sweetness of his countenance is perceived at present i know him so well that i think him really handsome or at least almost so i shall very soon think him handsome elinor if i do not now when you tell me to love him as a brother i shall no more see imperfection in his face than i now do in his heart elinor started at this declaration and was sorry for the warmth she had been betrayed into in speaking of him
i sought the landlord and telling him i desired to be accommodated with a room received for answer that his house was fullnot a bed unoccupied but avast he added tapping his forehead you haint no objections to sharing a harpooneers blanket have ye i spose you are goin awhalin so youd better get used to that sort of thing i told him that i never liked to sleep two in a bed that if i should ever do so it would depend upon who the harpooneer might be and that if he the landlord really had no other place for me and the harpooneer was not decidedly objectionable why rather than wander further about a strange town on so bitter a night i would put up with the half of any decent mans blanket i sat down on an old wooden settle carved all over like a bench on the battery at one end a ruminating tar was still further adorning it with his jackknife stooping over and diligently working away at the space between his legs he was trying his hand at a ship under full sail but he didnt make much headway i thought at last some four or five of us were summoned to our meal in an adjoining room it was cold as icelandno fire at allthe landlord said he couldnt afford it nothing but two dismal tallow candles each in a winding sheet we were fain to button up our monkey jackets and hold to our lips cups of scalding tea with our half frozen fingers but the fare was of the most substantial kindnot only meat and potatoes but dumplings good heavens one young fellow in a green box coat addressed himself to these dumplings in a most direful manner my boy said the landlord youll have the nightmare to a dead sartainty landlord i whispered that aint the harpooneer is it oh no said he looking a sort of diabolically funny the harpooneer is a dark complexioned chap he never eats dumplings he donthe eats nothing but steaks and he likes em rare i could not help it but i began to feel suspicious of this dark complexioned harpooneer at any rate i made up my mind that if it so turned out that we should sleep together he must undress and get into bed before i did supper over the company went back to the barroom when knowing not what else to do with myself i resolved to spend the rest of the evening as a looker on
 roared radney pretending not to have heard the sailors talk  and with that the pump clanged like fifty fireengines the men tossed their hats off to it and ere long that peculiar gasping of the lungs was heard which denotes the fullest tension of lifes utmost energies quitting the pump at last with the rest of his band the lakeman went forward all panting and sat himself down on the windlass his face fiery red his eyes bloodshot and wiping the profuse sweat from his brow now what cozening fiend it was gentlemen that possessed radney to meddle with such a man in that corporeally exasperated state i know not but so it happened intolerably striding along the deck the mate commanded him to get a broom and sweep down the planks and also a shovel and remove some offensive matters consequent upon allowing a pig to run at large now gentlemen sweeping a ships deck at sea is a piece of household work which in all times but raging gales is regularly attended to every evening it has been known to be done in the case of ships actually foundering at the time such gentlemen is the inflexibility of seausages and the instinctive love of neatness in seamen some of whom would not willingly drown without first washing their faces but in all vessels this broom business is the prescriptive province of the boys if boys there be aboard besides it was the stronger men in the townho that had been divided into gangs taking turns at the pumps and being the most athletic seaman of them all steelkilt had been regularly assigned captain of one of the gangs consequently he should have been freed from any trivial business not connected with truly nautical duties such being the case with his comrades i mention all these particulars so that you may understand exactly how this affair stood between the two men but there was more than this the order about the shovel was almost as plainly meant to sting and insult steelkilt as though radney had spat in his face any man who has gone sailor in a whaleship will understand this and all this and doubtless much more the lakeman fully comprehended when the mate uttered his command but as he sat still for a moment and as he steadfastly looked into the mates malignant eye and perceived the stacks of powdercasks heaped up in him and the slowmatch silently burning along towards them as he instinctively saw all this that strange forbearance and unwillingness to stir up the deeper passionateness in any already ireful beinga repugnance most felt when felt at all by really valiant men even when aggrievedthis nameless phantom feeling gentlemen stole over steelkilt therefore in his ordinary tone only a little broken by the bodily exhaustion he was temporarily in he answered him saying that sweeping the deck was not his business and he would not do it and then without at all alluding to the shovel he pointed to three lads as the customary sweepers who not being billeted at the pumps had done little or nothing all day to this radney replied with an oath in a most domineering and outrageous manner unconditionally reiterating his command meanwhile advancing upon the still seated lakeman with an uplifted coopers club hammer which he had snatched from a cask near by heated and irritated as he was by his spasmodic toil at the pumps for all his first nameless feeling of forbearance the sweating steelkilt could but ill brook this bearing in the mate but somehow still smothering the conflagration within him without speaking he remained doggedly rooted to his seat till at last the incensed radney shook the hammer within a few inches of his face furiously commanding him to do his bidding steelkilt rose and slowly retreating round the windlass steadily followed by the mate with his menacing hammer deliberately repeated his intention not to obey seeing however that his forbearance had not the slightest effect by an awful and unspeakable intimation with his twisted hand he warned off the foolish and infatuated man but it was to no purpose and in this way the two went once slowly round the windlass when resolved at last no longer to retreat bethinking him that he had now forborne as much as comported with his humor the lakeman paused on the hatches and thus spoke to the officer   mr
yelled the seamen to daggoo but with one hand holding on to the heavy tackles so that if the head should drop he would still remain suspended the negro having cleared the foul line rammed down the bucket into the now collapsed well meaning that the buried harpooneer should grasp it and so be hoisted out in heavens name man cried stubb are you ramming home a cartridge there how will that help him jamming that ironbound bucket on top of his head almost in the same instant with a thunderboom the enormous mass dropped into the sea like niagaras tablerock into the whirlpool the suddenly relieved hull rolled away from it to far down her glittering copper and all caught their breath as half swingingnow over the sailors heads and now over the waterdaggoo through a thick mist of spray was dimly beheld clinging to the pendulous tackles while poor buriedalive tashtego was sinking utterly down to the bottom of the sea but hardly had the blinding vapour cleared away when a naked figure with a boardingsword in his hand was for one swift moment seen hovering over the bulwarks the next a loud splash announced that my brave queequeg had dived to the rescue one packed rush was made to the side and every eye counted every ripple as moment followed moment and no sign of either the sinker or the diver could be seen some hands now jumped into a boat alongside and pushed a little off from the ship cried daggoo all at once from his now quiet swinging perch overhead and looking further off from the side we saw an arm thrust upright from the blue waves a sight strange to see as an arm thrust forth from the grass over a grave cried daggoo again with a joyful shout and soon after queequeg was seen boldly striking out with one hand and with the other clutching the long hair of the indian drawn into the waiting boat they were quickly brought to the deck but tashtego was long in coming to and queequeg did not look very brisk why diving after the slowly descending head queequeg with his keen sword had made side lunges near its bottom so as to scuttle a large hole there then dropping his sword had thrust his long arm far inwards and upwards and so hauled out poor tash by the head he averred that upon first thrusting in for him a leg was presented but well knowing that that was not as it ought to be and might occasion great troublehe had thrust back the leg and by a dexterous heave and toss had wrought a somerset upon the indian so that with the next trial he came forth in the good old wayhead foremost as for the great head itself that was doing as well as could be expected and thus through the courage and great skill in obstetrics of queequeg the deliverance or rather delivery of tashtego was successfully accomplished in the teeth too of the most untoward and apparently hopeless impediments which is a lesson by no means to be forgotten midwifery should be taught in the same course with fencing and boxing riding and rowing i know that this queer adventure of the gayheaders will be sure to seem incredible to some landsmen though they themselves may have either seen or heard of some ones falling into a cistern ashore an accident which not seldom happens and with much less reason too than the indians considering the exceeding slipperiness of the curb of the sperm whales well but peradventure it may be sagaciously urged how is this we thought the tissued infiltrated head of the sperm whale was the lightest and most corky part about him and yet thou makest it sink in an element of a far greater specific gravity than itself not at all but i have ye for at the time poor tash fell in the case had been nearly emptied of its lighter contents leaving little but the dense tendinous wall of the wella double welded hammered substance as i have before said much heavier than the sea water and a lump of which sinks in it like lead almost
ahabs hat was never restored the wild hawk flew on and on with it far in advance of the prow and at last disappeared while from the point of that disappearance a minute black spot was dimly discerned falling from that vast height into the sea the intense pequod sailed on the rolling waves and days went by the lifebuoycoffin still lightly swung and another ship most miserably misnamed the delight was descried as she drew nigh all eyes were fixed upon her broad beams called shears which in some whalingships cross the quarterdeck at the height of eight or nine feet serving to carry the spare unrigged or disabled boats upon the strangers shears were beheld the shattered white ribs and some few splintered planks of what had once been a whaleboat but you now saw through this wreck as plainly as you see through the peeled halfunhinged and bleaching skeleton of a horse replied the hollowcheeked captain from his taffrail and with his trumpet he pointed to the wreck the harpoon is not yet forged that ever will do that answered the other sadly glancing upon a rounded hammock on the deck whose gathered sides some noiseless sailors were busy in sewing together and snatching perths levelled iron from the crotch ahab held it out exclaiminglook ye nantucketer here in this hand i hold his death tempered in blood and tempered by lightning are these barbs and i swear to temper them triply in that hot place behind the fin where the white whale most feels his accursed life  then god keep thee old manseest thou that pointing to the hammocki bury but one of five stout men who were alive only yesterday but were dead ere night only that one i bury the rest were buried before they died you sail upon their tomb place the plank then on the rail and lift the body so thenoh godadvancing towards the hammock with uplifted handsmay the resurrection and the life brace forward but the suddenly started pequod was not quick enough to escape the sound of the splash that the corpse soon made as it struck the sea not so quick indeed but that some of the flying bubbles might have sprinkled her hull with their ghostly baptism as ahab now glided from the dejected delight the strange lifebuoy hanging at the pequods stern came into conspicuous relief in vain oh ye strangers ye fly our sad burial ye but turn us your taffrail to show us your coffin the firmaments of air and sea were hardly separable in that allpervading azure only the pensive air was transparently pure and soft with a womans look and the robust and manlike sea heaved with long strong lingering swells as samsons chest in his sleep hither and thither on high glided the snowwhite wings of small unspeckled birds these were the gentle thoughts of the feminine air but to and fro in the deeps far down in the bottomless blue rushed mighty leviathans swordfish and sharks and these were the strong troubled murderous thinkings of the masculine sea but though thus contrasting within the contrast was only in shades and shadows without those two seemed one it was only the sex as it were that distinguished them aloft like a royal czar and king the sun seemed giving this gentle air to this bold and rolling sea even as bride to groom and at the girdling line of the horizon a soft and tremulous motionmost seen here at the equatordenoted the fond throbbing trust the loving alarms with which the poor bride gave her bosom away
now if to this consideration you superadd the official supremacy of a shipmaster then by inference you will derive the cause of that peculiarity of sealife just mentioned over his ivoryinlaid table ahab presided like a mute maned sealion on the white coral beach surrounded by his warlike but still deferential cubs in his own proper turn each officer waited to be served they were as little children before ahab and yet in ahab there seemed not to lurk the smallest social arrogance with one mind their intent eyes all fastened upon the old mans knife as he carved the chief dish before him i do not suppose that for the world they would have profaned that moment with the slightest observation even upon so neutral a topic as the weather and when reaching out his knife and fork between which the slice of beef was locked ahab thereby motioned starbucks plate towards him the mate received his meat as though receiving alms and cut it tenderly and a little started if perchance the knife grazed against the plate and chewed it noiselessly and swallowed it not without circumspection for like the coronation banquet at frankfort where the german emperor profoundly dines with the seven imperial electors so these cabin meals were somehow solemn meals eaten in awful silence and yet at table old ahab forbade not conversation only he himself was dumb what a relief it was to choking stubb when a rat made a sudden racket in the hold below and poor little flask he was the youngest son and little boy of this weary family party his were the shinbones of the saline beef his would have been the drumsticks for flask to have presumed to help himself this must have seemed to him tantamount to larceny in the first degree had he helped himself at that table doubtless never more would he have been able to hold his head up in this honest world nevertheless strange to say ahab never forbade him and had flask helped himself the chances were ahab had never so much as noticed it least of all did flask presume to help himself to butter whether he thought the owners of the ship denied it to him on account of its clotting his clear sunny complexion or whether he deemed that on so long a voyage in such marketless waters butter was at a premium and therefore was not for him a subaltern however it was flask alas flask was the last person down at the dinner and flask is the first man up for hereby flasks dinner was badly jammed in point of time starbuck and stubb both had the start of him and yet they also have the privilege of lounging in the rear if stubb even who is but a peg higher than flask happens to have but a small appetite and soon shows symptoms of concluding his repast then flask must bestir himself he will not get more than three mouthfuls that day for it is against holy usage for stubb to precede flask to the deck
if her sisters intended to walk on the downs she directly stole away towards the lanes if they talked of the valley she was as speedy in climbing the hills and could never be found when the others set off but at length she was secured by the exertions of elinor who greatly disapproved such continual seclusion they walked along the road through the valley and chiefly in silence for mariannes mind could not be controlled and elinor satisfied with gaining one point would not then attempt more beyond the entrance of the valley where the country though still rich was less wild and more open a long stretch of the road which they had travelled on first coming to barton lay before them and on reaching that point they stopped to look around them and examine a prospect which formed the distance of their view from the cottage from a spot which they had never happened to reach in any of their walks before amongst the objects in the scene they soon discovered an animated one it was a man on horseback riding towards them in a few minutes they could distinguish him to be a gentleman and in a moment afterwards marianne rapturously exclaimed it is he it is indeedi know it is and was hastening to meet him when elinor cried out indeed marianne i think you are mistaken the person is not tall enough for him and has not his air she walked eagerly on as she spoke and elinor to screen marianne from particularity as she felt almost certain of its not being willoughby quickened her pace and kept up with her they were soon within thirty yards of the gentleman marianne looked again her heart sunk within her and abruptly turning round she was hurrying back when the voices of both her sisters were raised to detain her a third almost as well known as willoughbys joined them in begging her to stop and she turned round with surprise to see and welcome edward ferrars he was the only person in the world who could at that moment be forgiven for not being willoughby the only one who could have gained a smile from her but she dispersed her tears to smile on him and in her sisters happiness forgot for a time her own disappointment he dismounted and giving his horse to his servant walked back with them to barton whither he was purposely coming to visit them he was welcomed by them all with great cordiality but especially by marianne who showed more warmth of regard in her reception of him than even elinor herself to marianne indeed the meeting between edward and her sister was but a continuation of that unaccountable coldness which she had often observed at norland in their mutual behaviour on edwards side more particularly there was a deficiency of all that a lover ought to look and say on such an occasion he was confused seemed scarcely sensible of pleasure in seeing them looked neither rapturous nor gay said little but what was forced from him by questions and distinguished elinor by no mark of affection she began almost to feel a dislike of edward and it ended as every feeling must end with her by carrying back her thoughts to willoughby whose manners formed a contrast sufficiently striking to those of his brother elect after a short silence which succeeded the first surprise and enquiries of meeting marianne asked edward if he came directly from london she repeated surprised at his being so long in the same county with elinor without seeing her before
elinor wished that the same forbearance could have extended towards herself but that was impossible and she was obliged to listen day after day to the indignation of them all a man of whom he had always had such reason to think well he did not believe there was a bolder rider in england he would not speak another word to him meet him where he might for all the world no not if it were to be by the side of barton covert and they were kept watching for two hours together it was only the last time they met that he had offered him one of follys puppies she was determined to drop his acquaintance immediately and she was very thankful that she had never been acquainted with him at all she wished with all her heart combe magna was not so near cleveland but it did not signify for it was a great deal too far off to visit she hated him so much that she was resolved never to mention his name again and she should tell everybody she saw how goodfornothing he was palmers sympathy was shewn in procuring all the particulars in her power of the approaching marriage and communicating them to elinor she could soon tell at what coachmakers the new carriage was building by what painter mr willoughbys portrait was drawn and at what warehouse miss greys clothes might be seen the calm and polite unconcern of lady middleton on the occasion was a happy relief to elinors spirits oppressed as they often were by the clamorous kindness of the others it was a great comfort to her to be sure of exciting no interest in one person at least among their circle of friends a great comfort to know that there was one who would meet her without feeling any curiosity after particulars or any anxiety for her sisters health every qualification is raised at times by the circumstances of the moment to more than its real value and she was sometimes worried down by officious condolence to rate goodbreeding as more indispensable to comfort than goodnature lady middleton expressed her sense of the affair about once every day or twice if the subject occurred very often by saying it is very shocking indeed and by the means of this continual though gentle vent was able not only to see the miss dashwoods from the first without the smallest emotion but very soon to see them without recollecting a word of the matter and having thus supported the dignity of her own sex and spoken her decided censure of what was wrong in the other she thought herself at liberty to attend to the interest of her own assemblies and therefore determined though rather against the opinion of sir john that as mrs willoughby would at once be a woman of elegance and fortune to leave her card with her as soon as she married colonel brandons delicate unobtrusive enquiries were never unwelcome to miss dashwood he had abundantly earned the privilege of intimate discussion of her sisters disappointment by the friendly zeal with which he had endeavoured to soften it and they always conversed with confidence his chief reward for the painful exertion of disclosing past sorrows and present humiliations was given in the pitying eye with which marianne sometimes observed him and the gentleness of her voice whenever though it did not often happen she was obliged or could oblige herself to speak to him
jennings who scrupled not to attribute the severity and danger of this attack to the many weeks of previous indisposition which mariannes disappointment had brought on elinor felt all the reasonableness of the idea and it gave fresh misery to her reflections about noon however she beganbut with a cautiona dread of disappointment which for some time kept her silent even to her friendto fancy to hope she could perceive a slight amendment in her sisters pulseshe waited watched and examined it again and againand at last with an agitation more difficult to bury under exterior calmness than all her foregoing distress ventured to communicate her hopes jennings though forced on examination to acknowledge a temporary revival tried to keep her young friend from indulging a thought of its continuanceand elinor conning over every injunction of distrust told herself likewise not to hope hope had already entered and feeling all its anxious flutter she bent over her sister to watchshe hardly knew for what half an hour passed away and the favourable symptom yet blessed her her breath her skin her lips all flattered elinor with signs of amendment and marianne fixed her eyes on her with a rational though languid gaze anxiety and hope now oppressed her in equal degrees and left her no moment of tranquillity till the arrival of mr harris at four oclockwhen his assurances his felicitations on a recovery in her sister even surpassing his expectation gave her confidence comfort and tears of joy marianne was in every respect materially better and he declared her entirely out of danger jennings perhaps satisfied with the partial justification of her forebodings which had been found in their late alarm allowed herself to trust in his judgment and admitted with unfeigned joy and soon with unequivocal cheerfulness the probability of an entire recovery her joy was of a different kind and led to any thing rather than to gaiety marianne restored to life health friends and to her doting mother was an idea to fill her heart with sensations of exquisite comfort and expand it in fervent gratitudebut it led to no outward demonstrations of joy no words no smiles all within elinors breast was satisfaction silent and strong she continued by the side of her sister with little intermission the whole afternoon calming every fear satisfying every inquiry of her enfeebled spirits supplying every succour and watching almost every look and every breath the possibility of a relapse would of course in some moments occur to remind her of what anxiety wasbut when she saw on her frequent and minute examination that every symptom of recovery continued and saw marianne at six oclock sink into a quiet steady and to all appearance comfortable sleep she silenced every doubt the time was now drawing on when colonel brandon might be expected back at ten oclock she trusted or at least not much later her mother would be relieved from the dreadful suspense in which she must now be travelling towards them how slow was the progress of time which yet kept them in ignorance at seven oclock leaving marianne still sweetly asleep she joined mrs
i asked him what might be his immediate purpose touching his future movements upon this i told him that whaling was my own design and informed him of my intention to sail out of nantucket as being the most promising port for an adventurous whaleman to embark from he at once resolved to accompany me to that island ship aboard the same vessel get into the same watch the same boat the same mess with me in short to share my every hap with both my hands in his boldly dip into the potluck of both worlds to all this i joyously assented for besides the affection i now felt for queequeg he was an experienced harpooneer and as such could not fail to be of great usefulness to one who like me was wholly ignorant of the mysteries of whaling though well acquainted with the sea as known to merchant seamen his story being ended with his pipes last dying puff queequeg embraced me pressed his forehead against mine and blowing out the light we rolled over from each other this way and that and very soon were sleeping next morning monday after disposing of the embalmed head to a barber for a block i settled my own and comrades bill using however my comrades money the grinning landlord as well as the boarders seemed amazingly tickled at the sudden friendship which had sprung up between me and queequegespecially as peter coffins cock and bull stories about him had previously so much alarmed me concerning the very person whom i now companied with we borrowed a wheelbarrow and embarking our things including my own poor carpetbag and queequegs canvas sack and hammock away we went down to the moss the little nantucket packet schooner moored at the wharf as we were going along the people stared not at queequeg so muchfor they were used to seeing cannibals like him in their streetsbut at seeing him and me upon such confidential terms but we heeded them not going along wheeling the barrow by turns and queequeg now and then stopping to adjust the sheath on his harpoon barbs i asked him why he carried such a troublesome thing with him ashore and whether all whaling ships did not find their own harpoons to this in substance he replied that though what i hinted was true enough yet he had a particular affection for his own harpoon because it was of assured stuff well tried in many a mortal combat and deeply intimate with the hearts of whales in short like many inland reapers and mowers who go into the farmers meadows armed with their own scythesthough in no wise obliged to furnish themeven so queequeg for his own private reasons preferred his own harpoon shifting the barrow from my hand to his he told me a funny story about the first wheelbarrow he had ever seen the owners of his ship it seems had lent him one in which to carry his heavy chest to his boarding house not to seem ignorant about the thingthough in truth he was entirely so concerning the precise way in which to manage the barrowqueequeg puts his chest upon it lashes it fast and then shoulders the barrow and marches up the wharf why said i queequeg you might have known better than that one would think the people of his island of rokovoko it seems at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl and this punchbowl always forms the great central ornament on the braided mat where the feast is held now a certain grand merchant ship once touched at rokovoko and its commanderfrom all accounts a very stately punctilious gentleman at least for a sea captainthis commander was invited to the wedding feast of queequegs sister a pretty young princess just turned of ten well when all the wedding guests were assembled at the brides bamboo cottage this captain marches in and being assigned the post of honour placed himself over against the punchbowl and between the high priest and his majesty the king queequegs father
having impulsively it is probable and perhaps somewhat prematurely revealed the prime but private purpose of the pequods voyage ahab was now entirely conscious that in so doing he had indirectly laid himself open to the unanswerable charge of usurpation and with perfect impunity both moral and legal his crew if so disposed and to that end competent could refuse all further obedience to him and even violently wrest from him the command from even the barely hinted imputation of usurpation and the possible consequences of such a suppressed impression gaining ground ahab must of course have been most anxious to protect himself that protection could only consist in his own predominating brain and heart and hand backed by a heedful closely calculating attention to every minute atmospheric influence which it was possible for his crew to be subjected to for all these reasons then and others perhaps too analytic to be verbally developed here ahab plainly saw that he must still in a good degree continue true to the natural nominal purpose of the pequods voyage observe all customary usages and not only that but force himself to evince all his well known passionate interest in the general pursuit of his profession be all this as it may his voice was now often heard hailing the three mastheads and admonishing them to keep a bright lookout and not omit reporting even a porpoise it was a cloudy sultry afternoon the seamen were lazily lounging about the decks or vacantly gazing over into the leadcoloured waters queequeg and i were mildly employed weaving what is called a swordmat for an additional lashing to our boat so still and subdued and yet somehow preluding was all the scene and such an incantation of reverie lurked in the air that each silent sailor seemed resolved into his own invisible self i was the attendant or page of queequeg while busy at the mat as i kept passing and repassing the filling or woof of marline between the long yarns of the warp using my own hand for the shuttle and as queequeg standing sideways ever and anon slid his heavy oaken sword between the threads and idly looking off upon the water carelessly and unthinkingly drove home every yarn i say so strange a dreaminess did there then reign all over the ship and all over the sea only broken by the intermitting dull sound of the sword that it seemed as if this were the loom of time and i myself were a shuttle mechanically weaving and weaving away at the fates there lay the fixed threads of the warp subject to but one single ever returning unchanging vibration and that vibration merely enough to admit of the crosswise interblending of other threads with its own this warp seemed necessity and here thought i with my own hand i ply my own shuttle and weave my own destiny into these unalterable threads meantime queequegs impulsive indifferent sword sometimes hitting the woof slantingly or crookedly or strongly or weakly as the case might be and by this difference in the concluding blow producing a corresponding contrast in the final aspect of the completed fabric this savages sword thought i which thus finally shapes and fashions both warp and woof this easy indifferent sword must be chanceaye chance free will and necessitynowise incompatibleall interweavingly working together the straight warp of necessity not to be swerved from its ultimate courseits every alternating vibration indeed only tending to that free will still free to ply her shuttle between given threads and chance though restrained in its play within the right lines of necessity and sideways in its motions directed by free will though thus prescribed to by both chance by turns rules either and has the last featuring blow at events thus we were weaving and weaving away when i started at a sound so strange long drawn and musically wild and unearthly that the ball of free will dropped from my hand and i stood gazing up at the clouds whence that voice dropped like a wing high aloft in the crosstrees was that mad gayheader tashtego his body was reaching eagerly forward his hand stretched out like a wand and at brief sudden intervals he continued his cries to be sure the same sound was that very moment perhaps being heard all over the seas from hundreds of whalemens lookouts perched as high in the air but from few of those lungs could that accustomed old cry have derived such a marvellous cadence as from tashtego the indians as he stood hovering over you half suspended in air so wildly and eagerly peering towards the horizon you would have thought him some prophet or seer beholding the shadows of fate and by those wild cries announcing their coming the sperm whale blows as a clock ticks with the same undeviating and reliable uniformity
collins was punctual to his time and was received with great politeness by the whole family bennet indeed said little but the ladies were ready enough to talk and mr collins seemed neither in need of encouragement nor inclined to be silent himself he was a tall heavylooking young man of fiveandtwenty his air was grave and stately and his manners were very formal he had not been long seated before he complimented mrs bennet on having so fine a family of daughters said he had heard much of their beauty but that in this instance fame had fallen short of the truth and added that he did not doubt her seeing them all in due time disposed of in marriage this gallantry was not much to the taste of some of his hearers but mrs bennet who quarreled with no compliments answered most readily you are very kind i am sure and i wish with all my heart it may prove so for else they will be destitute enough it is a grievous affair to my poor girls you must confess not that i mean to find fault with you for such things i know are all chance in this world there is no knowing how estates will go when once they come to be entailed i am very sensible madam of the hardship to my fair cousins and could say much on the subject but that i am cautious of appearing forward and precipitate but i can assure the young ladies that i come prepared to admire them at present i will not say more but perhaps when we are better acquainted he was interrupted by a summons to dinner and the girls smiled on each other the hall the diningroom and all its furniture were examined and praised and his commendation of everything would have touched mrs bennets heart but for the mortifying supposition of his viewing it all as his own future property the dinner too in its turn was highly admired and he begged to know to which of his fair cousins the excellency of its cooking was owing bennet who assured him with some asperity that they were very well able to keep a good cook and that her daughters had nothing to do in the kitchen
she was not of so ungovernable a temper as lydia and removed from the influence of lydias example she became by proper attention and management less irritable less ignorant and less insipid from the further disadvantage of lydias society she was of course carefully kept and though mrs wickham frequently invited her to come and stay with her with the promise of balls and young men her father would never consent to her going mary was the only daughter who remained at home and she was necessarily drawn from the pursuit of accomplishments by mrs mary was obliged to mix more with the world but she could still moralize over every morning visit and as she was no longer mortified by comparisons between her sisters beauty and her own it was suspected by her father that she submitted to the change without much reluctance as for wickham and lydia their characters suffered no revolution from the marriage of her sisters he bore with philosophy the conviction that elizabeth must now become acquainted with whatever of his ingratitude and falsehood had before been unknown to her and in spite of every thing was not wholly without hope that darcy might yet be prevailed on to make his fortune the congratulatory letter which elizabeth received from lydia on her marriage explained to her that by his wife at least if not by himself such a hope was cherished the letter was to this effect my dear lizzy   i wish you joy darcy half as well as i do my dear wickham you must be very happy it is a great comfort to have you so rich and when you have nothing else to do i hope you will think of us i am sure wickham would like a place at court very much and i do not think we shall have quite money enough to live upon without some help any place would do of about three or four hundred a year but however do not speak to mr as it happened that elizabeth had much rather not she endeavoured in her answer to put an end to every entreaty and expectation of the kind such relief however as it was in her power to afford by the practice of what might be called economy in her own private expences she frequently sent them it had always been evident to her that such an income as theirs under the direction of two persons so extravagant in their wants and heedless of the future must be very insufficient to their support and whenever they changed their quarters either jane or herself were sure of being applied to for some little assistance towards discharging their bills their manner of living even when the restoration of peace dismissed them to a home was unsettled in the extreme they were always moving from place to place in quest of a cheap situation and always spending more than they ought his affection for her soon sunk into indifference hers lasted a little longer and in spite of her youth and her manners she retained all the claims to reputation which her marriage had given her though darcy could never receive him at pemberley yet for elizabeths sake he assisted him further in his profession
lady catherine seemed quite astonished at not receiving a direct answer and elizabeth suspected herself to be the first creature who had ever dared to trifle with so much dignified impertinence you cannot be more than twenty i am sure therefore you need not conceal your age when the gentlemen had joined them and tea was over the cardtables were placed collins sat down to quadrille and as miss de bourgh chose to play at cassino the two girls had the honour of assisting mrs scarcely a syllable was uttered that did not relate to the game except when mrs jenkinson expressed her fears of miss de bourghs being too hot or too cold or having too much or too little light lady catherine was generally speakingstating the mistakes of the three others or relating some anecdote of herself collins was employed in agreeing to everything her ladyship said thanking her for every fish he won and apologising if he thought he won too many he was storing his memory with anecdotes and noble names when lady catherine and her daughter had played as long as they chose the tables were broken up the carriage was offered to mrs collins gratefully accepted and immediately ordered the party then gathered round the fire to hear lady catherine determine what weather they were to have on the morrow from these instructions they were summoned by the arrival of the coach and with many speeches of thankfulness on mr collinss side and as many bows on sir williams they departed as soon as they had driven from the door elizabeth was called on by her cousin to give her opinion of all that she had seen at rosings which for charlottes sake she made more favourable than it really was but her commendation though costing her some trouble could by no means satisfy mr collins and he was very soon obliged to take her ladyships praise into his own hands chapter  sir william stayed only a week at hunsford but his visit was long enough to convince him of his daughters being most comfortably settled and of her possessing such a husband and such a neighbour as were not often met with collins devoted his morning to driving him out in his gig and showing him the country but when he went away the whole family returned to their usual employments and elizabeth was thankful to find that they did not see more of her cousin by the alteration for the chief of the time between breakfast and dinner was now passed by him either at work in the garden or in reading and writing and looking out of the window in his own bookroom which fronted the road elizabeth had at first rather wondered that charlotte should not prefer the diningparlour for common use it was a better sized room and had a more pleasant aspect but she soon saw that her friend had an excellent reason for what she did for mr
they must lead somewhereto something else than common land more palmy than the palms the white whale goes that way look to windward then the better if the bitterer quarter theres the difference now between mans old age and matters but aye old mast we both grow old together sound in our hulls though are we not my ship by heaven this dead wood has the better of my live flesh every way i cant compare with it and ive known some ships made of dead trees outlast the lives of men made of the most vital stuff of vital fathers he should still go before me my pilot and yet to be seen again will i have eyes at the bottom of the sea supposing i descend those endless stairs and all night ive been sailing from him wherever he did sink to aye aye like many more thou toldst direful truth as touching thyself o parsee but ahab there thy shot fell short goodbye mastheadkeep a good eye upon the whale the while im gone well talk tomorrow nay tonight when the white whale lies down there tied by head and tail he gave the word and still gazing round him was steadily lowered through the cloven blue air to the deck in due time the boats were lowered but as standing in his shallops stern ahab just hovered upon the point of the descent he waved to the matewho held one of the tackleropes on deckand bade him pause for the third time my souls ship starts upon this voyage starbuck some ships sail from their ports and ever afterwards are missing starbuck some men die at ebb tide some at low water some at the full of the floodand i feel now like a billow thats all one crested comb starbuck their hands met their eyes fastened starbucks tears the glue see its a brave man that weeps how great the agony of the persuasion then in an instant the boat was pulling round close under the stern
the expectation of seeing her however was enough to make her interested in the engagement for though she could now meet edwards mother without that strong anxiety which had once promised to attend such an introduction though she could now see her with perfect indifference as to her opinion of herself her desire of being in company with mrs ferrars her curiosity to know what she was like was as lively as ever the interest with which she thus anticipated the party was soon afterwards increased more powerfully than pleasantly by her hearing that the miss steeles were also to be at it so well had they recommended themselves to lady middleton so agreeable had their assiduities made them to her that though lucy was certainly not so elegant and her sister not even genteel she was as ready as sir john to ask them to spend a week or two in conduit street and it happened to be particularly convenient to the miss steeles as soon as the dashwoods invitation was known that their visit should begin a few days before the party took place john dashwood as the nieces of the gentleman who for many years had had the care of her brother might not have done much however towards procuring them seats at her table but as lady middletons guests they must be welcome and lucy who had long wanted to be personally known to the family to have a nearer view of their characters and her own difficulties and to have an opportunity of endeavouring to please them had seldom been happier in her life than she was on receiving mrs she began immediately to determine that edward who lived with his mother must be asked as his mother was to a party given by his sister and to see him for the first time after all that passed in the company of lucy these apprehensions perhaps were not founded entirely on reason and certainly not at all on truth they were relieved however not by her own recollection but by the good will of lucy who believed herself to be inflicting a severe disappointment when she told her that edward certainly would not be in harley street on tuesday and even hoped to be carrying the pain still farther by persuading her that he was kept away by the extreme affection for herself which he could not conceal when they were together the important tuesday came that was to introduce the two young ladies to this formidable motherinlaw said lucy as they walked up the stairs togetherfor the middletons arrived so directly after mrs jennings that they all followed the servant at the same timethere is nobody here but you that can feel for me in a moment i shall see the person that all my happiness depends onthat is to be my mother  elinor could have given her immediate relief by suggesting the possibility of its being miss mortons mother rather than her own whom they were about to behold but instead of doing that she assured her and with great sincerity that she did pity herto the utter amazement of lucy who though really uncomfortable herself hoped at least to be an object of irrepressible envy to elinor ferrars was a little thin woman upright even to formality in her figure and serious even to sourness in her aspect her complexion was sallow and her features small without beauty and naturally without expression but a lucky contraction of the brow had rescued her countenance from the disgrace of insipidity by giving it the strong characters of pride and ill nature she was not a woman of many words for unlike people in general she proportioned them to the number of her ideas and of the few syllables that did escape her not one fell to the share of miss dashwood whom she eyed with the spirited determination of disliking her at all events elinor could not now be made unhappy by this behaviour  a few months ago it would have hurt her exceedingly but it was not in mrs ferrars power to distress her by it nowand the difference of her manners to the miss steeles a difference which seemed purposely made to humble her more only amused her she could not but smile to see the graciousness of both mother and daughter towards the very person for lucy was particularly distinguishedwhom of all others had they known as much as she did they would have been most anxious to mortify while she herself who had comparatively no power to wound them sat pointedly slighted by both
my regard for her for yourself for your motherwill you allow me to prove it by relating some circumstances which nothing but a very sincere regardnothing but an earnest desire of being usefuli think i am justifiedthough where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that i am right is there not some reason to fear i may be wrong your telling it will be the greatest act of friendship that can be shewn marianne my gratitude will be insured immediately by any information tending to that end and hers must be gained by it in time you shall and to be brief when i quitted barton last octoberbut this will give you no ideai must go farther back you will find me a very awkward narrator miss dashwood i hardly know where to begin a short account of myself i believe will be necessary and it shall be a short one on such a subject sighing heavily can i have little temptation to be diffuse he stopt a moment for recollection and then with another sigh went on you have probably entirely forgotten a conversationit is not to be supposed that it could make any impression on youa conversation between us one evening at barton parkit was the evening of a dancein which i alluded to a lady i had once known as resembling in some measure your sister marianne he looked pleased by this remembrance and added if i am not deceived by the uncertainty the partiality of tender recollection there is a very strong resemblance between them as well in mind as person the same warmth of heart the same eagerness of fancy and spirits this lady was one of my nearest relations an orphan from her infancy and under the guardianship of my father our ages were nearly the same and from our earliest years we were playfellows and friends i cannot remember the time when i did not love eliza and my affection for her as we grew up was such as perhaps judging from my present forlorn and cheerless gravity you might think me incapable of having ever felt hers for me was i believe fervent as the attachment of your sister to mr willoughby and it was though from a different cause no less unfortunate she was marriedmarried against her inclination to my brother her fortune was large and our family estate much encumbered and this i fear is all that can be said for the conduct of one who was at once her uncle and guardian my brother did not deserve her he did not even love her
had miss bingley known what pain she was then giving her beloved friend she undoubtedly would have refrained from the hint but she had merely intended to discompose elizabeth by bringing forward the idea of a man to whom she believed her partial to make her betray a sensibility which might injure her in darcys opinion and perhaps to remind the latter of all the follies and absurdities by which some part of her family were connected with that corps not a syllable had ever reached her of miss darcys meditated elopement to no creature had it been revealed where secrecy was possible except to elizabeth and from all bingleys connections her brother was particularly anxious to conceal it from the very wish which elizabeth had long ago attributed to him of their becoming hereafter her own he had certainly formed such a plan and without meaning that it should affect his endeavour to separate him from miss bennet it is probable that it might add something to his lively concern for the welfare of his friend elizabeths collected behaviour however soon quieted his emotion and as miss bingley vexed and disappointed dared not approach nearer to wickham georgiana also recovered in time though not enough to be able to speak any more her brother whose eye she feared to meet scarcely recollected her interest in the affair and the very circumstance which had been designed to turn his thoughts from elizabeth seemed to have fixed them on her more and more cheerfully their visit did not continue long after the question and answer above mentioned and while mr darcy was attending them to their carriage miss bingley was venting her feelings in criticisms on elizabeths person behaviour and dress her brothers recommendation was enough to ensure her favour his judgement could not err and he had spoken in such terms of elizabeth as to leave georgiana without the power of finding her otherwise than lovely and amiable when darcy returned to the saloon miss bingley could not help repeating to him some part of what she had been saying to his sister how very ill miss eliza bennet looks this morning mr darcy she cried i never in my life saw anyone so much altered as she is since the winter louisa and i were agreeing that we should not have known her again darcy might have liked such an address he contented himself with coolly replying that he perceived no other alteration than her being rather tanned no miraculous consequence of travelling in the summer for my own part she rejoined i must confess that i never could see any beauty in her her face is too thin her complexion has no brilliancy and her features are not at all handsome her nose wants characterthere is nothing marked in its lines her teeth are tolerable but not out of the common way and as for her eyes which have sometimes been called so fine i could never see anything extraordinary in them they have a sharp shrewish look which i do not like at all and in her air altogether there is a selfsufficiency without fashion which is intolerable
chapter  as elinor and marianne were walking together the next morning the latter communicated a piece of news to her sister which in spite of all that she knew before of mariannes imprudence and want of thought surprised her by its extravagant testimony of both marianne told her with the greatest delight that willoughby had given her a horse one that he had bred himself on his estate in somersetshire and which was exactly calculated to carry a woman without considering that it was not in her mothers plan to keep any horse that if she were to alter her resolution in favour of this gift she must buy another for the servant and keep a servant to ride it and after all build a stable to receive them she had accepted the present without hesitation and told her sister of it in raptures he intends to send his groom into somersetshire immediately for it she added and when it arrives we will ride every day imagine to yourself my dear elinor the delight of a gallop on some of these downs most unwilling was she to awaken from such a dream of felicity to comprehend all the unhappy truths which attended the affair and for some time she refused to submit to them as to an additional servant the expense would be a trifle mama she was sure would never object to it and any horse would do for him he might always get one at the park as to a stable the merest shed would be sufficient elinor then ventured to doubt the propriety of her receiving such a present from a man so little or at least so lately known to her you are mistaken elinor said she warmly in supposing i know very little of willoughby i have not known him long indeed but i am much better acquainted with him than i am with any other creature in the world except yourself and mama it is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacyit is disposition alone seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other and seven days are more than enough for others i should hold myself guilty of greater impropriety in accepting a horse from my brother than from willoughby of john i know very little though we have lived together for years but of willoughby my judgment has long been formed elinor thought it wisest to touch that point no more opposition on so tender a subject would only attach her the more to her own opinion but by an appeal to her affection for her mother by representing the inconveniences which that indulgent mother must draw on herself if as would probably be the case she consented to this increase of establishment marianne was shortly subdued and she promised not to tempt her mother to such imprudent kindness by mentioning the offer and to tell willoughby when she saw him next that it must be declined she was faithful to her word and when willoughby called at the cottage the same day elinor heard her express her disappointment to him in a low voice on being obliged to forego the acceptance of his present the reasons for this alteration were at the same time related and they were such as to make further entreaty on his side impossible his concern however was very apparent and after expressing it with earnestness he added in the same low voicebut marianne the horse is still yours though you cannot use it now
she will be more hurt by it and on the same principle will forgive him much sooner in what state the affair stood at present between them edward knew not for no communication with any of his family had yet been attempted by him he had quitted oxford within four and twenty hours after lucys letter arrived and with only one object before him the nearest road to barton had had no leisure to form any scheme of conduct with which that road did not hold the most intimate connection he could do nothing till he were assured of his fate with miss dashwood and by his rapidity in seeking that fate it is to be supposed in spite of the jealousy with which he had once thought of colonel brandon in spite of the modesty with which he rated his own deserts and the politeness with which he talked of his doubts he did not upon the whole expect a very cruel reception it was his business however to say that he did and he said it very prettily what he might say on the subject a twelvemonth after must be referred to the imagination of husbands and wives that lucy had certainly meant to deceive to go off with a flourish of malice against him in her message by thomas was perfectly clear to elinor and edward himself now thoroughly enlightened on her character had no scruple in believing her capable of the utmost meanness of wanton illnature though his eyes had been long opened even before his acquaintance with elinor began to her ignorance and a want of liberality in some of her opinionsthey had been equally imputed by him to her want of education and till her last letter reached him he had always believed her to be a welldisposed goodhearted girl and thoroughly attached to himself nothing but such a persuasion could have prevented his putting an end to an engagement which long before the discovery of it laid him open to his mothers anger had been a continual source of disquiet and regret to him i thought it my duty said he independent of my feelings to give her the option of continuing the engagement or not when i was renounced by my mother and stood to all appearance without a friend in the world to assist me in such a situation as that where there seemed nothing to tempt the avarice or the vanity of any living creature how could i suppose when she so earnestly so warmly insisted on sharing my fate whatever it might be that any thing but the most disinterested affection was her inducement and even now i cannot comprehend on what motive she acted or what fancied advantage it could be to her to be fettered to a man for whom she had not the smallest regard and who had only two thousand pounds in the world she could not foresee that colonel brandon would give me a living no but she might suppose that something would occur in your favour that your own family might in time relent and at any rate she lost nothing by continuing the engagement for she has proved that it fettered neither her inclination nor her actions the connection was certainly a respectable one and probably gained her consideration among her friends and if nothing more advantageous occurred it would be better for her to marry you than be single edward was of course immediately convinced that nothing could have been more natural than lucys conduct nor more selfevident than the motive of it elinor scolded him harshly as ladies always scold the imprudence which compliments themselves for having spent so much time with them at norland when he must have felt his own inconstancy your behaviour was certainly very wrong said she becauseto say nothing of my own conviction our relations were all led away by it to fancy and expect what as you were then situated could never be he could only plead an ignorance of his own heart and a mistaken confidence in the force of his engagement
it is a quiet noonscene among the isles of the pacific a french whaler anchored inshore in a calm and lazily taking water on board the loosened sails of the ship and the long leaves of the palms in the background both drooping together in the breezeless air the effect is very fine when considered with reference to its presenting the hardy fishermen under one of their few aspects of oriental repose the other engraving is quite a different affair the ship hoveto upon the open sea and in the very heart of the leviathanic life with a right whale alongside the vessel in the act of cuttingin hove over to the monster as if to a quay and a boat hurriedly pushing off from this scene of activity is about giving chase to whales in the distance the harpoons and lances lie levelled for use three oarsmen are just setting the mast in its hole while from a sudden roll of the sea the little craft stands halferect out of the water like a rearing horse from the ship the smoke of the torments of the boiling whale is going up like the smoke over a village of smithies and to windward a black cloud rising up with earnest of squalls and rains seems to quicken the activity of the excited seamen of whales in paint in teeth in wood in sheetiron in stone in mountains in stars on towerhill as you go down to the london docks you may have seen a crippled beggar or kedger as the sailors say holding a painted board before him representing the tragic scene in which he lost his leg there are three whales and three boats and one of the boats presumed to contain the missing leg in all its original integrity is being crunched by the jaws of the foremost whale any time these ten years they tell me has that man held up that picture and exhibited that stump to an incredulous world his three whales are as good whales as were ever published in wapping at any rate and his stump as unquestionable a stump as any you will find in the western clearings but though for ever mounted on that stump never a stumpspeech does the poor whaleman make but with downcast eyes stands ruefully contemplating his own amputation throughout the pacific and also in nantucket and new bedford and sag harbor you will come across lively sketches of whales and whalingscenes graven by the fishermen themselves on sperm whaleteeth or ladies busks wrought out of the right whalebone and other like skrimshander articles as the whalemen call the numerous little ingenious contrivances they elaborately carve out of the rough material in their hours of ocean leisure some of them have little boxes of dentisticallooking implements specially intended for the skrimshandering business but in general they toil with their jackknives alone and with that almost omnipotent tool of the sailor they will turn you out anything you please in the way of a mariners fancy long exile from christendom and civilization inevitably restores a man to that condition in which god placed him i your true whalehunter is as much a savage as an iroquois i myself am a savage owning no allegiance but to the king of the cannibals and ready at any moment to rebel against him now one of the peculiar characteristics of the savage in his domestic hours is his wonderful patience of industry an ancient hawaiian warclub or spearpaddle in its full multiplicity and elaboration of carving is as great a trophy of human perseverance as a latin lexicon for with but a bit of broken seashell or a sharks tooth that miraculous intricacy of wooden network has been achieved and it has cost steady years of steady application
ferrarsvery prettyand without regarding them at all returned them to her daughter perhaps fanny thought for a moment that her mother had been quite rude enoughfor colouring a little she immediately said they are very pretty maamant they but then again the dread of having been too civil too encouraging herself probably came over her for she presently added do you not think they are something in miss mortons style of painting maam ferrars and such illtimed praise of another at elinors expense though she had not any notion of what was principally meant by it provoked her immediately to say with warmth this is admiration of a very particular kind and so saying she took the screens out of her sisterinlaws hands to admire them herself as they ought to be admired ferrars looked exceedingly angry and drawing herself up more stiffly than ever pronounced in retort this bitter philippic miss morton is lord mortons daughter fanny looked very angry too and her husband was all in a fright at his sisters audacity elinor was much more hurt by mariannes warmth than she had been by what produced it but colonel brandons eyes as they were fixed on marianne declared that he noticed only what was amiable in it the affectionate heart which could not bear to see a sister slighted in the smallest point ferrarss general behaviour to her sister seemed to her to foretell such difficulties and distresses to elinor as her own wounded heart taught her to think of with horror and urged by a strong impulse of affectionate sensibility she moved after a moment to her sisters chair and putting one arm round her neck and one cheek close to hers said in a low but eager voice dear dear elinor dont mind them she could say no more her spirits were quite overcome and hiding her face on elinors shoulder she burst into tears every bodys attention was called and almost every body was concerned colonel brandon rose up and went to them without knowing what he did poor dear immediately gave her her salts and sir john felt so desperately enraged against the author of this nervous distress that he instantly changed his seat to one close by lucy steele and gave her in a whisper a brief account of the whole shocking affair in a few minutes however marianne was recovered enough to put an end to the bustle and sit down among the rest though her spirits retained the impression of what had passed the whole evening said her brother to colonel brandon in a low voice as soon as he could secure his attention she has not such good health as her sistershe is very nervousshe has not elinors constitutionand one must allow that there is something very trying to a young woman who has been a beauty in the loss of her personal attractions you would not think it perhaps but marianne was remarkably handsome a few months ago quite as handsome as elinor  she had found in her every thing that could tend to make a farther connection between the families undesirable  she had seen enough of her pride her meanness and her determined prejudice against herself to comprehend all the difficulties that must have perplexed the engagement and retarded the marriage of edward and herself had he been otherwise freeand she had seen almost enough to be thankful for her own sake that one greater obstacle preserved her from suffering under any other of mrs ferrarss creation preserved her from all dependence upon her caprice or any solicitude for her good opinion or at least if she did not bring herself quite to rejoice in edwards being fettered to lucy she determined that had lucy been more amiable she ought to have rejoiced
she is a monstrous lucky girl to get him upon my honour not but that he is much more lucky in getting her because she is so very handsome and agreeable that nothing can be good enough for her however i dont think her hardly at all handsomer than you i assure you for i think you both excessively pretty and so does mr palmer too i am sure though we could not get him to own it last night palmers information respecting willoughby was not very material but any testimony in his favour however small was pleasing to her i am so glad we are got acquainted at last continued charlotte it is so delightful that you should live at the cottage and i am so glad your sister is going to be well married  you have been long acquainted with colonel brandon have not you i believe she added in a low voice he would have been very glad to have had me if he could but mama did not think the match good enough for me otherwise sir john would have mentioned it to the colonel and we should have been married immediately did not colonel brandon know of sir johns proposal to your mother before it was made oh no but if mama had not objected to it i dare say he would have liked it of all things he had not seen me then above twice for it was before i left school chapter  the palmers returned to cleveland the next day and the two families at barton were again left to entertain each other but this did not last long elinor had hardly got their last visitors out of her head had hardly done wondering at charlottes being so happy without a cause at mr palmers acting so simply with good abilities and at the strange unsuitableness which often existed between husband and wife before sir johns and mrs jenningss active zeal in the cause of society procured her some other new acquaintance to see and observe in a mornings excursion to exeter they had met with two young ladies whom mrs jennings had the satisfaction of discovering to be her relations and this was enough for sir john to invite them directly to the park as soon as their present engagements at exeter were over their engagements at exeter instantly gave way before such an invitation and lady middleton was thrown into no little alarm on the return of sir john by hearing that she was very soon to receive a visit from two girls whom she had never seen in her life and of whose elegancewhose tolerable gentility even she could have no proof for the assurances of her husband and mother on that subject went for nothing at all
had they fixed on any other man it would have been nothing but his perfect indifference and your pointed dislike make it so delightfully absurd nay when i read a letter of his i cannot help giving him the preference even over wickham much as i value the impudence and hypocrisy of my soninlaw and pray lizzy what said lady catherine about this report to this question his daughter replied only with a laugh and as it had been asked without the least suspicion she was not distressed by his repeating it elizabeth had never been more at a loss to make her feelings appear what they were not it was necessary to laugh when she would rather have cried her father had most cruelly mortified her by what he said of mr darcys indifference and she could do nothing but wonder at such a want of penetration or fear that perhaps instead of his seeing too little she might have fancied too much chapter  instead of receiving any such letter of excuse from his friend as elizabeth half expected mr bingley to do he was able to bring darcy with him to longbourn before many days had passed after lady catherines visit bennet had time to tell him of their having seen his aunt of which her daughter sat in momentary dread bingley who wanted to be alone with jane proposed their all walking out bennet was not in the habit of walking mary could never spare time but the remaining five set off together bingley and jane however soon allowed the others to outstrip them they lagged behind while elizabeth kitty and darcy were to entertain each other very little was said by either kitty was too much afraid of him to talk elizabeth was secretly forming a desperate resolution and perhaps he might be doing the same they walked towards the lucases because kitty wished to call upon maria and as elizabeth saw no occasion for making it a general concern when kitty left them she went boldly on with him alone now was the moment for her resolution to be executed and while her courage was high she immediately said mr darcy i am a very selfish creature and for the sake of giving relief to my own feelings care not how much i may be wounding yours i can no longer help thanking you for your unexampled kindness to my poor sister ever since i have known it i have been most anxious to acknowledge to you how gratefully i feel it
it needs scarcely to be told with what feelings on the eve of a nantucket voyage i regarded those marble tablets and by the murky light of that darkened doleful day read the fate of the whalemen who had gone before me delightful inducements to embark fine chance for promotion it seemsaye a stove boat will make me an immortal by brevet yes there is death in this business of whalinga speechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into eternity methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of life and death methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance methinks that in looking at things spiritual we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air methinks my body is but the lees of my better being in fact take my body who will take it i say it is not me and therefore three cheers for nantucket and come a stove boat and stove body when they will for stave my soul jove himself cannot i had not been seated very long ere a man of a certain venerable robustness entered immediately as the stormpelted door flew back upon admitting him a quick regardful eyeing of him by all the congregation sufficiently attested that this fine old man was the chaplain yes it was the famous father mapple so called by the whalemen among whom he was a very great favourite he had been a sailor and a harpooneer in his youth but for many years past had dedicated his life to the ministry at the time i now write of father mapple was in the hardy winter of a healthy old age that sort of old age which seems merging into a second flowering youth for among all the fissures of his wrinkles there shone certain mild gleams of a newly developing bloomthe spring verdure peeping forth even beneath februarys snow no one having previously heard his history could for the first time behold father mapple without the utmost interest because there were certain engrafted clerical peculiarities about him imputable to that adventurous maritime life he had led when he entered i observed that he carried no umbrella and certainly had not come in his carriage for his tarpaulin hat ran down with melting sleet and his great pilot cloth jacket seemed almost to drag him to the floor with the weight of the water it had absorbed however hat and coat and overshoes were one by one removed and hung up in a little space in an adjacent corner when arrayed in a decent suit he quietly approached the pulpit like most old fashioned pulpits it was a very lofty one and since a regular stairs to such a height would by its long angle with the floor seriously contract the already small area of the chapel the architect it seemed had acted upon the hint of father mapple and finished the pulpit without a stairs substituting a perpendicular side ladder like those used in mounting a ship from a boat at sea the wife of a whaling captain had provided the chapel with a handsome pair of red worsted manropes for this ladder which being itself nicely headed and stained with a mahogany colour the whole contrivance considering what manner of chapel it was seemed by no means in bad taste halting for an instant at the foot of the ladder and with both hands grasping the ornamental knobs of the manropes father mapple cast a look upwards and then with a truly sailorlike but still reverential dexterity hand over hand mounted the steps as if ascending the maintop of his vessel the perpendicular parts of this side ladder as is usually the case with swinging ones were of clothcovered rope only the rounds were of wood so that at every step there was a joint
i cannot but wonder however at her having any such fears now because if he had at all cared about me we must have met long ago he knows of my being in town i am certain from something she said herself and yet it would seem by her manner of talking as if she wanted to persuade herself that he is really partial to miss darcy if i were not afraid of judging harshly i should be almost tempted to say that there is a strong appearance of duplicity in all this but i will endeavour to banish every painful thought and think only of what will make me happyyour affection and the invariable kindness of my dear uncle and aunt miss bingley said something of his never returning to netherfield again of giving up the house but not with any certainty i am extremely glad that you have such pleasant accounts from our friends at hunsford this letter gave elizabeth some pain but her spirits returned as she considered that jane would no longer be duped by the sister at least all expectation from the brother was now absolutely over she would not even wish for a renewal of his attentions his character sunk on every review of it and as a punishment for him as well as a possible advantage to jane she seriously hoped he might really soon marry mr darcys sister as by wickhams account she would make him abundantly regret what he had thrown away gardiner about this time reminded elizabeth of her promise concerning that gentleman and required information and elizabeth had such to send as might rather give contentment to her aunt than to herself his apparent partiality had subsided his attentions were over he was the admirer of some one else elizabeth was watchful enough to see it all but she could see it and write of it without material pain her heart had been but slightly touched and her vanity was satisfied with believing that she would have been his only choice had fortune permitted it the sudden acquisition of ten thousand pounds was the most remarkable charm of the young lady to whom he was now rendering himself agreeable but elizabeth less clearsighted perhaps in this case than in charlottes did not quarrel with him for his wish of independence nothing on the contrary could be more natural and while able to suppose that it cost him a few struggles to relinquish her she was ready to allow it a wise and desirable measure for both and could very sincerely wish him happy gardiner and after relating the circumstances she thus went on i am now convinced my dear aunt that i have never been much in love for had i really experienced that pure and elevating passion i should at present detest his very name and wish him all manner of evil but my feelings are not only cordial towards him they are even impartial towards miss king i cannot find out that i hate her at all or that i am in the least unwilling to think her a very good sort of girl
though aware before she began it that it must bring a confession of his inconstancy and confirm their separation for ever she was not aware that such language could be suffered to announce it nor could she have supposed willoughby capable of departing so far from the appearance of every honourable and delicate feelingso far from the common decorum of a gentleman as to send a letter so impudently cruel a letter which instead of bringing with his desire of a release any professions of regret acknowledged no breach of faith denied all peculiar affection whatevera letter of which every line was an insult and which proclaimed its writer to be deep in hardened villainy she paused over it for some time with indignant astonishment then read it again and again but every perusal only served to increase her abhorrence of the man and so bitter were her feelings against him that she dared not trust herself to speak lest she might wound marianne still deeper by treating their disengagement not as a loss to her of any possible good but as an escape from the worst and most irremediable of all evils a connection for life with an unprincipled man as a deliverance the most real a blessing the most important in her earnest meditations on the contents of the letter on the depravity of that mind which could dictate it and probably on the very different mind of a very different person who had no other connection whatever with the affair than what her heart gave him with every thing that passed elinor forgot the immediate distress of her sister forgot that she had three letters on her lap yet unread and so entirely forgot how long she had been in the room that when on hearing a carriage drive up to the door she went to the window to see who could be coming so unreasonably early she was all astonishment to perceive mrs jenningss chariot which she knew had not been ordered till one determined not to quit marianne though hopeless of contributing at present to her ease she hurried away to excuse herself from attending mrs jennings with a thoroughly goodhumoured concern for its cause admitted the excuse most readily and elinor after seeing her safe off returned to marianne whom she found attempting to rise from the bed and whom she reached just in time to prevent her from falling on the floor faint and giddy from a long want of proper rest and food for it was many days since she had any appetite and many nights since she had really slept and now when her mind was no longer supported by the fever of suspense the consequence of all this was felt in an aching head a weakened stomach and a general nervous faintness a glass of wine which elinor procured for her directly made her more comfortable and she was at last able to express some sense of her kindness by saying poor elinor i only wish replied her sister there were any thing i could do which might be of comfort to you this as every thing else would have been was too much for marianne who could only exclaim in the anguish of her heart oh elinor i am miserable indeed before her voice was entirely lost in sobs elinor could no longer witness this torrent of unresisted grief in silence exert yourself dear marianne she cried if you would not kill yourself and all who love you think of your mother think of her misery while you suffer for her sake you must exert yourself i cannot i cannot cried marianne leave me leave me if i distress you leave me hate me forget me how easy for those who have no sorrow of their own to talk of exertion happy happy elinor you cannot have an idea of what i suffer and can you believe me to be so while i see you so wretched forgive me forgive me throwing her arms round her sisters neck i know you feel for me i know what a heart you have but yet you areyou must be happy edward loves youwhat oh what can do away such happiness as that no no no cried marianne wildly he loves you and only you i can have no pleasure while i see you in this state
though nothing could be more polite than lady middletons behaviour to elinor and marianne she did not really like them at all because they neither flattered herself nor her children she could not believe them goodnatured and because they were fond of reading she fancied them satirical perhaps without exactly knowing what it was to be satirical but that did not signify their presence was a restraint both on her and on lucy it checked the idleness of one and the business of the other lady middleton was ashamed of doing nothing before them and the flattery which lucy was proud to think of and administer at other times she feared they would despise her for offering miss steele was the least discomposed of the three by their presence and it was in their power to reconcile her to it entirely would either of them only have given her a full and minute account of the whole affair between marianne and mr willoughby she would have thought herself amply rewarded for the sacrifice of the best place by the fire after dinner which their arrival occasioned but this conciliation was not granted for though she often threw out expressions of pity for her sister to elinor and more than once dropt a reflection on the inconstancy of beaux before marianne no effect was produced but a look of indifference from the former or of disgust in the latter an effort even yet lighter might have made her their friend would they only have laughed at her about the doctor but so little were they anymore than the others inclined to oblige her that if sir john dined from home she might spend a whole day without hearing any other raillery on the subject than what she was kind enough to bestow on herself all these jealousies and discontents however were so totally unsuspected by mrs jennings that she thought it a delightful thing for the girls to be together and generally congratulated her young friends every night on having escaped the company of a stupid old woman so long she joined them sometimes at sir johns sometimes at her own house but wherever it was she always came in excellent spirits full of delight and importance attributing charlottes well doing to her own care and ready to give so exact so minute a detail of her situation as only miss steele had curiosity enough to desire one thing did disturb her and of that she made her daily complaint palmer maintained the common but unfatherly opinion among his sex of all infants being alike and though she could plainly perceive at different times the most striking resemblance between this baby and every one of his relations on both sides there was no convincing his father of it no persuading him to believe that it was not exactly like every other baby of the same age nor could he even be brought to acknowledge the simple proposition of its being the finest child in the world i come now to the relation of a misfortune which about this time befell mrs jennings were first calling on her in harley street another of her acquaintance had dropt ina circumstance in itself not apparently likely to produce evil to her but while the imaginations of other people will carry them away to form wrong judgments of our conduct and to decide on it by slight appearances ones happiness must in some measure be always at the mercy of chance
dashwood as remaining there till she could accommodate herself with a house in the neighbourhood his invitation was accepted a continuance in a place where everything reminded her of former delight was exactly what suited her mind in seasons of cheerfulness no temper could be more cheerful than hers or possess in a greater degree that sanguine expectation of happiness which is happiness itself but in sorrow she must be equally carried away by her fancy and as far beyond consolation as in pleasure she was beyond alloy john dashwood did not at all approve of what her husband intended to do for his sisters to take three thousand pounds from the fortune of their dear little boy would be impoverishing him to the most dreadful degree how could he answer it to himself to rob his child and his only child too of so large a sum and what possible claim could the miss dashwoods who were related to him only by half blood which she considered as no relationship at all have on his generosity to so large an amount it was very well known that no affection was ever supposed to exist between the children of any man by different marriages and why was he to ruin himself and their poor little harry by giving away all his money to his half sisters it was my fathers last request to me replied her husband that i should assist his widow and daughters he did not know what he was talking of i dare say ten to one but he was lightheaded at the time had he been in his right senses he could not have thought of such a thing as begging you to give away half your fortune from your own child he did not stipulate for any particular sum my dear fanny he only requested me in general terms to assist them and make their situation more comfortable than it was in his power to do perhaps it would have been as well if he had left it wholly to myself but as he required the promise i could not do less than give it at least i thought so at the time the promise therefore was given and must be performed something must be done for them whenever they leave norland and settle in a new home well then let something be done for them but that something need not be three thousand pounds consider she added that when the money is once parted with it never can return your sisters will marry and it will be gone for ever
he dared not come to bartletts buildings for fear of detection and though their mutual impatience to meet was not to be told they could do nothing at present but write edward assured them himself of his being in town within a very short time by twice calling in berkeley street twice was his card found on the table when they returned from their mornings engagements elinor was pleased that he had called and still more pleased that she had missed him the dashwoods were so prodigiously delighted with the middletons that though not much in the habit of giving anything they determined to give thema dinner and soon after their acquaintance began invited them to dine in harley street where they had taken a very good house for three months jennings were invited likewise and john dashwood was careful to secure colonel brandon who always glad to be where the miss dashwoods were received his eager civilities with some surprise but much more pleasure ferrars but elinor could not learn whether her sons were to be of the party the expectation of seeing her however was enough to make her interested in the engagement for though she could now meet edwards mother without that strong anxiety which had once promised to attend such an introduction though she could now see her with perfect indifference as to her opinion of herself her desire of being in company with mrs ferrars her curiosity to know what she was like was as lively as ever the interest with which she thus anticipated the party was soon afterwards increased more powerfully than pleasantly by her hearing that the miss steeles were also to be at it so well had they recommended themselves to lady middleton so agreeable had their assiduities made them to her that though lucy was certainly not so elegant and her sister not even genteel she was as ready as sir john to ask them to spend a week or two in conduit street and it happened to be particularly convenient to the miss steeles as soon as the dashwoods invitation was known that their visit should begin a few days before the party took place john dashwood as the nieces of the gentleman who for many years had had the care of her brother might not have done much however towards procuring them seats at her table but as lady middletons guests they must be welcome and lucy who had long wanted to be personally known to the family to have a nearer view of their characters and her own difficulties and to have an opportunity of endeavouring to please them had seldom been happier in her life than she was on receiving mrs she began immediately to determine that edward who lived with his mother must be asked as his mother was to a party given by his sister and to see him for the first time after all that passed in the company of lucy these apprehensions perhaps were not founded entirely on reason and certainly not at all on truth they were relieved however not by her own recollection but by the good will of lucy who believed herself to be inflicting a severe disappointment when she told her that edward certainly would not be in harley street on tuesday and even hoped to be carrying the pain still farther by persuading her that he was kept away by the extreme affection for herself which he could not conceal when they were together the important tuesday came that was to introduce the two young ladies to this formidable motherinlaw said lucy as they walked up the stairs togetherfor the middletons arrived so directly after mrs jennings that they all followed the servant at the same timethere is nobody here but you that can feel for me in a moment i shall see the person that all my happiness depends onthat is to be my mother  elinor could have given her immediate relief by suggesting the possibility of its being miss mortons mother rather than her own whom they were about to behold but instead of doing that she assured her and with great sincerity that she did pity herto the utter amazement of lucy who though really uncomfortable herself hoped at least to be an object of irrepressible envy to elinor
no no no i wasnt aware of that said elijah slowly and wonderingly looking from me to queequeg with the most unaccountable glances elijah said i you will oblige my friend and me by withdrawing we are going to the indian and pacific oceans and would prefer not to be detained cried stationary elijah hailing us when we had removed a few paces but he stole up to us again and suddenly clapping his hand on my shoulder saiddid ye see anything looking like men going towards that ship a while ago  struck by this plain matteroffact question i answered saying yes i thought i did see four or five men but it was too dim to be sure once more we quitted him but once more he came softly after us and touching my shoulder again said see if you can find em now will ye i was going to warn ye againstbut never mind never mindits all one all in the family toosharp frost this morning aint it shant see ye again very soon i guess unless its before the grand jury and with these cracked words he finally departed leaving me for the moment in no small wonderment at his frantic impudence at last stepping on board the pequod we found everything in profound quiet not a soul moving the cabin entrance was locked within the hatches were all on and lumbered with coils of rigging going forward to the forecastle we found the slide of the scuttle open seeing a light we went down and found only an old rigger there wrapped in a tattered peajacket he was thrown at whole length upon two chests his face downwards and inclosed in his folded arms those sailors we saw queequeg where can they have gone to but it seemed that when on the wharf queequeg had not at all noticed what i now alluded to hence i would have thought myself to have been optically deceived in that matter were it not for elijahs otherwise inexplicable question but i beat the thing down and again marking the sleeper jocularly hinted to queequeg that perhaps we had best sit up with the body telling him to establish himself accordingly he put his hand upon the sleepers rear as though feeling if it was soft enough and then without more ado sat quietly down there perry dood seat said queequeg my country way wont hurt him face
but at last your uncle was forced to yield and instead of being allowed to be of use to his niece was forced to put up with only having the probable credit of it which went sorely against the grain and i really believe your letter this morning gave him great pleasure because it required an explanation that would rob him of his borrowed feathers and give the praise where it was due but lizzy this must go no farther than yourself or jane at most you know pretty well i suppose what has been done for the young people his debts are to be paid amounting i believe to considerably more than a thousand pounds another thousand in addition to her own settled upon her and his commission purchased the reason why all this was to be done by him alone was such as i have given above it was owing to him to his reserve and want of proper consideration that wickhams character had been so misunderstood and consequently that he had been received and noticed as he was perhaps there was some truth in this though i doubt whether his reserve or anybodys reserve can be answerable for the event but in spite of all this fine talking my dear lizzy you may rest perfectly assured that your uncle would never have yielded if we had not given him credit for another interest in the affair when all this was resolved on he returned again to his friends who were still staying at pemberley but it was agreed that he should be in london once more when the wedding took place and all money matters were then to receive the last finish it is a relation which you tell me is to give you great surprise i hope at least it will not afford you any displeasure lydia came to us and wickham had constant admission to the house he was exactly what he had been when i knew him in hertfordshire but i would not tell you how little i was satisfied with her behaviour while she staid with us if i had not perceived by janes letter last wednesday that her conduct on coming home was exactly of a piece with it and therefore what i now tell you can give you no fresh pain i talked to her repeatedly in the most serious manner representing to her all the wickedness of what she had done and all the unhappiness she had brought on her family if she heard me it was by good luck for i am sure she did not listen i was sometimes quite provoked but then i recollected my dear elizabeth and jane and for their sakes had patience with her darcy was punctual in his return and as lydia informed you attended the wedding he dined with us the next day and was to leave town again on wednesday or thursday will you be very angry with me my dear lizzy if i take this opportunity of saying what i was never bold enough to say before how much i like him his behaviour to us has in every respect been as pleasing as when we were in derbyshire his understanding and opinions all please me he wants nothing but a little more liveliness and that if he marry prudently his wife may teach him
her pulse was much stronger and every symptom more favourable than on the preceding visit elinor confirmed in every pleasant hope was all cheerfulness rejoicing that in her letters to her mother she had pursued her own judgment rather than her friends in making very light of the indisposition which delayed them at cleveland and almost fixing on the time when marianne would be able to travel but the day did not close so auspiciously as it began  towards the evening marianne became ill again growing more heavy restless and uncomfortable than before her sister however still sanguine was willing to attribute the change to nothing more than the fatigue of having sat up to have her bed made and carefully administering the cordials prescribed saw her with satisfaction sink at last into a slumber from which she expected the most beneficial effects her sleep though not so quiet as elinor wished to see it lasted a considerable time and anxious to observe the result of it herself she resolved to sit with her during the whole of it jennings knowing nothing of any change in the patient went unusually early to bed her maid who was one of the principal nurses was recreating herself in the housekeepers room and elinor remained alone with marianne the repose of the latter became more and more disturbed and her sister who watched with unremitting attention her continual change of posture and heard the frequent but inarticulate sounds of complaint which passed her lips was almost wishing to rouse her from so painful a slumber when marianne suddenly awakened by some accidental noise in the house started hastily up and with feverish wildness cried out is mama coming  not yet cried the other concealing her terror and assisting marianne to lie down again but she will be here i hope before it is long but she must not go round by london cried marianne in the same hurried manner elinor perceived with alarm that she was not quite herself and while attempting to soothe her eagerly felt her pulse and marianne still talking wildly of mama her alarm increased so rapidly as to determine her on sending instantly for mr harris and despatching a messenger to barton for her mother to consult with colonel brandon on the best means of effecting the latter was a thought which immediately followed the resolution of its performance and as soon she had rung up the maid to take her place by her sister she hastened down to the drawingroom where she knew he was generally to be found at a much later hour than the present her fears and her difficulties were immediately before him her fears he had no courage no confidence to attempt the removal ofhe listened to them in silent despondencebut her difficulties were instantly obviated for with a readiness that seemed to speak the occasion and the service prearranged in his mind he offered himself as the messenger who should fetch mrs elinor made no resistance that was not easily overcome she thanked him with brief though fervent gratitude and while he went to hurry off his servant with a message to mr harris and an order for posthorses directly she wrote a few lines to her mother the comfort of such a friend at that moment as colonel brandonor such a companion for her motherhow gratefully was it felt
bingley she added for when you went to town last winter you promised to take a family dinner with us as soon as you returned i have not forgot you see and i assure you i was very much disappointed that you did not come back and keep your engagement bingley looked a little silly at this reflection and said something of his concern at having been prevented by business bennet had been strongly inclined to ask them to stay and dine there that day but though she always kept a very good table she did not think anything less than two courses could be good enough for a man on whom she had such anxious designs or satisfy the appetite and pride of one who had ten thousand a year chapter  as soon as they were gone elizabeth walked out to recover her spirits or in other words to dwell without interruption on those subjects that must deaden them more why if he came only to be silent grave and indifferent said she did he come at all she could settle it in no way that gave her pleasure he could be still amiable still pleasing to my uncle and aunt when he was in town and why not to me her resolution was for a short time involuntarily kept by the approach of her sister who joined her with a cheerful look which showed her better satisfied with their visitors than elizabeth now said she that this first meeting is over i feel perfectly easy i know my own strength and i shall never be embarrassed again by his coming it will then be publicly seen that on both sides we meet only as common and indifferent acquaintance yes very indifferent indeed said elizabeth laughingly my dear lizzy you cannot think me so weak as to be in danger now i think you are in very great danger of making him as much in love with you as ever      they did not see the gentlemen again till tuesday and mrs bennet in the meanwhile was giving way to all the happy schemes which the good humour and common politeness of bingley in half an hours visit had revived on tuesday there was a large party assembled at longbourn and the two who were most anxiously expected to the credit of their punctuality as sportsmen were in very good time when they repaired to the diningroom elizabeth eagerly watched to see whether bingley would take the place which in all their former parties had belonged to him by her sister her prudent mother occupied by the same ideas forbore to invite him to sit by herself
this picture she had allowed herself to believe might have been accidentally obtained it might not have been edwards gift but a correspondence between them by letter could subsist only under a positive engagement could be authorised by nothing else for a few moments she was almost overcomeher heart sunk within her and she could hardly stand but exertion was indispensably necessary and she struggled so resolutely against the oppression of her feelings that her success was speedy and for the time complete writing to each other said lucy returning the letter into her pocket is the only comfort we have in such long separations yes i have one other comfort in his picture but poor edward has not even that i gave him a lock of my hair set in a ring when he was at longstaple last and that was some comfort to him he said but not equal to a picture i did said elinor with a composure of voice under which was concealed an emotion and distress beyond any thing she had ever felt before fortunately for her they had now reached the cottage and the conversation could be continued no farther after sitting with them a few minutes the miss steeles returned to the park and elinor was then at liberty to think and be wretched at this point in the first and second editions volume  ends  chapter  however small elinors general dependence on lucys veracity might be it was impossible for her on serious reflection to suspect it in the present case where no temptation could be answerable to the folly of inventing a falsehood of such a description what lucy had asserted to be true therefore elinor could not dared not longer doubt supported as it was too on every side by such probabilities and proofs and contradicted by nothing but her own wishes their opportunity of acquaintance in the house of mr pratt was a foundation for the rest at once indisputable and alarming and edwards visit near plymouth his melancholy state of mind his dissatisfaction at his own prospects his uncertain behaviour towards herself the intimate knowledge of the miss steeles as to norland and their family connections which had often surprised her the picture the letter the ring formed altogether such a body of evidence as overcame every fear of condemning him unfairly and established as a fact which no partiality could set aside his illtreatment of herself her resentment of such behaviour her indignation at having been its dupe for a short time made her feel only for herself but other ideas other considerations soon arose had he feigned a regard for her which he did not feel was his engagement to lucy an engagement of the heart no whatever it might once have been she could not believe it such at present her mother sisters fanny all had been conscious of his regard for her at norland it was not an illusion of her own vanity he had been blamable highly blamable in remaining at norland after he first felt her influence over him to be more than it ought to be in that he could not be defended but if he had injured her how much more had he injured himself if her case were pitiable his was hopeless his imprudence had made her miserable for a while but it seemed to have deprived himself of all chance of ever being otherwise
the indirect boast for you are really proud of your defects in writing because you consider them as proceeding from a rapidity of thought and carelessness of execution which if not estimable you think at least highly interesting the power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance bennet this morning that if you ever resolved upon quitting netherfield you should be gone in five minutes you meant it to be a sort of panegyric of compliment to yourselfand yet what is there so very laudable in a precipitance which must leave very necessary business undone and can be of no real advantage to yourself or anyone else nay cried bingley this is too much to remember at night all the foolish things that were said in the morning and yet upon my honour i believe what i said of myself to be true and i believe it at this moment at least therefore i did not assume the character of needless precipitance merely to show off before the ladies i dare say you believed it but i am by no means convinced that you would be gone with such celerity your conduct would be quite as dependent on chance as that of any man i know and if as you were mounting your horse a friend were to say bingley you had better stay till next week you would probably do it you would probably not goand at another word might stay a month you have only proved by this cried elizabeth that mr you have shown him off now much more than he did himself i am exceedingly gratified said bingley by your converting what my friend says into a compliment on the sweetness of my temper but i am afraid you are giving it a turn which that gentleman did by no means intend for he would certainly think better of me if under such a circumstance i were to give a flat denial and ride off as fast as i could darcy then consider the rashness of your original intentions as atoned for by your obstinacy in adhering to it upon my word i cannot exactly explain the matter darcy must speak for himself you expect me to account for opinions which you choose to call mine but which i have never acknowledged allowing the case however to stand according to your representation you must remember miss bennet that the friend who is supposed to desire his return to the house and the delay of his plan has merely desired it asked it without offering one argument in favour of its propriety to yield readilyeasilyto the persuasion of a friend is no merit with you to yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either darcy to allow nothing for the influence of friendship and affection a regard for the requester would often make one readily yield to a request without waiting for arguments to reason one into it
their being her relations too made it so much the worse and mrs jenningss attempts at consolation were therefore unfortunately founded when she advised her daughter not to care about their being so fashionable because they were all cousins and must put up with one another as it was impossible however now to prevent their coming lady middleton resigned herself to the idea of it with all the philosophy of a wellbred woman contenting herself with merely giving her husband a gentle reprimand on the subject five or six times every day the young ladies arrived their appearance was by no means ungenteel or unfashionable their dress was very smart their manners very civil they were delighted with the house and in raptures with the furniture and they happened to be so doatingly fond of children that lady middletons good opinion was engaged in their favour before they had been an hour at the park she declared them to be very agreeable girls indeed which for her ladyship was enthusiastic admiration sir johns confidence in his own judgment rose with this animated praise and he set off directly for the cottage to tell the miss dashwoods of the miss steeles arrival and to assure them of their being the sweetest girls in the world from such commendation as this however there was not much to be learned elinor well knew that the sweetest girls in the world were to be met with in every part of england under every possible variation of form face temper and understanding sir john wanted the whole family to walk to the park directly and look at his guests it was painful to him even to keep a third cousin to himself do come now said hepray comeyou must comei declare you shall comeyou cant think how you will like them lucy is monstrous pretty and so good humoured and agreeable the children are all hanging about her already as if she was an old acquaintance and they both long to see you of all things for they have heard at exeter that you are the most beautiful creatures in the world and i have told them it is all very true and a great deal more they have brought the whole coach full of playthings for the children you are my cousins and they are my wifes so you must be related he could only obtain a promise of their calling at the park within a day or two and then left them in amazement at their indifference to walk home and boast anew of their attractions to the miss steeles as he had been already boasting of the miss steeles to them when their promised visit to the park and consequent introduction to these young ladies took place they found in the appearance of the eldest who was nearly thirty with a very plain and not a sensible face nothing to admire but in the other who was not more than two or three and twenty they acknowledged considerable beauty her features were pretty and she had a sharp quick eye and a smartness of air which though it did not give actual elegance or grace gave distinction to her person  their manners were particularly civil and elinor soon allowed them credit for some kind of sense when she saw with what constant and judicious attention they were making themselves agreeable to lady middleton with her children they were in continual raptures extolling their beauty courting their notice and humouring their whims and such of their time as could be spared from the importunate demands which this politeness made on it was spent in admiration of whatever her ladyship was doing if she happened to be doing any thing or in taking patterns of some elegant new dress in which her appearance the day before had thrown them into unceasing delight
what magnificent orders would travel from this family to london said edward in such an event what a happy day for booksellers musicsellers and printshops you miss dashwood would give a general commission for every new print of merit to be sent youand as for marianne i know her greatness of soul there would not be music enough in london to content her thomson cowper scottshe would buy them all over and over again she would buy up every copy i believe to prevent their falling into unworthy hands and she would have every book that tells her how to admire an old twisted tree but i was willing to shew you that i had not forgot our old disputes i love to be reminded of the past edwardwhether it be melancholy or gay i love to recall itand you will never offend me by talking of former times you are very right in supposing how my money would be spentsome of it at leastmy loose cash would certainly be employed in improving my collection of music and books and the bulk of your fortune would be laid out in annuities on the authors or their heirs no edward i should have something else to do with it perhaps then you would bestow it as a reward on that person who wrote the ablest defence of your favourite maxim that no one can ever be in love more than once in their lifeyour opinion on that point is unchanged i presume it is not likely that i should now see or hear any thing to change them marianne is as steadfast as ever you see said elinor she is not at all altered nor do i think it a part of mariannes said elinor i should hardly call her a lively girlshe is very earnest very eager in all she doessometimes talks a great deal and always with animationbut she is not often really merry i believe you are right he replied and yet i have always set her down as a lively girl i have frequently detected myself in such kind of mistakes said elinor in a total misapprehension of character in some point or other fancying people so much more gay or grave or ingenious or stupid than they really are and i can hardly tell why or in what the deception originated sometimes one is guided by what they say of themselves and very frequently by what other people say of them without giving oneself time to deliberate and judge but i thought it was right elinor said marianne to be guided wholly by the opinion of other people i thought our judgments were given us merely to be subservient to those of neighbours my doctrine has never aimed at the subjection of the understanding all i have ever attempted to influence has been the behaviour
here ye strike but splintered hearts togetherthere ye shall strike unsplinterable glasses leviathan maketh a path to shine after him one would think the deep to be hoary now the lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up jonah there go the ships there is that leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein in that day the lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent even leviathan that crooked serpent and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea isaiah and what thing soever besides cometh within the chaos of this monsters mouth be it beast boat or stone down it goes all incontinently that foul great swallow of his and perisheth in the bottomless gulf of his paunch the indian sea breedeth the most and the biggest fishes that are among which the whales and whirlpooles called balaene take up as much in length as four acres or arpens of land scarcely had we proceeded two days on the sea when about sunrise a great many whales and other monsters of the sea appeared this came towards us openmouthed raising the waves on all sides and beating the sea before him into a foam he visited this country also with a view of catching horsewhales which had bones of very great value for their teeth of which he brought some to the king the best whales were catched in his own country of which some were fortyeight some fifty yards long he said that he was one of six who had killed sixty in two days other or others verbal narrative taken down from his mouth by king alfred a and whereas all the other things whether beast or vessel that enter into the dreadful gulf of this monsters whales mouth are immediately lost and swallowed up the seagudgeon retires into it in great security and there sleeps old nick take me if is not leviathan described by the noble prophet moses in the life of patient job the great leviathan that maketh the seas to seethe like boiling pan touching that monstrous bulk of the whale or ork we have received nothing certain they grow exceeding fat insomuch that an incredible quantity of oil will be extracted out of one whale the sovereignest thing on earth is parmacetti for an inward bruise which to secure no skill of leachs art      mote him availle but to returne againe      to his wounds worker that with lowly dart      dinting his breast had bred his restless paine      like as the wounded whale to shore flies thro the maine
his sisters uneasiness had been equally excited with my own our coincidence of feeling was soon discovered and alike sensible that no time was to be lost in detaching their brother we shortly resolved on joining him directly in london we accordingly wentand there i readily engaged in the office of pointing out to my friend the certain evils of such a choice but however this remonstrance might have staggered or delayed his determination i do not suppose that it would ultimately have prevented the marriage had it not been seconded by the assurance that i hesitated not in giving of your sisters indifference he had before believed her to return his affection with sincere if not with equal regard but bingley has great natural modesty with a stronger dependence on my judgement than on his own to convince him therefore that he had deceived himself was no very difficult point to persuade him against returning into hertfordshire when that conviction had been given was scarcely the work of a moment there is but one part of my conduct in the whole affair on which i do not reflect with satisfaction it is that i condescended to adopt the measures of art so far as to conceal from him your sisters being in town i knew it myself as it was known to miss bingley but her brother is even yet ignorant of it that they might have met without ill consequence is perhaps probable but his regard did not appear to me enough extinguished for him to see her without some danger perhaps this concealment this disguise was beneath me it is done however and it was done for the best on this subject i have nothing more to say no other apology to offer if i have wounded your sisters feelings it was unknowingly done and though the motives which governed me may to you very naturally appear insufficient i have not yet learnt to condemn them with respect to that other more weighty accusation of having injured mr wickham i can only refute it by laying before you the whole of his connection with my family of what he has particularly accused me i am ignorant but of the truth of what i shall relate i can summon more than one witness of undoubted veracity wickham is the son of a very respectable man who had for many years the management of all the pemberley estates and whose good conduct in the discharge of his trust naturally inclined my father to be of service to him and on george wickham who was his godson his kindness was therefore liberally bestowed my father supported him at school and afterwards at cambridgemost important assistance as his own father always poor from the extravagance of his wife would have been unable to give him a gentlemans education my father was not only fond of this young mans society whose manners were always engaging he had also the highest opinion of him and hoping the church would be his profession intended to provide for him in it as for myself it is many many years since i first began to think of him in a very different manner
chapter  edward remained a week at the cottage he was earnestly pressed by mrs dashwood to stay longer but as if he were bent only on selfmortification he seemed resolved to be gone when his enjoyment among his friends was at the height his spirits during the last two or three days though still very unequal were greatly improvedhe grew more and more partial to the house and environsnever spoke of going away without a sighdeclared his time to be wholly disengagedeven doubted to what place he should go when he left thembut still go he must never had any week passed so quicklyhe could hardly believe it to be gone he said so repeatedly other things he said too which marked the turn of his feelings and gave the lie to his actions he had no pleasure at norland he detested being in town but either to norland or london he must go he valued their kindness beyond any thing and his greatest happiness was in being with them yet he must leave them at the end of a week in spite of their wishes and his own and without any restraint on his time elinor placed all that was astonishing in this way of acting to his mothers account and it was happy for her that he had a mother whose character was so imperfectly known to her as to be the general excuse for every thing strange on the part of her son disappointed however and vexed as she was and sometimes displeased with his uncertain behaviour to herself she was very well disposed on the whole to regard his actions with all the candid allowances and generous qualifications which had been rather more painfully extorted from her for willoughbys service by her mother his want of spirits of openness and of consistency were most usually attributed to his want of independence and his better knowledge of mrs the shortness of his visit the steadiness of his purpose in leaving them originated in the same fettered inclination the same inevitable necessity of temporizing with his mother the old wellestablished grievance of duty against will parent against child was the cause of all she would have been glad to know when these difficulties were to cease this opposition was to yieldwhen mrs ferrars would be reformed and her son be at liberty to be happy but from such vain wishes she was forced to turn for comfort to the renewal of her confidence in edwards affection to the remembrance of every mark of regard in look or word which fell from him while at barton and above all to that flattering proof of it which he constantly wore round his finger dashwood as they were at breakfast the last morning you would be a happier man if you had any profession to engage your time and give an interest to your plans and actions some inconvenience to your friends indeed might result from ityou would not be able to give them so much of your time but with a smile you would be materially benefited in one particular at leastyou would know where to go when you left them i do assure you he replied that i have long thought on this point as you think now
i admire the activity of your benevolence observed mary but every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason and in my opinion exertion should always be in proportion to what is required we will go as far as meryton with you said catherine and lydia elizabeth accepted their company and the three young ladies set off together if we make haste said lydia as they walked along perhaps we may see something of captain carter before he goes in meryton they parted the two youngest repaired to the lodgings of one of the officers wives and elizabeth continued her walk alone crossing field after field at a quick pace jumping over stiles and springing over puddles with impatient activity and finding herself at last within view of the house with weary ankles dirty stockings and a face glowing with the warmth of exercise she was shown into the breakfastparlour where all but jane were assembled and where her appearance created a great deal of surprise that she should have walked three miles so early in the day in such dirty weather and by herself was almost incredible to mrs hurst and miss bingley and elizabeth was convinced that they held her in contempt for it she was received however very politely by them and in their brothers manners there was something better than politeness there was good humour and kindness the former was divided between admiration of the brilliancy which exercise had given to her complexion and doubt as to the occasions justifying her coming so far alone her inquiries after her sister were not very favourably answered miss bennet had slept ill and though up was very feverish and not well enough to leave her room elizabeth was glad to be taken to her immediately and jane who had only been withheld by the fear of giving alarm or inconvenience from expressing in her note how much she longed for such a visit was delighted at her entrance she was not equal however to much conversation and when miss bingley left them together could attempt little besides expressions of gratitude for the extraordinary kindness she was treated with when breakfast was over they were joined by the sisters and elizabeth began to like them herself when she saw how much affection and solicitude they showed for jane the apothecary came and having examined his patient said as might be supposed that she had caught a violent cold and that they must endeavour to get the better of it advised her to return to bed and promised her some draughts the advice was followed readily for the feverish symptoms increased and her head ached acutely elizabeth did not quit her room for a moment nor were the other ladies often absent the gentlemen being out they had in fact nothing to do elsewhere when the clock struck three elizabeth felt that she must go and very unwillingly said so miss bingley offered her the carriage and she only wanted a little pressing to accept it when jane testified such concern in parting with her that miss bingley was obliged to convert the offer of the chaise to an invitation to remain at netherfield for the present
ere this you must have plainly seen the truth of what i started withthat the sperm whale and the right whale have almost entirely different heads to sum up then in the right whales there is no great well of sperm no ivory teeth at all no long slender mandible of a lower jaw like the sperm whales nor in the sperm whale are there any of those blinds of bone no huge lower lip and scarcely anything of a tongue again the right whale has two external spoutholes the sperm whale only one look your last now on these venerable hooded heads while they yet lie together for one will soon sink unrecorded in the sea the other will not be very long in following can you catch the expression of the sperm whales there it is the same he died with only some of the longer wrinkles in the forehead seem now faded away i think his broad brow to be full of a prairielike placidity born of a speculative indifference as to death see that amazing lower lip pressed by accident against the vessels side so as firmly to embrace the jaw does not this whole head seem to speak of an enormous practical resolution in facing death this right whale i take to have been a stoic the sperm whale a platonian who might have taken up spinoza in his latter years ere quitting for the nonce the sperm whales head i would have you as a sensible physiologist simplyparticularly remark its front aspect in all its compacted collectedness i would have you investigate it now with the sole view of forming to yourself some unexaggerated intelligent estimate of whatever batteringram power may be lodged there here is a vital point for you must either satisfactorily settle this matter with yourself or for ever remain an infidel as to one of the most appalling but not the less true events perhaps anywhere to be found in all recorded history you observe that in the ordinary swimming position of the sperm whale the front of his head presents an almost wholly vertical plane to the water you observe that the lower part of that front slopes considerably backwards so as to furnish more of a retreat for the long socket which receives the boomlike lower jaw you observe that the mouth is entirely under the head much in the same way indeed as though your own mouth were entirely under your chin moreover you observe that the whale has no external nose and that what nose he hashis spout holeis on the top of his head you observe that his eyes and ears are at the sides of his head nearly one third of his entire length from the front wherefore you must now have perceived that the front of the sperm whales head is a dead blind wall without a single organ or tender prominence of any sort whatsoever furthermore you are now to consider that only in the extreme lower backward sloping part of the front of the head is there the slightest vestige of bone and not till you get near twenty feet from the forehead do you come to the full cranial development so that this whole enormous boneless mass is as one wad finally though as will soon be revealed its contents partly comprise the most delicate oil yet you are now to be apprised of the nature of the substance which so impregnably invests all that apparent effeminacy
i was banished to the house of a relation far distant and she was allowed no liberty no society no amusement till my fathers point was gained i had depended on her fortitude too far and the blow was a severe onebut had her marriage been happy so young as i then was a few months must have reconciled me to it or at least i should not have now to lament it my brother had no regard for her his pleasures were not what they ought to have been and from the first he treated her unkindly the consequence of this upon a mind so young so lively so inexperienced as mrs she resigned herself at first to all the misery of her situation and happy had it been if she had not lived to overcome those regrets which the remembrance of me occasioned but can we wonder that with such a husband to provoke inconstancy and without a friend to advise or restrain her for my father lived only a few months after their marriage and i was with my regiment in the east indies she should fall had i remained in england perhapsbut i meant to promote the happiness of both by removing from her for years and for that purpose had procured my exchange the shock which her marriage had given me he continued in a voice of great agitation was of trifling weightwas nothing to what i felt when i heard about two years afterwards of her divorce it was that which threw this gloomeven now the recollection of what i suffered he could say no more and rising hastily walked for a few minutes about the room elinor affected by his relation and still more by his distress could not speak he saw her concern and coming to her took her hand pressed it and kissed it with grateful respect a few minutes more of silent exertion enabled him to proceed with composure it was nearly three years after this unhappy period before i returned to england my first care when i did arrive was of course to seek for her but the search was as fruitless as it was melancholy i could not trace her beyond her first seducer and there was every reason to fear that she had removed from him only to sink deeper in a life of sin her legal allowance was not adequate to her fortune nor sufficient for her comfortable maintenance and i learnt from my brother that the power of receiving it had been made over some months before to another person he imagined and calmly could he imagine it that her extravagance and consequent distress had obliged her to dispose of it for some immediate relief at last however and after i had been six months in england i did find her regard for a former servant of my own who had since fallen into misfortune carried me to visit him in a spunginghouse where he was confined for debt and there in the same house under a similar confinement was my unfortunate sister so alteredso fadedworn down by acute suffering of every kind
he was writing and without raising his head coolly replied just as you please elizabeth took the letter from his writingtable and they went up stairs together bennet one communication would therefore do for all after a slight preparation for good news the letter was read aloud gardiners hope of lydias being soon married her joy burst forth and every following sentence added to its exuberance she was now in an irritation as violent from delight as she had ever been fidgety from alarm and vexation to know that her daughter would be married was enough she was disturbed by no fear for her felicity nor humbled by any remembrance of her misconduct i will write to my sister gardiner about them directly lizzy my dear run down to your father and ask him how much he will give her her eldest daughter endeavoured to give some relief to the violence of these transports by leading her thoughts to the obligations which mr for we must attribute this happy conclusion she added in a great measure to his kindness we are persuaded that he has pledged himself to assist mr well cried her mother it is all very right who should do it but her own uncle if he had not had a family of his own i and my children must have had all his money you know and it is the first time we have ever had anything from him except a few presents my dear jane i am in such a flutter that i am sure i cant write so i will dictate and you write for me we will settle with your father about the money afterwards but the things should be ordered immediately she was then proceeding to all the particulars of calico muslin and cambric and would shortly have dictated some very plentiful orders had not jane though with some difficulty persuaded her to wait till her father was at leisure to be consulted one days delay she observed would be of small importance and her mother was too happy to be quite so obstinate as usual i will go to meryton said she as soon as i am dressed and tell the good good news to my sister philips
by some tacit consent throughout the voyage little or no allusion was made to it especially by the mates but once tashtegos senior an old gayhead indian among the crew superstitiously asserted that not till he was full forty years old did ahab become that way branded and then it came upon him not in the fury of any mortal fray but in an elemental strife at sea yet this wild hint seemed inferentially negatived by what a grey manxman insinuated an old sepulchral man who having never before sailed out of nantucket had never ere this laid eye upon wild ahab nevertheless the old seatraditions the immemorial credulities popularly invested this old manxman with preternatural powers of discernment so that no white sailor seriously contradicted him when he said that if ever captain ahab should be tranquilly laid outwhich might hardly come to pass so he mutteredthen whoever should do that last office for the dead would find a birthmark on him from crown to sole so powerfully did the whole grim aspect of ahab affect me and the livid brand which streaked it that for the first few moments i hardly noted that not a little of this overbearing grimness was owing to the barbaric white leg upon which he partly stood it had previously come to me that this ivory leg had at sea been fashioned from the polished bone of the sperm whales jaw aye he was dismasted off japan said the old gayhead indian once but like his dismasted craft he shipped another mast without coming home for it i was struck with the singular posture he maintained upon each side of the pequods quarter deck and pretty close to the mizzen shrouds there was an auger hole bored about half an inch or so into the plank his bone leg steadied in that hole one arm elevated and holding by a shroud captain ahab stood erect looking straight out beyond the ships everpitching prow there was an infinity of firmest fortitude a determinate unsurrenderable wilfulness in the fixed and fearless forward dedication of that glance not a word he spoke nor did his officers say aught to him though by all their minutest gestures and expressions they plainly showed the uneasy if not painful consciousness of being under a troubled mastereye and not only that but moody stricken ahab stood before them with a crucifixion in his face in all the nameless regal overbearing dignity of some mighty woe ere long from his first visit in the air he withdrew into his cabin but after that morning he was every day visible to the crew either standing in his pivothole or seated upon an ivory stool he had or heavily walking the deck as the sky grew less gloomy indeed began to grow a little genial he became still less and less a recluse as if when the ship had sailed from home nothing but the dead wintry bleakness of the sea had then kept him so secluded and by and by it came to pass that he was almost continually in the air but as yet for all that he said or perceptibly did on the at last sunny deck he seemed as unnecessary there as another mast but the pequod was only making a passage now not regularly cruising nearly all whaling preparatives needing supervision the mates were fully competent to so that there was little or nothing out of himself to employ or excite ahab now and thus chase away for that one interval the clouds that layer upon layer were piled upon his brow as ever all clouds choose the loftiest peaks to pile themselves upon nevertheless ere long the warm warbling persuasiveness of the pleasant holiday weather we came to seemed gradually to charm him from his mood
she wondered with little intermission what could be the reason of it was sure there must be some bad news and thought over every kind of distress that could have befallen him with a fixed determination that he should not escape them all something very melancholy must be the matter i am sure said she the estate at delaford was never reckoned more than two thousand a year and his brother left everything sadly involved i do think he must have been sent for about money matters for what else can it be perhaps it is about miss williams and by the bye i dare say it is because he looked so conscious when i mentioned her may be she is ill in town nothing in the world more likely for i have a notion she is always rather sickly it is not so very likely he should be distressed in his circumstances now for he is a very prudent man and to be sure must have cleared the estate by this time may be his sister is worse at avignon and has sent for him over well i wish him out of all his trouble with all my heart and a good wife into the bargain her opinion varying with every fresh conjecture and all seeming equally probable as they arose elinor though she felt really interested in the welfare of colonel brandon could not bestow all the wonder on his going so suddenly away which mrs jennings was desirous of her feeling for besides that the circumstance did not in her opinion justify such lasting amazement or variety of speculation her wonder was otherwise disposed of it was engrossed by the extraordinary silence of her sister and willoughby on the subject which they must know to be peculiarly interesting to them all as this silence continued every day made it appear more strange and more incompatible with the disposition of both why they should not openly acknowledge to her mother and herself what their constant behaviour to each other declared to have taken place elinor could not imagine she could easily conceive that marriage might not be immediately in their power for though willoughby was independent there was no reason to believe him rich his estate had been rated by sir john at about six or seven hundred a year but he lived at an expense to which that income could hardly be equal and he had himself often complained of his poverty but for this strange kind of secrecy maintained by them relative to their engagement which in fact concealed nothing at all she could not account and it was so wholly contradictory to their general opinions and practice that a doubt sometimes entered her mind of their being really engaged and this doubt was enough to prevent her making any inquiry of marianne nothing could be more expressive of attachment to them all than willoughbys behaviour to marianne it had all the distinguishing tenderness which a lovers heart could give and to the rest of the family it was the affectionate attention of a son and a brother
his emotion on entering the room in seeing her altered looks and in receiving the pale hand which she immediately held out to him was such as in elinors conjecture must arise from something more than his affection for marianne or the consciousness of its being known to others and she soon discovered in his melancholy eye and varying complexion as he looked at her sister the probable recurrence of many past scenes of misery to his mind brought back by that resemblance between marianne and eliza already acknowledged and now strengthened by the hollow eye the sickly skin the posture of reclining weakness and the warm acknowledgment of peculiar obligation dashwood not less watchful of what passed than her daughter but with a mind very differently influenced and therefore watching to very different effect saw nothing in the colonels behaviour but what arose from the most simple and selfevident sensations while in the actions and words of marianne she persuaded herself to think that something more than gratitude already dawned at the end of another day or two marianne growing visibly stronger every twelve hours mrs dashwood urged equally by her own and her daughters wishes began to talk of removing to barton on her measures depended those of her two friends mrs jennings could not quit cleveland during the dashwoods stay and colonel brandon was soon brought by their united request to consider his own abode there as equally determinate if not equally indispensable dashwood was prevailed on to accept the use of his carriage on her journey back for the better accommodation of her sick child and the colonel at the joint invitation of mrs jennings whose active goodnature made her friendly and hospitable for other people as well as herself engaged with pleasure to redeem it by a visit at the cottage in the course of a few weeks the day of separation and departure arrived and marianne after taking so particular and lengthened a leave of mrs jennings one so earnestly grateful so full of respect and kind wishes as seemed due to her own heart from a secret acknowledgment of past inattention and bidding colonel brandon farewell with a cordiality of a friend was carefully assisted by him into the carriage of which he seemed anxious that she should engross at least half dashwood and elinor then followed and the others were left by themselves to talk of the travellers and feel their own dullness till mrs jennings was summoned to her chaise to take comfort in the gossip of her maid for the loss of her two young companions and colonel brandon immediately afterwards took his solitary way to delaford the dashwoods were two days on the road and marianne bore her journey on both without essential fatigue every thing that the most zealous affection the most solicitous care could do to render her comfortable was the office of each watchful companion and each found their reward in her bodily ease and her calmness of spirits to elinor the observation of the latter was particularly grateful she who had seen her week after week so constantly suffering oppressed by anguish of heart which she had neither courage to speak of nor fortitude to conceal now saw with a joy which no other could equally share an apparent composure of mind which in being the result as she trusted of serious reflection must eventually lead her to contentment and cheerfulness as they approached barton indeed and entered on scenes of which every field and every tree brought some peculiar some painful recollection she grew silent and thoughtful and turning away her face from their notice sat earnestly gazing through the window but here elinor could neither wonder nor blame and when she saw as she assisted marianne from the carriage that she had been crying she saw only an emotion too natural in itself to raise any thing less tender than pity and in its unobtrusiveness entitled to praise in the whole of her subsequent manner she traced the direction of a mind awakened to reasonable exertion for no sooner had they entered their common sittingroom than marianne turned her eyes around it with a look of resolute firmness as if determined at once to accustom herself to the sight of every object with which the remembrance of willoughby could be connected she said little but every sentence aimed at cheerfulness and though a sigh sometimes escaped her it never passed away without the atonement of a smile
he was as much awake to the novelty of attention in that quarter as elizabeth herself could be and unconsciously closed his book he was directly invited to join their party but he declined it observing that he could imagine but two motives for their choosing to walk up and down the room together with either of which motives his joining them would interfere and asked elizabeth whether she could at all understand him not at all was her answer but depend upon it he means to be severe on us and our surest way of disappointing him will be to ask nothing about it miss bingley however was incapable of disappointing mr darcy in anything and persevered therefore in requiring an explanation of his two motives i have not the smallest objection to explaining them said he as soon as she allowed him to speak you either choose this method of passing the evening because you are in each others confidence and have secret affairs to discuss or because you are conscious that your figures appear to the greatest advantage in walking if the first i would be completely in your way and if the second i can admire you much better as i sit by the fire nothing so easy if you have but the inclination said elizabeth intimate as you are you must know how it is to be done i do assure you that my intimacy has not yet taught me that and as to laughter we will not expose ourselves if you please by attempting to laugh without a subject that is an uncommon advantage and uncommon i hope it will continue for it would be a great loss to me to have many such acquaintances miss bingley said he has given me more credit than can be the wisest and the best of mennay the wisest and best of their actionsmay be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke certainly replied elizabeththere are such people but i hope i am not one of them follies and nonsense whims and inconsistencies do divert me i own and i laugh at them whenever i can but these i suppose are precisely what you are without but it has been the study of my life to avoid those weaknesses which often expose a strong understanding to ridicule but pridewhere there is a real superiority of mind pride will be always under good regulation
i am so sorry we cannot stay longer however we shall meet again in town very soon i hope they were obliged to put an end to such an expectation palmer with a laugh i shall be quite disappointed if you do not i could get the nicest house in the world for you next door to ours in hanoversquare i am sure i shall be very happy to chaperon you at any time till i am confined if mrs they thanked her but were obliged to resist all her entreaties palmer to her husband who just then entered the roomyou must help me to persuade the miss dashwoods to go to town this winter  her love made no answer and after slightly bowing to the ladies began complaining of the weather such weather makes every thing and every body disgusting dullness is as much produced within doors as without by rain what the devil does sir john mean by not having a billiard room in his house i am afraid miss marianne said sir john you have not been able to take your usual walk to allenham today palmer for we know all about it i assure you and i admire your taste very much for i think he is extremely handsome we do not live a great way from him in the country you know i never was at his house but they say it is a sweet pretty place marianne remained perfectly silent though her countenance betrayed her interest in what was said palmerthen it must be some other place that is so pretty i suppose  when they were seated in the dining room sir john observed with regret that they were only eight all together my dear said he to his lady it is very provoking that we should be so few why did not you ask the gilberts to come to us today
 allow me by the way to observe my fair cousin that i do not reckon the notice and kindness of lady catherine de bourgh as among the least of the advantages in my power to offer you will find her manners beyond anything i can describe and your wit and vivacity i think must be acceptable to her especially when tempered with the silence and respect which her rank will inevitably excite thus much for my general intention in favour of matrimony it remains to be told why my views were directed towards longbourn instead of my own neighbourhood where i can assure you there are many amiable young women but the fact is that being as i am to inherit this estate after the death of your honoured father who however may live many years longer i could not satisfy myself without resolving to choose a wife from among his daughters that the loss to them might be as little as possible when the melancholy event takes placewhich however as i have already said may not be for several years this has been my motive my fair cousin and i flatter myself it will not sink me in your esteem and now nothing remains for me but to assure you in the most animated language of the violence of my affection to fortune i am perfectly indifferent and shall make no demand of that nature on your father since i am well aware that it could not be complied with and that one thousand pounds in the four per cents which will not be yours till after your mothers decease is all that you may ever be entitled to on that head therefore i shall be uniformly silent and you may assure yourself that no ungenerous reproach shall ever pass my lips when we are married accept my thanks for the compliment you are paying me i am very sensible of the honour of your proposals but it is impossible for me to do otherwise than to decline them collins with a formal wave of the hand that it is usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the man whom they secretly mean to accept when he first applies for their favour and that sometimes the refusal is repeated a second or even a third time i am therefore by no means discouraged by what you have just said and shall hope to lead you to the altar ere long upon my word sir cried elizabeth your hope is a rather extraordinary one after my declaration i do assure you that i am not one of those young ladies if such young ladies there are who are so daring as to risk their happiness on the chance of being asked a second time you could not make me happy and i am convinced that i am the last woman in the world who could make you so nay were your friend lady catherine to know me i am persuaded she would find me in every respect ill qualified for the situation were it certain that lady catherine would think so said mr collins very gravelybut i cannot imagine that her ladyship would at all disapprove of you and you may be certain when i have the honour of seeing her again i shall speak in the very highest terms of your modesty economy and other amiable qualification you must give me leave to judge for myself and pay me the compliment of believing what i say
pride observed mary who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections is a very common failing i believe by all that i have ever read i am convinced that it is very common indeed that human nature is particularly prone to it and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of selfcomplacency on the score of some quality or other real or imaginary vanity and pride are different things though the words are often used synonymously pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves vanity to what we would have others think of us darcy cried a young lucas who came with his sisters i should not care how proud i was i would keep a pack of foxhounds and drink a bottle of wine a day then you would drink a great deal more than you ought said mrs bennet and if i were to see you at it i should take away your bottle directly the boy protested that she should not she continued to declare that she would and the argument ended only with the visit chapter  the ladies of longbourn soon waited on those of netherfield miss bennets pleasing manners grew on the goodwill of mrs hurst and miss bingley and though the mother was found to be intolerable and the younger sisters not worth speaking to a wish of being better acquainted with them was expressed towards the two eldest by jane this attention was received with the greatest pleasure but elizabeth still saw superciliousness in their treatment of everybody hardly excepting even her sister and could not like them though their kindness to jane such as it was had a value as arising in all probability from the influence of their brothers admiration it was generally evident whenever they met that he did admire her and to her it was equally evident that jane was yielding to the preference which she had begun to entertain for him from the first and was in a way to be very much in love but she considered with pleasure that it was not likely to be discovered by the world in general since jane united with great strength of feeling a composure of temper and a uniform cheerfulness of manner which would guard her from the suspicions of the impertinent it may perhaps be pleasant replied charlotte to be able to impose on the public in such a case but it is sometimes a disadvantage to be so very guarded if a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it she may lose the opportunity of fixing him and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark there is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment that it is not safe to leave any to itself we can all begin freelya slight preference is natural enough but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement in nine cases out of ten a women had better show more affection than she feels bingley likes your sister undoubtedly but he may never do more than like her if she does not help him on
bingley was obliged to be in town the following day and consequently unable to accept the honour of their invitation etc she could not imagine what business he could have in town so soon after his arrival in hertfordshire and she began to fear that he might be always flying about from one place to another and never settled at netherfield as he ought to be lady lucas quieted her fears a little by starting the idea of his being gone to london only to get a large party for the ball and a report soon followed that mr bingley was to bring twelve ladies and seven gentlemen with him to the assembly the girls grieved over such a number of ladies but were comforted the day before the ball by hearing that instead of twelve he brought only six with him from londonhis five sisters and a cousin and when the party entered the assembly room it consisted of only five altogethermr bingley his two sisters the husband of the eldest and another young man bingley was goodlooking and gentlemanlike he had a pleasant countenance and easy unaffected manners his sisters were fine women with an air of decided fashion hurst merely looked the gentleman but his friend mr darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine tall person handsome features noble mien and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance of his having ten thousand a year the gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man the ladies declared he was much handsomer than mr bingley and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity for he was discovered to be proud to be above his company and above being pleased and not all his large estate in derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding disagreeable countenance and being unworthy to be compared with his friend bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal people in the room he was lively and unreserved danced every dance was angry that the ball closed so early and talked of giving one himself at netherfield hurst and once with miss bingley declined being introduced to any other lady and spent the rest of the evening in walking about the room speaking occasionally to one of his own party he was the proudest most disagreeable man in the world and everybody hoped that he would never come there again bennet whose dislike of his general behaviour was sharpened into particular resentment by his having slighted one of her daughters elizabeth bennet had been obliged by the scarcity of gentlemen to sit down for two dances and during part of that time mr darcy had been standing near enough for her to hear a conversation between him and mr bingley who came from the dance for a few minutes to press his friend to join it
she knew not the exact degree of his affection for his aunt or his dependence on her judgment but it was natural to suppose that he thought much higher of her ladyship than she could do and it was certain that in enumerating the miseries of a marriage with one whose immediate connections were so unequal to his own his aunt would address him on his weakest side with his notions of dignity he would probably feel that the arguments which to elizabeth had appeared weak and ridiculous contained much good sense and solid reasoning if he had been wavering before as to what he should do which had often seemed likely the advice and entreaty of so near a relation might settle every doubt and determine him at once to be as happy as dignity unblemished could make him lady catherine might see him in her way through town and his engagement to bingley of coming again to netherfield must give way if therefore an excuse for not keeping his promise should come to his friend within a few days she added i shall know how to understand it i shall then give over every expectation every wish of his constancy if he is satisfied with only regretting me when he might have obtained my affections and hand i shall soon cease to regret him at all      the surprise of the rest of the family on hearing who their visitor had been was very great but they obligingly satisfied it with the same kind of supposition which had appeased mrs bennets curiosity and elizabeth was spared from much teasing on the subject the next morning as she was going downstairs she was met by her father who came out of his library with a letter in his hand lizzy said he i was going to look for you come into my room she followed him thither and her curiosity to know what he had to tell her was heightened by the supposition of its being in some manner connected with the letter he held it suddenly struck her that it might be from lady catherine and she anticipated with dismay all the consequent explanations she followed her father to the fire place and they both sat down he then said i have received a letter this morning that has astonished me exceedingly as it principally concerns yourself you ought to know its contents i did not know before that i had two daughters on the brink of matrimony let me congratulate you on a very important conquest the colour now rushed into elizabeths cheeks in the instantaneous conviction of its being a letter from the nephew instead of the aunt and she was undetermined whether most to be pleased that he explained himself at all or offended that his letter was not rather addressed to herself when her father continued you look conscious young ladies have great penetration in such matters as these but i think i may defy even your sagacity to discover the name of your admirer
now especially there cannot bebut however you and marianne were always great favourites i am not sorry to see you alone he replied for i have a good deal to say to you i heard it yesterday by chance and was coming to you on purpose to enquire farther about it colonel brandon has given the living of delaford to edward very welland for the next presentation to a living of that valuesupposing the late incumbent to have been old and sickly and likely to vacate it soonhe might have got i dare sayfourteen hundred pounds and how came he not to have settled that matter before this persons death now indeed it would be too late to sell it but a man of colonel brandons sense i wonder he should be so improvident in a point of such common such natural concern well i am convinced that there is a vast deal of inconsistency in almost every human character i suppose howeveron recollectionthat the case may probably be this edward is only to hold the living till the person to whom the colonel has really sold the presentation is old enough to take it elinor contradicted it however very positively and by relating that she had herself been employed in conveying the offer from colonel brandon to edward and therefore must understand the terms on which it was given obliged him to submit to her authority he cried after hearing what she saidwhat could be the colonels motive well well whatever colonel brandon may be edward is a very lucky man you will not mention the matter to fanny however for though i have broke it to her and she bears it vastly wellshe will not like to hear it much talked of elinor had some difficulty here to refrain from observing that she thought fanny might have borne with composure an acquisition of wealth to her brother by which neither she nor her child could be possibly impoverished ferrars added he lowering his voice to the tone becoming so important a subject knows nothing about it at present and i believe it will be best to keep it entirely concealed from her as long as may be  when the marriage takes place i fear she must hear of it all ferrars can have the smallest satisfaction in knowing that her son has money enough to live uponfor that must be quite out of the question yet why upon her late behaviour is she supposed to feel at all she has done with her son she cast him off for ever and has made all those over whom she had any influence cast him off likewise
nomy marianne has not a heart to be made happy with such a man her conscience her sensitive conscience would have felt all that the conscience of her husband ought to have felt you consider the matter said elinor exactly as a good mind and a sound understanding must consider it and i dare say you perceive as well as myself not only in this but in many other circumstances reason enough to be convinced that your marriage must have involved you in many certain troubles and disappointments in which you would have been poorly supported by an affection on his side much less certain his expensiveness is acknowledged even by himself and his whole conduct declares that selfdenial is a word hardly understood by him his demands and your inexperience together on a small very small income must have brought on distresses which would not be the less grievous to you from having been entirely unknown and unthought of before your sense of honour and honesty would have led you i know when aware of your situation to attempt all the economy that would appear to you possible and perhaps as long as your frugality retrenched only on your own comfort you might have been suffered to practice it but beyond thatand how little could the utmost of your single management do to stop the ruin which had begun before your marriage  beyond that had you endeavoured however reasonably to abridge his enjoyments is it not to be feared that instead of prevailing on feelings so selfish to consent to it you would have lessened your own influence on his heart and made him regret the connection which had involved him in such difficulties mariannes lips quivered and she repeated the word selfish in a tone that implieddo you really think him selfish  the whole of his behaviour replied elinor from the beginning to the end of the affair has been grounded on selfishness it was selfishness which first made him sport with your affections which afterwards when his own were engaged made him delay the confession of it and which finally carried him from barton his own enjoyment or his own ease was in every particular his ruling principle at present continued elinor he regrets what he has done because he finds it has not answered towards himself his circumstances are now unembarrassedhe suffers from no evil of that kind and he thinks only that he has married a woman of a less amiable temper than yourself but does it follow that had he married you he would have been happy he would then have suffered under the pecuniary distresses which because they are removed he now reckons as nothing he would have had a wife of whose temper he could make no complaint but he would have been always necessitousalways poor and probably would soon have learned to rank the innumerable comforts of a clear estate and good income as of far more importance even to domestic happiness than the mere temper of a wife i have not a doubt of it said marianne and i have nothing to regretnothing but my own folly rather say your mothers imprudence my child said mrs
the time may come when harry will regret that so large a sum was parted with if he should have a numerous family for instance it would be a very convenient addition perhaps then it would be better for all parties if the sum were diminished one half five hundred pounds would be a prodigious increase to their fortunes what brother on earth would do half so much for his sisters even if really his sisters one had rather on such occasions do too much than too little no one at least can think i have not done enough for them even themselves they can hardly expect more there is no knowing what they may expect said the lady but we are not to think of their expectations the question is what you can afford to do certainlyand i think i may afford to give them five hundred pounds apiece as it is without any addition of mine they will each have about three thousand pounds on their mothers deatha very comfortable fortune for any young woman to be sure it is and indeed it strikes me that they can want no addition at all they will have ten thousand pounds divided amongst them if they marry they will be sure of doing well and if they do not they may all live very comfortably together on the interest of ten thousand pounds that is very true and therefore i do not know whether upon the whole it would not be more advisable to do something for their mother while she lives rather than for themsomething of the annuity kind i mean my sisters would feel the good effects of it as well as herself a hundred a year would make them all perfectly comfortable his wife hesitated a little however in giving her consent to this plan to be sure said she it is better than parting with fifteen hundred pounds at once dashwood should live fifteen years we shall be completely taken in my dear fanny her life cannot be worth half that purchase
elinor though never less disposed to speak than at that moment obliged herself to answer such an attack as this and therefore trying to smile replied and have you really maam talked yourself into a persuasion of my sisters being engaged to mr i thought it had been only a joke but so serious a question seems to imply more and i must beg therefore that you will not deceive yourself any longer i do assure you that nothing would surprise me more than to hear of their being going to be married dont we all know that it must be a match that they were over head and ears in love with each other from the first moment they met did not i see them together in devonshire every day and all day long and did not i know that your sister came to town with me on purpose to buy wedding clothes because you are so sly about it yourself you think nobody else has any senses but it is no such thing i can tell you for it has been known all over town this ever so long indeed maam said elinor very seriously you are mistaken indeed you are doing a very unkind thing in spreading the report and you will find that you have though you will not believe me now jennings laughed again but elinor had not spirits to say more and eager at all events to know what willoughby had written hurried away to their room where on opening the door she saw marianne stretched on the bed almost choked by grief one letter in her hand and two or three others laying by her elinor drew near but without saying a word and seating herself on the bed took her hand kissed her affectionately several times and then gave way to a burst of tears which at first was scarcely less violent than mariannes the latter though unable to speak seemed to feel all the tenderness of this behaviour and after some time thus spent in joint affliction she put all the letters into elinors hands and then covering her face with her handkerchief almost screamed with agony elinor who knew that such grief shocking as it was to witness it must have its course watched by her till this excess of suffering had somewhat spent itself and then turning eagerly to willoughbys letter read as follows bond street january my dear madam i have just had the honour of receiving your      letter for which i beg to return my sincere      acknowledgments i am much concerned to find there      was anything in my behaviour last night that did      not meet your approbation and though i am quite at      a loss to discover in what point i could be so      unfortunate as to offend you i entreat your      forgiveness of what i can assure you to have been      perfectly unintentional i shall never reflect on      my former acquaintance with your family in devonshire      without the most grateful pleasure and flatter      myself it will not be broken by any mistake or      misapprehension of my actions my esteem for your      whole family is very sincere but if i have been so      unfortunate as to give rise to a belief of more than      i felt or meant to express i shall reproach myself      for not having been more guarded in my professions      of that esteem that i should ever have meant more      you will allow to be impossible when you understand      that my affections have been long engaged elsewhere      and it will not be many weeks i believe before      this engagement is fulfilled it is with great      regret that i obey your commands in returning the      letters with which i have been honoured from you      and the lock of hair which you so obligingly bestowed      on me i am dear madam your most obedient                      humble servant john willoughby with what indignation such a letter as this must be read by miss dashwood may be imagined
we borrowed a wheelbarrow and embarking our things including my own poor carpetbag and queequegs canvas sack and hammock away we went down to the moss the little nantucket packet schooner moored at the wharf as we were going along the people stared not at queequeg so muchfor they were used to seeing cannibals like him in their streetsbut at seeing him and me upon such confidential terms but we heeded them not going along wheeling the barrow by turns and queequeg now and then stopping to adjust the sheath on his harpoon barbs i asked him why he carried such a troublesome thing with him ashore and whether all whaling ships did not find their own harpoons to this in substance he replied that though what i hinted was true enough yet he had a particular affection for his own harpoon because it was of assured stuff well tried in many a mortal combat and deeply intimate with the hearts of whales in short like many inland reapers and mowers who go into the farmers meadows armed with their own scythesthough in no wise obliged to furnish themeven so queequeg for his own private reasons preferred his own harpoon shifting the barrow from my hand to his he told me a funny story about the first wheelbarrow he had ever seen the owners of his ship it seems had lent him one in which to carry his heavy chest to his boarding house not to seem ignorant about the thingthough in truth he was entirely so concerning the precise way in which to manage the barrowqueequeg puts his chest upon it lashes it fast and then shoulders the barrow and marches up the wharf why said i queequeg you might have known better than that one would think the people of his island of rokovoko it seems at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl and this punchbowl always forms the great central ornament on the braided mat where the feast is held now a certain grand merchant ship once touched at rokovoko and its commanderfrom all accounts a very stately punctilious gentleman at least for a sea captainthis commander was invited to the wedding feast of queequegs sister a pretty young princess just turned of ten well when all the wedding guests were assembled at the brides bamboo cottage this captain marches in and being assigned the post of honour placed himself over against the punchbowl and between the high priest and his majesty the king queequegs father grace being saidfor those people have their grace as well as wethough queequeg told me that unlike us who at such times look downwards to our platters they on the contrary copying the ducks glance upwards to the great giver of all feastsgrace i say being said the high priest opens the banquet by the immemorial ceremony of the island that is dipping his consecrated and consecrating fingers into the bowl before the blessed beverage circulates seeing himself placed next the priest and noting the ceremony and thinking himselfbeing captain of a shipas having plain precedence over a mere island king especially in the kings own housethe captain coolly proceeds to wash his hands in the punchbowltaking it i suppose for a huge fingerglass at last passage paid and luggage safe we stood on board the schooner on one side new bedford rose in terraces of streets their icecovered trees all glittering in the clear cold air huge hills and mountains of casks on casks were piled upon her wharves and side by side the worldwandering whale ships lay silent and safely moored at last while from others came a sound of carpenters and coopers with blended noises of fires and forges to melt the pitch all betokening that new cruises were on the start that one most perilous and long voyage ended only begins a second and a second ended only begins a third and so on for ever and for aye such is the endlessness yea the intolerableness of all earthly effort gaining the more open water the bracing breeze waxed fresh the little moss tossed the quick foam from her bows as a young colt his snortings
the unmanufactured sperm oil possesses a singularly cleansing virtue this is the reason why the decks never look so white as just after what they call an affair of oil besides from the ashes of the burned scraps of the whale a potent lye is readily made and whenever any adhesiveness from the back of the whale remains clinging to the side that lye quickly exterminates it hands go diligently along the bulwarks and with buckets of water and rags restore them to their full tidiness all the numerous implements which have been in use are likewise faithfully cleansed and put away the great hatch is scrubbed and placed upon the tryworks completely hiding the pots every cask is out of sight all tackles are coiled in unseen nooks and when by the combined and simultaneous industry of almost the entire ships company the whole of this conscientious duty is at last concluded then the crew themselves proceed to their own ablutions shift themselves from top to toe and finally issue to the immaculate deck fresh and all aglow as bridegrooms newleaped from out the daintiest holland now with elated step they pace the planks in twos and threes and humorously discourse of parlors sofas carpets and fine cambrics propose to mat the deck think of having hanging to the top object not to taking tea by moonlight on the piazza of the forecastle to hint to such musked mariners of oil and bone and blubber were little short of audacity but mark aloft there at the three mast heads stand three men intent on spying out more whales which if caught infallibly will again soil the old oaken furniture and drop at least one small greasespot somewhere yes and many is the time when after the severest uninterrupted labors which know no night continuing straight through for ninetysix hours when from the boat where they have swelled their wrists with all day rowing on the linethey only step to the deck to carry vast chains and heave the heavy windlass and cut and slash yea and in their very sweatings to be smoked and burned anew by the combined fires of the equatorial sun and the equatorial tryworks when on the heel of all this they have finally bestirred themselves to cleanse the ship and make a spotless dairy room of it many is the time the poor fellows just buttoning the necks of their clean frocks are startled by the cry of there she blows and away they fly to fight another whale and go through the whole weary thing again for hardly have we mortals by long toilings extracted from this worlds vast bulk its small but valuable sperm and then with weary patience cleansed ourselves from its defilements and learned to live here in clean tabernacles of the soul hardly is this done whenthere she blows the ghost is spouted up and away we sail to fight some other world and go through young lifes old routine again pythagoras that in bright greece two thousand years ago did die so good so wise so mild i sailed with thee along the peruvian coast last voyageand foolish as i am taught thee a green simple boy how to splice a rope ere now it has been related how ahab was wont to pace his quarterdeck taking regular turns at either limit the binnacle and mainmast but in the multiplicity of other things requiring narration it has not been added how that sometimes in these walks when most plunged in his mood he was wont to pause in turn at each spot and stand there strangely eyeing the particular object before him when he halted before the binnacle with his glance fastened on the pointed needle in the compass that glance shot like a javelin with the pointed intensity of his purpose and when resuming his walk he again paused before the mainmast then as the same riveted glance fastened upon the riveted gold coin there he still wore the same aspect of nailed firmness only dashed with a certain wild longing if not hopefulness but one morning turning to pass the doubloon he seemed to be newly attracted by the strange figures and inscriptions stamped on it as though now for the first time beginning to interpret for himself in some monomaniac way whatever significance might lurk in them and some certain significance lurks in all things else all things are little worth and the round world itself but an empty cipher except to sell by the cartload as they do hills about boston to fill up some morass in the milky way now this doubloon was of purest virgin gold raked somewhere out of the heart of gorgeous hills whence east and west over golden sands the headwaters of many a pactolus flows and though now nailed amidst all the rustiness of iron bolts and the verdigris of copper spikes yet untouchable and immaculate to any foulness it still preserved its quito glow
her fears he had no courage no confidence to attempt the removal ofhe listened to them in silent despondencebut her difficulties were instantly obviated for with a readiness that seemed to speak the occasion and the service prearranged in his mind he offered himself as the messenger who should fetch mrs elinor made no resistance that was not easily overcome she thanked him with brief though fervent gratitude and while he went to hurry off his servant with a message to mr harris and an order for posthorses directly she wrote a few lines to her mother the comfort of such a friend at that moment as colonel brandonor such a companion for her motherhow gratefully was it felt a companion whose judgment would guide whose attendance must relieve and whose friendship might soothe her as far as the shock of such a summons could be lessened to her his presence his manners his assistance would lessen it he meanwhile whatever he might feel acted with all the firmness of a collected mind made every necessary arrangement with the utmost despatch and calculated with exactness the time in which she might look for his return the horses arrived even before they were expected and colonel brandon only pressing her hand with a look of solemnity and a few words spoken too low to reach her ear hurried into the carriage it was then about twelve oclock and she returned to her sisters apartment to wait for the arrival of the apothecary and to watch by her the rest of the night hour after hour passed away in sleepless pain and delirium on mariannes side and in the most cruel anxiety on elinors before mr her apprehensions once raised paid by their excess for all her former security and the servant who sat up with her for she would not allow mrs jennings to be called only tortured her more by hints of what her mistress had always thought mariannes ideas were still at intervals fixed incoherently on her mother and whenever she mentioned her name it gave a pang to the heart of poor elinor who reproaching herself for having trifled with so many days of illness and wretched for some immediate relief fancied that all relief might soon be in vain that every thing had been delayed too long and pictured to herself her suffering mother arriving too late to see this darling child or to see her rational harris or if he could not come for some other advice when the formerbut not till after five oclockarrived his opinion however made some little amends for his delay for though acknowledging a very unexpected and unpleasant alteration in his patient he would not allow the danger to be material and talked of the relief which a fresh mode of treatment must procure with a confidence which in a lesser degree was communicated to elinor he promised to call again in the course of three or four hours and left both the patient and her anxious attendant more composed than he had found them with strong concern and with many reproaches for not being called to their aid did mrs her former apprehensions now with greater reason restored left her no doubt of the event and though trying to speak comfort to elinor her conviction of her sisters danger would not allow her to offer the comfort of hope the rapid decay the early death of a girl so young so lovely as marianne must have struck a less interested person with concern
bennet before breakfast a conversation beginning with his parsonagehouse and leading naturally to the avowal of his hopes that a mistress might be found for it at longbourn produced from her amid very complaisant smiles and general encouragement a caution against the very jane he had fixed on as to her younger daughters she could not take upon her to sayshe could not positively answerbut she did not know of any prepossession her eldest daughter she must just mentionshe felt it incumbent on her to hint was likely to be very soon engaged collins had only to change from jane to elizabethand it was soon donedone while mrs elizabeth equally next to jane in birth and beauty succeeded her of course bennet treasured up the hint and trusted that she might soon have two daughters married and the man whom she could not bear to speak of the day before was now high in her good graces lydias intention of walking to meryton was not forgotten every sister except mary agreed to go with her and mr bennet who was most anxious to get rid of him and have his library to himself for thither mr collins had followed him after breakfast and there he would continue nominally engaged with one of the largest folios in the collection but really talking to mr bennet with little cessation of his house and garden at hunsford in his library he had been always sure of leisure and tranquillity and though prepared as he told elizabeth to meet with folly and conceit in every other room of the house he was used to be free from them there his civility therefore was most prompt in inviting mr collins being in fact much better fitted for a walker than a reader was extremely pleased to close his large book and go in pompous nothings on his side and civil assents on that of his cousins their time passed till they entered meryton the attention of the younger ones was then no longer to be gained by him their eyes were immediately wandering up in the street in quest of the officers and nothing less than a very smart bonnet indeed or a really new muslin in a shop window could recall them but the attention of every lady was soon caught by a young man whom they had never seen before of most gentlemanlike appearance walking with another officer on the other side of the way denny concerning whose return from london lydia came to inquire and he bowed as they passed all were struck with the strangers air all wondered who he could be and kitty and lydia determined if possible to find out led the way across the street under pretense of wanting something in an opposite shop and fortunately had just gained the pavement when the two gentlemen turning back had reached the same spot denny addressed them directly and entreated permission to introduce his friend mr wickham who had returned with him the day before from town and he was happy to say had accepted a commission in their corps this was exactly as it should be for the young man wanted only regimentals to make him completely charming
a broad white shadow rose from the sea by its quick fanning motion temporarily taking the breath out of the bodies of the oarsmen next instant the luckless mate so full of furious life was smitten bodily into the air and making a long arc in his descent fell into the sea at the distance of about fifty yards not a chip of the boat was harmed nor a hair of any oarsmans head but the mate for ever sank it is well to parenthesize here that of the fatal accidents in the spermwhale fishery this kind is perhaps almost as frequent as any sometimes nothing is injured but the man who is thus annihilated oftener the boats bow is knocked off or the thighboard in which the headsman stands is torn from its place and accompanies the body but strangest of all is the circumstance that in more instances than one when the body has been recovered not a single mark of violence is discernible the man being stark dead the whole calamity with the falling form of macey was plainly descried from the ship  gabriel called off the terrorstricken crew from the further hunting of the whale this terrible event clothed the archangel with added influence because his credulous disciples believed that he had specifically foreannounced it instead of only making a general prophecy which any one might have done and so have chanced to hit one of many marks in the wide margin allowed mayhew having concluded his narration ahab put such questions to him that the stranger captain could not forbear inquiring whether he intended to hunt the white whale if opportunity should offer  straightway then gabriel once more started to his feet glaring upon the old man and vehemently exclaimed with downward pointed fingerthink think of the blasphemerdead and down there  ahab stolidly turned aside then said to mayhew captain i have just bethought me of my letterbag there is a letter for one of thy officers if i mistake not every whaleship takes out a goodly number of letters for various ships whose delivery to the persons to whom they may be addressed depends upon the mere chance of encountering them in the four oceans thus most letters never reach their mark and many are only received after attaining an age of two or three years or more it was sorely tumbled damp and covered with a dull spotted green mould in consequence of being kept in a dark locker of the cabin of such a letter death himself might well have been the postboy as he was studying it out starbuck took a long cuttingspade pole and with his knife slightly split the end to insert the letter there and in that way hand it to the boat without its coming any closer to the ship harrya womans pinny handthe mans wife ill wagerayemr harry macey ship jeroboamwhy its macey and hes dead nay keep it thyself cried gabriel to ahab thou art soon going that way
i had hoped that our sentiments coincided in every particular but i must so far differ from you as to think our two youngest daughters uncommonly foolish bennet you must not expect such girls to have the sense of their father and mother when they get to our age i dare say they will not think about officers any more than we do i remember the time when i liked a red coat myself very welland indeed so i do still at my heart and if a smart young colonel with five or six thousand a year should want one of my girls i shall not say nay to him and i thought colonel forster looked very becoming the other night at sir williams in his regimentals mamma cried lydia my aunt says that colonel forster and captain carter do not go so often to miss watsons as they did when they first came she sees them now very often standing in clarkes library bennet was prevented replying by the entrance of the footman with a note for miss bennet it came from netherfield and the servant waited for an answer bennets eyes sparkled with pleasure and she was eagerly calling out while her daughter read well jane who is it from well jane make haste and tell us make haste my love it is from miss bingley said jane and then read it aloud my dear friend   if you are not so compassionate as to dine today with louisa and me we shall be in danger of hating each other for the rest of our lives for a whole days teteatete between two women can never end without a quarrel my brother and the gentlemen are to dine with the officers no my dear you had better go on horseback because it seems likely to rain and then you must stay all night that would be a good scheme said elizabeth if you were sure that they would not offer to send her home bingleys chaise to go to meryton and the hursts have no horses to theirs but my dear your father cannot spare the horses i am sure they are wanted in the farm much oftener than i can get them but if you have got them today said elizabeth my mothers purpose will be answered she did at last extort from her father an acknowledgment that the horses were engaged jane was therefore obliged to go on horseback and her mother attended her to the door with many cheerful prognostics of a bad day her hopes were answered jane had not been gone long before it rained hard
dashwood seemed actually working for her herself cherishing all her hopes and promoting all her views such an opportunity of being with edward and his family was above all things the most material to her interest and such an invitation the most gratifying to her feelings it was an advantage that could not be too gratefully acknowledged nor too speedily made use of and the visit to lady middleton which had not before had any precise limits was instantly discovered to have been always meant to end in two days time when the note was shown to elinor as it was within ten minutes after its arrival it gave her for the first time some share in the expectations of lucy for such a mark of uncommon kindness vouchsafed on so short an acquaintance seemed to declare that the goodwill towards her arose from something more than merely malice against herself and might be brought by time and address to do every thing that lucy wished her flattery had already subdued the pride of lady middleton and made an entry into the close heart of mrs john dashwood and these were effects that laid open the probability of greater the miss steeles removed to harley street and all that reached elinor of their influence there strengthened her expectation of the event sir john who called on them more than once brought home such accounts of the favour they were in as must be universally striking dashwood had never been so much pleased with any young women in her life as she was with them had given each of them a needle book made by some emigrant called lucy by her christian name and did not know whether she should ever be able to part with them at this point in the first and second editions volume ii ended palmer was so well at the end of a fortnight that her mother felt it no longer necessary to give up the whole of her time to her and contenting herself with visiting her once or twice a day returned from that period to her own home and her own habits in which she found the miss dashwoods very ready to resume their former share about the third or fourth morning after their being thus resettled in berkeley street mrs jennings on returning from her ordinary visit to mrs palmer entered the drawingroom where elinor was sitting by herself with an air of such hurrying importance as prepared her to hear something wonderful and giving her time only to form that idea began directly to justify it by saying lord palmers i found charlotte quite in a fuss about the child she was sure it was very illit cried and fretted and was all over pimples my dear says i it is nothing in the world but the red gum and nurse said just the same donavan was sent for and luckily he happened to just come in from harley street so he stepped over directly and as soon as ever mama he said just as we did that it was nothing in the world but the red gum and then charlotte was easy and so just as he was going away again it came into my head i am sure i do not know how i happened to think of it but it came into my head to ask him if there was any news so upon that he smirked and simpered and looked grave and seemed to know something or other and at last he said in a whisper for fear any unpleasant report should reach the young ladies under your care as to their sisters indisposition i think it advisable to say that i believe there is no great reason for alarm i hope mrs
the motive professed was his conviction of its being owing to himself that wickhams worthlessness had not been so well known as to make it impossible for any young woman of character to love or confide in him he generously imputed the whole to his mistaken pride and confessed that he had before thought it beneath him to lay his private actions open to the world he called it therefore his duty to step forward and endeavour to remedy an evil which had been brought on by himself if he had another motive i am sure it would never disgrace him he had been some days in town before he was able to discover them but he had something to direct his search which was more than we had and the consciousness of this was another reason for his resolving to follow us younge who was some time ago governess to miss darcy and was dismissed from her charge on some cause of disapprobation though he did not say what she then took a large house in edwardstreet and has since maintained herself by letting lodgings younge was he knew intimately acquainted with wickham and he went to her for intelligence of him as soon as he got to town but it was two or three days before he could get from her what he wanted she would not betray her trust i suppose without bribery and corruption for she really did know where her friend was to be found wickham indeed had gone to her on their first arrival in london and had she been able to receive them into her house they would have taken up their abode with her at length however our kind friend procured the wishedfor direction he saw wickham and afterwards insisted on seeing lydia his first object with her he acknowledged had been to persuade her to quit her present disgraceful situation and return to her friends as soon as they could be prevailed on to receive her offering his assistance as far as it would go but he found lydia absolutely resolved on remaining where she was she cared for none of her friends she wanted no help of his she would not hear of leaving wickham she was sure they should be married some time or other and it did not much signify when since such were her feelings it only remained he thought to secure and expedite a marriage which in his very first conversation with wickham he easily learnt had never been his design he confessed himself obliged to leave the regiment on account of some debts of honour which were very pressing and scrupled not to lay all the illconsequences of lydias flight on her own folly alone he meant to resign his commission immediately and as to his future situation he could conjecture very little about it
hussey postponing further scolding for the present ushered us into a little room and seating us at a table spread with the relics of a recently concluded repast turned round to us and saidclam or cod says i but thats a rather cold and clammy reception in the winter time aint it mrs but being in a great hurry to resume scolding the man in the purple shirt who was waiting for it in the entry and seeming to hear nothing but the word clam mrs hussey hurried towards an open door leading to the kitchen and bawling out clam for two disappeared queequeg said i do you think that we can make out a supper for us both on one clam however a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before us but when that smoking chowder came in the mystery was delightfully explained it was made of small juicy clams scarcely bigger than hazel nuts mixed with pounded ship biscuit and salted pork cut up into little flakes the whole enriched with butter and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt our appetites being sharpened by the frosty voyage and in particular queequeg seeing his favourite fishing food before him and the chowder being surpassingly excellent we despatched it with great expedition when leaning back a moment and bethinking me of mrs husseys clam and cod announcement i thought i would try a little experiment stepping to the kitchen door i uttered the word cod with great emphasis and resumed my seat in a few moments the savoury steam came forth again but with a different flavor and in good time a fine codchowder was placed before us we resumed business and while plying our spoons in the bowl thinks i to myself i wonder now if this here has any effect on the head whats that stultifying saying about chowderheaded people but look queequeg aint that a live eel in your bowl fishiest of all fishy places was the try pots which well deserved its name for the pots there were always boiling chowders chowder for breakfast and chowder for dinner and chowder for supper till you began to look for fishbones coming through your clothes the area before the house was paved with clamshells hussey wore a polished necklace of codfish vertebra and hosea hussey had his account books bound in superior old sharkskin there was a fishy flavor to the milk too which i could not at all account for till one morning happening to take a stroll along the beach among some fishermens boats i saw hoseas brindled cow feeding on fish remnants and marching along the sand with each foot in a cods decapitated head looking very slipshod i assure ye
stubb and flask mounted on them and passing additional lashings over the anchors there hanging no stubb you may pound that knot there as much as you please but you will never pound into me what you were just now saying and how long ago is it since you said the very contrary didnt you once say that whatever ship ahab sails in that ship should pay something extra on its insurance policy just as though it were loaded with powder barrels aft and boxes of lucifers forward ive part changed my flesh since that time why not my mind besides supposing we are loaded with powder barrels aft and lucifers forward how the devil could the lucifers get afire in this drenching spray here why my little man you have pretty red hair but you couldnt get afire now shake yourself youre aquarius or the waterbearer flask might fill pitchers at your coat collar dont you see then that for these extra risks the marine insurance companies have extra guarantees first take your leg off from the crown of the anchor here though so i can pass the rope now listen whats the mighty difference between holding a masts lightningrod in the storm and standing close by a mast that hasnt got any lightningrod at all in a storm dont you see you timberhead that no harm can come to the holder of the rod unless the mast is first struck not one ship in a hundred carries rods and ahabaye man and all of uswere in no more danger then in my poor opinion than all the crews in ten thousand ships now sailing the seas why you kingpost you i suppose you would have every man in the world go about with a small lightningrod running up the corner of his hat like a militia officers skewered feather and trailing behind like his sash yes when a fellows soaked through its hard to be sensible thats a fact seems to me we are lashing down these anchors now as if they were never going to be used again tying these two anchors here flask seems like tying a mans hands behind him i wonder flask whether the world is anchored anywhere if she is she swings with an uncommon long cable though so next to touching land lighting on deck is the most satisfactory they laugh at longtogs so flask but seems to me a long tailed coat ought always to be worn in all storms afloat
at times when closely pursued he will disgorge what are supposed to be the detached arms of the squid some of them thus exhibited exceeding twenty and thirty feet in length they fancy that the monster to which these arms belonged ordinarily clings by them to the bed of the ocean and that the sperm whale unlike other species is supplied with teeth in order to attack and tear it there seems some ground to imagine that the great kraken of bishop pontoppodan may ultimately resolve itself into squid the manner in which the bishop describes it as alternately rising and sinking with some other particulars he narrates in all this the two correspond but much abatement is necessary with respect to the incredible bulk he assigns it by some naturalists who have vaguely heard rumors of the mysterious creature here spoken of it is included among the class of cuttlefish to which indeed in certain external respects it would seem to belong but only as the anak of the tribe with reference to the whaling scene shortly to be described as well as for the better understanding of all similar scenes elsewhere presented i have here to speak of the magical sometimes horrible whaleline the line originally used in the fishery was of the best hemp slightly vapoured with tar not impregnated with it as in the case of ordinary ropes for while tar as ordinarily used makes the hemp more pliable to the ropemaker and also renders the rope itself more convenient to the sailor for common ship use yet not only would the ordinary quantity too much stiffen the whaleline for the close coiling to which it must be subjected but as most seamen are beginning to learn tar in general by no means adds to the ropes durability or strength however much it may give it compactness and gloss of late years the manilla rope has in the american fishery almost entirely superseded hemp as a material for whalelines for though not so durable as hemp it is stronger and far more soft and elastic and i will add since there is an aesthetics in all things is much more handsome and becoming to the boat than hemp hemp is a dusky dark fellow a sort of indian but manilla is as a goldenhaired circassian to behold the whaleline is only twothirds of an inch in thickness at first sight you would not think it so strong as it really is by experiment its one and fifty yarns will each suspend a weight of one hundred and twenty pounds so that the whole rope will bear a strain nearly equal to three tons in length the common sperm whaleline measures something over two hundred fathoms towards the stern of the boat it is spirally coiled away in the tub not like the wormpipe of a still though but so as to form one round cheeseshaped mass of densely bedded sheaves or layers of concentric spiralizations without any hollow but the heart or minute vertical tube formed at the axis of the cheese as the least tangle or kink in the coiling would in running out infallibly take somebodys arm leg or entire body off the utmost precaution is used in stowing the line in its tub some harpooneers will consume almost an entire morning in this business carrying the line high aloft and then reeving it downwards through a block towards the tub so as in the act of coiling to free it from all possible wrinkles and twists in the english boats two tubs are used instead of one the same line being continuously coiled in both tubs there is some advantage in this because these twintubs being so small they fit more readily into the boat and do not strain it so much whereas the american tub nearly three feet in diameter and of proportionate depth makes a rather bulky freight for a craft whose planks are but one halfinch in thickness for the bottom of the whaleboat is like critical ice which will bear up a considerable distributed weight but not very much of a concentrated one when the painted canvas cover is clapped on the american linetub the boat looks as if it were pulling off with a prodigious great weddingcake to present to the whales
in the first place it may be deemed almost superfluous to establish the fact that among people at large the business of whaling is not accounted on a level with what are called the liberal professions if a stranger were introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitan society it would but slightly advance the general opinion of his merits were he presented to the company as a harpooneer say and if in emulation of the naval officers he should append the initials s sperm whale fishery to his visiting card such a procedure would be deemed preeminently presuming and ridiculous doubtless one leading reason why the world declines honouring us whalemen is this they think that at best our vocation amounts to a butchering sort of business and that when actively engaged therein we are surrounded by all manner of defilements but butchers also and butchers of the bloodiest badge have been all martial commanders whom the world invariably delights to honour and as for the matter of the alleged uncleanliness of our business ye shall soon be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally unknown and which upon the whole will triumphantly plant the sperm whaleship at least among the cleanliest things of this tidy earth but even granting the charge in question to be true what disordered slippery decks of a whaleship are comparable to the unspeakable carrion of those battlefields from which so many soldiers return to drink in all ladies plaudits and if the idea of peril so much enhances the popular conceit of the soldiers profession let me assure ye that many a veteran who has freely marched up to a battery would quickly recoil at the apparition of the sperm whales vast tail fanning into eddies the air over his head for what are the comprehensible terrors of man compared with the interlinked terrors and wonders of god but though the world scouts at us whale hunters yet does it unwittingly pay us the profoundest homage yea an allabounding adoration for almost all the tapers lamps and candles that burn round the globe burn as before so many shrines to our glory but look at this matter in other lights weigh it in all sorts of scales see what we whalemen are and have been why did the dutch in de witts time have admirals of their whaling fleets of france at his own personal expense fit out whaling ships from dunkirk and politely invite to that town some score or two of families from our own island of nantucket why did britain between the years  and  pay to her whalemen in bounties upwards of l and lastly how comes it that we whalemen of america now outnumber all the rest of the banded whalemen in the world sail a navy of upwards of seven hundred vessels manned by eighteen thousand men yearly consuming  of dollars the ships worth at the time of sailing  and every year importing into our harbors a well reaped harvest of  how comes all this if there be not something puissant in whaling i freely assert that the cosmopolite philosopher cannot for his life point out one single peaceful influence which within the last sixty years has operated more potentially upon the whole broad world taken in one aggregate than the high and mighty business of whaling one way and another it has begotten events so remarkable in themselves and so continuously momentous in their sequential issues that whaling may well be regarded as that egyptian mother who bore offspring themselves pregnant from her womb
elizabeth particularly who knew that her mother owed to the latter the preservation of her favourite daughter from irremediable infamy was hurt and distressed to a most painful degree by a distinction so ill applied gardiner did a question which she could not answer without confusion said scarcely anything he was not seated by her perhaps that was the reason of his silence but it had not been so in derbyshire there he had talked to her friends when he could not to herself but now several minutes elapsed without bringing the sound of his voice and when occasionally unable to resist the impulse of curiosity she raised her eyes to his face she as often found him looking at jane as at herself and frequently on no object but the ground more thoughtfulness and less anxiety to please than when they last met were plainly expressed she was disappointed and angry with herself for being so she was in no humour for conversation with anyone but himself and to him she had hardly courage to speak i began to be afraid you would never come back again people did say you meant to quit the place entirely at michaelmas but however i hope it is not true a great many changes have happened in the neighbourhood since you went away i suppose you have heard of it indeed you must have seen it in the papers it was in the times and the courier i know though it was not put in as it ought to be to miss lydia bennet without there being a syllable said of her father or the place where she lived or anything it was my brother gardiners drawing up too and i wonder how he came to make such an awkward business of it bingley replied that he did and made his congratulations it is a delightful thing to be sure to have a daughter well married continued her mother but at the same time mr bingley it is very hard to have her taken such a way from me they are gone down to newcastle a place quite northward it seems and there they are to stay i do not know how long his regiment is there for i suppose you have heard of his leaving the shire and of his being gone into the regulars
to be sure continued lucy after a few minutes silence on both sides his mother must provide for him sometime or other but poor edward is so cast down by it did you not think him dreadful lowspirited when he was at barton he was so miserable when he left us at longstaple to go to you that i was afraid you would think him quite ill did he come from your uncles then when he visited us no replied elinor most feelingly sensible of every fresh circumstance in favour of lucys veracity i remember he told us that he had been staying a fortnight with some friends near plymouth she remembered too her own surprise at the time at his mentioning nothing farther of those friends at his total silence with respect even to their names we did indeed particularly so when he first arrived i begged him to exert himself for fear you should suspect what was the matter but it made him so melancholy not being able to stay more than a fortnight with us and seeing me so much affected i am afraid it is just the same with him now for he writes in wretched spirits i heard from him just before i left exeter taking a letter from her pocket and carelessly showing the direction to elinor you know his hand i dare say a charming one it is but that is not written so well as usual he was tired i dare say for he had just filled the sheet to me as full as possible elinor saw that it was his hand and she could doubt no longer this picture she had allowed herself to believe might have been accidentally obtained it might not have been edwards gift but a correspondence between them by letter could subsist only under a positive engagement could be authorised by nothing else for a few moments she was almost overcomeher heart sunk within her and she could hardly stand but exertion was indispensably necessary and she struggled so resolutely against the oppression of her feelings that her success was speedy and for the time complete writing to each other said lucy returning the letter into her pocket is the only comfort we have in such long separations yes i have one other comfort in his picture but poor edward has not even that i gave him a lock of my hair set in a ring when he was at longstaple last and that was some comfort to him he said but not equal to a picture i did said elinor with a composure of voice under which was concealed an emotion and distress beyond any thing she had ever felt before fortunately for her they had now reached the cottage and the conversation could be continued no farther after sitting with them a few minutes the miss steeles returned to the park and elinor was then at liberty to think and be wretched
steady to his purpose he scarcely spoke ten words to her through the whole of saturday and though they were at one time left by themselves for halfanhour he adhered most conscientiously to his book and would not even look at her on sunday after morning service the separation so agreeable to almost all took place miss bingleys civility to elizabeth increased at last very rapidly as well as her affection for jane and when they parted after assuring the latter of the pleasure it would always give her to see her either at longbourn or netherfield and embracing her most tenderly she even shook hands with the former elizabeth took leave of the whole party in the liveliest of spirits they were not welcomed home very cordially by their mother bennet wondered at their coming and thought them very wrong to give so much trouble and was sure jane would have caught cold again but their father though very laconic in his expressions of pleasure was really glad to see them he had felt their importance in the family circle the evening conversation when they were all assembled had lost much of its animation and almost all its sense by the absence of jane and elizabeth they found mary as usual deep in the study of thoroughbass and human nature and had some extracts to admire and some new observations of threadbare morality to listen to catherine and lydia had information for them of a different sort much had been done and much had been said in the regiment since the preceding wednesday several of the officers had dined lately with their uncle a private had been flogged and it had actually been hinted that colonel forster was going to be married bennet to his wife as they were at breakfast the next morning that you have ordered a good dinner today because i have reason to expect an addition to our family party i know of nobody that is coming i am sure unless charlotte lucas should happen to call inand i hope my dinners are good enough for her the person of whom i speak is a gentleman and a stranger lydia my love ring the belli must speak to hill this moment bingley said her husband it is a person whom i never saw in the whole course of my life this roused a general astonishment and he had the pleasure of being eagerly questioned by his wife and his five daughters at once after amusing himself some time with their curiosity he thus explained about a month ago i received this letter and about a fortnight ago i answered it for i thought it a case of some delicacy and requiring early attention collins who when i am dead may turn you all out of this house as soon as he pleases my dear cried his wife i cannot bear to hear that mentioned
he would say the most terrific things to his crew in a tone so strangely compounded of fun and fury and the fury seemed so calculated merely as a spice to the fun that no oarsman could hear such queer invocations without pulling for dear life and yet pulling for the mere joke of the thing besides he all the time looked so easy and indolent himself so loungingly managed his steeringoar and so broadly gapedopenmouthed at timesthat the mere sight of such a yawning commander by sheer force of contrast acted like a charm upon the crew then again stubb was one of those odd sort of humorists whose jollity is sometimes so curiously ambiguous as to put all inferiors on their guard in the matter of obeying them in obedience to a sign from ahab starbuck was now pulling obliquely across stubbs bow and when for a minute or so the two boats were pretty near to each other stubb hailed the mate returned starbuck turning round not a single inch as he spoke still earnestly but whisperingly urging his crew his face set like a flint from stubbs  in a whisper to his crew then speaking out loud again a sad business mr aye aye i thought as much soliloquized stubb when the boats diverged as soon as i clapt eye on em i thought so aye and thats what he went into the after hold for so often as doughboy long suspected now the advent of these outlandish strangers at such a critical instant as the lowering of the boats from the deck this had not unreasonably awakened a sort of superstitious amazement in some of the ships company but archys fancied discovery having some time previous got abroad among them though indeed not credited then this had in some small measure prepared them for the event it took off the extreme edge of their wonder and so what with all this and stubbs confident way of accounting for their appearance they were for the time freed from superstitious surmisings though the affair still left abundant room for all manner of wild conjectures as to dark ahabs precise agency in the matter from the beginning for me i silently recalled the mysterious shadows i had seen creeping on board the pequod during the dim nantucket dawn as well as the enigmatical hintings of the unaccountable elijah meantime ahab out of hearing of his officers having sided the furthest to windward was still ranging ahead of the other boats a circumstance bespeaking how potent a crew was pulling him those tiger yellow creatures of his seemed all steel and whalebone like five triphammers they rose and fell with regular strokes of strength which periodically started the boat along the water like a horizontal burst boiler out of a mississippi steamer as for fedallah who was seen pulling the harpooneer oar he had thrown aside his black jacket and displayed his naked chest with the whole part of his body above the gunwale clearly cut against the alternating depressions of the watery horizon while at the other end of the boat ahab with one arm like a fencers thrown half backward into the air as if to counterbalance any tendency to trip ahab was seen steadily managing his steering oar as in a thousand boat lowerings ere the white whale had torn him all at once the outstretched arm gave a peculiar motion and then remained fixed while the boats five oars were seen simultaneously peaked instantly the three spread boats in the rear paused on their way the whales had irregularly settled bodily down into the blue thus giving no distantly discernible token of the movement though from his closer vicinity ahab had observed it nimbly springing up on the triangular raised box in the bow the savage stood erect there and with intensely eager eyes gazed off towards the spot where the chase had last been descried likewise upon the extreme stern of the boat where it was also triangularly platformed level with the gunwale starbuck himself was seen coolly and adroitly balancing himself to the jerking tossings of his chip of a craft and silently eyeing the vast blue eye of the sea not very far distant flasks boat was also lying breathlessly still its commander recklessly standing upon the top of the loggerhead a stout sort of post rooted in the keel and rising some two feet above the level of the stern platform
on this point she was soon satisfied and two or three little circumstances occurred ere they parted which in her anxious interpretation denoted a recollection of jane not untinctured by tenderness and a wish of saying more that might lead to the mention of her had he dared he observed to her at a moment when the others were talking together and in a tone which had something of real regret that it was a very long time since he had had the pleasure of seeing her and before she could reply he added it is above eight months we have not met since the th of november when we were all dancing together at netherfield elizabeth was pleased to find his memory so exact and he afterwards took occasion to ask her when unattended to by any of the rest whether all her sisters were at longbourn there was not much in the question nor in the preceding remark but there was a look and a manner which gave them meaning it was not often that she could turn her eyes on mr darcy himself but whenever she did catch a glimpse she saw an expression of general complaisance and in all that he said she heard an accent so removed from hauteur or disdain of his companions as convinced her that the improvement of manners which she had yesterday witnessed however temporary its existence might prove had at least outlived one day when she saw him thus seeking the acquaintance and courting the good opinion of people with whom any intercourse a few months ago would have been a disgracewhen she saw him thus civil not only to herself but to the very relations whom he had openly disdained and recollected their last lively scene in hunsford parsonagethe difference the change was so great and struck so forcibly on her mind that she could hardly restrain her astonishment from being visible never even in the company of his dear friends at netherfield or his dignified relations at rosings had she seen him so desirous to please so free from selfconsequence or unbending reserve as now when no importance could result from the success of his endeavours and when even the acquaintance of those to whom his attentions were addressed would draw down the ridicule and censure of the ladies both of netherfield and rosings their visitors stayed with them above halfanhour and when they arose to depart mr darcy called on his sister to join him in expressing their wish of seeing mr gardiner and miss bennet to dinner at pemberley before they left the country miss darcy though with a diffidence which marked her little in the habit of giving invitations readily obeyed gardiner looked at her niece desirous of knowing how she whom the invitation most concerned felt disposed as to its acceptance but elizabeth had turned away her head presuming however that this studied avoidance spoke rather a momentary embarrassment than any dislike of the proposal and seeing in her husband who was fond of society a perfect willingness to accept it she ventured to engage for her attendance and the day after the next was fixed on bingley expressed great pleasure in the certainty of seeing elizabeth again having still a great deal to say to her and many inquiries to make after all their hertfordshire friends elizabeth construing all this into a wish of hearing her speak of her sister was pleased and on this account as well as some others found herself when their visitors left them capable of considering the last halfhour with some satisfaction though while it was passing the enjoyment of it had been little eager to be alone and fearful of inquiries or hints from her uncle and aunt she stayed with them only long enough to hear their favourable opinion of bingley and then hurried away to dress gardiners curiosity it was not their wish to force her communication it was evident that she was much better acquainted with mr
collins devoted his morning to driving him out in his gig and showing him the country but when he went away the whole family returned to their usual employments and elizabeth was thankful to find that they did not see more of her cousin by the alteration for the chief of the time between breakfast and dinner was now passed by him either at work in the garden or in reading and writing and looking out of the window in his own bookroom which fronted the road elizabeth had at first rather wondered that charlotte should not prefer the diningparlour for common use it was a better sized room and had a more pleasant aspect but she soon saw that her friend had an excellent reason for what she did for mr collins would undoubtedly have been much less in his own apartment had they sat in one equally lively and she gave charlotte credit for the arrangement from the drawingroom they could distinguish nothing in the lane and were indebted to mr collins for the knowledge of what carriages went along and how often especially miss de bourgh drove by in her phaeton which he never failed coming to inform them of though it happened almost every day she not unfrequently stopped at the parsonage and had a few minutes conversation with charlotte but was scarcely ever prevailed upon to get out collins did not walk to rosings and not many in which his wife did not think it necessary to go likewise and till elizabeth recollected that there might be other family livings to be disposed of she could not understand the sacrifice of so many hours now and then they were honoured with a call from her ladyship and nothing escaped her observation that was passing in the room during these visits she examined into their employments looked at their work and advised them to do it differently found fault with the arrangement of the furniture or detected the housemaid in negligence and if she accepted any refreshment seemed to do it only for the sake of finding out that mrs collinss joints of meat were too large for her family elizabeth soon perceived that though this great lady was not in commission of the peace of the county she was a most active magistrate in her own parish the minutest concerns of which were carried to her by mr collins and whenever any of the cottagers were disposed to be quarrelsome discontented or too poor she sallied forth into the village to settle their differences silence their complaints and scold them into harmony and plenty the entertainment of dining at rosings was repeated about twice a week and allowing for the loss of sir william and there being only one cardtable in the evening every such entertainment was the counterpart of the first their other engagements were few as the style of living in the neighbourhood in general was beyond mr this however was no evil to elizabeth and upon the whole she spent her time comfortably enough there were halfhours of pleasant conversation with charlotte and the weather was so fine for the time of year that she had often great enjoyment out of doors her favourite walk and where she frequently went while the others were calling on lady catherine was along the open grove which edged that side of the park where there was a nice sheltered path which no one seemed to value but herself and where she felt beyond the reach of lady catherines curiosity in this quiet way the first fortnight of her visit soon passed away easter was approaching and the week preceding it was to bring an addition to the family at rosings which in so small a circle must be important darcy was expected there in the course of a few weeks and though there were not many of her acquaintances whom she did not prefer his coming would furnish one comparatively new to look at in their rosings parties and she might be amused in seeing how hopeless miss bingleys designs on him were by his behaviour to his cousin for whom he was evidently destined by lady catherine who talked of his coming with the greatest satisfaction spoke of him in terms of the highest admiration and seemed almost angry to find that he had already been frequently seen by miss lucas and herself collins was walking the whole morning within view of the lodges opening into hunsford lane in order to have the earliest assurance of it and after making his bow as the carriage turned into the park hurried home with the great intelligence
it was about nine oclock at night that the pequods tryworks were first started on this present voyage this was an easy thing for the carpenter had been thrusting his shavings into the furnace throughout the passage here be it said that in a whaling voyage the first fire in the tryworks has to be fed for a time with wood after that no wood is used except as a means of quick ignition to the staple fuel in a word after being tried out the crisp shrivelled blubber now called scraps or fritters still contains considerable of its unctuous properties like a plethoric burning martyr or a selfconsuming misanthrope once ignited the whale supplies his own fuel and burns by his own body for his smoke is horrible to inhale and inhale it you must and not only that but you must live in it for the time it has an unspeakable wild hindoo odor about it such as may lurk in the vicinity of funereal pyres it smells like the left wing of the day of judgment it is an argument for the pit we were clear from the carcase sail had been made the wind was freshening the wild ocean darkness was intense but that darkness was licked up by the fierce flames which at intervals forked forth from the sooty flues and illuminated every lofty rope in the rigging as with the famed greek fire the burning ship drove on as if remorselessly commissioned to some vengeful deed so the pitch and sulphurfreighted brigs of the bold hydriote canaris issuing from their midnight harbors with broad sheets of flame for sails bore down upon the turkish frigates and folded them in conflagrations the hatch removed from the top of the works now afforded a wide hearth in front of them standing on this were the tartarean shapes of the pagan harpooneers always the whaleships stokers with huge pronged poles they pitched hissing masses of blubber into the scalding pots or stirred up the fires beneath till the snaky flames darted curling out of the doors to catch them by the feet to every pitch of the ship there was a pitch of the boiling oil which seemed all eagerness to leap into their faces opposite the mouth of the works on the further side of the wide wooden hearth was the windlass here lounged the watch when not otherwise employed looking into the red heat of the fire till their eyes felt scorched in their heads their tawny features now all begrimed with smoke and sweat their matted beards and the contrasting barbaric brilliancy of their teeth all these were strangely revealed in the capricious emblazonings of the works
the hand of fate had snatched all their souls and by the stirring perils of the previous day the rack of the past nights suspense the fixed unfearing blind reckless way in which their wild craft went plunging towards its flying mark by all these things their hearts were bowled along the wind that made great bellies of their sails and rushed the vessel on by arms invisible as irresistible this seemed the symbol of that unseen agency which so enslaved them to the race for as the one ship that held them all though it was put together of all contrasting thingsoak and maple and pine wood iron and pitch and hempyet all these ran into each other in the one concrete hull which shot on its way both balanced and directed by the long central keel even so all the individualities of the crew this mans valor that mans fear guilt and guiltiness all varieties were welded into oneness and were all directed to that fatal goal which ahab their one lord and keel did point to the mastheads like the tops of tall palms were outspreadingly tufted with arms and legs clinging to a spar with one hand some reached forth the other with impatient wavings others shading their eyes from the vivid sunlight sat far out on the rocking yards all the spars in full bearing of mortals ready and ripe for their fate how they still strove through that infinite blueness to seek out the thing that might destroy them cried ahab when after the lapse of some minutes since the first cry no more had been heard sway me up men ye have been deceived not moby dick casts one odd jet that way and then disappears it was even so in their headlong eagerness the men had mistaken some other thing for the whalespout as the event itself soon proved for hardly had ahab reached his perch hardly was the rope belayed to its pin on deck when he struck the keynote to an orchestra that made the air vibrate as with the combined discharges of rifles the triumphant halloo of thirty buckskin lungs was heard asmuch nearer to the ship than the place of the imaginary jet less than a mile aheadmoby dick bodily burst into view for not by any calm and indolent spoutings not by the peaceable gush of that mystic fountain in his head did the white whale now reveal his vicinity but by the far more wondrous phenomenon of breaching rising with his utmost velocity from the furthest depths the sperm whale thus booms his entire bulk into the pure element of air and piling up a mountain of dazzling foam shows his place to the distance of seven miles and more in those moments the torn enraged waves he shakes off seem his mane in some cases this breaching is his act of defiance was the cry as in his immeasurable bravadoes the white whale tossed himself salmonlike to heaven so suddenly seen in the blue plain of the sea and relieved against the still bluer margin of the sky the spray that he raised for the moment intolerably glittered and glared like a glacier and stood there gradually fading and fading away from its first sparkling intensity to the dim mistiness of an advancing shower in a vale unmindful of the tedious ropeladders of the shrouds the men like shooting stars slid to the deck by the isolated backstays and halyards while ahab less dartingly but still rapidly was dropped from his perch lower away he cried so soon as he had reached his boata spare one rigged the afternoon previous starbuck the ship is thinekeep away from the boats but keep near them as if to strike a quick terror into them by this time being the first assailant himself moby dick had turned and was now coming for the three crews ahabs boat was central and cheering his men he told them he would take the whale headandheadthat is pull straight up to his foreheada not uncommon thing for when within a certain limit such a course excludes the coming onset from the whales sidelong vision
lady middleton frequently called him to order wondered how any ones attention could be diverted from music for a moment and asked marianne to sing a particular song which marianne had just finished colonel brandon alone of all the party heard her without being in raptures he paid her only the compliment of attention and she felt a respect for him on the occasion which the others had reasonably forfeited by their shameless want of taste his pleasure in music though it amounted not to that ecstatic delight which alone could sympathize with her own was estimable when contrasted against the horrible insensibility of the others and she was reasonable enough to allow that a man of five and thirty might well have outlived all acuteness of feeling and every exquisite power of enjoyment she was perfectly disposed to make every allowance for the colonels advanced state of life which humanity required she had only two daughters both of whom she had lived to see respectably married and she had now therefore nothing to do but to marry all the rest of the world in the promotion of this object she was zealously active as far as her ability reached and missed no opportunity of projecting weddings among all the young people of her acquaintance she was remarkably quick in the discovery of attachments and had enjoyed the advantage of raising the blushes and the vanity of many a young lady by insinuations of her power over such a young man and this kind of discernment enabled her soon after her arrival at barton decisively to pronounce that colonel brandon was very much in love with marianne dashwood she rather suspected it to be so on the very first evening of their being together from his listening so attentively while she sang to them and when the visit was returned by the middletons dining at the cottage the fact was ascertained by his listening to her again it would be an excellent match for he was rich and she was handsome jennings had been anxious to see colonel brandon well married ever since her connection with sir john first brought him to her knowledge and she was always anxious to get a good husband for every pretty girl the immediate advantage to herself was by no means inconsiderable for it supplied her with endless jokes against them both at the park she laughed at the colonel and in the cottage at marianne to the former her raillery was probably as far as it regarded only himself perfectly indifferent but to the latter it was at first incomprehensible and when its object was understood she hardly knew whether most to laugh at its absurdity or censure its impertinence for she considered it as an unfeeling reflection on the colonels advanced years and on his forlorn condition as an old bachelor dashwood who could not think a man five years younger than herself so exceedingly ancient as he appeared to the youthful fancy of her daughter ventured to clear mrs jennings from the probability of wishing to throw ridicule on his age but at least mama you cannot deny the absurdity of the accusation though you may not think it intentionally illnatured jennings but he is old enough to be my father and if he were ever animated enough to be in love must have long outlived every sensation of the kind when is a man to be safe from such wit if age and infirmity will not protect him i can easily suppose that his age may appear much greater to you than to my mother but you can hardly deceive yourself as to his having the use of his limbs
ever since young stiggs coming from that unfortnt vyge of his when he was gone four years and a half with only three barrels of ile was found dead in my first floor back with his harpoon in his side ever since then i allow no boarders to take sich dangerous weepons in their rooms at night queequeg for she had learned his name i will just take this here iron and keep it for you till morning but the chowder clam or cod tomorrow for breakfast men both says i and lets have a couple of smoked herring by way of variety but to my surprise and no small concern queequeg now gave me to understand that he had been diligently consulting yojothe name of his black little godand yojo had told him two or three times over and strongly insisted upon it everyway that instead of our going together among the whalingfleet in harbor and in concert selecting our craft instead of this i say yojo earnestly enjoined that the selection of the ship should rest wholly with me inasmuch as yojo purposed befriending us and in order to do so had already pitched upon a vessel which if left to myself i ishmael should infallibly light upon for all the world as though it had turned out by chance and in that vessel i must immediately ship myself for the present irrespective of queequeg i have forgotten to mention that in many things queequeg placed great confidence in the excellence of yojos judgment and surprising forecast of things and cherished yojo with considerable esteem as a rather good sort of god who perhaps meant well enough upon the whole but in all cases did not succeed in his benevolent designs now this plan of queequegs or rather yojos touching the selection of our craft i did not like that plan at all i had not a little relied upon queequegs sagacity to point out the whaler best fitted to carry us and our fortunes securely but as all my remonstrances produced no effect upon queequeg i was obliged to acquiesce and accordingly prepared to set about this business with a determined rushing sort of energy and vigor that should quickly settle that trifling little affair next morning early leaving queequeg shut up with yojo in our little bedroomfor it seemed that it was some sort of lent or ramadan or day of fasting humiliation and prayer with queequeg and yojo that day how it was i never could find out for though i applied myself to it several times i never could master his liturgies and xxxix articlesleaving queequeg then fasting on his tomahawk pipe and yojo warming himself at his sacrificial fire of shavings i sallied out among the shipping after much prolonged sauntering and many random inquiries i learnt that there were three ships up for threeyears voyagesthe devildam the titbit and the pequod devildam i do not know the origin of titbit is obvious pequod you will no doubt remember was the name of a celebrated tribe of massachusetts indians now extinct as the ancient medes i peered and pryed about the devildam from her hopped over to the titbit and finally going on board the pequod looked around her for a moment and then decided that this was the very ship for us you may have seen many a quaint craft in your day for aught i knowsquaretoed luggers mountainous japanese junks butterbox galliots and what not but take my word for it you never saw such a rare old craft as this same rare old pequod she was a ship of the old school rather small if anything with an oldfashioned clawfooted look about her long seasoned and weatherstained in the typhoons and calms of all four oceans her old hulls complexion was darkened like a french grenadiers who has alike fought in egypt and siberia her mastscut somewhere on the coast of japan where her original ones were lost overboard in a galeher masts stood stiffly up like the spines of the three old kings of cologne her ancient decks were worn and wrinkled like the pilgrimworshipped flagstone in canterbury cathedral where becket bled but to all these her old antiquities were added new and marvellous features pertaining to the wild business that for more than half a century she had followed old captain peleg many years her chiefmate before he commanded another vessel of his own and now a retired seaman and one of the principal owners of the pequodthis old peleg during the term of his chiefmateship had built upon her original grotesqueness and inlaid it all over with a quaintness both of material and device unmatched by anything except it be thorkillhakes carved buckler or bedstead
the first halfhour was spent in piling up the fire lest she should suffer from the change of room and she removed at his desire to the other side of the fireplace that she might be further from the door he then sat down by her and talked scarcely to anyone else elizabeth at work in the opposite corner saw it all with great delight hurst reminded his sisterinlaw of the cardtablebut in vain she assured him that no one intended to play and the silence of the whole party on the subject seemed to justify her hurst had therefore nothing to do but to stretch himself on one of the sofas and go to sleep darcy took up a book miss bingley did the same and mrs hurst principally occupied in playing with her bracelets and rings joined now and then in her brothers conversation with miss bennet miss bingleys attention was quite as much engaged in watching mr darcys progress through his book as in reading her own and she was perpetually either making some inquiry or looking at his page she could not win him however to any conversation he merely answered her question and read on at length quite exhausted by the attempt to be amused with her own book which she had only chosen because it was the second volume of his she gave a great yawn and said how pleasant it is to spend an evening in this way i declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading how much sooner one tires of anything than of a book when i have a house of my own i shall be miserable if i have not an excellent library she then yawned again threw aside her book and cast her eyes round the room in quest for some amusement when hearing her brother mentioning a ball to miss bennet she turned suddenly towards him and said by the bye charles are you really serious in meditating a dance at netherfield i would advise you before you determine on it to consult the wishes of the present party i am much mistaken if there are not some among us to whom a ball would be rather a punishment than a pleasure if you mean darcy cried her brother he may go to bed if he chooses before it beginsbut as for the ball it is quite a settled thing and as soon as nicholls has made white soup enough i shall send round my cards i should like balls infinitely better she replied if they were carried on in a different manner but there is something insufferably tedious in the usual process of such a meeting it would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing were made the order of the day
janes delicate sense of honour would not allow her to speak to elizabeth privately of what lydia had let fall elizabeth was glad of ittill it appeared whether her inquiries would receive any satisfaction she had rather be without a confidante chapter  elizabeth had the satisfaction of receiving an answer to her letter as soon as she possibly could she was no sooner in possession of it than hurrying into the little copse where she was least likely to be interrupted she sat down on one of the benches and prepared to be happy for the length of the letter convinced her that it did not contain a denial my dear niece i have just received your letter and shall devote this whole morning to answering it as i foresee that a little writing will not comprise what i have to tell you i must confess myself surprised by your application i did not expect it from you dont think me angry however for i only mean to let you know that i had not imagined such inquiries to be necessary on your side if you do not choose to understand me forgive my impertinence your uncle is as much surprised as i amand nothing but the belief of your being a party concerned would have allowed him to act as he has done but if you are really innocent and ignorant i must be more explicit on the very day of my coming home from longbourn your uncle had a most unexpected visitor darcy called and was shut up with him several hours it was all over before i arrived so my curiosity was not so dreadfully racked as yours seems to have been gardiner that he had found out where your sister and mr wickham were and that he had seen and talked with them both wickham repeatedly lydia once from what i can collect he left derbyshire only one day after ourselves and came to town with the resolution of hunting for them the motive professed was his conviction of its being owing to himself that wickhams worthlessness had not been so well known as to make it impossible for any young woman of character to love or confide in him he generously imputed the whole to his mistaken pride and confessed that he had before thought it beneath him to lay his private actions open to the world he called it therefore his duty to step forward and endeavour to remedy an evil which had been brought on by himself if he had another motive i am sure it would never disgrace him he had been some days in town before he was able to discover them but he had something to direct his search which was more than we had and the consciousness of this was another reason for his resolving to follow us
she seems a most valuable woman indeedher house her style of living all bespeak an exceeding good income and it is an acquaintance that has not only been of great use to you hitherto but in the end may prove materially advantageous her inviting you to town is certainly a vast thing in your favour and indeed it speaks altogether so great a regard for you that in all probability when she dies you will not be forgotten nothing at all i should rather suppose for she has only her jointure which will descend to her children but it is not to be imagined that she lives up to her income few people of common prudence will do that and whatever she saves she will be able to dispose of and do you not think it more likely that she should leave it to her daughters than to us her daughters are both exceedingly well married and therefore i cannot perceive the necessity of her remembering them farther whereas in my opinion by her taking so much notice of you and treating you in this kind of way she has given you a sort of claim on her future consideration which a conscientious woman would not disregard nothing can be kinder than her behaviour and she can hardly do all this without being aware of the expectation it raises indeed brother your anxiety for our welfare and prosperity carries you too far why to be sure said he seeming to recollect himself people have little have very little in their power but my dear elinor what is the matter with marianne  she looks very unwell has lost her colour and is grown quite thin she is not well she has had a nervous complaint on her for several weeks at her time of life any thing of an illness destroys the bloom for ever she was as handsome a girl last september as i ever saw and as likely to attract the man there was something in her style of beauty to please them particularly i remember fanny used to say that she would marry sooner and better than you did not but what she is exceedingly fond of you but so it happened to strike her i question whether marianne now will marry a man worth more than five or six hundred ayear at the utmost and i am very much deceived if you do not do better i know very little of dorsetshire but my dear elinor i shall be exceedingly glad to know more of it and i think i can answer for your having fanny and myself among the earliest and best pleased of your visitors
when he entered i observed that he carried no umbrella and certainly had not come in his carriage for his tarpaulin hat ran down with melting sleet and his great pilot cloth jacket seemed almost to drag him to the floor with the weight of the water it had absorbed however hat and coat and overshoes were one by one removed and hung up in a little space in an adjacent corner when arrayed in a decent suit he quietly approached the pulpit like most old fashioned pulpits it was a very lofty one and since a regular stairs to such a height would by its long angle with the floor seriously contract the already small area of the chapel the architect it seemed had acted upon the hint of father mapple and finished the pulpit without a stairs substituting a perpendicular side ladder like those used in mounting a ship from a boat at sea the wife of a whaling captain had provided the chapel with a handsome pair of red worsted manropes for this ladder which being itself nicely headed and stained with a mahogany colour the whole contrivance considering what manner of chapel it was seemed by no means in bad taste halting for an instant at the foot of the ladder and with both hands grasping the ornamental knobs of the manropes father mapple cast a look upwards and then with a truly sailorlike but still reverential dexterity hand over hand mounted the steps as if ascending the maintop of his vessel the perpendicular parts of this side ladder as is usually the case with swinging ones were of clothcovered rope only the rounds were of wood so that at every step there was a joint at my first glimpse of the pulpit it had not escaped me that however convenient for a ship these joints in the present instance seemed unnecessary for i was not prepared to see father mapple after gaining the height slowly turn round and stooping over the pulpit deliberately drag up the ladder step by step till the whole was deposited within leaving him impregnable in his little quebec i pondered some time without fully comprehending the reason for this father mapple enjoyed such a wide reputation for sincerity and sanctity that i could not suspect him of courting notoriety by any mere tricks of the stage no thought i there must be some sober reason for this thing furthermore it must symbolize something unseen can it be then that by that act of physical isolation he signifies his spiritual withdrawal for the time from all outward worldly ties and connexions yes for replenished with the meat and wine of the word to the faithful man of god this pulpit i see is a selfcontaining strongholda lofty ehrenbreitstein with a perennial well of water within the walls but the side ladder was not the only strange feature of the place borrowed from the chaplains former seafarings between the marble cenotaphs on either hand of the pulpit the wall which formed its back was adorned with a large painting representing a gallant ship beating against a terrible storm off a lee coast of black rocks and snowy breakers but high above the flying scud and darkrolling clouds there floated a little isle of sunlight from which beamed forth an angels face and this bright face shed a distinct spot of radiance upon the ships tossed deck something like that silver plate now inserted into the victorys plank where nelson fell ah noble ship the angel seemed to say beat on beat on thou noble ship and bear a hardy helm for lo the sun is breaking through the clouds are rolling offserenest azure is at hand nor was the pulpit itself without a trace of the same seataste that had achieved the ladder and the picture its panelled front was in the likeness of a ships bluff bows and the holy bible rested on a projecting piece of scroll work fashioned after a ships fiddleheaded beak
robinsons asking him how he liked our meryton assemblies and whether he did not think there were a great many pretty women in the room and which he thought the prettiest and his answering immediately to the last question oh the eldest miss bennet beyond a doubt there cannot be two opinions on that point well that is very decided indeedthat does seem as ifbut however it may all come to nothing you know my overhearings were more to the purpose than yours eliza said charlotte darcy is not so well worth listening to as his friend is he i beg you would not put it into lizzys head to be vexed by his illtreatment for he is such a disagreeable man that it would be quite a misfortune to be liked by him long told me last night that he sat close to her for halfanhour without once opening his lips ayebecause she asked him at last how he liked netherfield and he could not help answering her but she said he seemed quite angry at being spoke to miss bingley told me said jane that he never speaks much unless among his intimate acquaintances if he had been so very agreeable he would have talked to mrs but i can guess how it was everybody says that he is eat up with pride and i dare say he had heard somehow that mrs long does not keep a carriage and had come to the ball in a hack chaise long said miss lucas but i wish he had danced with eliza another time lizzy said her mother i would not dance with him if i were you i believe maam i may safely promise you never to dance with him his pride said miss lucas does not offend me so much as pride often does because there is an excuse for it one cannot wonder that so very fine a young man with family fortune everything in his favour should think highly of himself that is very true replied elizabeth and i could easily forgive his pride if he had not mortified mine pride observed mary who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections is a very common failing i believe
jennings had been anxious to see colonel brandon well married ever since her connection with sir john first brought him to her knowledge and she was always anxious to get a good husband for every pretty girl the immediate advantage to herself was by no means inconsiderable for it supplied her with endless jokes against them both at the park she laughed at the colonel and in the cottage at marianne to the former her raillery was probably as far as it regarded only himself perfectly indifferent but to the latter it was at first incomprehensible and when its object was understood she hardly knew whether most to laugh at its absurdity or censure its impertinence for she considered it as an unfeeling reflection on the colonels advanced years and on his forlorn condition as an old bachelor dashwood who could not think a man five years younger than herself so exceedingly ancient as he appeared to the youthful fancy of her daughter ventured to clear mrs jennings from the probability of wishing to throw ridicule on his age but at least mama you cannot deny the absurdity of the accusation though you may not think it intentionally illnatured jennings but he is old enough to be my father and if he were ever animated enough to be in love must have long outlived every sensation of the kind when is a man to be safe from such wit if age and infirmity will not protect him i can easily suppose that his age may appear much greater to you than to my mother but you can hardly deceive yourself as to his having the use of his limbs and is not that the commonest infirmity of declining life my dearest child said her mother laughing at this rate you must be in continual terror of my decay and it must seem to you a miracle that my life has been extended to the advanced age of forty i know very well that colonel brandon is not old enough to make his friends yet apprehensive of losing him in the course of nature perhaps said elinor thirtyfive and seventeen had better not have any thing to do with matrimony together but if there should by any chance happen to be a woman who is single at seven and twenty i should not think colonel brandons being thirtyfive any objection to his marrying her a woman of seven and twenty said marianne after pausing a moment can never hope to feel or inspire affection again and if her home be uncomfortable or her fortune small i can suppose that she might bring herself to submit to the offices of a nurse for the sake of the provision and security of a wife in his marrying such a woman therefore there would be nothing unsuitable it would be a compact of convenience and the world would be satisfied in my eyes it would be no marriage at all but that would be nothing to me it would seem only a commercial exchange in which each wished to be benefited at the expense of the other
but be all this as it may let the unseen ambiguous synod in the air or the vindictive princes and potentates of fire have to do or not with earthly ahab yet in this present matter of his leg he took plain practical procedureshe called the carpenter and when that functionary appeared before him he bade him without delay set about making a new leg and directed the mates to see him supplied with all the studs and joists of jawivory sperm whale which had thus far been accumulated on the voyage in order that a careful selection of the stoutest clearestgrained stuff might be secured this done the carpenter received orders to have the leg completed that night and to provide all the fittings for it independent of those pertaining to the distrusted one in use moreover the ships forge was ordered to be hoisted out of its temporary idleness in the hold and to accelerate the affair the blacksmith was commanded to proceed at once to the forging of whatever iron contrivances might be needed seat thyself sultanically among the moons of saturn and take high abstracted man alone and he seems a wonder a grandeur and a woe but from the same point take mankind in mass and for the most part they seem a mob of unnecessary duplicates both contemporary and hereditary but most humble though he was and far from furnishing an example of the high humane abstraction the pequods carpenter was no duplicate hence he now comes in person on this stage like all seagoing ship carpenters and more especially those belonging to whaling vessels he was to a certain offhanded practical extent alike experienced in numerous trades and callings collateral to his own the carpenters pursuit being the ancient and outbranching trunk of all those numerous handicrafts which more or less have to do with wood as an auxiliary material but besides the application to him of the generic remark above this carpenter of the pequod was singularly efficient in those thousand nameless mechanical emergencies continually recurring in a large ship upon a three or four years voyage in uncivilized and fardistant seas for not to speak of his readiness in ordinary dutiesrepairing stove boats sprung spars reforming the shape of clumsybladed oars inserting bulls eyes in the deck or new treenails in the side planks and other miscellaneous matters more directly pertaining to his special business he was moreover unhesitatingly expert in all manner of conflicting aptitudes both useful and capricious the one grand stage where he enacted all his various parts so manifold was his vicebench a long rude ponderous table furnished with several vices of different sizes and both of iron and of wood at all times except when whales were alongside this bench was securely lashed athwartships against the rear of the tryworks a belaying pin is found too large to be easily inserted into its hole the carpenter claps it into one of his everready vices and straightway files it smaller a lost landbird of strange plumage strays on board and is made a captive out of clean shaved rods of rightwhale bone and crossbeams of sperm whale ivory the carpenter makes a pagodalooking cage for it an oarsman sprains his wrist the carpenter concocts a soothing lotion stubb longed for vermillion stars to be painted upon the blade of his every oar screwing each oar in his big vice of wood the carpenter symmetrically supplies the constellation a sailor takes a fancy to wear sharkbone earrings the carpenter drills his ears another has the toothache the carpenter out pincers and clapping one hand upon his bench bids him be seated there but the poor fellow unmanageably winces under the unconcluded operation whirling round the handle of his wooden vice the carpenter signs him to clap his jaw in that if he would have him draw the tooth thus this carpenter was prepared at all points and alike indifferent and without respect in all teeth he accounted bits of ivory heads he deemed but topblocks men themselves he lightly held for capstans
when she was only fifteen there was a man at my brother gardiners in town so much in love with her that my sisterinlaw was sure he would make her an offer before we came away however he wrote some verses on her and very pretty they were and so ended his affection said elizabeth impatiently there has been many a one i fancy overcome in the same way i wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love i have been used to consider poetry as the food of love said darcy but if it be only a slight thin sort of inclination i am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away darcy only smiled and the general pause which ensued made elizabeth tremble lest her mother should be exposing herself again she longed to speak but could think of nothing to say and after a short silence mrs bingley for his kindness to jane with an apology for troubling him also with lizzy bingley was unaffectedly civil in his answer and forced his younger sister to be civil also and say what the occasion required she performed her part indeed without much graciousness but mrs bennet was satisfied and soon afterwards ordered her carriage upon this signal the youngest of her daughters put herself forward the two girls had been whispering to each other during the whole visit and the result of it was that the youngest should tax mr bingley with having promised on his first coming into the country to give a ball at netherfield lydia was a stout wellgrown girl of fifteen with a fine complexion and goodhumoured countenance a favourite with her mother whose affection had brought her into public at an early age she had high animal spirits and a sort of natural selfconsequence which the attention of the officers to whom her uncles good dinners and her own easy manners recommended her had increased into assurance bingley on the subject of the ball and abruptly reminded him of his promise adding that it would be the most shameful thing in the world if he did not keep it his answer to this sudden attack was delightful to their mothers ear i am perfectly ready i assure you to keep my engagement and when your sister is recovered you shall if you please name the very day of the ball
my dear madam i have just had the honour of receiving your      letter for which i beg to return my sincere      acknowledgments i am much concerned to find there      was anything in my behaviour last night that did      not meet your approbation and though i am quite at      a loss to discover in what point i could be so      unfortunate as to offend you i entreat your      forgiveness of what i can assure you to have been      perfectly unintentional i shall never reflect on      my former acquaintance with your family in devonshire      without the most grateful pleasure and flatter      myself it will not be broken by any mistake or      misapprehension of my actions my esteem for your      whole family is very sincere but if i have been so      unfortunate as to give rise to a belief of more than      i felt or meant to express i shall reproach myself      for not having been more guarded in my professions      of that esteem that i should ever have meant more      you will allow to be impossible when you understand      that my affections have been long engaged elsewhere      and it will not be many weeks i believe before      this engagement is fulfilled it is with great      regret that i obey your commands in returning the      letters with which i have been honoured from you      and the lock of hair which you so obligingly bestowed      on me i am dear madam your most obedient                      humble servant john willoughby with what indignation such a letter as this must be read by miss dashwood may be imagined though aware before she began it that it must bring a confession of his inconstancy and confirm their separation for ever she was not aware that such language could be suffered to announce it nor could she have supposed willoughby capable of departing so far from the appearance of every honourable and delicate feelingso far from the common decorum of a gentleman as to send a letter so impudently cruel a letter which instead of bringing with his desire of a release any professions of regret acknowledged no breach of faith denied all peculiar affection whatevera letter of which every line was an insult and which proclaimed its writer to be deep in hardened villainy she paused over it for some time with indignant astonishment then read it again and again but every perusal only served to increase her abhorrence of the man and so bitter were her feelings against him that she dared not trust herself to speak lest she might wound marianne still deeper by treating their disengagement not as a loss to her of any possible good but as an escape from the worst and most irremediable of all evils a connection for life with an unprincipled man as a deliverance the most real a blessing the most important in her earnest meditations on the contents of the letter on the depravity of that mind which could dictate it and probably on the very different mind of a very different person who had no other connection whatever with the affair than what her heart gave him with every thing that passed elinor forgot the immediate distress of her sister forgot that she had three letters on her lap yet unread and so entirely forgot how long she had been in the room that when on hearing a carriage drive up to the door she went to the window to see who could be coming so unreasonably early she was all astonishment to perceive mrs jenningss chariot which she knew had not been ordered till one determined not to quit marianne though hopeless of contributing at present to her ease she hurried away to excuse herself from attending mrs jennings with a thoroughly goodhumoured concern for its cause admitted the excuse most readily and elinor after seeing her safe off returned to marianne whom she found attempting to rise from the bed and whom she reached just in time to prevent her from falling on the floor faint and giddy from a long want of proper rest and food for it was many days since she had any appetite and many nights since she had really slept and now when her mind was no longer supported by the fever of suspense the consequence of all this was felt in an aching head a weakened stomach and a general nervous faintness a glass of wine which elinor procured for her directly made her more comfortable and she was at last able to express some sense of her kindness by saying poor elinor i only wish replied her sister there were any thing i could do which might be of comfort to you this as every thing else would have been was too much for marianne who could only exclaim in the anguish of her heart oh elinor i am miserable indeed before her voice was entirely lost in sobs elinor could no longer witness this torrent of unresisted grief in silence exert yourself dear marianne she cried if you would not kill yourself and all who love you
excuse me said she and be assured that i meant no offence to you by speaking in so quiet a way of my own feelings believe them to be stronger than i have declared believe them in short to be such as his merit and the suspicionthe hope of his affection for me may warrant without imprudence or folly there are moments when the extent of it seems doubtful and till his sentiments are fully known you cannot wonder at my wishing to avoid any encouragement of my own partiality by believing or calling it more than it is in my heart i feel littlescarcely any doubt of his preference but there are other points to be considered besides his inclination what his mother really is we cannot know but from fannys occasional mention of her conduct and opinions we have never been disposed to think her amiable and i am very much mistaken if edward is not himself aware that there would be many difficulties in his way if he were to wish to marry a woman who had not either a great fortune or high rank marianne was astonished to find how much the imagination of her mother and herself had outstripped the truth i shall not lose you so soon and edward will have greater opportunity of improving that natural taste for your favourite pursuit which must be so indispensably necessary to your future felicity if he should be so far stimulated by your genius as to learn to draw himself how delightful it would be she could not consider her partiality for edward in so prosperous a state as marianne had believed it there was at times a want of spirits about him which if it did not denote indifference spoke of something almost as unpromising a doubt of her regard supposing him to feel it need not give him more than inquietude it would not be likely to produce that dejection of mind which frequently attended him a more reasonable cause might be found in the dependent situation which forbade the indulgence of his affection she knew that his mother neither behaved to him so as to make his home comfortable at present nor to give him any assurance that he might form a home for himself without strictly attending to her views for his aggrandizement with such a knowledge as this it was impossible for elinor to feel easy on the subject she was far from depending on that result of his preference of her which her mother and sister still considered as certain nay the longer they were together the more doubtful seemed the nature of his regard and sometimes for a few painful minutes she believed it to be no more than friendship but whatever might really be its limits it was enough when perceived by his sister to make her uneasy and at the same time which was still more common to make her uncivil she took the first opportunity of affronting her motherinlaw on the occasion talking to her so expressively of her brothers great expectations of mrs
and yet somehow did ahabin his own proper self as daily hourly and every instant commandingly revealed to his subordinatesahab seemed an independent lord the parsee but his slave still again both seemed yoked together and an unseen tyrant driving them the lean shade siding the solid rib for be this parsee what he may all rib and keel was solid ahab at the first faintest glimmering of the dawn his iron voice was heard from aftman the mastheads and all through the day till after sunset and after twilight the same voice every hour at the striking of the helmsmans bell was heardwhat dye see  but when three or four days had slided by after meeting the childrenseeking rachel and no spout had yet been seen the monomaniac old man seemed distrustful of his crews fidelity at least of nearly all except the pagan harpooneers he seemed to doubt even whether stubb and flask might not willingly overlook the sight he sought but if these suspicions were really his he sagaciously refrained from verbally expressing them however his actions might seem to hint them i will have the first sight of the whale myself he said and with his own hands he rigged a nest of basketed bowlines and sending a hand aloft with a single sheaved block to secure to the mainmast head he received the two ends of the downwardreeved rope and attaching one to his basket prepared a pin for the other end in order to fasten it at the rail this done with that end yet in his hand and standing beside the pin he looked round upon his crew sweeping from one to the other pausing his glance long upon daggoo queequeg tashtego but shunning fedallah and then settling his firm relying eye upon the chief mate saidtake the rope siri give it into thy hands starbuck  then arranging his person in the basket he gave the word for them to hoist him to his perch starbuck being the one who secured the rope at last and afterwards stood near it and thus with one hand clinging round the royal mast ahab gazed abroad upon the sea for miles and milesahead astern this side and thatwithin the wide expanded circle commanded at so great a height when in working with his hands at some lofty almost isolated place in the rigging which chances to afford no foothold the sailor at sea is hoisted up to that spot and sustained there by the rope under these circumstances its fastened end on deck is always given in strict charge to some one man who has the special watch of it because in such a wilderness of running rigging whose various different relations aloft cannot always be infallibly discerned by what is seen of them at the deck and when the deckends of these ropes are being every few minutes cast down from the fastenings it would be but a natural fatality if unprovided with a constant watchman the hoisted sailor should by some carelessness of the crew be cast adrift and fall all swooping to the sea so ahabs proceedings in this matter were not unusual the only strange thing about them seemed to be that starbuck almost the one only man who had ever ventured to oppose him with anything in the slightest degree approaching to decisionone of those too whose faithfulness on the lookout he had seemed to doubt somewhatit was strange that this was the very man he should select for his watchman freely giving his whole life into such an otherwise distrusted persons hands now the first time ahab was perched aloft ere he had been there ten minutes one of those redbilled savage seahawks which so often fly incommodiously close round the manned mastheads of whalemen in these latitudes one of these birds came wheeling and screaming round his head in a maze of untrackably swift circlings then it darted a thousand feet straight up into the air then spiralized downwards and went eddying again round his head but with his gaze fixed upon the dim and distant horizon ahab seemed not to mark this wild bird nor indeed would any one else have marked it much it being no uncommon circumstance only now almost the least heedful eye seemed to see some sort of cunning meaning in almost every sight suddenly cried the sicilian seaman who being posted at the mizenmasthead stood directly behind ahab though somewhat lower than his level and with a deep gulf of air dividing them but already the sable wing was before the old mans eyes the long hooked bill at his head with a scream the black hawk darted away with his prize
in that day the lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent even leviathan that crooked serpent and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea isaiah and what thing soever besides cometh within the chaos of this monsters mouth be it beast boat or stone down it goes all incontinently that foul great swallow of his and perisheth in the bottomless gulf of his paunch the indian sea breedeth the most and the biggest fishes that are among which the whales and whirlpooles called balaene take up as much in length as four acres or arpens of land scarcely had we proceeded two days on the sea when about sunrise a great many whales and other monsters of the sea appeared this came towards us openmouthed raising the waves on all sides and beating the sea before him into a foam he visited this country also with a view of catching horsewhales which had bones of very great value for their teeth of which he brought some to the king the best whales were catched in his own country of which some were fortyeight some fifty yards long he said that he was one of six who had killed sixty in two days other or others verbal narrative taken down from his mouth by king alfred a and whereas all the other things whether beast or vessel that enter into the dreadful gulf of this monsters whales mouth are immediately lost and swallowed up the seagudgeon retires into it in great security and there sleeps old nick take me if is not leviathan described by the noble prophet moses in the life of patient job the great leviathan that maketh the seas to seethe like boiling pan touching that monstrous bulk of the whale or ork we have received nothing certain they grow exceeding fat insomuch that an incredible quantity of oil will be extracted out of one whale the sovereignest thing on earth is parmacetti for an inward bruise which to secure no skill of leachs art      mote him availle but to returne againe      to his wounds worker that with lowly dart      dinting his breast had bred his restless paine      like as the wounded whale to shore flies thro the maine immense as whales the motion of whose vast bodies can in a peaceful calm trouble the ocean til it boil what spermacetti is men might justly doubt since the learned hosmannus in his work of thirty years saith plainly nescio quid sit like spencers talus with his modern flail      he threatens ruin with his ponderous tail their fixed javlins in his side he wears      and on his back a grove of pikes appears
wickham wrote to inform me that having finally resolved against taking orders he hoped i should not think it unreasonable for him to expect some more immediate pecuniary advantage in lieu of the preferment by which he could not be benefited he had some intention he added of studying law and i must be aware that the interest of one thousand pounds would be a very insufficient support therein i rather wished than believed him to be sincere but at any rate was perfectly ready to accede to his proposal wickham ought not to be a clergyman the business was therefore soon settledhe resigned all claim to assistance in the church were it possible that he could ever be in a situation to receive it and accepted in return three thousand pounds i thought too ill of him to invite him to pemberley or admit his society in town in town i believe he chiefly lived but his studying the law was a mere pretence and being now free from all restraint his life was a life of idleness and dissipation for about three years i heard little of him but on the decease of the incumbent of the living which had been designed for him he applied to me again by letter for the presentation his circumstances he assured me and i had no difficulty in believing it were exceedingly bad he had found the law a most unprofitable study and was now absolutely resolved on being ordained if i would present him to the living in questionof which he trusted there could be little doubt as he was well assured that i had no other person to provide for and i could not have forgotten my revered fathers intentions you will hardly blame me for refusing to comply with this entreaty or for resisting every repetition to it his resentment was in proportion to the distress of his circumstancesand he was doubtless as violent in his abuse of me to others as in his reproaches to myself after this period every appearance of acquaintance was dropped but last summer he was again most painfully obtruded on my notice i must now mention a circumstance which i would wish to forget myself and which no obligation less than the present should induce me to unfold to any human being having said thus much i feel no doubt of your secrecy my sister who is more than ten years my junior was left to the guardianship of my mothers nephew colonel fitzwilliam and myself about a year ago she was taken from school and an establishment formed for her in london and last summer she went with the lady who presided over it to ramsgate and thither also went mr wickham undoubtedly by design for there proved to have been a prior acquaintance between him and mrs younge in whose character we were most unhappily deceived and by her connivance and aid he so far recommended himself to georgiana whose affectionate heart retained a strong impression of his kindness to her as a child that she was persuaded to believe herself in love and to consent to an elopement she was then but fifteen which must be her excuse and after stating her imprudence i am happy to add that i owed the knowledge of it to herself
her heart was not so much at ease nor her satisfaction in their amusements so pure they afforded her no companion that could make amends for what she had left behind nor that could teach her to think of norland with less regret than ever jennings could supply to her the conversation she missed although the latter was an everlasting talker and from the first had regarded her with a kindness which ensured her a large share of her discourse she had already repeated her own history to elinor three or four times and had elinors memory been equal to her means of improvement she might have known very early in their acquaintance all the particulars of mr jenningss last illness and what he said to his wife a few minutes before he died lady middleton was more agreeable than her mother only in being more silent elinor needed little observation to perceive that her reserve was a mere calmness of manner with which sense had nothing to do towards her husband and mother she was the same as to them and intimacy was therefore neither to be looked for nor desired she had nothing to say one day that she had not said the day before her insipidity was invariable for even her spirits were always the same and though she did not oppose the parties arranged by her husband provided every thing were conducted in style and her two eldest children attended her she never appeared to receive more enjoyment from them than she might have experienced in sitting at homeand so little did her presence add to the pleasure of the others by any share in their conversation that they were sometimes only reminded of her being amongst them by her solicitude about her troublesome boys in colonel brandon alone of all her new acquaintance did elinor find a person who could in any degree claim the respect of abilities excite the interest of friendship or give pleasure as a companion her admiration and regard even her sisterly regard was all his own but he was a lover his attentions were wholly mariannes and a far less agreeable man might have been more generally pleasing colonel brandon unfortunately for himself had no such encouragement to think only of marianne and in conversing with elinor he found the greatest consolation for the indifference of her sister elinors compassion for him increased as she had reason to suspect that the misery of disappointed love had already been known to him this suspicion was given by some words which accidentally dropped from him one evening at the park when they were sitting down together by mutual consent while the others were dancing his eyes were fixed on marianne and after a silence of some minutes he said with a faint smile your sister i understand does not approve of second attachments or rather as i believe she considers them impossible to exist but how she contrives it without reflecting on the character of her own father who had himself two wives i know not a few years however will settle her opinions on the reasonable basis of common sense and observation and then they may be more easy to define and to justify than they now are by any body but herself this will probably be the case he replied and yet there is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions
small sword or broad sword in all its exercises boasts nothing like it it is only indispensable with an inveterate running whale its grand fact and feature is the wonderful distance to which the long lance is accurately darted from a violently rocking jerking boat under extreme headway steel and wood included the entire spear is some ten or twelve feet in length the staff is much slighter than that of the harpoon and also of a lighter materialpine it is furnished with a small rope called a warp of considerable length by which it can be hauled back to the hand after darting but before going further it is important to mention here that though the harpoon may be pitchpoled in the same way with the lance yet it is seldom done and when done is still less frequently successful on account of the greater weight and inferior length of the harpoon as compared with the lance which in effect become serious drawbacks as a general thing therefore you must first get fast to a whale before any pitchpoling comes into play look now at stubb a man who from his humorous deliberate coolness and equanimity in the direst emergencies was specially qualified to excel in pitchpoling look at him he stands upright in the tossed bow of the flying boat wrapt in fleecy foam the towing whale is forty feet ahead handling the long lance lightly glancing twice or thrice along its length to see if it be exactly straight stubb whistlingly gathers up the coil of the warp in one hand so as to secure its free end in his grasp leaving the rest unobstructed then holding the lance full before his waistbands middle he levels it at the whale when covering him with it he steadily depresses the buttend in his hand thereby elevating the point till the weapon stands fairly balanced upon his palm fifteen feet in the air he minds you somewhat of a juggler balancing a long staff on his chin next moment with a rapid nameless impulse in a superb lofty arch the bright steel spans the foaming distance and quivers in the life spot of the whale tis julys immortal fourth all fountains must run wine today would now it were old orleans whiskey or old ohio or unspeakable old monongahela then tashtego lad id have ye hold a canakin to the jet and wed drink round it yea verily hearts alive wed brew choice punch in the spread of his spouthole there and from that live punchbowl quaff the living stuff again and again to such gamesome talk the dexterous dart is repeated the spear returning to its master like a greyhound held in skilful leash the agonized whale goes into his flurry the towline is slackened and the pitchpoler dropping astern folds his hands and mutely watches the monster die that for six thousand yearsand no one knows how many millions of ages beforethe great whales should have been spouting all over the sea and sprinkling and mistifying the gardens of the deep as with so many sprinkling or mistifying pots and that for some centuries back thousands of hunters should have been close by the fountain of the whale watching these sprinklings and spoutingsthat all this should be and yet that down to this blessed minute fifteen and a quarter minutes past one oclock p  it should still remain a problem whether these spoutings are after all really water or nothing but vapourthis is surely a noteworthy thing
collinss fancying himself in love with her friend had once occurred to elizabeth within the last day or two but that charlotte could encourage him seemed almost as far from possibility as she could encourage him herself and her astonishment was consequently so great as to overcome at first the bounds of decorum and she could not help crying out engaged to mr the steady countenance which miss lucas had commanded in telling her story gave way to a momentary confusion here on receiving so direct a reproach though as it was no more than she expected she soon regained her composure and calmly replied why should you be surprised my dear eliza collins should be able to procure any womans good opinion because he was not so happy as to succeed with you but elizabeth had now recollected herself and making a strong effort for it was able to assure with tolerable firmness that the prospect of their relationship was highly grateful to her and that she wished her all imaginable happiness you must be surprised very much surprisedso lately as mr but when you have had time to think it over i hope you will be satisfied with what i have done collinss character connection and situation in life i am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state elizabeth quietly answered undoubtedly and after an awkward pause they returned to the rest of the family charlotte did not stay much longer and elizabeth was then left to reflect on what she had heard it was a long time before she became at all reconciled to the idea of so unsuitable a match collinss making two offers of marriage within three days was nothing in comparison of his being now accepted she had always felt that charlottes opinion of matrimony was not exactly like her own but she had not supposed it to be possible that when called into action she would have sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantage and to the pang of a friend disgracing herself and sunk in her esteem was added the distressing conviction that it was impossible for that friend to be tolerably happy in the lot she had chosen chapter  elizabeth was sitting with her mother and sisters reflecting on what she had heard and doubting whether she was authorised to mention it when sir william lucas himself appeared sent by his daughter to announce her engagement to the family with many compliments to them and much selfgratulation on the prospect of a connection between the houses he unfolded the matterto an audience not merely wondering but incredulous for mrs bennet with more perseverance than politeness protested he must be entirely mistaken and lydia always unguarded and often uncivil boisterously exclaimed good lord nothing less than the complaisance of a courtier could have borne without anger such treatment but sir williams good breeding carried him through it all and though he begged leave to be positive as to the truth of his information he listened to all their impertinence with the most forbearing courtesy elizabeth feeling it incumbent on her to relieve him from so unpleasant a situation now put herself forward to confirm his account by mentioning her prior knowledge of it from charlotte herself and endeavoured to put a stop to the exclamations of her mother and sisters by the earnestness of her congratulations to sir william in which she was readily joined by jane and by making a variety of remarks on the happiness that might be expected from the match the excellent character of mr collins and the convenient distance of hunsford from london bennet was in fact too much overpowered to say a great deal while sir william remained but no sooner had he left them than her feelings found a rapid vent
whence he came in a mannerly world like this by what sort of unaccountable tie he soon evinced himself to be linked with ahabs peculiar fortunes nay so far as to have some sort of a halfhinted influence heaven knows but it might have been even authority over him all this none knew but one cannot sustain an indifferent air concerning fedallah he was such a creature as civilized domestic people in the temperate zone only see in their dreams and that but dimly but the like of whom now and then glide among the unchanging asiatic communities especially the oriental isles to the east of the continentthose insulated immemorial unalterable countries which even in these modern days still preserve much of the ghostly aboriginalness of earths primal generations when the memory of the first man was a distinct recollection and all men his descendants unknowing whence he came eyed each other as real phantoms and asked of the sun and the moon why they were created and to what end when though according to genesis the angels indeed consorted with the daughters of men the devils also add the uncanonical rabbins indulged in mundane amours days weeks passed and under easy sail the ivory pequod had slowly swept across four several cruisinggrounds that off the azores off the cape de verdes on the plate so called being off the mouth of the rio de la plata and the carrol ground an unstaked watery locality southerly from st it was while gliding through these latter waters that one serene and moonlight night when all the waves rolled by like scrolls of silver and by their soft suffusing seethings made what seemed a silvery silence not a solitude on such a silent night a silvery jet was seen far in advance of the white bubbles at the bow lit up by the moon it looked celestial seemed some plumed and glittering god uprising from the sea for of these moonlight nights it was his wont to mount to the mainmast head and stand a lookout there with the same precision as if it had been day and yet though herds of whales were seen by night not one whaleman in a hundred would venture a lowering for them you may think with what emotions then the seamen beheld this old oriental perched aloft at such unusual hours his turban and the moon companions in one sky but when after spending his uniform interval there for several successive nights without uttering a single sound when after all this silence his unearthly voice was heard announcing that silvery moonlit jet every reclining mariner started to his feet as if some winged spirit had lighted in the rigging and hailed the mortal crew had the trump of judgment blown they could not have quivered more yet still they felt no terror rather pleasure for though it was a most unwonted hour yet so impressive was the cry and so deliriously exciting that almost every soul on board instinctively desired a lowering walking the deck with quick sidelunging strides ahab commanded the tgallant sails and royals to be set and every stunsail spread then with every masthead manned the piledup craft rolled down before the wind the strange upheaving lifting tendency of the taffrail breeze filling the hollows of so many sails made the buoyant hovering deck to feel like air beneath the feet while still she rushed along as if two antagonistic influences were struggling in herone to mount direct to heaven the other to drive yawingly to some horizontal goal and had you watched ahabs face that night you would have thought that in him also two different things were warring while his one live leg made lively echoes along the deck every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a coffintap but though the ship so swiftly sped and though from every eye like arrows the eager glances shot yet the silvery jet was no more seen that night every sailor swore he saw it once but not a second time this midnightspout had almost grown a forgotten thing when some days after lo
the weavergod he weaves and by that weaving is he deafened that he hears no mortal voice and by that humming we too who look on the loom are deafened and only when we escape it shall we hear the thousand voices that speak through it the spoken words that are inaudible among the flying spindles those same words are plainly heard without the walls bursting from the opened casements then be heedful for so in all this din of the great worlds loom thy subtlest thinkings may be overheard afar now amid the green liferestless loom of that arsacidean wood the great white worshipped skeleton lay lounginga gigantic idler yet as the everwoven verdant warp and woof intermixed and hummed around him the mighty idler seemed the cunning weaver himself all woven over with the vines every month assuming greener fresher verdure but himself a skeleton life folded death death trellised life the grim god wived with youthful life and begat him curlyheaded glories now when with royal tranquo i visited this wondrous whale and saw the skull an altar and the artificial smoke ascending from where the real jet had issued i marvelled that the king should regard a chapel as an object of vertu but more i marvelled that the priests should swear that smoky jet of his was genuine to and fro i paced before this skeletonbrushed the vines asidebroke through the ribsand with a ball of arsacidean twine wandered eddied long amid its many winding shaded colonnades and arbours but soon my line was out and following it back i emerged from the opening where i entered i saw no living thing within naught was there but bones cutting me a green measuringrod i once more dived within the skeleton from their arrowslit in the skull the priests perceived me taking the altitude of the final rib how now but hereupon a fierce contest rose among them concerning feet and inches they cracked each others sconces with their yardsticksthe great skull echoedand seizing that lucky chance i quickly concluded my own admeasurements these admeasurements i now propose to set before you but first be it recorded that in this matter i am not free to utter any fancied measurement i please because there are skeleton authorities you can refer to to test my accuracy there is a leviathanic museum they tell me in hull england one of the whaling ports of that country where they have some fine specimens of finbacks and other whales likewise i have heard that in the museum of manchester in new hampshire they have what the proprietors call the only perfect specimen of a greenland or river whale in the united states moreover at a place in yorkshire england burton constable by name a certain sir clifford constable has in his possession the skeleton of a sperm whale but of moderate size by no means of the fullgrown magnitude of my friend king tranquos
these apprehensions perhaps were not founded entirely on reason and certainly not at all on truth they were relieved however not by her own recollection but by the good will of lucy who believed herself to be inflicting a severe disappointment when she told her that edward certainly would not be in harley street on tuesday and even hoped to be carrying the pain still farther by persuading her that he was kept away by the extreme affection for herself which he could not conceal when they were together the important tuesday came that was to introduce the two young ladies to this formidable motherinlaw said lucy as they walked up the stairs togetherfor the middletons arrived so directly after mrs jennings that they all followed the servant at the same timethere is nobody here but you that can feel for me in a moment i shall see the person that all my happiness depends onthat is to be my mother  elinor could have given her immediate relief by suggesting the possibility of its being miss mortons mother rather than her own whom they were about to behold but instead of doing that she assured her and with great sincerity that she did pity herto the utter amazement of lucy who though really uncomfortable herself hoped at least to be an object of irrepressible envy to elinor ferrars was a little thin woman upright even to formality in her figure and serious even to sourness in her aspect her complexion was sallow and her features small without beauty and naturally without expression but a lucky contraction of the brow had rescued her countenance from the disgrace of insipidity by giving it the strong characters of pride and ill nature she was not a woman of many words for unlike people in general she proportioned them to the number of her ideas and of the few syllables that did escape her not one fell to the share of miss dashwood whom she eyed with the spirited determination of disliking her at all events elinor could not now be made unhappy by this behaviour  a few months ago it would have hurt her exceedingly but it was not in mrs ferrars power to distress her by it nowand the difference of her manners to the miss steeles a difference which seemed purposely made to humble her more only amused her she could not but smile to see the graciousness of both mother and daughter towards the very person for lucy was particularly distinguishedwhom of all others had they known as much as she did they would have been most anxious to mortify while she herself who had comparatively no power to wound them sat pointedly slighted by both but while she smiled at a graciousness so misapplied she could not reflect on the meanspirited folly from which it sprung nor observe the studied attentions with which the miss steeles courted its continuance without thoroughly despising them all four lucy was all exultation on being so honorably distinguished and miss steele wanted only to be teazed about dr the dinner was a grand one the servants were numerous and every thing bespoke the mistresss inclination for show and the masters ability to support it in spite of the improvements and additions which were making to the norland estate and in spite of its owner having once been within some thousand pounds of being obliged to sell out at a loss nothing gave any symptom of that indigence which he had tried to infer from itno poverty of any kind except of conversation appearedbut there the deficiency was considerable john dashwood had not much to say for himself that was worth hearing and his wife had still less but there was no peculiar disgrace in this for it was very much the case with the chief of their visitors who almost all laboured under one or other of these disqualifications for being agreeablewant of sense either natural or improvedwant of elegancewant of spiritsor want of temper
lady lucas herself has often said so and envied me janes beauty i do not like to boast of my own child but to be sure janeone does not often see anybody better looking when she was only fifteen there was a man at my brother gardiners in town so much in love with her that my sisterinlaw was sure he would make her an offer before we came away however he wrote some verses on her and very pretty they were and so ended his affection said elizabeth impatiently there has been many a one i fancy overcome in the same way i wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love i have been used to consider poetry as the food of love said darcy but if it be only a slight thin sort of inclination i am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away darcy only smiled and the general pause which ensued made elizabeth tremble lest her mother should be exposing herself again she longed to speak but could think of nothing to say and after a short silence mrs bingley for his kindness to jane with an apology for troubling him also with lizzy bingley was unaffectedly civil in his answer and forced his younger sister to be civil also and say what the occasion required she performed her part indeed without much graciousness but mrs bennet was satisfied and soon afterwards ordered her carriage upon this signal the youngest of her daughters put herself forward the two girls had been whispering to each other during the whole visit and the result of it was that the youngest should tax mr bingley with having promised on his first coming into the country to give a ball at netherfield lydia was a stout wellgrown girl of fifteen with a fine complexion and goodhumoured countenance a favourite with her mother whose affection had brought her into public at an early age she had high animal spirits and a sort of natural selfconsequence which the attention of the officers to whom her uncles good dinners and her own easy manners recommended her had increased into assurance
such were the sounds that now came hurtling from out the old mans tormented sleep as if starbucks voice had caused the long dumb dream to speak the yet levelled musket shook like a drunkards arm against the panel starbuck seemed wrestling with an angel but turning from the door he placed the deathtube in its rack and left the place next morning the notyetsubsided sea rolled in long slow billows of mighty bulk and striving in the pequods gurgling track pushed her on like giants palms outspread the strong unstaggering breeze abounded so that sky and air seemed vast outbellying sails the whole world boomed before the wind muffled in the full morning light the invisible sun was only known by the spread intensity of his place where his bayonet rays moved on in stacks emblazonings as of crowned babylonian kings and queens reigned over everything the sea was as a crucible of molten gold that bubblingly leaps with light and heat long maintaining an enchanted silence ahab stood apart and every time the tetering ship loweringly pitched down her bowsprit he turned to eye the bright suns rays produced ahead and when she profoundly settled by the stern he turned behind and saw the suns rearward place and how the same yellow rays were blending with his undeviating wake thou mightest well be taken now for the seachariot of the sun all ye nations before my prow i bring the sun to ye but suddenly reined back by some counter thought he hurried towards the helm huskily demanding how the ship was heading heading east at this hour in the morning and the sun astern upon this every soul was confounded for the phenomenon just then observed by ahab had unaccountably escaped every one else but its very blinding palpableness must have been the cause thrusting his head half way into the binnacle ahab caught one glimpse of the compasses his uplifted arm slowly fell for a moment he almost seemed to stagger the two compasses pointed east and the pequod was as infallibly going west but ere the first wild alarm could get out abroad among the crew the old man with a rigid laugh exclaimed i have it starbuck last nights thunder turned our compassesthats all thou hast before now heard of such a thing i take it aye but never before has it happened to me sir said the pale mate gloomily here it must needs be said that accidents like this have in more than one case occurred to ships in violent storms
she saw nothing of the willoughbys nothing of edward and for some time nothing of anybody who could by any chance whether grave or gay be interesting to her but at last she found herself with some surprise accosted by miss steele who though looking rather shy expressed great satisfaction in meeting them and on receiving encouragement from the particular kindness of mrs jennings left her own party for a short time to join theirs jennings immediately whispered to elinor get it all out of her my dear jenningss curiosity and elinors too that she would tell any thing without being asked for nothing would otherwise have been learnt i am so glad to meet you said miss steele taking her familiarly by the armfor i wanted to see you of all things in the world she vowed at first she would never trim me up a new bonnet nor do any thing else for me again so long as she lived but now she is quite come to and we are as good friends as ever look she made me this bow to my hat and put in the feather last night i do not care if it is the doctors favourite colour i am sure for my part i should never have known he did like it better than any other colour if he had not happened to say so i declare sometimes i do not know which way to look before them she had wandered away to a subject on which elinor had nothing to say and therefore soon judged it expedient to find her way back again to the first well but miss dashwood speaking triumphantly people may say what they chuse about mr ferrarss declaring he would not have lucy for it is no such thing i can tell you and it is quite a shame for such illnatured reports to be spread abroad whatever lucy might think about it herself you know it was no business of other people to set it down for certain i never heard any thing of the kind hinted at before i assure you said elinor but it was said i know very well and by more than one for miss godby told miss sparks that nobody in their senses could expect mr ferrars to give up a woman like miss morton with thirty thousand pounds to her fortune for lucy steele that had nothing at all and i had it from miss sparks myself and besides that my cousin richard said himself that when it came to the point he was afraid mr ferrars would be off and when edward did not come near us for three days i could not tell what to think myself and i believe in my heart lucy gave it up all for lost for we came away from your brothers wednesday and we saw nothing of him not all thursday friday and saturday and did not know what was become of him
at times for longest hours without a single hail they stood far parted in the starlight ahab in his scuttle the parsee by the mainmast but still fixedly gazing upon each other as if in the parsee ahab saw his forethrown shadow in ahab the parsee his abandoned substance and yet somehow did ahabin his own proper self as daily hourly and every instant commandingly revealed to his subordinatesahab seemed an independent lord the parsee but his slave still again both seemed yoked together and an unseen tyrant driving them the lean shade siding the solid rib for be this parsee what he may all rib and keel was solid ahab at the first faintest glimmering of the dawn his iron voice was heard from aftman the mastheads and all through the day till after sunset and after twilight the same voice every hour at the striking of the helmsmans bell was heardwhat dye see  but when three or four days had slided by after meeting the childrenseeking rachel and no spout had yet been seen the monomaniac old man seemed distrustful of his crews fidelity at least of nearly all except the pagan harpooneers he seemed to doubt even whether stubb and flask might not willingly overlook the sight he sought but if these suspicions were really his he sagaciously refrained from verbally expressing them however his actions might seem to hint them i will have the first sight of the whale myself he said and with his own hands he rigged a nest of basketed bowlines and sending a hand aloft with a single sheaved block to secure to the mainmast head he received the two ends of the downwardreeved rope and attaching one to his basket prepared a pin for the other end in order to fasten it at the rail this done with that end yet in his hand and standing beside the pin he looked round upon his crew sweeping from one to the other pausing his glance long upon daggoo queequeg tashtego but shunning fedallah and then settling his firm relying eye upon the chief mate saidtake the rope siri give it into thy hands starbuck  then arranging his person in the basket he gave the word for them to hoist him to his perch starbuck being the one who secured the rope at last and afterwards stood near it and thus with one hand clinging round the royal mast ahab gazed abroad upon the sea for miles and milesahead astern this side and thatwithin the wide expanded circle commanded at so great a height when in working with his hands at some lofty almost isolated place in the rigging which chances to afford no foothold the sailor at sea is hoisted up to that spot and sustained there by the rope under these circumstances its fastened end on deck is always given in strict charge to some one man who has the special watch of it because in such a wilderness of running rigging whose various different relations aloft cannot always be infallibly discerned by what is seen of them at the deck and when the deckends of these ropes are being every few minutes cast down from the fastenings it would be but a natural fatality if unprovided with a constant watchman the hoisted sailor should by some carelessness of the crew be cast adrift and fall all swooping to the sea so ahabs proceedings in this matter were not unusual the only strange thing about them seemed to be that starbuck almost the one only man who had ever ventured to oppose him with anything in the slightest degree approaching to decisionone of those too whose faithfulness on the lookout he had seemed to doubt somewhatit was strange that this was the very man he should select for his watchman freely giving his whole life into such an otherwise distrusted persons hands now the first time ahab was perched aloft ere he had been there ten minutes one of those redbilled savage seahawks which so often fly incommodiously close round the manned mastheads of whalemen in these latitudes one of these birds came wheeling and screaming round his head in a maze of untrackably swift circlings then it darted a thousand feet straight up into the air then spiralized downwards and went eddying again round his head but with his gaze fixed upon the dim and distant horizon ahab seemed not to mark this wild bird nor indeed would any one else have marked it much it being no uncommon circumstance only now almost the least heedful eye seemed to see some sort of cunning meaning in almost every sight suddenly cried the sicilian seaman who being posted at the mizenmasthead stood directly behind ahab though somewhat lower than his level and with a deep gulf of air dividing them
her taste her opinionsi believe they are better known to me than my ownand i am sure they are dearer elinors heart which had undergone many changes in the course of this extraordinary conversation was now softened againyet she felt it her duty to check such ideas in her companion as the last relate only what in your conscience you think necessary for me to hear mariannes note by assuring me that i was still as dear to her as in former days that in spite of the many many weeks we had been separated she was as constant in her own feelings and as full of faith in the constancy of mine as ever awakened all my remorse i say awakened because time and london business and dissipation had in some measure quieted it and i had been growing a fine hardened villain fancying myself indifferent to her and chusing to fancy that she too must have become indifferent to me talking to myself of our past attachment as a mere idle trifling business shrugging up my shoulders in proof of its being so and silencing every reproach overcoming every scruple by secretly saying now and then i shall be heartily glad to hear she is well married i felt that she was infinitely dearer to me than any other woman in the world and that i was using her infamously but every thing was then just settled between miss grey and me i sent no answer to marianne intending by that to preserve myself from her farther notice and for some time i was even determined not to call in berkeley streetbut at last judging it wiser to affect the air of a cool common acquaintance than anything else i watched you all safely out of the house one morning and left my name you would be surprised to hear how often i watched you how often i was on the point of falling in with you i have entered many a shop to avoid your sight as the carriage drove by lodging as i did in bond street there was hardly a day in which i did not catch a glimpse of one or other of you and nothing but the most constant watchfulness on my side a most invariably prevailing desire to keep out of your sight could have separated us so long i avoided the middletons as much as possible as well as everybody else who was likely to prove an acquaintance in common not aware of their being in town however i blundered on sir john i believe the first day of his coming and the day after i had called at mrs he asked me to a party a dance at his house in the evening had he not told me as an inducement that you and your sister were to be there i should have felt it too certain a thing to trust myself near him the next morning brought another short note from mariannestill affectionate open artless confidingeverything that could make my conduct most hateful but i thought of her i believe every moment of the day if you can pity me miss dashwood pity my situation as it was then with my head and heart full of your sister i was forced to play the happy lover to another woman well at last as i need not tell you you were forced on me and what a sweet figure i cut
but here be it premised that owing to the unwearied activity with which of late they have been hunted over all four oceans the sperm whales instead of almost invariably sailing in small detached companies as in former times are now frequently met with in extensive herds sometimes embracing so great a multitude that it would almost seem as if numerous nations of them had sworn solemn league and covenant for mutual assistance and protection to this aggregation of the sperm whale into such immense caravans may be imputed the circumstance that even in the best cruising grounds you may now sometimes sail for weeks and months together without being greeted by a single spout and then be suddenly saluted by what sometimes seems thousands on thousands broad on both bows at the distance of some two or three miles and forming a great semicircle embracing one half of the level horizon a continuous chain of whalejets were upplaying and sparkling in the noonday air unlike the straight perpendicular twinjets of the right whale which dividing at top fall over in two branches like the cleft drooping boughs of a willow the single forwardslanting spout of the sperm whale presents a thick curled bush of white mist continually rising and falling away to leeward seen from the pequods deck then as she would rise on a high hill of the sea this host of vapoury spouts individually curling up into the air and beheld through a blending atmosphere of bluish haze showed like the thousand cheerful chimneys of some dense metropolis descried of a balmy autumnal morning by some horseman on a height as marching armies approaching an unfriendly defile in the mountains accelerate their march all eagerness to place that perilous passage in their rear and once more expand in comparative security upon the plain even so did this vast fleet of whales now seem hurrying forward through the straits gradually contracting the wings of their semicircle and swimming on in one solid but still crescentic centre crowding all sail the pequod pressed after them the harpooneers handling their weapons and loudly cheering from the heads of their yet suspended boats if the wind only held little doubt had they that chased through these straits of sunda the vast host would only deploy into the oriental seas to witness the capture of not a few of their number and who could tell whether in that congregated caravan moby dick himself might not temporarily be swimming like the worshipped whiteelephant in the coronation procession of the siamese so with stunsail piled on stunsail we sailed along driving these leviathans before us when of a sudden the voice of tashtego was heard loudly directing attention to something in our wake corresponding to the crescent in our van we beheld another in our rear it seemed formed of detached white vapours rising and falling something like the spouts of the whales only they did not so completely come and go for they constantly hovered without finally disappearing levelling his glass at this sight ahab quickly revolved in his pivothole crying aloft there and rig whips and buckets to wet the sailsmalays sir and after us as if too long lurking behind the headlands till the pequod should fairly have entered the straits these rascally asiatics were now in hot pursuit to make up for their overcautious delay but when the swift pequod with a fresh leading wind was herself in hot chase how very kind of these tawny philanthropists to assist in speeding her on to her own chosen pursuitmere ridingwhips and rowels to her that they were as with glass under arm ahab toandfro paced the deck in his forward turn beholding the monsters he chased and in the after one the bloodthirsty pirates chasing him some such fancy as the above seemed his and when he glanced upon the green walls of the watery defile in which the ship was then sailing and bethought him that through that gate lay the route to his vengeance and beheld how that through that same gate he was now both chasing and being chased to his deadly end and not only that but a herd of remorseless wild pirates and inhuman atheistical devils were infernally cheering him on with their curseswhen all these conceits had passed through his brain ahabs brow was left gaunt and ribbed like the black sand beach after some stormy tide has been gnawing it without being able to drag the firm thing from its place but thoughts like these troubled very few of the reckless crew and when after steadily dropping and dropping the pirates astern the pequod at last shot by the vivid green cockatoo point on the sumatra side emerging at last upon the broad waters beyond then the harpooneers seemed more to grieve that the swift whales had been gaining upon the ship than to rejoice that the ship had so victoriously gained upon the malays but still driving on in the wake of the whales at length they seemed abating their speed gradually the ship neared them and the wind now dying away word was passed to spring to the boats but no sooner did the herd by some presumed wonderful instinct of the sperm whale become notified of the three keels that were after themthough as yet a mile in their rearthan they rallied again and forming in close ranks and battalions so that their spouts all looked like flashing lines of stacked bayonets moved on with redoubled velocity
but why should you think said lucy looking ashamed of her sister that there are not as many genteel young men in devonshire as sussex nay my dear im sure i dont pretend to say that there ant im sure theres a vast many smart beaux in exeter but you know how could i tell what smart beaux there might be about norland and i was only afraid the miss dashwoods might find it dull at barton if they had not so many as they used to have but perhaps you young ladies may not care about the beaux and had as lief be without them as with them for my part i think they are vastly agreeable provided they dress smart and behave civil rose at exeter a prodigious smart young man quite a beau clerk to mr simpson you know and yet if you do but meet him of a morning he is not fit to be seen  i suppose your brother was quite a beau miss dashwood before he married as he was so rich upon my word replied elinor i cannot tell you for i do not perfectly comprehend the meaning of the word but this i can say that if he ever was a beau before he married he is one still for there is not the smallest alteration in him one never thinks of married mens being beauxthey have something else to do anne cried her sister you can talk of nothing but beauxyou will make miss dashwood believe you think of nothing else and then to turn the discourse she began admiring the house and the furniture the vulgar freedom and folly of the eldest left her no recommendation and as elinor was not blinded by the beauty or the shrewd look of the youngest to her want of real elegance and artlessness she left the house without any wish of knowing them better they came from exeter well provided with admiration for the use of sir john middleton his family and all his relations and no niggardly proportion was now dealt out to his fair cousins whom they declared to be the most beautiful elegant accomplished and agreeable girls they had ever beheld and with whom they were particularly anxious to be better acquainted  and to be better acquainted therefore elinor soon found was their inevitable lot for as sir john was entirely on the side of the miss steeles their party would be too strong for opposition and that kind of intimacy must be submitted to which consists of sitting an hour or two together in the same room almost every day sir john could do no more but he did not know that any more was required to be together was in his opinion to be intimate and while his continual schemes for their meeting were effectual he had not a doubt of their being established friends to do him justice he did every thing in his power to promote their unreserve by making the miss steeles acquainted with whatever he knew or supposed of his cousins situations in the most delicate particularsand elinor had not seen them more than twice before the eldest of them wished her joy on her sisters having been so lucky as to make a conquest of a very smart beau since she came to barton twill be a fine thing to have her married so young to be sure said she and i hear he is quite a beau and prodigious handsome and i hope you may have as good luck yourself soonbut perhaps you may have a friend in the corner already
neither lock nor bolt nor bar and yet theres no opening it it must be the spell he told me to stay here aye and told me this screwed chair was mine here then ill seat me against the transom in the ships full middle all her keel and her three masts before me here our old sailors say in their black seventyfours great admirals sometimes sit at table and lord it over rows of captains and lieutenants pass round the decanters glad to see ye fill up monsieurs what an odd feeling now when a black boys host to white men with gold lace upon their coats a little negro lad five feet high hangdog look and cowardly well then fill up again captains and lets drink shame upon all cowards but here ill stay though this stern strikes rocks and they bulge through and oysters come to join me and now that at the proper time and place after so long and wide a preliminary cruise ahaball other whaling waters sweptseemed to have chased his foe into an oceanfold to slay him the more securely there now that he found himself hard by the very latitude and longitude where his tormenting wound had been inflicted now that a vessel had been spoken which on the very day preceding had actually encountered moby dickand now that all his successive meetings with various ships contrastingly concurred to show the demoniac indifference with which the white whale tore his hunters whether sinning or sinned against now it was that there lurked a something in the old mans eyes which it was hardly sufferable for feeble souls to see as the unsetting polar star which through the livelong arctic six months night sustains its piercing steady central gaze so ahabs purpose now fixedly gleamed down upon the constant midnight of the gloomy crew it domineered above them so that all their bodings doubts misgivings fears were fain to hide beneath their souls and not sprout forth a single spear or leaf in this foreshadowing interval too all humor forced or natural vanished stubb no more strove to raise a smile starbuck no more strove to check one alike joy and sorrow hope and fear seemed ground to finest dust and powdered for the time in the clamped mortar of ahabs iron soul like machines they dumbly moved about the deck ever conscious that the old mans despot eye was on them but did you deeply scan him in his more secret confidential hours when he thought no glance but one was on him then you would have seen that even as ahabs eyes so awed the crews the inscrutable parsees glance awed his or somehow at least in some wild way at times affected it such an added gliding strangeness began to invest the thin fedallah now such ceaseless shudderings shook him that the men looked dubious at him half uncertain as it seemed whether indeed he were a mortal substance or else a tremulous shadow cast upon the deck by some unseen beings body for not by night even had fedallah ever certainly been known to slumber or go below he would stand still for hours but never sat or leaned his wan but wondrous eyes did plainly saywe two watchmen never rest
if such a furious trope may stand his special lunacy stormed his general sanity and carried it and turned all its concentred cannon upon its own mad mark so that far from having lost his strength ahab to that one end did now possess a thousand fold more potency than ever he had sanely brought to bear upon any one reasonable object this is much yet ahabs larger darker deeper part remains unhinted but vain to popularize profundities and all truth is profound winding far down from within the very heart of this spiked hotel de cluny where we here standhowever grand and wonderful now quit itand take your way ye nobler sadder souls to those vast roman halls of thermes where far beneath the fantastic towers of mans upper earth his root of grandeur his whole awful essence sits in bearded state an antique buried beneath antiquities and throned on torsoes so with a broken throne the great gods mock that captive king so like a caryatid he patient sits upholding on his frozen brow the piled entablatures of ages aye he did beget ye ye young exiled royalties and from your grim sire only will the old statesecret come now in his heart ahab had some glimpse of this namely all my means are sane my motive and my object mad yet without power to kill or change or shun the fact he likewise knew that to mankind he did long dissemble in some sort did still but that thing of his dissembling was only subject to his perceptibility not to his will determinate nevertheless so well did he succeed in that dissembling that when with ivory leg he stepped ashore at last no nantucketer thought him otherwise than but naturally grieved and that to the quick with the terrible casualty which had overtaken him the report of his undeniable delirium at sea was likewise popularly ascribed to a kindred cause and so too all the added moodiness which always afterwards to the very day of sailing in the pequod on the present voyage sat brooding on his brow nor is it so very unlikely that far from distrusting his fitness for another whaling voyage on account of such dark symptoms the calculating people of that prudent isle were inclined to harbor the conceit that for those very reasons he was all the better qualified and set on edge for a pursuit so full of rage and wildness as the bloody hunt of whales gnawed within and scorched without with the infixed unrelenting fangs of some incurable idea such an one could he be found would seem the very man to dart his iron and lift his lance against the most appalling of all brutes or if for any reason thought to be corporeally incapacitated for that yet such an one would seem superlatively competent to cheer and howl on his underlings to the attack but be all this as it may certain it is that with the mad secret of his unabated rage bolted up and keyed in him ahab had purposely sailed upon the present voyage with the one only and allengrossing object of hunting the white whale had any one of his old acquaintances on shore but half dreamed of what was lurking in him then how soon would their aghast and righteous souls have wrenched the ship from such a fiendish man they were bent on profitable cruises the profit to be counted down in dollars from the mint he was intent on an audacious immitigable and supernatural revenge here then was this greyheaded ungodly old man chasing with curses a jobs whale round the world at the head of a crew too chiefly made up of mongrel renegades and castaways and cannibalsmorally enfeebled also by the incompetence of mere unaided virtue or rightmindedness in starbuck the invulnerable jollity of indifference and recklessness in stubb and the pervading mediocrity in flask
nor even in our superstitions do we fail to throw the same snowy mantle round our phantoms all ghosts rising in a milkwhite fogyea while these terrors seize us let us add that even the king of terrors when personified by the evangelist rides on his pallid horse therefore in his other moods symbolize whatever grand or gracious thing he will by whiteness no man can deny that in its profoundest idealized significance it calls up a peculiar apparition to the soul but though without dissent this point be fixed how is mortal man to account for it can we then by the citation of some of those instances wherein this thing of whitenessthough for the time either wholly or in great part stripped of all direct associations calculated to impart to it aught fearful but nevertheless is found to exert over us the same sorcery however modifiedcan we thus hope to light upon some chance clue to conduct us to the hidden cause we seek but in a matter like this subtlety appeals to subtlety and without imagination no man can follow another into these halls and though doubtless some at least of the imaginative impressions about to be presented may have been shared by most men yet few perhaps were entirely conscious of them at the time and therefore may not be able to recall them now why to the man of untutored ideality who happens to be but loosely acquainted with the peculiar character of the day does the bare mention of whitsuntide marshal in the fancy such long dreary speechless processions of slowpacing pilgrims downcast and hooded with newfallen snow or to the unread unsophisticated protestant of the middle american states why does the passing mention of a white friar or a white nun evoke such an eyeless statue in the soul or what is there apart from the traditions of dungeoned warriors and kings which will not wholly account for it that makes the white tower of london tell so much more strongly on the imagination of an untravelled american than those other storied structures its neighborsthe byward tower or even the bloody and those sublimer towers the white mountains of new hampshire whence in peculiar moods comes that gigantic ghostliness over the soul at the bare mention of that name while the thought of virginias blue ridge is full of a soft dewy distant dreaminess or why irrespective of all latitudes and longitudes does the name of the white sea exert such a spectralness over the fancy while that of the yellow sea lulls us with mortal thoughts of long lacquered mild afternoons on the waves followed by the gaudiest and yet sleepiest of sunsets or to choose a wholly unsubstantial instance purely addressed to the fancy why in reading the old fairy tales of central europe does the tall pale man of the hartz forests whose changeless pallor unrustlingly glides through the green of the groveswhy is this phantom more terrible than all the whooping imps of the blocksburg nor is it altogether the remembrance of her cathedraltoppling earthquakes nor the stampedoes of her frantic seas nor the tearlessness of arid skies that never rain nor the sight of her wide field of leaning spires wrenched copestones and crosses all adroop like canted yards of anchored fleets and her suburban avenues of housewalls lying over upon each other as a tossed pack of cardsit is not these things alone which make tearless lima the strangest saddest city thou canst see for lima has taken the white veil and there is a higher horror in this whiteness of her woe old as pizarro this whiteness keeps her ruins for ever new admits not the cheerful greenness of complete decay spreads over her broken ramparts the rigid pallor of an apoplexy that fixes its own distortions i know that to the common apprehension this phenomenon of whiteness is not confessed to be the prime agent in exaggerating the terror of objects otherwise terrible nor to the unimaginative mind is there aught of terror in those appearances whose awfulness to another mind almost solely consists in this one phenomenon especially when exhibited under any form at all approaching to muteness or universality what i mean by these two statements may perhaps be respectively elucidated by the following examples first the mariner when drawing nigh the coasts of foreign lands if by night he hear the roar of breakers starts to vigilance and feels just enough of trepidation to sharpen all his faculties but under precisely similar circumstances let him be called from his hammock to view his ship sailing through a midnight sea of milky whitenessas if from encircling headlands shoals of combed white bears were swimming round him then he feels a silent superstitious dread the shrouded phantom of the whitened waters is horrible to him as a real ghost in vain the lead assures him he is still off soundings heart and helm they both go down he never rests till blue water is under him again yet where is the mariner who will tell thee sir it was not so much the fear of striking hidden rocks as the fear of that hideous whiteness that so stirred me second to the native indian of peru the continual sight of the snowhowdahed andes conveys naught of dread except perhaps in the mere fancying of the eternal frosted desolateness reigning at such vast altitudes and the natural conceit of what a fearfulness it would be to lose oneself in such inhuman solitudes
for me i silently recalled the mysterious shadows i had seen creeping on board the pequod during the dim nantucket dawn as well as the enigmatical hintings of the unaccountable elijah meantime ahab out of hearing of his officers having sided the furthest to windward was still ranging ahead of the other boats a circumstance bespeaking how potent a crew was pulling him those tiger yellow creatures of his seemed all steel and whalebone like five triphammers they rose and fell with regular strokes of strength which periodically started the boat along the water like a horizontal burst boiler out of a mississippi steamer as for fedallah who was seen pulling the harpooneer oar he had thrown aside his black jacket and displayed his naked chest with the whole part of his body above the gunwale clearly cut against the alternating depressions of the watery horizon while at the other end of the boat ahab with one arm like a fencers thrown half backward into the air as if to counterbalance any tendency to trip ahab was seen steadily managing his steering oar as in a thousand boat lowerings ere the white whale had torn him all at once the outstretched arm gave a peculiar motion and then remained fixed while the boats five oars were seen simultaneously peaked instantly the three spread boats in the rear paused on their way the whales had irregularly settled bodily down into the blue thus giving no distantly discernible token of the movement though from his closer vicinity ahab had observed it nimbly springing up on the triangular raised box in the bow the savage stood erect there and with intensely eager eyes gazed off towards the spot where the chase had last been descried likewise upon the extreme stern of the boat where it was also triangularly platformed level with the gunwale starbuck himself was seen coolly and adroitly balancing himself to the jerking tossings of his chip of a craft and silently eyeing the vast blue eye of the sea not very far distant flasks boat was also lying breathlessly still its commander recklessly standing upon the top of the loggerhead a stout sort of post rooted in the keel and rising some two feet above the level of the stern platform its top is not more spacious than the palm of a mans hand and standing upon such a base as that flask seemed perched at the masthead of some ship which had sunk to all but her trucks but little kingpost was small and short and at the same time little kingpost was full of a large and tall ambition so that this loggerhead standpoint of his did by no means satisfy kingpost i cant see three seas off tip us up an oar there and let me on to that upon this daggoo with either hand upon the gunwale to steady his way swiftly slid aft and then erecting himself volunteered his lofty shoulders for a pedestal that i will and thank ye very much my fine fellow only i wish you fifty feet taller whereupon planting his feet firmly against two opposite planks of the boat the gigantic negro stooping a little presented his flat palm to flasks foot and then putting flasks hand on his hearseplumed head and bidding him spring as he himself should toss with one dexterous fling landed the little man high and dry on his shoulders and here was flask now standing daggoo with one lifted arm furnishing him with a breastband to lean against and steady himself by at any time it is a strange sight to the tyro to see with what wondrous habitude of unconscious skill the whaleman will maintain an erect posture in his boat even when pitched about by the most riotously perverse and crossrunning seas still more strange to see him giddily perched upon the loggerhead itself under such circumstances but the sight of little flask mounted upon gigantic daggoo was yet more curious for sustaining himself with a cool indifferent easy unthought of barbaric majesty the noble negro to every roll of the sea harmoniously rolled his fine form
palmer and in that little had seen so much variety in his address to her sister and herself that she knew not what to expect to find him in his own family she found him however perfectly the gentleman in his behaviour to all his visitors and only occasionally rude to his wife and her mother she found him very capable of being a pleasant companion and only prevented from being so always by too great an aptitude to fancy himself as much superior to people in general as he must feel himself to be to mrs for the rest of his character and habits they were marked as far as elinor could perceive with no traits at all unusual in his sex and time of life he was nice in his eating uncertain in his hours fond of his child though affecting to slight it and idled away the mornings at billiards which ought to have been devoted to business she liked him however upon the whole much better than she had expected and in her heart was not sorry that she could like him no morenot sorry to be driven by the observation of his epicurism his selfishness and his conceit to rest with complacency on the remembrance of edwards generous temper simple taste and diffident feelings of edward or at least of some of his concerns she now received intelligence from colonel brandon who had been into dorsetshire lately and who treating her at once as the disinterested friend of mr ferrars and the kind confidante of himself talked to her a great deal of the parsonage at delaford described its deficiencies and told her what he meant to do himself towards removing them his behaviour to her in this as well as in every other particular his open pleasure in meeting her after an absence of only ten days his readiness to converse with her and his deference for her opinion might very well justify mrs jenningss persuasion of his attachment and would have been enough perhaps had not elinor still as from the first believed marianne his real favourite to make her suspect it herself but as it was such a notion had scarcely ever entered her head except by mrs jenningss suggestion and she could not help believing herself the nicest observer of the twoshe watched his eyes while mrs jennings thought only of his behaviourand while his looks of anxious solicitude on mariannes feeling in her head and throat the beginning of a heavy cold because unexpressed by words entirely escaped the latter ladys observationshe could discover in them the quick feelings and needless alarm of a lover two delightful twilight walks on the third and fourth evenings of her being there not merely on the dry gravel of the shrubbery but all over the grounds and especially in the most distant parts of them where there was something more of wildness than in the rest where the trees were the oldest and the grass was the longest and wettest hadassisted by the still greater imprudence of sitting in her wet shoes and stockingsgiven marianne a cold so violent as though for a day or two trifled with or denied would force itself by increasing ailments on the concern of every body and the notice of herself prescriptions poured in from all quarters and as usual were all declined though heavy and feverish with a pain in her limbs and a cough and a sore throat a good nights rest was to cure her entirely and it was with difficulty that elinor prevailed on her when she went to bed to try one or two of the simplest of the remedies chapter  marianne got up the next morning at her usual time to every inquiry replied that she was better and tried to prove herself so by engaging in her accustomary employments but a day spent in sitting shivering over the fire with a book in her hand which she was unable to read or in lying weary and languid on a sofa did not speak much in favour of her amendment and when at last she went early to bed more and more indisposed colonel brandon was only astonished at her sisters composure who though attending and nursing her the whole day against mariannes inclination and forcing proper medicines on her at night trusted like marianne to the certainty and efficacy of sleep and felt no real alarm a very restless and feverish night however disappointed the expectation of both and when marianne after persisting in rising confessed herself unable to sit up and returned voluntarily to her bed elinor was very ready to adopt mrs jenningss advice of sending for the palmers apothecary he came examined his patient and though encouraging miss dashwood to expect that a very few days would restore her sister to health yet by pronouncing her disorder to have a putrid tendency and allowing the word infection to pass his lips gave instant alarm to mrs
nor did they lose much hereby in the cabin was no companionship socially ahab was inaccessible though nominally included in the census of christendom he was still an alien to it he lived in the world as the last of the grisly bears lived in settled missouri and as when spring and summer had departed that wild logan of the woods burying himself in the hollow of a tree lived out the winter there sucking his own paws so in his inclement howling old age ahabs soul shut up in the caved trunk of his body there fed upon the sullen paws of its gloom it was during the more pleasant weather that in due rotation with the other seamen my first masthead came round in most american whalemen the mastheads are manned almost simultaneously with the vessels leaving her port even though she may have fifteen thousand miles and more to sail ere reaching her proper cruising ground and if after a three four or five years voyage she is drawing nigh home with anything empty in hersay an empty vial eventhen her mastheads are kept manned to the last and not till her skysailpoles sail in among the spires of the port does she altogether relinquish the hope of capturing one whale more now as the business of standing mastheads ashore or afloat is a very ancient and interesting one let us in some measure expatiate here i take it that the earliest standers of mastheads were the old egyptians because in all my researches i find none prior to them for though their progenitors the builders of babel must doubtless by their tower have intended to rear the loftiest masthead in all asia or africa either yet ere the final truck was put to it as that great stone mast of theirs may be said to have gone by the board in the dread gale of gods wrath therefore we cannot give these babel builders priority over the egyptians and that the egyptians were a nation of masthead standers is an assertion based upon the general belief among archaeologists that the first pyramids were founded for astronomical purposes a theory singularly supported by the peculiar stairlike formation of all four sides of those edifices whereby with prodigious long upliftings of their legs those old astronomers were wont to mount to the apex and sing out for new stars even as the lookouts of a modern ship sing out for a sail or a whale just bearing in sight in saint stylites the famous christian hermit of old times who built him a lofty stone pillar in the desert and spent the whole latter portion of his life on its summit hoisting his food from the ground with a tackle in him we have a remarkable instance of a dauntless standerofmastheads who was not to be driven from his place by fogs or frosts rain hail or sleet but valiantly facing everything out to the last literally died at his post of modern standersofmastheads we have but a lifeless set mere stone iron and bronze men who though well capable of facing out a stiff gale are still entirely incompetent to the business of singing out upon discovering any strange sight there is napoleon who upon the top of the column of vendome stands with arms folded some one hundred and fifty feet in the air careless now who rules the decks below whether louis philippe louis blanc or louis the devil great washington too stands high aloft on his towering mainmast in baltimore and like one of hercules pillars his column marks that point of human grandeur beyond which few mortals will go admiral nelson also on a capstan of gunmetal stands his masthead in trafalgar square and ever when most obscured by that london smoke token is yet given that a hidden hero is there for where there is smoke must be fire but neither great washington nor napoleon nor nelson will answer a single hail from below however madly invoked to befriend by their counsels the distracted decks upon which they gaze however it may be surmised that their spirits penetrate through the thick haze of the future and descry what shoals and what rocks must be shunned it may seem unwarrantable to couple in any respect the masthead standers of the land with those of the sea but that in truth it is not so is plainly evinced by an item for which obed macy the sole historian of nantucket stands accountable the worthy obed tells us that in the early times of the whale fishery ere ships were regularly launched in pursuit of the game the people of that island erected lofty spars along the seacoast to which the lookouts ascended by means of nailed cleats something as fowls go upstairs in a henhouse a few years ago this same plan was adopted by the bay whalemen of new zealand who upon descrying the game gave notice to the readymanned boats nigh the beach
darcy himself but whenever she did catch a glimpse she saw an expression of general complaisance and in all that he said she heard an accent so removed from hauteur or disdain of his companions as convinced her that the improvement of manners which she had yesterday witnessed however temporary its existence might prove had at least outlived one day when she saw him thus seeking the acquaintance and courting the good opinion of people with whom any intercourse a few months ago would have been a disgracewhen she saw him thus civil not only to herself but to the very relations whom he had openly disdained and recollected their last lively scene in hunsford parsonagethe difference the change was so great and struck so forcibly on her mind that she could hardly restrain her astonishment from being visible never even in the company of his dear friends at netherfield or his dignified relations at rosings had she seen him so desirous to please so free from selfconsequence or unbending reserve as now when no importance could result from the success of his endeavours and when even the acquaintance of those to whom his attentions were addressed would draw down the ridicule and censure of the ladies both of netherfield and rosings their visitors stayed with them above halfanhour and when they arose to depart mr darcy called on his sister to join him in expressing their wish of seeing mr gardiner and miss bennet to dinner at pemberley before they left the country miss darcy though with a diffidence which marked her little in the habit of giving invitations readily obeyed gardiner looked at her niece desirous of knowing how she whom the invitation most concerned felt disposed as to its acceptance but elizabeth had turned away her head presuming however that this studied avoidance spoke rather a momentary embarrassment than any dislike of the proposal and seeing in her husband who was fond of society a perfect willingness to accept it she ventured to engage for her attendance and the day after the next was fixed on bingley expressed great pleasure in the certainty of seeing elizabeth again having still a great deal to say to her and many inquiries to make after all their hertfordshire friends elizabeth construing all this into a wish of hearing her speak of her sister was pleased and on this account as well as some others found herself when their visitors left them capable of considering the last halfhour with some satisfaction though while it was passing the enjoyment of it had been little eager to be alone and fearful of inquiries or hints from her uncle and aunt she stayed with them only long enough to hear their favourable opinion of bingley and then hurried away to dress gardiners curiosity it was not their wish to force her communication it was evident that she was much better acquainted with mr darcy than they had before any idea of it was evident that he was very much in love with her they saw much to interest but nothing to justify inquiry darcy it was now a matter of anxiety to think well and as far as their acquaintance reached there was no fault to find they could not be untouched by his politeness and had they drawn his character from their own feelings and his servants report without any reference to any other account the circle in hertfordshire to which he was known would not have recognized it for mr there was now an interest however in believing the housekeeper and they soon became sensible that the authority of a servant who had known him since he was four years old and whose own manners indicated respectability was not to be hastily rejected neither had anything occurred in the intelligence of their lambton friends that could materially lessen its weight
i can make no submissioni am grown neither humble nor penitent by what has passed i know of no submission that is proper for me to make you may certainly ask to be forgiven said elinor because you have offendedand i should think you might now venture so far as to profess some concern for having ever formed the engagement which drew on you your mothers anger and when she has forgiven you perhaps a little humility may be convenient while acknowledging a second engagement almost as imprudent in her eyes as the first he had nothing to urge against it but still resisted the idea of a letter of proper submission and therefore to make it easier to him as he declared a much greater willingness to make mean concessions by word of mouth than on paper it was resolved that instead of writing to fanny he should go to london and personally intreat her good offices in his favour  and if they really do interest themselves said marianne in her new character of candour in bringing about a reconciliation i shall think that even john and fanny are not entirely without merit after a visit on colonel brandons side of only three or four days the two gentlemen quitted barton together  they were to go immediately to delaford that edward might have some personal knowledge of his future home and assist his patron and friend in deciding on what improvements were needed to it and from thence after staying there a couple of nights he was to proceed on his journey to town chapter  after a proper resistance on the part of mrs ferrars just so violent and so steady as to preserve her from that reproach which she always seemed fearful of incurring the reproach of being too amiable edward was admitted to her presence and pronounced to be again her son her family had of late been exceedingly fluctuating for many years of her life she had had two sons but the crime and annihilation of edward a few weeks ago had robbed her of one the similar annihilation of robert had left her for a fortnight without any and now by the resuscitation of edward she had one again in spite of his being allowed once more to live however he did not feel the continuance of his existence secure till he had revealed his present engagement for the publication of that circumstance he feared might give a sudden turn to his constitution and carry him off as rapidly as before with apprehensive caution therefore it was revealed and he was listened to with unexpected calmness ferrars at first reasonably endeavoured to dissuade him from marrying miss dashwood by every argument in her powertold him that in miss morton he would have a woman of higher rank and larger fortuneand enforced the assertion by observing that miss morton was the daughter of a nobleman with thirty thousand pounds while miss dashwood was only the daughter of a private gentleman with no more than three but when she found that though perfectly admitting the truth of her representation he was by no means inclined to be guided by it she judged it wisest from the experience of the past to submitand therefore after such an ungracious delay as she owed to her own dignity and as served to prevent every suspicion of goodwill she issued her decree of consent to the marriage of edward and elinor what she would engage to do towards augmenting their income was next to be considered and here it plainly appeared that though edward was now her only son he was by no means her eldest for while robert was inevitably endowed with a thousand pounds ayear not the smallest objection was made against edwards taking orders for the sake of two hundred and fifty at the utmost nor was anything promised either for the present or in future beyond the ten thousand pounds which had been given with fanny it was as much however as was desired and more than was expected by edward and elinor and mrs ferrars herself by her shuffling excuses seemed the only person surprised at her not giving more with an income quite sufficient to their wants thus secured to them they had nothing to wait for after edward was in possession of the living but the readiness of the house to which colonel brandon with an eager desire for the accommodation of elinor was making considerable improvements and after waiting some time for their completion after experiencing as usual a thousand disappointments and delays from the unaccountable dilatoriness of the workmen elinor as usual broke through the first positive resolution of not marrying till every thing was ready and the ceremony took place in barton church early in the autumn the first month after their marriage was spent with their friend at the mansionhouse from whence they could superintend the progress of the parsonage and direct every thing as they liked on the spotcould chuse papers project shrubberies and invent a sweep
such a woman as i am sure fanny will be glad to know jennings too an exceedingly wellbehaved woman though not so elegant as her daughter your sister need not have any scruple even of visiting her which to say the truth has been a little the case and very naturally for we only knew that mrs jennings was the widow of a man who had got all his money in a low way and fanny and mrs ferrars were both strongly prepossessed that neither she nor her daughters were such kind of women as fanny would like to associate with but now i can carry her a most satisfactory account of both john dashwood had so much confidence in her husbands judgment that she waited the very next day both on mrs jennings and her daughter and her confidence was rewarded by finding even the former even the woman with whom her sisters were staying by no means unworthy her notice and as for lady middleton she found her one of the most charming women in the world there was a kind of cold hearted selfishness on both sides which mutually attracted them and they sympathised with each other in an insipid propriety of demeanor and a general want of understanding john dashwood to the good opinion of lady middleton did not suit the fancy of mrs jennings and to her she appeared nothing more than a little proudlooking woman of uncordial address who met her husbands sisters without any affection and almost without having anything to say to them for of the quarter of an hour bestowed on berkeley street she sat at least seven minutes and a half in silence elinor wanted very much to know though she did not chuse to ask whether edward was then in town but nothing would have induced fanny voluntarily to mention his name before her till able to tell her that his marriage with miss morton was resolved on or till her husbands expectations on colonel brandon were answered because she believed them still so very much attached to each other that they could not be too sedulously divided in word and deed on every occasion the intelligence however which she would not give soon flowed from another quarter lucy came very shortly to claim elinors compassion on being unable to see edward though he had arrived in town with mr he dared not come to bartletts buildings for fear of detection and though their mutual impatience to meet was not to be told they could do nothing at present but write edward assured them himself of his being in town within a very short time by twice calling in berkeley street twice was his card found on the table when they returned from their mornings engagements elinor was pleased that he had called and still more pleased that she had missed him the dashwoods were so prodigiously delighted with the middletons that though not much in the habit of giving anything they determined to give thema dinner and soon after their acquaintance began invited them to dine in harley street where they had taken a very good house for three months jennings were invited likewise and john dashwood was careful to secure colonel brandon who always glad to be where the miss dashwoods were received his eager civilities with some surprise but much more pleasure
the conduct of neither if strictly examined will be irreproachable but since then we have both i hope improved in civility the recollection of what i then said of my conduct my manners my expressions during the whole of it is now and has been many months inexpressibly painful to me your reproof so well applied i shall never forget had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner you know not you can scarcely conceive how they have tortured methough it was some time i confess before i was reasonable enough to allow their justice i was certainly very far from expecting them to make so strong an impression i had not the smallest idea of their being ever felt in such a way you thought me then devoid of every proper feeling i am sure you did the turn of your countenance i shall never forget as you said that i could not have addressed you in any possible way that would induce you to accept me i assure you that i have long been most heartily ashamed of it did it said he did it soon make you think better of me did you on reading it give any credit to its contents she explained what its effect on her had been and how gradually all her former prejudices had been removed i knew said he that what i wrote must give you pain but it was necessary there was one part especially the opening of it which i should dread your having the power of reading again i can remember some expressions which might justly make you hate me the letter shall certainly be burnt if you believe it essential to the preservation of my regard but though we have both reason to think my opinions not entirely unalterable they are not i hope quite so easily changed as that implies when i wrote that letter replied darcy i believed myself perfectly calm and cool but i am since convinced that it was written in a dreadful bitterness of spirit the letter perhaps began in bitterness but it did not end so the feelings of the person who wrote and the person who received it are now so widely different from what they were then that every unpleasant circumstance attending it ought to be forgotten think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure
it is worse for you cannot sit motionless in the heart of these perils because the boat is rocking like a cradle and you are pitched one way and the other without the slightest warning and only by a certain selfadjusting buoyancy and simultaneousness of volition and action can you escape being made a mazeppa of and run away with where the allseeing sun himself could never pierce you out again as the profound calm which only apparently precedes and prophesies of the storm is perhaps more awful than the storm itself for indeed the calm is but the wrapper and envelope of the storm and contains it in itself as the seemingly harmless rifle holds the fatal powder and the ball and the explosion so the graceful repose of the line as it silently serpentines about the oarsmen before being brought into actual playthis is a thing which carries more of true terror than any other aspect of this dangerous affair all are born with halters round their necks but it is only when caught in the swift sudden turn of death that mortals realize the silent subtle everpresent perils of life and if you be a philosopher though seated in the whaleboat you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror than though seated before your evening fire with a poker and not a harpoon by your side if to starbuck the apparition of the squid was a thing of portents to queequeg it was quite a different object when you see him quid said the savage honing his harpoon in the bow of his hoisted boat then you quick see him parm whale the next day was exceedingly still and sultry and with nothing special to engage them the pequods crew could hardly resist the spell of sleep induced by such a vacant sea for this part of the indian ocean through which we then were voyaging is not what whalemen call a lively ground that is it affords fewer glimpses of porpoises dolphins flyingfish and other vivacious denizens of more stirring waters than those off the rio de la plata or the inshore ground off peru it was my turn to stand at the foremasthead and with my shoulders leaning against the slackened royal shrouds to and fro i idly swayed in what seemed an enchanted air no resolution could withstand it in that dreamy mood losing all consciousness at last my soul went out of my body though my body still continued to sway as a pendulum will long after the power which first moved it is withdrawn ere forgetfulness altogether came over me i had noticed that the seamen at the main and mizzenmastheads were already drowsy so that at last all three of us lifelessly swung from the spars and for every swing that we made there was a nod from below from the slumbering helmsman the waves too nodded their indolent crests and across the wide trance of the sea east nodded to west and the sun over all suddenly bubbles seemed bursting beneath my closed eyes like vices my hands grasped the shrouds some invisible gracious agency preserved me with a shock i came back to life close under our lee not forty fathoms off a gigantic sperm whale lay rolling in the water like the capsized hull of a frigate his broad glossy back of an ethiopian hue glistening in the suns rays like a mirror but lazily undulating in the trough of the sea and ever and anon tranquilly spouting his vapoury jet the whale looked like a portly burgher smoking his pipe of a warm afternoon as if struck by some enchanters wand the sleepy ship and every sleeper in it all at once started into wakefulness and more than a score of voices from all parts of the vessel simultaneously with the three notes from aloft shouted forth the accustomed cry as the great fish slowly and regularly spouted the sparkling brine into the air and obeying his own order he dashed the helm down before the helmsman could handle the spokes the sudden exclamations of the crew must have alarmed the whale and ere the boats were down majestically turning he swam away to the leeward but with such a steady tranquillity and making so few ripples as he swam that thinking after all he might not as yet be alarmed ahab gave orders that not an oar should be used and no man must speak but in whispers so seated like ontario indians on the gunwales of the boats we swiftly but silently paddled along the calm not admitting of the noiseless sails being set
at last after much dodging search he finds the tarshish ship receiving the last items of her cargo and as he steps on board to see its captain in the cabin all the sailors for the moment desist from hoisting in the goods to mark the strangers evil eye jonah sees this but in vain he tries to look all ease and confidence in vain essays his wretched smile strong intuitions of the man assure the mariners he can be no innocent in their gamesome but still serious way one whispers to the otherjack hes robbed a widow or joe do you mark him hes a bigamist or harry lad i guess hes the adulterer that broke jail in old gomorrah or belike one of the missing murderers from sodom another runs to read the bill thats stuck against the spile upon the wharf to which the ship is moored offering five hundred gold coins for the apprehension of a parricide and containing a description of his person he reads and looks from jonah to the bill while all his sympathetic shipmates now crowd round jonah prepared to lay their hands upon him frighted jonah trembles and summoning all his boldness to his face only looks so much the more a coward he will not confess himself suspected but that itself is strong suspicion so he makes the best of it and when the sailors find him not to be the man that is advertised they let him pass and he descends into the cabin  cries the captain at his busy desk hurriedly making out his papers for the customswhos there i seek a passage in this ship to tarshish how soon sail ye sir  thus far the busy captain had not looked up to jonah though the man now stands before him but no sooner does he hear that hollow voice than he darts a scrutinizing glance we sail with the next coming tide at last he slowly answered still intently eyeing him soon enough for any honest man that goes a passenger but he swiftly calls away the captain from that scent ill sail with yehe saysthe passage money how much is that  for it is particularly written shipmates as if it were a thing not to be overlooked in this history that he paid the fare thereof ere the craft did sail now jonahs captain shipmates was one whose discernment detects crime in any but whose cupidity exposes it only in the penniless in this world shipmates sin that pays its way can travel freely and without a passport whereas virtue if a pauper is stopped at all frontiers so jonahs captain prepares to test the length of jonahs purse ere he judge him openly
wickham frequently invited her to come and stay with her with the promise of balls and young men her father would never consent to her going mary was the only daughter who remained at home and she was necessarily drawn from the pursuit of accomplishments by mrs mary was obliged to mix more with the world but she could still moralize over every morning visit and as she was no longer mortified by comparisons between her sisters beauty and her own it was suspected by her father that she submitted to the change without much reluctance as for wickham and lydia their characters suffered no revolution from the marriage of her sisters he bore with philosophy the conviction that elizabeth must now become acquainted with whatever of his ingratitude and falsehood had before been unknown to her and in spite of every thing was not wholly without hope that darcy might yet be prevailed on to make his fortune the congratulatory letter which elizabeth received from lydia on her marriage explained to her that by his wife at least if not by himself such a hope was cherished the letter was to this effect my dear lizzy   i wish you joy darcy half as well as i do my dear wickham you must be very happy it is a great comfort to have you so rich and when you have nothing else to do i hope you will think of us i am sure wickham would like a place at court very much and i do not think we shall have quite money enough to live upon without some help any place would do of about three or four hundred a year but however do not speak to mr as it happened that elizabeth had much rather not she endeavoured in her answer to put an end to every entreaty and expectation of the kind such relief however as it was in her power to afford by the practice of what might be called economy in her own private expences she frequently sent them it had always been evident to her that such an income as theirs under the direction of two persons so extravagant in their wants and heedless of the future must be very insufficient to their support and whenever they changed their quarters either jane or herself were sure of being applied to for some little assistance towards discharging their bills their manner of living even when the restoration of peace dismissed them to a home was unsettled in the extreme they were always moving from place to place in quest of a cheap situation and always spending more than they ought his affection for her soon sunk into indifference hers lasted a little longer and in spite of her youth and her manners she retained all the claims to reputation which her marriage had given her though darcy could never receive him at pemberley yet for elizabeths sake he assisted him further in his profession lydia was occasionally a visitor there when her husband was gone to enjoy himself in london or bath and with the bingleys they both of them frequently staid so long that even bingleys good humour was overcome and he proceeded so far as to talk of giving them a hint to be gone miss bingley was very deeply mortified by darcys marriage but as she thought it advisable to retain the right of visiting at pemberley she dropt all her resentment was fonder than ever of georgiana almost as attentive to darcy as heretofore and paid off every arrear of civility to elizabeth
elizabeth was prepared to see him in his glory and she could not help in fancying that in displaying the good proportion of the room its aspect and its furniture he addressed himself particularly to her as if wishing to make her feel what she had lost in refusing him but though everything seemed neat and comfortable she was not able to gratify him by any sigh of repentance and rather looked with wonder at her friend that she could have so cheerful an air with such a companion collins said anything of which his wife might reasonably be ashamed which certainly was not unseldom she involuntarily turned her eye on charlotte once or twice she could discern a faint blush but in general charlotte wisely did not hear after sitting long enough to admire every article of furniture in the room from the sideboard to the fender to give an account of their journey and of all that had happened in london mr collins invited them to take a stroll in the garden which was large and well laid out and to the cultivation of which he attended himself to work in this garden was one of his most respectable pleasures and elizabeth admired the command of countenance with which charlotte talked of the healthfulness of the exercise and owned she encouraged it as much as possible here leading the way through every walk and cross walk and scarcely allowing them an interval to utter the praises he asked for every view was pointed out with a minuteness which left beauty entirely behind he could number the fields in every direction and could tell how many trees there were in the most distant clump but of all the views which his garden or which the country or kingdom could boast none were to be compared with the prospect of rosings afforded by an opening in the trees that bordered the park nearly opposite the front of his house it was a handsome modern building well situated on rising ground collins would have led them round his two meadows but the ladies not having shoes to encounter the remains of a white frost turned back and while sir william accompanied him charlotte took her sister and friend over the house extremely well pleased probably to have the opportunity of showing it without her husbands help it was rather small but well built and convenient and everything was fitted up and arranged with a neatness and consistency of which elizabeth gave charlotte all the credit collins could be forgotten there was really an air of great comfort throughout and by charlottes evident enjoyment of it elizabeth supposed he must be often forgotten she had already learnt that lady catherine was still in the country it was spoken of again while they were at dinner when mr collins joining in observed yes miss elizabeth you will have the honour of seeing lady catherine de bourgh on the ensuing sunday at church and i need not say you will be delighted with her she is all affability and condescension and i doubt not but you will be honoured with some portion of her notice when service is over i have scarcely any hesitation in saying she will include you and my sister maria in every invitation with which she honours us during your stay here we dine at rosings twice every week and are never allowed to walk home
thats our first love we marry and think to be happy for aye when pop comes libra or the scaleshappiness weighed and found wanting and while we are very sad about that lord how we suddenly jump as scorpio or the scorpion stings us in the rear we are curing the wound when whang come the arrows all round sagittarius or the archer is amusing himself heres the batteringram capricornus or the goat full tilt he comes rushing and headlong we are tossed when aquarius or the waterbearer pours out his whole deluge and drowns us and to wind up with pisces or the fishes we sleep theres a sermon now writ in high heaven and the sun goes through it every year and yet comes out of it all alive and hearty jollily he aloft there wheels through toil and trouble and so alow here does jolly stubb but stop here comes little kingpost dodge round the tryworks now and lets hear what hell have to say there hes before it hell out with something presently i see nothing here but a round thing made of gold and whoever raises a certain whale this round thing belongs to him it is worth sixteen dollars thats true and at two cents the cigar thats nine hundred and sixty cigars i wont smoke dirty pipes like stubb but i like cigars and heres nine hundred and sixty of them so here goes flask aloft to spy em out shall i call that wise or foolish now if it be really wise it has a foolish look to it yet if it be really foolish then has it a sort of wiseish look to it but avast here comes our old manxmanthe old hearsedriver he must have been that is before he took to the sea he luffs up before the doubloon halloa and goes round on the other side of the mast why theres a horseshoe nailed on that side and now hes back again what does that mean if the white whale be raised it must be in a month and a day when the sun stands in some one of these signs ive studied signs and know their marks they were taught me two score years ago by the old witch in copenhagen the horseshoe sign for there it is right opposite the gold the lion is the horseshoe signthe roaring and devouring lion here comes queequegall tattooinglooks like the signs of the zodiac himself as i live hes comparing notes looking at his thigh bone thinks the sun is in the thigh or in the calf or in the bowels i suppose as the old women talk surgeons astronomy in the back country and by jove hes found something there in the vicinity of his thighi guess its sagittarius or the archer
jennings in bond street said he after the first salutation and she encouraged me to come on and i was the more easily encouraged because i thought it probable that i might find you alone which i was very desirous of doing my objectmy wishmy sole wish in desiring iti hope i believe it isis to be a means of giving comfortno i must not say comfortnot present comfortbut conviction lasting conviction to your sisters mind my regard for her for yourself for your motherwill you allow me to prove it by relating some circumstances which nothing but a very sincere regardnothing but an earnest desire of being usefuli think i am justifiedthough where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that i am right is there not some reason to fear i may be wrong your telling it will be the greatest act of friendship that can be shewn marianne my gratitude will be insured immediately by any information tending to that end and hers must be gained by it in time you shall and to be brief when i quitted barton last octoberbut this will give you no ideai must go farther back you will find me a very awkward narrator miss dashwood i hardly know where to begin a short account of myself i believe will be necessary and it shall be a short one on such a subject sighing heavily can i have little temptation to be diffuse he stopt a moment for recollection and then with another sigh went on you have probably entirely forgotten a conversationit is not to be supposed that it could make any impression on youa conversation between us one evening at barton parkit was the evening of a dancein which i alluded to a lady i had once known as resembling in some measure your sister marianne he looked pleased by this remembrance and added if i am not deceived by the uncertainty the partiality of tender recollection there is a very strong resemblance between them as well in mind as person the same warmth of heart the same eagerness of fancy and spirits this lady was one of my nearest relations an orphan from her infancy and under the guardianship of my father our ages were nearly the same and from our earliest years we were playfellows and friends i cannot remember the time when i did not love eliza and my affection for her as we grew up was such as perhaps judging from my present forlorn and cheerless gravity you might think me incapable of having ever felt hers for me was i believe fervent as the attachment of your sister to mr willoughby and it was though from a different cause no less unfortunate she was marriedmarried against her inclination to my brother her fortune was large and our family estate much encumbered
the whole of what elizabeth had already heard his claims on mr darcy and all that he had suffered from him was now openly acknowledged and publicly canvassed and everybody was pleased to know how much they had always disliked mr miss bennet was the only creature who could suppose there might be any extenuating circumstances in the case unknown to the society of hertfordshire her mild and steady candour always pleaded for allowances and urged the possibility of mistakesbut by everybody else mr chapter  after a week spent in professions of love and schemes of felicity mr collins was called from his amiable charlotte by the arrival of saturday the pain of separation however might be alleviated on his side by preparations for the reception of his bride as he had reason to hope that shortly after his return into hertfordshire the day would be fixed that was to make him the happiest of men he took leave of his relations at longbourn with as much solemnity as before wished his fair cousins health and happiness again and promised their father another letter of thanks bennet had the pleasure of receiving her brother and his wife who came as usual to spend the christmas at longbourn gardiner was a sensible gentlemanlike man greatly superior to his sister as well by nature as education the netherfield ladies would have had difficulty in believing that a man who lived by trade and within view of his own warehouses could have been so wellbred and agreeable phillips was an amiable intelligent elegant woman and a great favourite with all her longbourn nieces between the two eldest and herself especially there subsisted a particular regard gardiners business on her arrival was to distribute her presents and describe the newest fashions when this was done she had a less active part to play bennet had many grievances to relate and much to complain of they had all been very illused since she last saw her sister two of her girls had been upon the point of marriage and after all there was nothing in it i do not blame jane she continued for jane would have got mr it is very hard to think that she might have been mr collinss wife by this time had it not been for her own perverseness
this delicacy is chiefly evinced in the action of sweeping when in maidenly gentleness the whale with a certain soft slowness moves his immense flukes from side to side upon the surface of the sea and if he feel but a sailors whisker woe to that sailor whiskers and all had this tail any prehensile power i should straightway bethink me of darmonodes elephant that so frequented the flowermarket and with low salutations presented nosegays to damsels and then caressed their zones on more accounts than one a pity it is that the whale does not possess this prehensile virtue in his tail for i have heard of yet another elephant that when wounded in the fight curved round his trunk and extracted the dart fourth stealing unawares upon the whale in the fancied security of the middle of solitary seas you find him unbent from the vast corpulence of his dignity and kittenlike he plays on the ocean as if it were a hearth the broad palms of his tail are flirted high into the air then smiting the surface the thunderous concussion resounds for miles you would almost think a great gun had been discharged and if you noticed the light wreath of vapour from the spiracle at his other extremity you would think that that was the smoke from the touchhole fifth as in the ordinary floating posture of the leviathan the flukes lie considerably below the level of his back they are then completely out of sight beneath the surface but when he is about to plunge into the deeps his entire flukes with at least thirty feet of his body are tossed erect in the air and so remain vibrating a moment till they downwards shoot out of view excepting the sublime breachsomewhere else to be describedthis peaking of the whales flukes is perhaps the grandest sight to be seen in all animated nature out of the bottomless profundities the gigantic tail seems spasmodically snatching at the highest heaven so in dreams have i seen majestic satan thrusting forth his tormented colossal claw from the flame baltic of hell but in gazing at such scenes it is all in all what mood you are in if in the dantean the devils will occur to you if in that of isaiah the archangels standing at the masthead of my ship during a sunrise that crimsoned sky and sea i once saw a large herd of whales in the east all heading towards the sun and for a moment vibrating in concert with peaked flukes as it seemed to me at the time such a grand embodiment of adoration of the gods was never beheld even in persia the home of the fire worshippers as ptolemy philopater testified of the african elephant i then testified of the whale pronouncing him the most devout of all beings for according to king juba the military elephants of antiquity often hailed the morning with their trunks uplifted in the profoundest silence the chance comparison in this chapter between the whale and the elephant so far as some aspects of the tail of the one and the trunk of the other are concerned should not tend to place those two opposite organs on an equality much less the creatures to which they respectively belong for as the mightiest elephant is but a terrier to leviathan so compared with leviathans tail his trunk is but the stalk of a lily the most direful blow from the elephants trunk were as the playful tap of a fan compared with the measureless crush and crash of the sperm whales ponderous flukes which in repeated instances have one after the other hurled entire boats with all their oars and crews into the air very much as an indian juggler tosses his balls  though all comparison in the way of general bulk between the whale and the elephant is preposterous inasmuch as in that particular the elephant stands in much the same respect to the whale that a dog does to the elephant nevertheless there are not wanting some points of curious similitude among these is the spout it is well known that the elephant will often draw up water or dust in his trunk and then elevating it jet it forth in a stream
i shall persuade her if i can to go early to bed for i am sure she wants rest no wonder she has been looking so bad and so cast down this last week or two for this matter i suppose has been hanging over her head as long as that i am sure if i had had a notion of it i would not have joked her about it for all my money i made sure of its being nothing but a common love letter and you know young people like to be laughed at about them how concerned sir john and my daughters will be when they hear it if i had my senses about me i might have called in conduit street in my way home and told them of it it would be unnecessary i am sure for you to caution mrs willoughby or making the slightest allusion to what has passed before my sister their own goodnature must point out to them the real cruelty of appearing to know any thing about it when she is present and the less that may ever be said to myself on the subject the more my feelings will be spared as you my dear madam will easily believe it must be terrible for you to hear it talked of and as for your sister i am sure i would not mention a word about it to her for the world no more would sir john nor my daughters for they are all very thoughtful and considerate especially if i give them a hint as i certainly will for my part i think the less that is said about such things the better the sooner tis blown over and forgot in this affair it can only do harm more so perhaps than in many cases of a similar kind for it has been attended by circumstances which for the sake of every one concerned in it make it unfit to become the public conversation willoughbyhe has broken no positive engagement with my sister after taking her all over allenham house and fixing on the very rooms they were to live in hereafter elinor for her sisters sake could not press the subject farther and she hoped it was not required of her for willoughbys since though marianne might lose much he could gain very little by the enforcement of the real truth jennings with all her natural hilarity burst forth again well my dear tis a true saying about an illwind for it will be all the better for colonel brandon it will be all to one a better match for your sister two thousand a year without debt or drawbackexcept the little lovechild indeed aye i had forgot her but she may be prenticed out at a small cost and then what does it signify
a report of a most alarming nature reached me two days ago i was told that not only your sister was on the point of being most advantageously married but that you that miss elizabeth bennet would in all likelihood be soon afterwards united to my nephew my own nephew mr though i know it must be a scandalous falsehood though i would not injure him so much as to suppose the truth of it possible i instantly resolved on setting off for this place that i might make my sentiments known to you if you believed it impossible to be true said elizabeth colouring with astonishment and disdain i wonder you took the trouble of coming so far at once to insist upon having such a report universally contradicted your coming to longbourn to see me and my family said elizabeth coolly will be rather a confirmation of it if indeed such a report is in existence has it not been industriously circulated by yourselves do you not know that such a report is spread abroad and can you likewise declare that there is no foundation for it i do not pretend to possess equal frankness with your ladyship you may ask questions which i shall not choose to answer it ought to be so it must be so while he retains the use of his reason but your arts and allurements may in a moment of infatuation have made him forget what he owes to himself and to all his family i have not been accustomed to such language as this i am almost the nearest relation he has in the world and am entitled to know all his dearest concerns but you are not entitled to know mine nor will such behaviour as this ever induce me to be explicit this match to which you have the presumption to aspire can never take place only this that if he is so you can have no reason to suppose he will make an offer to me lady catherine hesitated for a moment and then replied the engagement between them is of a peculiar kind from their infancy they have been intended for each other
her disappointment in charlotte made her turn with fonder regard to her sister of whose rectitude and delicacy she was sure her opinion could never be shaken and for whose happiness she grew daily more anxious as bingley had now been gone a week and nothing more was heard of his return jane had sent caroline an early answer to her letter and was counting the days till she might reasonably hope to hear again collins arrived on tuesday addressed to their father and written with all the solemnity of gratitude which a twelvemonths abode in the family might have prompted after discharging his conscience on that head he proceeded to inform them with many rapturous expressions of his happiness in having obtained the affection of their amiable neighbour miss lucas and then explained that it was merely with the view of enjoying her society that he had been so ready to close with their kind wish of seeing him again at longbourn whither he hoped to be able to return on monday fortnight for lady catherine he added so heartily approved his marriage that she wished it to take place as soon as possible which he trusted would be an unanswerable argument with his amiable charlotte to name an early day for making him the happiest of men collinss return into hertfordshire was no longer a matter of pleasure to mrs on the contrary she was as much disposed to complain of it as her husband it was very strange that he should come to longbourn instead of to lucas lodge it was also very inconvenient and exceedingly troublesome she hated having visitors in the house while her health was so indifferent and lovers were of all people the most disagreeable bennet and they gave way only to the greater distress of mr neither jane nor elizabeth were comfortable on this subject day after day passed away without bringing any other tidings of him than the report which shortly prevailed in meryton of his coming no more to netherfield the whole winter a report which highly incensed mrs bennet and which she never failed to contradict as a most scandalous falsehood even elizabeth began to fearnot that bingley was indifferentbut that his sisters would be successful in keeping him away unwilling as she was to admit an idea so destructive of janes happiness and so dishonorable to the stability of her lover she could not prevent its frequently occurring the united efforts of his two unfeeling sisters and of his overpowering friend assisted by the attractions of miss darcy and the amusements of london might be too much she feared for the strength of his attachment as for jane her anxiety under this suspense was of course more painful than elizabeths but whatever she felt she was desirous of concealing and between herself and elizabeth therefore the subject was never alluded to but as no such delicacy restrained her mother an hour seldom passed in which she did not talk of bingley express her impatience for his arrival or even require jane to confess that if he did not come back she would think herself very ill used it needed all janes steady mildness to bear these attacks with tolerable tranquillity collins returned most punctually on monday fortnight but his reception at longbourn was not quite so gracious as it had been on his first introduction he was too happy however to need much attention and luckily for the others the business of lovemaking relieved them from a great deal of his company
in a short time elinor saw willoughby quit the room by the door towards the staircase and telling marianne that he was gone urged the impossibility of speaking to him again that evening as a fresh argument for her to be calm she instantly begged her sister would entreat lady middleton to take them home as she was too miserable to stay a minute longer lady middleton though in the middle of a rubber on being informed that marianne was unwell was too polite to object for a moment to her wish of going away and making over her cards to a friend they departed as soon the carriage could be found scarcely a word was spoken during their return to berkeley street marianne was in a silent agony too much oppressed even for tears but as mrs jennings was luckily not come home they could go directly to their own room where hartshorn restored her a little to herself she was soon undressed and in bed and as she seemed desirous of being alone her sister then left her and while she waited the return of mrs jennings had leisure enough for thinking over the past that some kind of engagement had subsisted between willoughby and marianne she could not doubt and that willoughby was weary of it seemed equally clear for however marianne might still feed her own wishes she could not attribute such behaviour to mistake or misapprehension of any kind nothing but a thorough change of sentiment could account for it her indignation would have been still stronger than it was had she not witnessed that embarrassment which seemed to speak a consciousness of his own misconduct and prevented her from believing him so unprincipled as to have been sporting with the affections of her sister from the first without any design that would bear investigation absence might have weakened his regard and convenience might have determined him to overcome it but that such a regard had formerly existed she could not bring herself to doubt as for marianne on the pangs which so unhappy a meeting must already have given her and on those still more severe which might await her in its probable consequence she could not reflect without the deepest concern her own situation gained in the comparison for while she could esteem edward as much as ever however they might be divided in future her mind might be always supported but every circumstance that could embitter such an evil seemed uniting to heighten the misery of marianne in a final separation from willoughbyin an immediate and irreconcilable rupture with him chapter  before the housemaid had lit their fire the next day or the sun gained any power over a cold gloomy morning in january marianne only half dressed was kneeling against one of the windowseats for the sake of all the little light she could command from it and writing as fast as a continual flow of tears would permit her in this situation elinor roused from sleep by her agitation and sobs first perceived her and after observing her for a few moments with silent anxiety said in a tone of the most considerate gentleness marianne may i ask no elinor she replied ask nothing you will soon know all the sort of desperate calmness with which this was said lasted no longer than while she spoke and was immediately followed by a return of the same excessive affliction it was some minutes before she could go on with her letter and the frequent bursts of grief which still obliged her at intervals to withhold her pen were proofs enough of her feeling how more than probable it was that she was writing for the last time to willoughby
ahab had now gained his final perch some feet above the other lookouts tashtego standing just beneath him on the cap of the topgallantmast so that the indians head was almost on a level with ahabs heel from this height the whale was now seen some mile or so ahead at every roll of the sea revealing his high sparkling hump and regularly jetting his silent spout into the air to the credulous mariners it seemed the same silent spout they had so long ago beheld in the moonlit atlantic and indian oceans i saw him almost that same instant sir that captain ahab did and i cried out said tashtego not the same instant not the sameno the doubloon is mine fate reserved the doubloon for me i only none of ye could have raised the white whale first he cried in longdrawn lingering methodic tones attuned to the gradual prolongings of the whales visible jets he is heading straight to leeward sir cried stubb right away from us cannot have seen the ship yet soon all the boats but starbucks were dropped all the boatsails setall the paddles plying with rippling swiftness shooting to leeward and ahab heading the onset a pale deathglimmer lit up fedallahs sunken eyes a hideous motion gnawed his mouth like noiseless nautilus shells their light prows sped through the sea but only slowly they neared the foe as they neared him the ocean grew still more smooth seemed drawing a carpet over its waves seemed a noonmeadow so serenely it spread at length the breathless hunter came so nigh his seemingly unsuspecting prey that his entire dazzling hump was distinctly visible sliding along the sea as if an isolated thing and continually set in a revolving ring of finest fleecy greenish foam he saw the vast involved wrinkles of the slightly projecting head beyond before it far out on the soft turkishrugged waters went the glistening white shadow from his broad milky forehead a musical rippling playfully accompanying the shade and behind the blue waters interchangeably flowed over into the moving valley of his steady wake and on either hand bright bubbles arose and danced by his side but these were broken again by the light toes of hundreds of gay fowl softly feathering the sea alternate with their fitful flight and like to some flagstaff rising from the painted hull of an argosy the tall but shattered pole of a recent lance projected from the white whales back and at intervals one of the cloud of softtoed fowls hovering and to and fro skimming like a canopy over the fish silently perched and rocked on this pole the long tail feathers streaming like pennons a gentle joyousnessa mighty mildness of repose in swiftness invested the gliding whale not the white bull jupiter swimming away with ravished europa clinging to his graceful horns his lovely leering eyes sideways intent upon the maid with smooth bewitching fleetness rippling straight for the nuptial bower in crete not jove not that great majesty supreme did surpass the glorified white whale as he so divinely swam on each soft sidecoincident with the parted swell that but once leaving him then flowed so wide awayon each bright side the whale shed off enticings
 marianne herself had seen less of his mama the rest for the confusion which crimsoned over her face on his lifting her up had robbed her of the power of regarding him after their entering the house but she had seen enough of him to join in all the admiration of the others and with an energy which always adorned her praise his person and air were equal to what her fancy had ever drawn for the hero of a favourite story and in his carrying her into the house with so little previous formality there was a rapidity of thought which particularly recommended the action to her every circumstance belonging to him was interesting his name was good his residence was in their favourite village and she soon found out that of all manly dresses a shootingjacket was the most becoming her imagination was busy her reflections were pleasant and the pain of a sprained ankle was disregarded sir john called on them as soon as the next interval of fair weather that morning allowed him to get out of doors and mariannes accident being related to him he was eagerly asked whether he knew any gentleman of the name of willoughby at allenham that is good news however i will ride over tomorrow and ask him to dinner on thursday as good a kind of fellow as ever lived i assure you a very decent shot and there is not a bolder rider in england but what are his manners on more intimate acquaintance upon my soul said he i do not know much about him as to all that but he is a pleasant good humoured fellow and has got the nicest little black bitch of a pointer i ever saw but marianne could no more satisfy him as to the colour of mr willoughbys pointer than he could describe to her the shades of his mind on this point sir john could give more certain intelligence and he told them that mr willoughby had no property of his own in the country that he resided there only while he was visiting the old lady at allenham court to whom he was related and whose possessions he was to inherit adding yes yes he is very well worth catching i can tell you miss dashwood he has a pretty little estate of his own in somersetshire besides and if i were you i would not give him up to my younger sister in spite of all this tumbling down hills miss marianne must not expect to have all the men to herself willoughby will be incommoded by the attempts of either of my daughters towards what you call catching him it is not an employment to which they have been brought up
thus gentlemen though an inlander steelkilt was wildocean born and wildocean nurtured as much of an audacious mariner as any and for radney though in his infancy he may have laid him down on the lone nantucket beach to nurse at his maternal sea though in after life he had long followed our austere atlantic and your contemplative pacific yet was he quite as vengeful and full of social quarrel as the backwoods seaman fresh from the latitudes of buckhorn handled bowieknives yet was this nantucketer a man with some goodhearted traits and this lakeman a mariner who though a sort of devil indeed might yet by inflexible firmness only tempered by that common decency of human recognition which is the meanest slaves right thus treated this steelkilt had long been retained harmless and docile at all events he had proved so thus far but radney was doomed and made mad and steelkiltbut gentlemen you shall hear it was not more than a day or two at the furthest after pointing her prow for her island haven that the townhos leak seemed again increasing but only so as to require an hour or more at the pumps every day you must know that in a settled and civilized ocean like our atlantic for example some skippers think little of pumping their whole way across it though of a still sleepy night should the officer of the deck happen to forget his duty in that respect the probability would be that he and his shipmates would never again remember it on account of all hands gently subsiding to the bottom nor in the solitary and savage seas far from you to the westward gentlemen is it altogether unusual for ships to keep clanging at their pumphandles in full chorus even for a voyage of considerable length that is if it lie along a tolerably accessible coast or if any other reasonable retreat is afforded them it is only when a leaky vessel is in some very out of the way part of those waters some really landless latitude that her captain begins to feel a little anxious much this way had it been with the townho so when her leak was found gaining once more there was in truth some small concern manifested by several of her company especially by radney the mate he commanded the upper sails to be well hoisted sheeted home anew and every way expanded to the breeze now this radney i suppose was as little of a coward and as little inclined to any sort of nervous apprehensiveness touching his own person as any fearless unthinking creature on land or on sea that you can conveniently imagine gentlemen therefore when he betrayed this solicitude about the safety of the ship some of the seamen declared that it was only on account of his being a part owner in her so when they were working that evening at the pumps there was on this head no small gamesomeness slily going on among them as they stood with their feet continually overflowed by the rippling clear water clear as any mountain spring gentlementhat bubbling from the pumps ran across the deck and poured itself out in steady spouts at the lee scupperholes now as you well know it is not seldom the case in this conventional world of ourswatery or otherwise that when a person placed in command over his fellowmen finds one of them to be very significantly his superior in general pride of manhood straightway against that man he conceives an unconquerable dislike and bitterness and if he have a chance he will pull down and pulverize that subalterns tower and make a little heap of dust of it be this conceit of mine as it may gentlemen at all events steelkilt was a tall and noble animal with a head like a roman and a flowing golden beard like the tasseled housings of your last viceroys snorting charger and a brain and a heart and a soul in him gentlemen which had made steelkilt charlemagne had he been born son to charlemagnes father but radney the mate was ugly as a mule yet as hardy as stubborn as malicious espying the mate drawing near as he was toiling at the pump with the rest the lakeman affected not to notice him but unawed went on with his gay banterings aye aye my merry lads its a lively leak this hold a cannikin one of ye and lets have a taste i tell ye what men old rads investment must go for it he had best cut away his part of the hull and tow it home
see its a brave man that weeps how great the agony of the persuasion then in an instant the boat was pulling round close under the stern cried a voice from the low cabinwindow there o master my master come back but ahab heard nothing for his own voice was highlifted then and the boat leaped on yet the voice spake true for scarce had he pushed from the ship when numbers of sharks seemingly rising from out the dark waters beneath the hull maliciously snapped at the blades of the oars every time they dipped in the water and in this way accompanied the boat with their bites it is a thing not uncommonly happening to the whaleboats in those swarming seas the sharks at times apparently following them in the same prescient way that vultures hover over the banners of marching regiments in the east but these were the first sharks that had been observed by the pequod since the white whale had been first descried and whether it was that ahabs crew were all such tigeryellow barbarians and therefore their flesh more musky to the senses of the sharksa matter sometimes well known to affect themhowever it was they seemed to follow that one boat without molesting the others murmured starbuck gazing over the side and following with his eyes the receding boatcanst thou yet ring boldly to that sight lowering thy keel among ravening sharks and followed by them openmouthed to the chase and this the critical third day for when three days flow together in one continuous intense pursuit be sure the first is the morning the second the noon and the third the evening and the end of that thingbe that end what it may what is this that shoots through me and leaves me so deadly calm yet expectantfixed at the top of a shudder future things swim before me as in empty outlines and skeletons all the past is somehow grown dim strangest problems of life seem clearing but clouds sweep betweenis my journeys end coming my legs feel faint like his who has footed it all day keep thy keenest eye upon the boats mark well the whale he peckshe tears the vane pointing to the red flag flying at the maintruckha  the boats had not gone very far when by a signal from the mastheadsa downward pointed arm ahab knew that the whale had sounded but intending to be near him at the next rising he held on his way a little sideways from the vessel the becharmed crew maintaining the profoundest silence as the headbeat waves hammered and hammered against the opposing bow ye but strike a thing without a lid and no coffin and no hearse can be mineand hemp only can kill me suddenly the waters around them slowly swelled in broad circles then quickly upheaved as if sideways sliding from a submerged berg of ice swiftly rising to the surface a low rumbling sound was heard a subterraneous hum and then all held their breaths as bedraggled with trailing ropes and harpoons and lances a vast form shot lengthwise but obliquely from the sea
now by reason of this timely spinning round the boat upon its axis its bow by anticipation was made to face the whales head while yet under water but as if perceiving this stratagem moby dick with that malicious intelligence ascribed to him sidelingly transplanted himself as it were in an instant shooting his pleated head lengthwise beneath the boat through and through through every plank and each rib it thrilled for an instant the whale obliquely lying on his back in the manner of a biting shark slowly and feelingly taking its bows full within his mouth so that the long narrow scrolled lower jaw curled high up into the open air and one of the teeth caught in a rowlock the bluish pearlwhite of the inside of the jaw was within six inches of ahabs head and reached higher than that in this attitude the white whale now shook the slight cedar as a mildly cruel cat her mouse with unastonished eyes fedallah gazed and crossed his arms but the tigeryellow crew were tumbling over each others heads to gain the uttermost stern and now while both elastic gunwales were springing in and out as the whale dallied with the doomed craft in this devilish way and from his body being submerged beneath the boat he could not be darted at from the bows for the bows were almost inside of him as it were and while the other boats involuntarily paused as before a quick crisis impossible to withstand then it was that monomaniac ahab furious with this tantalizing vicinity of his foe which placed him all alive and helpless in the very jaws he hated frenzied with all this he seized the long bone with his naked hands and wildly strove to wrench it from its gripe as now he thus vainly strove the jaw slipped from him the frail gunwales bent in collapsed and snapped as both jaws like an enormous shears sliding further aft bit the craft completely in twain and locked themselves fast again in the sea midway between the two floating wrecks these floated aside the broken ends drooping the crew at the sternwreck clinging to the gunwales and striving to hold fast to the oars to lash them across at that preluding moment ere the boat was yet snapped ahab the first to perceive the whales intent by the crafty upraising of his head a movement that loosed his hold for the time at that moment his hand had made one final effort to push the boat out of the bite but only slipping further into the whales mouth and tilting over sideways as it slipped the boat had shaken off his hold on the jaw spilled him out of it as he leaned to the push and so he fell flatfaced upon the sea ripplingly withdrawing from his prey moby dick now lay at a little distance vertically thrusting his oblong white head up and down in the billows and at the same time slowly revolving his whole spindled body so that when his vast wrinkled forehead rosesome twenty or more feet out of the waterthe now rising swells with all their confluent waves dazzlingly broke against it vindictively tossing their shivered spray still higher into the air  so in a gale the but half baffled channel billows only recoil from the base of the eddystone triumphantly to overleap its summit with their scud it receives its designation pitchpoling from its being likened to that preliminary upanddown poise of the whalelance in the exercise called pitchpoling previously described by this motion the whale must best and most comprehensively view whatever objects may be encircling him but soon resuming his horizontal attitude moby dick swam swiftly round and round the wrecked crew sideways churning the water in his vengeful wake as if lashing himself up to still another and more deadly assault the sight of the splintered boat seemed to madden him as the blood of grapes and mulberries cast before antiochuss elephants in the book of maccabees meanwhile ahab half smothered in the foam of the whales insolent tail and too much of a cripple to swimthough he could still keep afloat even in the heart of such a whirlpool as that helpless ahabs head was seen like a tossed bubble which the least chance shock might burst from the boats fragmentary stern fedallah incuriously and mildly eyed him the clinging crew at the other drifting end could not succor him more than enough was it for them to look to themselves for so revolvingly appalling was the white whales aspect and so planetarily swift the evercontracting circles he made that he seemed horizontally swooping upon them
how then could i unite with this wild idolator in worshipping his piece of wood do you suppose now ishmael that the magnanimous god of heaven and earthpagans and all includedcan possibly be jealous of an insignificant bit of black wood to do to my fellow man what i would have my fellow man to do to methat is the will of god and what do i wish that this queequeg would do to me why unite with me in my particular presbyterian form of worship consequently i must then unite with him in his ergo i must turn idolator so i kindled the shavings helped prop up the innocent little idol offered him burnt biscuit with queequeg salamed before him twice or thrice kissed his nose and that done we undressed and went to bed at peace with our own consciences and all the world but we did not go to sleep without some little chat how it is i know not but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends man and wife they say there open the very bottom of their souls to each other and some old couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly morning thus then in our hearts honeymoon lay i and queequega cosy loving pair we had lain thus in bed chatting and napping at short intervals and queequeg now and then affectionately throwing his brown tattooed legs over mine and then drawing them back so entirely sociable and free and easy were we when at last by reason of our confabulations what little nappishness remained in us altogether departed and we felt like getting up again though daybreak was yet some way down the future yes we became very wakeful so much so that our recumbent position began to grow wearisome and by little and little we found ourselves sitting up the clothes well tucked around us leaning against the headboard with our four knees drawn up close together and our two noses bending over them as if our kneepans were warmingpans we felt very nice and snug the more so since it was so chilly out of doors indeed out of bedclothes too seeing that there was no fire in the room the more so i say because truly to enjoy bodily warmth some small part of you must be cold for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast if you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable and have been so a long time then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more but if like queequeg and me in the bed the tip of your nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled why then indeed in the general consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm for this reason a sleeping apartment should never be furnished with a fire which is one of the luxurious discomforts of the rich for the height of this sort of deliciousness is to have nothing but the blanket between you and your snugness and the cold of the outer air then there you lie like the one warm spark in the heart of an arctic crystal
collins said she speaks highly both of lady catherine and her daughter but from some particulars that he has related of her ladyship i suspect his gratitude misleads him and that in spite of her being his patroness she is an arrogant conceited woman i believe her to be both in a great degree replied wickham i have not seen her for many years but i very well remember that i never liked her and that her manners were dictatorial and insolent she has the reputation of being remarkably sensible and clever but i rather believe she derives part of her abilities from her rank and fortune part from her authoritative manner and the rest from the pride for her nephew who chooses that everyone connected with him should have an understanding of the first class elizabeth allowed that he had given a very rational account of it and they continued talking together with mutual satisfaction till supper put an end to cards and gave the rest of the ladies their share of mr phillipss supper party but his manners recommended him to everybody whatever he said was said well and whatever he did done gracefully wickham and of what he had told her all the way home but there was not time for her even to mention his name as they went for neither lydia nor mr lydia talked incessantly of lottery tickets of the fish she had lost and the fish she had won and mr phillips protesting that he did not in the least regard his losses at whist enumerating all the dishes at supper and repeatedly fearing that he crowded his cousins had more to say than he could well manage before the carriage stopped at longbourn house chapter  elizabeth related to jane the next day what had passed between mr jane listened with astonishment and concern she knew not how to believe that mr bingleys regard and yet it was not in her nature to question the veracity of a young man of such amiable appearance as wickham the possibility of his having endured such unkindness was enough to interest all her tender feelings and nothing remained therefore to be done but to think well of them both to defend the conduct of each and throw into the account of accident or mistake whatever could not be otherwise explained they have both said she been deceived i dare say in some way or other of which we can form no idea interested people have perhaps misrepresented each to the other it is in short impossible for us to conjecture the causes or circumstances which may have alienated them without actual blame on either side very true indeed and now my dear jane what have you got to say on behalf of the interested people who have probably been concerned in the business do clear them too or we shall be obliged to think ill of somebody laugh as much as you choose but you will not laugh me out of my opinion my dearest lizzy do but consider in what a disgraceful light it places mr
i have found him capable of giving me much information on various subjects and he has always answered my inquiries with readiness of goodbreeding and good nature that is to say cried marianne contemptuously he has told you that in the east indies the climate is hot and the mosquitoes are troublesome he would have told me so i doubt not had i made any such inquiries but they happened to be points on which i had been previously informed perhaps said willoughby his observations may have extended to the existence of nabobs gold mohrs and palanquins i may venture to say that his observations have stretched much further than your candour i consider him on the contrary as a very respectable man who has every bodys good word and nobodys notice who has more money than he can spend more time than he knows how to employ and two new coats every year add to which cried marianne that he has neither genius taste nor spirit that his understanding has no brilliancy his feelings no ardour and his voice no expression you decide on his imperfections so much in the mass replied elinor and so much on the strength of your own imagination that the commendation i am able to give of him is comparatively cold and insipid i can only pronounce him to be a sensible man wellbred wellinformed of gentle address and i believe possessing an amiable heart miss dashwood cried willoughby you are now using me unkindly you are endeavouring to disarm me by reason and to convince me against my will i have three unanswerable reasons for disliking colonel brandon he threatened me with rain when i wanted it to be fine he has found fault with the hanging of my curricle and i cannot persuade him to buy my brown mare if it will be any satisfaction to you however to be told that i believe his character to be in other respects irreproachable i am ready to confess it and in return for an acknowledgment which must give me some pain you cannot deny me the privilege of disliking him as much as ever dashwood or her daughters imagined when they first came into devonshire that so many engagements would arise to occupy their time as shortly presented themselves or that they should have such frequent invitations and such constant visitors as to leave them little leisure for serious employment when marianne was recovered the schemes of amusement at home and abroad which sir john had been previously forming were put into execution the private balls at the park then began and parties on the water were made and accomplished as often as a showery october would allow in every meeting of the kind willoughby was included and the ease and familiarity which naturally attended these parties were exactly calculated to give increasing intimacy to his acquaintance with the dashwoods to afford him opportunity of witnessing the excellencies of marianne of marking his animated admiration of her and of receiving in her behaviour to himself the most pointed assurance of her affection she only wished that it were less openly shewn and once or twice did venture to suggest the propriety of some selfcommand to marianne
bingleys carriage immediately and at length it was settled that their original design of leaving netherfield that morning should be mentioned and the request made the communication excited many professions of concern and enough was said of wishing them to stay at least till the following day to work on jane and till the morrow their going was deferred miss bingley was then sorry that she had proposed the delay for her jealousy and dislike of one sister much exceeded her affection for the other the master of the house heard with real sorrow that they were to go so soon and repeatedly tried to persuade miss bennet that it would not be safe for herthat she was not enough recovered but jane was firm where she felt herself to be right darcy it was welcome intelligenceelizabeth had been at netherfield long enough she attracted him more than he likedand miss bingley was uncivil to her and more teasing than usual to himself he wisely resolved to be particularly careful that no sign of admiration should now escape him nothing that could elevate her with the hope of influencing his felicity sensible that if such an idea had been suggested his behaviour during the last day must have material weight in confirming or crushing it steady to his purpose he scarcely spoke ten words to her through the whole of saturday and though they were at one time left by themselves for halfanhour he adhered most conscientiously to his book and would not even look at her on sunday after morning service the separation so agreeable to almost all took place miss bingleys civility to elizabeth increased at last very rapidly as well as her affection for jane and when they parted after assuring the latter of the pleasure it would always give her to see her either at longbourn or netherfield and embracing her most tenderly she even shook hands with the former elizabeth took leave of the whole party in the liveliest of spirits they were not welcomed home very cordially by their mother bennet wondered at their coming and thought them very wrong to give so much trouble and was sure jane would have caught cold again but their father though very laconic in his expressions of pleasure was really glad to see them he had felt their importance in the family circle the evening conversation when they were all assembled had lost much of its animation and almost all its sense by the absence of jane and elizabeth they found mary as usual deep in the study of thoroughbass and human nature and had some extracts to admire and some new observations of threadbare morality to listen to catherine and lydia had information for them of a different sort much had been done and much had been said in the regiment since the preceding wednesday several of the officers had dined lately with their uncle a private had been flogged and it had actually been hinted that colonel forster was going to be married bennet to his wife as they were at breakfast the next morning that you have ordered a good dinner today because i have reason to expect an addition to our family party i know of nobody that is coming i am sure unless charlotte lucas should happen to call inand i hope my dinners are good enough for her
i assure you there is quite as much of that going on in the country as in town everybody was surprised and darcy after looking at her for a moment turned silently away bennet who fancied she had gained a complete victory over him continued her triumph i cannot see that london has any great advantage over the country for my part except the shops and public places when i am in the country he replied i never wish to leave it and when i am in town it is pretty much the same they have each their advantages and i can be equally happy in either but that gentleman looking at darcy seemed to think the country was nothing at all indeed mamma you are mistaken said elizabeth blushing for her mother he only meant that there was not such a variety of people to be met with in the country as in the town which you must acknowledge to be true certainly my dear nobody said there were but as to not meeting with many people in this neighbourhood i believe there are few neighbourhoods larger nothing but concern for elizabeth could enable bingley to keep his countenance his sister was less delicate and directed her eyes towards mr elizabeth for the sake of saying something that might turn her mothers thoughts now asked her if charlotte lucas had been at longbourn since her coming away that is my idea of good breeding and those persons who fancy themselves very important and never open their mouths quite mistake the matter bingley i always keep servants that can do their own work my daughters are brought up very differently but everybody is to judge for themselves and the lucases are a very good sort of girls i assure you not that i think charlotte so very plainbut then she is our particular friend lady lucas herself has often said so and envied me janes beauty i do not like to boast of my own child but to be sure janeone does not often see anybody better looking when she was only fifteen there was a man at my brother gardiners in town so much in love with her that my sisterinlaw was sure he would make her an offer before we came away
his ivory leg had been snapped off leaving but one short sharp splinter aye aye starbuck tis sweet to lean sometimes be the leaner who he will and would old ahab had leaned oftener than he has the ferrule has not stood sir said the carpenter now coming up i put good work into that leg but no bones broken sir i hope said stubb with true concern but even with a broken bone old ahab is untouched and i account no living bone of mine one jot more me than this dead one thats lost nor white whale nor man nor fiend can so much as graze old ahab in his own proper and inaccessible being can any lead touch yonder floor any mast scrape yonder roof that the unconquerable captain in the soul should have such a craven mate give me something for a canethere that shivered lance will do upon mustering the company the parsee was not there cried stubbhe must have been caught in the black vomit wrench thee run all of ye above alow cabin forecastlefind himnot gonenot gone but quickly they returned to him with the tidings that the parsee was nowhere to be found aye sir said stubbcaught among the tangles of your linei thought i saw him dragging under what deathknell rings in it that old ahab shakes as if he were the belfry the forged iron men the white whalesno no noblistered fool all hands to the rigging of the boatscollect the oarsharpooneers ill ten times girdle the unmeasured globe yea and dive straight through it but ill slay him yet but for one single instant show thyself cried starbuck never never wilt thou capture him old manin jesus name no more of this thats worse than devils madness two days chased twice stove to splinters thy very leg once more snatched from under thee thy evil shadow goneall good angels mobbing thee with warnings   what more wouldst thou have
captain ahab said the reddening mate moving further into the cabin with a daring so strangely respectful and cautious that it almost seemed not only every way seeking to avoid the slightest outward manifestation of itself but within also seemed more than half distrustful of itself a better man than i might well pass over in thee what he would quickly enough resent in a younger man aye and in a happier captain ahab dost thou then so much as dare to critically think of me shall we not understand each other better than hitherto captain ahab ahab seized a loaded musket from the rack forming part of most southseamens cabin furniture and pointing it towards starbuck exclaimed there is one god that is lord over the earth and one captain that is lord over the pequod for an instant in the flashing eyes of the mate and his fiery cheeks you would have almost thought that he had really received the blaze of the levelled tube but mastering his emotion he half calmly rose and as he quitted the cabin paused for an instant and said thou hast outraged not insulted me sir but for that i ask thee not to beware of starbuck thou wouldst but laugh but let ahab beware of ahab beware of thyself old man he waxes brave but nevertheless obeys most careful bravery that whats that he saidahab beware of ahabtheres something there then unconsciously using the musket for a staff with an iron brow he paced to and fro in the little cabin but presently the thick plaits of his forehead relaxed and returning the gun to the rack he went to the deck thou art but too good a fellow starbuck he said lowly to the mate then raising his voice to the crew furl the tgallantsails and closereef the topsails fore and aft back the mainyard up burton and break out in the mainhold it were perhaps vain to surmise exactly why it was that as respecting starbuck ahab thus acted it may have been a flash of honesty in him or mere prudential policy which under the circumstance imperiously forbade the slightest symptom of open disaffection however transient in the important chief officer of his ship however it was his orders were executed and the burtons were hoisted upon searching it was found that the casks last struck into the hold were perfectly sound and that the leak must be further off so it being calm weather they broke out deeper and deeper disturbing the slumbers of the huge groundtier butts and from that black midnight sending those gigantic moles into the daylight above so deep did they go and so ancient and corroded and weedy the aspect of the lowermost puncheons that you almost looked next for some mouldy cornerstone cask containing coins of captain noah with copies of the posted placards vainly warning the infatuated old world from the flood tierce after tierce too of water and bread and beef and shooks of staves and iron bundles of hoops were hoisted out till at last the piled decks were hard to get about and the hollow hull echoed under foot as if you were treading over empty catacombs and reeled and rolled in the sea like an airfreighted demijohn topheavy was the ship as a dinnerless student with all aristotle in his head well was it that the typhoons did not visit them then now at this time it was that my poor pagan companion and fast bosomfriend queequeg was seized with a fever which brought him nigh to his endless end
but now she is of age and may choose for herself and a pretty choice she has made what now after pausing a momentyour poor sister is gone to her own room i suppose to moan by herself well byandby we shall have a few friends and that will amuse her a little she hates whist i know but is there no round game she cares for marianne i dare say will not leave her room again this evening i shall persuade her if i can to go early to bed for i am sure she wants rest no wonder she has been looking so bad and so cast down this last week or two for this matter i suppose has been hanging over her head as long as that i am sure if i had had a notion of it i would not have joked her about it for all my money i made sure of its being nothing but a common love letter and you know young people like to be laughed at about them how concerned sir john and my daughters will be when they hear it if i had my senses about me i might have called in conduit street in my way home and told them of it it would be unnecessary i am sure for you to caution mrs willoughby or making the slightest allusion to what has passed before my sister their own goodnature must point out to them the real cruelty of appearing to know any thing about it when she is present and the less that may ever be said to myself on the subject the more my feelings will be spared as you my dear madam will easily believe it must be terrible for you to hear it talked of and as for your sister i am sure i would not mention a word about it to her for the world no more would sir john nor my daughters for they are all very thoughtful and considerate especially if i give them a hint as i certainly will for my part i think the less that is said about such things the better the sooner tis blown over and forgot in this affair it can only do harm more so perhaps than in many cases of a similar kind for it has been attended by circumstances which for the sake of every one concerned in it make it unfit to become the public conversation willoughbyhe has broken no positive engagement with my sister after taking her all over allenham house and fixing on the very rooms they were to live in hereafter
jennings we know the reason of all that very well if a certain person who shall be nameless had been there you would not have been a bit tired and to say the truth it was not very pretty of him not to give you the meeting when he was invited so my daughter middleton told me for it seems sir john met him somewhere in the street this morning impatient in this situation to be doing something that might lead to her sisters relief elinor resolved to write the next morning to her mother and hoped by awakening her fears for the health of marianne to procure those inquiries which had been so long delayed and she was still more eagerly bent on this measure by perceiving after breakfast on the morrow that marianne was again writing to willoughby for she could not suppose it to be to any other person jennings went out by herself on business and elinor began her letter directly while marianne too restless for employment too anxious for conversation walked from one window to the other or sat down by the fire in melancholy meditation elinor was very earnest in her application to her mother relating all that had passed her suspicions of willoughbys inconstancy urging her by every plea of duty and affection to demand from marianne an account of her real situation with respect to him her letter was scarcely finished when a rap foretold a visitor and colonel brandon was announced marianne who had seen him from the window and who hated company of any kind left the room before he entered it he looked more than usually grave and though expressing satisfaction at finding miss dashwood alone as if he had somewhat in particular to tell her sat for some time without saying a word elinor persuaded that he had some communication to make in which her sister was concerned impatiently expected its opening it was not the first time of her feeling the same kind of conviction for more than once before beginning with the observation of your sister looks unwell today or your sister seems out of spirits he had appeared on the point either of disclosing or of inquiring something particular about her after a pause of several minutes their silence was broken by his asking her in a voice of some agitation when he was to congratulate her on the acquisition of a brother elinor was not prepared for such a question and having no answer ready was obliged to adopt the simple and common expedient of asking what he meant he tried to smile as he replied your sisters engagement to mr it cannot be generally known returned elinor for her own family do not know it he looked surprised and said i beg your pardon i am afraid my inquiry has been impertinent but i had not supposed any secrecy intended as they openly correspond and their marriage is universally talked of by manyby some of whom you know nothing by others with whom you are most intimate mrs but still i might not have believed it for where the mind is perhaps rather unwilling to be convinced it will always find something to support its doubts if i had not when the servant let me in today accidentally seen a letter in his hand directed to mr i came to inquire but i was convinced before i could ask the question but i have no right and i could have no chance of succeeding i believe i have been wrong in saying so much but i hardly know what to do and on your prudence i have the strongest dependence
their favour increased they could not be spared sir john would not hear of their going and in spite of their numerous and long arranged engagements in exeter in spite of the absolute necessity of returning to fulfill them immediately which was in full force at the end of every week they were prevailed on to stay nearly two months at the park and to assist in the due celebration of that festival which requires a more than ordinary share of private balls and large dinners to proclaim its importance jennings was in the habit of spending a large portion of the year at the houses of her children and friends she was not without a settled habitation of her own since the death of her husband who had traded with success in a less elegant part of the town she had resided every winter in a house in one of the streets near portman square towards this home she began on the approach of january to turn her thoughts and thither she one day abruptly and very unexpectedly by them asked the elder misses dashwood to accompany her elinor without observing the varying complexion of her sister and the animated look which spoke no indifference to the plan immediately gave a grateful but absolute denial for both in which she believed herself to be speaking their united inclinations the reason alleged was their determined resolution of not leaving their mother at that time of the year jennings received the refusal with some surprise and repeated her invitation immediately i am sure your mother can spare you very well and i do beg you will favour me with your company for ive quite set my heart upon it dont fancy that you will be any inconvenience to me for i shant put myself at all out of my way for you it will only be sending betty by the coach and i hope i can afford that we three shall be able to go very well in my chaise and when we are in town if you do not like to go wherever i do well and good you may always go with one of my daughters i am sure your mother will not object to it for i have had such good luck in getting my own children off my hands that she will think me a very fit person to have the charge of you and if i dont get one of you at least well married before i have done with you it shall not be my fault i shall speak a good word for you to all the young men you may depend upon it i have a notion said sir john that miss marianne would not object to such a scheme if her elder sister would come into it it is very hard indeed that she should not have a little pleasure because miss dashwood does not wish it so i would advise you two to set off for town when you are tired of barton without saying a word to miss dashwood about it jennings i am sure i shall be monstrous glad of miss mariannes company whether miss dashwood will go or not only the more the merrier say i and i thought it would be more comfortable for them to be together because if they got tired of me they might talk to one another and laugh at my old ways behind my back but one or the other if not both of them i must have how do you think i can live poking by myself i who have been always used till this winter to have charlotte with me come miss marianne let us strike hands upon the bargain and if miss dashwood will change her mind by and bye why so much the better
this room was my late masters favourite room and these miniatures are just as they used to be then reynolds then directed their attention to one of miss darcy drawn when she was only eight years old yesthe handsomest young lady that ever was seen and so accomplished in the next room is a new instrument just come down for hera present from my master she comes here tomorrow with him gardiner whose manners were very easy and pleasant encouraged her communicativeness by his questions and remarks mrs reynolds either by pride or attachment had evidently great pleasure in talking of her master and his sister is your master much at pemberley in the course of the year not so much as i could wish sir but i dare say he may spend half his time here and miss darcy is always down for the summer months if your master would marry you might see more of him elizabeth could not help saying it is very much to his credit i am sure that you should think so i say no more than the truth and everybody will say that knows him replied the other elizabeth thought this was going pretty far and she listened with increasing astonishment as the housekeeper added i have never known a cross word from him in my life and i have known him ever since he was four years old this was praise of all others most extraordinary most opposite to her ideas that he was not a goodtempered man had been her firmest opinion her keenest attention was awakened she longed to hear more and was grateful to her uncle for saying there are very few people of whom so much can be said if i were to go through the world i could not meet with a better but i have always observed that they who are goodnatured when children are goodnatured when they grow up and he was always the sweetesttempered most generoushearted boy in the world yes maam that he was indeed and his son will be just like himjust as affable to the poor elizabeth listened wondered doubted and was impatient for more she related the subjects of the pictures the dimensions of the rooms and the price of the furniture in vain
i do not wish to seem inelegant but this unsightly whale looks much like an amputated sow and as for the narwhale one glimpse at it is enough to amaze one that in this nineteenth century such a hippogriff could be palmed for genuine upon any intelligent public of schoolboys then again in  bernard germain count de lacepede a great naturalist published a scientific systemized whale book wherein are several pictures of the different species of the leviathan all these are not only incorrect but the picture of the mysticetus or greenland whale that is to say the right whale even scoresby a long experienced man as touching that species declares not to have its counterpart in nature but the placing of the capsheaf to all this blundering business was reserved for the scientific frederick cuvier brother to the famous baron in  he published a natural history of whales in which he gives what he calls a picture of the sperm whale before showing that picture to any nantucketer you had best provide for your summary retreat from nantucket in a word frederick cuviers sperm whale is not a sperm whale but a squash of course he never had the benefit of a whaling voyage such men seldom have but whence he derived that picture who can tell perhaps he got it as his scientific predecessor in the same field desmarest got one of his authentic abortions that is from a chinese drawing and what sort of lively lads with the pencil those chinese are many queer cups and saucers inform us as for the signpainters whales seen in the streets hanging over the shops of oildealers what shall be said of them whales with dromedary humps and very savage breakfasting on three or four sailor tarts that is whaleboats full of mariners their deformities floundering in seas of blood and blue paint but these manifold mistakes in depicting the whale are not so very surprising after all most of the scientific drawings have been taken from the stranded fish and these are about as correct as a drawing of a wrecked ship with broken back would correctly represent the noble animal itself in all its undashed pride of hull and spars though elephants have stood for their fulllengths the living leviathan has never yet fairly floated himself for his portrait the living whale in his full majesty and significance is only to be seen at sea in unfathomable waters and afloat the vast bulk of him is out of sight like a launched lineofbattle ship and out of that element it is a thing eternally impossible for mortal man to hoist him bodily into the air so as to preserve all his mighty swells and undulations and not to speak of the highly presumable difference of contour between a young sucking whale and a fullgrown platonian leviathan yet even in the case of one of those young sucking whales hoisted to a ships deck such is then the outlandish eellike limbered varying shape of him that his precise expression the devil himself could not catch but it may be fancied that from the naked skeleton of the stranded whale accurate hints may be derived touching his true form for it is one of the more curious things about this leviathan that his skeleton gives very little idea of his general shape though jeremy benthams skeleton which hangs for candelabra in the library of one of his executors correctly conveys the idea of a burlybrowed utilitarian old gentleman with all jeremys other leading personal characteristics yet nothing of this kind could be inferred from any leviathans articulated bones
when have you been prevented by want of money from going wherever you chose or procuring anything you had a fancy for these are home questionsand perhaps i cannot say that i have experienced many hardships of that nature but in matters of greater weight i may suffer from want of money unless where they like women of fortune which i think they very often do our habits of expense make us too dependent and there are not many in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some attention to money and she coloured at the idea but recovering herself said in a lively tone and pray what is the usual price of an earls younger son unless the elder brother is very sickly i suppose you would not ask above fifty thousand pounds he answered her in the same style and the subject dropped to interrupt a silence which might make him fancy her affected with what had passed she soon afterwards said i imagine your cousin brought you down with him chiefly for the sake of having someone at his disposal i wonder he does not marry to secure a lasting convenience of that kind but perhaps his sister does as well for the present and as she is under his sole care he may do what he likes with her no said colonel fitzwilliam that is an advantage which he must divide with me i am joined with him in the guardianship of miss darcy young ladies of her age are sometimes a little difficult to manage and if she has the true darcy spirit she may like to have her own way as she spoke she observed him looking at her earnestly and the manner in which he immediately asked her why she supposed miss darcy likely to give them any uneasiness convinced her that she had somehow or other got pretty near the truth i never heard any harm of her and i dare say she is one of the most tractable creatures in the world she is a very great favourite with some ladies of my acquaintance mrs their brother is a pleasant gentlemanlike manhe is a great friend of darcys yes i really believe darcy does take care of him in those points where he most wants care from something that he told me in our journey hither i have reason to think bingley very much indebted to him
some one strips off a frock and the hole is stopped third i cannot demonstrate it but it seems to me that in the whale the sense of touch is concentrated in the tail for in this respect there is a delicacy in it only equalled by the daintiness of the elephants trunk this delicacy is chiefly evinced in the action of sweeping when in maidenly gentleness the whale with a certain soft slowness moves his immense flukes from side to side upon the surface of the sea and if he feel but a sailors whisker woe to that sailor whiskers and all had this tail any prehensile power i should straightway bethink me of darmonodes elephant that so frequented the flowermarket and with low salutations presented nosegays to damsels and then caressed their zones on more accounts than one a pity it is that the whale does not possess this prehensile virtue in his tail for i have heard of yet another elephant that when wounded in the fight curved round his trunk and extracted the dart fourth stealing unawares upon the whale in the fancied security of the middle of solitary seas you find him unbent from the vast corpulence of his dignity and kittenlike he plays on the ocean as if it were a hearth the broad palms of his tail are flirted high into the air then smiting the surface the thunderous concussion resounds for miles you would almost think a great gun had been discharged and if you noticed the light wreath of vapour from the spiracle at his other extremity you would think that that was the smoke from the touchhole fifth as in the ordinary floating posture of the leviathan the flukes lie considerably below the level of his back they are then completely out of sight beneath the surface but when he is about to plunge into the deeps his entire flukes with at least thirty feet of his body are tossed erect in the air and so remain vibrating a moment till they downwards shoot out of view excepting the sublime breachsomewhere else to be describedthis peaking of the whales flukes is perhaps the grandest sight to be seen in all animated nature out of the bottomless profundities the gigantic tail seems spasmodically snatching at the highest heaven so in dreams have i seen majestic satan thrusting forth his tormented colossal claw from the flame baltic of hell but in gazing at such scenes it is all in all what mood you are in if in the dantean the devils will occur to you if in that of isaiah the archangels standing at the masthead of my ship during a sunrise that crimsoned sky and sea i once saw a large herd of whales in the east all heading towards the sun and for a moment vibrating in concert with peaked flukes as it seemed to me at the time such a grand embodiment of adoration of the gods was never beheld even in persia the home of the fire worshippers as ptolemy philopater testified of the african elephant i then testified of the whale pronouncing him the most devout of all beings for according to king juba the military elephants of antiquity often hailed the morning with their trunks uplifted in the profoundest silence the chance comparison in this chapter between the whale and the elephant so far as some aspects of the tail of the one and the trunk of the other are concerned should not tend to place those two opposite organs on an equality much less the creatures to which they respectively belong for as the mightiest elephant is but a terrier to leviathan so compared with leviathans tail his trunk is but the stalk of a lily the most direful blow from the elephants trunk were as the playful tap of a fan compared with the measureless crush and crash of the sperm whales ponderous flukes which in repeated instances have one after the other hurled entire boats with all their oars and crews into the air very much as an indian juggler tosses his balls
but that it was so had not only been declared by lucys eyes at the time but was declared over again the next morning more openly for at her particular desire lady middleton set her down in berkeley street on the chance of seeing elinor alone to tell her how happy she was the chance proved a lucky one for a message from mrs my dear friend cried lucy as soon as they were by themselves i come to talk to you of my happiness you know how i dreaded the thoughts of seeing herbut the very moment i was introduced there was such an affability in her behaviour as really should seem to say she had quite took a fancy to me  you saw it all and was not you quite struck with it such kindness as fell to the share of nobody but me no pride no hauteur and your sister just the sameall sweetness and affability elinor wished to talk of something else but lucy still pressed her to own that she had reason for her happiness and elinor was obliged to go on  undoubtedly if they had known your engagement said she nothing could be more flattering than their treatment of youbut as that was not the case  i guessed you would say so replied lucy quicklybut there was no reason in the world why mrs ferrars should seem to like me if she did not and her liking me is every thing i am sure it will all end well and there will be no difficulties at all to what i used to think i wonder i should never hear you say how agreeable mrs  to this elinor had no answer to make and did not attempt any i am glad of it with all my heart but really you did not look it i should be sorry to have you ill you that have been the greatest comfort to me in the world heaven knows what i should have done without your friendship  elinor tried to make a civil answer though doubting her own success but it seemed to satisfy lucy for she directly replied indeed i am perfectly convinced of your regard for me and next to edwards love it is the greatest comfort i have but now there is one good thing we shall be able to meet and meet pretty often for lady middletons delighted with mrs dashwood so we shall be a good deal in harley street i dare say and edward spends half his time with his sisterbesides lady middleton and mrs
when overflowing with mutual esteem the whales salute more hominum and thus though surrounded by circle upon circle of consternations and affrights did these inscrutable creatures at the centre freely and fearlessly indulge in all peaceful concernments yea serenely revelled in dalliance and delight but even so amid the tornadoed atlantic of my being do i myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm and while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me deep down and deep inland there i still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy meanwhile as we thus lay entranced the occasional sudden frantic spectacles in the distance evinced the activity of the other boats still engaged in drugging the whales on the frontier of the host or possibly carrying on the war within the first circle where abundance of room and some convenient retreats were afforded them but the sight of the enraged drugged whales now and then blindly darting to and fro across the circles was nothing to what at last met our eyes it is sometimes the custom when fast to a whale more than commonly powerful and alert to seek to hamstring him as it were by sundering or maiming his gigantic tailtendon it is done by darting a shorthandled cuttingspade to which is attached a rope for hauling it back again a whale wounded as we afterwards learned in this part but not effectually as it seemed had broken away from the boat carrying along with him half of the harpoon line and in the extraordinary agony of the wound he was now dashing among the revolving circles like the lone mounted desperado arnold at the battle of saratoga carrying dismay wherever he went but agonizing as was the wound of this whale and an appalling spectacle enough any way yet the peculiar horror with which he seemed to inspire the rest of the herd was owing to a cause which at first the intervening distance obscured from us but at length we perceived that by one of the unimaginable accidents of the fishery this whale had become entangled in the harpoonline that he towed he had also run away with the cuttingspade in him and while the free end of the rope attached to that weapon had permanently caught in the coils of the harpoonline round his tail the cuttingspade itself had worked loose from his flesh so that tormented to madness he was now churning through the water violently flailing with his flexible tail and tossing the keen spade about him wounding and murdering his own comrades this terrific object seemed to recall the whole herd from their stationary fright first the whales forming the margin of our lake began to crowd a little and tumble against each other as if lifted by half spent billows from afar then the lake itself began faintly to heave and swell the submarine bridalchambers and nurseries vanished in more and more contracting orbits the whales in the more central circles began to swim in thickening clusters a low advancing hum was soon heard and then like to the tumultuous masses of blockice when the great river hudson breaks up in spring the entire host of whales came tumbling upon their inner centre as if to pile themselves up in one common mountain instantly starbuck and queequeg changed places starbuck taking the stern he intensely whispered seizing the helmgripe your oars and clutch your souls now spring menpull men never mind their backsscrape them  the boat was now all but jammed between two vast black bulks leaving a narrow dardanelles between their long lengths but by desperate endeavor we at last shot into a temporary opening then giving way rapidly and at the same time earnestly watching for another outlet after many similar hairbreadth escapes we at last swiftly glided into what had just been one of the outer circles but now crossed by random whales all violently making for one centre
i have not a doubt of it said marianne and i have nothing to regretnothing but my own folly rather say your mothers imprudence my child said mrs marianne would not let her proceedand elinor satisfied that each felt their own error wished to avoid any survey of the past that might weaken her sisters spirits she therefore pursuing the first subject immediately continued one observation may i think be fairly drawn from the whole of the storythat all willoughbys difficulties have arisen from the first offence against virtue in his behaviour to eliza williams that crime has been the origin of every lesser one and of all his present discontents marianne assented most feelingly to the remark and her mother was led by it to an enumeration of colonel brandons injuries and merits warm as friendship and design could unitedly dictate her daughter did not look however as if much of it were heard by her elinor according to her expectation saw on the two or three following days that marianne did not continue to gain strength as she had done but while her resolution was unsubdued and she still tried to appear cheerful and easy her sister could safely trust to the effect of time upon her health margaret returned and the family were again all restored to each other again quietly settled at the cottage and if not pursuing their usual studies with quite so much vigour as when they first came to barton at least planning a vigorous prosecution of them in future she had heard nothing of him since her leaving london nothing new of his plans nothing certain even of his present abode some letters had passed between her and her brother in consequence of mariannes illness and in the first of johns there had been this sentence we know nothing of our unfortunate edward and can make no enquiries on so prohibited a subject but conclude him to be still at oxford which was all the intelligence of edward afforded her by the correspondence for his name was not even mentioned in any of the succeeding letters she was not doomed however to be long in ignorance of his measures their manservant had been sent one morning to exeter on business and when as he waited at table he had satisfied the inquiries of his mistress as to the event of his errand this was his voluntary communication i suppose you know maam that mr marianne gave a violent start fixed her eyes upon elinor saw her turning pale and fell back in her chair in hysterics dashwood whose eyes as she answered the servants inquiry had intuitively taken the same direction was shocked to perceive by elinors countenance how much she really suffered and a moment afterwards alike distressed by mariannes situation knew not on which child to bestow her principal attention the servant who saw only that miss marianne was taken ill had sense enough to call one of the maids who with mrs dashwoods assistance supported her into the other room by that time marianne was rather better and her mother leaving her to the care of margaret and the maid returned to elinor who though still much disordered had so far recovered the use of her reason and voice as to be just beginning an inquiry of thomas as to the source of his intelligence dashwood immediately took all that trouble on herself and elinor had the benefit of the information without the exertion of seeking it ferrars myself maam this morning in exeter and his lady too miss steele as was they was stopping in a chaise at the door of the new london inn as i went there with a message from sally at the park to her brother who is one of the postboys
you have widely mistaken my character if you think i can be worked on by such persuasions as these how far your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs i cannot tell but you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine i must beg therefore to be importuned no farther on the subject to all the objections i have already urged i have still another to add i am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sisters infamous elopement i know it all that the young mans marrying her was a patchedup business at the expence of your father and uncles is her husband is the son of his late fathers steward to be his brother you can now have nothing further to say she resentfully answered you have no regard then for the honour and credit of my nephew do you not consider that a connection with you must disgrace him in the eyes of everybody i am only resolved to act in that manner which will in my own opinion constitute my happiness without reference to you or to any person so wholly unconnected with me you refuse to obey the claims of duty honour and gratitude you are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends and make him the contempt of the world neither duty nor honour nor gratitude replied elizabeth have any possible claim on me in the present instance no principle of either would be violated by my marriage with mr and with regard to the resentment of his family or the indignation of the world if the former were excited by his marrying me it would not give me one moments concernand the world in general would have too much sense to join in the scorn do not imagine miss bennet that your ambition will ever be gratified i hoped to find you reasonable but depend upon it i will carry my point in this manner lady catherine talked on till they were at the door of the carriage when turning hastily round she added i take no leave of you miss bennet elizabeth made no answer and without attempting to persuade her ladyship to return into the house walked quietly into it herself
the landlord was near spraining his wrist and i told him for heavens sake to quitthe bed was soft enough to suit me and i did not know how all the planing in the world could make eider down of a pine plank so gathering up the shavings with another grin and throwing them into the great stove in the middle of the room he went about his business and left me in a brown study i now took the measure of the bench and found that it was a foot too short but that could be mended with a chair but it was a foot too narrow and the other bench in the room was about four inches higher than the planed oneso there was no yoking them i then placed the first bench lengthwise along the only clear space against the wall leaving a little interval between for my back to settle down in but i soon found that there came such a draught of cold air over me from under the sill of the window that this plan would never do at all especially as another current from the rickety door met the one from the window and both together formed a series of small whirlwinds in the immediate vicinity of the spot where i had thought to spend the night the devil fetch that harpooneer thought i but stop couldnt i steal a march on himbolt his door inside and jump into his bed not to be wakened by the most violent knockings it seemed no bad idea but upon second thoughts i dismissed it for who could tell but what the next morning so soon as i popped out of the room the harpooneer might be standing in the entry all ready to knock me down still looking round me again and seeing no possible chance of spending a sufferable night unless in some other persons bed i began to think that after all i might be cherishing unwarrantable prejudices against this unknown harpooneer thinks i ill wait awhile he must be dropping in before long ill have a good look at him then and perhaps we may become jolly good bedfellows after alltheres no telling but though the other boarders kept coming in by ones twos and threes and going to bed yet no sign of my harpooneer said i what sort of a chap is hedoes he always keep such late hours the landlord chuckled again with his lean chuckle and seemed to be mightily tickled at something beyond my comprehension no he answered generally hes an early birdairley to bed and airley to riseyes hes the bird what catches the worm but tonight he went out a peddling you see and i dont see what on airth keeps him so late unless may be he cant sell his head what sort of a bamboozingly story is this you are telling me do you pretend to say landlord that this harpooneer is actually engaged this blessed saturday night or rather sunday morning in peddling his head around this town thats precisely it said the landlord and i told him he couldnt sell it here the markets overstocked
it may well be conceived what an unsavory odor such a mass must exhale worse than an assyrian city in the plague when the living are incompetent to bury the departed so intolerable indeed is it regarded by some that no cupidity could persuade them to moor alongside of it yet are there those who will still do it notwithstanding the fact that the oil obtained from such subjects is of a very inferior quality and by no means of the nature of attarofrose coming still nearer with the expiring breeze we saw that the frenchman had a second whale alongside and this second whale seemed even more of a nosegay than the first in truth it turned out to be one of those problematical whales that seem to dry up and die with a sort of prodigious dyspepsia or indigestion leaving their defunct bodies almost entirely bankrupt of anything like oil nevertheless in the proper place we shall see that no knowing fisherman will ever turn up his nose at such a whale as this however much he may shun blasted whales in general the pequod had now swept so nigh to the stranger that stubb vowed he recognised his cutting spadepole entangled in the lines that were knotted round the tail of one of these whales theres a pretty fellow now he banteringly laughed standing in the ships bows theres a jackal for ye i well know that these crappoes of frenchmen are but poor devils in the fishery sometimes lowering their boats for breakers mistaking them for sperm whale spouts yes and sometimes sailing from their port with their hold full of boxes of tallow candles and cases of snuffers foreseeing that all the oil they will get wont be enough to dip the captains wick into aye we all know these things but look ye heres a crappo that is content with our leavings the drugged whale there i mean aye and is content too with scraping the dry bones of that other precious fish he has there i say pass round a hat some one and lets make him a present of a little oil for dear charitys sake for what oil hell get from that drugged whale there wouldnt be fit to burn in a jail no not in a condemned cell and as for the other whale why ill agree to get more oil by chopping up and trying out these three masts of ours than hell get from that bundle of bones though now that i think of it it may contain something worth a good deal more than oil yes ambergris yes im for it and so saying he started for the quarterdeck by this time the faint air had become a complete calm so that whether or no the pequod was now fairly entrapped in the smell with no hope of escaping except by its breezing up again issuing from the cabin stubb now called his boats crew and pulled off for the stranger drawing across her bow he perceived that in accordance with the fanciful french taste the upper part of her stempiece was carved in the likeness of a huge drooping stalk was painted green and for thorns had copper spikes projecting from it here and there the whole terminating in a symmetrical folded bulb of a bright red colour upon her head boards in large gilt letters he read bouton de rose rosebutton or rosebud and this was the romantic name of this aromatic ship though stubb did not understand the bouton part of the inscription yet the word rose and the bulbous figurehead put together sufficiently explained the whole to him he cried with his hand to his nose that will do very well but how like all creation it smells now in order to hold direct communication with the people on deck he had to pull round the bows to the starboard side and thus come close to the blasted whale and so talk over it
palmers who lived a few miles on the other side of bath whither her husband promised at her earnest entreaty to join her in a day or two and whither she was almost equally urgent with her mother to accompany her jennings however with a kindness of heart which made elinor really love her declared her resolution of not stirring from cleveland as long as marianne remained ill and of endeavouring by her own attentive care to supply to her the place of the mother she had taken her from and elinor found her on every occasion a most willing and active helpmate desirous to share in all her fatigues and often by her better experience in nursing of material use poor marianne languid and low from the nature of her malady and feeling herself universally ill could no longer hope that tomorrow would find her recovered and the idea of what tomorrow would have produced but for this unlucky illness made every ailment severe for on that day they were to have begun their journey home and attended the whole way by a servant of mrs jennings were to have taken their mother by surprise on the following forenoon the little she said was all in lamentation of this inevitable delay though elinor tried to raise her spirits and make her believe as she then really believed herself that it would be a very short one the next day produced little or no alteration in the state of the patient she certainly was not better and except that there was no amendment did not appear worse palmer though very unwilling to go as well from real humanity and goodnature as from a dislike of appearing to be frightened away by his wife was persuaded at last by colonel brandon to perform his promise of following her and while he was preparing to go colonel brandon himself with a much greater exertion began to talk of going likewise jennings interposed most acceptably for to send the colonel away while his love was in so much uneasiness on her sisters account would be to deprive them both she thought of every comfort and therefore telling him at once that his stay at cleveland was necessary to herself that she should want him to play at piquet of an evening while miss dashwood was above with her sister c she urged him so strongly to remain that he who was gratifying the first wish of his own heart by a compliance could not long even affect to demur especially as mrs palmer who seemed to feel a relief to himself in leaving behind him a person so well able to assist or advise miss dashwood in any emergence marianne was of course kept in ignorance of all these arrangements she knew not that she had been the means of sending the owners of cleveland away in about seven days from the time of their arrival it gave her no surprise that she saw nothing of mrs palmer and as it gave her likewise no concern she never mentioned her name palmers departure and her situation continued with little variation the same harris who attended her every day still talked boldly of a speedy recovery and miss dashwood was equally sanguine but the expectation of the others was by no means so cheerful jennings had determined very early in the seizure that marianne would never get over it and colonel brandon who was chiefly of use in listening to mrs jenningss forebodings was not in a state of mind to resist their influence he tried to reason himself out of fears which the different judgment of the apothecary seemed to render absurd but the many hours of each day in which he was left entirely alone were but too favourable for the admission of every melancholy idea and he could not expel from his mind the persuasion that he should see marianne no more on the morning of the third day however the gloomy anticipations of both were almost done away for when mr
for at that time and indeed until a comparatively late day the precise origin of ambergris remained like amber itself a problem to the learned though the word ambergris is but the french compound for grey amber yet the two substances are quite distinct for amber though at times found on the seacoast is also dug up in some far inland soils whereas ambergris is never found except upon the sea besides amber is a hard transparent brittle odorless substance used for mouthpieces to pipes for beads and ornaments but ambergris is soft waxy and so highly fragrant and spicy that it is largely used in perfumery in pastiles precious candles hairpowders and pomatum the turks use it in cooking and also carry it to mecca for the same purpose that frankincense is carried to st some wine merchants drop a few grains into claret to flavor it who would think then that such fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale by some ambergris is supposed to be the cause and by others the effect of the dyspepsia in the whale how to cure such a dyspepsia it were hard to say unless by administering three or four boat loads of brandreths pills and then running out of harms way as laborers do in blasting rocks i have forgotten to say that there were found in this ambergris certain hard round bony plates which at first stubb thought might be sailors trowsers buttons but it afterwards turned out that they were nothing more than pieces of small squid bones embalmed in that manner now that the incorruption of this most fragrant ambergris should be found in the heart of such decay is this nothing paul in corinthians about corruption and incorruption how that we are sown in dishonour but raised in glory and likewise call to mind that saying of paracelsus about what it is that maketh the best musk also forget not the strange fact that of all things of illsavor colognewater in its rudimental manufacturing stages is the worst i should like to conclude the chapter with the above appeal but cannot owing to my anxiety to repel a charge often made against whalemen and which in the estimation of some already biased minds might be considered as indirectly substantiated by what has been said of the frenchmans two whales elsewhere in this volume the slanderous aspersion has been disproved that the vocation of whaling is throughout a slatternly untidy business i opine that it is plainly traceable to the first arrival of the greenland whaling ships in london more than two centuries ago because those whalemen did not then and do not now try out their oil at sea as the southern ships have always done but cutting up the fresh blubber in small bits thrust it through the bung holes of large casks and carry it home in that manner the shortness of the season in those icy seas and the sudden and violent storms to which they are exposed forbidding any other course the consequence is that upon breaking into the hold and unloading one of these whale cemeteries in the greenland dock a savor is given forth somewhat similar to that arising from excavating an old city graveyard for the foundations of a lyinginhospital i partly surmise also that this wicked charge against whalers may be likewise imputed to the existence on the coast of greenland in former times of a dutch village called schmerenburgh or smeerenberg which latter name is the one used by the learned fogo von slack in his great work on smells a textbook on that subject
she put down the letter weighed every circumstance with what she meant to be impartialitydeliberated on the probability of each statementbut with little success again she read on but every line proved more clearly that the affair which she had believed it impossible that any contrivance could so represent as to render mr darcys conduct in it less than infamous was capable of a turn which must make him entirely blameless throughout the whole the extravagance and general profligacy which he scrupled not to lay at mr wickhams charge exceedingly shocked her the more so as she could bring no proof of its injustice she had never heard of him before his entrance into the shire militia in which he had engaged at the persuasion of the young man who on meeting him accidentally in town had there renewed a slight acquaintance of his former way of life nothing had been known in hertfordshire but what he told himself as to his real character had information been in her power she had never felt a wish of inquiring his countenance voice and manner had established him at once in the possession of every virtue she tried to recollect some instance of goodness some distinguished trait of integrity or benevolence that might rescue him from the attacks of mr darcy or at least by the predominance of virtue atone for those casual errors under which she would endeavour to class what mr darcy had described as the idleness and vice of many years continuance she could see him instantly before her in every charm of air and address but she could remember no more substantial good than the general approbation of the neighbourhood and the regard which his social powers had gained him in the mess after pausing on this point a considerable while she once more continued to read the story which followed of his designs on miss darcy received some confirmation from what had passed between colonel fitzwilliam and herself only the morning before and at last she was referred for the truth of every particular to colonel fitzwilliam himselffrom whom she had previously received the information of his near concern in all his cousins affairs and whose character she had no reason to question at one time she had almost resolved on applying to him but the idea was checked by the awkwardness of the application and at length wholly banished by the conviction that mr darcy would never have hazarded such a proposal if he had not been well assured of his cousins corroboration she perfectly remembered everything that had passed in conversation between wickham and herself in their first evening at mr many of his expressions were still fresh in her memory she was now struck with the impropriety of such communications to a stranger and wondered it had escaped her before
tell me that not only your house will remain the same but that i shall ever find you and yours as unchanged as your dwelling and that you will always consider me with the kindness which has made everything belonging to you so dear to me the promise was readily given and willoughbys behaviour during the whole of the evening declared at once his affection and happiness i do not ask you to come in the morning for we must walk to the park to call on lady middleton dashwoods visit to lady middleton took place the next day and two of her daughters went with her but marianne excused herself from being of the party under some trifling pretext of employment and her mother who concluded that a promise had been made by willoughby the night before of calling on her while they were absent was perfectly satisfied with her remaining at home on their return from the park they found willoughbys curricle and servant in waiting at the cottage and mrs dashwood was convinced that her conjecture had been just so far it was all as she had foreseen but on entering the house she beheld what no foresight had taught her to expect they were no sooner in the passage than marianne came hastily out of the parlour apparently in violent affliction with her handkerchief at her eyes and without noticing them ran up stairs surprised and alarmed they proceeded directly into the room she had just quitted where they found only willoughby who was leaning against the mantelpiece with his back towards them he turned round on their coming in and his countenance shewed that he strongly partook of the emotion which overpowered marianne  i hope not he replied trying to look cheerful and with a forced smile presently added it is i who may rather expect to be illfor i am now suffering under a very heavy disappointment smith has this morning exercised the privilege of riches upon a poor dependent cousin by sending me on business to london i have just received my dispatches and taken my farewell of allenham and by way of exhilaration i am now come to take my farewell of you smith must be obligedand her business will not detain you from us long i hope he coloured as he replied you are very kind but i have no idea of returning into devonshire immediately is allenham the only house in the neighbourhood to which you will be welcome for shame willoughby can you wait for an invitation here his colour increased and with his eyes fixed on the ground he only replied you are too good i have only to add my dear willoughby that at barton cottage you will always be welcome for i will not press you to return here immediately because you only can judge how far that might be pleasing to mrs smith and on this head i shall be no more disposed to question your judgment than to doubt your inclination
she felt all the force of that comparison but not as her sister had hoped to urge her to exertion now she felt it with all the pain of continual selfreproach regretted most bitterly that she had never exerted herself before but it brought only the torture of penitence without the hope of amendment her mind was so much weakened that she still fancied present exertion impossible and therefore it only dispirited her more nothing new was heard by them for a day or two afterwards of affairs in harley street or bartletts buildings but though so much of the matter was known to them already that mrs jennings might have had enough to do in spreading that knowledge farther without seeking after more she had resolved from the first to pay a visit of comfort and inquiry to her cousins as soon as she could and nothing but the hindrance of more visitors than usual had prevented her going to them within that time the third day succeeding their knowledge of the particulars was so fine so beautiful a sunday as to draw many to kensington gardens though it was only the second week in march jennings and elinor were of the number but marianne who knew that the willoughbys were again in town and had a constant dread of meeting them chose rather to stay at home than venture into so public a place jennings joined them soon after they entered the gardens and elinor was not sorry that by her continuing with them and engaging all mrs jenningss conversation she was herself left to quiet reflection she saw nothing of the willoughbys nothing of edward and for some time nothing of anybody who could by any chance whether grave or gay be interesting to her but at last she found herself with some surprise accosted by miss steele who though looking rather shy expressed great satisfaction in meeting them and on receiving encouragement from the particular kindness of mrs jennings left her own party for a short time to join theirs jennings immediately whispered to elinor get it all out of her my dear jenningss curiosity and elinors too that she would tell any thing without being asked for nothing would otherwise have been learnt i am so glad to meet you said miss steele taking her familiarly by the armfor i wanted to see you of all things in the world she vowed at first she would never trim me up a new bonnet nor do any thing else for me again so long as she lived but now she is quite come to and we are as good friends as ever look she made me this bow to my hat and put in the feather last night i do not care if it is the doctors favourite colour i am sure for my part i should never have known he did like it better than any other colour if he had not happened to say so i declare sometimes i do not know which way to look before them
by all that i have ever read i am convinced that it is very common indeed that human nature is particularly prone to it and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of selfcomplacency on the score of some quality or other real or imaginary vanity and pride are different things though the words are often used synonymously pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves vanity to what we would have others think of us darcy cried a young lucas who came with his sisters i should not care how proud i was i would keep a pack of foxhounds and drink a bottle of wine a day then you would drink a great deal more than you ought said mrs bennet and if i were to see you at it i should take away your bottle directly the boy protested that she should not she continued to declare that she would and the argument ended only with the visit chapter  the ladies of longbourn soon waited on those of netherfield miss bennets pleasing manners grew on the goodwill of mrs hurst and miss bingley and though the mother was found to be intolerable and the younger sisters not worth speaking to a wish of being better acquainted with them was expressed towards the two eldest by jane this attention was received with the greatest pleasure but elizabeth still saw superciliousness in their treatment of everybody hardly excepting even her sister and could not like them though their kindness to jane such as it was had a value as arising in all probability from the influence of their brothers admiration it was generally evident whenever they met that he did admire her and to her it was equally evident that jane was yielding to the preference which she had begun to entertain for him from the first and was in a way to be very much in love but she considered with pleasure that it was not likely to be discovered by the world in general since jane united with great strength of feeling a composure of temper and a uniform cheerfulness of manner which would guard her from the suspicions of the impertinent it may perhaps be pleasant replied charlotte to be able to impose on the public in such a case but it is sometimes a disadvantage to be so very guarded if a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it she may lose the opportunity of fixing him and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark there is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment that it is not safe to leave any to itself we can all begin freelya slight preference is natural enough but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement in nine cases out of ten a women had better show more affection than she feels bingley likes your sister undoubtedly but he may never do more than like her if she does not help him on but she does help him on as much as her nature will allow
and even now i cannot comprehend on what motive she acted or what fancied advantage it could be to her to be fettered to a man for whom she had not the smallest regard and who had only two thousand pounds in the world she could not foresee that colonel brandon would give me a living no but she might suppose that something would occur in your favour that your own family might in time relent and at any rate she lost nothing by continuing the engagement for she has proved that it fettered neither her inclination nor her actions the connection was certainly a respectable one and probably gained her consideration among her friends and if nothing more advantageous occurred it would be better for her to marry you than be single edward was of course immediately convinced that nothing could have been more natural than lucys conduct nor more selfevident than the motive of it elinor scolded him harshly as ladies always scold the imprudence which compliments themselves for having spent so much time with them at norland when he must have felt his own inconstancy your behaviour was certainly very wrong said she becauseto say nothing of my own conviction our relations were all led away by it to fancy and expect what as you were then situated could never be he could only plead an ignorance of his own heart and a mistaken confidence in the force of his engagement i was simple enough to think that because my faith was plighted to another there could be no danger in my being with you and that the consciousness of my engagement was to keep my heart as safe and sacred as my honour i felt that i admired you but i told myself it was only friendship and till i began to make comparisons between yourself and lucy i did not know how far i was got after that i suppose i was wrong in remaining so much in sussex and the arguments with which i reconciled myself to the expediency of it were no better than thesethe danger is my own i am doing no injury to anybody but myself edward heard with pleasure of colonel brandons being expected at the cottage as he really wished not only to be better acquainted with him but to have an opportunity of convincing him that he no longer resented his giving him the living of delafordwhich at present said he after thanks so ungraciously delivered as mine were on the occasion he must think i have never forgiven him for offering now he felt astonished himself that he had never yet been to the place but so little interest had he taken in the matter that he owed all his knowledge of the house garden and glebe extent of the parish condition of the land and rate of the tithes to elinor herself who had heard so much of it from colonel brandon and heard it with so much attention as to be entirely mistress of the subject one question after this only remained undecided between them one difficulty only was to be overcome they were brought together by mutual affection with the warmest approbation of their real friends their intimate knowledge of each other seemed to make their happiness certainand they only wanted something to live upon edward had two thousand pounds and elinor one which with delaford living was all that they could call their own for it was impossible that mrs dashwood should advance anything and they were neither of them quite enough in love to think that three hundred and fifty pounds ayear would supply them with the comforts of life edward was not entirely without hopes of some favourable change in his mother towards him and on that he rested for the residue of their income
in the present instance too this dignity is heightened by the pepper and salt colour of his head at the summit giving token of advanced age and large experience in short he is what the fishermen technically call a greyheaded whale let us now note what is least dissimilar in these headsnamely the two most important organs the eye and the ear far back on the side of the head and low down near the angle of either whales jaw if you narrowly search you will at last see a lashless eye which you would fancy to be a young colts eye so out of all proportion is it to the magnitude of the head now from this peculiar sideway position of the whales eyes it is plain that he can never see an object which is exactly ahead no more than he can one exactly astern in a word the position of the whales eyes corresponds to that of a mans ears and you may fancy for yourself how it would fare with you did you sideways survey objects through your ears you would find that you could only command some thirty degrees of vision in advance of the straight sideline of sight and about thirty more behind it if your bitterest foe were walking straight towards you with dagger uplifted in broad day you would not be able to see him any more than if he were stealing upon you from behind in a word you would have two backs so to speak but at the same time also two fronts side fronts for what is it that makes the front of a manwhat indeed but his eyes moreover while in most other animals that i can now think of the eyes are so planted as imperceptibly to blend their visual power so as to produce one picture and not two to the brain the peculiar position of the whales eyes effectually divided as they are by many cubic feet of solid head which towers between them like a great mountain separating two lakes in valleys this of course must wholly separate the impressions which each independent organ imparts the whale therefore must see one distinct picture on this side and another distinct picture on that side while all between must be profound darkness and nothingness to him man may in effect be said to look out on the world from a sentrybox with two joined sashes for his window but with the whale these two sashes are separately inserted making two distinct windows but sadly impairing the view this peculiarity of the whales eyes is a thing always to be borne in mind in the fishery and to be remembered by the reader in some subsequent scenes a curious and most puzzling question might be started concerning this visual matter as touching the leviathan so long as a mans eyes are open in the light the act of seeing is involuntary that is he cannot then help mechanically seeing whatever objects are before him nevertheless any ones experience will teach him that though he can take in an undiscriminating sweep of things at one glance it is quite impossible for him attentively and completely to examine any two thingshowever large or however smallat one and the same instant of time never mind if they lie side by side and touch each other but if you now come to separate these two objects and surround each by a circle of profound darkness then in order to see one of them in such a manner as to bring your mind to bear on it the other will be utterly excluded from your contemporary consciousness true both his eyes in themselves must simultaneously act but is his brain so much more comprehensive combining and subtle than mans that he can at the same moment of time attentively examine two distinct prospects one on one side of him and the other in an exactly opposite direction if he can then is it as marvellous a thing in him as if a man were able simultaneously to go through the demonstrations of two distinct problems in euclid
meantime ahab out of hearing of his officers having sided the furthest to windward was still ranging ahead of the other boats a circumstance bespeaking how potent a crew was pulling him those tiger yellow creatures of his seemed all steel and whalebone like five triphammers they rose and fell with regular strokes of strength which periodically started the boat along the water like a horizontal burst boiler out of a mississippi steamer as for fedallah who was seen pulling the harpooneer oar he had thrown aside his black jacket and displayed his naked chest with the whole part of his body above the gunwale clearly cut against the alternating depressions of the watery horizon while at the other end of the boat ahab with one arm like a fencers thrown half backward into the air as if to counterbalance any tendency to trip ahab was seen steadily managing his steering oar as in a thousand boat lowerings ere the white whale had torn him all at once the outstretched arm gave a peculiar motion and then remained fixed while the boats five oars were seen simultaneously peaked instantly the three spread boats in the rear paused on their way the whales had irregularly settled bodily down into the blue thus giving no distantly discernible token of the movement though from his closer vicinity ahab had observed it nimbly springing up on the triangular raised box in the bow the savage stood erect there and with intensely eager eyes gazed off towards the spot where the chase had last been descried likewise upon the extreme stern of the boat where it was also triangularly platformed level with the gunwale starbuck himself was seen coolly and adroitly balancing himself to the jerking tossings of his chip of a craft and silently eyeing the vast blue eye of the sea not very far distant flasks boat was also lying breathlessly still its commander recklessly standing upon the top of the loggerhead a stout sort of post rooted in the keel and rising some two feet above the level of the stern platform its top is not more spacious than the palm of a mans hand and standing upon such a base as that flask seemed perched at the masthead of some ship which had sunk to all but her trucks but little kingpost was small and short and at the same time little kingpost was full of a large and tall ambition so that this loggerhead standpoint of his did by no means satisfy kingpost i cant see three seas off tip us up an oar there and let me on to that upon this daggoo with either hand upon the gunwale to steady his way swiftly slid aft and then erecting himself volunteered his lofty shoulders for a pedestal that i will and thank ye very much my fine fellow only i wish you fifty feet taller whereupon planting his feet firmly against two opposite planks of the boat the gigantic negro stooping a little presented his flat palm to flasks foot and then putting flasks hand on his hearseplumed head and bidding him spring as he himself should toss with one dexterous fling landed the little man high and dry on his shoulders and here was flask now standing daggoo with one lifted arm furnishing him with a breastband to lean against and steady himself by at any time it is a strange sight to the tyro to see with what wondrous habitude of unconscious skill the whaleman will maintain an erect posture in his boat even when pitched about by the most riotously perverse and crossrunning seas still more strange to see him giddily perched upon the loggerhead itself under such circumstances but the sight of little flask mounted upon gigantic daggoo was yet more curious for sustaining himself with a cool indifferent easy unthought of barbaric majesty the noble negro to every roll of the sea harmoniously rolled his fine form on his broad back flaxenhaired flask seemed a snowflake
i declare i quite doat upon them already and indeed i am always distractedly fond of children i should guess so said elinor with a smile from what i have witnessed this morning i have a notion said lucy you think the little middletons rather too much indulged perhaps they may be the outside of enough but it is so natural in lady middleton and for my part i love to see children full of life and spirits i cannot bear them if they are tame and quiet i confess replied elinor that while i am at barton park i never think of tame and quiet children with any abhorrence a short pause succeeded this speech which was first broken by miss steele who seemed very much disposed for conversation and who now said rather abruptly and how do you like devonshire miss dashwood in some surprise at the familiarity of this question or at least of the manner in which it was spoken elinor replied that she was we have heard sir john admire it excessively said lucy who seemed to think some apology necessary for the freedom of her sister i think every one must admire it replied elinor who ever saw the place though it is not to be supposed that any one can estimate its beauties as we do i suppose you have not so many in this part of the world for my part i think they are a vast addition always but why should you think said lucy looking ashamed of her sister that there are not as many genteel young men in devonshire as sussex nay my dear im sure i dont pretend to say that there ant im sure theres a vast many smart beaux in exeter but you know how could i tell what smart beaux there might be about norland and i was only afraid the miss dashwoods might find it dull at barton if they had not so many as they used to have but perhaps you young ladies may not care about the beaux and had as lief be without them as with them for my part i think they are vastly agreeable provided they dress smart and behave civil rose at exeter a prodigious smart young man quite a beau clerk to mr simpson you know and yet if you do but meet him of a morning he is not fit to be seen  i suppose your brother was quite a beau miss dashwood before he married as he was so rich upon my word replied elinor i cannot tell you for i do not perfectly comprehend the meaning of the word but this i can say that if he ever was a beau before he married he is one still for there is not the smallest alteration in him one never thinks of married mens being beauxthey have something else to do
his greatest admirer could not have cordially justified his bringing his harpoon into breakfast with him and using it there without ceremony reaching over the table with it to the imminent jeopardy of many heads and grappling the beefsteaks towards him but that was certainly very coolly done by him and every one knows that in most peoples estimation to do anything coolly is to do it genteelly we will not speak of all queequegs peculiarities here how he eschewed coffee and hot rolls and applied his undivided attention to beefsteaks done rare enough that when breakfast was over he withdrew like the rest into the public room lighted his tomahawkpipe and was sitting there quietly digesting and smoking with his inseparable hat on when i sallied out for a stroll if i had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of so outlandish an individual as queequeg circulating among the polite society of a civilized town that astonishment soon departed upon taking my first daylight stroll through the streets of new bedford in thoroughfares nigh the docks any considerable seaport will frequently offer to view the queerest looking nondescripts from foreign parts even in broadway and chestnut streets mediterranean mariners will sometimes jostle the affrighted ladies regent street is not unknown to lascars and malays and at bombay in the apollo green live yankees have often scared the natives in these lastmentioned haunts you see only sailors but in new bedford actual cannibals stand chatting at street corners savages outright many of whom yet carry on their bones unholy flesh but besides the feegeeans tongatobooarrs erromanggoans pannangians and brighggians and besides the wild specimens of the whalingcraft which unheeded reel about the streets you will see other sights still more curious certainly more comical there weekly arrive in this town scores of green vermonters and new hampshire men all athirst for gain and glory in the fishery they are mostly young of stalwart frames fellows who have felled forests and now seek to drop the axe and snatch the whalelance many are as green as the green mountains whence they came in some things you would think them but a few hours old he wears a beaver hat and swallowtailed coat girdled with a sailorbelt and sheathknife here comes another with a souwester and a bombazine cloak no townbred dandy will compare with a countrybred onei mean a downright bumpkin dandya fellow that in the dogdays will mow his two acres in buckskin gloves for fear of tanning his hands now when a country dandy like this takes it into his head to make a distinguished reputation and joins the great whalefishery you should see the comical things he does upon reaching the seaport in bespeaking his seaoutfit he orders bellbuttons to his waistcoats straps to his canvas trowsers how bitterly will burst those straps in the first howling gale when thou art driven straps buttons and all down the throat of the tempest
 this persons suspicions therefore i have had to oppose by endeavouring to appear indifferent where i have been most deeply interestedand it has not been only oncei have had her hopes and exultation to listen to again and again  i have known myself to be divided from edward for ever without hearing one circumstance that could make me less desire the connection nothing has proved him unworthy nor has anything declared him indifferent to me  i have had to contend against the unkindness of his sister and the insolence of his mother and have suffered the punishment of an attachment without enjoying its advantages  and all this has been going on at a time when as you know too well it has not been my only unhappiness  if you can think me capable of ever feelingsurely you may suppose that i have suffered now the composure of mind with which i have brought myself at present to consider the matter the consolation that i have been willing to admit have been the effect of constant and painful exertionthey did not spring up of themselvesthey did not occur to relieve my spirits at first then if i had not been bound to silence perhaps nothing could have kept me entirelynot even what i owed to my dearest friendsfrom openly shewing that i was very unhappy elinor she cried you have made me hate myself for ever you who have been my only comfort who have borne with me in all my misery who have seemed to be only suffering for me because your merit cries out upon myself i have been trying to do it away in such a frame of mind as she was now in elinor had no difficulty in obtaining from her whatever promise she required and at her request marianne engaged never to speak of the affair to any one with the least appearance of bitternessto meet lucy without betraying the smallest increase of dislike to herand even to see edward himself if chance should bring them together without any diminution of her usual cordiality  these were great concessionsbut where marianne felt that she had injured no reparation could be too much for her to make she performed her promise of being discreet to admiration jennings had to say upon the subject with an unchanging complexion dissented from her in nothing and was heard three times to say yes maam she listened to her praise of lucy with only moving from one chair to another and when mrs jennings talked of edwards affection it cost her only a spasm in her throat such advances towards heroism in her sister made elinor feel equal to any thing herself the next morning brought a farther trial of it in a visit from their brother who came with a most serious aspect to talk over the dreadful affair and bring them news of his wife you have heard i suppose said he with great solemnity as soon as he was seated of the very shocking discovery that took place under our roof yesterday
of his sense and his goodness continued elinor no one can i think be in doubt who has seen him often enough to engage him in unreserved conversation the excellence of his understanding and his principles can be concealed only by that shyness which too often keeps him silent you know enough of him to do justice to his solid worth but of his minuter propensities as you call them you have from peculiar circumstances been kept more ignorant than myself he and i have been at times thrown a good deal together while you have been wholly engrossed on the most affectionate principle by my mother i have seen a great deal of him have studied his sentiments and heard his opinion on subjects of literature and taste and upon the whole i venture to pronounce that his mind is wellinformed enjoyment of books exceedingly great his imagination lively his observation just and correct and his taste delicate and pure his abilities in every respect improve as much upon acquaintance as his manners and person at first sight his address is certainly not striking and his person can hardly be called handsome till the expression of his eyes which are uncommonly good and the general sweetness of his countenance is perceived at present i know him so well that i think him really handsome or at least almost so i shall very soon think him handsome elinor if i do not now when you tell me to love him as a brother i shall no more see imperfection in his face than i now do in his heart elinor started at this declaration and was sorry for the warmth she had been betrayed into in speaking of him she felt that edward stood very high in her opinion she believed the regard to be mutual but she required greater certainty of it to make mariannes conviction of their attachment agreeable to her she knew that what marianne and her mother conjectured one moment they believed the nextthat with them to wish was to hope and to hope was to expect she tried to explain the real state of the case to her sister i do not attempt to deny said she that i think very highly of himthat i greatly esteem that i like him marianne here burst forth with indignation esteem him use those words again and i will leave the room this moment excuse me said she and be assured that i meant no offence to you by speaking in so quiet a way of my own feelings
next time you call said she i hope we shall be more lucky  and if she would give him leave would take an early opportunity of waiting on them yes he had no engagement at all for tomorrow and her invitation was accepted with alacrity he came and in such very good time that the ladies were none of them dressed bennet to her daughters room in her dressing gown and with her hair half finished crying out my dear jane make haste and hurry down here sarah come to miss bennet this moment and help her on with her gown we will be down as soon as we can said jane but i dare say kitty is forwarder than either of us for she went up stairs half an hour ago but when her mother was gone jane would not be prevailed on to go down without one of her sisters the same anxiety to get them by themselves was visible again in the evening bennet retired to the library as was his custom and mary went up stairs to her instrument bennet sat looking and winking at elizabeth and catherine for a considerable time without making any impression on them elizabeth would not observe her and when at last kitty did she very innocently said what is the matter mamma she then sat still five minutes longer but unable to waste such a precious occasion she suddenly got up and saying to kitty come here my love i want to speak to you took her out of the room jane instantly gave a look at elizabeth which spoke her distress at such premeditation and her entreaty that she would not give in to it bennet halfopened the door and called out lizzy my dear i want to speak with you we may as well leave them by themselves you know said her mother as soon as she was in the hall kitty and i are going up stairs to sit in my dressingroom elizabeth made no attempt to reason with her mother but remained quietly in the hall till she and kitty were out of sight then returned into the drawingroom bingley was every thing that was charming except the professed lover of her daughter his ease and cheerfulness rendered him a most agreeable addition to their evening party and he bore with the illjudged officiousness of the mother and heard all her silly remarks with a forbearance and command of countenance particularly grateful to the daughter
an opportunity was soon to be given to the dashwoods of debating on the rest of the children as sir john would not leave the house without securing their promise of dining at the park the next day chapter  barton park was about half a mile from the cottage the ladies had passed near it in their way along the valley but it was screened from their view at home by the projection of a hill the house was large and handsome and the middletons lived in a style of equal hospitality and elegance the former was for sir johns gratification the latter for that of his lady they were scarcely ever without some friends staying with them in the house and they kept more company of every kind than any other family in the neighbourhood it was necessary to the happiness of both for however dissimilar in temper and outward behaviour they strongly resembled each other in that total want of talent and taste which confined their employments unconnected with such as society produced within a very narrow compass he hunted and shot and she humoured her children and these were their only resources lady middleton had the advantage of being able to spoil her children all the year round while sir johns independent employments were in existence only half the time continual engagements at home and abroad however supplied all the deficiencies of nature and education supported the good spirits of sir john and gave exercise to the good breeding of his wife lady middleton piqued herself upon the elegance of her table and of all her domestic arrangements and from this kind of vanity was her greatest enjoyment in any of their parties but sir johns satisfaction in society was much more real he delighted in collecting about him more young people than his house would hold and the noisier they were the better was he pleased he was a blessing to all the juvenile part of the neighbourhood for in summer he was for ever forming parties to eat cold ham and chicken out of doors and in winter his private balls were numerous enough for any young lady who was not suffering under the unsatiable appetite of fifteen the arrival of a new family in the country was always a matter of joy to him and in every point of view he was charmed with the inhabitants he had now procured for his cottage at barton the miss dashwoods were young pretty and unaffected it was enough to secure his good opinion for to be unaffected was all that a pretty girl could want to make her mind as captivating as her person the friendliness of his disposition made him happy in accommodating those whose situation might be considered in comparison with the past as unfortunate in showing kindness to his cousins therefore he had the real satisfaction of a good heart and in settling a family of females only in his cottage he had all the satisfaction of a sportsman for a sportsman though he esteems only those of his sex who are sportsmen likewise is not often desirous of encouraging their taste by admitting them to a residence within his own manor dashwood and her daughters were met at the door of the house by sir john who welcomed them to barton park with unaffected sincerity and as he attended them to the drawing room repeated to the young ladies the concern which the same subject had drawn from him the day before at being unable to get any smart young men to meet them they would see he said only one gentleman there besides himself a particular friend who was staying at the park but who was neither very young nor very gay
you might wear out your indexfinger running up and down the columns of dictionaries and never find the word johnson never attained to that erudition noah websters ark does not hold it nevertheless this same expressive word has now for many years been in constant use among some fifteen thousand true born yankees certainly it needs a definition and should be incorporated into the lexicon nouna social meeting of two or more whaleships generally on a cruisingground when after exchanging hails they exchange visits by boats crews the two captains remaining for the time on board of one ship and the two chief mates on the other there is another little item about gamming which must not be forgotten here all professions have their own little peculiarities of detail so has the whale fishery in a pirate manofwar or slave ship when the captain is rowed anywhere in his boat he always sits in the stern sheets on a comfortable sometimes cushioned seat there and often steers himself with a pretty little milliners tiller decorated with gay cords and ribbons but the whaleboat has no seat astern no sofa of that sort whatever and no tiller at all high times indeed if whaling captains were wheeled about the water on castors like gouty old aldermen in patent chairs and as for a tiller the whaleboat never admits of any such effeminacy and therefore as in gamming a complete boats crew must leave the ship and hence as the boat steerer or harpooneer is of the number that subordinate is the steersman upon the occasion and the captain having no place to sit in is pulled off to his visit all standing like a pine tree and often you will notice that being conscious of the eyes of the whole visible world resting on him from the sides of the two ships this standing captain is all alive to the importance of sustaining his dignity by maintaining his legs nor is this any very easy matter for in his rear is the immense projecting steering oar hitting him now and then in the small of his back the afteroar reciprocating by rapping his knees in front he is thus completely wedged before and behind and can only expand himself sideways by settling down on his stretched legs but a sudden violent pitch of the boat will often go far to topple him because length of foundation is nothing without corresponding breadth merely make a spread angle of two poles and you cannot stand them up then again it would never do in plain sight of the worlds riveted eyes it would never do i say for this straddling captain to be seen steadying himself the slightest particle by catching hold of anything with his hands indeed as token of his entire buoyant selfcommand he generally carries his hands in his trowsers pockets but perhaps being generally very large heavy hands he carries them there for ballast nevertheless there have occurred instances well authenticated ones too where the captain has been known for an uncommonly critical moment or two in a sudden squall sayto seize hold of the nearest oarsmans hair and hold on there like grim death as told at the golden inn the cape of good hope and all the watery region round about there is much like some noted four corners of a great highway where you meet more travellers than in any other part it was not very long after speaking the goney that another homewardbound whaleman the townho was encountered in the short gam that ensued she gave us strong news of moby dick
but taking advantage of his windward position he again seized his trumpet and knowing by her aspect that the stranger vessel was a nantucketer and shortly bound home he loudly hailedahoy there tell them to address all future letters to the pacific ocean and this time three years if i am not at home tell them to address them to at that moment the two wakes were fairly crossed and instantly then in accordance with their singular ways shoals of small harmless fish that for some days before had been placidly swimming by our side darted away with what seemed shuddering fins and ranged themselves fore and aft with the strangers flanks though in the course of his continual voyagings ahab must often before have noticed a similar sight yet to any monomaniac man the veriest trifles capriciously carry meanings there seemed but little in the words but the tone conveyed more of deep helpless sadness than the insane old man had ever before evinced but turning to the steersman who thus far had been holding the ship in the wind to diminish her headway he cried out in his old lion voiceup helm there is much in that sound to inspire proud feelings but whereto does all that circumnavigation conduct only through numberless perils to the very point whence we started where those that we left behind secure were all the time before us were this world an endless plain and by sailing eastward we could for ever reach new distances and discover sights more sweet and strange than any cyclades or islands of king solomon then there were promise in the voyage but in pursuit of those far mysteries we dream of or in tormented chase of that demon phantom that some time or other swims before all human hearts while chasing such over this round globe they either lead us on in barren mazes or midway leave us whelmed the ostensible reason why ahab did not go on board of the whaler we had spoken was this the wind and sea betokened storms but even had this not been the case he would not after all perhaps have boarded herjudging by his subsequent conduct on similar occasionsif so it had been that by the process of hailing he had obtained a negative answer to the question he put for as it eventually turned out he cared not to consort even for five minutes with any stranger captain except he could contribute some of that information he so absorbingly sought but all this might remain inadequately estimated were not something said here of the peculiar usages of whalingvessels when meeting each other in foreign seas and especially on a common cruisingground if two strangers crossing the pine barrens in new york state or the equally desolate salisbury plain in england if casually encountering each other in such inhospitable wilds these twain for the life of them cannot well avoid a mutual salutation and stopping for a moment to interchange the news and perhaps sitting down for a while and resting in concert then how much more natural that upon the illimitable pine barrens and salisbury plains of the sea two whaling vessels descrying each other at the ends of the earthoff lone fannings island or the far away kings mills how much more natural i say that under such circumstances these ships should not only interchange hails but come into still closer more friendly and sociable contact and especially would this seem to be a matter of course in the case of vessels owned in one seaport and whose captains officers and not a few of the men are personally known to each other and consequently have all sorts of dear domestic things to talk about for the long absent ship the outwardbounder perhaps has letters on board at any rate she will be sure to let her have some papers of a date a year or two later than the last one on her blurred and thumbworn files and in return for that courtesy the outwardbound ship would receive the latest whaling intelligence from the cruisingground to which she may be destined a thing of the utmost importance to her and in degree all this will hold true concerning whaling vessels crossing each others track on the cruisingground itself even though they are equally long absent from home for one of them may have received a transfer of letters from some third and now far remote vessel and some of those letters may be for the people of the ship she now meets
it was even so in their headlong eagerness the men had mistaken some other thing for the whalespout as the event itself soon proved for hardly had ahab reached his perch hardly was the rope belayed to its pin on deck when he struck the keynote to an orchestra that made the air vibrate as with the combined discharges of rifles the triumphant halloo of thirty buckskin lungs was heard asmuch nearer to the ship than the place of the imaginary jet less than a mile aheadmoby dick bodily burst into view for not by any calm and indolent spoutings not by the peaceable gush of that mystic fountain in his head did the white whale now reveal his vicinity but by the far more wondrous phenomenon of breaching rising with his utmost velocity from the furthest depths the sperm whale thus booms his entire bulk into the pure element of air and piling up a mountain of dazzling foam shows his place to the distance of seven miles and more in those moments the torn enraged waves he shakes off seem his mane in some cases this breaching is his act of defiance was the cry as in his immeasurable bravadoes the white whale tossed himself salmonlike to heaven so suddenly seen in the blue plain of the sea and relieved against the still bluer margin of the sky the spray that he raised for the moment intolerably glittered and glared like a glacier and stood there gradually fading and fading away from its first sparkling intensity to the dim mistiness of an advancing shower in a vale unmindful of the tedious ropeladders of the shrouds the men like shooting stars slid to the deck by the isolated backstays and halyards while ahab less dartingly but still rapidly was dropped from his perch lower away he cried so soon as he had reached his boata spare one rigged the afternoon previous starbuck the ship is thinekeep away from the boats but keep near them as if to strike a quick terror into them by this time being the first assailant himself moby dick had turned and was now coming for the three crews ahabs boat was central and cheering his men he told them he would take the whale headandheadthat is pull straight up to his foreheada not uncommon thing for when within a certain limit such a course excludes the coming onset from the whales sidelong vision but ere that close limit was gained and while yet all three boats were plain as the ships three masts to his eye the white whale churning himself into furious speed almost in an instant as it were rushing among the boats with open jaws and a lashing tail offered appalling battle on every side and heedless of the irons darted at him from every boat seemed only intent on annihilating each separate plank of which those boats were made but skilfully manoeuvred incessantly wheeling like trained chargers in the field the boats for a while eluded him though at times but by a planks breadth while all the time ahabs unearthly slogan tore every other cry but his to shreds but at last in his untraceable evolutions the white whale so crossed and recrossed and in a thousand ways entangled the slack of the three lines now fast to him that they foreshortened and of themselves warped the devoted boats towards the planted irons in him though now for a moment the whale drew aside a little as if to rally for a more tremendous charge seizing that opportunity ahab first paid out more line and then was rapidly hauling and jerking in upon it againhoping that way to disencumber it of some snarlswhen lo a sight more savage than the embattled teeth of sharks caught and twistedcorkscrewed in the mazes of the line loose harpoons and lances with all their bristling barbs and points came flashing and dripping up to the chocks in the bows of ahabs boat seizing the boatknife he critically reached withinthroughand then withoutthe rays of steel dragged in the line beyond passed it inboard to the bowsman and then twice sundering the rope near the chocksdropped the intercepted fagot of steel into the sea and was all fast again that instant the white whale made a sudden rush among the remaining tangles of the other lines by so doing irresistibly dragged the more involved boats of stubb and flask towards his flukes dashed them together like two rolling husks on a surfbeaten beach and then diving down into the sea disappeared in a boiling maelstrom in which for a space the odorous cedar chips of the wrecks danced round and round like the grated nutmeg in a swiftly stirred bowl of punch
dashwoods situation with only common feelings must have been highly unpleasingbut in her mind there was a sense of honor so keen a generosity so romantic that any offence of the kind by whomsoever given or received was to her a source of immovable disgust john dashwood had never been a favourite with any of her husbands family but she had had no opportunity till the present of shewing them with how little attention to the comfort of other people she could act when occasion required it dashwood feel this ungracious behaviour and so earnestly did she despise her daughterinlaw for it that on the arrival of the latter she would have quitted the house for ever had not the entreaty of her eldest girl induced her first to reflect on the propriety of going and her own tender love for all her three children determined her afterwards to stay and for their sakes avoid a breach with their brother elinor this eldest daughter whose advice was so effectual possessed a strength of understanding and coolness of judgment which qualified her though only nineteen to be the counsellor of her mother and enabled her frequently to counteract to the advantage of them all that eagerness of mind in mrs dashwood which must generally have led to imprudence she had an excellent hearther disposition was affectionate and her feelings were strong but she knew how to govern them it was a knowledge which her mother had yet to learn and which one of her sisters had resolved never to be taught mariannes abilities were in many respects quite equal to elinors she was sensible and clever but eager in everything her sorrows her joys could have no moderation she was generous amiable interesting she was everything but prudent the resemblance between her and her mother was strikingly great elinor saw with concern the excess of her sisters sensibility but by mrs they encouraged each other now in the violence of their affliction the agony of grief which overpowered them at first was voluntarily renewed was sought for was created again and again they gave themselves up wholly to their sorrow seeking increase of wretchedness in every reflection that could afford it and resolved against ever admitting consolation in future elinor too was deeply afflicted but still she could struggle she could exert herself she could consult with her brother could receive her sisterinlaw on her arrival and treat her with proper attention and could strive to rouse her mother to similar exertion and encourage her to similar forbearance margaret the other sister was a goodhumored welldisposed girl but as she had already imbibed a good deal of mariannes romance without having much of her sense she did not at thirteen bid fair to equal her sisters at a more advanced period of life john dashwood now installed herself mistress of norland and her mother and sistersinlaw were degraded to the condition of visitors as such however they were treated by her with quiet civility and by her husband with as much kindness as he could feel towards anybody beyond himself his wife and their child he really pressed them with some earnestness to consider norland as their home and as no plan appeared so eligible to mrs
i am sure replied elinor with a smile that his dearest friends could not be dissatisfied with such commendation as that i do not perceive how you could express yourself more warmly marianne was rejoiced to find her sister so easily pleased of his sense and his goodness continued elinor no one can i think be in doubt who has seen him often enough to engage him in unreserved conversation the excellence of his understanding and his principles can be concealed only by that shyness which too often keeps him silent you know enough of him to do justice to his solid worth but of his minuter propensities as you call them you have from peculiar circumstances been kept more ignorant than myself he and i have been at times thrown a good deal together while you have been wholly engrossed on the most affectionate principle by my mother i have seen a great deal of him have studied his sentiments and heard his opinion on subjects of literature and taste and upon the whole i venture to pronounce that his mind is wellinformed enjoyment of books exceedingly great his imagination lively his observation just and correct and his taste delicate and pure his abilities in every respect improve as much upon acquaintance as his manners and person at first sight his address is certainly not striking and his person can hardly be called handsome till the expression of his eyes which are uncommonly good and the general sweetness of his countenance is perceived at present i know him so well that i think him really handsome or at least almost so i shall very soon think him handsome elinor if i do not now when you tell me to love him as a brother i shall no more see imperfection in his face than i now do in his heart elinor started at this declaration and was sorry for the warmth she had been betrayed into in speaking of him she felt that edward stood very high in her opinion she believed the regard to be mutual but she required greater certainty of it to make mariannes conviction of their attachment agreeable to her she knew that what marianne and her mother conjectured one moment they believed the nextthat with them to wish was to hope and to hope was to expect she tried to explain the real state of the case to her sister i do not attempt to deny said she that i think very highly of himthat i greatly esteem that i like him
when they left the high road for the lane to hunsford every eye was in search of the parsonage and every turning expected to bring it in view the palings of rosings park was their boundary on one side elizabeth smiled at the recollection of all that she had heard of its inhabitants the garden sloping to the road the house standing in it the green pales and the laurel hedge everything declared they were arriving collins and charlotte appeared at the door and the carriage stopped at the small gate which led by a short gravel walk to the house amidst the nods and smiles of the whole party in a moment they were all out of the chaise rejoicing at the sight of each other collins welcomed her friend with the liveliest pleasure and elizabeth was more and more satisfied with coming when she found herself so affectionately received she saw instantly that her cousins manners were not altered by his marriage his formal civility was just what it had been and he detained her some minutes at the gate to hear and satisfy his inquiries after all her family they were then with no other delay than his pointing out the neatness of the entrance taken into the house and as soon as they were in the parlour he welcomed them a second time with ostentatious formality to his humble abode and punctually repeated all his wifes offers of refreshment elizabeth was prepared to see him in his glory and she could not help in fancying that in displaying the good proportion of the room its aspect and its furniture he addressed himself particularly to her as if wishing to make her feel what she had lost in refusing him but though everything seemed neat and comfortable she was not able to gratify him by any sigh of repentance and rather looked with wonder at her friend that she could have so cheerful an air with such a companion collins said anything of which his wife might reasonably be ashamed which certainly was not unseldom she involuntarily turned her eye on charlotte once or twice she could discern a faint blush but in general charlotte wisely did not hear after sitting long enough to admire every article of furniture in the room from the sideboard to the fender to give an account of their journey and of all that had happened in london mr collins invited them to take a stroll in the garden which was large and well laid out and to the cultivation of which he attended himself to work in this garden was one of his most respectable pleasures and elizabeth admired the command of countenance with which charlotte talked of the healthfulness of the exercise and owned she encouraged it as much as possible here leading the way through every walk and cross walk and scarcely allowing them an interval to utter the praises he asked for every view was pointed out with a minuteness which left beauty entirely behind he could number the fields in every direction and could tell how many trees there were in the most distant clump but of all the views which his garden or which the country or kingdom could boast none were to be compared with the prospect of rosings afforded by an opening in the trees that bordered the park nearly opposite the front of his house it was a handsome modern building well situated on rising ground
so that not the fiercefanged tiger in his heraldic coat can so stagger courage as the whiteshrouded bear or shark  with reference to the polar bear it may possibly be urged by him who would fain go still deeper into this matter that it is not the whiteness separately regarded which heightens the intolerable hideousness of that brute for analysed that heightened hideousness it might be said only rises from the circumstance that the irresponsible ferociousness of the creature stands invested in the fleece of celestial innocence and love and hence by bringing together two such opposite emotions in our minds the polar bear frightens us with so unnatural a contrast but even assuming all this to be true yet were it not for the whiteness you would not have that intensified terror as for the white shark the white gliding ghostliness of repose in that creature when beheld in his ordinary moods strangely tallies with the same quality in the polar quadruped this peculiarity is most vividly hit by the french in the name they bestow upon that fish the romish mass for the dead begins with requiem eternam eternal rest whence requiem denominating the mass itself and any other funeral music now in allusion to the white silent stillness of death in this shark and the mild deadliness of his habits the french call him requin bethink thee of the albatross whence come those clouds of spiritual wonderment and pale dread in which that white phantom sails in all imaginations not coleridge first threw that spell but gods great unflattering laureate nature it was during a prolonged gale in waters hard upon the antarctic seas from my forenoon watch below i ascended to the overclouded deck and there dashed upon the main hatches i saw a regal feathery thing of unspotted whiteness and with a hooked roman bill sublime at intervals it arched forth its vast archangel wings as if to embrace some holy ark though bodily unharmed it uttered cries as some kings ghost in supernatural distress through its inexpressible strange eyes methought i peeped to secrets which took hold of god as abraham before the angels i bowed myself the white thing was so white its wings so wide and in those for ever exiled waters i had lost the miserable warping memories of traditions and of towns i cannot tell can only hint the things that darted through me then but at last i awoke and turning asked a sailor what bird was this never had heard that name before is it conceivable that this glorious thing is utterly unknown to men ashore but some time after i learned that goney was some seamans name for albatross so that by no possibility could coleridges wild rhyme have had aught to do with those mystical impressions which were mine when i saw that bird upon our deck
nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses will not suffice they must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can without falling in inlanders all they come from lanes and alleys streets and avenuesnorth east south and west tell me does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither say you are in the country in some high land of lakes take almost any path you please and ten to one it carries you down in a dale and leaves you there by a pool in the stream let the most absentminded of men be plunged in his deepest reveriesstand that man on his legs set his feet agoing and he will infallibly lead you to water if water there be in all that region should you ever be athirst in the great american desert try this experiment if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor yes as every one knows meditation and water are wedded for ever he desires to paint you the dreamiest shadiest quietest most enchanting bit of romantic landscape in all the valley of the saco there stand his trees each with a hollow trunk as if a hermit and a crucifix were within and here sleeps his meadow and there sleep his cattle and up from yonder cottage goes a sleepy smoke deep into distant woodlands winds a mazy way reaching to overlapping spurs of mountains bathed in their hillside blue but though the picture lies thus tranced and though this pinetree shakes down its sighs like leaves upon this shepherds head yet all were vain unless the shepherds eye were fixed upon the magic stream before him go visit the prairies in june when for scores on scores of miles you wade kneedeep among tigerlilieswhat is the one charm wanting were niagara but a cataract of sand would you travel your thousand miles to see it why did the poor poet of tennessee upon suddenly receiving two handfuls of silver deliberate whether to buy him a coat which he sadly needed or invest his money in a pedestrian trip to rockaway beach why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him at some time or other crazy to go to sea why upon your first voyage as a passenger did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land why did the greeks give it a separate deity and own brother of jove and still deeper the meaning of that story of narcissus who because he could not grasp the tormenting mild image he saw in the fountain plunged into it and was drowned
at the time i devoted three days to the studious digesting of all this beer beef and bread during which many profound thoughts were incidentally suggested to me capable of a transcendental and platonic application and furthermore i compiled supplementary tables of my own touching the probable quantity of stockfish etc  consumed by every low dutch harpooneer in that ancient greenland and spitzbergen whale fishery in the first place the amount of butter and texel and leyden cheese consumed seems amazing i impute it though to their naturally unctuous natures being rendered still more unctuous by the nature of their vocation and especially by their pursuing their game in those frigid polar seas on the very coasts of that esquimaux country where the convivial natives pledge each other in bumpers of train oil now as those polar fisheries could only be prosecuted in the short summer of that climate so that the whole cruise of one of these dutch whalemen including the short voyage to and from the spitzbergen sea did not much exceed three months say and reckoning  men to each of their fleet of  sail we have  low dutch seamen in all therefore i say we have precisely two barrels of beer per man for a twelve weeks allowance exclusive of his fair proportion of that  ankers of gin now whether these gin and beer harpooneers so fuddled as one might fancy them to have been were the right sort of men to stand up in a boats head and take good aim at flying whales this would seem somewhat improbable but this was very far north be it remembered where beer agrees well with the constitution upon the equator in our southern fishery beer would be apt to make the harpooneer sleepy at the masthead and boozy in his boat and grievous loss might ensue to nantucket and new bedford but no more enough has been said to show that the old dutch whalers of two or three centuries ago were high livers and that the english whalers have not neglected so excellent an example for say they when cruising in an empty ship if you can get nothing better out of the world get a good dinner out of it at least hitherto in descriptively treating of the sperm whale i have chiefly dwelt upon the marvels of his outer aspect or separately and in detail upon some few interior structural features but to a large and thorough sweeping comprehension of him it behooves me now to unbutton him still further and untagging the points of his hose unbuckling his garters and casting loose the hooks and the eyes of the joints of his innermost bones set him before you in his ultimatum that is to say in his unconditional skeleton how is it that you a mere oarsman in the fishery pretend to know aught about the subterranean parts of the whale did erudite stubb mounted upon your capstan deliver lectures on the anatomy of the cetacea and by help of the windlass hold up a specimen rib for exhibition can you land a fullgrown whale on your deck for examination as a cook dishes a roastpig a veritable witness have you hitherto been ishmael but have a care how you seize the privilege of jonah alone the privilege of discoursing upon the joists and beams the rafters ridgepole sleepers and underpinnings making up the framework of leviathan and belike of the tallowvats dairyrooms butteries and cheeseries in his bowels i confess that since jonah few whalemen have penetrated very far beneath the skin of the adult whale nevertheless i have been blessed with an opportunity to dissect him in miniature in a ship i belonged to a small cub sperm whale was once bodily hoisted to the deck for his poke or bag to make sheaths for the barbs of the harpoons and for the heads of the lances think you i let that chance go without using my boathatchet and jackknife and breaking the seal and reading all the contents of that young cub and as for my exact knowledge of the bones of the leviathan in their gigantic full grown development for that rare knowledge i am indebted to my late royal friend tranquo king of tranque one of the arsacides for being at tranque years ago when attached to the tradingship dey of algiers i was invited to spend part of the arsacidean holidays with the lord of tranque at his retired palm villa at pupella a seaside glen not very far distant from what our sailors called bambootown his capital
nonot less when i knew you to be unhappy than when i had believed you at ease did i turn away from every exertion of duty or friendship scarcely allowing sorrow to exist but with me regretting only that heart which had deserted and wronged me and leaving you for whom i professed an unbounded affection to be miserable for my sake here ceased the rapid flow of her selfreproving spirit and elinor impatient to soothe though too honest to flatter gave her instantly that praise and support which her frankness and her contrition so well deserved marianne pressed her hand and replied you are very good i have laid down my plan and if i am capable of adhering to itmy feelings shall be governed and my temper improved they shall no longer worry others nor torture myself you my mother and margaret must henceforth be all the world to me you will share my affections entirely between you from you from my home i shall never again have the smallest incitement to move and if i do mix in other society it will be only to shew that my spirit is humbled my heart amended and that i can practise the civilities the lesser duties of life with gentleness and forbearance as for willoughbyto say that i shall soon or that i shall ever forget him would be idle his remembrance can be overcome by no change of circumstances or opinions but it shall be regulated it shall be checked by religion by reason by constant employment she pausedand added in a low voice if i could but know his heart everything would become easy elinor who had now been for some time reflecting on the propriety or impropriety of speedily hazarding her narration without feeling at all nearer decision than at first heard this and perceiving that as reflection did nothing resolution must do all soon found herself leading to the fact she managed the recital as she hoped with address prepared her anxious listener with caution related simply and honestly the chief points on which willoughby grounded his apology did justice to his repentance and softened only his protestations of present regard she trembled her eyes were fixed on the ground and her lips became whiter than even sickness had left them a thousand inquiries sprung up from her heart but she dared not urge one she caught every syllable with panting eagerness her hand unknowingly to herself closely pressed her sisters and tears covered her cheeks elinor dreading her being tired led her towards home and till they reached the door of the cottage easily conjecturing what her curiosity must be though no question was suffered to speak it talked of nothing but willoughby and their conversation together and was carefully minute in every particular of speech and look where minuteness could be safely indulged as soon as they entered the house marianne with a kiss of gratitude and these two words just articulate through her tears tell mama withdrew from her sister and walked slowly up stairs elinor would not attempt to disturb a solitude so reasonable as what she now sought and with a mind anxiously prearranging its result and a resolution of reviving the subject again should marianne fail to do it she turned into the parlour to fulfill her parting injunction dashwood did not hear unmoved the vindication of her former favourite
chapter  as the miss dashwoods entered the drawingroom of the park the next day at one door mrs palmer came running in at the other looking as good humoured and merry as before she took them all most affectionately by the hand and expressed great delight in seeing them again said she seating herself between elinor and marianne for it is so bad a day i was afraid you might not come which would be a shocking thing as we go away again tomorrow we must go for the westons come to us next week you know it was quite a sudden thing our coming at all and i knew nothing of it till the carriage was coming to the door and then mr i am so sorry we cannot stay longer however we shall meet again in town very soon i hope they were obliged to put an end to such an expectation palmer with a laugh i shall be quite disappointed if you do not i could get the nicest house in the world for you next door to ours in hanoversquare i am sure i shall be very happy to chaperon you at any time till i am confined if mrs they thanked her but were obliged to resist all her entreaties palmer to her husband who just then entered the roomyou must help me to persuade the miss dashwoods to go to town this winter  her love made no answer and after slightly bowing to the ladies began complaining of the weather such weather makes every thing and every body disgusting dullness is as much produced within doors as without by rain what the devil does sir john mean by not having a billiard room in his house i am afraid miss marianne said sir john you have not been able to take your usual walk to allenham today palmer for we know all about it i assure you and i admire your taste very much for i think he is extremely handsome we do not live a great way from him in the country you know
as soon as they entered the house marianne with a kiss of gratitude and these two words just articulate through her tears tell mama withdrew from her sister and walked slowly up stairs elinor would not attempt to disturb a solitude so reasonable as what she now sought and with a mind anxiously prearranging its result and a resolution of reviving the subject again should marianne fail to do it she turned into the parlour to fulfill her parting injunction dashwood did not hear unmoved the vindication of her former favourite she rejoiced in his being cleared from some part of his imputed guiltshe was sorry for himshe wished him happy nothing could restore him with a faith unbrokena character unblemished to marianne nothing could do away the knowledge of what the latter had suffered through his means nor remove the guilt of his conduct towards eliza nothing could replace him therefore in her former esteem nor injure the interests of colonel brandon dashwood like her daughter heard willoughbys story from himselfhad she witnessed his distress and been under the influence of his countenance and his manner it is probable that her compassion would have been greater but it was neither in elinors power nor in her wish to rouse such feelings in another by her retailed explanation as had at first been called forth in herself reflection had given calmness to her judgment and sobered her own opinion of willoughbys desertsshe wished therefore to declare only the simple truth and lay open such facts as were really due to his character without any embellishment of tenderness to lead the fancy astray in the evening when they were all three together marianne began voluntarily to speak of him againbut that it was not without an effort the restless unquiet thoughtfulness in which she had been for some time previously sittingher rising colour as she spokeand her unsteady voice plainly shewed i wish to assure you both said she that i see every thingas you can desire me to do dashwood would have interrupted her instantly with soothing tenderness had not elinor who really wished to hear her sisters unbiased opinion by an eager sign engaged her silence marianne slowly continued it is a great relief to mewhat elinor told me this morningi have now heard exactly what i wished to hear for some moments her voice was lost but recovering herself she added and with greater calmness than beforei am now perfectly satisfied i wish for no change i never could have been happy with him after knowing as sooner or later i must have known all this with one who so injured the peace of the dearest of our friends and the best of men nomy marianne has not a heart to be made happy with such a man her conscience her sensitive conscience would have felt all that the conscience of her husband ought to have felt you consider the matter said elinor exactly as a good mind and a sound understanding must consider it and i dare say you perceive as well as myself not only in this but in many other circumstances reason enough to be convinced that your marriage must have involved you in many certain troubles and disappointments in which you would have been poorly supported by an affection on his side much less certain
my song for ever shall record      that terrible that joyful hour      i give the glory to my god      his all the mercy and the power nearly all joined in singing this hymn which swelled high above the howling of the storm a brief pause ensued the preacher slowly turned over the leaves of the bible and at last folding his hand down upon the proper page said beloved shipmates clinch the last verse of the first chapter of jonahand god had prepared a great fish to swallow up jonah  shipmates this book containing only four chaptersfour yarnsis one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the scriptures yet what depths of the soul does jonahs deep sealine sound what a noble thing is that canticle in the fishs belly we feel the floods surging over us we sound with him to the kelpy bottom of the waters seaweed and all the slime of the sea is about us but what is this lesson that the book of jonah teaches shipmates it is a twostranded lesson a lesson to us all as sinful men and a lesson to me as a pilot of the living god as sinful men it is a lesson to us all because it is a story of the sin hardheartedness suddenly awakened fears the swift punishment repentance prayers and finally the deliverance and joy of jonah as with all sinners among men the sin of this son of amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the command of godnever mind now what that command was or how conveyedwhich he found a hard command but all the things that god would have us do are hard for us to doremember thatand hence he oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade and if we obey god we must disobey ourselves and it is in this disobeying ourselves wherein the hardness of obeying god consists with this sin of disobedience in him jonah still further flouts at god by seeking to flee from him he thinks that a ship made by men will carry him into countries where god does not reign but only the captains of this earth he skulks about the wharves of joppa and seeks a ship thats bound for tarshish there lurks perhaps a hitherto unheeded meaning here by all accounts tarshish could have been no other city than the modern cadiz cadiz is in spain as far by water from joppa as jonah could possibly have sailed in those ancient days when the atlantic was an almost unknown sea because joppa the modern jaffa shipmates is on the most easterly coast of the mediterranean the syrian and tarshish or cadiz more than two thousand miles to the westward from that just outside the straits of gibraltar
wickham and of seeing a confirmation of everything in mr the happiness anticipated by catherine and lydia depended less on any single event or any particular person for though they each like elizabeth meant to dance half the evening with mr wickham he was by no means the only partner who could satisfy them and a ball was at any rate a ball and even mary could assure her family that she had no disinclination for it while i can have my mornings to myself said she it is enoughi think it is no sacrifice to join occasionally in evening engagements society has claims on us all and i profess myself one of those who consider intervals of recreation and amusement as desirable for everybody elizabeths spirits were so high on this occasion that though she did not often speak unnecessarily to mr collins she could not help asking him whether he intended to accept mr bingleys invitation and if he did whether he would think it proper to join in the evenings amusement and she was rather surprised to find that he entertained no scruple whatever on that head and was very far from dreading a rebuke either from the archbishop or lady catherine de bourgh by venturing to dance i am by no means of the opinion i assure you said he that a ball of this kind given by a young man of character to respectable people can have any evil tendency and i am so far from objecting to dancing myself that i shall hope to be honoured with the hands of all my fair cousins in the course of the evening and i take this opportunity of soliciting yours miss elizabeth for the two first dances especially a preference which i trust my cousin jane will attribute to the right cause and not to any disrespect for her wickhams happiness and her own were perforce delayed a little longer and mr collinss proposal accepted with as good a grace as she could she was not the better pleased with his gallantry from the idea it suggested of something more it now first struck her that she was selected from among her sisters as worthy of being mistress of hunsford parsonage and of assisting to form a quadrille table at rosings in the absence of more eligible visitors the idea soon reached to conviction as she observed his increasing civilities toward herself and heard his frequent attempt at a compliment on her wit and vivacity and though more astonished than gratified herself by this effect of her charms it was not long before her mother gave her to understand that the probability of their marriage was extremely agreeable to her elizabeth however did not choose to take the hint being well aware that a serious dispute must be the consequence of any reply collins might never make the offer and till he did it was useless to quarrel about him if there had not been a netherfield ball to prepare for and talk of the younger miss bennets would have been in a very pitiable state at this time for from the day of the invitation to the day of the ball there was such a succession of rain as prevented their walking to meryton once no aunt no officers no news could be sought afterthe very shoeroses for netherfield were got by proxy even elizabeth might have found some trial of her patience in weather which totally suspended the improvement of her acquaintance with mr
you had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles for you are wasting your time with me darcy walked off and elizabeth remained with no very cordial feelings toward him she told the story however with great spirit among her friends for she had a lively playful disposition which delighted in anything ridiculous the evening altogether passed off pleasantly to the whole family bennet had seen her eldest daughter much admired by the netherfield party bingley had danced with her twice and she had been distinguished by his sisters jane was as much gratified by this as her mother could be though in a quieter way mary had heard herself mentioned to miss bingley as the most accomplished girl in the neighbourhood and catherine and lydia had been fortunate enough never to be without partners which was all that they had yet learnt to care for at a ball they returned therefore in good spirits to longbourn the village where they lived and of which they were the principal inhabitants with a book he was regardless of time and on the present occasion he had a good deal of curiosity as to the event of an evening which had raised such splendid expectations he had rather hoped that his wifes views on the stranger would be disappointed but he soon found out that he had a different story to hear bennet as she entered the room we have had a most delightful evening a most excellent ball bingley thought her quite beautiful and danced with her twice only think of that my dear he actually danced with her twice and she was the only creature in the room that he asked a second time but however he did not admire her at all indeed nobody can you know and he seemed quite struck with jane as she was going down the dance so he inquired who she was and got introduced and asked her for the two next then the two third he danced with miss king and the two fourth with maria lucas and the two fifth with jane again and the two sixth with lizzy and the boulanger if he had had any compassion for me cried her husband impatiently he would not have danced half so much oh that he had sprained his ankle in the first dance i never in my life saw anything more elegant than their dresses
though his eyes had been long opened even before his acquaintance with elinor began to her ignorance and a want of liberality in some of her opinionsthey had been equally imputed by him to her want of education and till her last letter reached him he had always believed her to be a welldisposed goodhearted girl and thoroughly attached to himself nothing but such a persuasion could have prevented his putting an end to an engagement which long before the discovery of it laid him open to his mothers anger had been a continual source of disquiet and regret to him i thought it my duty said he independent of my feelings to give her the option of continuing the engagement or not when i was renounced by my mother and stood to all appearance without a friend in the world to assist me in such a situation as that where there seemed nothing to tempt the avarice or the vanity of any living creature how could i suppose when she so earnestly so warmly insisted on sharing my fate whatever it might be that any thing but the most disinterested affection was her inducement and even now i cannot comprehend on what motive she acted or what fancied advantage it could be to her to be fettered to a man for whom she had not the smallest regard and who had only two thousand pounds in the world she could not foresee that colonel brandon would give me a living no but she might suppose that something would occur in your favour that your own family might in time relent and at any rate she lost nothing by continuing the engagement for she has proved that it fettered neither her inclination nor her actions the connection was certainly a respectable one and probably gained her consideration among her friends and if nothing more advantageous occurred it would be better for her to marry you than be single edward was of course immediately convinced that nothing could have been more natural than lucys conduct nor more selfevident than the motive of it elinor scolded him harshly as ladies always scold the imprudence which compliments themselves for having spent so much time with them at norland when he must have felt his own inconstancy your behaviour was certainly very wrong said she becauseto say nothing of my own conviction our relations were all led away by it to fancy and expect what as you were then situated could never be he could only plead an ignorance of his own heart and a mistaken confidence in the force of his engagement i was simple enough to think that because my faith was plighted to another there could be no danger in my being with you and that the consciousness of my engagement was to keep my heart as safe and sacred as my honour i felt that i admired you but i told myself it was only friendship and till i began to make comparisons between yourself and lucy i did not know how far i was got after that i suppose i was wrong in remaining so much in sussex and the arguments with which i reconciled myself to the expediency of it were no better than thesethe danger is my own i am doing no injury to anybody but myself edward heard with pleasure of colonel brandons being expected at the cottage as he really wished not only to be better acquainted with him but to have an opportunity of convincing him that he no longer resented his giving him the living of delafordwhich at present said he after thanks so ungraciously delivered as mine were on the occasion he must think i have never forgiven him for offering now he felt astonished himself that he had never yet been to the place but so little interest had he taken in the matter that he owed all his knowledge of the house garden and glebe extent of the parish condition of the land and rate of the tithes to elinor herself who had heard so much of it from colonel brandon and heard it with so much attention as to be entirely mistress of the subject one question after this only remained undecided between them one difficulty only was to be overcome
and with that peleg hurried him over the side and both dropt into the boat ship and boat diverged the cold damp night breeze blew between a screaming gull flew overhead the two hulls wildly rolled we gave three heavyhearted cheers and blindly plunged like fate into the lone atlantic some chapters back one bulkington was spoken of a tall newlanded mariner encountered in new bedford at the inn when on that shivering winters night the pequod thrust her vindictive bows into the cold malicious waves who should i see standing at her helm but bulkington i looked with sympathetic awe and fearfulness upon the man who in midwinter just landed from a four years dangerous voyage could so unrestingly push off again for still another tempestuous term wonderfullest things are ever the unmentionable deep memories yield no epitaphs this sixinch chapter is the stoneless grave of bulkington let me only say that it fared with him as with the stormtossed ship that miserably drives along the leeward land the port would fain give succor the port is pitiful in the port is safety comfort hearthstone supper warm blankets friends all thats kind to our mortalities but in that gale the port the land is that ships direst jeopardy she must fly all hospitality one touch of land though it but graze the keel would make her shudder through and through with all her might she crowds all sail off shore in so doing fights gainst the very winds that fain would blow her homeward seeks all the lashed sea s landlessness again for refuges sake forlornly rushing into peril her only friend her bitterest foe glimpses do ye seem to see of that mortally intolerable truth that all deep earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous slavish shore but as in landlessness alone resides highest truth shoreless indefinite as godso better is it to perish in that howling infinite than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee even if that were safety up from the spray of thy oceanperishingstraight up leaps thy apotheosis as queequeg and i are now fairly embarked in this business of whaling and as this business of whaling has somehow come to be regarded among landsmen as a rather unpoetical and disreputable pursuit therefore i am all anxiety to convince ye ye landsmen of the injustice hereby done to us hunters of whales in the first place it may be deemed almost superfluous to establish the fact that among people at large the business of whaling is not accounted on a level with what are called the liberal professions if a stranger were introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitan society it would but slightly advance the general opinion of his merits were he presented to the company as a harpooneer say and if in emulation of the naval officers he should append the initials s sperm whale fishery to his visiting card such a procedure would be deemed preeminently presuming and ridiculous doubtless one leading reason why the world declines honouring us whalemen is this they think that at best our vocation amounts to a butchering sort of business and that when actively engaged therein we are surrounded by all manner of defilements but butchers also and butchers of the bloodiest badge have been all martial commanders whom the world invariably delights to honour and as for the matter of the alleged uncleanliness of our business ye shall soon be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally unknown and which upon the whole will triumphantly plant the sperm whaleship at least among the cleanliest things of this tidy earth
the idea soon reached to conviction as she observed his increasing civilities toward herself and heard his frequent attempt at a compliment on her wit and vivacity and though more astonished than gratified herself by this effect of her charms it was not long before her mother gave her to understand that the probability of their marriage was extremely agreeable to her elizabeth however did not choose to take the hint being well aware that a serious dispute must be the consequence of any reply collins might never make the offer and till he did it was useless to quarrel about him if there had not been a netherfield ball to prepare for and talk of the younger miss bennets would have been in a very pitiable state at this time for from the day of the invitation to the day of the ball there was such a succession of rain as prevented their walking to meryton once no aunt no officers no news could be sought afterthe very shoeroses for netherfield were got by proxy even elizabeth might have found some trial of her patience in weather which totally suspended the improvement of her acquaintance with mr wickham and nothing less than a dance on tuesday could have made such a friday saturday sunday and monday endurable to kitty and lydia chapter  till elizabeth entered the drawingroom at netherfield and looked in vain for mr wickham among the cluster of red coats there assembled a doubt of his being present had never occurred to her the certainty of meeting him had not been checked by any of those recollections that might not unreasonably have alarmed her she had dressed with more than usual care and prepared in the highest spirits for the conquest of all that remained unsubdued of his heart trusting that it was not more than might be won in the course of the evening but in an instant arose the dreadful suspicion of his being purposely omitted for mr darcys pleasure in the bingleys invitation to the officers and though this was not exactly the case the absolute fact of his absence was pronounced by his friend denny to whom lydia eagerly applied and who told them that wickham had been obliged to go to town on business the day before and was not yet returned adding with a significant smile i do not imagine his business would have called him away just now if he had not wanted to avoid a certain gentleman here this part of his intelligence though unheard by lydia was caught by elizabeth and as it assured her that darcy was not less answerable for wickhams absence than if her first surmise had been just every feeling of displeasure against the former was so sharpened by immediate disappointment that she could hardly reply with tolerable civility to the polite inquiries which he directly afterwards approached to make attendance forbearance patience with darcy was injury to wickham she was resolved against any sort of conversation with him and turned away with a degree of illhumour which she could not wholly surmount even in speaking to mr but elizabeth was not formed for illhumour and though every prospect of her own was destroyed for the evening it could not dwell long on her spirits and having told all her griefs to charlotte lucas whom she had not seen for a week she was soon able to make a voluntary transition to the oddities of her cousin and to point him out to her particular notice the first two dances however brought a return of distress they were dances of mortification collins awkward and solemn apologising instead of attending and often moving wrong without being aware of it gave her all the shame and misery which a disagreeable partner for a couple of dances can give she danced next with an officer and had the refreshment of talking of wickham and of hearing that he was universally liked
her thoughts were instantly driven back to the time when mr bingleys name had been the last mentioned between them and if she might judge by his complexion his mind was not very differently engaged there is also one other person in the party he continued after a pause who more particularly wishes to be known to you will you allow me or do i ask too much to introduce my sister to your acquaintance during your stay at lambton the surprise of such an application was great indeed it was too great for her to know in what manner she acceded to it she immediately felt that whatever desire miss darcy might have of being acquainted with her must be the work of her brother and without looking farther it was satisfactory it was gratifying to know that his resentment had not made him think really ill of her they now walked on in silence each of them deep in thought elizabeth was not comfortable that was impossible but she was flattered and pleased his wish of introducing his sister to her was a compliment of the highest kind they soon outstripped the others and when they had reached the carriage mr he then asked her to walk into the housebut she declared herself not tired and they stood together on the lawn at such a time much might have been said and silence was very awkward she wanted to talk but there seemed to be an embargo on every subject at last she recollected that she had been travelling and they talked of matlock and dove dale with great perseverance yet time and her aunt moved slowlyand her patience and her ideas were nearly worn out before the teteatete was over gardiners coming up they were all pressed to go into the house and take some refreshment but this was declined and they parted on each side with utmost politeness darcy handed the ladies into the carriage and when it drove off elizabeth saw him walking slowly towards the house the observations of her uncle and aunt now began and each of them pronounced him to be infinitely superior to anything they had expected he is perfectly well behaved polite and unassuming said her uncle there is something a little stately in him to be sure replied her aunt but it is confined to his air and is not unbecoming
he acknowledged the truth of it all and said that business with his steward had occasioned his coming forward a few hours before the rest of the party with whom he had been travelling they will join me early tomorrow he continued and among them are some who will claim an acquaintance with youmr her thoughts were instantly driven back to the time when mr bingleys name had been the last mentioned between them and if she might judge by his complexion his mind was not very differently engaged there is also one other person in the party he continued after a pause who more particularly wishes to be known to you will you allow me or do i ask too much to introduce my sister to your acquaintance during your stay at lambton the surprise of such an application was great indeed it was too great for her to know in what manner she acceded to it she immediately felt that whatever desire miss darcy might have of being acquainted with her must be the work of her brother and without looking farther it was satisfactory it was gratifying to know that his resentment had not made him think really ill of her they now walked on in silence each of them deep in thought elizabeth was not comfortable that was impossible but she was flattered and pleased his wish of introducing his sister to her was a compliment of the highest kind they soon outstripped the others and when they had reached the carriage mr he then asked her to walk into the housebut she declared herself not tired and they stood together on the lawn at such a time much might have been said and silence was very awkward she wanted to talk but there seemed to be an embargo on every subject at last she recollected that she had been travelling and they talked of matlock and dove dale with great perseverance yet time and her aunt moved slowlyand her patience and her ideas were nearly worn out before the teteatete was over gardiners coming up they were all pressed to go into the house and take some refreshment but this was declined and they parted on each side with utmost politeness darcy handed the ladies into the carriage and when it drove off elizabeth saw him walking slowly towards the house the observations of her uncle and aunt now began and each of them pronounced him to be infinitely superior to anything they had expected
jennings was in hopes by this vigorous sketch of their future ennui to provoke him to make that offer which might give himself an escape from itand if so she had soon afterwards good reason to think her object gained for on elinors moving to the window to take more expeditiously the dimensions of a print which she was going to copy for her friend he followed her to it with a look of particular meaning and conversed with her there for several minutes the effect of his discourse on the lady too could not escape her observation for though she was too honorable to listen and had even changed her seat on purpose that she might not hear to one close by the piano forte on which marianne was playing she could not keep herself from seeing that elinor changed colour attended with agitation and was too intent on what he said to pursue her employment  still farther in confirmation of her hopes in the interval of mariannes turning from one lesson to another some words of the colonels inevitably reached her ear in which he seemed to be apologising for the badness of his house she wondered indeed at his thinking it necessary to do so but supposed it to be the proper etiquette what elinor said in reply she could not distinguish but judged from the motion of her lips that she did not think that any material objectionand mrs jennings commended her in her heart for being so honest they then talked on for a few minutes longer without her catching a syllable when another lucky stop in mariannes performance brought her these words in the colonels calm voice i am afraid it cannot take place very soon astonished and shocked at so unloverlike a speech she was almost ready to cry out lord but checking her desire confined herself to this silent ejaculation this delay on the colonels side however did not seem to offend or mortify his fair companion in the least for on their breaking up the conference soon afterwards and moving different ways mrs jennings very plainly heard elinor say and with a voice which shewed her to feel what she said i shall always think myself very much obliged to you jennings was delighted with her gratitude and only wondered that after hearing such a sentence the colonel should be able to take leave of them as he immediately did with the utmost sangfroid and go away without making her any reply she had not thought her old friend could have made so indifferent a suitor what had really passed between them was to this effect i have heard said he with great compassion of the injustice your friend mr ferrars has suffered from his family for if i understand the matter right he has been entirely cast off by them for persevering in his engagement with a very deserving young woman the cruelty the impolitic cruelty he replied with great feelingof dividing or attempting to divide two young people long attached to each other is terrible ferrars does not know what she may be doingwhat she may drive her son to ferrars two or three times in harley street and am much pleased with him he is not a young man with whom one can be intimately acquainted in a short time but i have seen enough of him to wish him well for his own sake and as a friend of yours i wish it still more
hope was over entirely over and when jane could attend to the rest of the letter she found little except the professed affection of the writer that could give her any comfort her many attractions were again dwelt on and caroline boasted joyfully of their increasing intimacy and ventured to predict the accomplishment of the wishes which had been unfolded in her former letter she wrote also with great pleasure of her brothers being an inmate of mr darcys house and mentioned with raptures some plans of the latter with regard to new furniture elizabeth to whom jane very soon communicated the chief of all this heard it in silent indignation her heart was divided between concern for her sister and resentment against all others to carolines assertion of her brothers being partial to miss darcy she paid no credit that he was really fond of jane she doubted no more than she had ever done and much as she had always been disposed to like him she could not think without anger hardly without contempt on that easiness of temper that want of proper resolution which now made him the slave of his designing friends and led him to sacrifice of his own happiness to the caprice of their inclination had his own happiness however been the only sacrifice he might have been allowed to sport with it in whatever manner he thought best but her sisters was involved in it as she thought he must be sensible himself it was a subject in short on which reflection would be long indulged and must be unavailing she could think of nothing else and yet whether bingleys regard had really died away or were suppressed by his friends interference whether he had been aware of janes attachment or whether it had escaped his observation whatever were the case though her opinion of him must be materially affected by the difference her sisters situation remained the same her peace equally wounded a day or two passed before jane had courage to speak of her feelings to elizabeth but at last on mrs bennets leaving them together after a longer irritation than usual about netherfield and its master she could not help saying oh that my dear mother had more command over herself she can have no idea of the pain she gives me by her continual reflections on him he will be forgot and we shall all be as we were before elizabeth looked at her sister with incredulous solicitude but said nothing you doubt me cried jane slightly colouring indeed you have no reason he may live in my memory as the most amiable man of my acquaintance but that is all i have nothing either to hope or fear and nothing to reproach him with a little time thereforei shall certainly try to get the better
the manner in which they spoke of the meryton assembly was sufficiently characteristic bingley had never met with more pleasant people or prettier girls in his life everybody had been most kind and attentive to him there had been no formality no stiffness he had soon felt acquainted with all the room and as to miss bennet he could not conceive an angel more beautiful darcy on the contrary had seen a collection of people in whom there was little beauty and no fashion for none of whom he had felt the smallest interest and from none received either attention or pleasure miss bennet he acknowledged to be pretty but she smiled too much hurst and her sister allowed it to be sobut still they admired her and liked her and pronounced her to be a sweet girl and one whom they would not object to know more of miss bennet was therefore established as a sweet girl and their brother felt authorized by such commendation to think of her as he chose chapter  within a short walk of longbourn lived a family with whom the bennets were particularly intimate sir william lucas had been formerly in trade in meryton where he had made a tolerable fortune and risen to the honour of knighthood by an address to the king during his mayoralty it had given him a disgust to his business and to his residence in a small market town and in quitting them both he had removed with his family to a house about a mile from meryton denominated from that period lucas lodge where he could think with pleasure of his own importance and unshackled by business occupy himself solely in being civil to all the world for though elated by his rank it did not render him supercilious on the contrary he was all attention to everybody by nature inoffensive friendly and obliging his presentation at st lady lucas was a very good kind of woman not too clever to be a valuable neighbour to mrs the eldest of them a sensible intelligent young woman about twentyseven was elizabeths intimate friend that the miss lucases and the miss bennets should meet to talk over a ball was absolutely necessary and the morning after the assembly brought the former to longbourn to hear and to communicate you mean jane i suppose because he danced with her twice to be sure that did seem as if he admired herindeed i rather believe he didi heard something about itbut i hardly know whatsomething about mr perhaps you mean what i overheard between him and mr robinsons asking him how he liked our meryton assemblies and whether he did not think there were a great many pretty women in the room and which he thought the prettiest and his answering immediately to the last question oh the eldest miss bennet beyond a doubt there cannot be two opinions on that point
twice was his card found on the table when they returned from their mornings engagements elinor was pleased that he had called and still more pleased that she had missed him the dashwoods were so prodigiously delighted with the middletons that though not much in the habit of giving anything they determined to give thema dinner and soon after their acquaintance began invited them to dine in harley street where they had taken a very good house for three months jennings were invited likewise and john dashwood was careful to secure colonel brandon who always glad to be where the miss dashwoods were received his eager civilities with some surprise but much more pleasure ferrars but elinor could not learn whether her sons were to be of the party the expectation of seeing her however was enough to make her interested in the engagement for though she could now meet edwards mother without that strong anxiety which had once promised to attend such an introduction though she could now see her with perfect indifference as to her opinion of herself her desire of being in company with mrs ferrars her curiosity to know what she was like was as lively as ever the interest with which she thus anticipated the party was soon afterwards increased more powerfully than pleasantly by her hearing that the miss steeles were also to be at it so well had they recommended themselves to lady middleton so agreeable had their assiduities made them to her that though lucy was certainly not so elegant and her sister not even genteel she was as ready as sir john to ask them to spend a week or two in conduit street and it happened to be particularly convenient to the miss steeles as soon as the dashwoods invitation was known that their visit should begin a few days before the party took place john dashwood as the nieces of the gentleman who for many years had had the care of her brother might not have done much however towards procuring them seats at her table but as lady middletons guests they must be welcome and lucy who had long wanted to be personally known to the family to have a nearer view of their characters and her own difficulties and to have an opportunity of endeavouring to please them had seldom been happier in her life than she was on receiving mrs she began immediately to determine that edward who lived with his mother must be asked as his mother was to a party given by his sister and to see him for the first time after all that passed in the company of lucy these apprehensions perhaps were not founded entirely on reason and certainly not at all on truth they were relieved however not by her own recollection but by the good will of lucy who believed herself to be inflicting a severe disappointment when she told her that edward certainly would not be in harley street on tuesday and even hoped to be carrying the pain still farther by persuading her that he was kept away by the extreme affection for herself which he could not conceal when they were together the important tuesday came that was to introduce the two young ladies to this formidable motherinlaw said lucy as they walked up the stairs togetherfor the middletons arrived so directly after mrs jennings that they all followed the servant at the same timethere is nobody here but you that can feel for me in a moment i shall see the person that all my happiness depends onthat is to be my mother  elinor could have given her immediate relief by suggesting the possibility of its being miss mortons mother rather than her own whom they were about to behold but instead of doing that she assured her and with great sincerity that she did pity herto the utter amazement of lucy who though really uncomfortable herself hoped at least to be an object of irrepressible envy to elinor ferrars was a little thin woman upright even to formality in her figure and serious even to sourness in her aspect her complexion was sallow and her features small without beauty and naturally without expression but a lucky contraction of the brow had rescued her countenance from the disgrace of insipidity by giving it the strong characters of pride and ill nature
would either of them only have given her a full and minute account of the whole affair between marianne and mr willoughby she would have thought herself amply rewarded for the sacrifice of the best place by the fire after dinner which their arrival occasioned but this conciliation was not granted for though she often threw out expressions of pity for her sister to elinor and more than once dropt a reflection on the inconstancy of beaux before marianne no effect was produced but a look of indifference from the former or of disgust in the latter an effort even yet lighter might have made her their friend would they only have laughed at her about the doctor but so little were they anymore than the others inclined to oblige her that if sir john dined from home she might spend a whole day without hearing any other raillery on the subject than what she was kind enough to bestow on herself all these jealousies and discontents however were so totally unsuspected by mrs jennings that she thought it a delightful thing for the girls to be together and generally congratulated her young friends every night on having escaped the company of a stupid old woman so long she joined them sometimes at sir johns sometimes at her own house but wherever it was she always came in excellent spirits full of delight and importance attributing charlottes well doing to her own care and ready to give so exact so minute a detail of her situation as only miss steele had curiosity enough to desire one thing did disturb her and of that she made her daily complaint palmer maintained the common but unfatherly opinion among his sex of all infants being alike and though she could plainly perceive at different times the most striking resemblance between this baby and every one of his relations on both sides there was no convincing his father of it no persuading him to believe that it was not exactly like every other baby of the same age nor could he even be brought to acknowledge the simple proposition of its being the finest child in the world i come now to the relation of a misfortune which about this time befell mrs jennings were first calling on her in harley street another of her acquaintance had dropt ina circumstance in itself not apparently likely to produce evil to her but while the imaginations of other people will carry them away to form wrong judgments of our conduct and to decide on it by slight appearances ones happiness must in some measure be always at the mercy of chance in the present instance this lastarrived lady allowed her fancy to so far outrun truth and probability that on merely hearing the name of the miss dashwoods and understanding them to be mr dashwoods sisters she immediately concluded them to be staying in harley street and this misconstruction produced within a day or two afterwards cards of invitation for them as well as for their brother and sister to a small musical party at her house john dashwood was obliged to submit not only to the exceedingly great inconvenience of sending her carriage for the miss dashwoods but what was still worse must be subject to all the unpleasantness of appearing to treat them with attention and who could tell that they might not expect to go out with her a second time the power of disappointing them it was true must always be hers but that was not enough for when people are determined on a mode of conduct which they know to be wrong they feel injured by the expectation of any thing better from them marianne had now been brought by degrees so much into the habit of going out every day that it was become a matter of indifference to her whether she went or not and she prepared quietly and mechanically for every evenings engagement though without expecting the smallest amusement from any and very often without knowing till the last moment where it was to take her
i confess replied elinor that while i am at barton park i never think of tame and quiet children with any abhorrence a short pause succeeded this speech which was first broken by miss steele who seemed very much disposed for conversation and who now said rather abruptly and how do you like devonshire miss dashwood in some surprise at the familiarity of this question or at least of the manner in which it was spoken elinor replied that she was we have heard sir john admire it excessively said lucy who seemed to think some apology necessary for the freedom of her sister i think every one must admire it replied elinor who ever saw the place though it is not to be supposed that any one can estimate its beauties as we do i suppose you have not so many in this part of the world for my part i think they are a vast addition always but why should you think said lucy looking ashamed of her sister that there are not as many genteel young men in devonshire as sussex nay my dear im sure i dont pretend to say that there ant im sure theres a vast many smart beaux in exeter but you know how could i tell what smart beaux there might be about norland and i was only afraid the miss dashwoods might find it dull at barton if they had not so many as they used to have but perhaps you young ladies may not care about the beaux and had as lief be without them as with them for my part i think they are vastly agreeable provided they dress smart and behave civil rose at exeter a prodigious smart young man quite a beau clerk to mr simpson you know and yet if you do but meet him of a morning he is not fit to be seen  i suppose your brother was quite a beau miss dashwood before he married as he was so rich upon my word replied elinor i cannot tell you for i do not perfectly comprehend the meaning of the word but this i can say that if he ever was a beau before he married he is one still for there is not the smallest alteration in him one never thinks of married mens being beauxthey have something else to do anne cried her sister you can talk of nothing but beauxyou will make miss dashwood believe you think of nothing else and then to turn the discourse she began admiring the house and the furniture the vulgar freedom and folly of the eldest left her no recommendation and as elinor was not blinded by the beauty or the shrewd look of the youngest to her want of real elegance and artlessness she left the house without any wish of knowing them better
with speed he flew to my relief as on a radiant dolphin borne awful yet bright as lightning shone the face of my deliverer god my song for ever shall record      that terrible that joyful hour      i give the glory to my god      his all the mercy and the power nearly all joined in singing this hymn which swelled high above the howling of the storm a brief pause ensued the preacher slowly turned over the leaves of the bible and at last folding his hand down upon the proper page said beloved shipmates clinch the last verse of the first chapter of jonahand god had prepared a great fish to swallow up jonah  shipmates this book containing only four chaptersfour yarnsis one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the scriptures yet what depths of the soul does jonahs deep sealine sound what a noble thing is that canticle in the fishs belly we feel the floods surging over us we sound with him to the kelpy bottom of the waters seaweed and all the slime of the sea is about us but what is this lesson that the book of jonah teaches shipmates it is a twostranded lesson a lesson to us all as sinful men and a lesson to me as a pilot of the living god as sinful men it is a lesson to us all because it is a story of the sin hardheartedness suddenly awakened fears the swift punishment repentance prayers and finally the deliverance and joy of jonah as with all sinners among men the sin of this son of amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the command of godnever mind now what that command was or how conveyedwhich he found a hard command but all the things that god would have us do are hard for us to doremember thatand hence he oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade and if we obey god we must disobey ourselves and it is in this disobeying ourselves wherein the hardness of obeying god consists with this sin of disobedience in him jonah still further flouts at god by seeking to flee from him he thinks that a ship made by men will carry him into countries where god does not reign but only the captains of this earth he skulks about the wharves of joppa and seeks a ship thats bound for tarshish there lurks perhaps a hitherto unheeded meaning here by all accounts tarshish could have been no other city than the modern cadiz cadiz is in spain as far by water from joppa as jonah could possibly have sailed in those ancient days when the atlantic was an almost unknown sea
look now at stubb a man who from his humorous deliberate coolness and equanimity in the direst emergencies was specially qualified to excel in pitchpoling look at him he stands upright in the tossed bow of the flying boat wrapt in fleecy foam the towing whale is forty feet ahead handling the long lance lightly glancing twice or thrice along its length to see if it be exactly straight stubb whistlingly gathers up the coil of the warp in one hand so as to secure its free end in his grasp leaving the rest unobstructed then holding the lance full before his waistbands middle he levels it at the whale when covering him with it he steadily depresses the buttend in his hand thereby elevating the point till the weapon stands fairly balanced upon his palm fifteen feet in the air he minds you somewhat of a juggler balancing a long staff on his chin next moment with a rapid nameless impulse in a superb lofty arch the bright steel spans the foaming distance and quivers in the life spot of the whale tis julys immortal fourth all fountains must run wine today would now it were old orleans whiskey or old ohio or unspeakable old monongahela then tashtego lad id have ye hold a canakin to the jet and wed drink round it yea verily hearts alive wed brew choice punch in the spread of his spouthole there and from that live punchbowl quaff the living stuff again and again to such gamesome talk the dexterous dart is repeated the spear returning to its master like a greyhound held in skilful leash the agonized whale goes into his flurry the towline is slackened and the pitchpoler dropping astern folds his hands and mutely watches the monster die that for six thousand yearsand no one knows how many millions of ages beforethe great whales should have been spouting all over the sea and sprinkling and mistifying the gardens of the deep as with so many sprinkling or mistifying pots and that for some centuries back thousands of hunters should have been close by the fountain of the whale watching these sprinklings and spoutingsthat all this should be and yet that down to this blessed minute fifteen and a quarter minutes past one oclock p  it should still remain a problem whether these spoutings are after all really water or nothing but vapourthis is surely a noteworthy thing let us then look at this matter along with some interesting items contingent every one knows that by the peculiar cunning of their gills the finny tribes in general breathe the air which at all times is combined with the element in which they swim hence a herring or a cod might live a century and never once raise its head above the surface but owing to his marked internal structure which gives him regular lungs like a human beings the whale can only live by inhaling the disengaged air in the open atmosphere wherefore the necessity for his periodical visits to the upper world but he cannot in any degree breathe through his mouth for in his ordinary attitude the sperm whales mouth is buried at least eight feet beneath the surface and what is still more his windpipe has no connexion with his mouth no he breathes through his spiracle alone and this is on the top of his head
whats the mighty difference between holding a masts lightningrod in the storm and standing close by a mast that hasnt got any lightningrod at all in a storm dont you see you timberhead that no harm can come to the holder of the rod unless the mast is first struck not one ship in a hundred carries rods and ahabaye man and all of uswere in no more danger then in my poor opinion than all the crews in ten thousand ships now sailing the seas why you kingpost you i suppose you would have every man in the world go about with a small lightningrod running up the corner of his hat like a militia officers skewered feather and trailing behind like his sash yes when a fellows soaked through its hard to be sensible thats a fact seems to me we are lashing down these anchors now as if they were never going to be used again tying these two anchors here flask seems like tying a mans hands behind him i wonder flask whether the world is anchored anywhere if she is she swings with an uncommon long cable though so next to touching land lighting on deck is the most satisfactory they laugh at longtogs so flask but seems to me a long tailed coat ought always to be worn in all storms afloat the tails tapering down that way serve to carry off the water dye see same with cocked hats the cocks form gableend eavetroughs flask no more monkeyjackets and tarpaulins for me i must mount a swallowtail and drive down a beaver so there goes my tarpaulin overboard lord lord that the winds that come from heaven should be so unmannerly we dont want thunder we want rum give us a glass of rum during the most violent shocks of the typhoon the man at the pequods jawbone tiller had several times been reelingly hurled to the deck by its spasmodic motions even though preventer tackles had been attached to itfor they were slackbecause some play to the tiller was indispensable in a severe gale like this while the ship is but a tossed shuttlecock to the blast it is by no means uncommon to see the needles in the compasses at intervals go round and round it was thus with the pequods at almost every shock the helmsman had not failed to notice the whirling velocity with which they revolved upon the cards it is a sight that hardly anyone can behold without some sort of unwonted emotion some hours after midnight the typhoon abated so much that through the strenuous exertions of starbuck and stubbone engaged forward and the other aftthe shivered remnants of the jib and fore and maintopsails were cut adrift from the spars and went eddying away to leeward like the feathers of an albatross which sometimes are cast to the winds when that stormtossed bird is on the wing the three corresponding new sails were now bent and reefed and a stormtrysail was set further aft so that the ship soon went through the water with some precision again and the coursefor the present eastsoutheastwhich he was to steer if practicable was once more given to the helmsman
 her second note which had been written on the morning after the dance at the middletons was in these words i cannot express my disappointment in having      missed you the day before yesterday nor my astonishment      at not having received any answer to a note which      i sent you above a week ago i have been expecting      to hear from you and still more to see you every      hour of the day pray call again as soon as possible      and explain the reason of my having expected this      in vain you had better come earlier another time      because we are generally out by one we were last      night at lady middletons where there was a dance i have been told that you were asked to be of the      party you must be very much      altered indeed since we parted if that could be      the case and you not there but i will not suppose      this possible and i hope very soon to receive your      personal assurance of its being otherwise  the contents of her last note to him were these what am i to imagine willoughby by your      behaviour last night i was prepared to meet you with the pleasure      which our separation naturally produced with the      familiarity which our intimacy at barton appeared      to me to justify i have      passed a wretched night in endeavouring to excuse      a conduct which can scarcely be called less than      insulting but though i have not yet been able to      form any reasonable apology for your behaviour      i am perfectly ready to hear your justification of      it you have perhaps been misinformed or purposely      deceived in something concerning me which may have      lowered me in your opinion tell me what it is      explain the grounds on which you acted and i shall      be satisfied in being able to satisfy you it      would grieve me indeed to be obliged to think ill      of you but if i am to do it if i am to learn that      you are not what we have hitherto believed you that      your regard for us all was insincere that your      behaviour to me was intended only to deceive let      it be told as soon as possible my feelings are at      present in a state of dreadful indecision i wish      to acquit you but certainty on either side will be      ease to what i now suffer if your sentiments are      no longer what they were you will return my notes      and the lock of my hair which is in your possession  that such letters so full of affection and confidence could have been so answered elinor for willoughbys sake would have been unwilling to believe but her condemnation of him did not blind her to the impropriety of their having been written at all and she was silently grieving over the imprudence which had hazarded such unsolicited proofs of tenderness not warranted by anything preceding and most severely condemned by the event when marianne perceiving that she had finished the letters observed to her that they contained nothing but what any one would have written in the same situation i felt myself she added to be as solemnly engaged to him as if the strictest legal covenant had bound us to each other i can believe it said elinor but unfortunately he did not feel the same
for him she felt much compassionfor lucy very littleand it cost her some pains to procure that littlefor the rest of the party none at all jennings could talk on no other subject elinor soon saw the necessity of preparing marianne for its discussion no time was to be lost in undeceiving her in making her acquainted with the real truth and in endeavouring to bring her to hear it talked of by others without betraying that she felt any uneasiness for her sister or any resentment against edward she was going to remove what she really believed to be her sisters chief consolationto give such particulars of edward as she feared would ruin him for ever in her good opinionand to make marianne by a resemblance in their situations which to her fancy would seem strong feel all her own disappointment over again but unwelcome as such a task must be it was necessary to be done and elinor therefore hastened to perform it she was very far from wishing to dwell on her own feelings or to represent herself as suffering much any otherwise than as the selfcommand she had practised since her first knowledge of edwards engagement might suggest a hint of what was practicable to marianne her narration was clear and simple and though it could not be given without emotion it was not accompanied by violent agitation nor impetuous grief that belonged rather to the hearer for marianne listened with horror and cried excessively elinor was to be the comforter of others in her own distresses no less than in theirs and all the comfort that could be given by assurances of her own composure of mind and a very earnest vindication of edward from every charge but of imprudence was readily offered but marianne for some time would give credit to neither edward seemed a second willoughby and acknowledging as elinor did that she had loved him most sincerely could she feel less than herself as for lucy steele she considered her so totally unamiable so absolutely incapable of attaching a sensible man that she could not be persuaded at first to believe and afterwards to pardon any former affection of edward for her she would not even admit it to have been natural and elinor left her to be convinced that it was so by that which only could convince her a better knowledge of mankind her first communication had reached no farther than to state the fact of the engagement and the length of time it had existed mariannes feelings had then broken in and put an end to all regularity of detail and for some time all that could be done was to soothe her distress lessen her alarms and combat her resentment the first question on her side which led to farther particulars was how long has this been known to you elinor when lucy first came to barton park last november she told me in confidence of her engagement at these words mariannes eyes expressed the astonishment which her lips could not utter while attending me in all my misery has this been on your heart  it was not fit that you should then know how much i was the reverse
though no small passage was before her yet if the commonest chance favoured he did not at all fear that his ship would founder by the way because his pumps were of the best and being periodically relieved at them those sixandthirty men of his could easily keep the ship free never mind if the leak should double on her in truth well nigh the whole of this passage being attended by very prosperous breezes the townho had all but certainly arrived in perfect safety at her port without the occurrence of the least fatality had it not been for the brutal overbearing of radney the mate a vineyarder and the bitterly provoked vengeance of steelkilt a lakeman and desperado from buffalo  said don sebastian rising in his swinging mat of grass on the eastern shore of our lake erie don buti crave your courtesymay be you shall soon hear further of all that now gentlemen in squaresail brigs and threemasted ships wellnigh as large and stout as any that ever sailed out of your old callao to far manilla this lakeman in the landlocked heart of our america had yet been nurtured by all those agrarian freebooting impressions popularly connected with the open ocean for in their interflowing aggregate those grand freshwater seas of ourserie and ontario and huron and superior and michiganpossess an oceanlike expansiveness with many of the oceans noblest traits with many of its rimmed varieties of races and of climes they contain round archipelagoes of romantic isles even as the polynesian waters do in large part are shored by two great contrasting nations as the atlantic is they furnish long maritime approaches to our numerous territorial colonies from the east dotted all round their banks here and there are frowned upon by batteries and by the goatlike craggy guns of lofty mackinaw they have heard the fleet thunderings of naval victories at intervals they yield their beaches to wild barbarians whose red painted faces flash from out their peltry wigwams for leagues and leagues are flanked by ancient and unentered forests where the gaunt pines stand like serried lines of kings in gothic genealogies those same woods harboring wild afric beasts of prey and silken creatures whose exported furs give robes to tartar emperors they mirror the paved capitals of buffalo and cleveland as well as winnebago villages they float alike the fullrigged merchant ship the armed cruiser of the state the steamer and the beech canoe they are swept by borean and dismasting blasts as direful as any that lash the salted wave they know what shipwrecks are for out of sight of land however inland they have drowned full many a midnight ship with all its shrieking crew thus gentlemen though an inlander steelkilt was wildocean born and wildocean nurtured as much of an audacious mariner as any and for radney though in his infancy he may have laid him down on the lone nantucket beach to nurse at his maternal sea though in after life he had long followed our austere atlantic and your contemplative pacific yet was he quite as vengeful and full of social quarrel as the backwoods seaman fresh from the latitudes of buckhorn handled bowieknives yet was this nantucketer a man with some goodhearted traits and this lakeman a mariner who though a sort of devil indeed might yet by inflexible firmness only tempered by that common decency of human recognition which is the meanest slaves right thus treated this steelkilt had long been retained harmless and docile at all events he had proved so thus far but radney was doomed and made mad and steelkiltbut gentlemen you shall hear it was not more than a day or two at the furthest after pointing her prow for her island haven that the townhos leak seemed again increasing but only so as to require an hour or more at the pumps every day you must know that in a settled and civilized ocean like our atlantic for example some skippers think little of pumping their whole way across it though of a still sleepy night should the officer of the deck happen to forget his duty in that respect the probability would be that he and his shipmates would never again remember it on account of all hands gently subsiding to the bottom nor in the solitary and savage seas far from you to the westward gentlemen is it altogether unusual for ships to keep clanging at their pumphandles in full chorus even for a voyage of considerable length that is if it lie along a tolerably accessible coast or if any other reasonable retreat is afforded them it is only when a leaky vessel is in some very out of the way part of those waters some really landless latitude that her captain begins to feel a little anxious much this way had it been with the townho so when her leak was found gaining once more there was in truth some small concern manifested by several of her company especially by radney the mate he commanded the upper sails to be well hoisted sheeted home anew and every way expanded to the breeze now this radney i suppose was as little of a coward and as little inclined to any sort of nervous apprehensiveness touching his own person as any fearless unthinking creature on land or on sea that you can conveniently imagine gentlemen therefore when he betrayed this solicitude about the safety of the ship some of the seamen declared that it was only on account of his being a part owner in her so when they were working that evening at the pumps there was on this head no small gamesomeness slily going on among them as they stood with their feet continually overflowed by the rippling clear water clear as any mountain spring gentlementhat bubbling from the pumps ran across the deck and poured itself out in steady spouts at the lee scupperholes
his coldness and reserve mortified her severely she was vexed and half angry but resolving to regulate her behaviour to him by the past rather than the present she avoided every appearance of resentment or displeasure and treated him as she thought he ought to be treated from the family connection dashwood was surprised only for a moment at seeing him for his coming to barton was in her opinion of all things the most natural her joy and expression of regard long outlived her wonder he received the kindest welcome from her and shyness coldness reserve could not stand against such a reception they had begun to fail him before he entered the house and they were quite overcome by the captivating manners of mrs indeed a man could not very well be in love with either of her daughters without extending the passion to her and elinor had the satisfaction of seeing him soon become more like himself his affections seemed to reanimate towards them all and his interest in their welfare again became perceptible he was not in spirits however he praised their house admired its prospect was attentive and kind but still he was not in spirits dashwood attributing it to some want of liberality in his mother sat down to table indignant against all selfish parents said she when dinner was over and they had drawn round the fire are you still to be a great orator in spite of yourself i hope my mother is now convinced that i have no more talents than inclination for a public life for famous you must be to satisfy all your family and with no inclination for expense no affection for strangers no profession and no assurance you may find it a difficult matter i have no wish to be distinguished and have every reason to hope i never shall as moderate as those of the rest of the world i believe i wish as well as every body else to be perfectly happy but like every body else it must be in my own way grandeur has but little said elinor but wealth has much to do with it said marianne money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it beyond a competence it can afford no real satisfaction as far as mere self is concerned perhaps said elinor smiling we may come to the same point your competence and my wealth are very much alike i dare say and without them as the world goes now we shall both agree that every kind of external comfort must be wanting
it was that which threw this gloomeven now the recollection of what i suffered he could say no more and rising hastily walked for a few minutes about the room elinor affected by his relation and still more by his distress could not speak he saw her concern and coming to her took her hand pressed it and kissed it with grateful respect a few minutes more of silent exertion enabled him to proceed with composure it was nearly three years after this unhappy period before i returned to england my first care when i did arrive was of course to seek for her but the search was as fruitless as it was melancholy i could not trace her beyond her first seducer and there was every reason to fear that she had removed from him only to sink deeper in a life of sin her legal allowance was not adequate to her fortune nor sufficient for her comfortable maintenance and i learnt from my brother that the power of receiving it had been made over some months before to another person he imagined and calmly could he imagine it that her extravagance and consequent distress had obliged her to dispose of it for some immediate relief at last however and after i had been six months in england i did find her regard for a former servant of my own who had since fallen into misfortune carried me to visit him in a spunginghouse where he was confined for debt and there in the same house under a similar confinement was my unfortunate sister so alteredso fadedworn down by acute suffering of every kind hardly could i believe the melancholy and sickly figure before me to be the remains of the lovely blooming healthful girl on whom i had once doted what i endured in so beholding herbut i have no right to wound your feelings by attempting to describe iti have pained you too much already that she was to all appearance in the last stage of a consumption wasyes in such a situation it was my greatest comfort life could do nothing for her beyond giving time for a better preparation for death and that was given i saw her placed in comfortable lodgings and under proper attendants i visited her every day during the rest of her short life i was with her in her last moments again he stopped to recover himself and elinor spoke her feelings in an exclamation of tender concern at the fate of his unfortunate friend your sister i hope cannot be offended said he by the resemblance i have fancied between her and my poor disgraced relation their fates their fortunes cannot be the same and had the natural sweet disposition of the one been guarded by a firmer mind or a happier marriage she might have been all that you will live to see the other be
chapter  elizabeth had been a good deal disappointed in not finding a letter from jane on their first arrival at lambton and this disappointment had been renewed on each of the mornings that had now been spent there but on the third her repining was over and her sister justified by the receipt of two letters from her at once on one of which was marked that it had been missent elsewhere elizabeth was not surprised at it as jane had written the direction remarkably ill they had just been preparing to walk as the letters came in and her uncle and aunt leaving her to enjoy them in quiet set off by themselves the one missent must first be attended to it had been written five days ago the beginning contained an account of all their little parties and engagements with such news as the country afforded but the latter half which was dated a day later and written in evident agitation gave more important intelligence it was to this effect since writing the above dearest lizzy something has occurred of a most unexpected and serious nature but i am afraid of alarming yoube assured that we are all well an express came at twelve last night just as we were all gone to bed from colonel forster to inform us that she was gone off to scotland with one of his officers to own the truth with wickham to kitty however it does not seem so wholly unexpected but i am willing to hope the best and that his character has been misunderstood thoughtless and indiscreet i can easily believe him but this step and let us rejoice over it marks nothing bad at heart his choice is disinterested at least for he must know my father can give her nothing how thankful am i that we never let them know what has been said against him we must forget it ourselves they were off saturday night about twelve as is conjectured but were not missed till yesterday morning at eight my dear lizzy they must have passed within ten miles of us colonel forster gives us reason to expect him here soon lydia left a few lines for his wife informing her of their intention i must conclude for i cannot be long from my poor mother i am afraid you will not be able to make it out but i hardly know what i have written without allowing herself time for consideration and scarcely knowing what she felt elizabeth on finishing this letter instantly seized the other and opening it with the utmost impatience read as follows it had been written a day later than the conclusion of the first by this time my dearest sister you have received my hurried letter i wish this may be more intelligible but though not confined for time my head is so bewildered that i cannot answer for being coherent
while yet a little distance from the forge moody ahab paused till at last perth withdrawing his iron from the fire began hammering it upon the anvilthe red mass sending off the sparks in thick hovering flights some of which flew close to ahab they are always flying in thy wake birds of good omen too but not to alllook here they burn but thouthou livst among them without a scorch because i am scorched all over captain ahab answered perth resting for a moment on his hammer i am past scorching not easily canst thou scorch a scar thy shrunk voice sounds too calmly sanely woeful to me in no paradise myself i am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad thou shouldst go mad blacksmith say why dost thou not go mad do the heavens yet hate thee that thou canst not go mad welding an old pikehead sir there were seams and dents in it and canst thou make it all smooth again blacksmith after such hard usage as it had and i suppose thou canst smoothe almost any seams and dents never mind how hard the metal blacksmith look ye here then cried ahab passionately advancing and leaning with both hands on perths shoulders look ye hereherecan ye smoothe out a seam like this blacksmith sweeping one hand across his ribbed brow if thou couldst blacksmith glad enough would i lay my head upon thy anvil and feel thy heaviest hammer between my eyes aye blacksmith it is the one aye man it is unsmoothable for though thou only seest it here in my flesh it has worked down into the bone of my skullthat is all wrinkles but away with childs play no more gaffs and pikes today jingling the leathern bag as if it were full of gold coins i too want a harpoon made one that a thousand yoke of fiends could not part perth something that will stick in a whale like his own finbone look ye blacksmith these are the gathered nailstubbs of the steel shoes of racing horses why captain ahab thou hast here then the best and stubbornest stuff we blacksmiths ever work i know it old man these stubbs will weld together like glue from the melted bones of murderers and forge me first twelve rods for its shank then wind and twist and hammer these twelve together like the yarns and strands of a towline when at last the twelve rods were made ahab tried them one by one by spiralling them with his own hand round a long heavy iron bolt
elizabeth tried to join in her fathers pleasantry but could only force one most reluctant smile never had his wit been directed in a manner so little agreeable to her after mentioning the likelihood of this marriage to her ladyship last night she immediately with her usual condescension expressed what she felt on the occasion when it became apparent that on the score of some family objections on the part of my cousin she would never give her consent to what she termed so disgraceful a match i thought it my duty to give the speediest intelligence of this to my cousin that she and her noble admirer may be aware of what they are about and not run hastily into a marriage which has not been properly sanctioned collins moreover adds i am truly rejoiced that my cousin lydias sad business has been so well hushed up and am only concerned that their living together before the marriage took place should be so generally known i must not however neglect the duties of my station or refrain from declaring my amazement at hearing that you received the young couple into your house as soon as they were married it was an encouragement of vice and had i been the rector of longbourn i should very strenuously have opposed it you ought certainly to forgive them as a christian but never to admit them in your sight or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing the rest of his letter is only about his dear charlottes situation and his expectation of a young olivebranch you are not going to be missish i hope and pretend to be affronted at an idle report for what do we live but to make sport for our neighbours and laugh at them in our turn had they fixed on any other man it would have been nothing but his perfect indifference and your pointed dislike make it so delightfully absurd nay when i read a letter of his i cannot help giving him the preference even over wickham much as i value the impudence and hypocrisy of my soninlaw and pray lizzy what said lady catherine about this report to this question his daughter replied only with a laugh and as it had been asked without the least suspicion she was not distressed by his repeating it elizabeth had never been more at a loss to make her feelings appear what they were not it was necessary to laugh when she would rather have cried her father had most cruelly mortified her by what he said of mr darcys indifference and she could do nothing but wonder at such a want of penetration or fear that perhaps instead of his seeing too little she might have fancied too much chapter  instead of receiving any such letter of excuse from his friend as elizabeth half expected mr
my girls were nothing to her and yet they used to be foolish enough but as for miss marianne she is quite an altered creature i hope from the bottom of my heart he wont keep her waiting much longer for it is quite grievous to see her look so ill and forlorn elinor though never less disposed to speak than at that moment obliged herself to answer such an attack as this and therefore trying to smile replied and have you really maam talked yourself into a persuasion of my sisters being engaged to mr i thought it had been only a joke but so serious a question seems to imply more and i must beg therefore that you will not deceive yourself any longer i do assure you that nothing would surprise me more than to hear of their being going to be married dont we all know that it must be a match that they were over head and ears in love with each other from the first moment they met did not i see them together in devonshire every day and all day long and did not i know that your sister came to town with me on purpose to buy wedding clothes because you are so sly about it yourself you think nobody else has any senses but it is no such thing i can tell you for it has been known all over town this ever so long indeed maam said elinor very seriously you are mistaken indeed you are doing a very unkind thing in spreading the report and you will find that you have though you will not believe me now jennings laughed again but elinor had not spirits to say more and eager at all events to know what willoughby had written hurried away to their room where on opening the door she saw marianne stretched on the bed almost choked by grief one letter in her hand and two or three others laying by her elinor drew near but without saying a word and seating herself on the bed took her hand kissed her affectionately several times and then gave way to a burst of tears which at first was scarcely less violent than mariannes the latter though unable to speak seemed to feel all the tenderness of this behaviour and after some time thus spent in joint affliction she put all the letters into elinors hands and then covering her face with her handkerchief almost screamed with agony elinor who knew that such grief shocking as it was to witness it must have its course watched by her till this excess of suffering had somewhat spent itself and then turning eagerly to willoughbys letter read as follows bond street january my dear madam i have just had the honour of receiving your      letter for which i beg to return my sincere      acknowledgments i am much concerned to find there      was anything in my behaviour last night that did      not meet your approbation and though i am quite at      a loss to discover in what point i could be so      unfortunate as to offend you i entreat your      forgiveness of what i can assure you to have been      perfectly unintentional i shall never reflect on      my former acquaintance with your family in devonshire      without the most grateful pleasure and flatter      myself it will not be broken by any mistake or      misapprehension of my actions my esteem for your      whole family is very sincere but if i have been so      unfortunate as to give rise to a belief of more than      i felt or meant to express i shall reproach myself      for not having been more guarded in my professions      of that esteem that i should ever have meant more      you will allow to be impossible when you understand      that my affections have been long engaged elsewhere      and it will not be many weeks i believe before      this engagement is fulfilled it is with great      regret that i obey your commands in returning the      letters with which i have been honoured from you      and the lock of hair which you so obligingly bestowed      on me
the titans they say hummed snatches when chipping out the craters for volcanoes and the gravedigger in the play sings spade in hand oh im indifferent enough sir for that but the reason why the gravedigger made music must have been because there was none in his spade sir aye and thats because the lid theres a soundingboard and what in all things makes the soundingboard is thistheres naught beneath and yet a coffin with a body in it rings pretty much the same carpenter hast thou ever helped carry a bier and heard the coffin knock against the churchyard gate going in why faith sir its only a sort of exclamationlikethats all sir that was sudden now but squalls come sudden in hot latitudes ive heard that the isle of albemarle one of the gallipagos is cut by the equator right in the middle seems to me some sort of equator cuts yon old man too right in his middle this wooden mallet is the cork and im the professor of musical glassestap tap what things real are there but imponderable thoughts here nows the very dreaded symbol of grim death by a mere hap made the expressive sign of the help and hope of most endangered life can it be that in some spiritual sense the coffin is after all but an immortalitypreserver so far gone am i in the dark side of earth that its other side the theoretic bright one seems but uncertain twilight to me will ye never have done carpenter with that accursed sound i go below let me not see that thing here when i return again now then pip well talk this over i do suck most wondrous philosophies from thee some unknown conduits from the unknown worlds must empty into thee next day a large ship the rachel was descried bearing directly down upon the pequod all her spars thickly clustering with men at the time the pequod was making good speed through the water but as the broadwinged windward stranger shot nigh to her the boastful sails all fell together as blank bladders that are burst and all life fled from the smitten hull
beneath this atmospheric waving and curling and partially beneath a thin layer of water also the whales were swimming seen in advance of all the other indications the puffs of vapour they spouted seemed their forerunning couriers and detached flying outriders all four boats were now in keen pursuit of that one spot of troubled water and air but it bade fair to outstrip them it flew on and on as a mass of interblending bubbles borne down a rapid stream from the hills pull pull my good boys said starbuck in the lowest possible but intensest concentrated whisper to his men while the sharp fixed glance from his eyes darted straight ahead of the bow almost seemed as two visible needles in two unerring binnacle compasses he did not say much to his crew though nor did his crew say anything to him only the silence of the boat was at intervals startlingly pierced by one of his peculiar whispers now harsh with command now soft with entreaty beach me beach me on their black backs boys only do that for me and ill sign over to you my marthas vineyard plantation boys including wife and children boys and so shouting he pulled his hat from his head and stamped up and down on it then picking it up flirted it far off upon the sea and finally fell to rearing and plunging in the boats stern like a crazed colt from the prairie look at that chap now philosophically drawled stubb who with his unlighted short pipe mechanically retained between his teeth at a short distance followed afterhes got fits that flask has yes give him fitsthats the very wordpitch fits into em crack all your backbones and bite your knives in twothats all take it easywhy dont ye take it easy i say and burst all your livers and lungs  but what it was that inscrutable ahab said to that tigeryellow crew of histhese were words best omitted here for you live under the blessed light of the evangelical land only the infidel sharks in the audacious seas may give ear to such words when with tornado brow and eyes of red murder and foamglued lips ahab leaped after his prey the repeated specific allusions of flask to that whale as he called the fictitious monster which he declared to be incessantly tantalizing his boats bow with its tailthese allusions of his were at times so vivid and lifelike that they would cause some one or two of his men to snatch a fearful look over the shoulder but this was against all rule for the oarsmen must put out their eyes and ram a skewer through their necks usage pronouncing that they must have no organs but ears and no limbs but arms in these critical moments the vast swells of the omnipotent sea the surging hollow roar they made as they rolled along the eight gunwales like gigantic bowls in a boundless bowlinggreen the brief suspended agony of the boat as it would tip for an instant on the knifelike edge of the sharper waves that almost seemed threatening to cut it in two the sudden profound dip into the watery glens and hollows the keen spurrings and goadings to gain the top of the opposite hill the headlong sledlike slide down its other sideall these with the cries of the headsmen and harpooneers and the shuddering gasps of the oarsmen with the wondrous sight of the ivory pequod bearing down upon her boats with outstretched sails like a wild hen after her screaming broodall this was thrilling not the raw recruit marching from the bosom of his wife into the fever heat of his first battle not the dead mans ghost encountering the first unknown phantom in the other worldneither of these can feel stranger and stronger emotions than that man does who for the first time finds himself pulling into the charmed churned circle of the hunted sperm whale the dancing white water made by the chase was now becoming more and more visible owing to the increasing darkness of the dun cloudshadows flung upon the sea
to quit the neighbourhood of norland was no longer an evil it was an object of desire it was a blessing in comparison of the misery of continuing her daughterinlaws guest and to remove for ever from that beloved place would be less painful than to inhabit or visit it while such a woman was its mistress she instantly wrote sir john middleton her acknowledgment of his kindness and her acceptance of his proposal and then hastened to shew both letters to her daughters that she might be secure of their approbation before her answer were sent elinor had always thought it would be more prudent for them to settle at some distance from norland than immediately amongst their present acquaintance on that head therefore it was not for her to oppose her mothers intention of removing into devonshire the house too as described by sir john was on so simple a scale and the rent so uncommonly moderate as to leave her no right of objection on either point and therefore though it was not a plan which brought any charm to her fancy though it was a removal from the vicinity of norland beyond her wishes she made no attempt to dissuade her mother from sending a letter of acquiescence chapter  no sooner was her answer dispatched than mrs dashwood indulged herself in the pleasure of announcing to her soninlaw and his wife that she was provided with a house and should incommode them no longer than till every thing were ready for her inhabiting it john dashwood said nothing but her husband civilly hoped that she would not be settled far from norland she had great satisfaction in replying that she was going into devonshire edward turned hastily towards her on hearing this and in a voice of surprise and concern which required no explanation to her repeated devonshire it is but a cottage she continued but i hope to see many of my friends in it a room or two can easily be added and if my friends find no difficulty in travelling so far to see me i am sure i will find none in accommodating them john dashwood to visit her at barton and to edward she gave one with still greater affection though her late conversation with her daughterinlaw had made her resolve on remaining at norland no longer than was unavoidable it had not produced the smallest effect on her in that point to which it principally tended to separate edward and elinor was as far from being her object as ever and she wished to show mrs john dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother how totally she disregarded her disapprobation of the match john dashwood told his mother again and again how exceedingly sorry he was that she had taken a house at such a distance from norland as to prevent his being of any service to her in removing her furniture he really felt conscientiously vexed on the occasion for the very exertion to which he had limited the performance of his promise to his father was by this arrangement rendered impracticable it chiefly consisted of household linen plate china and books with a handsome pianoforte of mariannes john dashwood saw the packages depart with a sigh she could not help feeling it hard that as mrs
i am going to gretna green and if you cannot guess with who i shall think you a simpleton for there is but one man in the world i love and he is an angel i should never be happy without him so think it no harm to be off you need not send them word at longbourn of my going if you do not like it for it will make the surprise the greater when i write to them and sign my name lydia wickham pray make my excuses to pratt for not keeping my engagement and dancing with him tonight tell him i hope he will excuse me when he knows all and tell him i will dance with him at the next ball we meet with great pleasure i shall send for my clothes when i get to longbourn but i wish you would tell sally to mend a great slit in my worked muslin gown before they are packed up what a letter is this to be written at such a moment but at least it shows that she was serious on the subject of their journey whatever he might afterwards persuade her to it was not on her side a scheme of infamy my mother was taken ill immediately and the whole house in such confusion jane cried elizabeth was there a servant belonging to it who did not know the whole story before the end of the day my mother was in hysterics and though i endeavoured to give her every assistance in my power i am afraid i did not do so much as i might have done but the horror of what might possibly happen almost took from me my faculties you have had every care and anxiety upon yourself alone mary and kitty have been very kind and would have shared in every fatigue i am sure but i did not think it right for either of them kitty is slight and delicate and mary studies so much that her hours of repose should not be broken in on my aunt phillips came to longbourn on tuesday after my father went away and was so good as to stay till thursday with me and lady lucas has been very kind she walked here on wednesday morning to condole with us and offered her services or any of her daughters if they should be of use to us she had better have stayed at home cried elizabeth perhaps she meant well but under such a misfortune as this one cannot see too little of ones neighbours let them triumph over us at a distance and be satisfied
but as to your other objection i am afraid it will hardly hold good lydia has no brothers to step forward and he might imagine from my fathers behaviour from his indolence and the little attention he has ever seemed to give to what was going forward in his family that he would do as little and think as little about it as any father could do in such a matter but can you think that lydia is so lost to everything but love of him as to consent to live with him on any terms other than marriage it does seem and it is most shocking indeed replied elizabeth with tears in her eyes that a sisters sense of decency and virtue in such a point should admit of doubt but she is very young she has never been taught to think on serious subjects and for the last halfyear nay for a twelvemonthshe has been given up to nothing but amusement and vanity she has been allowed to dispose of her time in the most idle and frivolous manner and to adopt any opinions that came in her way since the shire were first quartered in meryton nothing but love flirtation and officers have been in her head she has been doing everything in her power by thinking and talking on the subject to give greaterwhat shall i call it susceptibility to her feelings which are naturally lively enough and we all know that wickham has every charm of person and address that can captivate a woman but you see that jane said her aunt does not think so very ill of wickham as to believe him capable of the attempt and who is there whatever might be their former conduct that she would think capable of such an attempt till it were proved against them but jane knows as well as i do what wickham really is we both know that he has been profligate in every sense of the word that he has neither integrity nor honour that he is as false and deceitful as he is insinuating gardiner whose curiosity as to the mode of her intelligence was all alive i told you the other day of his infamous behaviour to mr darcy and you yourself when last at longbourn heard in what manner he spoke of the man who had behaved with such forbearance and liberality towards him and there are other circumstances which i am not at libertywhich it is not worth while to relate but his lies about the whole pemberley family are endless from what he said of miss darcy i was thoroughly prepared to see a proud reserved disagreeable girl he must know that she was as amiable and unpretending as we have found her
it was but some few days after encountering the frenchman that a most significant event befell the most insignificant of the pequods crew an event most lamentable and which ended in providing the sometimes madly merry and predestinated craft with a living and ever accompanying prophecy of whatever shattered sequel might prove her own now in the whale ship it is not every one that goes in the boats some few hands are reserved called shipkeepers whose province it is to work the vessel while the boats are pursuing the whale as a general thing these shipkeepers are as hardy fellows as the men comprising the boats crews but if there happen to be an unduly slender clumsy or timorous wight in the ship that wight is certain to be made a shipkeeper it was so in the pequod with the little negro pippin by nickname pip by abbreviation ye have heard of him before ye must remember his tambourine on that dramatic midnight so gloomyjolly in outer aspect pip and doughboy made a match like a black pony and a white one of equal developments though of dissimilar colour driven in one eccentric span but while hapless doughboy was by nature dull and torpid in his intellects pip though over tenderhearted was at bottom very bright with that pleasant genial jolly brightness peculiar to his tribe a tribe which ever enjoy all holidays and festivities with finer freer relish than any other race for blacks the years calendar should show naught but three hundred and sixtyfive fourth of julys and new years days nor smile so while i write that this little black was brilliant for even blackness has its brilliancy behold yon lustrous ebony panelled in kings cabinets but pip loved life and all lifes peaceable securities so that the panicstriking business in which he had somehow unaccountably become entrapped had most sadly blurred his brightness though as ere long will be seen what was thus temporarily subdued in him in the end was destined to be luridly illumined by strange wild fires that fictitiously showed him off to ten times the natural lustre with which in his native tolland county in connecticut he had once enlivened many a fiddlers frolic on the green and at melodious eventide with his gay haha had turned the round horizon into one starbelled tambourine so though in the clear air of day suspended against a blueveined neck the purewatered diamond drop will healthful glow yet when the cunning jeweller would show you the diamond in its most impressive lustre he lays it against a gloomy ground and then lights it up not by the sun but by some unnatural gases then come out those fiery effulgences infernally superb then the evilblazing diamond once the divinest symbol of the crystal skies looks like some crownjewel stolen from the king of hell it came to pass that in the ambergris affair stubbs afteroarsman chanced so to sprain his hand as for a time to become quite maimed and temporarily pip was put into his place the first time stubb lowered with him pip evinced much nervousness but happily for that time escaped close contact with the whale and therefore came off not altogether discreditably though stubb observing him took care afterwards to exhort him to cherish his courageousness to the utmost for he might often find it needful now upon the second lowering the boat paddled upon the whale and as the fish received the darted iron it gave its customary rap which happened in this instance to be right under poor pips seat the involuntary consternation of the moment caused him to leap paddle in hand out of the boat and in such a way that part of the slack whale line coming against his chest he breasted it overboard with him so as to become entangled in it when at last plumping into the water that instant the stricken whale started on a fierce run the line swiftly straightened and presto
my resolution was soon made and at eight oclock this morning i was in my carriage her thoughts were silently fixed on the irreparable injury which too early an independence and its consequent habits of idleness dissipation and luxury had made in the mind the character the happiness of a man who to every advantage of person and talents united a disposition naturally open and honest and a feeling affectionate temper the world had made him extravagant and vainextravagance and vanity had made him coldhearted and selfish vanity while seeking its own guilty triumph at the expense of another had involved him in a real attachment which extravagance or at least its offspring necessity had required to be sacrificed each faulty propensity in leading him to evil had led him likewise to punishment the attachment from which against honour against feeling against every better interest he had outwardly torn himself now when no longer allowable governed every thought and the connection for the sake of which he had with little scruple left her sister to misery was likely to prove a source of unhappiness to himself of a far more incurable nature from a reverie of this kind she was recalled at the end of some minutes by willoughby who rousing himself from a reverie at least equally painful started up in preparation for going and said there is no use in staying here i must be off i have business there from thence to town in a day or two she could not refuse to give him hershe pressed it with affection and you do think something better of me than you did said he letting it fall and leaning against the mantelpiece as if forgetting he was to go elinor assured him that she didthat she forgave pitied wished him wellwas even interested in his happinessand added some gentle counsel as to the behaviour most likely to promote it as to that said he i must rub through the world as well as i can if however i am allowed to think that you and yours feel an interest in my fate and actions it may be the meansit may put me on my guardat least it may be something to live for were i even by any blessed chance at liberty again elinor stopped him with a reproof and if that some one should be the very he whom of all others i could least bearbut i will not stay to rob myself of all your compassionate goodwill by shewing that where i have most injured i can least forgive chapter  elinor for some time after he left her for some time even after the sound of his carriage had died away remained too much oppressed by a crowd of ideas widely differing in themselves but of which sadness was the general result to think even of her sister willoughby he whom only half an hour ago she had abhorred as the most worthless of men willoughby in spite of all his faults excited a degree of commiseration for the sufferings produced by them which made her think of him as now separated for ever from her family with a tenderness a regret rather in proportion as she soon acknowledged within herselfto his wishes than to his merits she felt that his influence over her mind was heightened by circumstances which ought not in reason to have weight by that person of uncommon attraction that open affectionate and lively manner which it was no merit to possess and by that still ardent love for marianne which it was not even innocent to indulge but she felt that it was so long long before she could feel his influence less
she hardly knew how to suppose that she could be an object of admiration to so great a man and yet that he should look at her because he disliked her was still more strange she could only imagine however at last that she drew his notice because there was something more wrong and reprehensible according to his ideas of right than in any other person present she liked him too little to care for his approbation after playing some italian songs miss bingley varied the charm by a lively scotch air and soon afterwards mr darcy drawing near elizabeth said to her do not you feel a great inclination miss bennet to seize such an opportunity of dancing a reel he repeated the question with some surprise at her silence said she i heard you before but i could not immediately determine what to say in reply you wanted me i know to say yes that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste but i always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes and cheating a person of their premeditated contempt i have therefore made up my mind to tell you that i do not want to dance a reel at alland now despise me if you dare elizabeth having rather expected to affront him was amazed at his gallantry but there was a mixture of sweetness and archness in her manner which made it difficult for her to affront anybody and darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her he really believed that were it not for the inferiority of her connections he should be in some danger miss bingley saw or suspected enough to be jealous and her great anxiety for the recovery of her dear friend jane received some assistance from her desire of getting rid of elizabeth she often tried to provoke darcy into disliking her guest by talking of their supposed marriage and planning his happiness in such an alliance i hope said she as they were walking together in the shrubbery the next day you will give your motherinlaw a few hints when this desirable event takes place as to the advantage of holding her tongue and if you can compass it do cure the younger girls of running after officers and if i may mention so delicate a subject endeavour to check that little something bordering on conceit and impertinence which your lady possesses have you anything else to propose for my domestic felicity do let the portraits of your uncle and aunt phillips be placed in the gallery at pemberley they are in the same profession you know only in different lines as for your elizabeths picture you must not have it taken for what painter could do justice to those beautiful eyes it would not be easy indeed to catch their expression but their colour and shape and the eyelashes so remarkably fine might be copied
to such perseverance in wilful selfdeception elizabeth would make no reply and immediately and in silence withdrew determined if he persisted in considering her repeated refusals as flattering encouragement to apply to her father whose negative might be uttered in such a manner as to be decisive and whose behaviour at least could not be mistaken for the affectation and coquetry of an elegant female collins was not left long to the silent contemplation of his successful love for mrs bennet having dawdled about in the vestibule to watch for the end of the conference no sooner saw elizabeth open the door and with quick step pass her towards the staircase than she entered the breakfastroom and congratulated both him and herself in warm terms on the happy prospect of their nearer connection collins received and returned these felicitations with equal pleasure and then proceeded to relate the particulars of their interview with the result of which he trusted he had every reason to be satisfied since the refusal which his cousin had steadfastly given him would naturally flow from her bashful modesty and the genuine delicacy of her character bennet she would have been glad to be equally satisfied that her daughter had meant to encourage him by protesting against his proposals but she dared not believe it and could not help saying so collins she added that lizzy shall be brought to reason she is a very headstrong foolish girl and does not know her own interest but i will make her know it collins but if she is really headstrong and foolish i know not whether she would altogether be a very desirable wife to a man in my situation who naturally looks for happiness in the marriage state if therefore she actually persists in rejecting my suit perhaps it were better not to force her into accepting me because if liable to such defects of temper she could not contribute much to my felicity in everything else she is as goodnatured a girl as ever lived bennet and we shall very soon settle it with her i am sure she would not give him time to reply but hurrying instantly to her husband called out as she entered the library oh bennet you are wanted immediately we are all in an uproar collins for she vows she will not have him and if you do not make haste he will change his mind and not have her bennet raised his eyes from his book as she entered and fixed them on her face with a calm unconcern which was not in the least altered by her communication i have not the pleasure of understanding you said he when she had finished her speech bennet rang the bell and miss elizabeth was summoned to the library very welland this offer of marriage you have refused from this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents your mother will never see you again if you do not marry mr
it does seem and it is most shocking indeed replied elizabeth with tears in her eyes that a sisters sense of decency and virtue in such a point should admit of doubt but she is very young she has never been taught to think on serious subjects and for the last halfyear nay for a twelvemonthshe has been given up to nothing but amusement and vanity she has been allowed to dispose of her time in the most idle and frivolous manner and to adopt any opinions that came in her way since the shire were first quartered in meryton nothing but love flirtation and officers have been in her head she has been doing everything in her power by thinking and talking on the subject to give greaterwhat shall i call it susceptibility to her feelings which are naturally lively enough and we all know that wickham has every charm of person and address that can captivate a woman but you see that jane said her aunt does not think so very ill of wickham as to believe him capable of the attempt and who is there whatever might be their former conduct that she would think capable of such an attempt till it were proved against them but jane knows as well as i do what wickham really is we both know that he has been profligate in every sense of the word that he has neither integrity nor honour that he is as false and deceitful as he is insinuating gardiner whose curiosity as to the mode of her intelligence was all alive i told you the other day of his infamous behaviour to mr darcy and you yourself when last at longbourn heard in what manner he spoke of the man who had behaved with such forbearance and liberality towards him and there are other circumstances which i am not at libertywhich it is not worth while to relate but his lies about the whole pemberley family are endless from what he said of miss darcy i was thoroughly prepared to see a proud reserved disagreeable girl he must know that she was as amiable and unpretending as we have found her can she be ignorant of what you and jane seem so well to understand darcy and his relation colonel fitzwilliam i was ignorant of the truth myself and when i returned home the shire was to leave meryton in a week or fortnights time
but one thing may be said for me even in that horrid state of selfish vanity i did not know the extent of the injury i meditated because i did not then know what it was to love well may it be doubted for had i really loved could i have sacrificed my feelings to vanity to avarice to avoid a comparative poverty which her affection and her society would have deprived of all its horrors i have by raising myself to affluence lost every thing that could make it a blessing you did then said elinor a little softened believe yourself at one time attached to her to have resisted such attractions to have withstood such tenderness yes i found myself by insensible degrees sincerely fond of her and the happiest hours of my life were what i spent with her when i felt my intentions were strictly honourable and my feelings blameless even then however when fully determined on paying my addresses to her i allowed myself most improperly to put off from day to day the moment of doing it from an unwillingness to enter into an engagement while my circumstances were so greatly embarrassed i will not reason herenor will i stop for you to expatiate on the absurdity and the worse than absurdity of scrupling to engage my faith where my honour was already bound the event has proved that i was a cunning fool providing with great circumspection for a possible opportunity of making myself contemptible and wretched for ever at last however my resolution was taken and i had determined as soon as i could engage her alone to justify the attentions i had so invariably paid her and openly assure her of an affection which i had already taken such pains to display but in the interimin the interim of the very few hours that were to pass before i could have an opportunity of speaking with her in privatea circumstance occurredan unlucky circumstance to ruin all my resolution and with it all my comfort a discovery took place here he hesitated and looked down smith had somehow or other been informed i imagine by some distant relation whose interest it was to deprive me of her favour of an affair a connectionbut i need not explain myself farther he added looking at her with an heightened colour and an enquiring eyeyour particular intimacyyou have probably heard the whole story long ago  i have returned elinor colouring likewise and hardening her heart anew against any compassion for him i have heard it all and how you will explain away any part of your guilt in that dreadful business i confess is beyond my comprehension remember cried willoughby from whom you received the account i acknowledge that her situation and her character ought to have been respected by me i do not mean to justify myself but at the same time cannot leave you to suppose that i have nothing to urgethat because she was injured she was irreproachable and because i was a libertine she must be a saint if the violence of her passions the weakness of her understandingi do not mean however to defend myself her affection for me deserved better treatment and i often with great selfreproach recall the tenderness which for a very short time had the power of creating any return
but on the third morning after his arrival in hertfordshire she saw him from her dressingroom window enter the paddock and ride towards the house her daughters were eagerly called to partake of her joy jane resolutely kept her place at the table but elizabeth to satisfy her mother went to the windowshe lookedshe saw mr there is a gentleman with him mamma said kitty who can it be some acquaintance or other my dear i suppose i am sure i do not know replied kitty it looks just like that man that used to be with him before bingleys will always be welcome here to be sure but else i must say that i hate the very sight of him she knew but little of their meeting in derbyshire and therefore felt for the awkwardness which must attend her sister in seeing him almost for the first time after receiving his explanatory letter each felt for the other and of course for themselves and their mother talked on of her dislike of mr darcy and her resolution to be civil to him only as mr bingleys friend without being heard by either of them but elizabeth had sources of uneasiness which could not be suspected by jane to whom she had never yet had courage to shew mrs gardiners letter or to relate her own change of sentiment towards him to jane he could be only a man whose proposals she had refused and whose merit she had undervalued but to her own more extensive information he was the person to whom the whole family were indebted for the first of benefits and whom she regarded herself with an interest if not quite so tender at least as reasonable and just as what jane felt for bingley her astonishment at his comingat his coming to netherfield to longbourn and voluntarily seeking her again was almost equal to what she had known on first witnessing his altered behaviour in derbyshire the colour which had been driven from her face returned for half a minute with an additional glow and a smile of delight added lustre to her eyes as she thought for that space of time that his affection and wishes must still be unshaken let me first see how he behaves said she it will then be early enough for expectation she sat intently at work striving to be composed and without daring to lift up her eyes till anxious curiosity carried them to the face of her sister as the servant was approaching the door jane looked a little paler than usual but more sedate than elizabeth had expected on the gentlemens appearing her colour increased yet she received them with tolerable ease and with a propriety of behaviour equally free from any symptom of resentment or any unnecessary complaisance
these last three were brought alongside ere nightfall but the windward one could not be reached till morning and the boat that had killed it lay by its side all night and that boat was ahabs the waifpole was thrust upright into the dead whales spouthole and the lantern hanging from its top cast a troubled flickering glare upon the black glossy back and far out upon the midnight waves which gently chafed the whales broad flank like soft surf upon a beach ahab and all his boats crew seemed asleep but the parsee who crouching in the bow sat watching the sharks that spectrally played round the whale and tapped the light cedar planks with their tails a sound like the moaning in squadrons over asphaltites of unforgiven ghosts of gomorrah ran shuddering through the air started from his slumbers ahab face to face saw the parsee and hooped round by the gloom of the night they seemed the last men in a flooded world have i not said old man that neither hearse nor coffin can be thine but i said old man that ere thou couldst die on this voyage two hearses must verily be seen by thee on the sea the first not made by mortal hands and the visible wood of the last one must be grown in america a strange sight that parseea hearse and its plumes floating over the ocean with the waves for the pallbearers believe it or not thou canst not die till it be seen old man though it come to the last i shall still go before thee thy pilot and when thou art so gone beforeif that ever befallthen ere i can follow thou must still appear to me to pilot me still i have here two pledges that i shall yet slay moby dick and survive it take another pledge old man said the parsee as his eyes lighted up like fireflies in the gloomhemp only can kill thee i am immortal then on land and on sea cried ahab with a laugh of derisionimmortal on land and on sea the grey dawn came on and the slumbering crew arose from the boats bottom and ere noon the dead whale was brought to the ship the season for the line at length drew near and every day when ahab coming from his cabin cast his eyes aloft the vigilant helmsman would ostentatiously handle his spokes and the eager mariners quickly run to the braces and would stand there with all their eyes centrally fixed on the nailed doubloon impatient for the order to point the ships prow for the equator it was hard upon high noon and ahab seated in the bows of his highhoisted boat was about taking his wonted daily observation of the sun to determine his latitude now in that japanese sea the days in summer are as freshets of effulgences that unblinkingly vivid japanese sun seems the blazing focus of the glassy oceans immeasurable burningglass the sky looks lacquered clouds there are none the horizon floats and this nakedness of unrelieved radiance is as the insufferable splendors of gods throne
but these objections had all with that happy ardour of youth which marianne and her mother equally shared been overcome or overlooked and elinor in spite of every occasional doubt of willoughbys constancy could not witness the rapture of delightful expectation which filled the whole soul and beamed in the eyes of marianne without feeling how blank was her own prospect how cheerless her own state of mind in the comparison and how gladly she would engage in the solicitude of mariannes situation to have the same animating object in view the same possibility of hope a short a very short time however must now decide what willoughbys intentions were in all probability he was already in town mariannes eagerness to be gone declared her dependence on finding him there and elinor was resolved not only upon gaining every new light as to his character which her own observation or the intelligence of others could give her but likewise upon watching his behaviour to her sister with such zealous attention as to ascertain what he was and what he meant before many meetings had taken place should the result of her observations be unfavourable she was determined at all events to open the eyes of her sister should it be otherwise her exertions would be of a different natureshe must then learn to avoid every selfish comparison and banish every regret which might lessen her satisfaction in the happiness of marianne they were three days on their journey and mariannes behaviour as they travelled was a happy specimen of what future complaisance and companionableness to mrs she sat in silence almost all the way wrapt in her own meditations and scarcely ever voluntarily speaking except when any object of picturesque beauty within their view drew from her an exclamation of delight exclusively addressed to her sister to atone for this conduct therefore elinor took immediate possession of the post of civility which she had assigned herself behaved with the greatest attention to mrs jennings talked with her laughed with her and listened to her whenever she could and mrs jennings on her side treated them both with all possible kindness was solicitous on every occasion for their ease and enjoyment and only disturbed that she could not make them choose their own dinners at the inn nor extort a confession of their preferring salmon to cod or boiled fowls to veal cutlets they reached town by three oclock the third day glad to be released after such a journey from the confinement of a carriage and ready to enjoy all the luxury of a good fire the house was handsome and handsomely fitted up and the young ladies were immediately put in possession of a very comfortable apartment it had formerly been charlottes and over the mantelpiece still hung a landscape in coloured silks of her performance in proof of her having spent seven years at a great school in town to some effect as dinner was not to be ready in less than two hours from their arrival elinor determined to employ the interval in writing to her mother and sat down for that purpose i am writing home marianne said elinor had not you better defer your letter for a day or two i am not going to write to my mother replied marianne hastily and as if wishing to avoid any farther inquiry elinor said no more it immediately struck her that she must then be writing to willoughby and the conclusion which as instantly followed was that however mysteriously they might wish to conduct the affair they must be engaged this conviction though not entirely satisfactory gave her pleasure and she continued her letter with greater alacrity mariannes was finished in a very few minutes in length it could be no more than a note it was then folded up sealed and directed with eager rapidity elinor thought she could distinguish a large w in the direction and no sooner was it complete than marianne ringing the bell requested the footman who answered it to get that letter conveyed for her to the twopenny post her spirits still continued very high but there was a flutter in them which prevented their giving much pleasure to her sister and this agitation increased as the evening drew on
jennings with blunt sincerity no longer able to be silent he has acted like an honest man dashwood but if he had done otherwise i should have thought him a rascal i have some little concern in the business as well as yourself for lucy steele is my cousin and i believe there is not a better kind of girl in the world nor one who more deserves a good husband john dashwood was greatly astonished but his nature was calm not open to provocation and he never wished to offend anybody especially anybody of good fortune he therefore replied without any resentment i would by no means speak disrespectfully of any relation of yours madam miss lucy steele is i dare say a very deserving young woman but in the present case you know the connection must be impossible and to have entered into a secret engagement with a young man under her uncles care the son of a woman especially of such very large fortune as mrs ferrars is perhaps altogether a little extraordinary in short i do not mean to reflect upon the behaviour of any person whom you have a regard for mrs ferrarss conduct throughout the whole has been such as every conscientious good mother in like circumstances would adopt edward has drawn his own lot and i fear it will be a bad one marianne sighed out her similar apprehension and elinors heart wrung for the feelings of edward while braving his mothers threats for a woman who could not reward him i am sorry to say maam in a most unhappy rupture edward is dismissed for ever from his mothers notice he left her house yesterday but where he is gone or whether he is still in town i do not know for we of course can make no inquiry the interest of two thousand poundshow can a man live on it and when to that is added the recollection that he might but for his own folly within three months have been in the receipt of two thousand five hundred ayear for miss morton has thirty thousand pounds i cannot picture to myself a more wretched condition we must all feel for him and the more so because it is totally out of our power to assist him jennings i am sure he should be very welcome to bed and board at my house and so i would tell him if i could see him it is not fit that he should be living about at his own charge now at lodgings and taverns elinors heart thanked her for such kindness towards edward though she could not forbear smiling at the form of it
jane was as much gratified by this as her mother could be though in a quieter way mary had heard herself mentioned to miss bingley as the most accomplished girl in the neighbourhood and catherine and lydia had been fortunate enough never to be without partners which was all that they had yet learnt to care for at a ball they returned therefore in good spirits to longbourn the village where they lived and of which they were the principal inhabitants with a book he was regardless of time and on the present occasion he had a good deal of curiosity as to the event of an evening which had raised such splendid expectations he had rather hoped that his wifes views on the stranger would be disappointed but he soon found out that he had a different story to hear bennet as she entered the room we have had a most delightful evening a most excellent ball bingley thought her quite beautiful and danced with her twice only think of that my dear he actually danced with her twice and she was the only creature in the room that he asked a second time but however he did not admire her at all indeed nobody can you know and he seemed quite struck with jane as she was going down the dance so he inquired who she was and got introduced and asked her for the two next then the two third he danced with miss king and the two fourth with maria lucas and the two fifth with jane again and the two sixth with lizzy and the boulanger if he had had any compassion for me cried her husband impatiently he would not have danced half so much oh that he had sprained his ankle in the first dance i never in my life saw anything more elegant than their dresses she was therefore obliged to seek another branch of the subject and related with much bitterness of spirit and some exaggeration the shocking rudeness of mr but i can assure you she added that lizzy does not lose much by not suiting his fancy for he is a most disagreeable horrid man not at all worth pleasing so high and so conceited that there was no enduring him he walked here and he walked there fancying himself so very great i wish you had been there my dear to have given him one of your setdowns chapter  when jane and elizabeth were alone the former who had been cautious in her praise of mr
she still screamed and sobbed lustily kicked her two brothers for offering to touch her and all their united soothings were ineffectual till lady middleton luckily remembering that in a scene of similar distress last week some apricot marmalade had been successfully applied for a bruised temple the same remedy was eagerly proposed for this unfortunate scratch and a slight intermission of screams in the young lady on hearing it gave them reason to hope that it would not be rejected  she was carried out of the room therefore in her mothers arms in quest of this medicine and as the two boys chose to follow though earnestly entreated by their mother to stay behind the four young ladies were left in a quietness which the room had not known for many hours yet i hardly know how cried marianne unless it had been under totally different circumstances but this is the usual way of heightening alarm where there is nothing to be alarmed at in reality marianne was silent it was impossible for her to say what she did not feel however trivial the occasion and upon elinor therefore the whole task of telling lies when politeness required it always fell she did her best when thus called on by speaking of lady middleton with more warmth than she felt though with far less than miss lucy and sir john too cried the elder sister what a charming man he is here too miss dashwoods commendation being only simple and just came in without any eclat she merely observed that he was perfectly good humoured and friendly i declare i quite doat upon them already and indeed i am always distractedly fond of children i should guess so said elinor with a smile from what i have witnessed this morning i have a notion said lucy you think the little middletons rather too much indulged perhaps they may be the outside of enough but it is so natural in lady middleton and for my part i love to see children full of life and spirits i cannot bear them if they are tame and quiet i confess replied elinor that while i am at barton park i never think of tame and quiet children with any abhorrence a short pause succeeded this speech which was first broken by miss steele who seemed very much disposed for conversation and who now said rather abruptly and how do you like devonshire miss dashwood in some surprise at the familiarity of this question or at least of the manner in which it was spoken elinor replied that she was we have heard sir john admire it excessively said lucy who seemed to think some apology necessary for the freedom of her sister i think every one must admire it replied elinor who ever saw the place though it is not to be supposed that any one can estimate its beauties as we do i suppose you have not so many in this part of the world for my part i think they are a vast addition always but why should you think said lucy looking ashamed of her sister that there are not as many genteel young men in devonshire as sussex nay my dear im sure i dont pretend to say that there ant
then holding the lance full before his waistbands middle he levels it at the whale when covering him with it he steadily depresses the buttend in his hand thereby elevating the point till the weapon stands fairly balanced upon his palm fifteen feet in the air he minds you somewhat of a juggler balancing a long staff on his chin next moment with a rapid nameless impulse in a superb lofty arch the bright steel spans the foaming distance and quivers in the life spot of the whale tis julys immortal fourth all fountains must run wine today would now it were old orleans whiskey or old ohio or unspeakable old monongahela then tashtego lad id have ye hold a canakin to the jet and wed drink round it yea verily hearts alive wed brew choice punch in the spread of his spouthole there and from that live punchbowl quaff the living stuff again and again to such gamesome talk the dexterous dart is repeated the spear returning to its master like a greyhound held in skilful leash the agonized whale goes into his flurry the towline is slackened and the pitchpoler dropping astern folds his hands and mutely watches the monster die that for six thousand yearsand no one knows how many millions of ages beforethe great whales should have been spouting all over the sea and sprinkling and mistifying the gardens of the deep as with so many sprinkling or mistifying pots and that for some centuries back thousands of hunters should have been close by the fountain of the whale watching these sprinklings and spoutingsthat all this should be and yet that down to this blessed minute fifteen and a quarter minutes past one oclock p  it should still remain a problem whether these spoutings are after all really water or nothing but vapourthis is surely a noteworthy thing let us then look at this matter along with some interesting items contingent every one knows that by the peculiar cunning of their gills the finny tribes in general breathe the air which at all times is combined with the element in which they swim hence a herring or a cod might live a century and never once raise its head above the surface but owing to his marked internal structure which gives him regular lungs like a human beings the whale can only live by inhaling the disengaged air in the open atmosphere wherefore the necessity for his periodical visits to the upper world but he cannot in any degree breathe through his mouth for in his ordinary attitude the sperm whales mouth is buried at least eight feet beneath the surface and what is still more his windpipe has no connexion with his mouth no he breathes through his spiracle alone and this is on the top of his head if i say that in any creature breathing is only a function indispensable to vitality inasmuch as it withdraws from the air a certain element which being subsequently brought into contact with the blood imparts to the blood its vivifying principle i do not think i shall err though i may possibly use some superfluous scientific words assume it and it follows that if all the blood in a man could be aerated with one breath he might then seal up his nostrils and not fetch another for a considerable time that is to say he would then live without breathing
and not a creature knowing a syllable of the matter except nancy  there is no great wonder in their liking one another but that matters should be brought so forward between them and nobody suspect it i never happened to see them together or i am sure i should have found it out directly well and so this was kept a great secret for fear of mrs ferrars and neither she nor your brother or sister suspected a word of the mattertill this very morning poor nancy who you know is a wellmeaning creature but no conjurer popt it all out  thinks she to herself they are all so fond of lucy to be sure they will make no difficulty about it and so away she went to your sister who was sitting all alone at her carpetwork little suspecting what was to comefor she had just been saying to your brother only five minutes before that she thought to make a match between edward and some lords daughter or other i forget who so you may think what a blow it was to all her vanity and pride she fell into violent hysterics immediately with such screams as reached your brothers ears as he was sitting in his own dressingroom down stairs thinking about writing a letter to his steward in the country so up he flew directly and a terrible scene took place for lucy was come to them by that time little dreaming what was going on and i must say i think she was used very hardly for your sister scolded like any fury and soon drove her into a fainting fit nancy she fell upon her knees and cried bitterly and your brother he walked about the room and said he did not know what to do dashwood declared they should not stay a minute longer in the house and your brother was forced to go down upon his knees too to persuade her to let them stay till they had packed up their clothes then she fell into hysterics again and he was so frightened that he would send for mr the carriage was at the door ready to take my poor cousins away and they were just stepping in as he came off poor lucy in such a condition he says she could hardly walk and nancy she was almost as bad i declare i have no patience with your sister and i hope with all my heart it will be a match in spite of her for they say he is monstrous fond of her as well he may i should not wonder if he was to be in the greatest passion he and i had a great deal of talk about it and the best of all is that he is gone back again to harley street that he may be within call when mrs ferrars is told of it for she was sent for as soon as ever my cousins left the house for your sister was sure she would be in hysterics too and so she may for what i care i have no notion of peoples making such a todo about money and greatness
the pianoforte at which marianne wrapped up in her own music and her own thoughts had by this time forgotten that any body was in the room besides herself was luckily so near them that miss dashwood now judged she might safely under the shelter of its noise introduce the interesting subject without any risk of being heard at the cardtable chapter  in a firm though cautious tone elinor thus began i should be undeserving of the confidence you have honoured me with if i felt no desire for its continuance or no farther curiosity on its subject i will not apologize therefore for bringing it forward again thank you cried lucy warmly for breaking the ice you have set my heart at ease by it for i was somehow or other afraid i had offended you by what i told you that monday believe me and elinor spoke it with the truest sincerity nothing could be farther from my intention than to give you such an idea could you have a motive for the trust that was not honourable and flattering to me and yet i do assure you replied lucy her little sharp eyes full of meaning there seemed to me to be a coldness and displeasure in your manner that made me quite uncomfortable i felt sure that you was angry with me and have been quarrelling with myself ever since for having took such a liberty as to trouble you with my affairs but i am very glad to find it was only my own fancy and that you really do not blame me if you knew what a consolation it was to me to relieve my heart speaking to you of what i am always thinking of every moment of my life your compassion would make you overlook every thing else i am sure indeed i can easily believe that it was a very great relief to you to acknowledge your situation to me and be assured that you shall never have reason to repent it your case is a very unfortunate one you seem to me to be surrounded with difficulties and you will have need of all your mutual affection to support you under them ferrars i believe is entirely dependent on his mother he has only two thousand pounds of his own it would be madness to marry upon that though for my own part i could give up every prospect of more without a sigh i have been always used to a very small income and could struggle with any poverty for him but i love him too well to be the selfish means of robbing him perhaps of all that his mother might give him if he married to please her with almost every other man in the world it would be an alarming prospect but edwards affection and constancy nothing can deprive me of i know that conviction must be every thing to you and he is undoubtedly supported by the same trust in yours if the strength of your reciprocal attachment had failed as between many people and under many circumstances it naturally would during a four years engagement your situation would have been pitiable indeed lucy here looked up but elinor was careful in guarding her countenance from every expression that could give her words a suspicious tendency
hurst and miss bingley had spent some hours of the morning with the invalid who continued though slowly to mend and in the evening elizabeth joined their party in the drawingroom darcy was writing and miss bingley seated near him was watching the progress of his letter and repeatedly calling off his attention by messages to his sister elizabeth took up some needlework and was sufficiently amused in attending to what passed between darcy and his companion the perpetual commendations of the lady either on his handwriting or on the evenness of his lines or on the length of his letter with the perfect unconcern with which her praises were received formed a curious dialogue and was exactly in union with her opinion of each how delighted miss darcy will be to receive such a letter how many letters you must have occasion to write in the course of a year it is fortunate then that they fall to my lot instead of yours tell your sister i am delighted to hear of her improvement on the harp and pray let her know that i am quite in raptures with her beautiful little design for a table and i think it infinitely superior to miss grantleys will you give me leave to defer your raptures till i write again but do you always write such charming long letters to her mr they are generally long but whether always charming it is not for me to determine it is a rule with me that a person who can write a long letter with ease cannot write ill that will not do for a compliment to darcy caroline cried her brother because he does not write with ease cried miss bingley charles writes in the most careless way imaginable my ideas flow so rapidly that i have not time to express themby which means my letters sometimes convey no ideas at all to my correspondents nothing is more deceitful said darcy than the appearance of humility it is often only carelessness of opinion and sometimes an indirect boast and which of the two do you call my little recent piece of modesty the indirect boast for you are really proud of your defects in writing because you consider them as proceeding from a rapidity of thought and carelessness of execution which if not estimable you think at least highly interesting the power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance
and in some points there seems a hardness of heart about him but your sister does noti think you said soshe does not consider quite as you do you know her disposition and may believe how eagerly she would still justify him if she could he made no answer and soon afterwards by the removal of the teathings and the arrangement of the card parties the subject was necessarily dropped jennings who had watched them with pleasure while they were talking and who expected to see the effect of miss dashwoods communication in such an instantaneous gaiety on colonel brandons side as might have become a man in the bloom of youth of hope and happiness saw him with amazement remain the whole evening more serious and thoughtful than usual chapter  from a night of more sleep than she had expected marianne awoke the next morning to the same consciousness of misery in which she had closed her eyes elinor encouraged her as much as possible to talk of what she felt and before breakfast was ready they had gone through the subject again and again and with the same steady conviction and affectionate counsel on elinors side the same impetuous feelings and varying opinions on mariannes as before sometimes she could believe willoughby to be as unfortunate and as innocent as herself and at others lost every consolation in the impossibility of acquitting him at one moment she was absolutely indifferent to the observation of all the world at another she would seclude herself from it for ever and at a third could resist it with energy in one thing however she was uniform when it came to the point in avoiding where it was possible the presence of mrs jennings and in a determined silence when obliged to endure it jenningss entering into her sorrows with any compassion her kindness is not sympathy her goodnature is not tenderness all that she wants is gossip and she only likes me now because i supply it elinor had not needed this to be assured of the injustice to which her sister was often led in her opinion of others by the irritable refinement of her own mind and the too great importance placed by her on the delicacies of a strong sensibility and the graces of a polished manner like half the rest of the world if more than half there be that are clever and good marianne with excellent abilities and an excellent disposition was neither reasonable nor candid she expected from other people the same opinions and feelings as her own and she judged of their motives by the immediate effect of their actions on herself thus a circumstance occurred while the sisters were together in their own room after breakfast which sunk the heart of mrs jennings still lower in her estimation because through her own weakness it chanced to prove a source of fresh pain to herself though mrs jennings was governed in it by an impulse of the utmost goodwill
long before i was enough recovered to talk i was perfectly able to reflect i considered the past i saw in my own behaviour since the beginning of our acquaintance with him last autumn nothing but a series of imprudence towards myself and want of kindness to others i saw that my own feelings had prepared my sufferings and that my want of fortitude under them had almost led me to the grave my illness i well knew had been entirely brought on by myself by such negligence of my own health as i had felt even at the time to be wrong i did not know my danger till the danger was removed but with such feelings as these reflections gave me i wonder at my recoverywonder that the very eagerness of my desire to live to have time for atonement to my god and to you all did not kill me at once had i diedin what peculiar misery should i have left you my nurse my friend my sister you who had seen all the fretful selfishness of my latter days who had known all the murmurings of my heart whenever i looked towards the past i saw some duty neglected or some failing indulged to the middletons to the palmers the steeles to every common acquaintance even i had been insolent and unjust with a heart hardened against their merits and a temper irritated by their very attention to john to fannyyes even to them little as they deserve i had given less than their due but youyou above all above my mother had been wronged by me i and only i knew your heart and its sorrows yet to what did it influence me not to any compassion that could benefit you or myself did i imitate your forbearance or lessen your restraints by taking any part in those offices of general complaisance or particular gratitude which you had hitherto been left to discharge alone nonot less when i knew you to be unhappy than when i had believed you at ease did i turn away from every exertion of duty or friendship scarcely allowing sorrow to exist but with me regretting only that heart which had deserted and wronged me and leaving you for whom i professed an unbounded affection to be miserable for my sake here ceased the rapid flow of her selfreproving spirit and elinor impatient to soothe though too honest to flatter gave her instantly that praise and support which her frankness and her contrition so well deserved marianne pressed her hand and replied you are very good i have laid down my plan and if i am capable of adhering to itmy feelings shall be governed and my temper improved they shall no longer worry others nor torture myself you my mother and margaret must henceforth be all the world to me you will share my affections entirely between you
in what census of living creatures the dead of mankind are included why it is that a universal proverb says of them that they tell no tales though containing more secrets than the goodwin sands how it is that to his name who yesterday departed for the other world we prefix so significant and infidel a word and yet do not thus entitle him if he but embarks for the remotest indies of this living earth why the life insurance companies pay deathforfeitures upon immortals in what eternal unstirring paralysis and deadly hopeless trance yet lies antique adam who died sixty round centuries ago how it is that we still refuse to be comforted for those who we nevertheless maintain are dwelling in unspeakable bliss why all the living so strive to hush all the dead wherefore but the rumor of a knocking in a tomb will terrify a whole city but faith like a jackal feeds among the tombs and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope it needs scarcely to be told with what feelings on the eve of a nantucket voyage i regarded those marble tablets and by the murky light of that darkened doleful day read the fate of the whalemen who had gone before me delightful inducements to embark fine chance for promotion it seemsaye a stove boat will make me an immortal by brevet yes there is death in this business of whalinga speechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into eternity methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of life and death methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance methinks that in looking at things spiritual we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air methinks my body is but the lees of my better being in fact take my body who will take it i say it is not me and therefore three cheers for nantucket and come a stove boat and stove body when they will for stave my soul jove himself cannot i had not been seated very long ere a man of a certain venerable robustness entered immediately as the stormpelted door flew back upon admitting him a quick regardful eyeing of him by all the congregation sufficiently attested that this fine old man was the chaplain yes it was the famous father mapple so called by the whalemen among whom he was a very great favourite he had been a sailor and a harpooneer in his youth but for many years past had dedicated his life to the ministry at the time i now write of father mapple was in the hardy winter of a healthy old age that sort of old age which seems merging into a second flowering youth for among all the fissures of his wrinkles there shone certain mild gleams of a newly developing bloomthe spring verdure peeping forth even beneath februarys snow no one having previously heard his history could for the first time behold father mapple without the utmost interest because there were certain engrafted clerical peculiarities about him imputable to that adventurous maritime life he had led when he entered i observed that he carried no umbrella and certainly had not come in his carriage for his tarpaulin hat ran down with melting sleet and his great pilot cloth jacket seemed almost to drag him to the floor with the weight of the water it had absorbed however hat and coat and overshoes were one by one removed and hung up in a little space in an adjacent corner when arrayed in a decent suit he quietly approached the pulpit like most old fashioned pulpits it was a very lofty one and since a regular stairs to such a height would by its long angle with the floor seriously contract the already small area of the chapel the architect it seemed had acted upon the hint of father mapple and finished the pulpit without a stairs substituting a perpendicular side ladder like those used in mounting a ship from a boat at sea the wife of a whaling captain had provided the chapel with a handsome pair of red worsted manropes for this ladder which being itself nicely headed and stained with a mahogany colour the whole contrivance considering what manner of chapel it was seemed by no means in bad taste
now indeed it would be too late to sell it but a man of colonel brandons sense i wonder he should be so improvident in a point of such common such natural concern well i am convinced that there is a vast deal of inconsistency in almost every human character i suppose howeveron recollectionthat the case may probably be this edward is only to hold the living till the person to whom the colonel has really sold the presentation is old enough to take it elinor contradicted it however very positively and by relating that she had herself been employed in conveying the offer from colonel brandon to edward and therefore must understand the terms on which it was given obliged him to submit to her authority he cried after hearing what she saidwhat could be the colonels motive well well whatever colonel brandon may be edward is a very lucky man you will not mention the matter to fanny however for though i have broke it to her and she bears it vastly wellshe will not like to hear it much talked of elinor had some difficulty here to refrain from observing that she thought fanny might have borne with composure an acquisition of wealth to her brother by which neither she nor her child could be possibly impoverished ferrars added he lowering his voice to the tone becoming so important a subject knows nothing about it at present and i believe it will be best to keep it entirely concealed from her as long as may be  when the marriage takes place i fear she must hear of it all ferrars can have the smallest satisfaction in knowing that her son has money enough to live uponfor that must be quite out of the question yet why upon her late behaviour is she supposed to feel at all she has done with her son she cast him off for ever and has made all those over whom she had any influence cast him off likewise surely after doing so she cannot be imagined liable to any impression of sorrow or of joy on his accountshe cannot be interested in any thing that befalls him  she would not be so weak as to throw away the comfort of a child and yet retain the anxiety of a parent elinor said john your reasoning is very good but it is founded on ignorance of human nature when edwards unhappy match takes place depend upon it his mother will feel as much as if she had never discarded him and therefore every circumstance that may accelerate that dreadful event must be concealed from her as much as possible you surprise me i should think it must nearly have escaped her memory by this time ferrars is one of the most affectionate mothers in the world
as he was studying it out starbuck took a long cuttingspade pole and with his knife slightly split the end to insert the letter there and in that way hand it to the boat without its coming any closer to the ship harrya womans pinny handthe mans wife ill wagerayemr harry macey ship jeroboamwhy its macey and hes dead nay keep it thyself cried gabriel to ahab thou art soon going that way captain mayhew stand by now to receive it  and taking the fatal missive from starbucks hands he caught it in the slit of the pole and reached it over towards the boat but as he did so the oarsmen expectantly desisted from rowing the boat drifted a little towards the ships stern so that as if by magic the letter suddenly ranged along with gabriels eager hand he clutched it in an instant seized the boatknife and impaling the letter on it sent it thus loaded back into the ship then gabriel shrieked out to his comrades to give way with their oars and in that manner the mutinous boat rapidly shot away from the pequod as after this interlude the seamen resumed their work upon the jacket of the whale many strange things were hinted in reference to this wild affair in the tumultuous business of cuttingin and attending to a whale there is much running backwards and forwards among the crew now hands are wanted here and then again hands are wanted there there is no staying in any one place for at one and the same time everything has to be done everywhere it is much the same with him who endeavors the description of the scene it was mentioned that upon first breaking ground in the whales back the blubberhook was inserted into the original hole there cut by the spades of the mates but how did so clumsy and weighty a mass as that same hook get fixed in that hole it was inserted there by my particular friend queequeg whose duty it was as harpooneer to descend upon the monsters back for the special purpose referred to but in very many cases circumstances require that the harpooneer shall remain on the whale till the whole flensing or stripping operation is concluded the whale be it observed lies almost entirely submerged excepting the immediate parts operated upon so down there some ten feet below the level of the deck the poor harpooneer flounders about half on the whale and half in the water as the vast mass revolves like a treadmill beneath him on the occasion in question queequeg figured in the highland costumea shirt and socksin which to my eyes at least he appeared to uncommon advantage and no one had a better chance to observe him as will presently be seen
the business of her life was to get her daughters married its solace was visiting and news bennet was among the earliest of those who waited on mr he had always intended to visit him though to the last always assuring his wife that he should not go and till the evening after the visit was paid she had no knowledge of it observing his second daughter employed in trimming a hat he suddenly addressed her with i hope mr bingley likes said her mother resentfully since we are not to visit but you forget mamma said elizabeth that we shall meet him at the assemblies and that mrs she is a selfish hypocritical woman and i have no opinion of her bennet and i am glad to find that you do not depend on her serving you bennet deigned not to make any reply but unable to contain herself began scolding one of her daughters kitty has no discretion in her coughs said her father she times them ill i do not cough for my own amusement replied kitty fretfully long does not come back till the day before so it will be impossible for her to introduce him for she will not know him herself then my dear you may have the advantage of your friend and introduce mr bennet impossible when i am not acquainted with him myself how can you be so teasing one cannot know what a man really is by the end of a fortnight but if we do not venture somebody else will and after all mrs long and her neices must stand their chance and therefore as she will think it an act of kindness if you decline the office i will take it on myself what can be the meaning of that emphatic exclamation do you consider the forms of introduction and the stress that is laid on them as nonsense for you are a young lady of deep reflection i know and read great books and make extracts
chapter  instead of receiving any such letter of excuse from his friend as elizabeth half expected mr bingley to do he was able to bring darcy with him to longbourn before many days had passed after lady catherines visit bennet had time to tell him of their having seen his aunt of which her daughter sat in momentary dread bingley who wanted to be alone with jane proposed their all walking out bennet was not in the habit of walking mary could never spare time but the remaining five set off together bingley and jane however soon allowed the others to outstrip them they lagged behind while elizabeth kitty and darcy were to entertain each other very little was said by either kitty was too much afraid of him to talk elizabeth was secretly forming a desperate resolution and perhaps he might be doing the same they walked towards the lucases because kitty wished to call upon maria and as elizabeth saw no occasion for making it a general concern when kitty left them she went boldly on with him alone now was the moment for her resolution to be executed and while her courage was high she immediately said mr darcy i am a very selfish creature and for the sake of giving relief to my own feelings care not how much i may be wounding yours i can no longer help thanking you for your unexampled kindness to my poor sister ever since i have known it i have been most anxious to acknowledge to you how gratefully i feel it were it known to the rest of my family i should not have merely my own gratitude to express i am sorry exceedingly sorry replied darcy in a tone of surprise and emotion that you have ever been informed of what may in a mistaken light have given you uneasiness lydias thoughtlessness first betrayed to me that you had been concerned in the matter and of course i could not rest till i knew the particulars let me thank you again and again in the name of all my family for that generous compassion which induced you to take so much trouble and bear so many mortifications for the sake of discovering them if you will thank me he replied let it be for yourself alone that the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on i shall not attempt to deny much as i respect them i believe i thought only of you after a short pause her companion added you are too generous to trifle with me
dennisons mistake in supposing his sisters their guests had suggested the propriety of their being really invited to become such while mrs the expense would be nothing the inconvenience not more and it was altogether an attention which the delicacy of his conscience pointed out to be requisite to its complete enfranchisement from his promise to his father i do not see how it can be done said she without affronting lady middleton for they spend every day with her otherwise i should be exceedingly glad to do it you know i am always ready to pay them any attention in my power as my taking them out this evening shews her husband but with great humility did not see the force of her objection they had already spent a week in this manner in conduit street and lady middleton could not be displeased at their giving the same number of days to such near relations fanny paused a moment and then with fresh vigor said my love i would ask them with all my heart if it was in my power but i had just settled within myself to ask the miss steeles to spend a few days with us they are very well behaved good kind of girls and i think the attention is due to them as their uncle did so very well by edward we can ask your sisters some other year you know but the miss steeles may not be in town any more i am sure you will like them indeed you do like them you know very much already and so does my mother and they are such favourites with harry he saw the necessity of inviting the miss steeles immediately and his conscience was pacified by the resolution of inviting his sisters another year at the same time however slyly suspecting that another year would make the invitation needless by bringing elinor to town as colonel brandons wife and marianne as their visitor fanny rejoicing in her escape and proud of the ready wit that had procured it wrote the next morning to lucy to request her company and her sisters for some days in harley street as soon as lady middleton could spare them this was enough to make lucy really and reasonably happy dashwood seemed actually working for her herself cherishing all her hopes and promoting all her views such an opportunity of being with edward and his family was above all things the most material to her interest and such an invitation the most gratifying to her feelings it was an advantage that could not be too gratefully acknowledged nor too speedily made use of and the visit to lady middleton which had not before had any precise limits was instantly discovered to have been always meant to end in two days time when the note was shown to elinor as it was within ten minutes after its arrival it gave her for the first time some share in the expectations of lucy for such a mark of uncommon kindness vouchsafed on so short an acquaintance seemed to declare that the goodwill towards her arose from something more than merely malice against herself and might be brought by time and address to do every thing that lucy wished her flattery had already subdued the pride of lady middleton and made an entry into the close heart of mrs john dashwood and these were effects that laid open the probability of greater
he immediately went into the passage opened the front door and ushered her in himself jennings asked her as soon as she appeared if she had not been to allenham and mrs palmer laughed so heartily at the question as to show she understood it palmer looked up on her entering the room stared at her some minutes and then returned to his newspaper palmers eye was now caught by the drawings which hung round the room i declare they are quite charming i could look at them for ever and then sitting down again she very soon forgot that there were any such things in the room palmer rose also laid down the newspaper stretched himself and looked at them all around he made her no answer and only observed after again examining the room that it was very low pitched and that the ceiling was crooked sir john had been very urgent with them all to spend the next day at the park dashwood who did not chuse to dine with them oftener than they dined at the cottage absolutely refused on her own account her daughters might do as they pleased palmer ate their dinner and no expectation of pleasure from them in any other way they attempted therefore likewise to excuse themselves the weather was uncertain and not likely to be good but sir john would not be satisfiedthe carriage should be sent for them and they must come lady middleton too though she did not press their mother pressed them palmer joined their entreaties all seemed equally anxious to avoid a family party and the young ladies were obliged to yield the rent of this cottage is said to be low but we have it on very hard terms if we are to dine at the park whenever any one is staying either with them or with us they mean no less to be civil and kind to us now said elinor by these frequent invitations than by those which we received from them a few weeks ago the alteration is not in them if their parties are grown tedious and dull chapter  as the miss dashwoods entered the drawingroom of the park the next day at one door mrs
that it was only then on the homeward voyage after the encounter that the final monomania seized him seems all but certain from the fact that at intervals during the passage he was a raving lunatic and though unlimbed of a leg yet such vital strength yet lurked in his egyptian chest and was moreover intensified by his delirium that his mates were forced to lace him fast even there as he sailed raving in his hammock in a straitjacket he swung to the mad rockings of the gales and when running into more sufferable latitudes the ship with mild stunsails spread floated across the tranquil tropics and to all appearances the old mans delirium seemed left behind him with the cape horn swells and he came forth from his dark den into the blessed light and air even then when he bore that firm collected front however pale and issued his calm orders once again and his mates thanked god the direful madness was now gone even then ahab in his hidden self raved on human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing when you think it fled it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form ahabs full lunacy subsided not but deepeningly contracted like the unabated hudson when that noble northman flows narrowly but unfathomably through the highland gorge but as in his narrowflowing monomania not one jot of ahabs broad madness had been left behind so in that broad madness not one jot of his great natural intellect had perished that before living agent now became the living instrument if such a furious trope may stand his special lunacy stormed his general sanity and carried it and turned all its concentred cannon upon its own mad mark so that far from having lost his strength ahab to that one end did now possess a thousand fold more potency than ever he had sanely brought to bear upon any one reasonable object this is much yet ahabs larger darker deeper part remains unhinted but vain to popularize profundities and all truth is profound winding far down from within the very heart of this spiked hotel de cluny where we here standhowever grand and wonderful now quit itand take your way ye nobler sadder souls to those vast roman halls of thermes where far beneath the fantastic towers of mans upper earth his root of grandeur his whole awful essence sits in bearded state an antique buried beneath antiquities and throned on torsoes so with a broken throne the great gods mock that captive king so like a caryatid he patient sits upholding on his frozen brow the piled entablatures of ages aye he did beget ye ye young exiled royalties and from your grim sire only will the old statesecret come now in his heart ahab had some glimpse of this namely all my means are sane my motive and my object mad yet without power to kill or change or shun the fact he likewise knew that to mankind he did long dissemble in some sort did still but that thing of his dissembling was only subject to his perceptibility not to his will determinate nevertheless so well did he succeed in that dissembling that when with ivory leg he stepped ashore at last no nantucketer thought him otherwise than but naturally grieved and that to the quick with the terrible casualty which had overtaken him the report of his undeniable delirium at sea was likewise popularly ascribed to a kindred cause and so too all the added moodiness which always afterwards to the very day of sailing in the pequod on the present voyage sat brooding on his brow
between the two eldest and herself especially there subsisted a particular regard gardiners business on her arrival was to distribute her presents and describe the newest fashions when this was done she had a less active part to play bennet had many grievances to relate and much to complain of they had all been very illused since she last saw her sister two of her girls had been upon the point of marriage and after all there was nothing in it i do not blame jane she continued for jane would have got mr it is very hard to think that she might have been mr collinss wife by this time had it not been for her own perverseness he made her an offer in this very room and she refused him the consequence of it is that lady lucas will have a daughter married before i have and that the longbourn estate is just as much entailed as ever it makes me very nervous and poorly to be thwarted so in my own family and to have neighbours who think of themselves before anybody else however your coming just at this time is the greatest of comforts and i am very glad to hear what you tell us of long sleeves gardiner to whom the chief of this news had been given before in the course of jane and elizabeths correspondence with her made her sister a slight answer and in compassion to her nieces turned the conversation when alone with elizabeth afterwards she spoke more on the subject it seems likely to have been a desirable match for jane said she bingley so easily falls in love with a pretty girl for a few weeks and when accident separates them so easily forgets her that these sort of inconsistencies are very frequent an excellent consolation in its way said elizabeth but it will not do for us it does not often happen that the interference of friends will persuade a young man of independent fortune to think no more of a girl whom he was violently in love with only a few days before but that expression of violently in love is so hackneyed so doubtful so indefinite that it gives me very little idea
they came from exeter well provided with admiration for the use of sir john middleton his family and all his relations and no niggardly proportion was now dealt out to his fair cousins whom they declared to be the most beautiful elegant accomplished and agreeable girls they had ever beheld and with whom they were particularly anxious to be better acquainted  and to be better acquainted therefore elinor soon found was their inevitable lot for as sir john was entirely on the side of the miss steeles their party would be too strong for opposition and that kind of intimacy must be submitted to which consists of sitting an hour or two together in the same room almost every day sir john could do no more but he did not know that any more was required to be together was in his opinion to be intimate and while his continual schemes for their meeting were effectual he had not a doubt of their being established friends to do him justice he did every thing in his power to promote their unreserve by making the miss steeles acquainted with whatever he knew or supposed of his cousins situations in the most delicate particularsand elinor had not seen them more than twice before the eldest of them wished her joy on her sisters having been so lucky as to make a conquest of a very smart beau since she came to barton twill be a fine thing to have her married so young to be sure said she and i hear he is quite a beau and prodigious handsome and i hope you may have as good luck yourself soonbut perhaps you may have a friend in the corner already elinor could not suppose that sir john would be more nice in proclaiming his suspicions of her regard for edward than he had been with respect to marianne indeed it was rather his favourite joke of the two as being somewhat newer and more conjectural and since edwards visit they had never dined together without his drinking to her best affections with so much significancy and so many nods and winks as to excite general attention the letter fhad been likewise invariably brought forward and found productive of such countless jokes that its character as the wittiest letter in the alphabet had been long established with elinor the miss steeles as she expected had now all the benefit of these jokes and in the eldest of them they raised a curiosity to know the name of the gentleman alluded to which though often impertinently expressed was perfectly of a piece with her general inquisitiveness into the concerns of their family but sir john did not sport long with the curiosity which he delighted to raise for he had at least as much pleasure in telling the name as miss steele had in hearing it his name is ferrars said he in a very audible whisper but pray do not tell it for its a great secret a very agreeable young man to be sure i know him very well cried lucy who generally made an amendment to all her sisters assertions though we have seen him once or twice at my uncles it is rather too much to pretend to know him very well she wished very much to have the subject continued though she did not chuse to join in it herself but nothing more of it was said and for the first time in her life she thought mrs jennings deficient either in curiosity after petty information or in a disposition to communicate it the manner in which miss steele had spoken of edward increased her curiosity for it struck her as being rather illnatured and suggested the suspicion of that ladys knowing or fancying herself to know something to his disadvantage but her curiosity was unavailing for no farther notice was taken of mr ferrarss name by miss steele when alluded to or even openly mentioned by sir john chapter  marianne who had never much toleration for any thing like impertinence vulgarity inferiority of parts or even difference of taste from herself was at this time particularly illdisposed from the state of her spirits to be pleased with the miss steeles or to encourage their advances and to the invariable coldness of her behaviour towards them which checked every endeavour at intimacy on their side elinor principally attributed that preference of herself which soon became evident in the manners of both but especially of lucy who missed no opportunity of engaging her in conversation or of striving to improve their acquaintance by an easy and frank communication of her sentiments
it had a careless look as if it were meant for the uses of the public so entering the first thing i did was to stumble over an ashbox in the porch thought i ha as the flying particles almost choked me are these ashes from that destroyed city gomorrah however i picked myself up and hearing a loud voice within pushed on and opened a second interior door it seemed the great black parliament sitting in tophet a hundred black faces turned round in their rows to peer and beyond a black angel of doom was beating a book in a pulpit it was a negro church and the preachers text was about the blackness of darkness and the weeping and wailing and teethgnashing there ha ishmael muttered i backing out wretched entertainment at the sign of the trap moving on i at last came to a dim sort of light not far from the docks and heard a forlorn creaking in the air and looking up saw a swinging sign over the door with a white painting upon it faintly representing a tall straight jet of misty spray and these words underneaththe spouter innpeter coffin rather ominous in that particular connexion thought i but it is a common name in nantucket they say and i suppose this peter here is an emigrant from there as the light looked so dim and the place for the time looked quiet enough and the dilapidated little wooden house itself looked as if it might have been carted here from the ruins of some burnt district and as the swinging sign had a povertystricken sort of creak to it i thought that here was the very spot for cheap lodgings and the best of pea coffee it was a queer sort of placea gableended old house one side palsied as it were and leaning over sadly it stood on a sharp bleak corner where that tempestuous wind euroclydon kept up a worse howling than ever it did about poor pauls tossed craft euroclydon nevertheless is a mighty pleasant zephyr to any one indoors with his feet on the hob quietly toasting for bed in judging of that tempestuous wind called euroclydon says an old writerof whose works i possess the only copy extantit maketh a marvellous difference whether thou lookest out at it from a glass window where the frost is all on the outside or whether thou observest it from that sashless window where the frost is on both sides and of which the wight death is the only glazier  true enough thought i as this passage occurred to my mindold blackletter thou reasonest well yes these eyes are windows and this body of mine is the house what a pity they didnt stop up the chinks and the crannies though and thrust in a little lint here and there the universe is finished the copestone is on and the chips were carted off a million years ago poor lazarus there chattering his teeth against the curbstone for his pillow and shaking off his tatters with his shiverings he might plug up both ears with rags and put a corncob into his mouth and yet that would not keep out the tempestuous euroclydon
john dashwood was obliged to submit not only to the exceedingly great inconvenience of sending her carriage for the miss dashwoods but what was still worse must be subject to all the unpleasantness of appearing to treat them with attention and who could tell that they might not expect to go out with her a second time the power of disappointing them it was true must always be hers but that was not enough for when people are determined on a mode of conduct which they know to be wrong they feel injured by the expectation of any thing better from them marianne had now been brought by degrees so much into the habit of going out every day that it was become a matter of indifference to her whether she went or not and she prepared quietly and mechanically for every evenings engagement though without expecting the smallest amusement from any and very often without knowing till the last moment where it was to take her to her dress and appearance she was grown so perfectly indifferent as not to bestow half the consideration on it during the whole of her toilet which it received from miss steele in the first five minutes of their being together when it was finished nothing escaped her minute observation and general curiosity she saw every thing and asked every thing was never easy till she knew the price of every part of mariannes dress could have guessed the number of her gowns altogether with better judgment than marianne herself and was not without hopes of finding out before they parted how much her washing cost per week and how much she had every year to spend upon herself the impertinence of these kind of scrutinies moreover was generally concluded with a compliment which though meant as its douceur was considered by marianne as the greatest impertinence of all for after undergoing an examination into the value and make of her gown the colour of her shoes and the arrangement of her hair she was almost sure of being told that upon her word she looked vastly smart and she dared to say she would make a great many conquests with such encouragement as this was she dismissed on the present occasion to her brothers carriage which they were ready to enter five minutes after it stopped at the door a punctuality not very agreeable to their sisterinlaw who had preceded them to the house of her acquaintance and was there hoping for some delay on their part that might inconvenience either herself or her coachman the events of this evening were not very remarkable the party like other musical parties comprehended a great many people who had real taste for the performance and a great many more who had none at all and the performers themselves were as usual in their own estimation and that of their immediate friends the first private performers in england as elinor was neither musical nor affecting to be so she made no scruple of turning her eyes from the grand pianoforte whenever it suited her and unrestrained even by the presence of a harp and violoncello would fix them at pleasure on any other object in the room in one of these excursive glances she perceived among a group of young men the very he who had given them a lecture on toothpickcases at grays she perceived him soon afterwards looking at herself and speaking familiarly to her brother and had just determined to find out his name from the latter when they both came towards her and mr he addressed her with easy civility and twisted his head into a bow which assured her as plainly as words could have done that he was exactly the coxcomb she had heard him described to be by lucy happy had it been for her if her regard for edward had depended less on his own merit than on the merit of his nearest relations for then his brothers bow must have given the finishing stroke to what the illhumour of his mother and sister would have begun but while she wondered at the difference of the two young men she did not find that the emptiness of conceit of the one put her out of all charity with the modesty and worth of the other why they were different robert exclaimed to her himself in the course of a quarter of an hours conversation for talking of his brother and lamenting the extreme gaucherie which he really believed kept him from mixing in proper society he candidly and generously attributed it much less to any natural deficiency than to the misfortune of a private education while he himself though probably without any particular any material superiority by nature merely from the advantage of a public school was as well fitted to mix in the world as any other man upon my soul he added i believe it is nothing more and so i often tell my mother when she is grieving about it my dear madam i always say to her you must make yourself easy
she was still very poorly and elizabeth would not quit her at all till late in the evening when she had the comfort of seeing her sleep and when it seemed to her rather right than pleasant that she should go downstairs herself on entering the drawingroom she found the whole party at loo and was immediately invited to join them but suspecting them to be playing high she declined it and making her sister the excuse said she would amuse herself for the short time she could stay below with a book she is a great reader and has no pleasure in anything else i deserve neither such praise nor such censure cried elizabeth i am not a great reader and i have pleasure in many things in nursing your sister i am sure you have pleasure said bingley and i hope it will be soon increased by seeing her quite well elizabeth thanked him from her heart and then walked towards the table where a few books were lying he immediately offered to fetch her othersall that his library afforded and i wish my collection were larger for your benefit and my own credit but i am an idle fellow and though i have not many i have more than i ever looked into elizabeth assured him that she could suit herself perfectly with those in the room i am astonished said miss bingley that my father should have left so small a collection of books it ought to be good he replied it has been the work of many generations and then you have added so much to it yourself you are always buying books i cannot comprehend the neglect of a family library in such days as these i am sure you neglect nothing that can add to the beauties of that noble place charles when you build your house i wish it may be half as delightful as pemberley but i would really advise you to make your purchase in that neighbourhood and take pemberley for a kind of model there is not a finer county in england than derbyshire with all my heart i will buy pemberley itself if darcy will sell it upon my word caroline i should think it more possible to get pemberley by purchase than by imitation elizabeth was so much caught with what passed as to leave her very little attention for her book and soon laying it wholly aside she drew near the cardtable and stationed herself between mr
she now found that in spite of herself she had always admitted a hope while edward remained single that something would occur to prevent his marrying lucy that some resolution of his own some mediation of friends or some more eligible opportunity of establishment for the lady would arise to assist the happiness of all but he was now married and she condemned her heart for the lurking flattery which so much heightened the pain of the intelligence that he should be married soon before as she imagined he could be in orders and consequently before he could be in possession of the living surprised her a little at first but she soon saw how likely it was that lucy in her selfprovident care in her haste to secure him should overlook every thing but the risk of delay they were married married in town and now hastening down to her uncles what had edward felt on being within four miles from barton on seeing her mothers servant on hearing lucys message they would soon she supposed be settled at delaford delafordthat place in which so much conspired to give her an interest which she wished to be acquainted with and yet desired to avoid she saw them in an instant in their parsonagehouse saw in lucy the active contriving manager uniting at once a desire of smart appearance with the utmost frugality and ashamed to be suspected of half her economical practicespursuing her own interest in every thought courting the favour of colonel brandon of mrs in edwardshe knew not what she saw nor what she wished to seehappy or unhappynothing pleased her she turned away her head from every sketch of him elinor flattered herself that some one of their connections in london would write to them to announce the event and give farther particularsbut day after day passed off and brought no letter no tidings though uncertain that any one were to blame she found fault with every absent friend was an inquiry which sprung from the impatience of her mind to have something going on i wrote to him my love last week and rather expect to see than to hear from him again i earnestly pressed his coming to us and should not be surprised to see him walk in today or tomorrow or any day this was gaining something something to look forward to scarcely had she so determined it when the figure of a man on horseback drew her eyes to the window now she could hear more and she trembled in expectation of it butit was not colonel brandonneither his airnor his height he had just dismountedshe could not be mistakenit was edward
clear old prime nantucket water which when three years afloat the nantucketer in the pacific prefers to drink before the brackish fluid but yesterday rafted off in casks from the peruvian or indian streams hence it is that while other ships may have gone to china from new york and back again touching at a score of ports the whaleship in all that interval may not have sighted one grain of soil her crew having seen no man but floating seamen like themselves so that did you carry them the news that another flood had come they would only answerwell boys heres the ark  now as many sperm whales had been captured off the western coast of java in the near vicinity of the straits of sunda indeed as most of the ground roundabout was generally recognised by the fishermen as an excellent spot for cruising therefore as the pequod gained more and more upon java head the lookouts were repeatedly hailed and admonished to keep wide awake but though the green palmy cliffs of the land soon loomed on the starboard bow and with delighted nostrils the fresh cinnamon was snuffed in the air yet not a single jet was descried almost renouncing all thought of falling in with any game hereabouts the ship had well nigh entered the straits when the customary cheering cry was heard from aloft and ere long a spectacle of singular magnificence saluted us but here be it premised that owing to the unwearied activity with which of late they have been hunted over all four oceans the sperm whales instead of almost invariably sailing in small detached companies as in former times are now frequently met with in extensive herds sometimes embracing so great a multitude that it would almost seem as if numerous nations of them had sworn solemn league and covenant for mutual assistance and protection to this aggregation of the sperm whale into such immense caravans may be imputed the circumstance that even in the best cruising grounds you may now sometimes sail for weeks and months together without being greeted by a single spout and then be suddenly saluted by what sometimes seems thousands on thousands broad on both bows at the distance of some two or three miles and forming a great semicircle embracing one half of the level horizon a continuous chain of whalejets were upplaying and sparkling in the noonday air unlike the straight perpendicular twinjets of the right whale which dividing at top fall over in two branches like the cleft drooping boughs of a willow the single forwardslanting spout of the sperm whale presents a thick curled bush of white mist continually rising and falling away to leeward seen from the pequods deck then as she would rise on a high hill of the sea this host of vapoury spouts individually curling up into the air and beheld through a blending atmosphere of bluish haze showed like the thousand cheerful chimneys of some dense metropolis descried of a balmy autumnal morning by some horseman on a height as marching armies approaching an unfriendly defile in the mountains accelerate their march all eagerness to place that perilous passage in their rear and once more expand in comparative security upon the plain even so did this vast fleet of whales now seem hurrying forward through the straits gradually contracting the wings of their semicircle and swimming on in one solid but still crescentic centre crowding all sail the pequod pressed after them the harpooneers handling their weapons and loudly cheering from the heads of their yet suspended boats if the wind only held little doubt had they that chased through these straits of sunda the vast host would only deploy into the oriental seas to witness the capture of not a few of their number and who could tell whether in that congregated caravan moby dick himself might not temporarily be swimming like the worshipped whiteelephant in the coronation procession of the siamese so with stunsail piled on stunsail we sailed along driving these leviathans before us when of a sudden the voice of tashtego was heard loudly directing attention to something in our wake corresponding to the crescent in our van we beheld another in our rear it seemed formed of detached white vapours rising and falling something like the spouts of the whales only they did not so completely come and go for they constantly hovered without finally disappearing levelling his glass at this sight ahab quickly revolved in his pivothole crying aloft there and rig whips and buckets to wet the sailsmalays sir and after us as if too long lurking behind the headlands till the pequod should fairly have entered the straits these rascally asiatics were now in hot pursuit to make up for their overcautious delay
there it is againunder the hatchesdont you hear ita coughit sounded like a cough it sounds like two or three sleepers turning over now its the three soaked biscuits ye eat for supper turning over inside of yenothing else aye you are the chap aint ye that heard the hum of the old quakeresss knittingneedles fifty miles at sea from nantucket youre the chap hark ye cabaco there is somebody down in the afterhold that has not yet been seen on deck and i suspect our old mogul knows something of it too i heard stubb tell flask one morning watch that there was something of that sort in the wind had you followed captain ahab down into his cabin after the squall that took place on the night succeeding that wild ratification of his purpose with his crew you would have seen him go to a locker in the transom and bringing out a large wrinkled roll of yellowish sea charts spread them before him on his screweddown table then seating himself before it you would have seen him intently study the various lines and shadings which there met his eye and with slow but steady pencil trace additional courses over spaces that before were blank at intervals he would refer to piles of old logbooks beside him wherein were set down the seasons and places in which on various former voyages of various ships sperm whales had been captured or seen while thus employed the heavy pewter lamp suspended in chains over his head continually rocked with the motion of the ship and for ever threw shifting gleams and shadows of lines upon his wrinkled brow till it almost seemed that while he himself was marking out lines and courses on the wrinkled charts some invisible pencil was also tracing lines and courses upon the deeply marked chart of his forehead but it was not this night in particular that in the solitude of his cabin ahab thus pondered over his charts almost every night they were brought out almost every night some pencil marks were effaced and others were substituted for with the charts of all four oceans before him ahab was threading a maze of currents and eddies with a view to the more certain accomplishment of that monomaniac thought of his soul now to any one not fully acquainted with the ways of the leviathans it might seem an absurdly hopeless task thus to seek out one solitary creature in the unhooped oceans of this planet but not so did it seem to ahab who knew the sets of all tides and currents and thereby calculating the driftings of the sperm whales food and also calling to mind the regular ascertained seasons for hunting him in particular latitudes could arrive at reasonable surmises almost approaching to certainties concerning the timeliest day to be upon this or that ground in search of his prey so assured indeed is the fact concerning the periodicalness of the sperm whales resorting to given waters that many hunters believe that could he be closely observed and studied throughout the world were the logs for one voyage of the entire whale fleet carefully collated then the migrations of the sperm whale would be found to correspond in invariability to those of the herringshoals or the flights of swallows on this hint attempts have been made to construct elaborate migratory charts of the sperm whale  since the above was written the statement is happily borne out by an official circular issued by lieutenant maury of the national observatory washington april th  by that circular it appears that precisely such a chart is in course of completion and portions of it are presented in the circular this chart divides the ocean into districts      of five degrees of latitude by five degrees of longitude      perpendicularly through each of which districts are twelve      columns for the twelve months and horizontally through each      of which districts are three lines one to show the number      of days that have been spent in each month in every      district and the two others to show the number of days in      which whales sperm or right have been seen
but though this behaviour assured elinor that the conviction of this guilt was carried home to her mind though she saw with satisfaction the effect of it in her no longer avoiding colonel brandon when he called in her speaking to him even voluntarily speaking with a kind of compassionate respect and though she saw her spirits less violently irritated than before she did not see her less wretched her mind did become settled but it was settled in a gloomy dejection she felt the loss of willoughbys character yet more heavily than she had felt the loss of his heart his seduction and desertion of miss williams the misery of that poor girl and the doubt of what his designs might once have been on herself preyed altogether so much on her spirits that she could not bring herself to speak of what she felt even to elinor and brooding over her sorrows in silence gave more pain to her sister than could have been communicated by the most open and most frequent confession of them dashwood on receiving and answering elinors letter would be only to give a repetition of what her daughters had already felt and said of a disappointment hardly less painful than mariannes and an indignation even greater than elinors long letters from her quickly succeeding each other arrived to tell all that she suffered and thought to express her anxious solicitude for marianne and entreat she would bear up with fortitude under this misfortune bad indeed must the nature of mariannes affliction be when her mother could talk of fortitude mortifying and humiliating must be the origin of those regrets which she could wish her not to indulge against the interest of her own individual comfort mrs dashwood had determined that it would be better for marianne to be any where at that time than at barton where every thing within her view would be bringing back the past in the strongest and most afflicting manner by constantly placing willoughby before her such as she had always seen him there she recommended it to her daughters therefore by all means not to shorten their visit to mrs jennings the length of which though never exactly fixed had been expected by all to comprise at least five or six weeks a variety of occupations of objects and of company which could not be procured at barton would be inevitable there and might yet she hoped cheat marianne at times into some interest beyond herself and even into some amusement much as the ideas of both might now be spurned by her from all danger of seeing willoughby again her mother considered her to be at least equally safe in town as in the country since his acquaintance must now be dropped by all who called themselves her friends design could never bring them in each others way negligence could never leave them exposed to a surprise and chance had less in its favour in the crowd of london than even in the retirement of barton where it might force him before her while paying that visit at allenham on his marriage which mrs dashwood from foreseeing at first as a probable event had brought herself to expect as a certain one she had yet another reason for wishing her children to remain where they were a letter from her soninlaw had told her that he and his wife were to be in town before the middle of february and she judged it right that they should sometimes see their brother marianne had promised to be guided by her mothers opinion and she submitted to it therefore without opposition though it proved perfectly different from what she wished and expected though she felt it to be entirely wrong formed on mistaken grounds and that by requiring her longer continuance in london it deprived her of the only possible alleviation of her wretchedness the personal sympathy of her mother and doomed her to such society and such scenes as must prevent her ever knowing a moments rest but it was a matter of great consolation to her that what brought evil to herself would bring good to her sister and elinor on the other hand suspecting that it would not be in her power to avoid edward entirely comforted herself by thinking that though their longer stay would therefore militate against her own happiness it would be better for marianne than an immediate return into devonshire her carefulness in guarding her sister from ever hearing willoughbys name mentioned was not thrown away marianne though without knowing it herself reaped all its advantage for neither mrs
you would almost have thought he was digging a cellar there in the sea and when at length his spade struck against the gaunt ribs it was like turning up old roman tiles and pottery buried in fat english loam his boats crew were all in high excitement eagerly helping their chief and looking as anxious as goldhunters and all the time numberless fowls were diving and ducking and screaming and yelling and fighting around them stubb was beginning to look disappointed especially as the horrible nosegay increased when suddenly from out the very heart of this plague there stole a faint stream of perfume which flowed through the tide of bad smells without being absorbed by it as one river will flow into and then along with another without at all blending with it for a time i have it i have it cried stubb with delight striking something in the subterranean regions a purse dropping his spade he thrust both hands in and drew out handfuls of something that looked like ripe windsor soap or rich mottled old cheese very unctuous and savory withal you might easily dent it with your thumb it is of a hue between yellow and ash colour and this good friends is ambergris worth a gold guinea an ounce to any druggist some six handfuls were obtained but more was unavoidably lost in the sea and still more perhaps might have been secured were it not for impatient ahabs loud command to stubb to desist and come on board else the ship would bid them good bye now this ambergris is a very curious substance and so important as an article of commerce that in  a certain nantucketborn captain coffin was examined at the bar of the english house of commons on that subject for at that time and indeed until a comparatively late day the precise origin of ambergris remained like amber itself a problem to the learned though the word ambergris is but the french compound for grey amber yet the two substances are quite distinct for amber though at times found on the seacoast is also dug up in some far inland soils whereas ambergris is never found except upon the sea besides amber is a hard transparent brittle odorless substance used for mouthpieces to pipes for beads and ornaments but ambergris is soft waxy and so highly fragrant and spicy that it is largely used in perfumery in pastiles precious candles hairpowders and pomatum the turks use it in cooking and also carry it to mecca for the same purpose that frankincense is carried to st some wine merchants drop a few grains into claret to flavor it who would think then that such fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale by some ambergris is supposed to be the cause and by others the effect of the dyspepsia in the whale how to cure such a dyspepsia it were hard to say unless by administering three or four boat loads of brandreths pills and then running out of harms way as laborers do in blasting rocks i have forgotten to say that there were found in this ambergris certain hard round bony plates which at first stubb thought might be sailors trowsers buttons but it afterwards turned out that they were nothing more than pieces of small squid bones embalmed in that manner
a large whales case generally yields about five hundred gallons of sperm though from unavoidable circumstances considerable of it is spilled leaks and dribbles away or is otherwise irrevocably lost in the ticklish business of securing what you can i know not with what fine and costly material the heidelburgh tun was coated within but in superlative richness that coating could not possibly have compared with the silken pearlcoloured membrane like the lining of a fine pelisse forming the inner surface of the sperm whales case it will have been seen that the heidelburgh tun of the sperm whale embraces the entire length of the entire top of the head and sinceas has been elsewhere set forththe head embraces one third of the whole length of the creature then setting that length down at eighty feet for a good sized whale you have more than twentysix feet for the depth of the tun when it is lengthwise hoisted up and down against a ships side as in decapitating the whale the operators instrument is brought close to the spot where an entrance is subsequently forced into the spermaceti magazine he has therefore to be uncommonly heedful lest a careless untimely stroke should invade the sanctuary and wastingly let out its invaluable contents it is this decapitated end of the head also which is at last elevated out of the water and retained in that position by the enormous cutting tackles whose hempen combinations on one side make quite a wilderness of ropes in that quarter thus much being said attend now i pray you to that marvellous andin this particular instancealmost fatal operation whereby the sperm whales great heidelburgh tun is tapped nimble as a cat tashtego mounts aloft and without altering his erect posture runs straight out upon the overhanging mainyardarm to the part where it exactly projects over the hoisted tun he has carried with him a light tackle called a whip consisting of only two parts travelling through a singlesheaved block securing this block so that it hangs down from the yardarm he swings one end of the rope till it is caught and firmly held by a hand on deck then handoverhand down the other part the indian drops through the air till dexterously he lands on the summit of the head therestill high elevated above the rest of the company to whom he vivaciously crieshe seems some turkish muezzin calling the good people to prayers from the top of a tower a shorthandled sharp spade being sent up to him he diligently searches for the proper place to begin breaking into the tun in this business he proceeds very heedfully like a treasurehunter in some old house sounding the walls to find where the gold is masoned in by the time this cautious search is over a stout ironbound bucket precisely like a wellbucket has been attached to one end of the whip while the other end being stretched across the deck is there held by two or three alert hands these last now hoist the bucket within grasp of the indian to whom another person has reached up a very long pole inserting this pole into the bucket tashtego downward guides the bucket into the tun till it entirely disappears then giving the word to the seamen at the whip up comes the bucket again all bubbling like a dairymaids pail of new milk carefully lowered from its height the fullfreighted vessel is caught by an appointed hand and quickly emptied into a large tub then remounting aloft it again goes through the same round until the deep cistern will yield no more towards the end tashtego has to ram his long pole harder and harder and deeper and deeper into the tun until some twenty feet of the pole have gone down now the people of the pequod had been baling some time in this way several tubs had been filled with the fragrant sperm when all at once a queer accident happened
she looked at jane to see how she bore it but jane was very composedly talking to bingley she looked at his two sisters and saw them making signs of derision at each other and at darcy who continued however imperturbably grave she looked at her father to entreat his interference lest mary should be singing all night he took the hint and when mary had finished her second song said aloud that will do extremely well child mary though pretending not to hear was somewhat disconcerted and elizabeth sorry for her and sorry for her fathers speech was afraid her anxiety had done no good collins were so fortunate as to be able to sing i should have great pleasure i am sure in obliging the company with an air for i consider music as a very innocent diversion and perfectly compatible with the profession of a clergyman i do not mean however to assert that we can be justified in devoting too much of our time to music for there are certainly other things to be attended to in the first place he must make such an agreement for tithes as may be beneficial to himself and not offensive to his patron he must write his own sermons and the time that remains will not be too much for his parish duties and the care and improvement of his dwelling which he cannot be excused from making as comfortable as possible and i do not think it of light importance that he should have attentive and conciliatory manners towards everybody especially towards those to whom he owes his preferment i cannot acquit him of that duty nor could i think well of the man who should omit an occasion of testifying his respect towards anybody connected with the family darcy he concluded his speech which had been spoken so loud as to be heard by half the room many staredmany smiled but no one looked more amused than mr bennet himself while his wife seriously commended mr collins for having spoken so sensibly and observed in a halfwhisper to lady lucas that he was a remarkably clever good kind of young man to elizabeth it appeared that had her family made an agreement to expose themselves as much as they could during the evening it would have been impossible for them to play their parts with more spirit or finer success and happy did she think it for bingley and her sister that some of the exhibition had escaped his notice and that his feelings were not of a sort to be much distressed by the folly which he must have witnessed darcy however should have such an opportunity of ridiculing her relations was bad enough and she could not determine whether the silent contempt of the gentleman or the insolent smiles of the ladies were more intolerable the rest of the evening brought her little amusement collins who continued most perseveringly by her side and though he could not prevail on her to dance with him again put it out of her power to dance with others in vain did she entreat him to stand up with somebody else and offer to introduce him to any young lady in the room
now why should the whale thus insist upon having his spoutings out unless it be to replenish his reservoir of air ere descending for good how obvious is it too that this necessity for the whales rising exposes him to all the fatal hazards of the chase for not by hook or by net could this vast leviathan be caught when sailing a thousand fathoms beneath the sunlight not so much thy skill then o hunter as the great necessities that strike the victory to thee in man breathing is incessantly going onone breath only serving for two or three pulsations so that whatever other business he has to attend to waking or sleeping breathe he must or die he will but the sperm whale only breathes about one seventh or sunday of his time it has been said that the whale only breathes through his spouthole if it could truthfully be added that his spouts are mixed with water then i opine we should be furnished with the reason why his sense of smell seems obliterated in him for the only thing about him that at all answers to his nose is that identical spouthole and being so clogged with two elements it could not be expected to have the power of smelling but owing to the mystery of the spoutwhether it be water or whether it be vapourno absolute certainty can as yet be arrived at on this head sure it is nevertheless that the sperm whale has no proper olfactories furthermore as his windpipe solely opens into the tube of his spouting canal and as that long canallike the grand erie canalis furnished with a sort of locks that open and shut for the downward retention of air or the upward exclusion of water therefore the whale has no voice unless you insult him by saying that when he so strangely rumbles he talks through his nose seldom have i known any profound being that had anything to say to this world unless forced to stammer out something by way of getting a living now the spouting canal of the sperm whale chiefly intended as it is for the conveyance of air and for several feet laid along horizontally just beneath the upper surface of his head and a little to one side this curious canal is very much like a gaspipe laid down in a city on one side of a street but the question returns whether this gaspipe is also a waterpipe in other words whether the spout of the sperm whale is the mere vapour of the exhaled breath or whether that exhaled breath is mixed with water taken in at the mouth and discharged through the spiracle it is certain that the mouth indirectly communicates with the spouting canal but it cannot be proved that this is for the purpose of discharging water through the spiracle because the greatest necessity for so doing would seem to be when in feeding he accidentally takes in water but the sperm whales food is far beneath the surface and there he cannot spout even if he would besides if you regard him very closely and time him with your watch you will find that when unmolested there is an undeviating rhyme between the periods of his jets and the ordinary periods of respiration but why pester one with all this reasoning on the subject you have seen him spout then declare what the spout is can you not tell water from air my dear sir in this world it is not so easy to settle these plain things
georgianas reception of them was very civil but attended with all the embarrassment which though proceeding from shyness and the fear of doing wrong would easily give to those who felt themselves inferior the belief of her being proud and reserved gardiner and her niece however did her justice and pitied her hurst and miss bingley they were noticed only by a curtsey and on their being seated a pause awkward as such pauses must always be succeeded for a few moments annesley a genteel agreeablelooking woman whose endeavour to introduce some kind of discourse proved her to be more truly wellbred than either of the others and between her and mrs gardiner with occasional help from elizabeth the conversation was carried on miss darcy looked as if she wished for courage enough to join in it and sometimes did venture a short sentence when there was least danger of its being heard elizabeth soon saw that she was herself closely watched by miss bingley and that she could not speak a word especially to miss darcy without calling her attention this observation would not have prevented her from trying to talk to the latter had they not been seated at an inconvenient distance but she was not sorry to be spared the necessity of saying much she expected every moment that some of the gentlemen would enter the room she wished she feared that the master of the house might be amongst them and whether she wished or feared it most she could scarcely determine after sitting in this manner a quarter of an hour without hearing miss bingleys voice elizabeth was roused by receiving from her a cold inquiry after the health of her family she answered with equal indifference and brevity and the other said no more the next variation which their visit afforded was produced by the entrance of servants with cold meat cake and a variety of all the finest fruits in season but this did not take place till after many a significant look and smile from mrs annesley to miss darcy had been given to remind her of her post there was now employment for the whole partyfor though they could not all talk they could all eat and the beautiful pyramids of grapes nectarines and peaches soon collected them round the table while thus engaged elizabeth had a fair opportunity of deciding whether she most feared or wished for the appearance of mr darcy by the feelings which prevailed on his entering the room and then though but a moment before she had believed her wishes to predominate she began to regret that he came gardiner who with two or three other gentlemen from the house was engaged by the river and had left him only on learning that the ladies of the family intended a visit to georgiana that morning no sooner did he appear than elizabeth wisely resolved to be perfectly easy and unembarrassed a resolution the more necessary to be made but perhaps not the more easily kept because she saw that the suspicions of the whole party were awakened against them and that there was scarcely an eye which did not watch his behaviour when he first came into the room in no countenance was attentive curiosity so strongly marked as in miss bingleys in spite of the smiles which overspread her face whenever she spoke to one of its objects for jealousy had not yet made her desperate and her attentions to mr
because i cannot understand how it is that while the egyptian mummies that were buried thousands of years before even pliny was born do not measure so much in their coffins as a modern kentuckian in his socks and while the cattle and other animals sculptured on the oldest egyptian and nineveh tablets by the relative proportions in which they are drawn just as plainly prove that the highbred stallfed prize cattle of smithfield not only equal but far exceed in magnitude the fattest of pharaohs fat kine in the face of all this i will not admit that of all animals the whale alone should have degenerated but still another inquiry remains one often agitated by the more recondite nantucketers whether owing to the almost omniscient lookouts at the mastheads of the whaleships now penetrating even through behrings straits and into the remotest secret drawers and lockers of the world and the thousand harpoons and lances darted along all continental coasts the moot point is whether leviathan can long endure so wide a chase and so remorseless a havoc whether he must not at last be exterminated from the waters and the last whale like the last man smoke his last pipe and then himself evaporate in the final puff comparing the humped herds of whales with the humped herds of buffalo which not forty years ago overspread by tens of thousands the prairies of illinois and missouri and shook their iron manes and scowled with their thunderclotted brows upon the sites of populous rivercapitals where now the polite broker sells you land at a dollar an inch in such a comparison an irresistible argument would seem furnished to show that the hunted whale cannot now escape speedy extinction though so short a period agonot a good lifetimethe census of the buffalo in illinois exceeded the census of men now in london and though at the present day not one horn or hoof of them remains in all that region and though the cause of this wondrous extermination was the spear of man yet the far different nature of the whalehunt peremptorily forbids so inglorious an end to the leviathan forty men in one ship hunting the sperm whales for fortyeight months think they have done extremely well and thank god if at last they carry home the oil of forty fish whereas in the days of the old canadian and indian hunters and trappers of the west when the far west in whose sunset suns still rise was a wilderness and a virgin the same number of moccasined men for the same number of months mounted on horse instead of sailing in ships would have slain not forty but forty thousand and more buffaloes a fact that if need were could be statistically stated nor considered aright does it seem any argument in favour of the gradual extinction of the sperm whale for example that in former years the latter part of the last century say these leviathans in small pods were encountered much oftener than at present and in consequence the voyages were not so prolonged and were also much more remunerative because as has been elsewhere noticed those whales influenced by some views to safety now swim the seas in immense caravans so that to a large degree the scattered solitaries yokes and pods and schools of other days are now aggregated into vast but widely separated unfrequent armies and equally fallacious seems the conceit that because the socalled whalebone whales no longer haunt many grounds in former years abounding with them hence that species also is declining for they are only being driven from promontory to cape and if one coast is no longer enlivened with their jets then be sure some other and remoter strand has been very recently startled by the unfamiliar spectacle furthermore concerning these last mentioned leviathans they have two firm fortresses which in all human probability will for ever remain impregnable and as upon the invasion of their valleys the frosty swiss have retreated to their mountains so hunted from the savannas and glades of the middle seas the whalebone whales can at last resort to their polar citadels and diving under the ultimate glassy barriers and walls there come up among icy fields and floes and in a charmed circle of everlasting december bid defiance to all pursuit from man but as perhaps fifty of these whalebone whales are harpooned for one cachalot some philosophers of the forecastle have concluded that this positive havoc has already very seriously diminished their battalions but though for some time past a number of these whales not less than  have been annually slain on the norwest coast by the americans alone yet there are considerations which render even this circumstance of little or no account as an opposing argument in this matter natural as it is to be somewhat incredulous concerning the populousness of the more enormous creatures of the globe yet what shall we say to harto the historian of goa when he tells us that at one hunting the king of siam took  elephants that in those regions elephants are numerous as droves of cattle in the temperate climes and there seems no reason to doubt that if these elephants which have now been hunted for thousands of years by semiramis by porus by hannibal and by all the successive monarchs of the eastif they still survive there in great numbers much more may the great whale outlast all hunting since he has a pasture to expatiate in which is precisely twice as large as all asia both americas europe and africa new holland and all the isles of the sea combined moreover we are to consider that from the presumed great longevity of whales their probably attaining the age of a century and more therefore at any one period of time several distinct adult generations must be contemporary and what that is we may soon gain some idea of by imagining all the graveyards cemeteries and family vaults of creation yielding up the live bodies of all the men women and children who were alive seventyfive years ago and adding this countless host to the present human population of the globe wherefore for all these things we account the whale immortal in his species however perishable in his individuality
how she should beginhow she should express herself in her note to edward was now all her concern the particular circumstances between them made a difficulty of that which to any other person would have been the easiest thing in the world but she equally feared to say too much or too little and sat deliberating over her paper with the pen in her hand till broken in on by the entrance of edward himself jennings at the door in her way to the carriage as he came to leave his farewell card and she after apologising for not returning herself had obliged him to enter by saying that miss dashwood was above and wanted to speak with him on very particular business elinor had just been congratulating herself in the midst of her perplexity that however difficult it might be to express herself properly by letter it was at least preferable to giving the information by word of mouth when her visitor entered to force her upon this greatest exertion of all her astonishment and confusion were very great on his so sudden appearance she had not seen him before since his engagement became public and therefore not since his knowing her to be acquainted with it which with the consciousness of what she had been thinking of and what she had to tell him made her feel particularly uncomfortable for some minutes he too was much distressed and they sat down together in a most promising state of embarrassment whether he had asked her pardon for his intrusion on first coming into the room he could not recollect but determining to be on the safe side he made his apology in form as soon as he could say any thing after taking a chair jennings told me said he that you wished to speak with me at least i understood her soor i certainly should not have intruded on you in such a manner though at the same time i should have been extremely sorry to leave london without seeing you and your sister especially as it will most likely be some timeit is not probable that i should soon have the pleasure of meeting you again you would not have gone however said elinor recovering herself and determined to get over what she so much dreaded as soon as possible without receiving our good wishes even if we had not been able to give them in person i have something of consequence to inform you of which i was on the point of communicating by paper i am charged with a most agreeable office breathing rather faster than usual as she spoke  colonel brandon who was here only ten minutes ago has desired me to say that understanding you mean to take orders he has great pleasure in offering you the living of delaford now just vacant and only wishes it were more valuable allow me to congratulate you on having so respectable and welljudging a friend and to join in his wish that the livingit is about two hundred ayearwere much more considerable and such as might better enable you toas might be more than a temporary accommodation to yourselfsuch in short as might establish all your views of happiness what edward felt as he could not say it himself it cannot be expected that any one else should say for him he looked all the astonishment which such unexpected such unthoughtof information could not fail of exciting but he said only these two words colonel brandon yes continued elinor gathering more resolution as some of the worst was over colonel brandon means it as a testimony of his concern for what has lately passedfor the cruel situation in which the unjustifiable conduct of your family has placed youa concern which i am sure marianne myself and all your friends must share and likewise as a proof of his high esteem for your general character and his particular approbation of your behaviour on the present occasion the unkindness of your own relations has made you astonished to find friendship any where no replied he with sudden consciousness not to find it in you for i cannot be ignorant that to you to your goodness i owe it all i feel iti would express it if i couldbut as you well know i am no orator
i do not see how it can be done said she without affronting lady middleton for they spend every day with her otherwise i should be exceedingly glad to do it you know i am always ready to pay them any attention in my power as my taking them out this evening shews her husband but with great humility did not see the force of her objection they had already spent a week in this manner in conduit street and lady middleton could not be displeased at their giving the same number of days to such near relations fanny paused a moment and then with fresh vigor said my love i would ask them with all my heart if it was in my power but i had just settled within myself to ask the miss steeles to spend a few days with us they are very well behaved good kind of girls and i think the attention is due to them as their uncle did so very well by edward we can ask your sisters some other year you know but the miss steeles may not be in town any more i am sure you will like them indeed you do like them you know very much already and so does my mother and they are such favourites with harry he saw the necessity of inviting the miss steeles immediately and his conscience was pacified by the resolution of inviting his sisters another year at the same time however slyly suspecting that another year would make the invitation needless by bringing elinor to town as colonel brandons wife and marianne as their visitor fanny rejoicing in her escape and proud of the ready wit that had procured it wrote the next morning to lucy to request her company and her sisters for some days in harley street as soon as lady middleton could spare them this was enough to make lucy really and reasonably happy dashwood seemed actually working for her herself cherishing all her hopes and promoting all her views such an opportunity of being with edward and his family was above all things the most material to her interest and such an invitation the most gratifying to her feelings it was an advantage that could not be too gratefully acknowledged nor too speedily made use of and the visit to lady middleton which had not before had any precise limits was instantly discovered to have been always meant to end in two days time when the note was shown to elinor as it was within ten minutes after its arrival it gave her for the first time some share in the expectations of lucy for such a mark of uncommon kindness vouchsafed on so short an acquaintance seemed to declare that the goodwill towards her arose from something more than merely malice against herself and might be brought by time and address to do every thing that lucy wished her flattery had already subdued the pride of lady middleton and made an entry into the close heart of mrs john dashwood and these were effects that laid open the probability of greater the miss steeles removed to harley street and all that reached elinor of their influence there strengthened her expectation of the event sir john who called on them more than once brought home such accounts of the favour they were in as must be universally striking
once a vagabond on his own canal i have received good turns from one of these canallers i thank him heartily would fain be not ungrateful but it is often one of the prime redeeming qualities of your man of violence that at times he has as stiff an arm to back a poor stranger in a strait as to plunder a wealthy one in sum gentlemen what the wildness of this canal life is is emphatically evinced by this that our wild whalefishery contains so many of its most finished graduates and that scarce any race of mankind except sydney men are so much distrusted by our whaling captains nor does it at all diminish the curiousness of this matter that to many thousands of our rural boys and young men born along its line the probationary life of the grand canal furnishes the sole transition between quietly reaping in a christian cornfield and recklessly ploughing the waters of the most barbaric seas impetuously exclaimed don pedro spilling his chicha upon his silvery ruffles i had thought now that at your temperate north the generations were cold and holy as the hills  i left off gentlemen where the lakeman shook the backstay hardly had he done so when he was surrounded by the three junior mates and the four harpooneers who all crowded him to the deck but sliding down the ropes like baleful comets the two canallers rushed into the uproar and sought to drag their man out of it towards the forecastle others of the sailors joined with them in this attempt and a twisted turmoil ensued while standing out of harms way the valiant captain danced up and down with a whalepike calling upon his officers to manhandle that atrocious scoundrel and smoke him along to the quarterdeck at intervals he ran close up to the revolving border of the confusion and prying into the heart of it with his pike sought to prick out the object of his resentment but steelkilt and his desperadoes were too much for them all they succeeded in gaining the forecastle deck where hastily slewing about three or four large casks in a line with the windlass these seaparisians entrenched themselves behind the barricade roared the captain now menacing them with a pistol in each hand just brought to him by the steward steelkilt leaped on the barricade and striding up and down there defied the worst the pistols could do but gave the captain to understand distinctly that his steelkilts death would be the signal for a murderous mutiny on the part of all hands fearing in his heart lest this might prove but too true the captain a little desisted but still commanded the insurgents instantly to return to their duty do you want to sink the ship by knocking off at a time like this not a man of us turns to unless you swear not to raise a ropeyarn against us the lakeman now patrolled the barricade all the while keeping his eye on the captain and jerking out such sentences as theseits not our fault we didnt want it i told him to take his hammer away it was boys business he might have known me before this i told him not to prick the buffalo i believe i have broken a finger here against his cursed jaw aint those mincing knives down in the forecastle there men captain by god look to yourself say the word dont be a fool forget it all we are ready to turn to treat us decently and were your men but we wont be flogged look ye now cried the lakeman flinging out his arm towards him there are a few of us here and i am one of them who have shipped for the cruise dye see now as you well know sir we can claim our discharge as soon as the anchor is down so we dont want a row its not our interest we want to be peaceable we are ready to work but we wont be flogged steelkilt glanced round him a moment and then saidi tell you what it is now captain rather than kill ye and be hung for such a shabby rascal we wont lift a hand against ye unless ye attack us but till you say the word about not flogging us we dont do a hands turn
but not only did each of these famous whales enjoy great individual celebritynay you may call it an oceanwide renown not only was he famous in life and now is immortal in forecastle stories after death but he was admitted into all the rights privileges and distinctions of a name had as much a name indeed as cambyses or caesar thou famed leviathan scarred like an iceberg who so long didst lurk in the oriental straits of that name whose spout was oft seen from the palmy beach of ombay thou terror of all cruisers that crossed their wakes in the vicinity of the tattoo land king of japan whose lofty jet they say at times assumed the semblance of a snowwhite cross against the sky thou chilian whale marked like an old tortoise with mystic hieroglyphics upon the back in plain prose here are four whales as well known to the students of cetacean history as marius or sylla to the classic scholar new zealand tom and don miguel after at various times creating great havoc among the boats of different vessels were finally gone in quest of systematically hunted out chased and killed by valiant whaling captains who heaved up their anchors with that express object as much in view as in setting out through the narragansett woods captain butler of old had it in his mind to capture that notorious murderous savage annawon the headmost warrior of the indian king philip i do not know where i can find a better place than just here to make mention of one or two other things which to me seem important as in printed form establishing in all respects the reasonableness of the whole story of the white whale more especially the catastrophe for this is one of those disheartening instances where truth requires full as much bolstering as error so ignorant are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world that without some hints touching the plain facts historical and otherwise of the fishery they might scout at moby dick as a monstrous fable or still worse and more detestable a hideous and intolerable allegory first though most men have some vague flitting ideas of the general perils of the grand fishery yet they have nothing like a fixed vivid conception of those perils and the frequency with which they recur one reason perhaps is that not one in fifty of the actual disasters and deaths by casualties in the fishery ever finds a public record at home however transient and immediately forgotten that record do you suppose that that poor fellow there who this moment perhaps caught by the whaleline off the coast of new guinea is being carried down to the bottom of the sea by the sounding leviathando you suppose that that poor fellows name will appear in the newspaper obituary you will read tomorrow at your breakfast no because the mails are very irregular between here and new guinea in fact did you ever hear what might be called regular news direct or indirect from new guinea yet i tell you that upon one particular voyage which i made to the pacific among many others we spoke thirty different ships every one of which had had a death by a whale some of them more than one and three that had each lost a boats crew for gods sake be economical with your lamps and candles not a gallon you burn but at least one drop of mans blood was spilled for it secondly people ashore have indeed some indefinite idea that a whale is an enormous creature of enormous power but i have ever found that when narrating to them some specific example of this twofold enormousness they have significantly complimented me upon my facetiousness when i declare upon my soul i had no more idea of being facetious than moses when he wrote the history of the plagues of egypt but fortunately the special point i here seek can be established upon testimony entirely independent of my own
but pip loved life and all lifes peaceable securities so that the panicstriking business in which he had somehow unaccountably become entrapped had most sadly blurred his brightness though as ere long will be seen what was thus temporarily subdued in him in the end was destined to be luridly illumined by strange wild fires that fictitiously showed him off to ten times the natural lustre with which in his native tolland county in connecticut he had once enlivened many a fiddlers frolic on the green and at melodious eventide with his gay haha had turned the round horizon into one starbelled tambourine so though in the clear air of day suspended against a blueveined neck the purewatered diamond drop will healthful glow yet when the cunning jeweller would show you the diamond in its most impressive lustre he lays it against a gloomy ground and then lights it up not by the sun but by some unnatural gases then come out those fiery effulgences infernally superb then the evilblazing diamond once the divinest symbol of the crystal skies looks like some crownjewel stolen from the king of hell it came to pass that in the ambergris affair stubbs afteroarsman chanced so to sprain his hand as for a time to become quite maimed and temporarily pip was put into his place the first time stubb lowered with him pip evinced much nervousness but happily for that time escaped close contact with the whale and therefore came off not altogether discreditably though stubb observing him took care afterwards to exhort him to cherish his courageousness to the utmost for he might often find it needful now upon the second lowering the boat paddled upon the whale and as the fish received the darted iron it gave its customary rap which happened in this instance to be right under poor pips seat the involuntary consternation of the moment caused him to leap paddle in hand out of the boat and in such a way that part of the slack whale line coming against his chest he breasted it overboard with him so as to become entangled in it when at last plumping into the water that instant the stricken whale started on a fierce run the line swiftly straightened and presto poor pip came all foaming up to the chocks of the boat remorselessly dragged there by the line which had taken several turns around his chest and neck snatching the boatknife from its sheath he suspended its sharp edge over the line and turning towards stubb exclaimed interrogatively cut meantime pips blue choked face plainly looked do for gods sake in less than half a minute this entire thing happened roared stubb and so the whale was lost and pip was saved so soon as he recovered himself the poor little negro was assailed by yells and execrations from the crew tranquilly permitting these irregular cursings to evaporate stubb then in a plain businesslike but still half humorous manner cursed pip officially and that done unofficially gave him much wholesome advice the substance was never jump from a boat pip exceptbut all the rest was indefinite as the soundest advice ever is now in general stick to the boat is your true motto in whaling but cases will sometimes happen when leap from the boat is still better moreover as if perceiving at last that if he should give undiluted conscientious advice to pip he would be leaving him too wide a margin to jump in for the future stubb suddenly dropped all advice and concluded with a peremptory command stick to the boat pip or by the lord i wont pick you up if you jump mind that we cant afford to lose whales by the likes of you a whale would sell for thirty times what you would pip in alabama
the lake as i have hinted was to a considerable depth exceedingly transparent and as human infants while suckling will calmly and fixedly gaze away from the breast as if leading two different lives at the time and while yet drawing mortal nourishment be still spiritually feasting upon some unearthly reminiscenceeven so did the young of these whales seem looking up towards us but not at us as if we were but a bit of gulfweed in their newborn sight floating on their sides the mothers also seemed quietly eyeing us one of these little infants that from certain queer tokens seemed hardly a day old might have measured some fourteen feet in length and some six feet in girth he was a little frisky though as yet his body seemed scarce yet recovered from that irksome position it had so lately occupied in the maternal reticule where tail to head and all ready for the final spring the unborn whale lies bent like a tartars bow the delicate sidefins and the palms of his flukes still freshly retained the plaited crumpled appearance of a babys ears newly arrived from foreign parts as when the stricken whale that from the tub has reeled out hundreds of fathoms of rope as after deep sounding he floats up again and shows the slackened curling line buoyantly rising and spiralling towards the air so now starbuck saw long coils of the umbilical cord of madame leviathan by which the young cub seemed still tethered to its dam not seldom in the rapid vicissitudes of the chase this natural line with the maternal end loose becomes entangled with the hempen one so that the cub is thereby trapped some of the subtlest secrets of the seas seemed divulged to us in this enchanted pond  the sperm whale as with all other species of the leviathan but unlike most other fish breeds indifferently at all seasons after a gestation which may probably be set down at nine months producing but one at a time though in some few known instances giving birth to an esau and jacoba contingency provided for in suckling by two teats curiously situated one on each side of the anus but the breasts themselves extend upwards from that when by chance these precious parts in a nursing whale are cut by the hunters lance the mothers pouring milk and blood rivallingly discolour the sea for rods the milk is very sweet and rich it has been tasted by man it might do well with strawberries when overflowing with mutual esteem the whales salute more hominum and thus though surrounded by circle upon circle of consternations and affrights did these inscrutable creatures at the centre freely and fearlessly indulge in all peaceful concernments yea serenely revelled in dalliance and delight but even so amid the tornadoed atlantic of my being do i myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm and while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me deep down and deep inland there i still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy meanwhile as we thus lay entranced the occasional sudden frantic spectacles in the distance evinced the activity of the other boats still engaged in drugging the whales on the frontier of the host or possibly carrying on the war within the first circle where abundance of room and some convenient retreats were afforded them but the sight of the enraged drugged whales now and then blindly darting to and fro across the circles was nothing to what at last met our eyes it is sometimes the custom when fast to a whale more than commonly powerful and alert to seek to hamstring him as it were by sundering or maiming his gigantic tailtendon it is done by darting a shorthandled cuttingspade to which is attached a rope for hauling it back again a whale wounded as we afterwards learned in this part but not effectually as it seemed had broken away from the boat carrying along with him half of the harpoon line and in the extraordinary agony of the wound he was now dashing among the revolving circles like the lone mounted desperado arnold at the battle of saratoga carrying dismay wherever he went but agonizing as was the wound of this whale and an appalling spectacle enough any way yet the peculiar horror with which he seemed to inspire the rest of the herd was owing to a cause which at first the intervening distance obscured from us
parallel meridians rudely pecked into the glass surround these footpads goblets fill to this mark and your charge is but a penny to this a penny more and so on to the full glassthe cape horn measure which you may gulp down for a shilling upon entering the place i found a number of young seamen gathered about a table examining by a dim light divers specimens of skrimshander i sought the landlord and telling him i desired to be accommodated with a room received for answer that his house was fullnot a bed unoccupied but avast he added tapping his forehead you haint no objections to sharing a harpooneers blanket have ye i spose you are goin awhalin so youd better get used to that sort of thing i told him that i never liked to sleep two in a bed that if i should ever do so it would depend upon who the harpooneer might be and that if he the landlord really had no other place for me and the harpooneer was not decidedly objectionable why rather than wander further about a strange town on so bitter a night i would put up with the half of any decent mans blanket i sat down on an old wooden settle carved all over like a bench on the battery at one end a ruminating tar was still further adorning it with his jackknife stooping over and diligently working away at the space between his legs he was trying his hand at a ship under full sail but he didnt make much headway i thought at last some four or five of us were summoned to our meal in an adjoining room it was cold as icelandno fire at allthe landlord said he couldnt afford it nothing but two dismal tallow candles each in a winding sheet we were fain to button up our monkey jackets and hold to our lips cups of scalding tea with our half frozen fingers but the fare was of the most substantial kindnot only meat and potatoes but dumplings good heavens one young fellow in a green box coat addressed himself to these dumplings in a most direful manner my boy said the landlord youll have the nightmare to a dead sartainty landlord i whispered that aint the harpooneer is it oh no said he looking a sort of diabolically funny the harpooneer is a dark complexioned chap he never eats dumplings he donthe eats nothing but steaks and he likes em rare
he commenced dressing at top by donning his beaver hat a very tall one by the by and thenstill minus his trowsershe hunted up his boots what under the heavens he did it for i cannot tell but his next movement was to crush himselfboots in hand and hat onunder the bed when from sundry violent gaspings and strainings i inferred he was hard at work booting himself though by no law of propriety that i ever heard of is any man required to be private when putting on his boots but queequeg do you see was a creature in the transition stageneither caterpillar nor butterfly he was just enough civilized to show off his outlandishness in the strangest possible manners if he had not been a small degree civilized he very probably would not have troubled himself with boots at all but then if he had not been still a savage he never would have dreamt of getting under the bed to put them on at last he emerged with his hat very much dented and crushed down over his eyes and began creaking and limping about the room as if not being much accustomed to boots his pair of damp wrinkled cowhide onesprobably not made to order eitherrather pinched and tormented him at the first go off of a bitter cold morning seeing now that there were no curtains to the window and that the street being very narrow the house opposite commanded a plain view into the room and observing more and more the indecorous figure that queequeg made staving about with little else but his hat and boots on i begged him as well as i could to accelerate his toilet somewhat and particularly to get into his pantaloons as soon as possible at that time in the morning any christian would have washed his face but queequeg to my amazement contented himself with restricting his ablutions to his chest arms and hands he then donned his waistcoat and taking up a piece of hard soap on the washstand centre table dipped it into water and commenced lathering his face i was watching to see where he kept his razor when lo and behold he takes the harpoon from the bed corner slips out the long wooden stock unsheathes the head whets it a little on his boot and striding up to the bit of mirror against the wall begins a vigorous scraping or rather harpooning of his cheeks thinks i queequeg this is using rogerss best cutlery with a vengeance afterwards i wondered the less at this operation when i came to know of what fine steel the head of a harpoon is made and how exceedingly sharp the long straight edges are always kept the rest of his toilet was soon achieved and he proudly marched out of the room wrapped up in his great pilot monkey jacket and sporting his harpoon like a marshals baton i quickly followed suit and descending into the barroom accosted the grinning landlord very pleasantly i cherished no malice towards him though he had been skylarking with me not a little in the matter of my bedfellow however a good laugh is a mighty good thing and rather too scarce a good thing the mores the pity so if any one man in his own proper person afford stuff for a good joke to anybody let him not be backward but let him cheerfully allow himself to spend and be spent in that way and the man that has anything bountifully laughable about him be sure there is more in that man than you perhaps think for the barroom was now full of the boarders who had been dropping in the night previous and whom i had not as yet had a good look at they were nearly all whalemen chief mates and second mates and third mates and sea carpenters and sea coopers and sea blacksmiths and harpooneers and ship keepers a brown and brawny company with bosky beards an unshorn shaggy set all wearing monkey jackets for morning gowns
long letters from her quickly succeeding each other arrived to tell all that she suffered and thought to express her anxious solicitude for marianne and entreat she would bear up with fortitude under this misfortune bad indeed must the nature of mariannes affliction be when her mother could talk of fortitude mortifying and humiliating must be the origin of those regrets which she could wish her not to indulge against the interest of her own individual comfort mrs dashwood had determined that it would be better for marianne to be any where at that time than at barton where every thing within her view would be bringing back the past in the strongest and most afflicting manner by constantly placing willoughby before her such as she had always seen him there she recommended it to her daughters therefore by all means not to shorten their visit to mrs jennings the length of which though never exactly fixed had been expected by all to comprise at least five or six weeks a variety of occupations of objects and of company which could not be procured at barton would be inevitable there and might yet she hoped cheat marianne at times into some interest beyond herself and even into some amusement much as the ideas of both might now be spurned by her from all danger of seeing willoughby again her mother considered her to be at least equally safe in town as in the country since his acquaintance must now be dropped by all who called themselves her friends design could never bring them in each others way negligence could never leave them exposed to a surprise and chance had less in its favour in the crowd of london than even in the retirement of barton where it might force him before her while paying that visit at allenham on his marriage which mrs dashwood from foreseeing at first as a probable event had brought herself to expect as a certain one she had yet another reason for wishing her children to remain where they were a letter from her soninlaw had told her that he and his wife were to be in town before the middle of february and she judged it right that they should sometimes see their brother marianne had promised to be guided by her mothers opinion and she submitted to it therefore without opposition though it proved perfectly different from what she wished and expected though she felt it to be entirely wrong formed on mistaken grounds and that by requiring her longer continuance in london it deprived her of the only possible alleviation of her wretchedness the personal sympathy of her mother and doomed her to such society and such scenes as must prevent her ever knowing a moments rest but it was a matter of great consolation to her that what brought evil to herself would bring good to her sister and elinor on the other hand suspecting that it would not be in her power to avoid edward entirely comforted herself by thinking that though their longer stay would therefore militate against her own happiness it would be better for marianne than an immediate return into devonshire her carefulness in guarding her sister from ever hearing willoughbys name mentioned was not thrown away marianne though without knowing it herself reaped all its advantage for neither mrs elinor wished that the same forbearance could have extended towards herself but that was impossible and she was obliged to listen day after day to the indignation of them all a man of whom he had always had such reason to think well he did not believe there was a bolder rider in england he would not speak another word to him meet him where he might for all the world
then gabriel shrieked out to his comrades to give way with their oars and in that manner the mutinous boat rapidly shot away from the pequod as after this interlude the seamen resumed their work upon the jacket of the whale many strange things were hinted in reference to this wild affair in the tumultuous business of cuttingin and attending to a whale there is much running backwards and forwards among the crew now hands are wanted here and then again hands are wanted there there is no staying in any one place for at one and the same time everything has to be done everywhere it is much the same with him who endeavors the description of the scene it was mentioned that upon first breaking ground in the whales back the blubberhook was inserted into the original hole there cut by the spades of the mates but how did so clumsy and weighty a mass as that same hook get fixed in that hole it was inserted there by my particular friend queequeg whose duty it was as harpooneer to descend upon the monsters back for the special purpose referred to but in very many cases circumstances require that the harpooneer shall remain on the whale till the whole flensing or stripping operation is concluded the whale be it observed lies almost entirely submerged excepting the immediate parts operated upon so down there some ten feet below the level of the deck the poor harpooneer flounders about half on the whale and half in the water as the vast mass revolves like a treadmill beneath him on the occasion in question queequeg figured in the highland costumea shirt and socksin which to my eyes at least he appeared to uncommon advantage and no one had a better chance to observe him as will presently be seen being the savages bowsman that is the person who pulled the bowoar in his boat the second one from forward it was my cheerful duty to attend upon him while taking that hardscrabble scramble upon the dead whales back you have seen italian organboys holding a dancingape by a long cord just so from the ships steep side did i hold queequeg down there in the sea by what is technically called in the fishery a monkeyrope attached to a strong strip of canvas belted round his waist it was a humorously perilous business for both of us for before we proceed further it must be said that the monkeyrope was fast at both ends fast to queequegs broad canvas belt and fast to my narrow leather one so that for better or for worse we two for the time were wedded and should poor queequeg sink to rise no more then both usage and honour demanded that instead of cutting the cord it should drag me down in his wake queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother nor could i any way get rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond entailed
charlotte did not stay much longer and elizabeth was then left to reflect on what she had heard it was a long time before she became at all reconciled to the idea of so unsuitable a match collinss making two offers of marriage within three days was nothing in comparison of his being now accepted she had always felt that charlottes opinion of matrimony was not exactly like her own but she had not supposed it to be possible that when called into action she would have sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantage and to the pang of a friend disgracing herself and sunk in her esteem was added the distressing conviction that it was impossible for that friend to be tolerably happy in the lot she had chosen chapter  elizabeth was sitting with her mother and sisters reflecting on what she had heard and doubting whether she was authorised to mention it when sir william lucas himself appeared sent by his daughter to announce her engagement to the family with many compliments to them and much selfgratulation on the prospect of a connection between the houses he unfolded the matterto an audience not merely wondering but incredulous for mrs bennet with more perseverance than politeness protested he must be entirely mistaken and lydia always unguarded and often uncivil boisterously exclaimed good lord nothing less than the complaisance of a courtier could have borne without anger such treatment but sir williams good breeding carried him through it all and though he begged leave to be positive as to the truth of his information he listened to all their impertinence with the most forbearing courtesy elizabeth feeling it incumbent on her to relieve him from so unpleasant a situation now put herself forward to confirm his account by mentioning her prior knowledge of it from charlotte herself and endeavoured to put a stop to the exclamations of her mother and sisters by the earnestness of her congratulations to sir william in which she was readily joined by jane and by making a variety of remarks on the happiness that might be expected from the match the excellent character of mr collins and the convenient distance of hunsford from london bennet was in fact too much overpowered to say a great deal while sir william remained but no sooner had he left them than her feelings found a rapid vent in the first place she persisted in disbelieving the whole of the matter secondly she was very sure that mr collins had been taken in thirdly she trusted that they would never be happy together and fourthly that the match might be broken off two inferences however were plainly deduced from the whole one that elizabeth was the real cause of the mischief and the other that she herself had been barbarously misused by them all and on these two points she principally dwelt during the rest of the day nothing could console and nothing could appease her a week elapsed before she could see elizabeth without scolding her a month passed away before she could speak to sir william or lady lucas without being rude and many months were gone before she could at all forgive their daughter bennets emotions were much more tranquil on the occasion and such as he did experience he pronounced to be of a most agreeable sort for it gratified him he said to discover that charlotte lucas whom he had been used to think tolerably sensible was as foolish as his wife and more foolish than his daughter jane confessed herself a little surprised at the match but she said less of her astonishment than of her earnest desire for their happiness nor could elizabeth persuade her to consider it as improbable kitty and lydia were far from envying miss lucas for mr
elinor wanted very much to know though she did not chuse to ask whether edward was then in town but nothing would have induced fanny voluntarily to mention his name before her till able to tell her that his marriage with miss morton was resolved on or till her husbands expectations on colonel brandon were answered because she believed them still so very much attached to each other that they could not be too sedulously divided in word and deed on every occasion the intelligence however which she would not give soon flowed from another quarter lucy came very shortly to claim elinors compassion on being unable to see edward though he had arrived in town with mr he dared not come to bartletts buildings for fear of detection and though their mutual impatience to meet was not to be told they could do nothing at present but write edward assured them himself of his being in town within a very short time by twice calling in berkeley street twice was his card found on the table when they returned from their mornings engagements elinor was pleased that he had called and still more pleased that she had missed him the dashwoods were so prodigiously delighted with the middletons that though not much in the habit of giving anything they determined to give thema dinner and soon after their acquaintance began invited them to dine in harley street where they had taken a very good house for three months jennings were invited likewise and john dashwood was careful to secure colonel brandon who always glad to be where the miss dashwoods were received his eager civilities with some surprise but much more pleasure ferrars but elinor could not learn whether her sons were to be of the party the expectation of seeing her however was enough to make her interested in the engagement for though she could now meet edwards mother without that strong anxiety which had once promised to attend such an introduction though she could now see her with perfect indifference as to her opinion of herself her desire of being in company with mrs ferrars her curiosity to know what she was like was as lively as ever the interest with which she thus anticipated the party was soon afterwards increased more powerfully than pleasantly by her hearing that the miss steeles were also to be at it so well had they recommended themselves to lady middleton so agreeable had their assiduities made them to her that though lucy was certainly not so elegant and her sister not even genteel she was as ready as sir john to ask them to spend a week or two in conduit street and it happened to be particularly convenient to the miss steeles as soon as the dashwoods invitation was known that their visit should begin a few days before the party took place john dashwood as the nieces of the gentleman who for many years had had the care of her brother might not have done much however towards procuring them seats at her table but as lady middletons guests they must be welcome and lucy who had long wanted to be personally known to the family to have a nearer view of their characters and her own difficulties and to have an opportunity of endeavouring to please them had seldom been happier in her life than she was on receiving mrs she began immediately to determine that edward who lived with his mother must be asked as his mother was to a party given by his sister and to see him for the first time after all that passed in the company of lucy these apprehensions perhaps were not founded entirely on reason and certainly not at all on truth they were relieved however not by her own recollection but by the good will of lucy who believed herself to be inflicting a severe disappointment when she told her that edward certainly would not be in harley street on tuesday and even hoped to be carrying the pain still farther by persuading her that he was kept away by the extreme affection for herself which he could not conceal when they were together the important tuesday came that was to introduce the two young ladies to this formidable motherinlaw said lucy as they walked up the stairs togetherfor the middletons arrived so directly after mrs
and away she went but returning again in a moment i have just been thinking of bettys sister my dear i should be very glad to get her so good a mistress but whether she would do for a ladys maid i am sure i cant tell she is an excellent housemaid and works very well at her needle certainly maam replied elinor not hearing much of what she said and more anxious to be alone than to be mistress of the subject how she should beginhow she should express herself in her note to edward was now all her concern the particular circumstances between them made a difficulty of that which to any other person would have been the easiest thing in the world but she equally feared to say too much or too little and sat deliberating over her paper with the pen in her hand till broken in on by the entrance of edward himself jennings at the door in her way to the carriage as he came to leave his farewell card and she after apologising for not returning herself had obliged him to enter by saying that miss dashwood was above and wanted to speak with him on very particular business elinor had just been congratulating herself in the midst of her perplexity that however difficult it might be to express herself properly by letter it was at least preferable to giving the information by word of mouth when her visitor entered to force her upon this greatest exertion of all her astonishment and confusion were very great on his so sudden appearance she had not seen him before since his engagement became public and therefore not since his knowing her to be acquainted with it which with the consciousness of what she had been thinking of and what she had to tell him made her feel particularly uncomfortable for some minutes he too was much distressed and they sat down together in a most promising state of embarrassment whether he had asked her pardon for his intrusion on first coming into the room he could not recollect but determining to be on the safe side he made his apology in form as soon as he could say any thing after taking a chair jennings told me said he that you wished to speak with me at least i understood her soor i certainly should not have intruded on you in such a manner though at the same time i should have been extremely sorry to leave london without seeing you and your sister especially as it will most likely be some timeit is not probable that i should soon have the pleasure of meeting you again you would not have gone however said elinor recovering herself and determined to get over what she so much dreaded as soon as possible without receiving our good wishes even if we had not been able to give them in person i have something of consequence to inform you of which i was on the point of communicating by paper i am charged with a most agreeable office breathing rather faster than usual as she spoke  colonel brandon who was here only ten minutes ago has desired me to say that understanding you mean to take orders he has great pleasure in offering you the living of delaford now just vacant and only wishes it were more valuable allow me to congratulate you on having so respectable and welljudging a friend and to join in his wish that the livingit is about two hundred ayearwere much more considerable and such as might better enable you toas might be more than a temporary accommodation to yourselfsuch in short as might establish all your views of happiness what edward felt as he could not say it himself it cannot be expected that any one else should say for him
pray forgive me if i have been very presuming or at least do not punish me so far as to exclude me from p i shall never be quite happy till i have been all round the park a low phaeton with a nice little pair of ponies would be the very thing the contents of this letter threw elizabeth into a flutter of spirits in which it was difficult to determine whether pleasure or pain bore the greatest share the vague and unsettled suspicions which uncertainty had produced of what mr darcy might have been doing to forward her sisters match which she had feared to encourage as an exertion of goodness too great to be probable and at the same time dreaded to be just from the pain of obligation were proved beyond their greatest extent to be true he had followed them purposely to town he had taken on himself all the trouble and mortification attendant on such a research in which supplication had been necessary to a woman whom he must abominate and despise and where he was reduced to meet frequently meet reason with persuade and finally bribe the man whom he always most wished to avoid and whose very name it was punishment to him to pronounce he had done all this for a girl whom he could neither regard nor esteem but it was a hope shortly checked by other considerations and she soon felt that even her vanity was insufficient when required to depend on his affection for herfor a woman who had already refused himas able to overcome a sentiment so natural as abhorrence against relationship with wickham every kind of pride must revolt from the connection but he had given a reason for his interference which asked no extraordinary stretch of belief it was reasonable that he should feel he had been wrong he had liberality and he had the means of exercising it and though she would not place herself as his principal inducement she could perhaps believe that remaining partiality for her might assist his endeavours in a cause where her peace of mind must be materially concerned it was painful exceedingly painful to know that they were under obligations to a person who could never receive a return they owed the restoration of lydia her character every thing to him how heartily did she grieve over every ungracious sensation she had ever encouraged every saucy speech she had ever directed towards him for herself she was humbled but she was proud of him proud that in a cause of compassion and honour he had been able to get the better of himself she read over her aunts commendation of him again and again she was even sensible of some pleasure though mixed with regret on finding how steadfastly both she and her uncle had been persuaded that affection and confidence subsisted between mr she was roused from her seat and her reflections by some ones approach and before she could strike into another path she was overtaken by wickham
these were the contents my dear harriet   you will laugh when you know where i am gone and i cannot help laughing myself at your surprise tomorrow morning as soon as i am missed i am going to gretna green and if you cannot guess with who i shall think you a simpleton for there is but one man in the world i love and he is an angel i should never be happy without him so think it no harm to be off you need not send them word at longbourn of my going if you do not like it for it will make the surprise the greater when i write to them and sign my name lydia wickham pray make my excuses to pratt for not keeping my engagement and dancing with him tonight tell him i hope he will excuse me when he knows all and tell him i will dance with him at the next ball we meet with great pleasure i shall send for my clothes when i get to longbourn but i wish you would tell sally to mend a great slit in my worked muslin gown before they are packed up what a letter is this to be written at such a moment but at least it shows that she was serious on the subject of their journey whatever he might afterwards persuade her to it was not on her side a scheme of infamy my mother was taken ill immediately and the whole house in such confusion jane cried elizabeth was there a servant belonging to it who did not know the whole story before the end of the day my mother was in hysterics and though i endeavoured to give her every assistance in my power i am afraid i did not do so much as i might have done but the horror of what might possibly happen almost took from me my faculties you have had every care and anxiety upon yourself alone mary and kitty have been very kind and would have shared in every fatigue i am sure but i did not think it right for either of them kitty is slight and delicate and mary studies so much that her hours of repose should not be broken in on my aunt phillips came to longbourn on tuesday after my father went away and was so good as to stay till thursday with me and lady lucas has been very kind she walked here on wednesday morning to condole with us and offered her services or any of her daughters if they should be of use to us she had better have stayed at home cried elizabeth perhaps she meant well but under such a misfortune as this one cannot see too little of ones neighbours
in the first place the enormous cutting tackles among other ponderous things comprising a cluster of blocks generally painted green and which no single man can possibly liftthis vast bunch of grapes was swayed up to the maintop and firmly lashed to the lower masthead the strongest point anywhere above a ships deck the end of the hawserlike rope winding through these intricacies was then conducted to the windlass and the huge lower block of the tackles was swung over the whale to this block the great blubber hook weighing some one hundred pounds was attached and now suspended in stages over the side starbuck and stubb the mates armed with their long spades began cutting a hole in the body for the insertion of the hook just above the nearest of the two sidefins this done a broad semicircular line is cut round the hole the hook is inserted and the main body of the crew striking up a wild chorus now commence heaving in one dense crowd at the windlass when instantly the entire ship careens over on her side every bolt in her starts like the nailheads of an old house in frosty weather she trembles quivers and nods her frighted mastheads to the sky more and more she leans over to the whale while every gasping heave of the windlass is answered by a helping heave from the billows till at last a swift startling snap is heard with a great swash the ship rolls upwards and backwards from the whale and the triumphant tackle rises into sight dragging after it the disengaged semicircular end of the first strip of blubber now as the blubber envelopes the whale precisely as the rind does an orange so is it stripped off from the body precisely as an orange is sometimes stripped by spiralizing it for the strain constantly kept up by the windlass continually keeps the whale rolling over and over in the water and as the blubber in one strip uniformly peels off along the line called the scarf simultaneously cut by the spades of starbuck and stubb the mates and just as fast as it is thus peeled off and indeed by that very act itself it is all the time being hoisted higher and higher aloft till its upper end grazes the maintop the men at the windlass then cease heaving and for a moment or two the prodigious blooddripping mass sways to and fro as if let down from the sky and every one present must take good heed to dodge it when it swings else it may box his ears and pitch him headlong overboard one of the attending harpooneers now advances with a long keen weapon called a boardingsword and watching his chance he dexterously slices out a considerable hole in the lower part of the swaying mass into this hole the end of the second alternating great tackle is then hooked so as to retain a hold upon the blubber in order to prepare for what follows whereupon this accomplished swordsman warning all hands to stand off once more makes a scientific dash at the mass and with a few sidelong desperate lunging slicings severs it completely in twain so that while the short lower part is still fast the long upper strip called a blanketpiece swings clear and is all ready for lowering the heavers forward now resume their song and while the one tackle is peeling and hoisting a second strip from the whale the other is slowly slackened away and down goes the first strip through the main hatchway right beneath into an unfurnished parlor called the blubberroom into this twilight apartment sundry nimble hands keep coiling away the long blanketpiece as if it were a great live mass of plaited serpents and thus the work proceeds the two tackles hoisting and lowering simultaneously both whale and windlass heaving the heavers singing the blubberroom gentlemen coiling the mates scarfing the ship straining and all hands swearing occasionally by way of assuaging the general friction i have given no small attention to that not unvexed subject the skin of the whale i have had controversies about it with experienced whalemen afloat and learned naturalists ashore my original opinion remains unchanged but it is only an opinion the question is what and where is the skin of the whale that blubber is something of the consistence of firm closegrained beef but tougher more elastic and compact and ranges from eight or ten to twelve and fifteen inches in thickness now however preposterous it may at first seem to talk of any creatures skin as being of that sort of consistence and thickness yet in point of fact these are no arguments against such a presumption because you cannot raise any other dense enveloping layer from the whales body but that same blubber and the outermost enveloping layer of any animal if reasonably dense what can that be but the skin
they were relieved however not by her own recollection but by the good will of lucy who believed herself to be inflicting a severe disappointment when she told her that edward certainly would not be in harley street on tuesday and even hoped to be carrying the pain still farther by persuading her that he was kept away by the extreme affection for herself which he could not conceal when they were together the important tuesday came that was to introduce the two young ladies to this formidable motherinlaw said lucy as they walked up the stairs togetherfor the middletons arrived so directly after mrs jennings that they all followed the servant at the same timethere is nobody here but you that can feel for me in a moment i shall see the person that all my happiness depends onthat is to be my mother  elinor could have given her immediate relief by suggesting the possibility of its being miss mortons mother rather than her own whom they were about to behold but instead of doing that she assured her and with great sincerity that she did pity herto the utter amazement of lucy who though really uncomfortable herself hoped at least to be an object of irrepressible envy to elinor ferrars was a little thin woman upright even to formality in her figure and serious even to sourness in her aspect her complexion was sallow and her features small without beauty and naturally without expression but a lucky contraction of the brow had rescued her countenance from the disgrace of insipidity by giving it the strong characters of pride and ill nature she was not a woman of many words for unlike people in general she proportioned them to the number of her ideas and of the few syllables that did escape her not one fell to the share of miss dashwood whom she eyed with the spirited determination of disliking her at all events elinor could not now be made unhappy by this behaviour  a few months ago it would have hurt her exceedingly but it was not in mrs ferrars power to distress her by it nowand the difference of her manners to the miss steeles a difference which seemed purposely made to humble her more only amused her she could not but smile to see the graciousness of both mother and daughter towards the very person for lucy was particularly distinguishedwhom of all others had they known as much as she did they would have been most anxious to mortify while she herself who had comparatively no power to wound them sat pointedly slighted by both but while she smiled at a graciousness so misapplied she could not reflect on the meanspirited folly from which it sprung nor observe the studied attentions with which the miss steeles courted its continuance without thoroughly despising them all four lucy was all exultation on being so honorably distinguished and miss steele wanted only to be teazed about dr the dinner was a grand one the servants were numerous and every thing bespoke the mistresss inclination for show and the masters ability to support it in spite of the improvements and additions which were making to the norland estate and in spite of its owner having once been within some thousand pounds of being obliged to sell out at a loss nothing gave any symptom of that indigence which he had tried to infer from itno poverty of any kind except of conversation appearedbut there the deficiency was considerable john dashwood had not much to say for himself that was worth hearing and his wife had still less but there was no peculiar disgrace in this for it was very much the case with the chief of their visitors who almost all laboured under one or other of these disqualifications for being agreeablewant of sense either natural or improvedwant of elegancewant of spiritsor want of temper when the ladies withdrew to the drawingroom after dinner this poverty was particularly evident for the gentlemen had supplied the discourse with some varietythe variety of politics inclosing land and breaking horsesbut then it was all over and one subject only engaged the ladies till coffee came in which was the comparative heights of harry dashwood and lady middletons second son william who were nearly of the same age
its top is not more spacious than the palm of a mans hand and standing upon such a base as that flask seemed perched at the masthead of some ship which had sunk to all but her trucks but little kingpost was small and short and at the same time little kingpost was full of a large and tall ambition so that this loggerhead standpoint of his did by no means satisfy kingpost i cant see three seas off tip us up an oar there and let me on to that upon this daggoo with either hand upon the gunwale to steady his way swiftly slid aft and then erecting himself volunteered his lofty shoulders for a pedestal that i will and thank ye very much my fine fellow only i wish you fifty feet taller whereupon planting his feet firmly against two opposite planks of the boat the gigantic negro stooping a little presented his flat palm to flasks foot and then putting flasks hand on his hearseplumed head and bidding him spring as he himself should toss with one dexterous fling landed the little man high and dry on his shoulders and here was flask now standing daggoo with one lifted arm furnishing him with a breastband to lean against and steady himself by at any time it is a strange sight to the tyro to see with what wondrous habitude of unconscious skill the whaleman will maintain an erect posture in his boat even when pitched about by the most riotously perverse and crossrunning seas still more strange to see him giddily perched upon the loggerhead itself under such circumstances but the sight of little flask mounted upon gigantic daggoo was yet more curious for sustaining himself with a cool indifferent easy unthought of barbaric majesty the noble negro to every roll of the sea harmoniously rolled his fine form on his broad back flaxenhaired flask seemed a snowflake though truly vivacious tumultuous ostentatious little flask would now and then stamp with impatience but not one added heave did he thereby give to the negros lordly chest so have i seen passion and vanity stamping the living magnanimous earth but the earth did not alter her tides and her seasons for that meanwhile stubb the third mate betrayed no such fargazing solicitudes the whales might have made one of their regular soundings not a temporary dive from mere fright and if that were the case stubb as his wont in such cases it seems was resolved to solace the languishing interval with his pipe he withdrew it from his hatband where he always wore it aslant like a feather he loaded it and rammed home the loading with his thumbend but hardly had he ignited his match across the rough sandpaper of his hand when tashtego his harpooneer whose eyes had been setting to windward like two fixed stars suddenly dropped like light from his erect attitude to his seat crying out in a quick phrensy of hurry down down all and give way to a landsman no whale nor any sign of a herring would have been visible at that moment nothing but a troubled bit of greenish white water and thin scattered puffs of vapour hovering over it and suffusingly blowing off to leeward like the confused scud from white rolling billows the air around suddenly vibrated and tingled as it were like the air over intensely heated plates of iron beneath this atmospheric waving and curling and partially beneath a thin layer of water also the whales were swimming
he readily assured her of his secrecy again expressed his sorrow for her distress wished it a happier conclusion than there was at present reason to hope and leaving his compliments for her relations with only one serious parting look went away as he quitted the room elizabeth felt how improbable it was that they should ever see each other again on such terms of cordiality as had marked their several meetings in derbyshire and as she threw a retrospective glance over the whole of their acquaintance so full of contradictions and varieties sighed at the perverseness of those feelings which would now have promoted its continuance and would formerly have rejoiced in its termination if gratitude and esteem are good foundations of affection elizabeths change of sentiment will be neither improbable nor faulty but if otherwiseif regard springing from such sources is unreasonable or unnatural in comparison of what is so often described as arising on a first interview with its object and even before two words have been exchanged nothing can be said in her defence except that she had given somewhat of a trial to the latter method in her partiality for wickham and that its ill success might perhaps authorise her to seek the other less interesting mode of attachment be that as it may she saw him go with regret and in this early example of what lydias infamy must produce found additional anguish as she reflected on that wretched business never since reading janes second letter had she entertained a hope of wickhams meaning to marry her no one but jane she thought could flatter herself with such an expectation surprise was the least of her feelings on this development while the contents of the first letter remained in her mind she was all surpriseall astonishment that wickham should marry a girl whom it was impossible he could marry for money and how lydia could ever have attached him had appeared incomprehensible for such an attachment as this she might have sufficient charms and though she did not suppose lydia to be deliberately engaging in an elopement without the intention of marriage she had no difficulty in believing that neither her virtue nor her understanding would preserve her from falling an easy prey she had never perceived while the regiment was in hertfordshire that lydia had any partiality for him but she was convinced that lydia wanted only encouragement to attach herself to anybody sometimes one officer sometimes another had been her favourite as their attentions raised them in her opinion her affections had continually been fluctuating but never without an object the mischief of neglect and mistaken indulgence towards such a girloh she was wild to be at hometo hear to see to be upon the spot to share with jane in the cares that must now fall wholly upon her in a family so deranged a father absent a mother incapable of exertion and requiring constant attendance and though almost persuaded that nothing could be done for lydia her uncles interference seemed of the utmost importance and till he entered the room her impatience was severe gardiner had hurried back in alarm supposing by the servants account that their niece was taken suddenly ill but satisfying them instantly on that head she eagerly communicated the cause of their summons reading the two letters aloud and dwelling on the postscript of the last with trembling energy though lydia had never been a favourite with them mr not lydia only but all were concerned in it and after the first exclamations of surprise and horror mr elizabeth though expecting no less thanked him with tears of gratitude and all three being actuated by one spirit everything relating to their journey was speedily settled yes and i told him we should not be able to keep our engagement
it was one of those less lowering but still grey and gloomy enough mornings of the transition when with a fair wind the ship was rushing through the water with a vindictive sort of leaping and melancholy rapidity that as i mounted to the deck at the call of the forenoon watch so soon as i levelled my glance towards the taffrail foreboding shivers ran over me reality outran apprehension captain ahab stood upon his quarterdeck there seemed no sign of common bodily illness about him nor of the recovery from any he looked like a man cut away from the stake when the fire has overrunningly wasted all the limbs without consuming them or taking away one particle from their compacted aged robustness his whole high broad form seemed made of solid bronze and shaped in an unalterable mould like cellinis cast perseus threading its way out from among his grey hairs and continuing right down one side of his tawny scorched face and neck till it disappeared in his clothing you saw a slender rodlike mark lividly whitish it resembled that perpendicular seam sometimes made in the straight lofty trunk of a great tree when the upper lightning tearingly darts down it and without wrenching a single twig peels and grooves out the bark from top to bottom ere running off into the soil leaving the tree still greenly alive but branded whether that mark was born with him or whether it was the scar left by some desperate wound no one could certainly say by some tacit consent throughout the voyage little or no allusion was made to it especially by the mates but once tashtegos senior an old gayhead indian among the crew superstitiously asserted that not till he was full forty years old did ahab become that way branded and then it came upon him not in the fury of any mortal fray but in an elemental strife at sea yet this wild hint seemed inferentially negatived by what a grey manxman insinuated an old sepulchral man who having never before sailed out of nantucket had never ere this laid eye upon wild ahab nevertheless the old seatraditions the immemorial credulities popularly invested this old manxman with preternatural powers of discernment so that no white sailor seriously contradicted him when he said that if ever captain ahab should be tranquilly laid outwhich might hardly come to pass so he mutteredthen whoever should do that last office for the dead would find a birthmark on him from crown to sole so powerfully did the whole grim aspect of ahab affect me and the livid brand which streaked it that for the first few moments i hardly noted that not a little of this overbearing grimness was owing to the barbaric white leg upon which he partly stood it had previously come to me that this ivory leg had at sea been fashioned from the polished bone of the sperm whales jaw aye he was dismasted off japan said the old gayhead indian once but like his dismasted craft he shipped another mast without coming home for it i was struck with the singular posture he maintained upon each side of the pequods quarter deck and pretty close to the mizzen shrouds there was an auger hole bored about half an inch or so into the plank his bone leg steadied in that hole one arm elevated and holding by a shroud captain ahab stood erect looking straight out beyond the ships everpitching prow there was an infinity of firmest fortitude a determinate unsurrenderable wilfulness in the fixed and fearless forward dedication of that glance
but one night under cover of darkness and further concealed in a most cunning disguisement a desperate burglar slid into his happy home and robbed them all of everything and darker yet to tell the blacksmith himself did ignorantly conduct this burglar into his familys heart upon the opening of that fatal cork forth flew the fiend and shrivelled up his home now for prudent most wise and economic reasons the blacksmiths shop was in the basement of his dwelling but with a separate entrance to it so that always had the young and loving healthy wife listened with no unhappy nervousness but with vigorous pleasure to the stout ringing of her youngarmed old husbands hammer whose reverberations muffled by passing through the floors and walls came up to her not unsweetly in her nursery and so to stout labors iron lullaby the blacksmiths infants were rocked to slumber hadst thou taken this old blacksmith to thyself ere his full ruin came upon him then had the young widow had a delicious grief and her orphans a truly venerable legendary sire to dream of in their after years and all of them a carekilling competency but death plucked down some virtuous elder brother on whose whistling daily toil solely hung the responsibilities of some other family and left the worse than useless old man standing till the hideous rot of life should make him easier to harvest the blows of the basement hammer every day grew more and more between and each blow every day grew fainter than the last the wife sat frozen at the window with tearless eyes glitteringly gazing into the weeping faces of her children the bellows fell the forge choked up with cinders the house was sold the mother dived down into the long churchyard grass her children twice followed her thither and the houseless familyless old man staggered off a vagabond in crape his every woe unreverenced his grey head a scorn to flaxen curls death seems the only desirable sequel for a career like this but death is only a launching into the region of the strange untried it is but the first salutation to the possibilities of the immense remote the wild the watery the unshored therefore to the deathlonging eyes of such men who still have left in them some interior compunctions against suicide does the allcontributed and allreceptive ocean alluringly spread forth his whole plain of unimaginable taking terrors and wonderful newlife adventures and from the hearts of infinite pacifics the thousand mermaids sing to themcome hither brokenhearted here is another life without the guilt of intermediate death here are wonders supernatural without dying for them bury thyself in a life which to your now equally abhorred and abhorring landed world is more oblivious than death put up thy gravestone too within the churchyard and come hither till we marry thee  hearkening to these voices east and west by early sunrise and by fall of eve the blacksmiths soul responded aye i come with matted beard and swathed in a bristling sharkskin apron about midday perth was standing between his forge and anvil the latter placed upon an ironwood log with one hand holding a pikehead in the coals and with the other at his forges lungs when captain ahab came along carrying in his hand a small rustylooking leathern bag while yet a little distance from the forge moody ahab paused till at last perth withdrawing his iron from the fire began hammering it upon the anvilthe red mass sending off the sparks in thick hovering flights some of which flew close to ahab they are always flying in thy wake birds of good omen too but not to alllook here they burn but thouthou livst among them without a scorch because i am scorched all over captain ahab answered perth resting for a moment on his hammer i am past scorching not easily canst thou scorch a scar thy shrunk voice sounds too calmly sanely woeful to me in no paradise myself i am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad thou shouldst go mad blacksmith say why dost thou not go mad do the heavens yet hate thee that thou canst not go mad welding an old pikehead sir there were seams and dents in it
from all your furthest bounds pour ye now in ye bold billows of my whole foregone life and top this one piled comber of my death towards thee i roll thou alldestroying but unconquering whale to the last i grapple with thee from hells heart i stab at thee for hates sake i spit my last breath at thee sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool and since neither can be mine let me then tow to pieces while still chasing thee though tied to thee thou damned whale the harpoon was darted the stricken whale flew forward with igniting velocity the line ran through the groovesran foul ahab stooped to clear it he did clear it but the flying turn caught him round the neck and voicelessly as turkish mutes bowstring their victim he was shot out of the boat ere the crew knew he was gone next instant the heavy eyesplice in the ropes final end flew out of the starkempty tub knocked down an oarsman and smiting the sea disappeared in its depths for an instant the tranced boats crew stood still then turned soon they through dim bewildering mediums saw her sidelong fading phantom as in the gaseous fata morgana only the uppermost masts out of water while fixed by infatuation or fidelity or fate to their once lofty perches the pagan harpooneers still maintained their sinking lookouts on the sea and now concentric circles seized the lone boat itself and all its crew and each floating oar and every lancepole and spinning animate and inanimate all round and round in one vortex carried the smallest chip of the pequod out of sight but as the last whelmings intermixingly poured themselves over the sunken head of the indian at the mainmast leaving a few inches of the erect spar yet visible together with long streaming yards of the flag which calmly undulated with ironical coincidings over the destroying billows they almost touchedat that instant a red arm and a hammer hovered backwardly uplifted in the open air in the act of nailing the flag faster and yet faster to the subsiding spar a skyhawk that tauntingly had followed the maintruck downwards from its natural home among the stars pecking at the flag and incommoding tashtego there this bird now chanced to intercept its broad fluttering wing between the hammer and the wood and simultaneously feeling that etherial thrill the submerged savage beneath in his deathgasp kept his hammer frozen there and so the bird of heaven with archangelic shrieks and his imperial beak thrust upwards and his whole captive form folded in the flag of ahab went down with his ship which like satan would not sink to hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven along with her and helmeted herself with it now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides then all collapsed and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago epilogue and i only am escaped alone to tell thee job it so chanced that after the parsees disappearance i was he whom the fates ordained to take the place of ahabs bowsman when that bowsman assumed the vacant post the same who when on the last day the three men were tossed from out of the rocking boat was dropped astern so floating on the margin of the ensuing scene and in full sight of it when the halfspent suction of the sunk ship reached me i was then but slowly drawn towards the closing vortex round and round then and ever contracting towards the buttonlike black bubble at the axis of that slowly wheeling circle like another ixion i did revolve till gaining that vital centre the black bubble upward burst and now liberated by reason of its cunning spring and owing to its great buoyancy rising with great force the coffin lifebuoy shot lengthwise from the sea fell over and floated by my side buoyed up by that coffin for almost one whole day and night i floated on a soft and dirgelike main the unharming sharks they glided by as if with padlocks on their mouths the savage seahawks sailed with sheathed beaks
more than you think it really and intrinsically worth i might have sold it again the next day for more than i gave but with regard to the purchasemoney i might have been very unfortunate indeed for the stocks were at that time so low that if i had not happened to have the necessary sum in my bankers hands i must have sold out to very great loss other great and inevitable expenses too we have had on first coming to norland our respected father as you well know bequeathed all the stanhill effects that remained at norland and very valuable they were to your mother far be it from me to repine at his doing so he had an undoubted right to dispose of his own property as he chose but in consequence of it we have been obliged to make large purchases of linen china c you may guess after all these expenses how very far we must be from being rich and how acceptable mrs certainly said elinor and assisted by her liberality i hope you may yet live to be in easy circumstances another year or two may do much towards it he gravely replied but however there is still a great deal to be done there is not a stone laid of fannys greenhouse and nothing but the plan of the flowergarden marked out the old walnut trees are all come down to make room for it it will be a very fine object from many parts of the park and the flowergarden will slope down just before it and be exceedingly pretty we have cleared away all the old thorns that grew in patches over the brow elinor kept her concern and her censure to herself and was very thankful that marianne was not present to share the provocation having now said enough to make his poverty clear and to do away the necessity of buying a pair of earrings for each of his sisters in his next visit at grays his thoughts took a cheerfuller turn and he began to congratulate elinor on having such a friend as mrs she seems a most valuable woman indeedher house her style of living all bespeak an exceeding good income and it is an acquaintance that has not only been of great use to you hitherto but in the end may prove materially advantageous her inviting you to town is certainly a vast thing in your favour and indeed it speaks altogether so great a regard for you that in all probability when she dies you will not be forgotten nothing at all i should rather suppose for she has only her jointure which will descend to her children but it is not to be imagined that she lives up to her income few people of common prudence will do that and whatever she saves she will be able to dispose of and do you not think it more likely that she should leave it to her daughters than to us
then perceiving in elizabeth no inclination of replying she added unhappy as the event must be for lydia we may draw from it this useful lesson that loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable that one false step involves her in endless ruin that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex elizabeth lifted up her eyes in amazement but was too much oppressed to make any reply mary however continued to console herself with such kind of moral extractions from the evil before them in the afternoon the two elder miss bennets were able to be for halfanhour by themselves and elizabeth instantly availed herself of the opportunity of making any inquiries which jane was equally eager to satisfy after joining in general lamentations over the dreadful sequel of this event which elizabeth considered as all but certain and miss bennet could not assert to be wholly impossible the former continued the subject by saying but tell me all and everything about it which i have not already heard had they no apprehension of anything before the elopement took place colonel forster did own that he had often suspected some partiality especially on lydias side but nothing to give him any alarm he was coming to us in order to assure us of his concern before he had any idea of their not being gone to scotland when that apprehension first got abroad it hastened his journey and was denny convinced that wickham would not marry yes but when questioned by him denny denied knowing anything of their plans and would not give his real opinion about it he did not repeat his persuasion of their not marryingand from that i am inclined to hope he might have been misunderstood before and till colonel forster came himself not one of you entertained a doubt i suppose of their being really married how was it possible that such an idea should enter our brains i felt a little uneasya little fearful of my sisters happiness with him in marriage because i knew that his conduct had not been always quite right my father and mother knew nothing of that they only felt how imprudent a match it must be kitty then owned with a very natural triumph on knowing more than the rest of us that in lydias last letter she had prepared her for such a step she had known it seems of their being in love with each other many weeks and did colonel forster appear to think well of wickham himself i must confess that he did not speak so well of wickham as he formerly did and since this sad affair has taken place it is said that he left meryton greatly in debt but i hope this may be false
no not if it were to be by the side of barton covert and they were kept watching for two hours together it was only the last time they met that he had offered him one of follys puppies she was determined to drop his acquaintance immediately and she was very thankful that she had never been acquainted with him at all she wished with all her heart combe magna was not so near cleveland but it did not signify for it was a great deal too far off to visit she hated him so much that she was resolved never to mention his name again and she should tell everybody she saw how goodfornothing he was palmers sympathy was shewn in procuring all the particulars in her power of the approaching marriage and communicating them to elinor she could soon tell at what coachmakers the new carriage was building by what painter mr willoughbys portrait was drawn and at what warehouse miss greys clothes might be seen the calm and polite unconcern of lady middleton on the occasion was a happy relief to elinors spirits oppressed as they often were by the clamorous kindness of the others it was a great comfort to her to be sure of exciting no interest in one person at least among their circle of friends a great comfort to know that there was one who would meet her without feeling any curiosity after particulars or any anxiety for her sisters health every qualification is raised at times by the circumstances of the moment to more than its real value and she was sometimes worried down by officious condolence to rate goodbreeding as more indispensable to comfort than goodnature lady middleton expressed her sense of the affair about once every day or twice if the subject occurred very often by saying it is very shocking indeed and by the means of this continual though gentle vent was able not only to see the miss dashwoods from the first without the smallest emotion but very soon to see them without recollecting a word of the matter and having thus supported the dignity of her own sex and spoken her decided censure of what was wrong in the other she thought herself at liberty to attend to the interest of her own assemblies and therefore determined though rather against the opinion of sir john that as mrs willoughby would at once be a woman of elegance and fortune to leave her card with her as soon as she married colonel brandons delicate unobtrusive enquiries were never unwelcome to miss dashwood he had abundantly earned the privilege of intimate discussion of her sisters disappointment by the friendly zeal with which he had endeavoured to soften it and they always conversed with confidence his chief reward for the painful exertion of disclosing past sorrows and present humiliations was given in the pitying eye with which marianne sometimes observed him and the gentleness of her voice whenever though it did not often happen she was obliged or could oblige herself to speak to him these assured him that his exertion had produced an increase of goodwill towards himself and these gave elinor hopes of its being farther augmented hereafter but mrs jennings who knew nothing of all this who knew only that the colonel continued as grave as ever and that she could neither prevail on him to make the offer himself nor commission her to make it for him began at the end of two days to think that instead of midsummer they would not be married till michaelmas and by the end of a week that it would not be a match at all the good understanding between the colonel and miss dashwood seemed rather to declare that the honours of the mulberrytree the canal and the yew arbour would all be made over to her and mrs jennings had for some time ceased to think at all of mrs
from a reverie of this kind she was recalled at the end of some minutes by willoughby who rousing himself from a reverie at least equally painful started up in preparation for going and said there is no use in staying here i must be off i have business there from thence to town in a day or two she could not refuse to give him hershe pressed it with affection and you do think something better of me than you did said he letting it fall and leaning against the mantelpiece as if forgetting he was to go elinor assured him that she didthat she forgave pitied wished him wellwas even interested in his happinessand added some gentle counsel as to the behaviour most likely to promote it as to that said he i must rub through the world as well as i can if however i am allowed to think that you and yours feel an interest in my fate and actions it may be the meansit may put me on my guardat least it may be something to live for were i even by any blessed chance at liberty again elinor stopped him with a reproof and if that some one should be the very he whom of all others i could least bearbut i will not stay to rob myself of all your compassionate goodwill by shewing that where i have most injured i can least forgive chapter  elinor for some time after he left her for some time even after the sound of his carriage had died away remained too much oppressed by a crowd of ideas widely differing in themselves but of which sadness was the general result to think even of her sister willoughby he whom only half an hour ago she had abhorred as the most worthless of men willoughby in spite of all his faults excited a degree of commiseration for the sufferings produced by them which made her think of him as now separated for ever from her family with a tenderness a regret rather in proportion as she soon acknowledged within herselfto his wishes than to his merits she felt that his influence over her mind was heightened by circumstances which ought not in reason to have weight by that person of uncommon attraction that open affectionate and lively manner which it was no merit to possess and by that still ardent love for marianne which it was not even innocent to indulge but she felt that it was so long long before she could feel his influence less when at last she returned to the unconscious marianne she found her just awaking refreshed by so long and sweet a sleep to the extent of her hopes the past the present the future willoughbys visit mariannes safety and her mothers expected arrival threw her altogether into an agitation of spirits which kept off every indication of fatigue and made her only fearful of betraying herself to her sister short was the time however in which that fear could affect her for within half an hour after willoughbys leaving the house she was again called down stairs by the sound of another carriage eager to save her mother from every unnecessary moments horrible suspense she ran immediately into the hall and reached the outward door just in time to receive and support her as she entered it dashwood whose terror as they drew near the house had produced almost the conviction of mariannes being no more had no voice to inquire after her no voice even for elinor but she waiting neither for salutation nor inquiry instantly gave the joyful reliefand her mother catching it with all her usual warmth was in a moment as much overcome by her happiness as she had been before by her fears she was supported into the drawingroom between her daughter and her friendand there shedding tears of joy though still unable to speak embraced elinor again and again turning from her at intervals to press colonel brandons hand with a look which spoke at once her gratitude and her conviction of his sharing with herself in the bliss of the moment
for at such times crazy ahab the scheming unappeasedly steadfast hunter of the white whale this ahab that had gone to his hammock was not the agent that so caused him to burst from it in horror again the latter was the eternal living principle or soul in him and in sleep being for the time dissociated from the characterizing mind which at other times employed it for its outer vehicle or agent it spontaneously sought escape from the scorching contiguity of the frantic thing of which for the time it was no longer an integral but as the mind does not exist unless leagued with the soul therefore it must have been that in ahabs case yielding up all his thoughts and fancies to his one supreme purpose that purpose by its own sheer inveteracy of will forced itself against gods and devils into a kind of selfassumed independent being of its own nay could grimly live and burn while the common vitality to which it was conjoined fled horrorstricken from the unbidden and unfathered birth therefore the tormented spirit that glared out of bodily eyes when what seemed ahab rushed from his room was for the time but a vacated thing a formless somnambulistic being a ray of living light to be sure but without an object to colour and therefore a blankness in itself god help thee old man thy thoughts have created a creature in thee and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a prometheus a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever that vulture the very creature he creates so far as what there may be of a narrative in this book and indeed as indirectly touching one or two very interesting and curious particulars in the habits of sperm whales the foregoing chapter in its earlier part is as important a one as will be found in this volume but the leading matter of it requires to be still further and more familiarly enlarged upon in order to be adequately understood and moreover to take away any incredulity which a profound ignorance of the entire subject may induce in some minds as to the natural verity of the main points of this affair i care not to perform this part of my task methodically but shall be content to produce the desired impression by separate citations of items practically or reliably known to me as a whaleman and from these citations i take itthe conclusion aimed at will naturally follow of itself first i have personally known three instances where a whale after receiving a harpoon has effected a complete escape and after an interval in one instance of three years has been again struck by the same hand and slain when the two irons both marked by the same private cypher have been taken from the body in the instance where three years intervened between the flinging of the two harpoons and i think it may have been something more than that the man who darted them happening in the interval to go in a trading ship on a voyage to africa went ashore there joined a discovery party and penetrated far into the interior where he travelled for a period of nearly two years often endangered by serpents savages tigers poisonous miasmas with all the other common perils incident to wandering in the heart of unknown regions meanwhile the whale he had struck must also have been on its travels no doubt it had thrice circumnavigated the globe brushing with its flanks all the coasts of africa but to no purpose this man and this whale again came together and the one vanquished the other i say i myself have known three instances similar to this that is in two of them i saw the whales struck and upon the second attack saw the two irons with the respective marks cut in them afterwards taken from the dead fish in the threeyear instance it so fell out that i was in the boat both times first and last and the last time distinctly recognised a peculiar sort of huge mole under the whales eye which i had observed there three years previous i say three years but i am pretty sure it was more than that here are three instances then which i personally know the truth of but i have heard of many other instances from persons whose veracity in the matter there is no good ground to impeach secondly it is well known in the sperm whale fishery however ignorant the world ashore may be of it that there have been several memorable historical instances where a particular whale in the ocean has been at distant times and places popularly cognisable why such a whale became thus marked was not altogether and originally owing to his bodily peculiarities as distinguished from other whales for however peculiar in that respect any chance whale may be they soon put an end to his peculiarities by killing him and boiling him down into a peculiarly valuable oil no the reason was this that from the fatal experiences of the fishery there hung a terrible prestige of perilousness about such a whale as there did about rinaldo rinaldini insomuch that most fishermen were content to recognise him by merely touching their tarpaulins when he would be discovered lounging by them on the sea without seeking to cultivate a more intimate acquaintance like some poor devils ashore that happen to know an irascible great man they make distant unobtrusive salutations to him in the street lest if they pursued the acquaintance further they might receive a summary thump for their presumption
to the student of old roman walls the middle layer will furnish a curious parallel to the thin course of tiles always alternating with the stone in those wonderful relics of the antique and which undoubtedly contribute so much to the great strength of the masonry but as if this vast local power in the tendinous tail were not enough the whole bulk of the leviathan is knit over with a warp and woof of muscular fibres and filaments which passing on either side the loins and running down into the flukes insensibly blend with them and largely contribute to their might so that in the tail the confluent measureless force of the whole whale seems concentrated to a point could annihilation occur to matter this were the thing to do it nor does thisits amazing strength at all tend to cripple the graceful flexion of its motions where infantileness of ease undulates through a titanism of power on the contrary those motions derive their most appalling beauty from it real strength never impairs beauty or harmony but it often bestows it and in everything imposingly beautiful strength has much to do with the magic take away the tied tendons that all over seem bursting from the marble in the carved hercules and its charm would be gone as devout eckerman lifted the linen sheet from the naked corpse of goethe he was overwhelmed with the massive chest of the man that seemed as a roman triumphal arch when angelo paints even god the father in human form mark what robustness is there and whatever they may reveal of the divine love in the son the soft curled hermaphroditical italian pictures in which his idea has been most successfully embodied these pictures so destitute as they are of all brawniness hint nothing of any power but the mere negative feminine one of submission and endurance which on all hands it is conceded form the peculiar practical virtues of his teachings such is the subtle elasticity of the organ i treat of that whether wielded in sport or in earnest or in anger whatever be the mood it be in its flexions are invariably marked by exceeding grace first when used as a fin for progression second when used as a mace in battle third in sweeping fourth in lobtailing fifth in peaking flukes first being horizontal in its position the leviathans tail acts in a different manner from the tails of all other sea creatures to the whale his tail is the sole means of propulsion scrollwise coiled forwards beneath the body and then rapidly sprung backwards it is this which gives that singular darting leaping motion to the monster when furiously swimming second it is a little significant that while one sperm whale only fights another sperm whale with his head and jaw nevertheless in his conflicts with man he chiefly and contemptuously uses his tail in striking at a boat he swiftly curves away his flukes from it and the blow is only inflicted by the recoil if it be made in the unobstructed air especially if it descend to its mark the stroke is then simply irresistible your only salvation lies in eluding it but if it comes sideways through the opposing water then partly owing to the light buoyancy of the whale boat and the elasticity of its materials a cracked rib or a dashed plank or two a sort of stitch in the side is generally the most serious result these submerged side blows are so often received in the fishery that they are accounted mere childs play
he could number the fields in every direction and could tell how many trees there were in the most distant clump but of all the views which his garden or which the country or kingdom could boast none were to be compared with the prospect of rosings afforded by an opening in the trees that bordered the park nearly opposite the front of his house it was a handsome modern building well situated on rising ground collins would have led them round his two meadows but the ladies not having shoes to encounter the remains of a white frost turned back and while sir william accompanied him charlotte took her sister and friend over the house extremely well pleased probably to have the opportunity of showing it without her husbands help it was rather small but well built and convenient and everything was fitted up and arranged with a neatness and consistency of which elizabeth gave charlotte all the credit collins could be forgotten there was really an air of great comfort throughout and by charlottes evident enjoyment of it elizabeth supposed he must be often forgotten she had already learnt that lady catherine was still in the country it was spoken of again while they were at dinner when mr collins joining in observed yes miss elizabeth you will have the honour of seeing lady catherine de bourgh on the ensuing sunday at church and i need not say you will be delighted with her she is all affability and condescension and i doubt not but you will be honoured with some portion of her notice when service is over i have scarcely any hesitation in saying she will include you and my sister maria in every invitation with which she honours us during your stay here we dine at rosings twice every week and are never allowed to walk home i should say one of her ladyships carriages for she has several lady catherine is a very respectable sensible woman indeed added charlotte and a most attentive neighbour she is the sort of woman whom one cannot regard with too much deference the evening was spent chiefly in talking over hertfordshire news and telling again what had already been written and when it closed elizabeth in the solitude of her chamber had to meditate upon charlottes degree of contentment to understand her address in guiding and composure in bearing with her husband and to acknowledge that it was all done very well she had also to anticipate how her visit would pass the quiet tenor of their usual employments the vexatious interruptions of mr collins and the gaieties of their intercourse with rosings about the middle of the next day as she was in her room getting ready for a walk a sudden noise below seemed to speak the whole house in confusion and after listening a moment she heard somebody running up stairs in a violent hurry and calling loudly after her she opened the door and met maria in the landing place who breathless with agitation cried out oh my dear eliza
i am most thankful that the discovery is made in time for me to pay my respects to him which i am now going to do and trust he will excuse my not having done it before my total ignorance of the connection must plead my apology i shall entreat his pardon for not having done it earlier it will be in my power to assure him that her ladyship was quite well yesterday sennight elizabeth tried hard to dissuade him from such a scheme assuring him that mr darcy would consider his addressing him without introduction as an impertinent freedom rather than a compliment to his aunt that it was not in the least necessary there should be any notice on either side and that if it were it must belong to mr darcy the superior in consequence to begin the acquaintance collins listened to her with the determined air of following his own inclination and when she ceased speaking replied thus my dear miss elizabeth i have the highest opinion in the world in your excellent judgement in all matters within the scope of your understanding but permit me to say that there must be a wide difference between the established forms of ceremony amongst the laity and those which regulate the clergy for give me leave to observe that i consider the clerical office as equal in point of dignity with the highest rank in the kingdomprovided that a proper humility of behaviour is at the same time maintained you must therefore allow me to follow the dictates of my conscience on this occasion which leads me to perform what i look on as a point of duty pardon me for neglecting to profit by your advice which on every other subject shall be my constant guide though in the case before us i consider myself more fitted by education and habitual study to decide on what is right than a young lady like yourself darcy whose reception of his advances she eagerly watched and whose astonishment at being so addressed was very evident her cousin prefaced his speech with a solemn bow and though she could not hear a word of it she felt as if hearing it all and saw in the motion of his lips the words apology hunsford and lady catherine de bourgh it vexed her to see him expose himself to such a man darcy was eyeing him with unrestrained wonder and when at last mr collins allowed him time to speak replied with an air of distant civility collins however was not discouraged from speaking again and mr darcys contempt seemed abundantly increasing with the length of his second speech and at the end of it he only made him a slight bow and moved another way i have no reason i assure you said he to be dissatisfied with my reception he answered me with the utmost civility and even paid me the compliment of saying that he was so well convinced of lady catherines discernment as to be certain she could never bestow a favour unworthily as elizabeth had no longer any interest of her own to pursue she turned her attention almost entirely on her sister and mr
elinor was soon called to the cardtable by the conclusion of the first rubber and the confidential discourse of the two ladies was therefore at an end to which both of them submitted without any reluctance for nothing had been said on either side to make them dislike each other less than they had done before and 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 selfinterest alone could induce a woman to keep a man to an engagement of which she seemed so thoroughly aware that he was weary from this time the subject was never revived by elinor and when entered on by lucy who seldom missed an opportunity of introducing it and was particularly careful to inform her confidante of her happiness whenever she received a letter from edward it was treated by the former with calmness and caution and dismissed as soon as civility would allow for she felt such conversations to be an indulgence which lucy did not deserve and which were dangerous to herself the visit of the miss steeles at barton park was lengthened far beyond what the first invitation implied their favour increased they could not be spared sir john would not hear of their going and in spite of their numerous and long arranged engagements in exeter in spite of the absolute necessity of returning to fulfill them immediately which was in full force at the end of every week they were prevailed on to stay nearly two months at the park and to assist in the due celebration of that festival which requires a more than ordinary share of private balls and large dinners to proclaim its importance jennings was in the habit of spending a large portion of the year at the houses of her children and friends she was not without a settled habitation of her own since the death of her husband who had traded with success in a less elegant part of the town she had resided every winter in a house in one of the streets near portman square towards this home she began on the approach of january to turn her thoughts and thither she one day abruptly and very unexpectedly by them asked the elder misses dashwood to accompany her elinor without observing the varying complexion of her sister and the animated look which spoke no indifference to the plan immediately gave a grateful but absolute denial for both in which she believed herself to be speaking their united inclinations the reason alleged was their determined resolution of not leaving their mother at that time of the year jennings received the refusal with some surprise and repeated her invitation immediately i am sure your mother can spare you very well and i do beg you will favour me with your company for ive quite set my heart upon it dont fancy that you will be any inconvenience to me for i shant put myself at all out of my way for you it will only be sending betty by the coach and i hope i can afford that we three shall be able to go very well in my chaise and when we are in town if you do not like to go wherever i do well and good you may always go with one of my daughters i am sure your mother will not object to it for i have had such good luck in getting my own children off my hands that she will think me a very fit person to have the charge of you and if i dont get one of you at least well married before i have done with you it shall not be my fault i shall speak a good word for you to all the young men you may depend upon it i have a notion said sir john that miss marianne would not object to such a scheme if her elder sister would come into it it is very hard indeed that she should not have a little pleasure because miss dashwood does not wish it so i would advise you two to set off for town when you are tired of barton without saying a word to miss dashwood about it jennings i am sure i shall be monstrous glad of miss mariannes company whether miss dashwood will go or not only the more the merrier say i and i thought it would be more comfortable for them to be together because if they got tired of me they might talk to one another and laugh at my old ways behind my back
the cottage seemed to be considered and loved by him as his home many more of his hours were spent there than at allenham and if no general engagement collected them at the park the exercise which called him out in the morning was almost certain of ending there where the rest of the day was spent by himself at the side of marianne and by his favourite pointer at her feet one evening in particular about a week after colonel brandon left the country his heart seemed more than usually open to every feeling of attachment to the objects around him and on mrs dashwoods happening to mention her design of improving the cottage in the spring he warmly opposed every alteration of a place which affection had established as perfect with him not a stone must be added to its walls not an inch to its size if my feelings are regarded  do not be alarmed said miss dashwood nothing of the kind will be done for my mother will never have money enough to attempt it may she always be poor if she can employ her riches no better but you may be assured that i would not sacrifice one sentiment of local attachment of yours or of any one whom i loved for all the improvements in the world depend upon it that whatever unemployed sum may remain when i make up my accounts in the spring i would even rather lay it uselessly by than dispose of it in a manner so painful to you but are you really so attached to this place as to see no defect in it nay more i consider it as the only form of building in which happiness is attainable and were i rich enough i would instantly pull combe down and build it up again in the exact plan of this cottage with dark narrow stairs and a kitchen that smokes i suppose said elinor yes cried he in the same eager tone with all and every thing belonging to itin no one convenience or inconvenience about it should the least variation be perceptible then and then only under such a roof i might perhaps be as happy at combe as i have been at barton i flatter myself replied elinor that even under the disadvantage of better rooms and a broader staircase you will hereafter find your own house as faultless as you now do this there certainly are circumstances said willoughby which might greatly endear it to me but this place will always have one claim of my affection which no other can possibly share dashwood looked with pleasure at marianne whose fine eyes were fixed so expressively on willoughby as plainly denoted how well she understood him how often did i wish added he when i was at allenham this time twelvemonth that barton cottage were inhabited i never passed within view of it without admiring its situation and grieving that no one should live in it how little did i then think that the very first news i should hear from mrs smith when i next came into the country would be that barton cottage was taken and i felt an immediate satisfaction and interest in the event which nothing but a kind of prescience of what happiness i should experience from it can account for
there has been many a one i fancy overcome in the same way i wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love i have been used to consider poetry as the food of love said darcy but if it be only a slight thin sort of inclination i am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away darcy only smiled and the general pause which ensued made elizabeth tremble lest her mother should be exposing herself again she longed to speak but could think of nothing to say and after a short silence mrs bingley for his kindness to jane with an apology for troubling him also with lizzy bingley was unaffectedly civil in his answer and forced his younger sister to be civil also and say what the occasion required she performed her part indeed without much graciousness but mrs bennet was satisfied and soon afterwards ordered her carriage upon this signal the youngest of her daughters put herself forward the two girls had been whispering to each other during the whole visit and the result of it was that the youngest should tax mr bingley with having promised on his first coming into the country to give a ball at netherfield lydia was a stout wellgrown girl of fifteen with a fine complexion and goodhumoured countenance a favourite with her mother whose affection had brought her into public at an early age she had high animal spirits and a sort of natural selfconsequence which the attention of the officers to whom her uncles good dinners and her own easy manners recommended her had increased into assurance bingley on the subject of the ball and abruptly reminded him of his promise adding that it would be the most shameful thing in the world if he did not keep it his answer to this sudden attack was delightful to their mothers ear i am perfectly ready i assure you to keep my engagement and when your sister is recovered you shall if you please name the very day of the ball but you would not wish to be dancing when she is ill yesit would be much better to wait till jane was well and by that time most likely captain carter would be at meryton again and when you have given your ball she added i shall insist on their giving one also
colonel brandons partiality for marianne which had so early been discovered by his friends now first became perceptible to elinor when it ceased to be noticed by them their attention and wit were drawn off to his more fortunate rival and the raillery which the other had incurred before any partiality arose was removed when his feelings began really to call for the ridicule so justly annexed to sensibility elinor was obliged though unwillingly to believe that the sentiments which mrs jennings had assigned him for her own satisfaction were now actually excited by her sister and that however a general resemblance of disposition between the parties might forward the affection of mr willoughby an equally striking opposition of character was no hindrance to the regard of colonel brandon she saw it with concern for what could a silent man of five and thirty hope when opposed to a very lively one of five and twenty and as she could not even wish him successful she heartily wished him indifferent she liked himin spite of his gravity and reserve she beheld in him an object of interest his manners though serious were mild and his reserve appeared rather the result of some oppression of spirits than of any natural gloominess of temper sir john had dropped hints of past injuries and disappointments which justified her belief of his being an unfortunate man and she regarded him with respect and compassion perhaps she pitied and esteemed him the more because he was slighted by willoughby and marianne who prejudiced against him for being neither lively nor young seemed resolved to undervalue his merits brandon is just the kind of man said willoughby one day when they were talking of him together whom every body speaks well of and nobody cares about whom all are delighted to see and nobody remembers to talk to do not boast of it however said elinor for it is injustice in both of you he is highly esteemed by all the family at the park and i never see him myself without taking pains to converse with him that he is patronised by you replied willoughby is certainly in his favour but as for the esteem of the others it is a reproach in itself who would submit to the indignity of being approved by such a woman as lady middleton and mrs jennings that could command the indifference of any body else but perhaps the abuse of such people as yourself and marianne will make amends for the regard of lady middleton and her mother if their praise is censure your censure may be praise for they are not more undiscerning than you are prejudiced and unjust my protege as you call him is a sensible man and sense will always have attractions for me
more and more she leans over to the whale while every gasping heave of the windlass is answered by a helping heave from the billows till at last a swift startling snap is heard with a great swash the ship rolls upwards and backwards from the whale and the triumphant tackle rises into sight dragging after it the disengaged semicircular end of the first strip of blubber now as the blubber envelopes the whale precisely as the rind does an orange so is it stripped off from the body precisely as an orange is sometimes stripped by spiralizing it for the strain constantly kept up by the windlass continually keeps the whale rolling over and over in the water and as the blubber in one strip uniformly peels off along the line called the scarf simultaneously cut by the spades of starbuck and stubb the mates and just as fast as it is thus peeled off and indeed by that very act itself it is all the time being hoisted higher and higher aloft till its upper end grazes the maintop the men at the windlass then cease heaving and for a moment or two the prodigious blooddripping mass sways to and fro as if let down from the sky and every one present must take good heed to dodge it when it swings else it may box his ears and pitch him headlong overboard one of the attending harpooneers now advances with a long keen weapon called a boardingsword and watching his chance he dexterously slices out a considerable hole in the lower part of the swaying mass into this hole the end of the second alternating great tackle is then hooked so as to retain a hold upon the blubber in order to prepare for what follows whereupon this accomplished swordsman warning all hands to stand off once more makes a scientific dash at the mass and with a few sidelong desperate lunging slicings severs it completely in twain so that while the short lower part is still fast the long upper strip called a blanketpiece swings clear and is all ready for lowering the heavers forward now resume their song and while the one tackle is peeling and hoisting a second strip from the whale the other is slowly slackened away and down goes the first strip through the main hatchway right beneath into an unfurnished parlor called the blubberroom into this twilight apartment sundry nimble hands keep coiling away the long blanketpiece as if it were a great live mass of plaited serpents and thus the work proceeds the two tackles hoisting and lowering simultaneously both whale and windlass heaving the heavers singing the blubberroom gentlemen coiling the mates scarfing the ship straining and all hands swearing occasionally by way of assuaging the general friction i have given no small attention to that not unvexed subject the skin of the whale i have had controversies about it with experienced whalemen afloat and learned naturalists ashore my original opinion remains unchanged but it is only an opinion the question is what and where is the skin of the whale that blubber is something of the consistence of firm closegrained beef but tougher more elastic and compact and ranges from eight or ten to twelve and fifteen inches in thickness now however preposterous it may at first seem to talk of any creatures skin as being of that sort of consistence and thickness yet in point of fact these are no arguments against such a presumption because you cannot raise any other dense enveloping layer from the whales body but that same blubber and the outermost enveloping layer of any animal if reasonably dense what can that be but the skin true from the unmarred dead body of the whale you may scrape off with your hand an infinitely thin transparent substance somewhat resembling the thinnest shreds of isinglass only it is almost as flexible and soft as satin that is previous to being dried when it not only contracts and thickens but becomes rather hard and brittle i have several such dried bits which i use for marks in my whalebooks it is transparent as i said before and being laid upon the printed page i have sometimes pleased myself with fancying it exerted a magnifying influence at any rate it is pleasant to read about whales through their own spectacles as you may say that same infinitely thin isinglass substance which i admit invests the entire body of the whale is not so much to be regarded as the skin of the creature as the skin of the skin so to speak for it were simply ridiculous to say that the proper skin of the tremendous whale is thinner and more tender than the skin of a newborn child
elizabeth received them with all the forbearance of civility and at the request of the gentlemen remained at the instrument till her ladyships carriage was ready to take them all home chapter  elizabeth was sitting by herself the next morning and writing to jane while mrs collins and maria were gone on business into the village when she was startled by a ring at the door the certain signal of a visitor as she had heard no carriage she thought it not unlikely to be lady catherine and under that apprehension was putting away her halffinished letter that she might escape all impertinent questions when the door opened and to her very great surprise mr he seemed astonished too on finding her alone and apologised for his intrusion by letting her know that he had understood all the ladies were to be within they then sat down and when her inquiries after rosings were made seemed in danger of sinking into total silence it was absolutely necessary therefore to think of something and in this emergence recollecting when she had seen him last in hertfordshire and feeling curious to know what he would say on the subject of their hasty departure she observed how very suddenly you all quitted netherfield last november mr bingley to see you all after him so soon for if i recollect right he went but the day before he and his sisters were well i hope when you left london she found that she was to receive no other answer and after a short pause added i think i have understood that mr bingley has not much idea of ever returning to netherfield again i have never heard him say so but it is probable that he may spend very little of his time there in the future he has many friends and is at a time of life when friends and engagements are continually increasing if he means to be but little at netherfield it would be better for the neighbourhood that he should give up the place entirely for then we might possibly get a settled family there bingley did not take the house so much for the convenience of the neighbourhood as for his own and we must expect him to keep it or quit it on the same principle i should not be surprised said darcy if he were to give it up as soon as any eligible purchase offers she was afraid of talking longer of his friend and having nothing else to say was now determined to leave the trouble of finding a subject to him he took the hint and soon began with this seems a very comfortable house lady catherine i believe did a great deal to it when mr i believe she didand i am sure she could not have bestowed her kindness on a more grateful object
now gentlemen in squaresail brigs and threemasted ships wellnigh as large and stout as any that ever sailed out of your old callao to far manilla this lakeman in the landlocked heart of our america had yet been nurtured by all those agrarian freebooting impressions popularly connected with the open ocean for in their interflowing aggregate those grand freshwater seas of ourserie and ontario and huron and superior and michiganpossess an oceanlike expansiveness with many of the oceans noblest traits with many of its rimmed varieties of races and of climes they contain round archipelagoes of romantic isles even as the polynesian waters do in large part are shored by two great contrasting nations as the atlantic is they furnish long maritime approaches to our numerous territorial colonies from the east dotted all round their banks here and there are frowned upon by batteries and by the goatlike craggy guns of lofty mackinaw they have heard the fleet thunderings of naval victories at intervals they yield their beaches to wild barbarians whose red painted faces flash from out their peltry wigwams for leagues and leagues are flanked by ancient and unentered forests where the gaunt pines stand like serried lines of kings in gothic genealogies those same woods harboring wild afric beasts of prey and silken creatures whose exported furs give robes to tartar emperors they mirror the paved capitals of buffalo and cleveland as well as winnebago villages they float alike the fullrigged merchant ship the armed cruiser of the state the steamer and the beech canoe they are swept by borean and dismasting blasts as direful as any that lash the salted wave they know what shipwrecks are for out of sight of land however inland they have drowned full many a midnight ship with all its shrieking crew thus gentlemen though an inlander steelkilt was wildocean born and wildocean nurtured as much of an audacious mariner as any and for radney though in his infancy he may have laid him down on the lone nantucket beach to nurse at his maternal sea though in after life he had long followed our austere atlantic and your contemplative pacific yet was he quite as vengeful and full of social quarrel as the backwoods seaman fresh from the latitudes of buckhorn handled bowieknives yet was this nantucketer a man with some goodhearted traits and this lakeman a mariner who though a sort of devil indeed might yet by inflexible firmness only tempered by that common decency of human recognition which is the meanest slaves right thus treated this steelkilt had long been retained harmless and docile at all events he had proved so thus far but radney was doomed and made mad and steelkiltbut gentlemen you shall hear it was not more than a day or two at the furthest after pointing her prow for her island haven that the townhos leak seemed again increasing but only so as to require an hour or more at the pumps every day you must know that in a settled and civilized ocean like our atlantic for example some skippers think little of pumping their whole way across it though of a still sleepy night should the officer of the deck happen to forget his duty in that respect the probability would be that he and his shipmates would never again remember it on account of all hands gently subsiding to the bottom nor in the solitary and savage seas far from you to the westward gentlemen is it altogether unusual for ships to keep clanging at their pumphandles in full chorus even for a voyage of considerable length that is if it lie along a tolerably accessible coast or if any other reasonable retreat is afforded them it is only when a leaky vessel is in some very out of the way part of those waters some really landless latitude that her captain begins to feel a little anxious much this way had it been with the townho so when her leak was found gaining once more there was in truth some small concern manifested by several of her company especially by radney the mate he commanded the upper sails to be well hoisted sheeted home anew and every way expanded to the breeze now this radney i suppose was as little of a coward and as little inclined to any sort of nervous apprehensiveness touching his own person as any fearless unthinking creature on land or on sea that you can conveniently imagine gentlemen therefore when he betrayed this solicitude about the safety of the ship some of the seamen declared that it was only on account of his being a part owner in her so when they were working that evening at the pumps there was on this head no small gamesomeness slily going on among them as they stood with their feet continually overflowed by the rippling clear water clear as any mountain spring gentlementhat bubbling from the pumps ran across the deck and poured itself out in steady spouts at the lee scupperholes now as you well know it is not seldom the case in this conventional world of ourswatery or otherwise that when a person placed in command over his fellowmen finds one of them to be very significantly his superior in general pride of manhood straightway against that man he conceives an unconquerable dislike and bitterness and if he have a chance he will pull down and pulverize that subalterns tower and make a little heap of dust of it be this conceit of mine as it may gentlemen at all events steelkilt was a tall and noble animal with a head like a roman and a flowing golden beard like the tasseled housings of your last viceroys snorting charger and a brain and a heart and a soul in him gentlemen which had made steelkilt charlemagne had he been born son to charlemagnes father but radney the mate was ugly as a mule yet as hardy as stubborn as malicious espying the mate drawing near as he was toiling at the pump with the rest the lakeman affected not to notice him but unawed went on with his gay banterings
that glad happy air that winsome sky did at last stroke and caress him the stepmother world so long cruelforbiddingnow threw affectionate arms round his stubborn neck and did seem to joyously sob over him as if over one that however wilful and erring she could yet find it in her heart to save and to bless from beneath his slouched hat ahab dropped a tear into the sea nor did all the pacific contain such wealth as that one wee drop starbuck saw the old man saw him how he heavily leaned over the side and he seemed to hear in his own true heart the measureless sobbing that stole out of the centre of the serenity around careful not to touch him or be noticed by him he yet drew near to him and stood there on such a dayvery much such a sweetness as thisi struck my first whalea boyharpooneer of eighteen for forty years has ahab forsaken the peaceful land for forty years to make war on the horrors of the deep aye and yes starbuck out of those forty years i have not spent three ashore when i think of this life i have led the desolation of solitude it has been the masoned walledtown of a captains exclusiveness which admits but small entrance to any sympathy from the green country withoutoh weariness when i think of all this only halfsuspected not so keenly known to me beforeand how for forty years i have fed upon dry salted farefit emblem of the dry nourishment of my soil when the poorest landsman has had fresh fruit to his daily hand and broken the worlds fresh bread to my mouldy crustsaway whole oceans away from that young girlwife i wedded past fifty and sailed for cape horn the next day leaving but one dent in my marriage pillowwife aye i widowed that poor girl when i married her starbuck and then the madness the frenzy the boiling blood and the smoking brow with which for a thousand lowerings old ahab has furiously foamingly chased his preymore a demon than a man what a forty years foolfoolold fool has old ahab been why weary and palsy the arm at the oar and the iron and the lance is it not hard that with this weary load i bear one poor leg should have been snatched from under me here brush this old hair aside it blinds me that i seem to weep locks so grey did never grow but from out some ashes i feel deadly faint bowed and humped as though i were adam staggering beneath the piled centuries since paradise bitter biting mockery of grey hairs have i lived enough joy to wear ye and seem and feel thus intolerably old stand close to me starbuck let me look into a human eye it is better than to gaze into sea or sky better than to gaze upon god this is the magic glass man i see my wife and my child in thine eye
whether he had asked her pardon for his intrusion on first coming into the room he could not recollect but determining to be on the safe side he made his apology in form as soon as he could say any thing after taking a chair jennings told me said he that you wished to speak with me at least i understood her soor i certainly should not have intruded on you in such a manner though at the same time i should have been extremely sorry to leave london without seeing you and your sister especially as it will most likely be some timeit is not probable that i should soon have the pleasure of meeting you again you would not have gone however said elinor recovering herself and determined to get over what she so much dreaded as soon as possible without receiving our good wishes even if we had not been able to give them in person i have something of consequence to inform you of which i was on the point of communicating by paper i am charged with a most agreeable office breathing rather faster than usual as she spoke  colonel brandon who was here only ten minutes ago has desired me to say that understanding you mean to take orders he has great pleasure in offering you the living of delaford now just vacant and only wishes it were more valuable allow me to congratulate you on having so respectable and welljudging a friend and to join in his wish that the livingit is about two hundred ayearwere much more considerable and such as might better enable you toas might be more than a temporary accommodation to yourselfsuch in short as might establish all your views of happiness what edward felt as he could not say it himself it cannot be expected that any one else should say for him he looked all the astonishment which such unexpected such unthoughtof information could not fail of exciting but he said only these two words colonel brandon yes continued elinor gathering more resolution as some of the worst was over colonel brandon means it as a testimony of his concern for what has lately passedfor the cruel situation in which the unjustifiable conduct of your family has placed youa concern which i am sure marianne myself and all your friends must share and likewise as a proof of his high esteem for your general character and his particular approbation of your behaviour on the present occasion the unkindness of your own relations has made you astonished to find friendship any where no replied he with sudden consciousness not to find it in you for i cannot be ignorant that to you to your goodness i owe it all i feel iti would express it if i couldbut as you well know i am no orator i do assure you that you owe it entirely at least almost entirely to your own merit and colonel brandons discernment of it i did not even know till i understood his design that the living was vacant nor had it ever occurred to me that he might have had such a living in his gift as a friend of mine of my family he may perhapsindeed i know he has still greater pleasure in bestowing it but upon my word you owe nothing to my solicitation truth obliged her to acknowledge some small share in the action but she was at the same time so unwilling to appear as the benefactress of edward that she acknowledged it with hesitation which probably contributed to fix that suspicion in his mind which had recently entered it for a short time he sat deep in thought after elinor had ceased to speakat last and as if it were rather an effort he said colonel brandon seems a man of great worth and respectability i have always heard him spoken of as such and your brother i know esteems him highly he is undoubtedly a sensible man and in his manners perfectly the gentleman
you will be glad of a little company to sit with you i have brought my other son and daughter to see you i thought i heard a carriage last night while we were drinking our tea but it never entered my head that it could be them i thought of nothing but whether it might not be colonel brandon come back again so i said to sir john i do think i hear a carriage perhaps it is colonel brandon come back again  elinor was obliged to turn from her in the middle of her story to receive the rest of the party lady middleton introduced the two strangers mrs dashwood and margaret came down stairs at the same time and they all sat down to look at one another while mrs jennings continued her story as she walked through the passage into the parlour attended by sir john palmer was several years younger than lady middleton and totally unlike her in every respect she was short and plump had a very pretty face and the finest expression of good humour in it that could possibly be her manners were by no means so elegant as her sisters but they were much more prepossessing she came in with a smile smiled all the time of her visit except when she laughed and smiled when she went away her husband was a grave looking young man of five or six and twenty with an air of more fashion and sense than his wife but of less willingness to please or be pleased he entered the room with a look of selfconsequence slightly bowed to the ladies without speaking a word and after briefly surveying them and their apartments took up a newspaper from the table and continued to read it as long as he staid palmer on the contrary who was strongly endowed by nature with a turn for being uniformly civil and happy was hardly seated before her admiration of the parlour and every thing in it burst forth only think mama how it is improved since i was here last palmer made her no answer and did not even raise his eyes from the newspaper palmer does not hear me said she laughing he never does sometimes dashwood she had never been used to find wit in the inattention of any one and could not help looking with surprise at them both jennings in the meantime talked on as loud as she could and continued her account of their surprise the evening before on seeing their friends without ceasing till every thing was told palmer laughed heartily at the recollection of their astonishment and every body agreed two or three times over that it had been quite an agreeable surprise you may believe how glad we all were to see them added mrs
holding out her hand to me asking me for an explanation with those bewitching eyes fixed in such speaking solicitude on my face and sophia jealous as the devil on the other hand looking all that waswell it does not signify it is over now i ran away from you all as soon as i could but not before i had seen mariannes sweet face as white as death that was the last last look i ever had of herthe last manner in which she appeared to me yet when i thought of her today as really dying it was a kind of comfort to me to imagine that i knew exactly how she would appear to those who saw her last in this world she was before me constantly before me as i travelled in the same look and hue willoughby first rousing himself broke it thus well let me make haste and be gone your sister is certainly better certainly out of danger willoughby your own letter have you any thing to say about that your sister wrote to me again you know the very next morning i was breakfasting at the ellisonsand her letter with some others was brought to me there from my lodgings it happened to catch sophias eye before it caught mineand its size the elegance of the paper the handwriting altogether immediately gave her a suspicion some vague report had reached her before of my attachment to some young lady in devonshire and what had passed within her observation the preceding evening had marked who the young lady was and made her more jealous than ever affecting that air of playfulness therefore which is delightful in a woman one loves she opened the letter directly and read its contents her wretchedness i could have borne but her passionher maliceat all events it must be appeased and in shortwhat do you think of my wifes style of letterwriting yes but i had only the credit of servilely copying such sentences as i was ashamed to put my name to the original was all her ownher own happy thoughts and gentle diction we were engaged every thing in preparation the day almost fixedbut i am talking like a fool in honest words her money was necessary to me and in a situation like mine any thing was to be done to prevent a rupture
he had nothing to urge against it but still resisted the idea of a letter of proper submission and therefore to make it easier to him as he declared a much greater willingness to make mean concessions by word of mouth than on paper it was resolved that instead of writing to fanny he should go to london and personally intreat her good offices in his favour  and if they really do interest themselves said marianne in her new character of candour in bringing about a reconciliation i shall think that even john and fanny are not entirely without merit after a visit on colonel brandons side of only three or four days the two gentlemen quitted barton together  they were to go immediately to delaford that edward might have some personal knowledge of his future home and assist his patron and friend in deciding on what improvements were needed to it and from thence after staying there a couple of nights he was to proceed on his journey to town chapter  after a proper resistance on the part of mrs ferrars just so violent and so steady as to preserve her from that reproach which she always seemed fearful of incurring the reproach of being too amiable edward was admitted to her presence and pronounced to be again her son her family had of late been exceedingly fluctuating for many years of her life she had had two sons but the crime and annihilation of edward a few weeks ago had robbed her of one the similar annihilation of robert had left her for a fortnight without any and now by the resuscitation of edward she had one again in spite of his being allowed once more to live however he did not feel the continuance of his existence secure till he had revealed his present engagement for the publication of that circumstance he feared might give a sudden turn to his constitution and carry him off as rapidly as before with apprehensive caution therefore it was revealed and he was listened to with unexpected calmness ferrars at first reasonably endeavoured to dissuade him from marrying miss dashwood by every argument in her powertold him that in miss morton he would have a woman of higher rank and larger fortuneand enforced the assertion by observing that miss morton was the daughter of a nobleman with thirty thousand pounds while miss dashwood was only the daughter of a private gentleman with no more than three but when she found that though perfectly admitting the truth of her representation he was by no means inclined to be guided by it she judged it wisest from the experience of the past to submitand therefore after such an ungracious delay as she owed to her own dignity and as served to prevent every suspicion of goodwill she issued her decree of consent to the marriage of edward and elinor what she would engage to do towards augmenting their income was next to be considered and here it plainly appeared that though edward was now her only son he was by no means her eldest for while robert was inevitably endowed with a thousand pounds ayear not the smallest objection was made against edwards taking orders for the sake of two hundred and fifty at the utmost nor was anything promised either for the present or in future beyond the ten thousand pounds which had been given with fanny it was as much however as was desired and more than was expected by edward and elinor and mrs ferrars herself by her shuffling excuses seemed the only person surprised at her not giving more with an income quite sufficient to their wants thus secured to them they had nothing to wait for after edward was in possession of the living but the readiness of the house to which colonel brandon with an eager desire for the accommodation of elinor was making considerable improvements and after waiting some time for their completion after experiencing as usual a thousand disappointments and delays from the unaccountable dilatoriness of the workmen elinor as usual broke through the first positive resolution of not marrying till every thing was ready and the ceremony took place in barton church early in the autumn the first month after their marriage was spent with their friend at the mansionhouse from whence they could superintend the progress of the parsonage and direct every thing as they liked on the spotcould chuse papers project shrubberies and invent a sweep jenningss prophecies though rather jumbled together were chiefly fulfilled for she was able to visit edward and his wife in their parsonage by michaelmas and she found in elinor and her husband as she really believed one of the happiest couples in the world they had in fact nothing to wish for but the marriage of colonel brandon and marianne and rather better pasturage for their cows they were visited on their first settling by almost all their relations and friends ferrars came to inspect the happiness which she was almost ashamed of having authorised and even the dashwoods were at the expense of a journey from sussex to do them honour
willoughbys portrait was drawn and at what warehouse miss greys clothes might be seen the calm and polite unconcern of lady middleton on the occasion was a happy relief to elinors spirits oppressed as they often were by the clamorous kindness of the others it was a great comfort to her to be sure of exciting no interest in one person at least among their circle of friends a great comfort to know that there was one who would meet her without feeling any curiosity after particulars or any anxiety for her sisters health every qualification is raised at times by the circumstances of the moment to more than its real value and she was sometimes worried down by officious condolence to rate goodbreeding as more indispensable to comfort than goodnature lady middleton expressed her sense of the affair about once every day or twice if the subject occurred very often by saying it is very shocking indeed and by the means of this continual though gentle vent was able not only to see the miss dashwoods from the first without the smallest emotion but very soon to see them without recollecting a word of the matter and having thus supported the dignity of her own sex and spoken her decided censure of what was wrong in the other she thought herself at liberty to attend to the interest of her own assemblies and therefore determined though rather against the opinion of sir john that as mrs willoughby would at once be a woman of elegance and fortune to leave her card with her as soon as she married colonel brandons delicate unobtrusive enquiries were never unwelcome to miss dashwood he had abundantly earned the privilege of intimate discussion of her sisters disappointment by the friendly zeal with which he had endeavoured to soften it and they always conversed with confidence his chief reward for the painful exertion of disclosing past sorrows and present humiliations was given in the pitying eye with which marianne sometimes observed him and the gentleness of her voice whenever though it did not often happen she was obliged or could oblige herself to speak to him these assured him that his exertion had produced an increase of goodwill towards himself and these gave elinor hopes of its being farther augmented hereafter but mrs jennings who knew nothing of all this who knew only that the colonel continued as grave as ever and that she could neither prevail on him to make the offer himself nor commission her to make it for him began at the end of two days to think that instead of midsummer they would not be married till michaelmas and by the end of a week that it would not be a match at all the good understanding between the colonel and miss dashwood seemed rather to declare that the honours of the mulberrytree the canal and the yew arbour would all be made over to her and mrs jennings had for some time ceased to think at all of mrs early in february within a fortnight from the receipt of willoughbys letter elinor had the painful office of informing her sister that he was married she had taken care to have the intelligence conveyed to herself as soon as it was known that the ceremony was over as she was desirous that marianne should not receive the first notice of it from the public papers which she saw her eagerly examining every morning she received the news with resolute composure made no observation on it and at first shed no tears but after a short time they would burst out and for the rest of the day she was in a state hardly less pitiable than when she first learnt to expect the event the willoughbys left town as soon as they were married and elinor now hoped as there could be no danger of her seeing either of them to prevail on her sister who had never yet left the house since the blow first fell to go out again by degrees as she had done before about this time the two miss steeles lately arrived at their cousins house in bartletts buildings holburn presented themselves again before their more grand relations in conduit and berkeley streets and were welcomed by them all with great cordiality their presence always gave her pain and she hardly knew how to make a very gracious return to the overpowering delight of lucy in finding her still in town
if a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it she may lose the opportunity of fixing him and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark there is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment that it is not safe to leave any to itself we can all begin freelya slight preference is natural enough but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement in nine cases out of ten a women had better show more affection than she feels bingley likes your sister undoubtedly but he may never do more than like her if she does not help him on but she does help him on as much as her nature will allow if i can perceive her regard for him he must be a simpleton indeed not to discover it too remember eliza that he does not know janes disposition as you do but if a woman is partial to a man and does not endeavour to conceal it he must find it out but though bingley and jane meet tolerably often it is never for many hours together and as they always see each other in large mixed parties it is impossible that every moment should be employed in conversing together jane should therefore make the most of every halfhour in which she can command his attention when she is secure of him there will be more leisure for falling in love as much as she chooses your plan is a good one replied elizabeth where nothing is in question but the desire of being well married and if i were determined to get a rich husband or any husband i dare say i should adopt it but these are not janes feelings she is not acting by design as yet she cannot even be certain of the degree of her own regard nor of its reasonableness she danced four dances with him at meryton she saw him one morning at his own house and has since dined with him in company four times this is not quite enough to make her understand his character had she merely dined with him she might only have discovered whether he had a good appetite but you must remember that four evenings have also been spent togetherand four evenings may do a great deal yes these four evenings have enabled them to ascertain that they both like vingtun better than commerce but with respect to any other leading characteristic i do not imagine that much has been unfolded well said charlotte i wish jane success with all my heart and if she were married to him tomorrow i should think she had as good a chance of happiness as if she were to be studying his character for a twelvemonth
all night a wideawake watch was kept by all the officers forward and aft especially about the forecastle scuttle and fore hatchway at which last place it was feared the insurgents might emerge after breaking through the bulkhead below but the hours of darkness passed in peace the men who still remained at their duty toiling hard at the pumps whose clinking and clanking at intervals through the dreary night dismally resounded through the ship at sunrise the captain went forward and knocking on the deck summoned the prisoners to work but with a yell they refused water was then lowered down to them and a couple of handfuls of biscuit were tossed after it when again turning the key upon them and pocketing it the captain returned to the quarterdeck twice every day for three days this was repeated but on the fourth morning a confused wrangling and then a scuffling was heard as the customary summons was delivered and suddenly four men burst up from the forecastle saying they were ready to turn to the fetid closeness of the air and a famishing diet united perhaps to some fears of ultimate retribution had constrained them to surrender at discretion emboldened by this the captain reiterated his demand to the rest but steelkilt shouted up to him a terrific hint to stop his babbling and betake himself where he belonged on the fifth morning three others of the mutineers bolted up into the air from the desperate arms below that sought to restrain them it was at this point gentlemen that enraged by the defection of seven of his former associates and stung by the mocking voice that had last hailed him and maddened by his long entombment in a place as black as the bowels of despair it was then that steelkilt proposed to the two canallers thus far apparently of one mind with him to burst out of their hole at the next summoning of the garrison and armed with their keen mincing knives long crescentic heavy implements with a handle at each end run amuck from the bowsprit to the taffrail and if by any devilishness of desperation possible seize the ship for himself he would do this he said whether they joined him or not that was the last night he should spend in that den but the scheme met with no opposition on the part of the other two they swore they were ready for that or for any other mad thing for anything in short but a surrender and what was more they each insisted upon being the first man on deck when the time to make the rush should come but to this their leader as fiercely objected reserving that priority for himself particularly as his two comrades would not yield the one to the other in the matter and both of them could not be first for the ladder would but admit one man at a time and here gentlemen the foul play of these miscreants must come out upon hearing the frantic project of their leader each in his own separate soul had suddenly lighted it would seem upon the same piece of treachery namely to be foremost in breaking out in order to be the first of the three though the last of the ten to surrender and thereby secure whatever small chance of pardon such conduct might merit but when steelkilt made known his determination still to lead them to the last they in some way by some subtle chemistry of villany mixed their before secret treacheries together and when their leader fell into a doze verbally opened their souls to each other in three sentences and bound the sleeper with cords and gagged him with cords and shrieked out for the captain at midnight thinking murder at hand and smelling in the dark for the blood he and all his armed mates and harpooneers rushed for the forecastle in a few minutes the scuttle was opened and bound hand and foot the still struggling ringleader was shoved up into the air by his perfidious allies who at once claimed the honour of securing a man who had been fully ripe for murder but all these were collared and dragged along the deck like dead cattle and side by side were seized up into the mizzen rigging like three quarters of meat and there they hung till morning
sacred to the memory of the late captain ezekiel hardy who in the bows of his boat was killed by a sperm whale on the coast of japan august d  shaking off the sleet from my iceglazed hat and jacket i seated myself near the door and turning sideways was surprised to see queequeg near me affected by the solemnity of the scene there was a wondering gaze of incredulous curiosity in his countenance this savage was the only person present who seemed to notice my entrance because he was the only one who could not read and therefore was not reading those frigid inscriptions on the wall whether any of the relatives of the seamen whose names appeared there were now among the congregation i knew not but so many are the unrecorded accidents in the fishery and so plainly did several women present wear the countenance if not the trappings of some unceasing grief that i feel sure that here before me were assembled those in whose unhealing hearts the sight of those bleak tablets sympathetically caused the old wounds to bleed afresh ye whose dead lie buried beneath the green grass who standing among flowers can sayhere here lies my beloved ye know not the desolation that broods in bosoms like these what bitter blanks in those blackbordered marbles which cover no ashes what deadly voids and unbidden infidelities in the lines that seem to gnaw upon all faith and refuse resurrections to the beings who have placelessly perished without a grave as well might those tablets stand in the cave of elephanta as here in what census of living creatures the dead of mankind are included why it is that a universal proverb says of them that they tell no tales though containing more secrets than the goodwin sands how it is that to his name who yesterday departed for the other world we prefix so significant and infidel a word and yet do not thus entitle him if he but embarks for the remotest indies of this living earth why the life insurance companies pay deathforfeitures upon immortals in what eternal unstirring paralysis and deadly hopeless trance yet lies antique adam who died sixty round centuries ago how it is that we still refuse to be comforted for those who we nevertheless maintain are dwelling in unspeakable bliss why all the living so strive to hush all the dead wherefore but the rumor of a knocking in a tomb will terrify a whole city but faith like a jackal feeds among the tombs and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope it needs scarcely to be told with what feelings on the eve of a nantucket voyage i regarded those marble tablets and by the murky light of that darkened doleful day read the fate of the whalemen who had gone before me delightful inducements to embark fine chance for promotion it seemsaye a stove boat will make me an immortal by brevet yes there is death in this business of whalinga speechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into eternity methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of life and death methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance methinks that in looking at things spiritual we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air methinks my body is but the lees of my better being in fact take my body who will take it i say it is not me and therefore three cheers for nantucket and come a stove boat and stove body when they will for stave my soul jove himself cannot
it was there our acquaintance begun for my sister and me was often staying with my uncle and it was there our engagement was formed though not till a year after he had quitted as a pupil but he was almost always with us afterwards i was very unwilling to enter into it as you may imagine without the knowledge and approbation of his mother but i was too young and loved him too well to be so prudent as i ought to have been  though you do not know him so well as me miss dashwood you must have seen enough of him to be sensible he is very capable of making a woman sincerely attached to him certainly answered elinor without knowing what she said but after a moments reflection she added with revived security of edwards honour and love and her companions falsehoodengaged to mr i confess myself so totally surprised at what you tell me that reallyi beg your pardon but surely there must be some mistake of person or name ferrars of park street and brother of your sisterinlaw mrs john dashwood is the person i mean you must allow that i am not likely to be deceived as to the name of the man on who all my happiness depends it is strange replied elinor in a most painful perplexity that i should never have heard him even mention your name  you knew nothing of me or my family and therefore there could be no occasion for ever mentioning my name to you and as he was always particularly afraid of his sisters suspecting any thing that was reason enough for his not mentioning it elinors security sunk but her selfcommand did not sink with it four years you have been engaged said she with a firm voice yes and heaven knows how much longer we may have to wait then taking a small miniature from her pocket she added to prevent the possibility of mistake be so good as to look at this face it does not do him justice to be sure but yet i think you cannot be deceived as to the person it was drew for she put it into her hands as she spoke and when elinor saw the painting whatever other doubts her fear of a too hasty decision or her wish of detecting falsehood might suffer to linger in her mind she could have none of its being edwards face she returned it almost instantly acknowledging the likeness i have never been able continued lucy to give him my picture in return which i am very much vexed at for he has been always so anxious to get it but i am determined to set for it the very first opportunity i am sure said she i have no doubt in the world of your faithfully keeping this secret because you must know of what importance it is to us not to have it reach his mother for she would never approve of it i dare say i shall have no fortune and i fancy she is an exceeding proud woman
bennet offended by his manner of mentioning a country neighbourhood i assure you there is quite as much of that going on in the country as in town everybody was surprised and darcy after looking at her for a moment turned silently away bennet who fancied she had gained a complete victory over him continued her triumph i cannot see that london has any great advantage over the country for my part except the shops and public places when i am in the country he replied i never wish to leave it and when i am in town it is pretty much the same they have each their advantages and i can be equally happy in either but that gentleman looking at darcy seemed to think the country was nothing at all indeed mamma you are mistaken said elizabeth blushing for her mother he only meant that there was not such a variety of people to be met with in the country as in the town which you must acknowledge to be true certainly my dear nobody said there were but as to not meeting with many people in this neighbourhood i believe there are few neighbourhoods larger nothing but concern for elizabeth could enable bingley to keep his countenance his sister was less delicate and directed her eyes towards mr elizabeth for the sake of saying something that might turn her mothers thoughts now asked her if charlotte lucas had been at longbourn since her coming away that is my idea of good breeding and those persons who fancy themselves very important and never open their mouths quite mistake the matter bingley i always keep servants that can do their own work my daughters are brought up very differently but everybody is to judge for themselves and the lucases are a very good sort of girls i assure you not that i think charlotte so very plainbut then she is our particular friend lady lucas herself has often said so and envied me janes beauty i do not like to boast of my own child but to be sure janeone does not often see anybody better looking
he began to feel the danger of paying elizabeth too much attention chapter  in consequence of an agreement between the sisters elizabeth wrote the next morning to their mother to beg that the carriage might be sent for them in the course of the day bennet who had calculated on her daughters remaining at netherfield till the following tuesday which would exactly finish janes week could not bring herself to receive them with pleasure before her answer therefore was not propitious at least not to elizabeths wishes for she was impatient to get home bennet sent them word that they could not possibly have the carriage before tuesday and in her postscript it was added that if mr bingley and his sister pressed them to stay longer she could spare them very well against staying longer however elizabeth was positively resolvednor did she much expect it would be asked and fearful on the contrary as being considered as intruding themselves needlessly long she urged jane to borrow mr bingleys carriage immediately and at length it was settled that their original design of leaving netherfield that morning should be mentioned and the request made the communication excited many professions of concern and enough was said of wishing them to stay at least till the following day to work on jane and till the morrow their going was deferred miss bingley was then sorry that she had proposed the delay for her jealousy and dislike of one sister much exceeded her affection for the other the master of the house heard with real sorrow that they were to go so soon and repeatedly tried to persuade miss bennet that it would not be safe for herthat she was not enough recovered but jane was firm where she felt herself to be right darcy it was welcome intelligenceelizabeth had been at netherfield long enough she attracted him more than he likedand miss bingley was uncivil to her and more teasing than usual to himself he wisely resolved to be particularly careful that no sign of admiration should now escape him nothing that could elevate her with the hope of influencing his felicity sensible that if such an idea had been suggested his behaviour during the last day must have material weight in confirming or crushing it steady to his purpose he scarcely spoke ten words to her through the whole of saturday and though they were at one time left by themselves for halfanhour he adhered most conscientiously to his book and would not even look at her on sunday after morning service the separation so agreeable to almost all took place miss bingleys civility to elizabeth increased at last very rapidly as well as her affection for jane and when they parted after assuring the latter of the pleasure it would always give her to see her either at longbourn or netherfield and embracing her most tenderly she even shook hands with the former elizabeth took leave of the whole party in the liveliest of spirits they were not welcomed home very cordially by their mother bennet wondered at their coming and thought them very wrong to give so much trouble and was sure jane would have caught cold again
it was consequently necessary to name some other period for the commencement of actual felicityto have some other point on which her wishes and hopes might be fixed and by again enjoying the pleasure of anticipation console herself for the present and prepare for another disappointment her tour to the lakes was now the object of her happiest thoughts it was her best consolation for all the uncomfortable hours which the discontentedness of her mother and kitty made inevitable and could she have included jane in the scheme every part of it would have been perfect but it is fortunate thought she that i have something to wish for were the whole arrangement complete my disappointment would be certain but here by carrying with me one ceaseless source of regret in my sisters absence i may reasonably hope to have all my expectations of pleasure realised a scheme of which every part promises delight can never be successful and general disappointment is only warded off by the defence of some little peculiar vexation when lydia went away she promised to write very often and very minutely to her mother and kitty but her letters were always long expected and always very short those to her mother contained little else than that they were just returned from the library where such and such officers had attended them and where she had seen such beautiful ornaments as made her quite wild that she had a new gown or a new parasol which she would have described more fully but was obliged to leave off in a violent hurry as mrs forster called her and they were going off to the camp and from her correspondence with her sister there was still less to be learntfor her letters to kitty though rather longer were much too full of lines under the words to be made public after the first fortnight or three weeks of her absence health good humour and cheerfulness began to reappear at longbourn the families who had been in town for the winter came back again and summer finery and summer engagements arose bennet was restored to her usual querulous serenity and by the middle of june kitty was so much recovered as to be able to enter meryton without tears an event of such happy promise as to make elizabeth hope that by the following christmas she might be so tolerably reasonable as not to mention an officer above once a day unless by some cruel and malicious arrangement at the war office another regiment should be quartered in meryton the time fixed for the beginning of their northern tour was now fast approaching and a fortnight only was wanting of it when a letter arrived from mrs gardiner which at once delayed its commencement and curtailed its extent gardiner would be prevented by business from setting out till a fortnight later in july and must be in london again within a month and as that left too short a period for them to go so far and see so much as they had proposed or at least to see it with the leisure and comfort they had built on they were obliged to give up the lakes and substitute a more contracted tour and according to the present plan were to go no farther northwards than derbyshire in that county there was enough to be seen to occupy the chief of their three weeks and to mrs the town where she had formerly passed some years of her life and where they were now to spend a few days was probably as great an object of her curiosity as all the celebrated beauties of matlock chatsworth dovedale or the peak elizabeth was excessively disappointed she had set her heart on seeing the lakes and still thought there might have been time enough but it was her business to be satisfiedand certainly her temper to be happy and all was soon right again with the mention of derbyshire there were many ideas connected
aye hes chasing me now not i himthats bad i might have known it too steering as she had done the wind had been somewhat on the pequods quarter so that now being pointed in the reverse direction the braced ship sailed hard upon the breeze as she rechurned the cream in her own white wake against the wind he now steers for the open jaw murmured starbuck to himself as he coiled the newhauled mainbrace upon the rail god keep us but already my bones feel damp within me and from the inside wet my flesh aye aye sir and straightway starbuck did ahabs bidding and once more ahab swung on high time itself now held long breaths with keen suspense but at last some three points off the weather bow ahab descried the spout again and instantly from the three mastheads three shrieks went up as if the tongues of fire had voiced it forehead to forehead i meet thee this third time moby dick but let me have one more good round look aloft here at the sea theres time for that an old old sight and yet somehow so young aye and not changed a wink since i first saw it a boy from the sandhills of nantucket they must lead somewhereto something else than common land more palmy than the palms the white whale goes that way look to windward then the better if the bitterer quarter theres the difference now between mans old age and matters but aye old mast we both grow old together sound in our hulls though are we not my ship by heaven this dead wood has the better of my live flesh every way i cant compare with it and ive known some ships made of dead trees outlast the lives of men made of the most vital stuff of vital fathers he should still go before me my pilot and yet to be seen again will i have eyes at the bottom of the sea supposing i descend those endless stairs and all night ive been sailing from him wherever he did sink to aye aye like many more thou toldst direful truth as touching thyself o parsee but ahab there thy shot fell short
you showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased i believed you to be wishing expecting my addresses my manners must have been in fault but not intentionally i assure you i never meant to deceive you but my spirits might often lead me wrong i was angry perhaps at first but my anger soon began to take a proper direction i am almost afraid of asking what you thought of me when we met at pemberley your surprise could not be greater than mine in being noticed by you my conscience told me that i deserved no extraordinary politeness and i confess that i did not expect to receive more than my due my object then replied darcy was to show you by every civility in my power that i was not so mean as to resent the past and i hoped to obtain your forgiveness to lessen your ill opinion by letting you see that your reproofs had been attended to how soon any other wishes introduced themselves i can hardly tell but i believe in about half an hour after i had seen you he then told her of georgianas delight in her acquaintance and of her disappointment at its sudden interruption which naturally leading to the cause of that interruption she soon learnt that his resolution of following her from derbyshire in quest of her sister had been formed before he quitted the inn and that his gravity and thoughtfulness there had arisen from no other struggles than what such a purpose must comprehend she expressed her gratitude again but it was too painful a subject to each to be dwelt on farther after walking several miles in a leisurely manner and too busy to know anything about it they found at last on examining their watches that it was time to be at home was a wonder which introduced the discussion of their affairs darcy was delighted with their engagement his friend had given him the earliest information of it and though he exclaimed at the term she found that it had been pretty much the case on the evening before my going to london said he i made a confession to him which i believe i ought to have made long ago i told him of all that had occurred to make my former interference in his affairs absurd and impertinent i told him moreover that i believed myself mistaken in supposing as i had done that your sister was indifferent to him and as i could easily perceive that his attachment to her was unabated i felt no doubt of their happiness together elizabeth could not help smiling at his easy manner of directing his friend
more than all his treacherous retreats struck more of dismay than perhaps aught else for when swimming before his exulting pursuers with every apparent symptom of alarm he had several times been known to turn round suddenly and bearing down upon them either stave their boats to splinters or drive them back in consternation to their ship but though similar disasters however little bruited ashore were by no means unusual in the fishery yet in most instances such seemed the white whales infernal aforethought of ferocity that every dismembering or death that he caused was not wholly regarded as having been inflicted by an unintelligent agent judge then to what pitches of inflamed distracted fury the minds of his more desperate hunters were impelled when amid the chips of chewed boats and the sinking limbs of torn comrades they swam out of the white curds of the whales direful wrath into the serene exasperating sunlight that smiled on as if at a birth or a bridal his three boats stove around him and oars and men both whirling in the eddies one captain seizing the lineknife from his broken prow had dashed at the whale as an arkansas duellist at his foe blindly seeking with a six inch blade to reach the fathomdeep life of the whale and then it was that suddenly sweeping his sickleshaped lower jaw beneath him moby dick had reaped away ahabs leg as a mower a blade of grass in the field no turbaned turk no hired venetian or malay could have smote him with more seeming malice small reason was there to doubt then that ever since that almost fatal encounter ahab had cherished a wild vindictiveness against the whale all the more fell for that in his frantic morbidness he at last came to identify with him not only all his bodily woes but all his intellectual and spiritual exasperations the white whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them till they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung that intangible malignity which has been from the beginning to whose dominion even the modern christians ascribe onehalf of the worlds which the ancient ophites of the east reverenced in their statue devilahab did not fall down and worship it like them but deliriously transferring its idea to the abhorred white whale he pitted himself all mutilated against it all that most maddens and torments all that stirs up the lees of things all truth with malice in it all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain all the subtle demonisms of life and thought all evil to crazy ahab were visibly personified and made practically assailable in moby dick he piled upon the whales white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from adam down and then as if his chest had been a mortar he burst his hot hearts shell upon it it is not probable that this monomania in him took its instant rise at the precise time of his bodily dismemberment then in darting at the monster knife in hand he had but given loose to a sudden passionate corporal animosity and when he received the stroke that tore him he probably but felt the agonizing bodily laceration but nothing more yet when by this collision forced to turn towards home and for long months of days and weeks ahab and anguish lay stretched together in one hammock rounding in mid winter that dreary howling patagonian cape then it was that his torn body and gashed soul bled into one another and so interfusing made him mad that it was only then on the homeward voyage after the encounter that the final monomania seized him seems all but certain from the fact that at intervals during the passage he was a raving lunatic and though unlimbed of a leg yet such vital strength yet lurked in his egyptian chest and was moreover intensified by his delirium that his mates were forced to lace him fast even there as he sailed raving in his hammock in a straitjacket he swung to the mad rockings of the gales and when running into more sufferable latitudes the ship with mild stunsails spread floated across the tranquil tropics and to all appearances the old mans delirium seemed left behind him with the cape horn swells and he came forth from his dark den into the blessed light and air even then when he bore that firm collected front however pale and issued his calm orders once again and his mates thanked god the direful madness was now gone even then ahab in his hidden self raved on human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing when you think it fled it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form
by the above definition of what a whale is i do by no means exclude from the leviathanic brotherhood any sea creature hitherto identified with the whale by the best informed nantucketers nor on the other hand link with it any fish hitherto authoritatively regarded as alien  hence all the smaller spouting and horizontal tailed fish must be included in this groundplan of cetology now then come the grand divisions of the entire whale host i am aware that down to the present time the fish styled lamatins and dugongs pigfish and sowfish of the coffins of nantucket are included by many naturalists among the whales but as these pigfish are a noisy contemptible set mostly lurking in the mouths of rivers and feeding on wet hay and especially as they do not spout i deny their credentials as whales and have presented them with their passports to quit the kingdom of cetology first according to magnitude i divide the whales into three primary books subdivisible into chapters and these shall comprehend them all both small and large as the type of the folio i present the sperm whale of the octavo the grampus of the duodecimo the porpoise this whale among the english of old vaguely known as the trumpa whale and the physeter whale and the anvil headed whale is the present cachalot of the french and the pottsfich of the germans and the macrocephalus of the long words he is without doubt the largest inhabitant of the globe the most formidable of all whales to encounter the most majestic in aspect and lastly by far the most valuable in commerce he being the only creature from which that valuable substance spermaceti is obtained all his peculiarities will in many other places be enlarged upon some centuries ago when the sperm whale was almost wholly unknown in his own proper individuality and when his oil was only accidentally obtained from the stranded fish in those days spermaceti it would seem was popularly supposed to be derived from a creature identical with the one then known in england as the greenland or right whale it was the idea also that this same spermaceti was that quickening humor of the greenland whale which the first syllable of the word literally expresses in those times also spermaceti was exceedingly scarce not being used for light but only as an ointment and medicament it was only to be had from the druggists as you nowadays buy an ounce of rhubarb when as i opine in the course of time the true nature of spermaceti became known its original name was still retained by the dealers no doubt to enhance its value by a notion so strangely significant of its scarcity and so the appellation must at last have come to be bestowed upon the whale from which this spermaceti was really derived in one respect this is the most venerable of the leviathans being the one first regularly hunted by man it yields the article commonly known as whalebone or baleen and the oil specially known as whale oil an inferior article in commerce among the fishermen he is indiscriminately designated by all the following titles the whale the greenland whale the black whale the great whale the true whale the right whale there is a deal of obscurity concerning the identity of the species thus multitudinously baptised
wickhams alarm now appeared in a heightened complexion and agitated look for a few minutes he was silent till shaking off his embarrassment he turned to her again and said in the gentlest of accents you who so well know my feeling towards mr darcy will readily comprehend how sincerely i must rejoice that he is wise enough to assume even the appearance of what is right his pride in that direction may be of service if not to himself to many others for it must only deter him from such foul misconduct as i have suffered by i only fear that the sort of cautiousness to which you i imagine have been alluding is merely adopted on his visits to his aunt of whose good opinion and judgement he stands much in awe his fear of her has always operated i know when they were together and a good deal is to be imputed to his wish of forwarding the match with miss de bourgh which i am certain he has very much at heart elizabeth could not repress a smile at this but she answered only by a slight inclination of the head she saw that he wanted to engage her on the old subject of his grievances and she was in no humour to indulge him the rest of the evening passed with the appearance on his side of usual cheerfulness but with no further attempt to distinguish elizabeth and they parted at last with mutual civility and possibly a mutual desire of never meeting again forster to meryton from whence they were to set out early the next morning the separation between her and her family was rather noisy than pathetic kitty was the only one who shed tears but she did weep from vexation and envy bennet was diffuse in her good wishes for the felicity of her daughter and impressive in her injunctions that she should not miss the opportunity of enjoying herself as much as possibleadvice which there was every reason to believe would be well attended to and in the clamorous happiness of lydia herself in bidding farewell the more gentle adieus of her sisters were uttered without being heard chapter  had elizabeths opinion been all drawn from her own family she could not have formed a very pleasing opinion of conjugal felicity or domestic comfort her father captivated by youth and beauty and that appearance of good humour which youth and beauty generally give had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her respect esteem and confidence had vanished for ever and all his views of domestic happiness were overthrown bennet was not of a disposition to seek comfort for the disappointment which his own imprudence had brought on in any of those pleasures which too often console the unfortunate for their folly or their vice he was fond of the country and of books and from these tastes had arisen his principal enjoyments to his wife he was very little otherwise indebted than as her ignorance and folly had contributed to his amusement this is not the sort of happiness which a man would in general wish to owe to his wife but where other powers of entertainment are wanting the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given elizabeth however had never been blind to the impropriety of her fathers behaviour as a husband
natural as it is to be somewhat incredulous concerning the populousness of the more enormous creatures of the globe yet what shall we say to harto the historian of goa when he tells us that at one hunting the king of siam took  elephants that in those regions elephants are numerous as droves of cattle in the temperate climes and there seems no reason to doubt that if these elephants which have now been hunted for thousands of years by semiramis by porus by hannibal and by all the successive monarchs of the eastif they still survive there in great numbers much more may the great whale outlast all hunting since he has a pasture to expatiate in which is precisely twice as large as all asia both americas europe and africa new holland and all the isles of the sea combined moreover we are to consider that from the presumed great longevity of whales their probably attaining the age of a century and more therefore at any one period of time several distinct adult generations must be contemporary and what that is we may soon gain some idea of by imagining all the graveyards cemeteries and family vaults of creation yielding up the live bodies of all the men women and children who were alive seventyfive years ago and adding this countless host to the present human population of the globe wherefore for all these things we account the whale immortal in his species however perishable in his individuality he swam the seas before the continents broke water he once swam over the site of the tuileries and windsor castle and the kremlin in noahs flood he despised noahs ark and if ever the world is to be again flooded like the netherlands to kill off its rats then the eternal whale will still survive and rearing upon the topmost crest of the equatorial flood spout his frothed defiance to the skies the precipitating manner in which captain ahab had quitted the samuel enderby of london had not been unattended with some small violence to his own person he had lighted with such energy upon a thwart of his boat that his ivory leg had received a halfsplintering shock and when after gaining his own deck and his own pivothole there he so vehemently wheeled round with an urgent command to the steersman it was as ever something about his not steering inflexibly enough then the already shaken ivory received such an additional twist and wrench that though it still remained entire and to all appearances lusty yet ahab did not deem it entirely trustworthy and indeed it seemed small matter for wonder that for all his pervading mad recklessness ahab did at times give careful heed to the condition of that dead bone upon which he partly stood for it had not been very long prior to the pequods sailing from nantucket that he had been found one night lying prone upon the ground and insensible by some unknown and seemingly inexplicable unimaginable casualty his ivory limb having been so violently displaced that it had stakewise smitten and all but pierced his groin nor was it without extreme difficulty that the agonizing wound was entirely cured nor at the time had it failed to enter his monomaniac mind that all the anguish of that then present suffering was but the direct issue of a former woe and he too plainly seemed to see that as the most poisonous reptile of the marsh perpetuates his kind as inevitably as the sweetest songster of the grove so equally with every felicity all miserable events do naturally beget their like yea more than equally thought ahab since both the ancestry and posterity of grief go further than the ancestry and posterity of joy for not to hint of this that it is an inference from certain canonic teachings that while some natural enjoyments here shall have no children born to them for the other world but on the contrary shall be followed by the joychildlessness of all hells despair whereas some guilty mortal miseries shall still fertilely beget to themselves an eternally progressive progeny of griefs beyond the grave not at all to hint of this there still seems an inequality in the deeper analysis of the thing for thought ahab while even the highest earthly felicities ever have a certain unsignifying pettiness lurking in them but at bottom all heartwoes a mystic significance and in some men an archangelic grandeur so do their diligent tracingsout not belie the obvious deduction to trail the genealogies of these high mortal miseries carries us at last among the sourceless primogenitures of the gods so that in the face of all the glad haymaking suns and soft cymballing round harvestmoons we must needs give in to this that the gods themselves are not for ever glad the ineffaceable sad birthmark in the brow of man is but the stamp of sorrow in the signers unwittingly here a secret has been divulged which perhaps might more properly in set way have been disclosed before with many other particulars concerning ahab always had it remained a mystery to some why it was that for a certain period both before and after the sailing of the pequod he had hidden himself away with such grandlamalike exclusiveness and for that one interval sought speechless refuge as it were among the marble senate of the dead
elizabeth loved absurdities but she had known sir williams too long he could tell her nothing new of the wonders of his presentation and knighthood and his civilities were worn out like his information it was a journey of only twentyfour miles and they began it so early as to be in gracechurch street by noon gardiners door jane was at a drawingroom window watching their arrival when they entered the passage she was there to welcome them and elizabeth looking earnestly in her face was pleased to see it healthful and lovely as ever on the stairs were a troop of little boys and girls whose eagerness for their cousins appearance would not allow them to wait in the drawingroom and whose shyness as they had not seen her for a twelvemonth prevented their coming lower the day passed most pleasantly away the morning in bustle and shopping and the evening at one of the theatres their first object was her sister and she was more grieved than astonished to hear in reply to her minute inquiries that though jane always struggled to support her spirits there were periods of dejection it was reasonable however to hope that they would not continue long gardiner gave her the particulars also of miss bingleys visit in gracechurch street and repeated conversations occurring at different times between jane and herself which proved that the former had from her heart given up the acquaintance gardiner then rallied her niece on wickhams desertion and complimented her on bearing it so well but my dear elizabeth she added what sort of girl is miss king pray my dear aunt what is the difference in matrimonial affairs between the mercenary and the prudent motive last christmas you were afraid of his marrying me because it would be imprudent and now because he is trying to get a girl with only ten thousand pounds you want to find out that he is mercenary if you will only tell me what sort of girl miss king is i shall know what to think but he paid her not the smallest attention till her grandfathers death made her mistress of this fortune if it were not allowable for him to gain my affections because i had no money what occasion could there be for making love to a girl whom he did not care about and who was equally poor but there seems an indelicacy in directing his attentions towards her so soon after this event a man in distressed circumstances has not time for all those elegant decorums which other people may observe it only shows her being deficient in something herselfsense or feeling i should be sorry you know to think ill of a young man who has lived so long in derbyshire
do not blame him however for departing from his character where the deviation is necessary but you really do admit the justice of what i have said in his defence it may be proper to conceal their engagement if they are engaged from mrs smithand if that is the case it must be highly expedient for willoughby to be but little in devonshire at present but this is no excuse for their concealing it from us my dear child do you accuse willoughby and marianne of concealment this is strange indeed when your eyes have been reproaching them every day for incautiousness i want no proof of their affection said elinor but of their engagement i do yet not a syllable has been said to you on the subject by either of them i have not wanted syllables where actions have spoken so plainly has not his behaviour to marianne and to all of us for at least the last fortnight declared that he loved and considered her as his future wife and that he felt for us the attachment of the nearest relation has not my consent been daily asked by his looks his manner his attentive and affectionate respect how is it to be supposed that willoughby persuaded as he must be of your sisters love should leave her and leave her perhaps for months without telling her of his affectionthat they should part without a mutual exchange of confidence i confess replied elinor that every circumstance except one is in favour of their engagement but that one is the total silence of both on the subject and with me it almost outweighs every other you must think wretchedly indeed of willoughby if after all that has openly passed between them you can doubt the nature of the terms on which they are together has he been acting a part in his behaviour to your sister all this time but with a strange kind of tenderness if he can leave her with such indifference such carelessness of the future as you attribute to him you must remember my dear mother that i have never considered this matter as certain i have had my doubts i confess but they are fainter than they were and they may soon be entirely done away if we find they correspond every fear of mine will be removed
i cannot fix on the hour or the spot or the look or the words which laid the foundation my beauty you had early withstood and as for my mannersmy behaviour to you was at least always bordering on the uncivil and i never spoke to you without rather wishing to give you pain than not now be sincere did you admire me for my impertinence the fact is that you were sick of civility of deference of officious attention you were disgusted with the women who were always speaking and looking and thinking for your approbation alone i roused and interested you because i was so unlike them had you not been really amiable you would have hated me for it but in spite of the pains you took to disguise yourself your feelings were always noble and just and in your heart you thoroughly despised the persons who so assiduously courted you therei have saved you the trouble of accounting for it and really all things considered i begin to think it perfectly reasonable to be sure you knew no actual good of mebut nobody thinks of that when they fall in love was there no good in your affectionate behaviour to jane while she was ill at netherfield my good qualities are under your protection and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible and in return it belongs to me to find occasions for teasing and quarrelling with you as often as may be and i shall begin directly by asking you what made you so unwilling to come to the point at last what made you so shy of me when you first called and afterwards dined here why especially when you called did you look as if you did not care about me because you were grave and silent and gave me no encouragement you might have talked to me more when you came to dinner how unlucky that you should have a reasonable answer to give and that i should be so reasonable as to admit it but i wonder how long you would have gone on if you had been left to yourself i wonder when you would have spoken if i had not asked you my resolution of thanking you for your kindness to lydia had certainly great effect too much i am afraid for what becomes of the moral if our comfort springs from a breach of promise
jollily he aloft there wheels through toil and trouble and so alow here does jolly stubb but stop here comes little kingpost dodge round the tryworks now and lets hear what hell have to say there hes before it hell out with something presently i see nothing here but a round thing made of gold and whoever raises a certain whale this round thing belongs to him it is worth sixteen dollars thats true and at two cents the cigar thats nine hundred and sixty cigars i wont smoke dirty pipes like stubb but i like cigars and heres nine hundred and sixty of them so here goes flask aloft to spy em out shall i call that wise or foolish now if it be really wise it has a foolish look to it yet if it be really foolish then has it a sort of wiseish look to it but avast here comes our old manxmanthe old hearsedriver he must have been that is before he took to the sea he luffs up before the doubloon halloa and goes round on the other side of the mast why theres a horseshoe nailed on that side and now hes back again what does that mean if the white whale be raised it must be in a month and a day when the sun stands in some one of these signs ive studied signs and know their marks they were taught me two score years ago by the old witch in copenhagen the horseshoe sign for there it is right opposite the gold the lion is the horseshoe signthe roaring and devouring lion here comes queequegall tattooinglooks like the signs of the zodiac himself as i live hes comparing notes looking at his thigh bone thinks the sun is in the thigh or in the calf or in the bowels i suppose as the old women talk surgeons astronomy in the back country and by jove hes found something there in the vicinity of his thighi guess its sagittarius or the archer no he dont know what to make of the doubloon he takes it for an old button off some kings trowsers here comes that ghostdevil fedallah tail coiled out of sight as usual oakum in the toes of his pumps as usual ah only makes a sign to the sign and bows himself there is a sun on the coinfire worshipper depend upon it he too has been watching all of these interpretersmyself includedand look now he comes to read with that unearthly idiot face
wherever they went she was evidently always on the watch in bond street especially where much of their business lay her eyes were in constant inquiry and in whatever shop the party were engaged her mind was equally abstracted from every thing actually before them from all that interested and occupied the others restless and dissatisfied every where her sister could never obtain her opinion of any article of purchase however it might equally concern them both she received no pleasure from anything was only impatient to be at home again and could with difficulty govern her vexation at the tediousness of mrs palmer whose eye was caught by every thing pretty expensive or new who was wild to buy all could determine on none and dawdled away her time in rapture and indecision it was late in the morning before they returned home and no sooner had they entered the house than marianne flew eagerly up stairs and when elinor followed she found her turning from the table with a sorrowful countenance which declared that no willoughby had been there has no letter been left here for me since we went out said she to the footman who then entered with the parcels are you certain that no servant no porter has left any letter or note said she in a low and disappointed voice as she turned away to the window repeated elinor within herself regarding her sister with uneasiness if she had not known him to be in town she would not have written to him as she did she would have written to combe magna and if he is in town how odd that he should neither come nor write my dear mother you must be wrong in permitting an engagement between a daughter so young a man so little known to be carried on in so doubtful so mysterious a manner i long to inquire and how will my interference be borne she determined after some consideration that if appearances continued many days longer as unpleasant as they now were she would represent in the strongest manner to her mother the necessity of some serious enquiry into the affair jenningss intimate acquaintance whom she had met and invited in the morning dined with them the former left them soon after tea to fulfill her evening engagements and elinor was obliged to assist in making a whist table for the others marianne was of no use on these occasions as she would never learn the game but though her time was therefore at her own disposal the evening was by no means more productive of pleasure to her than to elinor for it was spent in all the anxiety of expectation and the pain of disappointment she sometimes endeavoured for a few minutes to read but the book was soon thrown aside and she returned to the more interesting employment of walking backwards and forwards across the room pausing for a moment whenever she came to the window in hopes of distinguishing the longexpected rap chapter  if this open weather holds much longer said mrs jennings when they met at breakfast the following morning sir john will not like leaving barton next week tis a sad thing for sportsmen to lose a days pleasure
the rain continued the whole evening without intermission jane certainly could not come back bennet more than once as if the credit of making it rain were all her own till the next morning however she was not aware of all the felicity of her contrivance breakfast was scarcely over when a servant from netherfield brought the following note for elizabeth my dearest lizzy   i find myself very unwell this morning which i suppose is to be imputed to my getting wet through yesterday my kind friends will not hear of my returning till i am better jonestherefore do not be alarmed if you should hear of his having been to meand excepting a sore throat and headache there is not much the matter with me bennet when elizabeth had read the note aloud if your daughter should have a dangerous fit of illnessif she should die it would be a comfort to know that it was all in pursuit of mr i would go and see her if i could have the carriage elizabeth feeling really anxious was determined to go to her though the carriage was not to be had and as she was no horsewoman walking was her only alternative how can you be so silly cried her mother as to think of such a thing in all this dirt is this a hint to me lizzy said her father to send for the horses the distance is nothing when one has a motive only three miles i admire the activity of your benevolence observed mary but every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason and in my opinion exertion should always be in proportion to what is required we will go as far as meryton with you said catherine and lydia elizabeth accepted their company and the three young ladies set off together if we make haste said lydia as they walked along perhaps we may see something of captain carter before he goes in meryton they parted the two youngest repaired to the lodgings of one of the officers wives and elizabeth continued her walk alone crossing field after field at a quick pace jumping over stiles and springing over puddles with impatient activity and finding herself at last within view of the house with weary ankles dirty stockings and a face glowing with the warmth of exercise she was shown into the breakfastparlour where all but jane were assembled and where her appearance created a great deal of surprise that she should have walked three miles so early in the day in such dirty weather and by herself was almost incredible to mrs hurst and miss bingley and elizabeth was convinced that they held her in contempt for it
the gardiners stayed only one night at longbourn and set off the next morning with elizabeth in pursuit of novelty and amusement one enjoyment was certainthat of suitableness of companions a suitableness which comprehended health and temper to bear inconveniencescheerfulness to enhance every pleasureand affection and intelligence which might supply it among themselves if there were disappointments abroad it is not the object of this work to give a description of derbyshire nor of any of the remarkable places through which their route thither lay oxford blenheim warwick kenilworth birmingham etc a small part of derbyshire is all the present concern gardiners former residence and where she had lately learned some acquaintance still remained they bent their steps after having seen all the principal wonders of the country and within five miles of lambton elizabeth found from her aunt that pemberley was situated it was not in their direct road nor more than a mile or two out of it gardiner expressed an inclination to see the place again gardiner declared his willingness and elizabeth was applied to for her approbation my love should not you like to see a place of which you have heard so much said her aunt a place too with which so many of your acquaintances are connected she felt that she had no business at pemberley and was obliged to assume a disinclination for seeing it she must own that she was tired of seeing great houses after going over so many she really had no pleasure in fine carpets or satin curtains if it were merely a fine house richly furnished said she i should not care about it myself but the grounds are delightful elizabeth said no morebut her mind could not acquiesce she blushed at the very idea and thought it would be better to speak openly to her aunt than to run such a risk but against this there were objections and she finally resolved that it could be the last resource if her private inquiries to the absence of the family were unfavourably answered accordingly when she retired at night she asked the chambermaid whether pemberley were not a very fine place and with no little alarm whether the family were down for the summer a most welcome negative followed the last questionand her alarms now being removed she was at leisure to feel a great deal of curiosity to see the house herself and when the subject was revived the next morning and she was again applied to could readily answer and with a proper air of indifference that she had not really any dislike to the scheme chapter  elizabeth as they drove along watched for the first appearance of pemberley woods with some perturbation and when at length they turned in at the lodge her spirits were in a high flutter
and still puffing at his pipe stubb cheered on his crew to the assault all alive to his jeopardy he was going head out  that part obliquely projecting from the mad yeast which he brewed  it will be seen in some other place of what a very light substance the entire interior of the sperm whales enormous head consists though apparently the most massive it is by far the most buoyant part about him so that with ease he elevates it in the air and invariably does so when going at his utmost speed besides such is the breadth of the upper part of the front of his head and such the tapering cutwater formation of the lower part that by obliquely elevating his head he thereby may be said to transform himself from a bluffbowed sluggish galliot into a sharppointed new york pilotboat dont hurry yourselves take plenty of timebut start her start her like thunderclaps thats all cried stubb spluttering out the smoke as he spoke start her now give em the long and strong stroke tashtego start her tash my boystart her all but keep cool keep coolcucumbers is the wordeasy easyonly start her like grim death and grinning devils and raise the buried dead perpendicular out of their graves boysthats all screamed the gayheader in reply raising some old warwhoop to the skies as every oarsman in the strained boat involuntarily bounced forward with the one tremendous leading stroke which the eager indian gave but his wild screams were answered by others quite as wild yelled daggoo straining forwards and backwards on his seat like a pacing tiger in his cage howled queequeg as if smacking his lips over a mouthful of grenadiers steak meanwhile stubb retaining his place in the van still encouraged his men to the onset all the while puffing the smoke from his mouth like desperadoes they tugged and they strained till the welcome cry was heardstand up tashtego the oarsmen backed water the same moment something went hot and hissing along every one of their wrists an instant before stubb had swiftly caught two additional turns with it round the loggerhead whence by reason of its increased rapid circlings a hempen blue smoke now jetted up and mingled with the steady fumes from his pipe as the line passed round and round the loggerhead so also just before reaching that point it blisteringly passed through and through both of stubbs hands from which the handcloths or squares of quilted canvas sometimes worn at these times had accidentally dropped it was like holding an enemys sharp twoedged sword by the blade and that enemy all the time striving to wrest it out of your clutch cried stubb to the tub oarsman him seated by the tub who snatching off his hat dashed seawater into it
collins was at leisure to look around him and admire and he was so much struck with the size and furniture of the apartment that he declared he might almost have supposed himself in the small summer breakfast parlour at rosings a comparison that did not at first convey much gratification but when mrs phillips understood from him what rosings was and who was its proprietorwhen she had listened to the description of only one of lady catherines drawingrooms and found that the chimneypiece alone had cost eight hundred pounds she felt all the force of the compliment and would hardly have resented a comparison with the housekeepers room in describing to her all the grandeur of lady catherine and her mansion with occasional digressions in praise of his own humble abode and the improvements it was receiving he was happily employed until the gentlemen joined them and he found in mrs phillips a very attentive listener whose opinion of his consequence increased with what she heard and who was resolving to retail it all among her neighbours as soon as she could to the girls who could not listen to their cousin and who had nothing to do but to wish for an instrument and examine their own indifferent imitations of china on the mantelpiece the interval of waiting appeared very long wickham walked into the room elizabeth felt that she had neither been seeing him before nor thinking of him since with the smallest degree of unreasonable admiration the officers of the shire were in general a very creditable gentlemanlike set and the best of them were of the present party but mr wickham was as far beyond them all in person countenance air and walk as they were superior to the broadfaced stuffy uncle phillips breathing port wine who followed them into the room wickham was the happy man towards whom almost every female eye was turned and elizabeth was the happy woman by whom he finally seated himself and the agreeable manner in which he immediately fell into conversation though it was only on its being a wet night made her feel that the commonest dullest most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the skill of the speaker collins seemed to sink into insignificance to the young ladies he certainly was nothing but he had still at intervals a kind listener in mrs phillips and was by her watchfulness most abundantly supplied with coffee and muffin when the cardtables were placed he had the opportunity of obliging her in turn by sitting down to whist i know little of the game at present said he but i shall be glad to improve myself for in my situation in life mrs phillips was very glad for his compliance but could not wait for his reason wickham did not play at whist and with ready delight was he received at the other table between elizabeth and lydia at first there seemed danger of lydias engrossing him entirely for she was a most determined talker but being likewise extremely fond of lottery tickets she soon grew too much interested in the game too eager in making bets and exclaiming after prizes to have attention for anyone in particular wickham was therefore at leisure to talk to elizabeth and she was very willing to hear him though what she chiefly wished to hear she could not hope to be toldthe history of his acquaintance with mr he inquired how far netherfield was from meryton and after receiving her answer asked in a hesitating manner how long mr about a month said elizabeth and then unwilling to let the subject drop added he is a man of very large property in derbyshire i understand you could not have met with a person more capable of giving you certain information on that head than myself for i have been connected with his family in a particular manner from my infancy
and thats the reason i never would work for lonely widow old women ashore when i kept my jobshop in the vineyard they might have taken it into their lonely old heads to run off with me nail down the lid caulk the seams pay over the same with pitch batten them down tight and hang it with the snapspring over the ships stern some superstitious old carpenters now would be tied up in the rigging ere they would do the job but im made of knotty aroostook hemlock i dont budge we workers in woods make bridalbedsteads and cardtables as well as coffins and hearses we work by the month or by the job or by the profit not for us to ask the why and wherefore of our work unless it be too confounded cobbling and then we stash it if we can ill have melets seehow many in the ships company all told any way ill have me thirty separate turksheaded lifelines each three feet long hanging all round to the coffin then if the hull go down therell be thirty lively fellows all fighting for one coffin a sight not seen very often beneath the sun the coffin laid upon two linetubs between the vicebench and the open hatchway the carpenter caulking its seams the string of twisted oakum slowly unwinding from a large roll of it placed in the bosom of his frock ahab comes slowly from the cabingangway and hears pip following him not this hand complies with my humor more genially than that boy aye sir i patched up this thing here as a coffin for queequeg but theyve set me now to turning it into something else then tell me art thou not an arrant allgrasping intermeddling monopolising heathenish old scamp to be one day making legs and the next day coffins to clap them in and yet again lifebuoys out of those same coffins thou art as unprincipled as the gods and as much of a jackofalltrades hark ye dost thou not ever sing working about a coffin the titans they say hummed snatches when chipping out the craters for volcanoes and the gravedigger in the play sings spade in hand oh im indifferent enough sir for that but the reason why the gravedigger made music must have been because there was none in his spade sir aye and thats because the lid theres a soundingboard and what in all things makes the soundingboard is thistheres naught beneath and yet a coffin with a body in it rings pretty much the same carpenter
one cannot wonder that so very fine a young man with family fortune everything in his favour should think highly of himself that is very true replied elizabeth and i could easily forgive his pride if he had not mortified mine pride observed mary who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections is a very common failing i believe by all that i have ever read i am convinced that it is very common indeed that human nature is particularly prone to it and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of selfcomplacency on the score of some quality or other real or imaginary vanity and pride are different things though the words are often used synonymously pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves vanity to what we would have others think of us darcy cried a young lucas who came with his sisters i should not care how proud i was i would keep a pack of foxhounds and drink a bottle of wine a day then you would drink a great deal more than you ought said mrs bennet and if i were to see you at it i should take away your bottle directly the boy protested that she should not she continued to declare that she would and the argument ended only with the visit chapter  the ladies of longbourn soon waited on those of netherfield miss bennets pleasing manners grew on the goodwill of mrs hurst and miss bingley and though the mother was found to be intolerable and the younger sisters not worth speaking to a wish of being better acquainted with them was expressed towards the two eldest by jane this attention was received with the greatest pleasure but elizabeth still saw superciliousness in their treatment of everybody hardly excepting even her sister and could not like them though their kindness to jane such as it was had a value as arising in all probability from the influence of their brothers admiration it was generally evident whenever they met that he did admire her and to her it was equally evident that jane was yielding to the preference which she had begun to entertain for him from the first and was in a way to be very much in love but she considered with pleasure that it was not likely to be discovered by the world in general since jane united with great strength of feeling a composure of temper and a uniform cheerfulness of manner which would guard her from the suspicions of the impertinent it may perhaps be pleasant replied charlotte to be able to impose on the public in such a case but it is sometimes a disadvantage to be so very guarded if a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it she may lose the opportunity of fixing him and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark there is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment that it is not safe to leave any to itself we can all begin freelya slight preference is natural enough but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement
they may wish many things besides his happiness they may wish his increase of wealth and consequence they may wish him to marry a girl who has all the importance of money great connections and pride beyond a doubt they do wish him to choose miss darcy replied jane but this may be from better feelings than you are supposing they have known her much longer than they have known me no wonder if they love her better but whatever may be their own wishes it is very unlikely they should have opposed their brothers what sister would think herself at liberty to do it unless there were something very objectionable if they believed him attached to me they would not try to part us if he were so they could not succeed by supposing such an affection you make everybody acting unnaturally and wrong and me most unhappy i am not ashamed of having been mistakenor at least it is light it is nothing in comparison of what i should feel in thinking ill of him or his sisters let me take it in the best light in the light in which it may be understood elizabeth could not oppose such a wish and from this time mr bingleys name was scarcely ever mentioned between them bennet still continued to wonder and repine at his returning no more and though a day seldom passed in which elizabeth did not account for it clearly there was little chance of her ever considering it with less perplexity her daughter endeavoured to convince her of what she did not believe herself that his attentions to jane had been merely the effect of a common and transient liking which ceased when he saw her no more but though the probability of the statement was admitted at the time she had the same story to repeat every day so lizzy said he one day your sister is crossed in love i find next to being married a girl likes to be crossed a little in love now and then it is something to think of and it gives her a sort of distinction among her companions here are officers enough in meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country he is a pleasant fellow and would jilt you creditably thank you sir but a less agreeable man would satisfy me bennet but it is a comfort to think that whatever of that kind may befall you you have an affectionate mother who will make the most of it
an invitation to dinner was soon afterwards dispatched and already had mrs bennet planned the courses that were to do credit to her housekeeping when an answer arrived which deferred it all bingley was obliged to be in town the following day and consequently unable to accept the honour of their invitation etc she could not imagine what business he could have in town so soon after his arrival in hertfordshire and she began to fear that he might be always flying about from one place to another and never settled at netherfield as he ought to be lady lucas quieted her fears a little by starting the idea of his being gone to london only to get a large party for the ball and a report soon followed that mr bingley was to bring twelve ladies and seven gentlemen with him to the assembly the girls grieved over such a number of ladies but were comforted the day before the ball by hearing that instead of twelve he brought only six with him from londonhis five sisters and a cousin and when the party entered the assembly room it consisted of only five altogethermr bingley his two sisters the husband of the eldest and another young man bingley was goodlooking and gentlemanlike he had a pleasant countenance and easy unaffected manners his sisters were fine women with an air of decided fashion hurst merely looked the gentleman but his friend mr darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine tall person handsome features noble mien and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance of his having ten thousand a year the gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man the ladies declared he was much handsomer than mr bingley and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity for he was discovered to be proud to be above his company and above being pleased and not all his large estate in derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding disagreeable countenance and being unworthy to be compared with his friend bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal people in the room he was lively and unreserved danced every dance was angry that the ball closed so early and talked of giving one himself at netherfield hurst and once with miss bingley declined being introduced to any other lady and spent the rest of the evening in walking about the room speaking occasionally to one of his own party he was the proudest most disagreeable man in the world and everybody hoped that he would never come there again bennet whose dislike of his general behaviour was sharpened into particular resentment by his having slighted one of her daughters elizabeth bennet had been obliged by the scarcity of gentlemen to sit down for two dances and during part of that time mr
the slightest mention of anything relative to willoughby overpowered her in an instant and though her family were most anxiously attentive to her comfort it was impossible for them if they spoke at all to keep clear of every subject which her feelings connected with him chapter  marianne would have thought herself very inexcusable had she been able to sleep at all the first night after parting from willoughby she would have been ashamed to look her family in the face the next morning had she not risen from her bed in more need of repose than when she lay down in it but the feelings which made such composure a disgrace left her in no danger of incurring it she was awake the whole night and she wept the greatest part of it she got up with a headache was unable to talk and unwilling to take any nourishment giving pain every moment to her mother and sisters and forbidding all attempt at consolation from either when breakfast was over she walked out by herself and wandered about the village of allenham indulging the recollection of past enjoyment and crying over the present reverse for the chief of the morning the evening passed off in the equal indulgence of feeling she played over every favourite song that she had been used to play to willoughby every air in which their voices had been oftenest joined and sat at the instrument gazing on every line of music that he had written out for her till her heart was so heavy that no farther sadness could be gained and this nourishment of grief was every day applied she spent whole hours at the pianoforte alternately singing and crying her voice often totally suspended by her tears in books too as well as in music she courted the misery which a contrast between the past and present was certain of giving she read nothing but what they had been used to read together such violence of affliction indeed could not be supported for ever it sunk within a few days into a calmer melancholy but these employments to which she daily recurred her solitary walks and silent meditations still produced occasional effusions of sorrow as lively as ever no letter from willoughby came and none seemed expected by marianne her mother was surprised and elinor again became uneasy dashwood could find explanations whenever she wanted them which at least satisfied herself remember elinor said she how very often sir john fetches our letters himself from the post and carries them to it we have already agreed that secrecy may be necessary and we must acknowledge that it could not be maintained if their correspondence were to pass through sir johns hands elinor could not deny the truth of this and she tried to find in it a motive sufficient for their silence but there was one method so direct so simple and in her opinion so eligible of knowing the real state of the affair and of instantly removing all mystery that she could not help suggesting it to her mother
but in general and ordinary cases between friend and friend where one of them is desired by the other to change a resolution of no very great moment should you think ill of that person for complying with the desire without waiting to be argued into it will it not be advisable before we proceed on this subject to arrange with rather more precision the degree of importance which is to appertain to this request as well as the degree of intimacy subsisting between the parties by all means cried bingley let us hear all the particulars not forgetting their comparative height and size for that will have more weight in the argument miss bennet than you may be aware of i assure you that if darcy were not such a great tall fellow in comparison with myself i should not pay him half so much deference i declare i do not know a more awful object than darcy on particular occasions and in particular places at his own house especially and of a sunday evening when he has nothing to do darcy smiled but elizabeth thought she could perceive that he was rather offended and therefore checked her laugh miss bingley warmly resented the indignity he had received in an expostulation with her brother for talking such nonsense if you and miss bennet will defer yours till i am out of the room i shall be very thankful and then you may say whatever you like of me what you ask said elizabeth is no sacrifice on my side and mr when that business was over he applied to miss bingley and elizabeth for an indulgence of some music miss bingley moved with some alacrity to the pianoforte and after a polite request that elizabeth would lead the way which the other as politely and more earnestly negatived she seated herself hurst sang with her sister and while they were thus employed elizabeth could not help observing as she turned over some musicbooks that lay on the instrument how frequently mr she hardly knew how to suppose that she could be an object of admiration to so great a man and yet that he should look at her because he disliked her was still more strange she could only imagine however at last that she drew his notice because there was something more wrong and reprehensible according to his ideas of right than in any other person present she liked him too little to care for his approbation after playing some italian songs miss bingley varied the charm by a lively scotch air and soon afterwards mr darcy drawing near elizabeth said to her do not you feel a great inclination miss bennet to seize such an opportunity of dancing a reel he repeated the question with some surprise at her silence said she i heard you before but i could not immediately determine what to say in reply you wanted me i know to say yes that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste but i always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes and cheating a person of their premeditated contempt
darcy she turned her eyes on the daughter she could almost have joined in marias astonishment at her being so thin and so small there was neither in figure nor face any likeness between the ladies miss de bourgh was pale and sickly her features though not plain were insignificant and she spoke very little except in a low voice to mrs jenkinson in whose appearance there was nothing remarkable and who was entirely engaged in listening to what she said and placing a screen in the proper direction before her eyes after sitting a few minutes they were all sent to one of the windows to admire the view mr collins attending them to point out its beauties and lady catherine kindly informing them that it was much better worth looking at in the summer the dinner was exceedingly handsome and there were all the servants and all the articles of plate which mr collins had promised and as he had likewise foretold he took his seat at the bottom of the table by her ladyships desire and looked as if he felt that life could furnish nothing greater he carved and ate and praised with delighted alacrity and every dish was commended first by him and then by sir william who was now enough recovered to echo whatever his soninlaw said in a manner which elizabeth wondered lady catherine could bear but lady catherine seemed gratified by their excessive admiration and gave most gracious smiles especially when any dish on the table proved a novelty to them elizabeth was ready to speak whenever there was an opening but she was seated between charlotte and miss de bourghthe former of whom was engaged in listening to lady catherine and the latter said not a word to her all dinnertime jenkinson was chiefly employed in watching how little miss de bourgh ate pressing her to try some other dish and fearing she was indisposed maria thought speaking out of the question and the gentlemen did nothing but eat and admire when the ladies returned to the drawingroom there was little to be done but to hear lady catherine talk which she did without any intermission till coffee came in delivering her opinion on every subject in so decisive a manner as proved that she was not used to have her judgement controverted she inquired into charlottes domestic concerns familiarly and minutely gave her a great deal of advice as to the management of them all told her how everything ought to be regulated in so small a family as hers and instructed her as to the care of her cows and her poultry elizabeth found that nothing was beneath this great ladys attention which could furnish her with an occasion of dictating to others collins she addressed a variety of questions to maria and elizabeth but especially to the latter of whose connections she knew the least and who she observed to mrs she asked her at different times how many sisters she had whether they were older or younger than herself whether any of them were likely to be married whether they were handsome where they had been educated what carriage her father kept and what had been her mothers maiden name elizabeth felt all the impertinence of her questions but answered them very composedly lady catherine then observed your fathers estate is entailed on mr
nor can any son of mortal woman for the first time seat himself amid those hempen intricacies and while straining his utmost at the oar bethink him that at any unknown instant the harpoon may be darted and all these horrible contortions be put in play like ringed lightnings he cannot be thus circumstanced without a shudder that makes the very marrow in his bones to quiver in him like a shaken jelly gayer sallies more merry mirth better jokes and brighter repartees you never heard over your mahogany than you will hear over the halfinch white cedar of the whaleboat when thus hung in hangmans nooses and like the six burghers of calais before king edward the six men composing the crew pull into the jaws of death with a halter around every neck as you may say perhaps a very little thought will now enable you to account for those repeated whaling disasterssome few of which are casually chronicledof this man or that man being taken out of the boat by the line and lost for when the line is darting out to be seated then in the boat is like being seated in the midst of the manifold whizzings of a steamengine in full play when every flying beam and shaft and wheel is grazing you it is worse for you cannot sit motionless in the heart of these perils because the boat is rocking like a cradle and you are pitched one way and the other without the slightest warning and only by a certain selfadjusting buoyancy and simultaneousness of volition and action can you escape being made a mazeppa of and run away with where the allseeing sun himself could never pierce you out again as the profound calm which only apparently precedes and prophesies of the storm is perhaps more awful than the storm itself for indeed the calm is but the wrapper and envelope of the storm and contains it in itself as the seemingly harmless rifle holds the fatal powder and the ball and the explosion so the graceful repose of the line as it silently serpentines about the oarsmen before being brought into actual playthis is a thing which carries more of true terror than any other aspect of this dangerous affair all are born with halters round their necks but it is only when caught in the swift sudden turn of death that mortals realize the silent subtle everpresent perils of life and if you be a philosopher though seated in the whaleboat you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror than though seated before your evening fire with a poker and not a harpoon by your side if to starbuck the apparition of the squid was a thing of portents to queequeg it was quite a different object when you see him quid said the savage honing his harpoon in the bow of his hoisted boat then you quick see him parm whale the next day was exceedingly still and sultry and with nothing special to engage them the pequods crew could hardly resist the spell of sleep induced by such a vacant sea for this part of the indian ocean through which we then were voyaging is not what whalemen call a lively ground that is it affords fewer glimpses of porpoises dolphins flyingfish and other vivacious denizens of more stirring waters than those off the rio de la plata or the inshore ground off peru it was my turn to stand at the foremasthead and with my shoulders leaning against the slackened royal shrouds to and fro i idly swayed in what seemed an enchanted air no resolution could withstand it in that dreamy mood losing all consciousness at last my soul went out of my body though my body still continued to sway as a pendulum will long after the power which first moved it is withdrawn ere forgetfulness altogether came over me i had noticed that the seamen at the main and mizzenmastheads were already drowsy so that at last all three of us lifelessly swung from the spars and for every swing that we made there was a nod from below from the slumbering helmsman the waves too nodded their indolent crests and across the wide trance of the sea east nodded to west and the sun over all suddenly bubbles seemed bursting beneath my closed eyes like vices my hands grasped the shrouds some invisible gracious agency preserved me with a shock i came back to life close under our lee not forty fathoms off a gigantic sperm whale lay rolling in the water like the capsized hull of a frigate his broad glossy back of an ethiopian hue glistening in the suns rays like a mirror but lazily undulating in the trough of the sea and ever and anon tranquilly spouting his vapoury jet the whale looked like a portly burgher smoking his pipe of a warm afternoon
a doubt of her regard supposing him to feel it need not give him more than inquietude it would not be likely to produce that dejection of mind which frequently attended him a more reasonable cause might be found in the dependent situation which forbade the indulgence of his affection she knew that his mother neither behaved to him so as to make his home comfortable at present nor to give him any assurance that he might form a home for himself without strictly attending to her views for his aggrandizement with such a knowledge as this it was impossible for elinor to feel easy on the subject she was far from depending on that result of his preference of her which her mother and sister still considered as certain nay the longer they were together the more doubtful seemed the nature of his regard and sometimes for a few painful minutes she believed it to be no more than friendship but whatever might really be its limits it was enough when perceived by his sister to make her uneasy and at the same time which was still more common to make her uncivil she took the first opportunity of affronting her motherinlaw on the occasion talking to her so expressively of her brothers great expectations of mrs ferrarss resolution that both her sons should marry well and of the danger attending any young woman who attempted to draw him in that mrs dashwood could neither pretend to be unconscious nor endeavor to be calm she gave her an answer which marked her contempt and instantly left the room resolving that whatever might be the inconvenience or expense of so sudden a removal her beloved elinor should not be exposed another week to such insinuations in this state of her spirits a letter was delivered to her from the post which contained a proposal particularly well timed it was the offer of a small house on very easy terms belonging to a relation of her own a gentleman of consequence and property in devonshire the letter was from this gentleman himself and written in the true spirit of friendly accommodation he understood that she was in need of a dwelling and though the house he now offered her was merely a cottage he assured her that everything should be done to it which she might think necessary if the situation pleased her he earnestly pressed her after giving the particulars of the house and garden to come with her daughters to barton park the place of his own residence from whence she might judge herself whether barton cottage for the houses were in the same parish could by any alteration be made comfortable to her he seemed really anxious to accommodate them and the whole of his letter was written in so friendly a style as could not fail of giving pleasure to his cousin more especially at a moment when she was suffering under the cold and unfeeling behaviour of her nearer connections the situation of barton in a county so far distant from sussex as devonshire which but a few hours before would have been a sufficient objection to outweigh every possible advantage belonging to the place was now its first recommendation to quit the neighbourhood of norland was no longer an evil it was an object of desire it was a blessing in comparison of the misery of continuing her daughterinlaws guest and to remove for ever from that beloved place would be less painful than to inhabit or visit it while such a woman was its mistress
the sudden acquisition of ten thousand pounds was the most remarkable charm of the young lady to whom he was now rendering himself agreeable but elizabeth less clearsighted perhaps in this case than in charlottes did not quarrel with him for his wish of independence nothing on the contrary could be more natural and while able to suppose that it cost him a few struggles to relinquish her she was ready to allow it a wise and desirable measure for both and could very sincerely wish him happy gardiner and after relating the circumstances she thus went on i am now convinced my dear aunt that i have never been much in love for had i really experienced that pure and elevating passion i should at present detest his very name and wish him all manner of evil but my feelings are not only cordial towards him they are even impartial towards miss king i cannot find out that i hate her at all or that i am in the least unwilling to think her a very good sort of girl my watchfulness has been effectual and though i certainly should be a more interesting object to all my acquaintances were i distractedly in love with him i cannot say that i regret my comparative insignificance kitty and lydia take his defection much more to heart than i do they are young in the ways of the world and not yet open to the mortifying conviction that handsome young men must have something to live on as well as the plain chapter  with no greater events than these in the longbourn family and otherwise diversified by little beyond the walks to meryton sometimes dirty and sometimes cold did january and february pass away she had not at first thought very seriously of going thither but charlotte she soon found was depending on the plan and she gradually learned to consider it herself with greater pleasure as well as greater certainty absence had increased her desire of seeing charlotte again and weakened her disgust of mr there was novelty in the scheme and as with such a mother and such uncompanionable sisters home could not be faultless a little change was not unwelcome for its own sake the journey would moreover give her a peep at jane and in short as the time drew near she would have been very sorry for any delay everything however went on smoothly and was finally settled according to charlottes first sketch she was to accompany sir william and his second daughter the improvement of spending a night in london was added in time and the plan became perfect as plan could be the only pain was in leaving her father who would certainly miss her and who when it came to the point so little liked her going that he told her to write to him and almost promised to answer her letter wickham was perfectly friendly on his side even more his present pursuit could not make him forget that elizabeth had been the first to excite and to deserve his attention the first to listen and to pity the first to be admired and in his manner of bidding her adieu wishing her every enjoyment reminding her of what she was to expect in lady catherine de bourgh and trusting their opinion of hertheir opinion of everybodywould always coincide there was a solicitude an interest which she felt must ever attach her to him with a most sincere regard and she parted from him convinced that whether married or single he must always be her model of the amiable and pleasing her fellowtravellers the next day were not of a kind to make her think him less agreeable
elizabeth though expecting no less thanked him with tears of gratitude and all three being actuated by one spirit everything relating to their journey was speedily settled yes and i told him we should not be able to keep our engagement repeated the other as she ran into her room to prepare and are they upon such terms as for her to disclose the real truth but wishes were vain or at least could only serve to amuse her in the hurry and confusion of the following hour had elizabeth been at leisure to be idle she would have remained certain that all employment was impossible to one so wretched as herself but she had her share of business as well as her aunt and amongst the rest there were notes to be written to all their friends at lambton with false excuses for their sudden departure gardiner meanwhile having settled his account at the inn nothing remained to be done but to go and elizabeth after all the misery of the morning found herself in a shorter space of time than she could have supposed seated in the carriage and on the road to longbourn chapter  i have been thinking it over again elizabeth said her uncle as they drove from the town and really upon serious consideration i am much more inclined than i was to judge as your eldest sister does on the matter it appears to me so very unlikely that any young man should form such a design against a girl who is by no means unprotected or friendless and who was actually staying in his colonels family that i am strongly inclined to hope the best could he expect that her friends would not step forward could he expect to be noticed again by the regiment after such an affront to colonel forster it is really too great a violation of decency honour and interest for him to be guilty of can you yourself lizzy so wholly give him up as to believe him capable of it not perhaps of neglecting his own interest but of every other neglect i can believe him capable why should they not go on to scotland if that had been the case gardiner there is no absolute proof that they are not gone to scotland but their removing from the chaise into a hackney coach is such a presumption and besides no traces of them were to be found on the barnet road they may be there though for the purpose of concealment for no more exceptional purpose it is not likely that money should be very abundant on either side and it might strike them that they could be more economically though less expeditiously married in london than in scotland
if i wished to think slightingly of anybodys children it should not be of my own however if my children are silly i must hope to be always sensible of it yesbut as it happens they are all of them very clever this is the only point i flatter myself on which we do not agree i had hoped that our sentiments coincided in every particular but i must so far differ from you as to think our two youngest daughters uncommonly foolish bennet you must not expect such girls to have the sense of their father and mother when they get to our age i dare say they will not think about officers any more than we do i remember the time when i liked a red coat myself very welland indeed so i do still at my heart and if a smart young colonel with five or six thousand a year should want one of my girls i shall not say nay to him and i thought colonel forster looked very becoming the other night at sir williams in his regimentals mamma cried lydia my aunt says that colonel forster and captain carter do not go so often to miss watsons as they did when they first came she sees them now very often standing in clarkes library bennet was prevented replying by the entrance of the footman with a note for miss bennet it came from netherfield and the servant waited for an answer bennets eyes sparkled with pleasure and she was eagerly calling out while her daughter read well jane who is it from well jane make haste and tell us make haste my love it is from miss bingley said jane and then read it aloud my dear friend   if you are not so compassionate as to dine today with louisa and me we shall be in danger of hating each other for the rest of our lives for a whole days teteatete between two women can never end without a quarrel my brother and the gentlemen are to dine with the officers no my dear you had better go on horseback because it seems likely to rain and then you must stay all night that would be a good scheme said elizabeth if you were sure that they would not offer to send her home bingleys chaise to go to meryton and the hursts have no horses to theirs but my dear your father cannot spare the horses i am sure they are wanted in the farm much oftener than i can get them
darcy handed the ladies into the carriage and when it drove off elizabeth saw him walking slowly towards the house the observations of her uncle and aunt now began and each of them pronounced him to be infinitely superior to anything they had expected he is perfectly well behaved polite and unassuming said her uncle there is something a little stately in him to be sure replied her aunt but it is confined to his air and is not unbecoming i can now say with the housekeeper that though some people may call him proud i have seen nothing of it i was never more surprised than by his behaviour to us it was more than civil it was really attentive and there was no necessity for such attention to be sure lizzy said her aunt he is not so handsome as wickham or rather he has not wickhams countenance for his features are perfectly good but how came you to tell me that he was so disagreeable elizabeth excused herself as well as she could said that she had liked him better when they had met in kent than before and that she had never seen him so pleasant as this morning but perhaps he may be a little whimsical in his civilities replied her uncle your great men often are and therefore i shall not take him at his word as he might change his mind another day and warn me off his grounds elizabeth felt that they had entirely misunderstood his character but said nothing gardiner i really should not have thought that he could have behaved in so cruel a way by anybody as he has done by poor wickham on the contrary there is something pleasing about his mouth when he speaks and there is something of dignity in his countenance that would not give one an unfavourable idea of his heart but to be sure the good lady who showed us his house did give him a most flaming character but he is a liberal master i suppose and that in the eye of a servant comprehends every virtue elizabeth here felt herself called on to say something in vindication of his behaviour to wickham and therefore gave them to understand in as guarded a manner as she could that by what she had heard from his relations in kent his actions were capable of a very different construction and that his character was by no means so faulty nor wickhams so amiable as they had been considered in hertfordshire in confirmation of this she related the particulars of all the pecuniary transactions in which they had been connected without actually naming her authority but stating it to be such as might be relied on
by all means cried bingley let us hear all the particulars not forgetting their comparative height and size for that will have more weight in the argument miss bennet than you may be aware of i assure you that if darcy were not such a great tall fellow in comparison with myself i should not pay him half so much deference i declare i do not know a more awful object than darcy on particular occasions and in particular places at his own house especially and of a sunday evening when he has nothing to do darcy smiled but elizabeth thought she could perceive that he was rather offended and therefore checked her laugh miss bingley warmly resented the indignity he had received in an expostulation with her brother for talking such nonsense if you and miss bennet will defer yours till i am out of the room i shall be very thankful and then you may say whatever you like of me what you ask said elizabeth is no sacrifice on my side and mr when that business was over he applied to miss bingley and elizabeth for an indulgence of some music miss bingley moved with some alacrity to the pianoforte and after a polite request that elizabeth would lead the way which the other as politely and more earnestly negatived she seated herself hurst sang with her sister and while they were thus employed elizabeth could not help observing as she turned over some musicbooks that lay on the instrument how frequently mr she hardly knew how to suppose that she could be an object of admiration to so great a man and yet that he should look at her because he disliked her was still more strange she could only imagine however at last that she drew his notice because there was something more wrong and reprehensible according to his ideas of right than in any other person present she liked him too little to care for his approbation after playing some italian songs miss bingley varied the charm by a lively scotch air and soon afterwards mr darcy drawing near elizabeth said to her do not you feel a great inclination miss bennet to seize such an opportunity of dancing a reel he repeated the question with some surprise at her silence said she i heard you before but i could not immediately determine what to say in reply you wanted me i know to say yes that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste but i always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes and cheating a person of their premeditated contempt i have therefore made up my mind to tell you that i do not want to dance a reel at alland now despise me if you dare elizabeth having rather expected to affront him was amazed at his gallantry but there was a mixture of sweetness and archness in her manner which made it difficult for her to affront anybody and darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her
my engagements at present replied willoughby confusedly are of such a naturethati dare not flatter myself  he stopt dashwood was too much astonished to speak and another pause succeeded this was broken by willoughby who said with a faint smile it is folly to linger in this manner i will not torment myself any longer by remaining among friends whose society it is impossible for me now to enjoy he then hastily took leave of them all and left the room they saw him step into his carriage and in a minute it was out of sight dashwood felt too much for speech and instantly quitted the parlour to give way in solitude to the concern and alarm which this sudden departure occasioned elinors uneasiness was at least equal to her mothers she thought of what had just passed with anxiety and distrust willoughbys behaviour in taking leave of them his embarrassment and affectation of cheerfulness and above all his unwillingness to accept her mothers invitation a backwardness so unlike a lover so unlike himself greatly disturbed her one moment she feared that no serious design had ever been formed on his side and the next that some unfortunate quarrel had taken place between him and her sisterthe distress in which marianne had quitted the room was such as a serious quarrel could most reasonably account for though when she considered what mariannes love for him was a quarrel seemed almost impossible but whatever might be the particulars of their separation her sisters affliction was indubitable and she thought with the tenderest compassion of that violent sorrow which marianne was in all probability not merely giving way to as a relief but feeding and encouraging as a duty in about half an hour her mother returned and though her eyes were red her countenance was not uncheerful our dear willoughby is now some miles from barton elinor said she as she sat down to work and with how heavy a heart does he travel and last night he was with us so happy so cheerful so affectionate and now after only ten minutes noticegone too without intending to return something more than what he owned to us must have happened why else should he have shewn such unwillingness to accept your invitation here  it was not inclination that he wanted elinor i could plainly see that i have thought it all over i assure you and i can perfectly account for every thing that at first seemed strange to me as well as to you
a variety of occupations of objects and of company which could not be procured at barton would be inevitable there and might yet she hoped cheat marianne at times into some interest beyond herself and even into some amusement much as the ideas of both might now be spurned by her from all danger of seeing willoughby again her mother considered her to be at least equally safe in town as in the country since his acquaintance must now be dropped by all who called themselves her friends design could never bring them in each others way negligence could never leave them exposed to a surprise and chance had less in its favour in the crowd of london than even in the retirement of barton where it might force him before her while paying that visit at allenham on his marriage which mrs dashwood from foreseeing at first as a probable event had brought herself to expect as a certain one she had yet another reason for wishing her children to remain where they were a letter from her soninlaw had told her that he and his wife were to be in town before the middle of february and she judged it right that they should sometimes see their brother marianne had promised to be guided by her mothers opinion and she submitted to it therefore without opposition though it proved perfectly different from what she wished and expected though she felt it to be entirely wrong formed on mistaken grounds and that by requiring her longer continuance in london it deprived her of the only possible alleviation of her wretchedness the personal sympathy of her mother and doomed her to such society and such scenes as must prevent her ever knowing a moments rest but it was a matter of great consolation to her that what brought evil to herself would bring good to her sister and elinor on the other hand suspecting that it would not be in her power to avoid edward entirely comforted herself by thinking that though their longer stay would therefore militate against her own happiness it would be better for marianne than an immediate return into devonshire her carefulness in guarding her sister from ever hearing willoughbys name mentioned was not thrown away marianne though without knowing it herself reaped all its advantage for neither mrs elinor wished that the same forbearance could have extended towards herself but that was impossible and she was obliged to listen day after day to the indignation of them all a man of whom he had always had such reason to think well he did not believe there was a bolder rider in england he would not speak another word to him meet him where he might for all the world no not if it were to be by the side of barton covert and they were kept watching for two hours together it was only the last time they met that he had offered him one of follys puppies she was determined to drop his acquaintance immediately and she was very thankful that she had never been acquainted with him at all she wished with all her heart combe magna was not so near cleveland but it did not signify for it was a great deal too far off to visit she hated him so much that she was resolved never to mention his name again and she should tell everybody she saw how goodfornothing he was palmers sympathy was shewn in procuring all the particulars in her power of the approaching marriage and communicating them to elinor she could soon tell at what coachmakers the new carriage was building by what painter mr willoughbys portrait was drawn and at what warehouse miss greys clothes might be seen
there is no remembrance in him of any gorings of wild creatures in his green northern home so that the strange muskiness he smells cannot recall to him anything associated with the experience of former perils for what knows he this new england colt of the black bisons of distant oregon no but here thou beholdest even in a dumb brute the instinct of the knowledge of the demonism in the world though thousands of miles from oregon still when he smells that savage musk the rending goring bison herds are as present as to the deserted wild foal of the prairies which this instant they may be trampling into dust thus then the muffled rollings of a milky sea the bleak rustlings of the festooned frosts of mountains the desolate shiftings of the windrowed snows of prairies all these to ishmael are as the shaking of that buffalo robe to the frightened colt though neither knows where lie the nameless things of which the mystic sign gives forth such hints yet with me as with the colt somewhere those things must exist though in many of its aspects this visible world seems formed in love the invisible spheres were formed in fright but not yet have we solved the incantation of this whiteness and learned why it appeals with such power to the soul and more strange and far more portentouswhy as we have seen it is at once the most meaning symbol of spiritual things nay the very veil of the christians deity and yet should be as it is the intensifying agent in things the most appalling to mankind is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation when beholding the white depths of the milky way or is it that as in essence whiteness is not so much a colour as the visible absence of colour and at the same time the concrete of all colours is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness full of meaning in a wide landscape of snowsa colourless allcolour of atheism from which we shrink and when we consider that other theory of the natural philosophers that all other earthly huesevery stately or lovely emblazoningthe sweet tinges of sunset skies and woods yea and the gilded velvets of butterflies and the butterfly cheeks of young girls all these are but subtile deceits not actually inherent in substances but only laid on from without so that all deified nature absolutely paints like the harlot whose allurements cover nothing but the charnelhouse within and when we proceed further and consider that the mystical cosmetic which produces every one of her hues the great principle of light for ever remains white or colourless in itself and if operating without medium upon matter would touch all objects even tulips and roses with its own blank tingepondering all this the palsied universe lies before us a leper and like wilful travellers in lapland who refuse to wear coloured and colouring glasses upon their eyes so the wretched infidel gazes himself blind at the monumental white shroud that wraps all the prospect around him and of all these things the albino whale was the symbol it was the middlewatch a fair moonlight the seamen were standing in a cordon extending from one of the freshwater butts in the waist to the scuttlebutt near the taffrail in this manner they passed the buckets to fill the scuttlebutt standing for the most part on the hallowed precincts of the quarterdeck they were careful not to speak or rustle their feet from hand to hand the buckets went in the deepest silence only broken by the occasional flap of a sail and the steady hum of the unceasingly advancing keel it was in the midst of this repose that archy one of the cordon whose post was near the afterhatches whispered to his neighbor a cholo the words above there it is againunder the hatchesdont you hear ita coughit sounded like a cough it sounds like two or three sleepers turning over now its the three soaked biscuits ye eat for supper turning over inside of yenothing else aye you are the chap aint ye that heard the hum of the old quakeresss knittingneedles fifty miles at sea from nantucket youre the chap
it distressed her a little and she was quite glad to find herself at the gate in the pales opposite the parsonage she was engaged one day as she walked in perusing janes last letter and dwelling on some passages which proved that jane had not written in spirits when instead of being again surprised by mr darcy she saw on looking up that colonel fitzwilliam was meeting her putting away the letter immediately and forcing a smile she said i did not know before that you ever walked this way i have been making the tour of the park he replied as i generally do every year and intend to close it with a call at the parsonage and accordingly she did turn and they walked towards the parsonage together and if not able to please himself in the arrangement he has at least pleasure in the great power of choice i do not know anybody who seems more to enjoy the power of doing what he likes than mr he likes to have his own way very well replied colonel fitzwilliam it is only that he has better means of having it than many others because he is rich and many others are poor a younger son you know must be inured to selfdenial and dependence in my opinion the younger son of an earl can know very little of either now seriously what have you ever known of selfdenial and dependence when have you been prevented by want of money from going wherever you chose or procuring anything you had a fancy for these are home questionsand perhaps i cannot say that i have experienced many hardships of that nature but in matters of greater weight i may suffer from want of money unless where they like women of fortune which i think they very often do our habits of expense make us too dependent and there are not many in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some attention to money and she coloured at the idea but recovering herself said in a lively tone and pray what is the usual price of an earls younger son unless the elder brother is very sickly i suppose you would not ask above fifty thousand pounds
you consider the matter said elinor exactly as a good mind and a sound understanding must consider it and i dare say you perceive as well as myself not only in this but in many other circumstances reason enough to be convinced that your marriage must have involved you in many certain troubles and disappointments in which you would have been poorly supported by an affection on his side much less certain his expensiveness is acknowledged even by himself and his whole conduct declares that selfdenial is a word hardly understood by him his demands and your inexperience together on a small very small income must have brought on distresses which would not be the less grievous to you from having been entirely unknown and unthought of before your sense of honour and honesty would have led you i know when aware of your situation to attempt all the economy that would appear to you possible and perhaps as long as your frugality retrenched only on your own comfort you might have been suffered to practice it but beyond thatand how little could the utmost of your single management do to stop the ruin which had begun before your marriage  beyond that had you endeavoured however reasonably to abridge his enjoyments is it not to be feared that instead of prevailing on feelings so selfish to consent to it you would have lessened your own influence on his heart and made him regret the connection which had involved him in such difficulties mariannes lips quivered and she repeated the word selfish in a tone that implieddo you really think him selfish  the whole of his behaviour replied elinor from the beginning to the end of the affair has been grounded on selfishness it was selfishness which first made him sport with your affections which afterwards when his own were engaged made him delay the confession of it and which finally carried him from barton his own enjoyment or his own ease was in every particular his ruling principle at present continued elinor he regrets what he has done because he finds it has not answered towards himself his circumstances are now unembarrassedhe suffers from no evil of that kind and he thinks only that he has married a woman of a less amiable temper than yourself but does it follow that had he married you he would have been happy he would then have suffered under the pecuniary distresses which because they are removed he now reckons as nothing he would have had a wife of whose temper he could make no complaint but he would have been always necessitousalways poor and probably would soon have learned to rank the innumerable comforts of a clear estate and good income as of far more importance even to domestic happiness than the mere temper of a wife i have not a doubt of it said marianne and i have nothing to regretnothing but my own folly rather say your mothers imprudence my child said mrs marianne would not let her proceedand elinor satisfied that each felt their own error wished to avoid any survey of the past that might weaken her sisters spirits she therefore pursuing the first subject immediately continued one observation may i think be fairly drawn from the whole of the storythat all willoughbys difficulties have arisen from the first offence against virtue in his behaviour to eliza williams that crime has been the origin of every lesser one and of all his present discontents
jennings left them earlier than usual for she could not be easy till the middletons and palmers were able to grieve as much as herself and positively refusing elinors offered attendance went out alone for the rest of the morning elinor with a very heavy heart aware of the pain she was going to communicate and perceiving by mariannes letter how ill she had succeeded in laying any foundation for it then sat down to write her mother an account of what had passed and entreat her directions for the future while marianne who came into the drawingroom on mrs jenningss going away remained fixed at the table where elinor wrote watching the advancement of her pen grieving over her for the hardship of such a task and grieving still more fondly over its effect on her mother in this manner they had continued about a quarter of an hour when marianne whose nerves could not then bear any sudden noise was startled by a rap at the door i will not trust to that retreating to her own room a man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others the event proved her conjecture right though it was founded on injustice and error for colonel brandon did come in and elinor who was convinced that solicitude for marianne brought him thither and who saw that solicitude in his disturbed and melancholy look and in his anxious though brief inquiry after her could not forgive her sister for esteeming him so lightly jennings in bond street said he after the first salutation and she encouraged me to come on and i was the more easily encouraged because i thought it probable that i might find you alone which i was very desirous of doing my objectmy wishmy sole wish in desiring iti hope i believe it isis to be a means of giving comfortno i must not say comfortnot present comfortbut conviction lasting conviction to your sisters mind my regard for her for yourself for your motherwill you allow me to prove it by relating some circumstances which nothing but a very sincere regardnothing but an earnest desire of being usefuli think i am justifiedthough where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that i am right is there not some reason to fear i may be wrong your telling it will be the greatest act of friendship that can be shewn marianne my gratitude will be insured immediately by any information tending to that end and hers must be gained by it in time you shall and to be brief when i quitted barton last octoberbut this will give you no ideai must go farther back you will find me a very awkward narrator miss dashwood i hardly know where to begin a short account of myself i believe will be necessary and it shall be a short one on such a subject sighing heavily can i have little temptation to be diffuse he stopt a moment for recollection and then with another sigh went on you have probably entirely forgotten a conversationit is not to be supposed that it could make any impression on youa conversation between us one evening at barton parkit was the evening of a dancein which i alluded to a lady i had once known as resembling in some measure your sister marianne he looked pleased by this remembrance and added if i am not deceived by the uncertainty the partiality of tender recollection there is a very strong resemblance between them as well in mind as person the same warmth of heart the same eagerness of fancy and spirits
and i must say that lucys crossness not to take them along with them in the chaise is worse than all i cannot get him out of my head but you must send for him to barton and miss marianne must try to comfort him ferrars was the most unfortunate of womenpoor fanny had suffered agonies of sensibilityand he considered the existence of each under such a blow with grateful wonder roberts offence was unpardonable but lucys was infinitely worse neither of them were ever again to be mentioned to mrs ferrars and even if she might hereafter be induced to forgive her son his wife should never be acknowledged as her daughter nor be permitted to appear in her presence the secrecy with which everything had been carried on between them was rationally treated as enormously heightening the crime because had any suspicion of it occurred to the others proper measures would have been taken to prevent the marriage and he called on elinor to join with him in regretting that lucys engagement with edward had not rather been fulfilled than that she should thus be the means of spreading misery farther in the family ferrars has never yet mentioned edwards name which does not surprise us but to our great astonishment not a line has been received from him on the occasion perhaps however he is kept silent by his fear of offending and i shall therefore give him a hint by a line to oxford that his sister and i both think a letter of proper submission from him addressed perhaps to fanny and by her shewn to her mother might not be taken amiss for we all know the tenderness of mrs ferrarss heart and that she wishes for nothing so much as to be on good terms with her children this paragraph was of some importance to the prospects and conduct of edward it determined him to attempt a reconciliation though not exactly in the manner pointed out by their brother and sister repeated he would they have me beg my mothers pardon for roberts ingratitude to her and breach of honour to me i can make no submissioni am grown neither humble nor penitent by what has passed i know of no submission that is proper for me to make you may certainly ask to be forgiven said elinor because you have offendedand i should think you might now venture so far as to profess some concern for having ever formed the engagement which drew on you your mothers anger and when she has forgiven you perhaps a little humility may be convenient while acknowledging a second engagement almost as imprudent in her eyes as the first he had nothing to urge against it but still resisted the idea of a letter of proper submission and therefore to make it easier to him as he declared a much greater willingness to make mean concessions by word of mouth than on paper it was resolved that instead of writing to fanny he should go to london and personally intreat her good offices in his favour  and if they really do interest themselves said marianne in her new character of candour in bringing about a reconciliation i shall think that even john and fanny are not entirely without merit after a visit on colonel brandons side of only three or four days the two gentlemen quitted barton together
jennings was summoned to her chaise to take comfort in the gossip of her maid for the loss of her two young companions and colonel brandon immediately afterwards took his solitary way to delaford the dashwoods were two days on the road and marianne bore her journey on both without essential fatigue every thing that the most zealous affection the most solicitous care could do to render her comfortable was the office of each watchful companion and each found their reward in her bodily ease and her calmness of spirits to elinor the observation of the latter was particularly grateful she who had seen her week after week so constantly suffering oppressed by anguish of heart which she had neither courage to speak of nor fortitude to conceal now saw with a joy which no other could equally share an apparent composure of mind which in being the result as she trusted of serious reflection must eventually lead her to contentment and cheerfulness as they approached barton indeed and entered on scenes of which every field and every tree brought some peculiar some painful recollection she grew silent and thoughtful and turning away her face from their notice sat earnestly gazing through the window but here elinor could neither wonder nor blame and when she saw as she assisted marianne from the carriage that she had been crying she saw only an emotion too natural in itself to raise any thing less tender than pity and in its unobtrusiveness entitled to praise in the whole of her subsequent manner she traced the direction of a mind awakened to reasonable exertion for no sooner had they entered their common sittingroom than marianne turned her eyes around it with a look of resolute firmness as if determined at once to accustom herself to the sight of every object with which the remembrance of willoughby could be connected she said little but every sentence aimed at cheerfulness and though a sigh sometimes escaped her it never passed away without the atonement of a smile she went to it but the music on which her eye first rested was an opera procured for her by willoughby containing some of their favourite duets and bearing on its outward leaf her own name in his handwriting she shook her head put the music aside and after running over the keys for a minute complained of feebleness in her fingers and closed the instrument again declaring however with firmness as she did so that she should in future practice much the next morning produced no abatement in these happy symptoms on the contrary with a mind and body alike strengthened by rest she looked and spoke with more genuine spirit anticipating the pleasure of margarets return and talking of the dear family party which would then be restored of their mutual pursuits and cheerful society as the only happiness worth a wish when the weather is settled and i have recovered my strength said she we will take long walks together every day we will walk to the farm at the edge of the down and see how the children go on we will walk to sir johns new plantations at barton cross and the abbeyland and we will often go to the old ruins of the priory and try to trace its foundations as far as we are told they once reached i mean never to be later in rising than six and from that time till dinner i shall divide every moment between music and reading i have formed my plan and am determined to enter on a course of serious study our own library is too well known to me to be resorted to for any thing beyond mere amusement but there are many works well worth reading at the park and there are others of more modern production which i know i can borrow of colonel brandon by reading only six hours aday i shall gain in the course of a twelvemonth a great deal of instruction which i now feel myself to want
to look at the tawny brawn of his lithe snaky limbs you would almost have credited the superstitions of some of the earlier puritans and halfbelieved this wild indian to be a son of the prince of the powers of the air third among the harpooneers was daggoo a gigantic coalblack negrosavage with a lionlike treadan ahasuerus to behold suspended from his ears were two golden hoops so large that the sailors called them ringbolts and would talk of securing the topsail halyards to them in his youth daggoo had voluntarily shipped on board of a whaler lying in a lonely bay on his native coast and never having been anywhere in the world but in africa nantucket and the pagan harbors most frequented by whalemen and having now led for many years the bold life of the fishery in the ships of owners uncommonly heedful of what manner of men they shipped daggoo retained all his barbaric virtues and erect as a giraffe moved about the decks in all the pomp of six feet five in his socks there was a corporeal humility in looking up at him and a white man standing before him seemed a white flag come to beg truce of a fortress curious to tell this imperial negro ahasuerus daggoo was the squire of little flask who looked like a chessman beside him as for the residue of the pequods company be it said that at the present day not one in two of the many thousand men before the mast employed in the american whale fishery are americans born though pretty nearly all the officers are herein it is the same with the american whale fishery as with the american army and military and merchant navies and the engineering forces employed in the construction of the american canals and railroads the same i say because in all these cases the native american liberally provides the brains the rest of the world as generously supplying the muscles no small number of these whaling seamen belong to the azores where the outward bound nantucket whalers frequently touch to augment their crews from the hardy peasants of those rocky shores in like manner the greenland whalers sailing out of hull or london put in at the shetland islands to receive the full complement of their crew upon the passage homewards they drop them there again how it is there is no telling but islanders seem to make the best whalemen they were nearly all islanders in the pequod isolatoes too i call such not acknowledging the common continent of men but each isolato living on a separate continent of his own yet now federated along one keel what a set these isolatoes were an anacharsis clootz deputation from all the isles of the sea and all the ends of the earth accompanying old ahab in the pequod to lay the worlds grievances before that bar from which not very many of them ever come back on the grim pequods forecastle ye shall ere long see him beating his tambourine prelusive of the eternal time when sent for to the great quarterdeck on high he was bid strike in with angels and beat his tambourine in glory called a coward here hailed a hero there for several days after leaving nantucket nothing above hatches was seen of captain ahab the mates regularly relieved each other at the watches and for aught that could be seen to the contrary they seemed to be the only commanders of the ship only they sometimes issued from the cabin with orders so sudden and peremptory that after all it was plain they but commanded vicariously
i wish with all my soul cried sir john that willoughby were among us again this and mariannes blushing gave new suspicions to edward said he in a low voice to miss dashwood by whom he was sitting edward saw enough to comprehend not only the meaning of others but such of mariannes expressions as had puzzled him before and when their visitors left them he went immediately round her and said in a whisper i have been guessing marianne was surprised and confused yet she could not help smiling at the quiet archness of his manner and after a moments silence said oh edward i do not doubt it replied he rather astonished at her earnestness and warmth for had he not imagined it to be a joke for the good of her acquaintance in general founded only on a something or a nothing between mr willoughby and herself he would not have ventured to mention it chapter  edward remained a week at the cottage he was earnestly pressed by mrs dashwood to stay longer but as if he were bent only on selfmortification he seemed resolved to be gone when his enjoyment among his friends was at the height his spirits during the last two or three days though still very unequal were greatly improvedhe grew more and more partial to the house and environsnever spoke of going away without a sighdeclared his time to be wholly disengagedeven doubted to what place he should go when he left thembut still go he must never had any week passed so quicklyhe could hardly believe it to be gone he said so repeatedly other things he said too which marked the turn of his feelings and gave the lie to his actions he had no pleasure at norland he detested being in town but either to norland or london he must go he valued their kindness beyond any thing and his greatest happiness was in being with them yet he must leave them at the end of a week in spite of their wishes and his own and without any restraint on his time elinor placed all that was astonishing in this way of acting to his mothers account and it was happy for her that he had a mother whose character was so imperfectly known to her as to be the general excuse for every thing strange on the part of her son disappointed however and vexed as she was and sometimes displeased with his uncertain behaviour to herself she was very well disposed on the whole to regard his actions with all the candid allowances and generous qualifications which had been rather more painfully extorted from her for willoughbys service by her mother his want of spirits of openness and of consistency were most usually attributed to his want of independence and his better knowledge of mrs the shortness of his visit the steadiness of his purpose in leaving them originated in the same fettered inclination the same inevitable necessity of temporizing with his mother the old wellestablished grievance of duty against will parent against child was the cause of all
but here elinor could neither wonder nor blame and when she saw as she assisted marianne from the carriage that she had been crying she saw only an emotion too natural in itself to raise any thing less tender than pity and in its unobtrusiveness entitled to praise in the whole of her subsequent manner she traced the direction of a mind awakened to reasonable exertion for no sooner had they entered their common sittingroom than marianne turned her eyes around it with a look of resolute firmness as if determined at once to accustom herself to the sight of every object with which the remembrance of willoughby could be connected she said little but every sentence aimed at cheerfulness and though a sigh sometimes escaped her it never passed away without the atonement of a smile she went to it but the music on which her eye first rested was an opera procured for her by willoughby containing some of their favourite duets and bearing on its outward leaf her own name in his handwriting she shook her head put the music aside and after running over the keys for a minute complained of feebleness in her fingers and closed the instrument again declaring however with firmness as she did so that she should in future practice much the next morning produced no abatement in these happy symptoms on the contrary with a mind and body alike strengthened by rest she looked and spoke with more genuine spirit anticipating the pleasure of margarets return and talking of the dear family party which would then be restored of their mutual pursuits and cheerful society as the only happiness worth a wish when the weather is settled and i have recovered my strength said she we will take long walks together every day we will walk to the farm at the edge of the down and see how the children go on we will walk to sir johns new plantations at barton cross and the abbeyland and we will often go to the old ruins of the priory and try to trace its foundations as far as we are told they once reached i mean never to be later in rising than six and from that time till dinner i shall divide every moment between music and reading i have formed my plan and am determined to enter on a course of serious study our own library is too well known to me to be resorted to for any thing beyond mere amusement but there are many works well worth reading at the park and there are others of more modern production which i know i can borrow of colonel brandon by reading only six hours aday i shall gain in the course of a twelvemonth a great deal of instruction which i now feel myself to want elinor honoured her for a plan which originated so nobly as this though smiling to see the same eager fancy which had been leading her to the extreme of languid indolence and selfish repining now at work in introducing excess into a scheme of such rational employment and virtuous selfcontrol her smile however changed to a sigh when she remembered that promise to willoughby was yet unfulfilled and feared she had that to communicate which might again unsettle the mind of marianne and ruin at least for a time this fair prospect of busy tranquillity willing therefore to delay the evil hour she resolved to wait till her sisters health were more secure before she appointed it marianne had been two or three days at home before the weather was fine enough for an invalid like herself to venture out but at last a soft genial morning appeared such as might tempt the daughters wishes and the mothers confidence and marianne leaning on elinors arm was authorised to walk as long as she could without fatigue in the lane before the house the sisters set out at a pace slow as the feebleness of marianne in an exercise hitherto untried since her illness requiredand they had advanced only so far beyond the house as to admit a full view of the hill the important hill behind when pausing with her eyes turned towards it marianne calmly said there exactly there pointing with one hand on that projecting moundthere i fell and there i first saw willoughby
a still duskier place is this with such low ponderous beams above and such old wrinkled planks beneath that you would almost fancy you trod some old crafts cockpits especially of such a howling night when this corneranchored old ark rocked so furiously on one side stood a long low shelflike table covered with cracked glass cases filled with dusty rarities gathered from this wide worlds remotest nooks projecting from the further angle of the room stands a darklooking denthe bara rude attempt at a right whales head be that how it may there stands the vast arched bone of the whales jaw so wide a coach might almost drive beneath it within are shabby shelves ranged round with old decanters bottles flasks and in those jaws of swift destruction like another cursed jonah by which name indeed they called him bustles a little withered old man who for their money dearly sells the sailors deliriums and death abominable are the tumblers into which he pours his poison though true cylinders withoutwithin the villanous green goggling glasses deceitfully tapered downwards to a cheating bottom parallel meridians rudely pecked into the glass surround these footpads goblets fill to this mark and your charge is but a penny to this a penny more and so on to the full glassthe cape horn measure which you may gulp down for a shilling upon entering the place i found a number of young seamen gathered about a table examining by a dim light divers specimens of skrimshander i sought the landlord and telling him i desired to be accommodated with a room received for answer that his house was fullnot a bed unoccupied but avast he added tapping his forehead you haint no objections to sharing a harpooneers blanket have ye i spose you are goin awhalin so youd better get used to that sort of thing i told him that i never liked to sleep two in a bed that if i should ever do so it would depend upon who the harpooneer might be and that if he the landlord really had no other place for me and the harpooneer was not decidedly objectionable why rather than wander further about a strange town on so bitter a night i would put up with the half of any decent mans blanket i sat down on an old wooden settle carved all over like a bench on the battery at one end a ruminating tar was still further adorning it with his jackknife stooping over and diligently working away at the space between his legs he was trying his hand at a ship under full sail but he didnt make much headway i thought at last some four or five of us were summoned to our meal in an adjoining room it was cold as icelandno fire at allthe landlord said he couldnt afford it nothing but two dismal tallow candles each in a winding sheet
and as for me if by any possibility there be any as yet undiscovered prime thing in me if i shall ever deserve any real repute in that small but high hushed world which i might not be unreasonably ambitious of if hereafter i shall do anything that upon the whole a man might rather have done than to have left undone if at my death my executors or more properly my creditors find any precious mss in my desk then here i prospectively ascribe all the honour and the glory to whaling for a whaleship was my yale college and my harvard in behalf of the dignity of whaling i would fain advance naught but substantiated facts but after embattling his facts an advocate who should wholly suppress a not unreasonable surmise which might tell eloquently upon his causesuch an advocate would he not be blameworthy it is well known that at the coronation of kings and queens even modern ones a certain curious process of seasoning them for their functions is gone through there is a saltcellar of state so called and there may be a castor of state certain i am however that a kings head is solemnly oiled at his coronation even as a head of salad can it be though that they anoint it with a view of making its interior run well as they anoint machinery much might be ruminated here concerning the essential dignity of this regal process because in common life we esteem but meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints his hair and palpably smells of that anointing in truth a mature man who uses hairoil unless medicinally that man has probably got a quoggy spot in him somewhere as a general rule he cant amount to much in his totality but the only thing to be considered here is thiswhat kind of oil is used at coronations certainly it cannot be olive oil nor macassar oil nor castor oil nor bears oil nor train oil nor codliver oil what then can it possibly be but sperm oil in its unmanufactured unpolluted state the sweetest of all oils we whalemen supply your kings and queens with coronation stuff the chief mate of the pequod was starbuck a native of nantucket and a quaker by descent he was a long earnest man and though born on an icy coast seemed well adapted to endure hot latitudes his flesh being hard as twicebaked biscuit transported to the indies his live blood would not spoil like bottled ale he must have been born in some time of general drought and famine or upon one of those fast days for which his state is famous only some thirty arid summers had he seen those summers had dried up all his physical superfluousness
she thought it probable that as they lived in the same county mrs palmer might be able to give some more particular account of willoughbys general character than could be gathered from the middletons partial acquaintance with him and she was eager to gain from any one such a confirmation of his merits as might remove the possibility of fear from marianne willoughby at cleveland and whether they were intimately acquainted with him palmernot that i ever spoke to him indeed but i have seen him for ever in town somehow or other i never happened to be staying at barton while he was at allenham mama saw him here once beforebut i was with my uncle at weymouth however i dare say we should have seen a great deal of him in somersetshire if it had not happened very unluckily that we should never have been in the country together he is very little at combe i believe but if he were ever so much there i do not think mr palmer would visit him for he is in the opposition you know and besides it is such a way off i know why you inquire about him very well your sister is to marry him i am monstrous glad of it for then i shall have her for a neighbour you know  upon my word replied elinor you know much more of the matter than i do if you have any reason to expect such a match dont pretend to deny it because you know it is what every body talks of i met colonel brandon monday morning in bondstreet just before we left town and he told me of it directly to give such intelligence to a person who could not be interested in it even if it were true is not what i should expect colonel brandon to do but i do assure you it was so for all that and i will tell you how it happened when we met him he turned back and walked with us and so we began talking of my brother and sister and one thing and another and i said to him so colonel there is a new family come to barton cottage i hear and mama sends me word they are very pretty and that one of them is going to be married to mr for of course you must know as you have been in devonshire so lately ohhe did not say much but he looked as if he knew it to be true so from that moment i set it down as certain yes quite well and so full of your praises he did nothing but say fine things of you
but when the gentlemen entered jane was no longer the first object miss bingleys eyes were instantly turned toward darcy and she had something to say to him before he had advanced many steps he addressed himself to miss bennet with a polite congratulation mr hurst also made her a slight bow and said he was very glad but diffuseness and warmth remained for bingleys salutation the first halfhour was spent in piling up the fire lest she should suffer from the change of room and she removed at his desire to the other side of the fireplace that she might be further from the door he then sat down by her and talked scarcely to anyone else elizabeth at work in the opposite corner saw it all with great delight hurst reminded his sisterinlaw of the cardtablebut in vain she assured him that no one intended to play and the silence of the whole party on the subject seemed to justify her hurst had therefore nothing to do but to stretch himself on one of the sofas and go to sleep darcy took up a book miss bingley did the same and mrs hurst principally occupied in playing with her bracelets and rings joined now and then in her brothers conversation with miss bennet miss bingleys attention was quite as much engaged in watching mr darcys progress through his book as in reading her own and she was perpetually either making some inquiry or looking at his page she could not win him however to any conversation he merely answered her question and read on at length quite exhausted by the attempt to be amused with her own book which she had only chosen because it was the second volume of his she gave a great yawn and said how pleasant it is to spend an evening in this way i declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading how much sooner one tires of anything than of a book when i have a house of my own i shall be miserable if i have not an excellent library she then yawned again threw aside her book and cast her eyes round the room in quest for some amusement when hearing her brother mentioning a ball to miss bennet she turned suddenly towards him and said by the bye charles are you really serious in meditating a dance at netherfield i would advise you before you determine on it to consult the wishes of the present party i am much mistaken if there are not some among us to whom a ball would be rather a punishment than a pleasure
you will have much pleasure in being in london and especially in being together and if elinor would ever condescend to anticipate enjoyment she would foresee it there from a variety of sources she would perhaps expect some from improving her acquaintance with her sisterinlaws family elinor had often wished for an opportunity of attempting to weaken her mothers dependence on the attachment of edward and herself that the shock might be less when the whole truth were revealed and now on this attack though almost hopeless of success she forced herself to begin her design by saying as calmly as she could i like edward ferrars very much and shall always be glad to see him but as to the rest of the family it is a matter of perfect indifference to me whether i am ever known to them or not marianne lifted up her eyes in astonishment and elinor conjectured that she might as well have held her tongue after very little farther discourse it was finally settled that the invitation should be fully accepted jennings received the information with a great deal of joy and many assurances of kindness and care nor was it a matter of pleasure merely to her sir john was delighted for to a man whose prevailing anxiety was the dread of being alone the acquisition of two to the number of inhabitants in london was something even lady middleton took the trouble of being delighted which was putting herself rather out of her way and as for the miss steeles especially lucy they had never been so happy in their lives as this intelligence made them elinor submitted to the arrangement which counteracted her wishes with less reluctance than she had expected to feel with regard to herself it was now a matter of unconcern whether she went to town or not and when she saw her mother so thoroughly pleased with the plan and her sister exhilarated by it in look voice and manner restored to all her usual animation and elevated to more than her usual gaiety she could not be dissatisfied with the cause and would hardly allow herself to distrust the consequence mariannes joy was almost a degree beyond happiness so great was the perturbation of her spirits and her impatience to be gone her unwillingness to quit her mother was her only restorative to calmness and at the moment of parting her grief on that score was excessive her mothers affliction was hardly less and elinor was the only one of the three who seemed to consider the separation as any thing short of eternal their departure took place in the first week in january the miss steeles kept their station at the park and were to quit it only with the rest of the family chapter  elinor could not find herself in the carriage with mrs jennings and beginning a journey to london under her protection and as her guest without wondering at her own situation so short had their acquaintance with that lady been so wholly unsuited were they in age and disposition and so many had been her objections against such a measure only a few days before but these objections had all with that happy ardour of youth which marianne and her mother equally shared been overcome or overlooked and elinor in spite of every occasional doubt of willoughbys constancy could not witness the rapture of delightful expectation which filled the whole soul and beamed in the eyes of marianne without feeling how blank was her own prospect how cheerless her own state of mind in the comparison and how gladly she would engage in the solicitude of mariannes situation to have the same animating object in view the same possibility of hope a short a very short time however must now decide what willoughbys intentions were in all probability he was already in town mariannes eagerness to be gone declared her dependence on finding him there and elinor was resolved not only upon gaining every new light as to his character which her own observation or the intelligence of others could give her but likewise upon watching his behaviour to her sister with such zealous attention as to ascertain what he was and what he meant before many meetings had taken place should the result of her observations be unfavourable she was determined at all events to open the eyes of her sister should it be otherwise her exertions would be of a different natureshe must then learn to avoid every selfish comparison and banish every regret which might lessen her satisfaction in the happiness of marianne
jane met her with a smile of such sweet complacency a glow of such happy expression as sufficiently marked how well she was satisfied with the occurrences of the evening elizabeth instantly read her feelings and at that moment solicitude for wickham resentment against his enemies and everything else gave way before the hope of janes being in the fairest way for happiness i want to know said she with a countenance no less smiling than her sisters what you have learnt about mr but perhaps you have been too pleasantly engaged to think of any third person in which case you may be sure of my pardon no replied jane i have not forgotten him but i have nothing satisfactory to tell you bingley does not know the whole of his history and is quite ignorant of the circumstances which have principally offended mr darcy but he will vouch for the good conduct the probity and honour of his friend and is perfectly convinced that mr darcy than he has received and i am sorry to say by his account as well as his sisters mr i am afraid he has been very imprudent and has deserved to lose mr no he never saw him till the other morning at meryton he does not exactly recollect the circumstances though he has heard them from mr darcy more than once but he believes that it was left to him conditionally only bingleys sincerity said elizabeth warmly but you must excuse my not being convinced by assurances only bingleys defense of his friend was a very able one i dare say but since he is unacquainted with several parts of the story and has learnt the rest from that friend himself i shall venture to still think of both gentlemen as i did before she then changed the discourse to one more gratifying to each and on which there could be no difference of sentiment elizabeth listened with delight to the happy though modest hopes which jane entertained of mr bingleys regard and said all in her power to heighten her confidence in it bingley himself elizabeth withdrew to miss lucas to whose inquiry after the pleasantness of her last partner she had scarcely replied before mr collins came up to them and told her with great exultation that he had just been so fortunate as to make a most important discovery i have found out said he by a singular accident that there is now in the room a near relation of my patroness
that shipwell called the syren made a noble experimental cruise and it was thus that the great japanese whaling ground first became generally known the syren in this famous voyage was commanded by a captain coffin a nantucketer all honour to the enderbies therefore whose house i think exists to the present day though doubtless the original samuel must long ago have slipped his cable for the great south sea of the other world the ship named after him was worthy of the honour being a very fast sailer and a noble craft every way i boarded her once at midnight somewhere off the patagonian coast and drank good flip down in the forecastle it was a fine gam we had and they were all trumpsevery soul on board and that fine gam i hadlong very long after old ahab touched her planks with his ivory heelit minds me of the noble solid saxon hospitality of that ship and may my parson forget me and the devil remember me if i ever lose sight of it yes and we flipped it at the rate of ten gallons the hour and when the squall came for its squally off there by patagonia and all handsvisitors and allwere called to reef topsails we were so topheavy that we had to swing each other aloft in bowlines and we ignorantly furled the skirts of our jackets into the sails so that we hung there reefed fast in the howling gale a warning example to all drunken tars however the masts did not go overboard and by and by we scrambled down so sober that we had to pass the flip again though the savage salt spray bursting down the forecastle scuttle rather too much diluted and pickled it to my taste they said it was bullbeef others that it was dromedary beef but i do not know for certain how that was they had dumplings too small but substantial symmetrically globular and indestructible dumplings i fancied that you could feel them and roll them about in you after they were swallowed if you stooped over too far forward you risked their pitching out of you like billiardballs the breadbut that couldnt be helped besides it was an antiscorbutic in short the bread contained the only fresh fare they had but the forecastle was not very light and it was very easy to step over into a dark corner when you ate it but all in all taking her from truck to helm considering the dimensions of the cooks boilers including his own live parchment boilers fore and aft i say the samuel enderby was a jolly ship of good fare and plenty fine flip and strong crack fellows all and capital from boot heels to hatband but why was it think ye that the samuel enderby and some other english whalers i know ofnot all thoughwere such famous hospitable ships that passed round the beef and the bread and the can and the joke and were not soon weary of eating and drinking and laughing the abounding good cheer of these english whalers is matter for historical research nor have i been at all sparing of historical whale research when it has seemed needed the english were preceded in the whale fishery by the hollanders zealanders and danes from whom they derived many terms still extant in the fishery and what is yet more their fat old fashions touching plenty to eat and drink
if that is all you may be satisfied alreadyfor marianne doesshe has long forgiven you  then she has forgiven me before she ought to have done it but she shall forgive me again and on more reasonable grounds i do not know said he after a pause of expectation on her side and thoughtfulness on his ownhow you may have accounted for my behaviour to your sister or what diabolical motive you may have imputed to me  perhaps you will hardly think the better of meit is worth the trial however and you shall hear every thing when i first became intimate in your family i had no other intention no other view in the acquaintance than to pass my time pleasantly while i was obliged to remain in devonshire more pleasantly than i had ever done before your sisters lovely person and interesting manners could not but please me and her behaviour to me almost from the first was of a kindit is astonishing when i reflect on what it was and what she was that my heart should have been so insensible but at first i must confess my vanity only was elevated by it careless of her happiness thinking only of my own amusement giving way to feelings which i had always been too much in the habit of indulging i endeavoured by every means in my power to make myself pleasing to her without any design of returning her affection  miss dashwood at this point turning her eyes on him with the most angry contempt stopped him by saying it is hardly worth while mr willoughby for you to relate or for me to listen any longer such a beginning as this cannot be followed by any thing  do not let me be pained by hearing any thing more on the subject i insist on you hearing the whole of it he replied my fortune was never large and i had always been expensive always in the habit of associating with people of better income than myself every year since my coming of age or even before i believe had added to my debts and though the death of my old cousin mrs smith was to set me free yet that event being uncertain and possibly far distant it had been for some time my intention to reestablish my circumstances by marrying a woman of fortune to attach myself to your sister therefore was not a thing to be thought ofand with a meanness selfishness crueltywhich no indignant no contemptuous look even of yours miss dashwood can ever reprobate too muchi was acting in this manner trying to engage her regard without a thought of returning it but one thing may be said for me even in that horrid state of selfish vanity i did not know the extent of the injury i meditated because i did not then know what it was to love well may it be doubted for had i really loved could i have sacrificed my feelings to vanity to avarice to avoid a comparative poverty which her affection and her society would have deprived of all its horrors i have by raising myself to affluence lost every thing that could make it a blessing
certainlyand i think i may afford to give them five hundred pounds apiece as it is without any addition of mine they will each have about three thousand pounds on their mothers deatha very comfortable fortune for any young woman to be sure it is and indeed it strikes me that they can want no addition at all they will have ten thousand pounds divided amongst them if they marry they will be sure of doing well and if they do not they may all live very comfortably together on the interest of ten thousand pounds that is very true and therefore i do not know whether upon the whole it would not be more advisable to do something for their mother while she lives rather than for themsomething of the annuity kind i mean my sisters would feel the good effects of it as well as herself a hundred a year would make them all perfectly comfortable his wife hesitated a little however in giving her consent to this plan to be sure said she it is better than parting with fifteen hundred pounds at once dashwood should live fifteen years we shall be completely taken in my dear fanny her life cannot be worth half that purchase certainly not but if you observe people always live for ever when there is an annuity to be paid them and she is very stout and healthy and hardly forty an annuity is a very serious business it comes over and over every year and there is no getting rid of it i have known a great deal of the trouble of annuities for my mother was clogged with the payment of three to old superannuated servants by my fathers will and it is amazing how disagreeable she found it twice every year these annuities were to be paid and then there was the trouble of getting it to them and then one of them was said to have died and afterwards it turned out to be no such thing her income was not her own she said with such perpetual claims on it and it was the more unkind in my father because otherwise the money would have been entirely at my mothers disposal without any restriction whatever it has given me such an abhorrence of annuities that i am sure i would not pin myself down to the payment of one for all the world dashwood to have those kind of yearly drains on ones income ones fortune as your mother justly says is not ones own
twice every day for three days this was repeated but on the fourth morning a confused wrangling and then a scuffling was heard as the customary summons was delivered and suddenly four men burst up from the forecastle saying they were ready to turn to the fetid closeness of the air and a famishing diet united perhaps to some fears of ultimate retribution had constrained them to surrender at discretion emboldened by this the captain reiterated his demand to the rest but steelkilt shouted up to him a terrific hint to stop his babbling and betake himself where he belonged on the fifth morning three others of the mutineers bolted up into the air from the desperate arms below that sought to restrain them it was at this point gentlemen that enraged by the defection of seven of his former associates and stung by the mocking voice that had last hailed him and maddened by his long entombment in a place as black as the bowels of despair it was then that steelkilt proposed to the two canallers thus far apparently of one mind with him to burst out of their hole at the next summoning of the garrison and armed with their keen mincing knives long crescentic heavy implements with a handle at each end run amuck from the bowsprit to the taffrail and if by any devilishness of desperation possible seize the ship for himself he would do this he said whether they joined him or not that was the last night he should spend in that den but the scheme met with no opposition on the part of the other two they swore they were ready for that or for any other mad thing for anything in short but a surrender and what was more they each insisted upon being the first man on deck when the time to make the rush should come but to this their leader as fiercely objected reserving that priority for himself particularly as his two comrades would not yield the one to the other in the matter and both of them could not be first for the ladder would but admit one man at a time and here gentlemen the foul play of these miscreants must come out upon hearing the frantic project of their leader each in his own separate soul had suddenly lighted it would seem upon the same piece of treachery namely to be foremost in breaking out in order to be the first of the three though the last of the ten to surrender and thereby secure whatever small chance of pardon such conduct might merit but when steelkilt made known his determination still to lead them to the last they in some way by some subtle chemistry of villany mixed their before secret treacheries together and when their leader fell into a doze verbally opened their souls to each other in three sentences and bound the sleeper with cords and gagged him with cords and shrieked out for the captain at midnight thinking murder at hand and smelling in the dark for the blood he and all his armed mates and harpooneers rushed for the forecastle in a few minutes the scuttle was opened and bound hand and foot the still struggling ringleader was shoved up into the air by his perfidious allies who at once claimed the honour of securing a man who had been fully ripe for murder but all these were collared and dragged along the deck like dead cattle and side by side were seized up into the mizzen rigging like three quarters of meat and there they hung till morning damn ye cried the captain pacing to and fro before them the vultures would not touch ye ye villains    at sunrise he summoned all hands and separating those who had rebelled from those who had taken no part in the mutiny he told the former that he had a good mind to flog them all roundthought upon the whole he would do sohe ought tojustice demanded it but for the present considering their timely surrender he would let them go with a reprimand which he accordingly administered in the vernacular but as for you ye carrion rogues turning to the three men in the riggingfor you i mean to mince ye up for the trypots and seizing a rope he applied it with all his might to the backs of the two traitors till they yelled no more but lifelessly hung their heads sideways as the two crucified thieves are drawn he cried at last but there is still rope enough left for you my fine bantam that wouldn t give up
now however his goodnatured honest stupid soul full of indignation against me and concern for your sister could not resist the temptation of telling me what he knew ought tothough probably he did not think it wouldvex me horridly as bluntly as he could speak it therefore he told me that marianne dashwood was dying of a putrid fever at clevelanda letter that morning received from mrs jennings declared her danger most imminentthe palmers are all gone off in a fright c i was too much shocked to be able to pass myself off as insensible even to the undiscerning sir john his heart was softened in seeing mine suffer and so much of his illwill was done away that when we parted he almost shook me by the hand while he reminded me of an old promise about a pointer puppy what i felt on hearing that your sister was dyingand dying too believing me the greatest villain upon earth scorning hating me in her latest momentsfor how could i tell what horrid projects might not have been imputed one person i was sure would represent me as capable of any thing what i felt was dreadful my resolution was soon made and at eight oclock this morning i was in my carriage her thoughts were silently fixed on the irreparable injury which too early an independence and its consequent habits of idleness dissipation and luxury had made in the mind the character the happiness of a man who to every advantage of person and talents united a disposition naturally open and honest and a feeling affectionate temper the world had made him extravagant and vainextravagance and vanity had made him coldhearted and selfish vanity while seeking its own guilty triumph at the expense of another had involved him in a real attachment which extravagance or at least its offspring necessity had required to be sacrificed each faulty propensity in leading him to evil had led him likewise to punishment the attachment from which against honour against feeling against every better interest he had outwardly torn himself now when no longer allowable governed every thought and the connection for the sake of which he had with little scruple left her sister to misery was likely to prove a source of unhappiness to himself of a far more incurable nature from a reverie of this kind she was recalled at the end of some minutes by willoughby who rousing himself from a reverie at least equally painful started up in preparation for going and said there is no use in staying here i must be off i have business there from thence to town in a day or two she could not refuse to give him hershe pressed it with affection and you do think something better of me than you did said he letting it fall and leaning against the mantelpiece as if forgetting he was to go elinor assured him that she didthat she forgave pitied wished him wellwas even interested in his happinessand added some gentle counsel as to the behaviour most likely to promote it as to that said he i must rub through the world as well as i can
bennet who had calculated on her daughters remaining at netherfield till the following tuesday which would exactly finish janes week could not bring herself to receive them with pleasure before her answer therefore was not propitious at least not to elizabeths wishes for she was impatient to get home bennet sent them word that they could not possibly have the carriage before tuesday and in her postscript it was added that if mr bingley and his sister pressed them to stay longer she could spare them very well against staying longer however elizabeth was positively resolvednor did she much expect it would be asked and fearful on the contrary as being considered as intruding themselves needlessly long she urged jane to borrow mr bingleys carriage immediately and at length it was settled that their original design of leaving netherfield that morning should be mentioned and the request made the communication excited many professions of concern and enough was said of wishing them to stay at least till the following day to work on jane and till the morrow their going was deferred miss bingley was then sorry that she had proposed the delay for her jealousy and dislike of one sister much exceeded her affection for the other the master of the house heard with real sorrow that they were to go so soon and repeatedly tried to persuade miss bennet that it would not be safe for herthat she was not enough recovered but jane was firm where she felt herself to be right darcy it was welcome intelligenceelizabeth had been at netherfield long enough she attracted him more than he likedand miss bingley was uncivil to her and more teasing than usual to himself he wisely resolved to be particularly careful that no sign of admiration should now escape him nothing that could elevate her with the hope of influencing his felicity sensible that if such an idea had been suggested his behaviour during the last day must have material weight in confirming or crushing it steady to his purpose he scarcely spoke ten words to her through the whole of saturday and though they were at one time left by themselves for halfanhour he adhered most conscientiously to his book and would not even look at her on sunday after morning service the separation so agreeable to almost all took place miss bingleys civility to elizabeth increased at last very rapidly as well as her affection for jane and when they parted after assuring the latter of the pleasure it would always give her to see her either at longbourn or netherfield and embracing her most tenderly she even shook hands with the former elizabeth took leave of the whole party in the liveliest of spirits they were not welcomed home very cordially by their mother bennet wondered at their coming and thought them very wrong to give so much trouble and was sure jane would have caught cold again but their father though very laconic in his expressions of pleasure was really glad to see them he had felt their importance in the family circle the evening conversation when they were all assembled had lost much of its animation and almost all its sense by the absence of jane and elizabeth
on the fifth morning three others of the mutineers bolted up into the air from the desperate arms below that sought to restrain them it was at this point gentlemen that enraged by the defection of seven of his former associates and stung by the mocking voice that had last hailed him and maddened by his long entombment in a place as black as the bowels of despair it was then that steelkilt proposed to the two canallers thus far apparently of one mind with him to burst out of their hole at the next summoning of the garrison and armed with their keen mincing knives long crescentic heavy implements with a handle at each end run amuck from the bowsprit to the taffrail and if by any devilishness of desperation possible seize the ship for himself he would do this he said whether they joined him or not that was the last night he should spend in that den but the scheme met with no opposition on the part of the other two they swore they were ready for that or for any other mad thing for anything in short but a surrender and what was more they each insisted upon being the first man on deck when the time to make the rush should come but to this their leader as fiercely objected reserving that priority for himself particularly as his two comrades would not yield the one to the other in the matter and both of them could not be first for the ladder would but admit one man at a time and here gentlemen the foul play of these miscreants must come out upon hearing the frantic project of their leader each in his own separate soul had suddenly lighted it would seem upon the same piece of treachery namely to be foremost in breaking out in order to be the first of the three though the last of the ten to surrender and thereby secure whatever small chance of pardon such conduct might merit but when steelkilt made known his determination still to lead them to the last they in some way by some subtle chemistry of villany mixed their before secret treacheries together and when their leader fell into a doze verbally opened their souls to each other in three sentences and bound the sleeper with cords and gagged him with cords and shrieked out for the captain at midnight thinking murder at hand and smelling in the dark for the blood he and all his armed mates and harpooneers rushed for the forecastle in a few minutes the scuttle was opened and bound hand and foot the still struggling ringleader was shoved up into the air by his perfidious allies who at once claimed the honour of securing a man who had been fully ripe for murder but all these were collared and dragged along the deck like dead cattle and side by side were seized up into the mizzen rigging like three quarters of meat and there they hung till morning damn ye cried the captain pacing to and fro before them the vultures would not touch ye ye villains    at sunrise he summoned all hands and separating those who had rebelled from those who had taken no part in the mutiny he told the former that he had a good mind to flog them all roundthought upon the whole he would do sohe ought tojustice demanded it but for the present considering their timely surrender he would let them go with a reprimand which he accordingly administered in the vernacular but as for you ye carrion rogues turning to the three men in the riggingfor you i mean to mince ye up for the trypots and seizing a rope he applied it with all his might to the backs of the two traitors till they yelled no more but lifelessly hung their heads sideways as the two crucified thieves are drawn he cried at last but there is still rope enough left for you my fine bantam that wouldn t give up take that gag from his mouth and let us hear what he can say for himself  for a moment the exhausted mutineer made a tremulous motion of his cramped jaws and then painfully twisting round his head said in a sort of hiss what i say is thisand mind it wellif you flog me i murder you then see how ye frighten me and the captain drew off with the rope to strike
the prodigious strain upon the mainsail had parted the weathersheet and the tremendous boom was now flying from side to side completely sweeping the entire after part of the deck the poor fellow whom queequeg had handled so roughly was swept overboard all hands were in a panic and to attempt snatching at the boom to stay it seemed madness it flew from right to left and back again almost in one ticking of a watch and every instant seemed on the point of snapping into splinters nothing was done and nothing seemed capable of being done those on deck rushed towards the bows and stood eyeing the boom as if it were the lower jaw of an exasperated whale in the midst of this consternation queequeg dropped deftly to his knees and crawling under the path of the boom whipped hold of a rope secured one end to the bulwarks and then flinging the other like a lasso caught it round the boom as it swept over his head and at the next jerk the spar was that way trapped and all was safe the schooner was run into the wind and while the hands were clearing away the stern boat queequeg stripped to the waist darted from the side with a long living arc of a leap for three minutes or more he was seen swimming like a dog throwing his long arms straight out before him and by turns revealing his brawny shoulders through the freezing foam i looked at the grand and glorious fellow but saw no one to be saved shooting himself perpendicularly from the water queequeg now took an instants glance around him and seeming to see just how matters were dived down and disappeared a few minutes more and he rose again one arm still striking out and with the other dragging a lifeless form all hands voted queequeg a noble trump the captain begged his pardon from that hour i clove to queequeg like a barnacle yea till poor queequeg took his last long dive he did not seem to think that he at all deserved a medal from the humane and magnanimous societies he only asked for waterfresh watersomething to wipe the brine off that done he put on dry clothes lighted his pipe and leaning against the bulwarks and mildly eyeing those around him seemed to be saying to himselfits a mutual jointstock world in all meridians nothing more happened on the passage worthy the mentioning so after a fine run we safely arrived in nantucket see what a real corner of the world it occupies how it stands there away off shore more lonely than the eddystone lighthouse look at ita mere hillock and elbow of sand all beach without a background there is more sand there than you would use in twenty years as a substitute for blotting paper some gamesome wights will tell you that they have to plant weeds there they dont grow naturally that they import canada thistles that they have to send beyond seas for a spile to stop a leak in an oil cask that pieces of wood in nantucket are carried about like bits of the true cross in rome that people there plant toadstools before their houses to get under the shade in summer time that one blade of grass makes an oasis three blades in a days walk a prairie that they wear quicksand shoes something like laplander snowshoes that they are so shut up belted about every way inclosed surrounded and made an utter island of by the ocean that to their very chairs and tables small clams will sometimes be found adhering as to the backs of sea turtles but these extravaganzas only show that nantucket is no illinois
if any of the following whales shall hereafter be caught and marked then he can readily be incorporated into this system according to his folio octavo or duodecimo magnitudethe bottlenose whale the junk whale the puddingheaded whale the cape whale the leading whale the cannon whale the scragg whale the coppered whale the elephant whale the iceberg whale the quog whale the blue whale etc from icelandic dutch and old english authorities there might be quoted other lists of uncertain whales blessed with all manner of uncouth names but i omit them as altogether obsolete and can hardly help suspecting them for mere sounds full of leviathanism but signifying nothing finally it was stated at the outset that this system would not be here and at once perfected you cannot but plainly see that i have kept my word but i now leave my cetological system standing thus unfinished even as the great cathedral of cologne was left with the crane still standing upon the top of the uncompleted tower for small erections may be finished by their first architects grand ones true ones ever leave the copestone to posterity this whole book is but a draughtnay but the draught of a draught concerning the officers of the whalecraft this seems as good a place as any to set down a little domestic peculiarity on shipboard arising from the existence of the harpooneer class of officers a class unknown of course in any other marine than the whalefleet the large importance attached to the harpooneers vocation is evinced by the fact that originally in the old dutch fishery two centuries and more ago the command of a whale ship was not wholly lodged in the person now called the captain but was divided between him and an officer called the specksynder literally this word means fatcutter usage however in time made it equivalent to chief harpooneer in those days the captains authority was restricted to the navigation and general management of the vessel while over the whalehunting department and all its concerns the specksynder or chief harpooneer reigned supreme in the british greenland fishery under the corrupted title of specksioneer this old dutch official is still retained but his former dignity is sadly abridged at present he ranks simply as senior harpooneer and as such is but one of the captains more inferior subalterns nevertheless as upon the good conduct of the harpooneers the success of a whaling voyage largely depends and since in the american fishery he is not only an important officer in the boat but under certain circumstances night watches on a whaling ground the command of the ships deck is also his therefore the grand political maxim of the sea demands that he should nominally live apart from the men before the mast and be in some way distinguished as their professional superior though always by them familiarly regarded as their social equal now the grand distinction drawn between officer and man at sea is thisthe first lives aft the last forward hence in whaleships and merchantmen alike the mates have their quarters with the captain and so too in most of the american whalers the harpooneers are lodged in the after part of the ship that is to say they take their meals in the captains cabin and sleep in a place indirectly communicating with it though the long period of a southern whaling voyage by far the longest of all voyages now or ever made by man the peculiar perils of it and the community of interest prevailing among a company all of whom high or low depend for their profits not upon fixed wages but upon their common luck together with their common vigilance intrepidity and hard work though all these things do in some cases tend to beget a less rigorous discipline than in merchantmen generally yet never mind how much like an old mesopotamian family these whalemen may in some primitive instances live together for all that the punctilious externals at least of the quarterdeck are seldom materially relaxed and in no instance done away indeed many are the nantucket ships in which you will see the skipper parading his quarterdeck with an elated grandeur not surpassed in any military navy nay extorting almost as much outward homage as if he wore the imperial purple and not the shabbiest of pilotcloth
i did not know my danger till the danger was removed but with such feelings as these reflections gave me i wonder at my recoverywonder that the very eagerness of my desire to live to have time for atonement to my god and to you all did not kill me at once had i diedin what peculiar misery should i have left you my nurse my friend my sister you who had seen all the fretful selfishness of my latter days who had known all the murmurings of my heart whenever i looked towards the past i saw some duty neglected or some failing indulged to the middletons to the palmers the steeles to every common acquaintance even i had been insolent and unjust with a heart hardened against their merits and a temper irritated by their very attention to john to fannyyes even to them little as they deserve i had given less than their due but youyou above all above my mother had been wronged by me i and only i knew your heart and its sorrows yet to what did it influence me not to any compassion that could benefit you or myself did i imitate your forbearance or lessen your restraints by taking any part in those offices of general complaisance or particular gratitude which you had hitherto been left to discharge alone nonot less when i knew you to be unhappy than when i had believed you at ease did i turn away from every exertion of duty or friendship scarcely allowing sorrow to exist but with me regretting only that heart which had deserted and wronged me and leaving you for whom i professed an unbounded affection to be miserable for my sake here ceased the rapid flow of her selfreproving spirit and elinor impatient to soothe though too honest to flatter gave her instantly that praise and support which her frankness and her contrition so well deserved marianne pressed her hand and replied you are very good i have laid down my plan and if i am capable of adhering to itmy feelings shall be governed and my temper improved they shall no longer worry others nor torture myself you my mother and margaret must henceforth be all the world to me you will share my affections entirely between you from you from my home i shall never again have the smallest incitement to move and if i do mix in other society it will be only to shew that my spirit is humbled my heart amended and that i can practise the civilities the lesser duties of life with gentleness and forbearance as for willoughbyto say that i shall soon or that i shall ever forget him would be idle his remembrance can be overcome by no change of circumstances or opinions but it shall be regulated it shall be checked by religion by reason by constant employment
now the captain dwolf here alluded to as commanding the ship in question is a new englander who after a long life of unusual adventures as a seacaptain this day resides in the village of dorchester near boston i have particularly questioned him concerning this passage in langsdorff the ship however was by no means a large one a russian craft built on the siberian coast and purchased by my uncle after bartering away the vessel in which he sailed from home in that up and down manly book of oldfashioned adventure so full too of honest wondersthe voyage of lionel wafer one of ancient dampiers old chumsi found a little matter set down so like that just quoted from langsdorff that i cannot forbear inserting it here for a corroborative example if such be needed lionel it seems was on his way to john ferdinando as he calls the modern juan fernandes in our way thither he says about four oclock in the morning when we were about one hundred and fifty leagues from the main of america our ship felt a terrible shock which put our men in such consternation that they could hardly tell where they were or what to think but every one began to prepare for death and indeed the shock was so sudden and violent that we took it for granted the ship had struck against a rock but when the amazement was a little over we cast the lead and sounded but found no ground the suddenness of the shock made the guns leap in their carriages and several of the men were shaken out of their hammocks captain davis who lay with his head on a gun was thrown out of his cabin lionel then goes on to impute the shock to an earthquake and seems to substantiate the imputation by stating that a great earthquake somewhere about that time did actually do great mischief along the spanish land but i should not much wonder if in the darkness of that early hour of the morning the shock was after all caused by an unseen whale vertically bumping the hull from beneath i might proceed with several more examples one way or another known to me of the great power and malice at times of the sperm whale in more than one instance he has been known not only to chase the assailing boats back to their ships but to pursue the ship itself and long withstand all the lances hurled at him from its decks the english ship pusie hall can tell a story on that head and as for his strength let me say that there have been examples where the lines attached to a running sperm whale have in a calm been transferred to the ship and secured there the whale towing her great hull through the water as a horse walks off with a cart again it is very often observed that if the sperm whale once struck is allowed time to rally he then acts not so often with blind rage as with wilful deliberate designs of destruction to his pursuers nor is it without conveying some eloquent indication of his character that upon being attacked he will frequently open his mouth and retain it in that dread expansion for several consecutive minutes but i must be content with only one more and a concluding illustration a remarkable and most significant one by which you will not fail to see that not only is the most marvellous event in this book corroborated by plain facts of the present day but that these marvels like all marvels are mere repetitions of the ages so that for the millionth time we say amen with solomonverily there is nothing new under the sun in the sixth christian century lived procopius a christian magistrate of constantinople in the days when justinian was emperor and belisarius general as many know he wrote the history of his own times a work every way of uncommon value by the best authorities he has always been considered a most trustworthy and unexaggerating historian except in some one or two particulars not at all affecting the matter presently to be mentioned now in this history of his procopius mentions that during the term of his prefecture at constantinople a great seamonster was captured in the neighboring propontis or sea of marmora after having destroyed vessels at intervals in those waters for a period of more than fifty years
he must write his own sermons and the time that remains will not be too much for his parish duties and the care and improvement of his dwelling which he cannot be excused from making as comfortable as possible and i do not think it of light importance that he should have attentive and conciliatory manners towards everybody especially towards those to whom he owes his preferment i cannot acquit him of that duty nor could i think well of the man who should omit an occasion of testifying his respect towards anybody connected with the family darcy he concluded his speech which had been spoken so loud as to be heard by half the room many staredmany smiled but no one looked more amused than mr bennet himself while his wife seriously commended mr collins for having spoken so sensibly and observed in a halfwhisper to lady lucas that he was a remarkably clever good kind of young man to elizabeth it appeared that had her family made an agreement to expose themselves as much as they could during the evening it would have been impossible for them to play their parts with more spirit or finer success and happy did she think it for bingley and her sister that some of the exhibition had escaped his notice and that his feelings were not of a sort to be much distressed by the folly which he must have witnessed darcy however should have such an opportunity of ridiculing her relations was bad enough and she could not determine whether the silent contempt of the gentleman or the insolent smiles of the ladies were more intolerable the rest of the evening brought her little amusement collins who continued most perseveringly by her side and though he could not prevail on her to dance with him again put it out of her power to dance with others in vain did she entreat him to stand up with somebody else and offer to introduce him to any young lady in the room he assured her that as to dancing he was perfectly indifferent to it that his chief object was by delicate attentions to recommend himself to her and that he should therefore make a point of remaining close to her the whole evening she owed her greatest relief to her friend miss lucas who often joined them and goodnaturedly engaged mr darcys further notice though often standing within a very short distance of her quite disengaged he never came near enough to speak she felt it to be the probable consequence of her allusions to mr the longbourn party were the last of all the company to depart and by a manoeuvre of mrs bennet had to wait for their carriage a quarter of an hour after everybody else was gone which gave them time to see how heartily they were wished away by some of the family hurst and her sister scarcely opened their mouths except to complain of fatigue and were evidently impatient to have the house to themselves bennet at conversation and by so doing threw a languor over the whole party which was very little relieved by the long speeches of mr
he did not stipulate for any particular sum my dear fanny he only requested me in general terms to assist them and make their situation more comfortable than it was in his power to do perhaps it would have been as well if he had left it wholly to myself but as he required the promise i could not do less than give it at least i thought so at the time the promise therefore was given and must be performed something must be done for them whenever they leave norland and settle in a new home well then let something be done for them but that something need not be three thousand pounds consider she added that when the money is once parted with it never can return your sisters will marry and it will be gone for ever if indeed it could be restored to our poor little boy why to be sure said her husband very gravely that would make great difference the time may come when harry will regret that so large a sum was parted with if he should have a numerous family for instance it would be a very convenient addition perhaps then it would be better for all parties if the sum were diminished one half five hundred pounds would be a prodigious increase to their fortunes what brother on earth would do half so much for his sisters even if really his sisters one had rather on such occasions do too much than too little no one at least can think i have not done enough for them even themselves they can hardly expect more there is no knowing what they may expect said the lady but we are not to think of their expectations the question is what you can afford to do certainlyand i think i may afford to give them five hundred pounds apiece as it is without any addition of mine they will each have about three thousand pounds on their mothers deatha very comfortable fortune for any young woman to be sure it is and indeed it strikes me that they can want no addition at all
for being at tranque years ago when attached to the tradingship dey of algiers i was invited to spend part of the arsacidean holidays with the lord of tranque at his retired palm villa at pupella a seaside glen not very far distant from what our sailors called bambootown his capital among many other fine qualities my royal friend tranquo being gifted with a devout love for all matters of barbaric vertu had brought together in pupella whatever rare things the more ingenious of his people could invent chiefly carved woods of wonderful devices chiselled shells inlaid spears costly paddles aromatic canoes and all these distributed among whatever natural wonders the wonderfreighted tributerendering waves had cast upon his shores chief among these latter was a great sperm whale which after an unusually long raging gale had been found dead and stranded with his head against a cocoanut tree whose plumagelike tufted droopings seemed his verdant jet when the vast body had at last been stripped of its fathomdeep enfoldings and the bones become dust dry in the sun then the skeleton was carefully transported up the pupella glen where a grand temple of lordly palms now sheltered it the ribs were hung with trophies the vertebrae were carved with arsacidean annals in strange hieroglyphics in the skull the priests kept up an unextinguished aromatic flame so that the mystic head again sent forth its vapoury spout while suspended from a bough the terrific lower jaw vibrated over all the devotees like the hairhung sword that so affrighted damocles the wood was green as mosses of the icy glen the trees stood high and haughty feeling their living sap the industrious earth beneath was as a weavers loom with a gorgeous carpet on it whereof the groundvine tendrils formed the warp and woof and the living flowers the figures all the trees with all their laden branches all the shrubs and ferns and grasses the messagecarrying air all these unceasingly were active through the lacings of the leaves the great sun seemed a flying shuttle weaving the unwearied verdure naythe shuttle fliesthe figures float from forth the loom the freshetrushing carpet for ever slides away the weavergod he weaves and by that weaving is he deafened that he hears no mortal voice and by that humming we too who look on the loom are deafened and only when we escape it shall we hear the thousand voices that speak through it the spoken words that are inaudible among the flying spindles those same words are plainly heard without the walls bursting from the opened casements then be heedful for so in all this din of the great worlds loom thy subtlest thinkings may be overheard afar now amid the green liferestless loom of that arsacidean wood the great white worshipped skeleton lay lounginga gigantic idler yet as the everwoven verdant warp and woof intermixed and hummed around him the mighty idler seemed the cunning weaver himself all woven over with the vines every month assuming greener fresher verdure but himself a skeleton life folded death death trellised life the grim god wived with youthful life and begat him curlyheaded glories now when with royal tranquo i visited this wondrous whale and saw the skull an altar and the artificial smoke ascending from where the real jet had issued i marvelled that the king should regard a chapel as an object of vertu but more i marvelled that the priests should swear that smoky jet of his was genuine to and fro i paced before this skeletonbrushed the vines asidebroke through the ribsand with a ball of arsacidean twine wandered eddied long amid its many winding shaded colonnades and arbours but soon my line was out and following it back i emerged from the opening where i entered i saw no living thing within naught was there but bones
here they saw such huge troops of whales that they were forced to proceed with a great deal of caution for fear they should run their ship upon them some say the whale cant open his mouth but that is a fable they frequently climb up the masts to see whether they can see a whale for the first discoverer has a ducat for his pains i was told of a whale taken near shetland that had above a barrel of herrings in his belly one of our harpooneers told me that he caught once a whale in spitzbergen that was white all over several whales have come in upon this coast fife anno  one eighty feet in length of the whalebone kind came in which as i was informed besides a vast quantity of oil did afford  weight of baleen the jaws of it stand for a gate in the garden of pitferren myself have agreed to try whether i can master and kill this spermaceti whale for i could never hear of any of that sort that was killed by any man such is his fierceness and swiftness we saw also abundance of large whales there being more in those southern seas as i may say by a hundred to one than we have to the northward of us and the breath of the whale is frequently attended with such an insupportable smell as to bring on a disorder of the brain to fifty chosen sylphs of special note      we trust the important charge the petticoat oft have we known that sevenfold fence to fail      tho stuffed with hoops and armed with ribs of whale if we compare land animals in respect to magnitude with those that take up their abode in the deep we shall find they will appear contemptible in the comparison the whale is doubtless the largest animal in creation if you should write a fable for little fishes you would make them speak like great wales in the afternoon we saw what was supposed to be a rock but it was found to be a dead whale which some asiatics had killed and were then towing ashore they seemed to endeavor to conceal themselves behind the whale in order to avoid being seen by us they stand in so great dread of some of them that when out at sea they are afraid to mention even their names and carry dung limestone juniperwood and some other articles of the same nature in their boats in order to terrify and prevent their too near approach uno von troils letters on bankss and solanders voyage to iceland in  the spermacetti whale found by the nantuckois is an active fierce animal and requires vast address and boldness in the fishermen
after some time spent in saying little or doing less lady middleton sat down to cassino and as marianne was not in spirits for moving about she and elinor luckily succeeding to chairs placed themselves at no great distance from the table they had not remained in this manner long before elinor perceived willoughby standing within a few yards of them in earnest conversation with a very fashionable looking young woman she soon caught his eye and he immediately bowed but without attempting to speak to her or to approach marianne though he could not but see her and then continued his discourse with the same lady elinor turned involuntarily to marianne to see whether it could be unobserved by her at that moment she first perceived him and her whole countenance glowing with sudden delight she would have moved towards him instantly had not her sister caught hold of her pray pray be composed cried elinor and do not betray what you feel to every body present this however was more than she could believe herself and to be composed at such a moment was not only beyond the reach of marianne it was beyond her wish she sat in an agony of impatience which affected every feature at last he turned round again and regarded them both she started up and pronouncing his name in a tone of affection held out her hand to him he approached and addressing himself rather to elinor than marianne as if wishing to avoid her eye and determined not to observe her attitude inquired in a hurried manner after mrs elinor was robbed of all presence of mind by such an address and was unable to say a word but the feelings of her sister were instantly expressed her face was crimsoned over and she exclaimed in a voice of the greatest emotion good god he could not then avoid it but her touch seemed painful to him and he held her hand only for a moment during all this time he was evidently struggling for composure elinor watched his countenance and saw its expression becoming more tranquil i did myself the honour of calling in berkeley street last tuesday and very much regretted that i was not fortunate enough to find yourselves and mrs here is some mistake i am suresome dreadful mistake tell me willoughby for heavens sake tell me what is the matter he made no reply his complexion changed and all his embarrassment returned but as if on catching the eye of the young lady with whom he had been previously talking he felt the necessity of instant exertion he recovered himself again and after saying yes i had the pleasure of receiving the information of your arrival in town which you were so good as to send me turned hastily away with a slight bow and joined his friend
then advancing towards the doubloon in the mainmastmen this gold is mine for i earned it but i shall let it abide here till the white whale is dead and then whosoever of ye first raises him upon the day he shall be killed this gold is that mans and if on that day i shall again raise him then ten times its sum shall be divided among all of ye  and so saying he placed himself half way within the scuttle and slouching his hat stood there till dawn except when at intervals rousing himself to see how the night wore on at daybreak the three mastheads were punctually manned afresh cried ahab after allowing a little space for the light to spread he travels faster than i thought forthe topgallant sails here be it said that this pertinacious pursuit of one particular whale continued through day into night and through night into day is a thing by no means unprecedented in the south sea fishery for such is the wonderful skill prescience of experience and invincible confidence acquired by some great natural geniuses among the nantucket commanders that from the simple observation of a whale when last descried they will under certain given circumstances pretty accurately foretell both the direction in which he will continue to swim for a time while out of sight as well as his probable rate of progression during that period and in these cases somewhat as a pilot when about losing sight of a coast whose general trending he well knows and which he desires shortly to return to again but at some further point like as this pilot stands by his compass and takes the precise bearing of the cape at present visible in order the more certainly to hit aright the remote unseen headland eventually to be visited so does the fisherman at his compass with the whale for after being chased and diligently marked through several hours of daylight then when night obscures the fish the creatures future wake through the darkness is almost as established to the sagacious mind of the hunter as the pilots coast is to him so that to this hunters wondrous skill the proverbial evanescence of a thing writ in water a wake is to all desired purposes well nigh as reliable as the steadfast land and as the mighty iron leviathan of the modern railway is so familiarly known in its every pace that with watches in their hands men time his rate as doctors that of a babys pulse and lightly say of it the up train or the down train will reach such or such a spot at such or such an hour even so almost there are occasions when these nantucketers time that other leviathan of the deep according to the observed humor of his speed and say to themselves so many hours hence this whale will have gone two hundred miles will have about reached this or that degree of latitude or longitude but to render this acuteness at all successful in the end the wind and the sea must be the whalemans allies for of what present avail to the becalmed or windbound mariner is the skill that assures him he is exactly ninetythree leagues and a quarter from his port inferable from these statements are many collateral subtile matters touching the chase of whales the ship tore on leaving such a furrow in the sea as when a cannonball missent becomes a ploughshare and turns up the level field cried stubb but this swift motion of the deck creeps up ones legs and tingles at the heart some one take me up and launch me spinewise on the seafor by liveoaks cried stubb i knew itye cant escapeblow on and split your spout o whale ahab will dam off your blood as a miller shuts his watergate upon the stream and stubb did but speak out for well nigh all that crew the frenzies of the chase had by this time worked them bubblingly up like old wine worked anew whatever pale fears and forebodings some of them might have felt before these were not only now kept out of sight through the growing awe of ahab but they were broken up and on all sides routed as timid prairie hares that scatter before the bounding bison
but as the colossal skull embraces so very large a proportion of the entire extent of the skeleton as it is by far the most complicated part and as nothing is to be repeated concerning it in this chapter you must not fail to carry it in your mind or under your arm as we proceed otherwise you will not gain a complete notion of the general structure we are about to view in length the sperm whales skeleton at tranque measured seventytwo feet so that when fully invested and extended in life he must have been ninety feet long for in the whale the skeleton loses about one fifth in length compared with the living body of this seventytwo feet his skull and jaw comprised some twenty feet leaving some fifty feet of plain backbone attached to this backbone for something less than a third of its length was the mighty circular basket of ribs which once enclosed his vitals to me this vast ivoryribbed chest with the long unrelieved spine extending far away from it in a straight line not a little resembled the hull of a great ship newlaid upon the stocks when only some twenty of her naked bowribs are inserted and the keel is otherwise for the time but a long disconnected timber the first to begin from the neck was nearly six feet long the second third and fourth were each successively longer till you came to the climax of the fifth or one of the middle ribs which measured eight feet and some inches from that part the remaining ribs diminished till the tenth and last only spanned five feet and some inches in general thickness they all bore a seemly correspondence to their length in some of the arsacides they are used for beams whereon to lay footpath bridges over small streams in considering these ribs i could not but be struck anew with the circumstance so variously repeated in this book that the skeleton of the whale is by no means the mould of his invested form the largest of the tranque ribs one of the middle ones occupied that part of the fish which in life is greatest in depth now the greatest depth of the invested body of this particular whale must have been at least sixteen feet whereas the corresponding rib measured but little more than eight feet so that this rib only conveyed half of the true notion of the living magnitude of that part besides for some way where i now saw but a naked spine all that had been once wrapped round with tons of added bulk in flesh muscle blood and bowels still more for the ample fins i here saw but a few disordered joints and in place of the weighty and majestic but boneless flukes an utter blank how vain and foolish then thought i for timid untravelled man to try to comprehend aright this wondrous whale by merely poring over his dead attenuated skeleton stretched in this peaceful wood only in the heart of quickest perils only when within the eddyings of his angry flukes only on the profound unbounded sea can the fully invested whale be truly and livingly found out for that the best way we can consider it is with a crane to pile its bones high up on end there are forty and odd vertebrae in all which in the skeleton are not locked together they mostly lie like the great knobbed blocks on a gothic spire forming solid courses of heavy masonry
towards her husband and mother she was the same as to them and intimacy was therefore neither to be looked for nor desired she had nothing to say one day that she had not said the day before her insipidity was invariable for even her spirits were always the same and though she did not oppose the parties arranged by her husband provided every thing were conducted in style and her two eldest children attended her she never appeared to receive more enjoyment from them than she might have experienced in sitting at homeand so little did her presence add to the pleasure of the others by any share in their conversation that they were sometimes only reminded of her being amongst them by her solicitude about her troublesome boys in colonel brandon alone of all her new acquaintance did elinor find a person who could in any degree claim the respect of abilities excite the interest of friendship or give pleasure as a companion her admiration and regard even her sisterly regard was all his own but he was a lover his attentions were wholly mariannes and a far less agreeable man might have been more generally pleasing colonel brandon unfortunately for himself had no such encouragement to think only of marianne and in conversing with elinor he found the greatest consolation for the indifference of her sister elinors compassion for him increased as she had reason to suspect that the misery of disappointed love had already been known to him this suspicion was given by some words which accidentally dropped from him one evening at the park when they were sitting down together by mutual consent while the others were dancing his eyes were fixed on marianne and after a silence of some minutes he said with a faint smile your sister i understand does not approve of second attachments or rather as i believe she considers them impossible to exist but how she contrives it without reflecting on the character of her own father who had himself two wives i know not a few years however will settle her opinions on the reasonable basis of common sense and observation and then they may be more easy to define and to justify than they now are by any body but herself this will probably be the case he replied and yet there is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions there are inconveniences attending such feelings as mariannes which all the charms of enthusiasm and ignorance of the world cannot atone for her systems have all the unfortunate tendency of setting propriety at nought and a better acquaintance with the world is what i look forward to as her greatest possible advantage after a short pause he resumed the conversation by saying does your sister make no distinction in her objections against a second attachment are those who have been disappointed in their first choice whether from the inconstancy of its object or the perverseness of circumstances to be equally indifferent during the rest of their lives upon my word i am not acquainted with the minutiae of her principles i only know that i never yet heard her admit any instance of a second attachments being pardonable this said he cannot hold but a change a total change of sentimentsno no do not desire it for when the romantic refinements of a young mind are obliged to give way how frequently are they succeeded by such opinions as are but too common and too dangerous
moreover while in most other animals that i can now think of the eyes are so planted as imperceptibly to blend their visual power so as to produce one picture and not two to the brain the peculiar position of the whales eyes effectually divided as they are by many cubic feet of solid head which towers between them like a great mountain separating two lakes in valleys this of course must wholly separate the impressions which each independent organ imparts the whale therefore must see one distinct picture on this side and another distinct picture on that side while all between must be profound darkness and nothingness to him man may in effect be said to look out on the world from a sentrybox with two joined sashes for his window but with the whale these two sashes are separately inserted making two distinct windows but sadly impairing the view this peculiarity of the whales eyes is a thing always to be borne in mind in the fishery and to be remembered by the reader in some subsequent scenes a curious and most puzzling question might be started concerning this visual matter as touching the leviathan so long as a mans eyes are open in the light the act of seeing is involuntary that is he cannot then help mechanically seeing whatever objects are before him nevertheless any ones experience will teach him that though he can take in an undiscriminating sweep of things at one glance it is quite impossible for him attentively and completely to examine any two thingshowever large or however smallat one and the same instant of time never mind if they lie side by side and touch each other but if you now come to separate these two objects and surround each by a circle of profound darkness then in order to see one of them in such a manner as to bring your mind to bear on it the other will be utterly excluded from your contemporary consciousness true both his eyes in themselves must simultaneously act but is his brain so much more comprehensive combining and subtle than mans that he can at the same moment of time attentively examine two distinct prospects one on one side of him and the other in an exactly opposite direction if he can then is it as marvellous a thing in him as if a man were able simultaneously to go through the demonstrations of two distinct problems in euclid nor strictly investigated is there any incongruity in this comparison it may be but an idle whim but it has always seemed to me that the extraordinary vacillations of movement displayed by some whales when beset by three or four boats the timidity and liability to queer frights so common to such whales i think that all this indirectly proceeds from the helpless perplexity of volition in which their divided and diametrically opposite powers of vision must involve them but the ear of the whale is full as curious as the eye if you are an entire stranger to their race you might hunt over these two heads for hours and never discover that organ the ear has no external leaf whatever and into the hole itself you can hardly insert a quill so wondrously minute is it with respect to their ears this important difference is to be observed between the sperm whale and the right while the ear of the former has an external opening that of the latter is entirely and evenly covered over with a membrane so as to be quite imperceptible from without is it not curious that so vast a being as the whale should see the world through so small an eye and hear the thunder through an ear which is smaller than a hares but if his eyes were broad as the lens of herschels great telescope and his ears capacious as the porches of cathedrals would that make him any longer of sight or sharper of hearing
nay cried bingley this is too much to remember at night all the foolish things that were said in the morning and yet upon my honour i believe what i said of myself to be true and i believe it at this moment at least therefore i did not assume the character of needless precipitance merely to show off before the ladies i dare say you believed it but i am by no means convinced that you would be gone with such celerity your conduct would be quite as dependent on chance as that of any man i know and if as you were mounting your horse a friend were to say bingley you had better stay till next week you would probably do it you would probably not goand at another word might stay a month you have only proved by this cried elizabeth that mr you have shown him off now much more than he did himself i am exceedingly gratified said bingley by your converting what my friend says into a compliment on the sweetness of my temper but i am afraid you are giving it a turn which that gentleman did by no means intend for he would certainly think better of me if under such a circumstance i were to give a flat denial and ride off as fast as i could darcy then consider the rashness of your original intentions as atoned for by your obstinacy in adhering to it upon my word i cannot exactly explain the matter darcy must speak for himself you expect me to account for opinions which you choose to call mine but which i have never acknowledged allowing the case however to stand according to your representation you must remember miss bennet that the friend who is supposed to desire his return to the house and the delay of his plan has merely desired it asked it without offering one argument in favour of its propriety to yield readilyeasilyto the persuasion of a friend is no merit with you to yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either darcy to allow nothing for the influence of friendship and affection a regard for the requester would often make one readily yield to a request without waiting for arguments to reason one into it i am not particularly speaking of such a case as you have supposed about mr we may as well wait perhaps till the circumstance occurs before we discuss the discretion of his behaviour thereupon but in general and ordinary cases between friend and friend where one of them is desired by the other to change a resolution of no very great moment should you think ill of that person for complying with the desire without waiting to be argued into it
but to be sure lucy would not give ear to such kind of talking so she told him directly with a great deal about sweet and love you know and all thatoh la one cant repeat such kind of things you knowshe told him directly she had not the least mind in the world to be off for she could live with him upon a trifle and how little so ever he might have she should be very glad to have it all you know or something of the kind so then he was monstrous happy and talked on some time about what they should do and they agreed he should take orders directly and they must wait to be married till he got a living and just then i could not hear any more for my cousin called from below to tell me mrs richardson was come in her coach and would take one of us to kensington gardens so i was forced to go into the room and interrupt them to ask lucy if she would like to go but she did not care to leave edward so i just run up stairs and put on a pair of silk stockings and came off with the richardsons i do not understand what you mean by interrupting them said elinor you were all in the same room together were not you miss dashwood do you think people make love when any body else is by no no they were shut up in the drawingroom together and all i heard was only by listening at the door cried elinor have you been repeating to me what you only learnt yourself by listening at the door i am sorry i did not know it before for i certainly would not have suffered you to give me particulars of a conversation which you ought not to have known yourself and i am sure lucy would have done just the same by me for a year or two back when martha sharpe and i had so many secrets together she never made any bones of hiding in a closet or behind a chimneyboard on purpose to hear what we said elinor tried to talk of something else but miss steele could not be kept beyond a couple of minutes from what was uppermost in her mind edward talks of going to oxford soon said she but now he is lodging at no however i shant say anything against them to you and to be sure they did send us home in their own chariot which was more than i looked for and for my part i was all in a fright for fear your sister should ask us for the huswifes she had gave us a day or two before but however nothing was said about them and i took care to keep mine out of sight edward have got some business at oxford he says so he must go there for a time and after that as soon as he can light upon a bishop he will be ordained giggling as she spoke id lay my life i know what my cousins will say when they hear of it they will tell me i should write to the doctor to get edward the curacy of his new living i know they will but i am sure i would not do such a thing for all the world  i shall say directly i wonder how you could think of such a thing
jennings wrote to tell the wonderful tale to vent her honest indignation against the jilting girl and pour forth her compassion towards poor mr edward who she was sure had quite doted upon the worthless hussy and was now by all accounts almost brokenhearted at oxford  i do think she continued nothing was ever carried on so sly for it was but two days before lucy called and sat a couple of hours with me not a soul suspected anything of the matter not even nancy who poor soul came crying to me the day after in a great fright for fear of mrs ferrars as well as not knowing how to get to plymouth for lucy it seems borrowed all her money before she went off to be married on purpose we suppose to make a show with and poor nancy had not seven shillings in the worldso i was very glad to give her five guineas to take her down to exeter where she thinks of staying three or four weeks with mrs burgess in hopes as i tell her to fall in with the doctor again and i must say that lucys crossness not to take them along with them in the chaise is worse than all i cannot get him out of my head but you must send for him to barton and miss marianne must try to comfort him ferrars was the most unfortunate of womenpoor fanny had suffered agonies of sensibilityand he considered the existence of each under such a blow with grateful wonder roberts offence was unpardonable but lucys was infinitely worse neither of them were ever again to be mentioned to mrs ferrars and even if she might hereafter be induced to forgive her son his wife should never be acknowledged as her daughter nor be permitted to appear in her presence the secrecy with which everything had been carried on between them was rationally treated as enormously heightening the crime because had any suspicion of it occurred to the others proper measures would have been taken to prevent the marriage and he called on elinor to join with him in regretting that lucys engagement with edward had not rather been fulfilled than that she should thus be the means of spreading misery farther in the family ferrars has never yet mentioned edwards name which does not surprise us but to our great astonishment not a line has been received from him on the occasion perhaps however he is kept silent by his fear of offending and i shall therefore give him a hint by a line to oxford that his sister and i both think a letter of proper submission from him addressed perhaps to fanny and by her shewn to her mother might not be taken amiss for we all know the tenderness of mrs ferrarss heart and that she wishes for nothing so much as to be on good terms with her children this paragraph was of some importance to the prospects and conduct of edward it determined him to attempt a reconciliation though not exactly in the manner pointed out by their brother and sister repeated he would they have me beg my mothers pardon for roberts ingratitude to her and breach of honour to me
the english were preceded in the whale fishery by the hollanders zealanders and danes from whom they derived many terms still extant in the fishery and what is yet more their fat old fashions touching plenty to eat and drink for as a general thing the english merchantship scrimps her crew but not so the english whaler hence in the english this thing of whaling good cheer is not normal and natural but incidental and particular and therefore must have some special origin which is here pointed out and will be still further elucidated during my researches in the leviathanic histories i stumbled upon an ancient dutch volume which by the musty whaling smell of it i knew must be about whalers the title was dan coopman wherefore i concluded that this must be the invaluable memoirs of some amsterdam cooper in the fishery as every whale ship must carry its cooper i was reinforced in this opinion by seeing that it was the production of one fitz swackhammer snodhead a very learned man professor of low dutch and high german in the college of santa claus and st potts to whom i handed the work for translation giving him a box of sperm candles for his troublethis same dr snodhead so soon as he spied the book assured me that dan coopman did not mean the cooper but the merchant in short this ancient and learned low dutch book treated of the commerce of holland and among other subjects contained a very interesting account of its whale fishery and in this chapter it was headed smeer or fat that i found a long detailed list of the outfits for the larders and cellars of  sail of dutch whalemen from which list as translated by dr most statistical tables are parchingly dry in the reading not so in the present case however where the reader is flooded with whole pipes barrels quarts and gills of good gin and good cheer at the time i devoted three days to the studious digesting of all this beer beef and bread during which many profound thoughts were incidentally suggested to me capable of a transcendental and platonic application and furthermore i compiled supplementary tables of my own touching the probable quantity of stockfish etc  consumed by every low dutch harpooneer in that ancient greenland and spitzbergen whale fishery in the first place the amount of butter and texel and leyden cheese consumed seems amazing i impute it though to their naturally unctuous natures being rendered still more unctuous by the nature of their vocation and especially by their pursuing their game in those frigid polar seas on the very coasts of that esquimaux country where the convivial natives pledge each other in bumpers of train oil now as those polar fisheries could only be prosecuted in the short summer of that climate so that the whole cruise of one of these dutch whalemen including the short voyage to and from the spitzbergen sea did not much exceed three months say and reckoning  men to each of their fleet of  sail we have  low dutch seamen in all therefore i say we have precisely two barrels of beer per man for a twelve weeks allowance exclusive of his fair proportion of that  ankers of gin now whether these gin and beer harpooneers so fuddled as one might fancy them to have been were the right sort of men to stand up in a boats head and take good aim at flying whales this would seem somewhat improbable but this was very far north be it remembered where beer agrees well with the constitution upon the equator in our southern fishery beer would be apt to make the harpooneer sleepy at the masthead and boozy in his boat and grievous loss might ensue to nantucket and new bedford but no more enough has been said to show that the old dutch whalers of two or three centuries ago were high livers and that the english whalers have not neglected so excellent an example
here ceased the rapid flow of her selfreproving spirit and elinor impatient to soothe though too honest to flatter gave her instantly that praise and support which her frankness and her contrition so well deserved marianne pressed her hand and replied you are very good i have laid down my plan and if i am capable of adhering to itmy feelings shall be governed and my temper improved they shall no longer worry others nor torture myself you my mother and margaret must henceforth be all the world to me you will share my affections entirely between you from you from my home i shall never again have the smallest incitement to move and if i do mix in other society it will be only to shew that my spirit is humbled my heart amended and that i can practise the civilities the lesser duties of life with gentleness and forbearance as for willoughbyto say that i shall soon or that i shall ever forget him would be idle his remembrance can be overcome by no change of circumstances or opinions but it shall be regulated it shall be checked by religion by reason by constant employment she pausedand added in a low voice if i could but know his heart everything would become easy elinor who had now been for some time reflecting on the propriety or impropriety of speedily hazarding her narration without feeling at all nearer decision than at first heard this and perceiving that as reflection did nothing resolution must do all soon found herself leading to the fact she managed the recital as she hoped with address prepared her anxious listener with caution related simply and honestly the chief points on which willoughby grounded his apology did justice to his repentance and softened only his protestations of present regard she trembled her eyes were fixed on the ground and her lips became whiter than even sickness had left them a thousand inquiries sprung up from her heart but she dared not urge one she caught every syllable with panting eagerness her hand unknowingly to herself closely pressed her sisters and tears covered her cheeks elinor dreading her being tired led her towards home and till they reached the door of the cottage easily conjecturing what her curiosity must be though no question was suffered to speak it talked of nothing but willoughby and their conversation together and was carefully minute in every particular of speech and look where minuteness could be safely indulged as soon as they entered the house marianne with a kiss of gratitude and these two words just articulate through her tears tell mama withdrew from her sister and walked slowly up stairs elinor would not attempt to disturb a solitude so reasonable as what she now sought and with a mind anxiously prearranging its result and a resolution of reviving the subject again should marianne fail to do it she turned into the parlour to fulfill her parting injunction dashwood did not hear unmoved the vindication of her former favourite she rejoiced in his being cleared from some part of his imputed guiltshe was sorry for himshe wished him happy
she spent whole hours at the pianoforte alternately singing and crying her voice often totally suspended by her tears in books too as well as in music she courted the misery which a contrast between the past and present was certain of giving she read nothing but what they had been used to read together such violence of affliction indeed could not be supported for ever it sunk within a few days into a calmer melancholy but these employments to which she daily recurred her solitary walks and silent meditations still produced occasional effusions of sorrow as lively as ever no letter from willoughby came and none seemed expected by marianne her mother was surprised and elinor again became uneasy dashwood could find explanations whenever she wanted them which at least satisfied herself remember elinor said she how very often sir john fetches our letters himself from the post and carries them to it we have already agreed that secrecy may be necessary and we must acknowledge that it could not be maintained if their correspondence were to pass through sir johns hands elinor could not deny the truth of this and she tried to find in it a motive sufficient for their silence but there was one method so direct so simple and in her opinion so eligible of knowing the real state of the affair and of instantly removing all mystery that she could not help suggesting it to her mother why do you not ask marianne at once said she whether she is or she is not engaged to willoughby from you her mother and so kind so indulgent a mother the question could not give offence it would be the natural result of your affection for her she used to be all unreserve and to you more especially supposing it possible that they are not engaged what distress would not such an enquiry inflict i should never deserve her confidence again after forcing from her a confession of what is meant at present to be unacknowledged to any one i know mariannes heart i know that she dearly loves me and that i shall not be the last to whom the affair is made known when circumstances make the revealment of it eligible i would not attempt to force the confidence of any one of a child much less because a sense of duty would prevent the denial which her wishes might direct elinor thought this generosity overstrained considering her sisters youth and urged the matter farther but in vain common sense common care common prudence were all sunk in mrs
but it was a hope shortly checked by other considerations and she soon felt that even her vanity was insufficient when required to depend on his affection for herfor a woman who had already refused himas able to overcome a sentiment so natural as abhorrence against relationship with wickham every kind of pride must revolt from the connection but he had given a reason for his interference which asked no extraordinary stretch of belief it was reasonable that he should feel he had been wrong he had liberality and he had the means of exercising it and though she would not place herself as his principal inducement she could perhaps believe that remaining partiality for her might assist his endeavours in a cause where her peace of mind must be materially concerned it was painful exceedingly painful to know that they were under obligations to a person who could never receive a return they owed the restoration of lydia her character every thing to him how heartily did she grieve over every ungracious sensation she had ever encouraged every saucy speech she had ever directed towards him for herself she was humbled but she was proud of him proud that in a cause of compassion and honour he had been able to get the better of himself she read over her aunts commendation of him again and again she was even sensible of some pleasure though mixed with regret on finding how steadfastly both she and her uncle had been persuaded that affection and confidence subsisted between mr she was roused from her seat and her reflections by some ones approach and before she could strike into another path she was overtaken by wickham i am afraid i interrupt your solitary ramble my dear sister you certainly do she replied with a smile but it does not follow that the interruption must be unwelcome bennet and lydia are going in the carriage to meryton and so my dear sister i find from our uncle and aunt that you have actually seen pemberley i almost envy you the pleasure and yet i believe it would be too much for me or else i could take it in my way to newcastle that you were gone into the army and she was afraid hadnot turned out well at such a distance as that you know things are strangely misrepresented elizabeth hoped she had silenced him but he soon afterwards said i was surprised to see darcy in town last month
her favourite walk and where she frequently went while the others were calling on lady catherine was along the open grove which edged that side of the park where there was a nice sheltered path which no one seemed to value but herself and where she felt beyond the reach of lady catherines curiosity in this quiet way the first fortnight of her visit soon passed away easter was approaching and the week preceding it was to bring an addition to the family at rosings which in so small a circle must be important darcy was expected there in the course of a few weeks and though there were not many of her acquaintances whom she did not prefer his coming would furnish one comparatively new to look at in their rosings parties and she might be amused in seeing how hopeless miss bingleys designs on him were by his behaviour to his cousin for whom he was evidently destined by lady catherine who talked of his coming with the greatest satisfaction spoke of him in terms of the highest admiration and seemed almost angry to find that he had already been frequently seen by miss lucas and herself collins was walking the whole morning within view of the lodges opening into hunsford lane in order to have the earliest assurance of it and after making his bow as the carriage turned into the park hurried home with the great intelligence on the following morning he hastened to rosings to pay his respects there were two nephews of lady catherine to require them for mr darcy had brought with him a colonel fitzwilliam the younger son of his uncle lord  and to the great surprise of all the party when mr charlotte had seen them from her husbands room crossing the road and immediately running into the other told the girls what an honour they might expect adding i may thank you eliza for this piece of civility darcy would never have come so soon to wait upon me elizabeth had scarcely time to disclaim all right to the compliment before their approach was announced by the doorbell and shortly afterwards the three gentlemen entered the room colonel fitzwilliam who led the way was about thirty not handsome but in person and address most truly the gentleman darcy looked just as he had been used to look in hertfordshirepaid his compliments with his usual reserve to mrs collins and whatever might be his feelings toward her friend met her with every appearance of composure elizabeth merely curtseyed to him without saying a word colonel fitzwilliam entered into conversation directly with the readiness and ease of a wellbred man and talked very pleasantly but his cousin after having addressed a slight observation on the house and garden to mrs collins sat for some time without speaking to anybody at length however his civility was so far awakened as to inquire of elizabeth after the health of her family she answered him in the usual way and after a moments pause added my eldest sister has been in town these three months she was perfectly sensible that he never had but she wished to see whether he would betray any consciousness of what had passed between the bingleys and jane and she thought he looked a little confused as he answered that he had never been so fortunate as to meet miss bennet
she had not seen him before since his engagement became public and therefore not since his knowing her to be acquainted with it which with the consciousness of what she had been thinking of and what she had to tell him made her feel particularly uncomfortable for some minutes he too was much distressed and they sat down together in a most promising state of embarrassment whether he had asked her pardon for his intrusion on first coming into the room he could not recollect but determining to be on the safe side he made his apology in form as soon as he could say any thing after taking a chair jennings told me said he that you wished to speak with me at least i understood her soor i certainly should not have intruded on you in such a manner though at the same time i should have been extremely sorry to leave london without seeing you and your sister especially as it will most likely be some timeit is not probable that i should soon have the pleasure of meeting you again you would not have gone however said elinor recovering herself and determined to get over what she so much dreaded as soon as possible without receiving our good wishes even if we had not been able to give them in person i have something of consequence to inform you of which i was on the point of communicating by paper i am charged with a most agreeable office breathing rather faster than usual as she spoke  colonel brandon who was here only ten minutes ago has desired me to say that understanding you mean to take orders he has great pleasure in offering you the living of delaford now just vacant and only wishes it were more valuable allow me to congratulate you on having so respectable and welljudging a friend and to join in his wish that the livingit is about two hundred ayearwere much more considerable and such as might better enable you toas might be more than a temporary accommodation to yourselfsuch in short as might establish all your views of happiness what edward felt as he could not say it himself it cannot be expected that any one else should say for him he looked all the astonishment which such unexpected such unthoughtof information could not fail of exciting but he said only these two words colonel brandon yes continued elinor gathering more resolution as some of the worst was over colonel brandon means it as a testimony of his concern for what has lately passedfor the cruel situation in which the unjustifiable conduct of your family has placed youa concern which i am sure marianne myself and all your friends must share and likewise as a proof of his high esteem for your general character and his particular approbation of your behaviour on the present occasion the unkindness of your own relations has made you astonished to find friendship any where no replied he with sudden consciousness not to find it in you for i cannot be ignorant that to you to your goodness i owe it all i feel iti would express it if i couldbut as you well know i am no orator i do assure you that you owe it entirely at least almost entirely to your own merit and colonel brandons discernment of it i did not even know till i understood his design that the living was vacant nor had it ever occurred to me that he might have had such a living in his gift as a friend of mine of my family he may perhapsindeed i know he has still greater pleasure in bestowing it but upon my word you owe nothing to my solicitation truth obliged her to acknowledge some small share in the action but she was at the same time so unwilling to appear as the benefactress of edward that she acknowledged it with hesitation which probably contributed to fix that suspicion in his mind which had recently entered it for a short time he sat deep in thought after elinor had ceased to speakat last and as if it were rather an effort he said colonel brandon seems a man of great worth and respectability
they have provided a system which for terse comprehensiveness surpasses justinians pandects and the bylaws of the chinese society for the suppression of meddling with other peoples business yes these laws might be engraven on a queen annes farthing or the barb of a harpoon and worn round the neck so small are they a loosefish is fair game for anybody who can soonest catch it but what plays the mischief with this masterly code is the admirable brevity of it which necessitates a vast volume of commentaries to expound it alive or dead a fish is technically fast when it is connected with an occupied ship or boat by any medium at all controllable by the occupant or occupantsa mast an oar a nineinch cable a telegraph wire or a strand of cobweb it is all the same likewise a fish is technically fast when it bears a waif or any other recognised symbol of possession so long as the party waifing it plainly evince their ability at any time to take it alongside as well as their intention so to do these are scientific commentaries but the commentaries of the whalemen themselves sometimes consist in hard words and harder knocksthe cokeuponlittleton of the fist true among the more upright and honourable whalemen allowances are always made for peculiar cases where it would be an outrageous moral injustice for one party to claim possession of a whale previously chased or killed by another party some fifty years ago there was a curious case of whaletrover litigated in england wherein the plaintiffs set forth that after a hard chase of a whale in the northern seas and when indeed they the plaintiffs had succeeded in harpooning the fish they were at last through peril of their lives obliged to forsake not only their lines but their boat itself ultimately the defendants the crew of another ship came up with the whale struck killed seized and finally appropriated it before the very eyes of the plaintiffs and when those defendants were remonstrated with their captain snapped his fingers in the plaintiffs teeth and assured them that by way of doxology to the deed he had done he would now retain their line harpoons and boat which had remained attached to the whale at the time of the seizure wherefore the plaintiffs now sued for the recovery of the value of their whale line harpoons and boat erskine was counsel for the defendants lord ellenborough was the judge in the course of the defence the witty erskine went on to illustrate his position by alluding to a recent crim case wherein a gentleman after in vain trying to bridle his wifes viciousness had at last abandoned her upon the seas of life but in the course of years repenting of that step he instituted an action to recover possession of her erskine was on the other side and he then supported it by saying that though the gentleman had originally harpooned the lady and had once had her fast and only by reason of the great stress of her plunging viciousness had at last abandoned her yet abandon her he did so that she became a loosefish and therefore when a subsequent gentleman reharpooned her the lady then became that subsequent gentlemans property along with whatever harpoon might have been found sticking in her now in the present case erskine contended that the examples of the whale and the lady were reciprocally illustrative of each other these pleadings and the counter pleadings being duly heard the very learned judge in set terms decided to witthat as for the boat he awarded it to the plaintiffs because they had merely abandoned it to save their lives but that with regard to the controverted whale harpoons and line they belonged to the defendants the whale because it was a loosefish at the time of the final capture and the harpoons and line because when the fish made off with them it the fish acquired a property in those articles and hence anybody who afterwards took the fish had a right to them now the defendants afterwards took the fish ergo the aforesaid articles were theirs a common man looking at this decision of the very learned judge might possibly object to it
and as if the now tested reality of his might had in former legendary times thrown its shadow before it we find some book naturalistsolassen and povelsondeclaring the sperm whale not only to be a consternation to every other creature in the sea but also to be so incredibly ferocious as continually to be athirst for human blood nor even down to so late a time as cuviers were these or almost similar impressions effaced for in his natural history the baron himself affirms that at sight of the sperm whale all fish sharks included are struck with the most lively terrors and often in the precipitancy of their flight dash themselves against the rocks with such violence as to cause instantaneous death and however the general experiences in the fishery may amend such reports as these yet in their full terribleness even to the bloodthirsty item of povelson the superstitious belief in them is in some vicissitudes of their vocation revived in the minds of the hunters so that overawed by the rumors and portents concerning him not a few of the fishermen recalled in reference to moby dick the earlier days of the sperm whale fishery when it was oftentimes hard to induce long practised right whalemen to embark in the perils of this new and daring warfare such men protesting that although other leviathans might be hopefully pursued yet to chase and point lance at such an apparition as the sperm whale was not for mortal man that to attempt it would be inevitably to be torn into a quick eternity on this head there are some remarkable documents that may be consulted nevertheless some there were who even in the face of these things were ready to give chase to moby dick and a still greater number who chancing only to hear of him distantly and vaguely without the specific details of any certain calamity and without superstitious accompaniments were sufficiently hardy not to flee from the battle if offered one of the wild suggestions referred to as at last coming to be linked with the white whale in the minds of the superstitiously inclined was the unearthly conceit that moby dick was ubiquitous that he had actually been encountered in opposite latitudes at one and the same instant of time nor credulous as such minds must have been was this conceit altogether without some faint show of superstitious probability for as the secrets of the currents in the seas have never yet been divulged even to the most erudite research so the hidden ways of the sperm whale when beneath the surface remain in great part unaccountable to his pursuers and from time to time have originated the most curious and contradictory speculations regarding them especially concerning the mystic modes whereby after sounding to a great depth he transports himself with such vast swiftness to the most widely distant points it is a thing well known to both american and english whaleships and as well a thing placed upon authoritative record years ago by scoresby that some whales have been captured far north in the pacific in whose bodies have been found the barbs of harpoons darted in the greenland seas nor is it to be gainsaid that in some of these instances it has been declared that the interval of time between the two assaults could not have exceeded very many days hence by inference it has been believed by some whalemen that the nor west passage so long a problem to man was never a problem to the whale so that here in the real living experience of living men the prodigies related in old times of the inland strello mountain in portugal near whose top there was said to be a lake in which the wrecks of ships floated up to the surface and that still more wonderful story of the arethusa fountain near syracuse whose waters were believed to have come from the holy land by an underground passage these fabulous narrations are almost fully equalled by the realities of the whalemen forced into familiarity then with such prodigies as these and knowing that after repeated intrepid assaults the white whale had escaped alive it cannot be much matter of surprise that some whalemen should go still further in their superstitions declaring moby dick not only ubiquitous but immortal for immortality is but ubiquity in time that though groves of spears should be planted in his flanks he would still swim away unharmed or if indeed he should ever be made to spout thick blood such a sight would be but a ghastly deception for again in unensanguined billows hundreds of leagues away his unsullied jet would once more be seen but even stripped of these supernatural surmisings there was enough in the earthly make and incontestable character of the monster to strike the imagination with unwonted power for it was not so much his uncommon bulk that so much distinguished him from other sperm whales but as was elsewhere thrown outa peculiar snowwhite wrinkled forehead and a high pyramidical white hump these were his prominent features the tokens whereby even in the limitless uncharted seas he revealed his identity at a long distance to those who knew him the rest of his body was so streaked and spotted and marbled with the same shrouded hue that in the end he had gained his distinctive appellation of the white whale a name indeed literally justified by his vivid aspect when seen gliding at high noon through a dark blue sea leaving a milkyway wake of creamy foam all spangled with golden gleamings
chapter  if this open weather holds much longer said mrs jennings when they met at breakfast the following morning sir john will not like leaving barton next week tis a sad thing for sportsmen to lose a days pleasure i always pity them when they do they seem to take it so much to heart that is true cried marianne in a cheerful voice and walking to the window as she spoke to examine the day this weather will keep many sportsmen in the country it was a lucky recollection all her good spirits were restored by it it is charming weather for them indeed she continued as she sat down to the breakfast table with a happy countenance but with a little return of anxiety it cannot be expected to last long at this time of the year and after such a series of rain we shall certainly have very little more of it frosts will soon set in and in all probability with severity in another day or two perhaps this extreme mildness can hardly last longernay perhaps it may freeze tonight jennings from seeing her sisters thoughts as clearly as she did i dare say we shall have sir john and lady middleton in town by the end of next week and now silently conjectured elinor she will write to combe by this days post but if she did the letter was written and sent away with a privacy which eluded all her watchfulness to ascertain the fact whatever the truth of it might be and far as elinor was from feeling thorough contentment about it yet while she saw marianne in spirits she could not be very uncomfortable herself and marianne was in spirits happy in the mildness of the weather and still happier in her expectation of a frost the morning was chiefly spent in leaving cards at the houses of mrs jenningss acquaintance to inform them of her being in town and marianne was all the time busy in observing the direction of the wind watching the variations of the sky and imagining an alteration in the air dont you find it colder than it was in the morning elinor the clouds seem parting too the sun will be out in a moment and we shall have a clear afternoon
from the boats fragmentary stern fedallah incuriously and mildly eyed him the clinging crew at the other drifting end could not succor him more than enough was it for them to look to themselves for so revolvingly appalling was the white whales aspect and so planetarily swift the evercontracting circles he made that he seemed horizontally swooping upon them and though the other boats unharmed still hovered hard by still they dared not pull into the eddy to strike lest that should be the signal for the instant destruction of the jeopardized castaways ahab and all nor in that case could they themselves hope to escape with straining eyes then they remained on the outer edge of the direful zone whose centre had now become the old mans head meantime from the beginning all this had been descried from the ships mast heads and squaring her yards she had borne down upon the scene and was now so nigh that ahab in the water hailed her sail on thebut that moment a breaking sea dashed on him from moby dick and whelmed him for the time but struggling out of it again and chancing to rise on a towering crest he shoutedsail on the whale  the pequods prows were pointed and breaking up the charmed circle she effectually parted the white whale from his victim as he sullenly swam off the boats flew to the rescue dragged into stubbs boat with bloodshot blinded eyes the white brine caking in his wrinkles the long tension of ahabs bodily strength did crack and helplessly he yielded to his bodys doom for a time lying all crushed in the bottom of stubbs boat like one trodden under foot of herds of elephants far inland nameless wails came from him as desolate sounds from out ravines but this intensity of his physical prostration did but so much the more abbreviate it in an instants compass great hearts sometimes condense to one deep pang the sum total of those shallow pains kindly diffused through feebler mens whole lives and so such hearts though summary in each one suffering still if the gods decree it in their lifetime aggregate a whole age of woe wholly made up of instantaneous intensities for even in their pointless centres those noble natures contain the entire circumferences of inferior souls the harpoon said ahab half way rising and draggingly leaning on one bended armis it safe  aye sir for it was not darted this is it said stubb showing it one two three four fivethere were five oars sir and here are five men it is often the case that when a boat is stove its crew being picked up by another boat help to work that second boat and the chase is thus continued with what is called doublebanked oars but the added power of the boat did not equal the added power of the whale for he seemed to have treblebanked his every fin swimming with a velocity which plainly showed that if now under these circumstances pushed on the chase would prove an indefinitely prolonged if not a hopeless one nor could any crew endure for so long a period such an unintermitted intense straining at the oar a thing barely tolerable only in some one brief vicissitude the ship itself then as it sometimes happens offered the most promising intermediate means of overtaking the chase
out from the centre of the sea poor pip turned his crisp curling black head to the sun another lonely castaway though the loftiest and the brightest now in calm weather to swim in the open ocean is as easy to the practised swimmer as to ride in a springcarriage ashore the intense concentration of self in the middle of such a heartless immensity my god mark how when sailors in a dead calm bathe in the open seamark how closely they hug their ship and only coast along her sides but had stubb really abandoned the poor little negro to his fate because there were two boats in his wake and he supposed no doubt that they would of course come up to pip very quickly and pick him up though indeed such considerations towards oarsmen jeopardized through their own timidity is not always manifested by the hunters in all similar instances and such instances not unfrequently occur almost invariably in the fishery a coward so called is marked with the same ruthless detestation peculiar to military navies and armies but it so happened that those boats without seeing pip suddenly spying whales close to them on one side turned and gave chase and stubbs boat was now so far away and he and all his crew so intent upon his fish that pips ringed horizon began to expand around him miserably by the merest chance the ship itself at last rescued him but from that hour the little negro went about the deck an idiot such at least they said he was the sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up but drowned the infinite of his soul rather carried down alive to wondrous depths where strange shapes of the unwarped primal world glided to and fro before his passive eyes and the misermerman wisdom revealed his hoarded heaps and among the joyous heartless everjuvenile eternities pip saw the multitudinous godomnipresent coral insects that out of the firmament of waters heaved the colossal orbs he saw gods foot upon the treadle of the loom and spoke it and therefore his shipmates called him mad so mans insanity is heavens sense and wandering from all mortal reason man comes at last to that celestial thought which to reason is absurd and frantic and weal or woe feels then uncompromised indifferent as his god the thing is common in that fishery and in the sequel of the narrative it will then be seen what like abandonment befell myself that whale of stubbs so dearly purchased was duly brought to the pequods side where all those cutting and hoisting operations previously detailed were regularly gone through even to the baling of the heidelburgh tun or case while some were occupied with this latter duty others were employed in dragging away the larger tubs so soon as filled with the sperm and when the proper time arrived this same sperm was carefully manipulated ere going to the tryworks of which anon it had cooled and crystallized to such a degree that when with several others i sat down before a large constantines bath of it i found it strangely concreted into lumps here and there rolling about in the liquid part it was our business to squeeze these lumps back into fluid no wonder that in old times this sperm was such a favourite cosmetic after having my hands in it for only a few minutes my fingers felt like eels and began as it were to serpentine and spiralise as i sat there at my ease crosslegged on the deck after the bitter exertion at the windlass under a blue tranquil sky the ship under indolent sail and gliding so serenely along as i bathed my hands among those soft gentle globules of infiltrated tissues woven almost within the hour as they richly broke to my fingers and discharged all their opulence like fully ripe grapes their wine as i snuffed up that uncontaminated aromaliterally and truly like the smell of spring violets i declare to you that for the time i lived as in a musky meadow i forgot all about our horrible oath in that inexpressible sperm i washed my hands and my heart of it i almost began to credit the old paracelsan superstition that sperm is of rare virtue in allaying the heat of anger while bathing in that bath i felt divinely free from all illwill or petulance or malice of any sort whatsoever
yes he had no engagement at all for tomorrow and her invitation was accepted with alacrity he came and in such very good time that the ladies were none of them dressed bennet to her daughters room in her dressing gown and with her hair half finished crying out my dear jane make haste and hurry down here sarah come to miss bennet this moment and help her on with her gown we will be down as soon as we can said jane but i dare say kitty is forwarder than either of us for she went up stairs half an hour ago but when her mother was gone jane would not be prevailed on to go down without one of her sisters the same anxiety to get them by themselves was visible again in the evening bennet retired to the library as was his custom and mary went up stairs to her instrument bennet sat looking and winking at elizabeth and catherine for a considerable time without making any impression on them elizabeth would not observe her and when at last kitty did she very innocently said what is the matter mamma she then sat still five minutes longer but unable to waste such a precious occasion she suddenly got up and saying to kitty come here my love i want to speak to you took her out of the room jane instantly gave a look at elizabeth which spoke her distress at such premeditation and her entreaty that she would not give in to it bennet halfopened the door and called out lizzy my dear i want to speak with you we may as well leave them by themselves you know said her mother as soon as she was in the hall kitty and i are going up stairs to sit in my dressingroom elizabeth made no attempt to reason with her mother but remained quietly in the hall till she and kitty were out of sight then returned into the drawingroom bingley was every thing that was charming except the professed lover of her daughter his ease and cheerfulness rendered him a most agreeable addition to their evening party and he bore with the illjudged officiousness of the mother and heard all her silly remarks with a forbearance and command of countenance particularly grateful to the daughter he scarcely needed an invitation to stay supper and before he went away an engagement was formed chiefly through his own and mrs bennets means for his coming next morning to shoot with her husband
he made no answer and they were again silent till they had gone down the dance when he asked her if she and her sisters did not very often walk to meryton she answered in the affirmative and unable to resist the temptation added when you met us there the other day we had just been forming a new acquaintance a deeper shade of hauteur overspread his features but he said not a word and elizabeth though blaming herself for her own weakness could not go on at length darcy spoke and in a constrained manner said mr wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure his making friendswhether he may be equally capable of retaining them is less certain he has been so unlucky as to lose your friendship replied elizabeth with emphasis and in a manner which he is likely to suffer from all his life darcy made no answer and seemed desirous of changing the subject at that moment sir william lucas appeared close to them meaning to pass through the set to the other side of the room but on perceiving mr darcy he stopped with a bow of superior courtesy to compliment him on his dancing and his partner i have been most highly gratified indeed my dear sir allow me to say however that your fair partner does not disgrace you and that i must hope to have this pleasure often repeated especially when a certain desirable event my dear eliza glancing at her sister and bingley shall take place you will not thank me for detaining you from the bewitching converse of that young lady whose bright eyes are also upbraiding me the latter part of this address was scarcely heard by darcy but sir williams allusion to his friend seemed to strike him forcibly and his eyes were directed with a very serious expression towards bingley and jane who were dancing together recovering himself however shortly he turned to his partner and said sir williams interruption has made me forget what we were talking of sir william could not have interrupted two people in the room who had less to say for themselves we have tried two or three subjects already without success and what we are to talk of next i cannot imagine i am sure we never read the same or not with the same feelings i am sorry you think so but if that be the case there can at least be no want of subject noi cannot talk of books in a ballroom my head is always full of something else the present always occupies you in such scenesdoes it
it was a valued a precious trust to me and gladly would i have discharged it in the strictest sense by watching over her education myself had the nature of our situations allowed it but i had no family no home and my little eliza was therefore placed at school i saw her there whenever i could and after the death of my brother which happened about five years ago and which left to me the possession of the family property she visited me at delaford i called her a distant relation but i am well aware that i have in general been suspected of a much nearer connection with her it is now three years ago she had just reached her fourteenth year that i removed her from school to place her under the care of a very respectable woman residing in dorsetshire who had the charge of four or five other girls of about the same time of life and for two years i had every reason to be pleased with her situation but last february almost a twelvemonth back she suddenly disappeared i had allowed her imprudently as it has since turned out at her earnest desire to go to bath with one of her young friends who was attending her father there for his health i knew him to be a very good sort of man and i thought well of his daughterbetter than she deserved for with a most obstinate and illjudged secrecy she would tell nothing would give no clue though she certainly knew all he her father a wellmeaning but not a quicksighted man could really i believe give no information for he had been generally confined to the house while the girls were ranging over the town and making what acquaintance they chose and he tried to convince me as thoroughly as he was convinced himself of his daughters being entirely unconcerned in the business in short i could learn nothing but that she was gone all the rest for eight long months was left to conjecture what i thought what i feared may be imagined and what i suffered too  the first news that reached me of her he continued came in a letter from herself last october it was forwarded to me from delaford and i received it on the very morning of our intended party to whitwell and this was the reason of my leaving barton so suddenly which i am sure must at the time have appeared strange to every body and which i believe gave offence to some willoughby imagine i suppose when his looks censured me for incivility in breaking up the party that i was called away to the relief of one whom he had made poor and miserable but had he known it what would it have availed would he have been less gay or less happy in the smiles of your sister no he had already done that which no man who can feel for another would do he had left the girl whose youth and innocence he had seduced in a situation of the utmost distress with no creditable home no help no friends ignorant of his address he had left her promising to return he neither returned nor wrote nor relieved her his character is now before you expensive dissipated and worse than both knowing all this as i have now known it many weeks guess what i must have felt on seeing your sister as fond of him as ever and on being assured that she was to marry him guess what i must have felt for all your sakes when i came to you last week and found you alone i came determined to know the truth though irresolute what to do when it was known
at length she replied do not be offended elinor if my praise of him is not in every thing equal to your sense of his merits i have not had so many opportunities of estimating the minuter propensities of his mind his inclinations and tastes as you have but i have the highest opinion in the world of his goodness and sense i am sure replied elinor with a smile that his dearest friends could not be dissatisfied with such commendation as that i do not perceive how you could express yourself more warmly marianne was rejoiced to find her sister so easily pleased of his sense and his goodness continued elinor no one can i think be in doubt who has seen him often enough to engage him in unreserved conversation the excellence of his understanding and his principles can be concealed only by that shyness which too often keeps him silent you know enough of him to do justice to his solid worth but of his minuter propensities as you call them you have from peculiar circumstances been kept more ignorant than myself he and i have been at times thrown a good deal together while you have been wholly engrossed on the most affectionate principle by my mother i have seen a great deal of him have studied his sentiments and heard his opinion on subjects of literature and taste and upon the whole i venture to pronounce that his mind is wellinformed enjoyment of books exceedingly great his imagination lively his observation just and correct and his taste delicate and pure his abilities in every respect improve as much upon acquaintance as his manners and person at first sight his address is certainly not striking and his person can hardly be called handsome till the expression of his eyes which are uncommonly good and the general sweetness of his countenance is perceived at present i know him so well that i think him really handsome or at least almost so i shall very soon think him handsome elinor if i do not now when you tell me to love him as a brother i shall no more see imperfection in his face than i now do in his heart elinor started at this declaration and was sorry for the warmth she had been betrayed into in speaking of him she felt that edward stood very high in her opinion she believed the regard to be mutual but she required greater certainty of it to make mariannes conviction of their attachment agreeable to her she knew that what marianne and her mother conjectured one moment they believed the nextthat with them to wish was to hope and to hope was to expect
about noon however she beganbut with a cautiona dread of disappointment which for some time kept her silent even to her friendto fancy to hope she could perceive a slight amendment in her sisters pulseshe waited watched and examined it again and againand at last with an agitation more difficult to bury under exterior calmness than all her foregoing distress ventured to communicate her hopes jennings though forced on examination to acknowledge a temporary revival tried to keep her young friend from indulging a thought of its continuanceand elinor conning over every injunction of distrust told herself likewise not to hope hope had already entered and feeling all its anxious flutter she bent over her sister to watchshe hardly knew for what half an hour passed away and the favourable symptom yet blessed her her breath her skin her lips all flattered elinor with signs of amendment and marianne fixed her eyes on her with a rational though languid gaze anxiety and hope now oppressed her in equal degrees and left her no moment of tranquillity till the arrival of mr harris at four oclockwhen his assurances his felicitations on a recovery in her sister even surpassing his expectation gave her confidence comfort and tears of joy marianne was in every respect materially better and he declared her entirely out of danger jennings perhaps satisfied with the partial justification of her forebodings which had been found in their late alarm allowed herself to trust in his judgment and admitted with unfeigned joy and soon with unequivocal cheerfulness the probability of an entire recovery her joy was of a different kind and led to any thing rather than to gaiety marianne restored to life health friends and to her doting mother was an idea to fill her heart with sensations of exquisite comfort and expand it in fervent gratitudebut it led to no outward demonstrations of joy no words no smiles all within elinors breast was satisfaction silent and strong she continued by the side of her sister with little intermission the whole afternoon calming every fear satisfying every inquiry of her enfeebled spirits supplying every succour and watching almost every look and every breath the possibility of a relapse would of course in some moments occur to remind her of what anxiety wasbut when she saw on her frequent and minute examination that every symptom of recovery continued and saw marianne at six oclock sink into a quiet steady and to all appearance comfortable sleep she silenced every doubt the time was now drawing on when colonel brandon might be expected back at ten oclock she trusted or at least not much later her mother would be relieved from the dreadful suspense in which she must now be travelling towards them how slow was the progress of time which yet kept them in ignorance at seven oclock leaving marianne still sweetly asleep she joined mrs of breakfast she had been kept by her fears and of dinner by their sudden reverse from eating muchand the present refreshment therefore with such feelings of content as she brought to it was particularly welcome jennings would have persuaded her at its conclusion to take some rest before her mothers arrival and allow her to take her place by marianne but elinor had no sense of fatigue no capability of sleep at that moment about her and she was not to be kept away from her sister an unnecessary instant
jennings that she thought it a delightful thing for the girls to be together and generally congratulated her young friends every night on having escaped the company of a stupid old woman so long she joined them sometimes at sir johns sometimes at her own house but wherever it was she always came in excellent spirits full of delight and importance attributing charlottes well doing to her own care and ready to give so exact so minute a detail of her situation as only miss steele had curiosity enough to desire one thing did disturb her and of that she made her daily complaint palmer maintained the common but unfatherly opinion among his sex of all infants being alike and though she could plainly perceive at different times the most striking resemblance between this baby and every one of his relations on both sides there was no convincing his father of it no persuading him to believe that it was not exactly like every other baby of the same age nor could he even be brought to acknowledge the simple proposition of its being the finest child in the world i come now to the relation of a misfortune which about this time befell mrs jennings were first calling on her in harley street another of her acquaintance had dropt ina circumstance in itself not apparently likely to produce evil to her but while the imaginations of other people will carry them away to form wrong judgments of our conduct and to decide on it by slight appearances ones happiness must in some measure be always at the mercy of chance in the present instance this lastarrived lady allowed her fancy to so far outrun truth and probability that on merely hearing the name of the miss dashwoods and understanding them to be mr dashwoods sisters she immediately concluded them to be staying in harley street and this misconstruction produced within a day or two afterwards cards of invitation for them as well as for their brother and sister to a small musical party at her house john dashwood was obliged to submit not only to the exceedingly great inconvenience of sending her carriage for the miss dashwoods but what was still worse must be subject to all the unpleasantness of appearing to treat them with attention and who could tell that they might not expect to go out with her a second time the power of disappointing them it was true must always be hers but that was not enough for when people are determined on a mode of conduct which they know to be wrong they feel injured by the expectation of any thing better from them marianne had now been brought by degrees so much into the habit of going out every day that it was become a matter of indifference to her whether she went or not and she prepared quietly and mechanically for every evenings engagement though without expecting the smallest amusement from any and very often without knowing till the last moment where it was to take her to her dress and appearance she was grown so perfectly indifferent as not to bestow half the consideration on it during the whole of her toilet which it received from miss steele in the first five minutes of their being together when it was finished nothing escaped her minute observation and general curiosity she saw every thing and asked every thing was never easy till she knew the price of every part of mariannes dress could have guessed the number of her gowns altogether with better judgment than marianne herself and was not without hopes of finding out before they parted how much her washing cost per week and how much she had every year to spend upon herself the impertinence of these kind of scrutinies moreover was generally concluded with a compliment which though meant as its douceur was considered by marianne as the greatest impertinence of all for after undergoing an examination into the value and make of her gown the colour of her shoes and the arrangement of her hair she was almost sure of being told that upon her word she looked vastly smart and she dared to say she would make a great many conquests with such encouragement as this was she dismissed on the present occasion to her brothers carriage which they were ready to enter five minutes after it stopped at the door a punctuality not very agreeable to their sisterinlaw who had preceded them to the house of her acquaintance and was there hoping for some delay on their part that might inconvenience either herself or her coachman the events of this evening were not very remarkable the party like other musical parties comprehended a great many people who had real taste for the performance and a great many more who had none at all and the performers themselves were as usual in their own estimation and that of their immediate friends the first private performers in england as elinor was neither musical nor affecting to be so she made no scruple of turning her eyes from the grand pianoforte whenever it suited her and unrestrained even by the presence of a harp and violoncello would fix them at pleasure on any other object in the room
that ship my friends was the first of recorded smugglers but the sea rebels he will not bear the wicked burden a dreadful storm comes on the ship is like to break but now when the boatswain calls all hands to lighten her when boxes bales and jars are clattering overboard when the wind is shrieking and the men are yelling and every plank thunders with trampling feet right over jonahs head in all this raging tumult jonah sleeps his hideous sleep he sees no black sky and raging sea feels not the reeling timbers and little hears he or heeds he the far rush of the mighty whale which even now with open mouth is cleaving the seas after him aye shipmates jonah was gone down into the sides of the shipa berth in the cabin as i have taken it and was fast asleep but the frightened master comes to him and shrieks in his dead ear what meanest thou o sleeper  startled from his lethargy by that direful cry jonah staggers to his feet and stumbling to the deck grasps a shroud to look out upon the sea but at that moment he is sprung upon by a panther billow leaping over the bulwarks wave after wave thus leaps into the ship and finding no speedy vent runs roaring fore and aft till the mariners come nigh to drowning while yet afloat and ever as the white moon shows her affrighted face from the steep gullies in the blackness overhead aghast jonah sees the rearing bowsprit pointing high upward but soon beat downward again towards the tormented deep in all his cringing attitudes the godfugitive is now too plainly known the sailors mark him more and more certain grow their suspicions of him and at last fully to test the truth by referring the whole matter to high heaven they fall to casting lots to see for whose cause this great tempest was upon them the lot is jonahs that discovered then how furiously they mob him with their questions but mark now my shipmates the behavior of poor jonah the eager mariners but ask him who he is and where from whereas they not only receive an answer to those questions but likewise another answer to a question not put by them but the unsolicited answer is forced from jonah by the hard hand of god that is upon him  i am a hebrew he criesand theni fear the lord the god of heaven who hath made the sea and the dry land straightway he now goes on to make a full confession whereupon the mariners became more and more appalled but still are pitiful for when jonah not yet supplicating god for mercy since he but too well knew the darkness of his desertswhen wretched jonah cries out to them to take him and cast him forth into the sea for he knew that for his sake this great tempest was upon them they mercifully turn from him and seek by other means to save the ship but all in vain the indignant gale howls louder then with one hand raised invokingly to god with the other they not unreluctantly lay hold of jonah
you are all kindness madam but i believe we must abide by our original plan you know i always speak my mind and i cannot bear the idea of two young women travelling post by themselves i have the greatest dislike in the world to that sort of thing young women should always be properly guarded and attended according to their situation in life when my niece georgiana went to ramsgate last summer i made a point of her having two menservants go with her darcy of pemberley and lady anne could not have appeared with propriety in a different manner i am glad it occurred to me to mention it for it would really be discreditable to you to let them go alone i am very glad you have somebody who thinks of these things if you mention my name at the bell you will be attended to lady catherine had many other questions to ask respecting their journey and as she did not answer them all herself attention was necessary which elizabeth believed to be lucky for her or with a mind so occupied she might have forgotten where she was reflection must be reserved for solitary hours whenever she was alone she gave way to it as the greatest relief and not a day went by without a solitary walk in which she might indulge in all the delight of unpleasant recollections darcys letter she was in a fair way of soon knowing by heart she studied every sentence and her feelings towards its writer were at times widely different when she remembered the style of his address she was still full of indignation but when she considered how unjustly she had condemned and upbraided him her anger was turned against herself and his disappointed feelings became the object of compassion his attachment excited gratitude his general character respect but she could not approve him nor could she for a moment repent her refusal or feel the slightest inclination ever to see him again in her own past behaviour there was a constant source of vexation and regret and in the unhappy defects of her family a subject of yet heavier chagrin her father contented with laughing at them would never exert himself to restrain the wild giddiness of his youngest daughters and her mother with manners so far from right herself was entirely insensible of the evil elizabeth had frequently united with jane in an endeavour to check the imprudence of catherine and lydia but while they were supported by their mothers indulgence what chance could there be of improvement catherine weakspirited irritable and completely under lydias guidance had been always affronted by their advice and lydia selfwilled and careless would scarcely give them a hearing while there was an officer in meryton they would flirt with him and while meryton was within a walk of longbourn they would be going there forever
in such a frame of mind as she was now in elinor had no difficulty in obtaining from her whatever promise she required and at her request marianne engaged never to speak of the affair to any one with the least appearance of bitternessto meet lucy without betraying the smallest increase of dislike to herand even to see edward himself if chance should bring them together without any diminution of her usual cordiality  these were great concessionsbut where marianne felt that she had injured no reparation could be too much for her to make she performed her promise of being discreet to admiration jennings had to say upon the subject with an unchanging complexion dissented from her in nothing and was heard three times to say yes maam she listened to her praise of lucy with only moving from one chair to another and when mrs jennings talked of edwards affection it cost her only a spasm in her throat such advances towards heroism in her sister made elinor feel equal to any thing herself the next morning brought a farther trial of it in a visit from their brother who came with a most serious aspect to talk over the dreadful affair and bring them news of his wife you have heard i suppose said he with great solemnity as soon as he was seated of the very shocking discovery that took place under our roof yesterday they all looked their assent it seemed too awful a moment for speech ferrars tooin short it has been a scene of such complicated distressbut i will hope that the storm may be weathered without our being any of us quite overcome donavan says there is nothing materially to be apprehended her constitution is a good one and her resolution equal to any thing she has borne it all with the fortitude of an angel she says she never shall think well of anybody again and one cannot wonder at it after being so deceived meeting with such ingratitude where so much kindness had been shewn so much confidence had been placed it was quite out of the benevolence of her heart that she had asked these young women to her house merely because she thought they deserved some attention were harmless wellbehaved girls and would be pleasant companions for otherwise we both wished very much to have invited you and marianne to be with us while your kind friend there was attending her daughter i wish with all my heart says poor fanny in her affectionate way that we had asked your sisters instead of them  here he stopped to be thanked which being done he went on ferrars suffered when first fanny broke it to her is not to be described while she with the truest affection had been planning a most eligible connection for him was it to be supposed that he could be all the time secretly engaged to another person
bennet raised his eyes from his book as she entered and fixed them on her face with a calm unconcern which was not in the least altered by her communication i have not the pleasure of understanding you said he when she had finished her speech bennet rang the bell and miss elizabeth was summoned to the library very welland this offer of marriage you have refused from this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents your mother will never see you again if you do not marry mr elizabeth could not but smile at such a conclusion of such a beginning but mrs bennet who had persuaded herself that her husband regarded the affair as she wished was excessively disappointed my dear replied her husband i have two small favours to request first that you will allow me the free use of my understanding on the present occasion and secondly of my room i shall be glad to have the library to myself as soon as may be not yet however in spite of her disappointment in her husband did mrs she talked to elizabeth again and again coaxed and threatened her by turns she endeavoured to secure jane in her interest but jane with all possible mildness declined interfering and elizabeth sometimes with real earnestness and sometimes with playful gaiety replied to her attacks though her manner varied however her determination never did collins meanwhile was meditating in solitude on what had passed he thought too well of himself to comprehend on what motives his cousin could refuse him and though his pride was hurt he suffered in no other way his regard for her was quite imaginary and the possibility of her deserving her mothers reproach prevented his feeling any regret while the family were in this confusion charlotte lucas came to spend the day with them she was met in the vestibule by lydia who flying to her cried in a half whisper i am glad you are come for there is such fun here
you cannot be more than twenty i am sure therefore you need not conceal your age when the gentlemen had joined them and tea was over the cardtables were placed collins sat down to quadrille and as miss de bourgh chose to play at cassino the two girls had the honour of assisting mrs scarcely a syllable was uttered that did not relate to the game except when mrs jenkinson expressed her fears of miss de bourghs being too hot or too cold or having too much or too little light lady catherine was generally speakingstating the mistakes of the three others or relating some anecdote of herself collins was employed in agreeing to everything her ladyship said thanking her for every fish he won and apologising if he thought he won too many he was storing his memory with anecdotes and noble names when lady catherine and her daughter had played as long as they chose the tables were broken up the carriage was offered to mrs collins gratefully accepted and immediately ordered the party then gathered round the fire to hear lady catherine determine what weather they were to have on the morrow from these instructions they were summoned by the arrival of the coach and with many speeches of thankfulness on mr collinss side and as many bows on sir williams they departed as soon as they had driven from the door elizabeth was called on by her cousin to give her opinion of all that she had seen at rosings which for charlottes sake she made more favourable than it really was but her commendation though costing her some trouble could by no means satisfy mr collins and he was very soon obliged to take her ladyships praise into his own hands chapter  sir william stayed only a week at hunsford but his visit was long enough to convince him of his daughters being most comfortably settled and of her possessing such a husband and such a neighbour as were not often met with collins devoted his morning to driving him out in his gig and showing him the country but when he went away the whole family returned to their usual employments and elizabeth was thankful to find that they did not see more of her cousin by the alteration for the chief of the time between breakfast and dinner was now passed by him either at work in the garden or in reading and writing and looking out of the window in his own bookroom which fronted the road elizabeth had at first rather wondered that charlotte should not prefer the diningparlour for common use it was a better sized room and had a more pleasant aspect but she soon saw that her friend had an excellent reason for what she did for mr collins would undoubtedly have been much less in his own apartment had they sat in one equally lively and she gave charlotte credit for the arrangement
on the very last day of the regiments remaining at meryton he dined with other of the officers at longbourn and so little was elizabeth disposed to part from him in good humour that on his making some inquiry as to the manner in which her time had passed at hunsford she mentioned colonel fitzwilliams and mr darcys having both spent three weeks at rosings and asked him if he was acquainted with the former he looked surprised displeased alarmed but with a moments recollection and a returning smile replied that he had formerly seen him often and after observing that he was a very gentlemanlike man asked her how she had liked him with an air of indifference he soon afterwards added how long did you say he was at rosings  but checking himself he added in a gayer tone is it in address that he improves has he deigned to add aught of civility to his ordinary style for i dare not hope he continued in a lower and more serious tone that he is improved in essentials in essentials i believe he is very much what he ever was while she spoke wickham looked as if scarcely knowing whether to rejoice over her words or to distrust their meaning there was a something in her countenance which made him listen with an apprehensive and anxious attention while she added when i said that he improved on acquaintance i did not mean that his mind or his manners were in a state of improvement but that from knowing him better his disposition was better understood wickhams alarm now appeared in a heightened complexion and agitated look for a few minutes he was silent till shaking off his embarrassment he turned to her again and said in the gentlest of accents you who so well know my feeling towards mr darcy will readily comprehend how sincerely i must rejoice that he is wise enough to assume even the appearance of what is right his pride in that direction may be of service if not to himself to many others for it must only deter him from such foul misconduct as i have suffered by i only fear that the sort of cautiousness to which you i imagine have been alluding is merely adopted on his visits to his aunt of whose good opinion and judgement he stands much in awe his fear of her has always operated i know when they were together and a good deal is to be imputed to his wish of forwarding the match with miss de bourgh which i am certain he has very much at heart elizabeth could not repress a smile at this but she answered only by a slight inclination of the head she saw that he wanted to engage her on the old subject of his grievances and she was in no humour to indulge him the rest of the evening passed with the appearance on his side of usual cheerfulness but with no further attempt to distinguish elizabeth and they parted at last with mutual civility and possibly a mutual desire of never meeting again forster to meryton from whence they were to set out early the next morning the separation between her and her family was rather noisy than pathetic
not the smallest atom stirs or lives on matter but has its cunning duplicate in mind hand in hand ship and breeze blew on but the breeze came faster than the ship and soon the pequod began to rock by and by through the glass the strangers boats and manned mastheads proved her a whaleship but as she was so far to windward and shooting by apparently making a passage to some other ground the pequod could not hope to reach her so the signal was set to see what response would be made here be it said that like the vessels of military marines the ships of the american whale fleet have each a private signal all which signals being collected in a book with the names of the respective vessels attached every captain is provided with it thereby the whale commanders are enabled to recognise each other upon the ocean even at considerable distances and with no small facility the pequods signal was at last responded to by the strangers setting her own which proved the ship to be the jeroboam of nantucket squaring her yards she bore down ranged abeam under the pequods lee and lowered a boat it soon drew nigh but as the sideladder was being rigged by starbucks order to accommodate the visiting captain the stranger in question waved his hand from his boats stern in token of that proceeding being entirely unnecessary it turned out that the jeroboam had a malignant epidemic on board and that mayhew her captain was fearful of infecting the pequods company for though himself and boats crew remained untainted and though his ship was half a rifleshot off and an incorruptible sea and air rolling and flowing between yet conscientiously adhering to the timid quarantine of the land he peremptorily refused to come into direct contact with the pequod but this did by no means prevent all communications preserving an interval of some few yards between itself and the ship the jeroboams boat by the occasional use of its oars contrived to keep parallel to the pequod as she heavily forged through the sea for by this time it blew very fresh with her maintopsail aback though indeed at times by the sudden onset of a large rolling wave the boat would be pushed some way ahead but would be soon skilfully brought to her proper bearings again subject to this and other the like interruptions now and then a conversation was sustained between the two parties but at intervals not without still another interruption of a very different sort pulling an oar in the jeroboams boat was a man of a singular appearance even in that wild whaling life where individual notabilities make up all totalities he was a small short youngish man sprinkled all over his face with freckles and wearing redundant yellow hair a longskirted cabalisticallycut coat of a faded walnut tinge enveloped him the overlapping sleeves of which were rolled up on his wrists so soon as this figure had been first descried stubb had exclaimedthats he the longtogged scaramouch the townhos company told us of  stubb here alluded to a strange story told of the jeroboam and a certain man among her crew some time previous when the pequod spoke the townho
but as it is you must not let your fancy run away with you your father would depend on your resolution and good conduct i am sure yes and i hope to engage you to be serious likewise he shall not be in love with me if i can prevent it but he is beyond all comparison the most agreeable man i ever sawand if he becomes really attached to mei believe it will be better that he should not my fathers opinion of me does me the greatest honour and i should be miserable to forfeit it in short my dear aunt i should be very sorry to be the means of making any of you unhappy but since we see every day that where there is affection young people are seldom withheld by immediate want of fortune from entering into engagements with each other how can i promise to be wiser than so many of my fellowcreatures if i am tempted or how am i even to know that it would be wisdom to resist all that i can promise you therefore is not to be in a hurry i will not be in a hurry to believe myself his first object when i am in company with him i will not be wishing perhaps it will be as well if you discourage his coming here so very often at least you should not remind your mother of inviting him as i did the other day said elizabeth with a conscious smile very true it will be wise in me to refrain from that it is on your account that he has been so frequently invited this week you know my mothers ideas as to the necessity of constant company for her friends but really and upon my honour i will try to do what i think to be the wisest and now i hope you are satisfied her aunt assured her that she was and elizabeth having thanked her for the kindness of her hints they parted a wonderful instance of advice being given on such a point without being resented collins returned into hertfordshire soon after it had been quitted by the gardiners and jane but as he took up his abode with the lucases his arrival was no great inconvenience to mrs his marriage was now fast approaching and she was at length so far resigned as to think it inevitable and even repeatedly to say in an illnatured tone that she wished they might be happy thursday was to be the wedding day and on wednesday miss lucas paid her farewell visit and when she rose to take leave elizabeth ashamed of her mothers ungracious and reluctant good wishes and sincerely affected herself accompanied her out of the room
for what oil hell get from that drugged whale there wouldnt be fit to burn in a jail no not in a condemned cell and as for the other whale why ill agree to get more oil by chopping up and trying out these three masts of ours than hell get from that bundle of bones though now that i think of it it may contain something worth a good deal more than oil yes ambergris yes im for it and so saying he started for the quarterdeck by this time the faint air had become a complete calm so that whether or no the pequod was now fairly entrapped in the smell with no hope of escaping except by its breezing up again issuing from the cabin stubb now called his boats crew and pulled off for the stranger drawing across her bow he perceived that in accordance with the fanciful french taste the upper part of her stempiece was carved in the likeness of a huge drooping stalk was painted green and for thorns had copper spikes projecting from it here and there the whole terminating in a symmetrical folded bulb of a bright red colour upon her head boards in large gilt letters he read bouton de rose rosebutton or rosebud and this was the romantic name of this aromatic ship though stubb did not understand the bouton part of the inscription yet the word rose and the bulbous figurehead put together sufficiently explained the whole to him he cried with his hand to his nose that will do very well but how like all creation it smells now in order to hold direct communication with the people on deck he had to pull round the bows to the starboard side and thus come close to the blasted whale and so talk over it arrived then at this spot with one hand still to his nose he bawledboutonderose ahoy are there any of you boutonderoses that speak english  yes rejoined a guernseyman from the bulwarks who turned out to be the chiefmate well then my boutonderosebud have you seen the white whale the white whalea sperm whalemoby dick have ye seen him  very good then good bye now and ill call again in a minute then rapidly pulling back towards the pequod and seeing ahab leaning over the quarterdeck rail awaiting his report he moulded his two hands into a trumpet and shoutedno sir  upon which ahab retired and stubb returned to the frenchman he now perceived that the guernseyman who had just got into the chains and was using a cuttingspade had slung his nose in a sort of bag i wish it was broken or that i didnt have any nose at all
about the court such instances of elegant breeding are not uncommon scarcely anything was talked of the whole day or next morning but their visit to rosings collins was carefully instructing them in what they were to expect that the sight of such rooms so many servants and so splendid a dinner might not wholly overpower them when the ladies were separating for the toilette he said to elizabeth do not make yourself uneasy my dear cousin about your apparel lady catherine is far from requiring that elegance of dress in us which becomes herself and her daughter i would advise you merely to put on whatever of your clothes is superior to the restthere is no occasion for anything more lady catherine will not think the worse of you for being simply dressed she likes to have the distinction of rank preserved while they were dressing he came two or three times to their different doors to recommend their being quick as lady catherine very much objected to be kept waiting for her dinner such formidable accounts of her ladyship and her manner of living quite frightened maria lucas who had been little used to company and she looked forward to her introduction at rosings with as much apprehension as her father had done to his presentation at st as the weather was fine they had a pleasant walk of about half a mile across the park every park has its beauty and its prospects and elizabeth saw much to be pleased with though she could not be in such raptures as mr collins expected the scene to inspire and was but slightly affected by his enumeration of the windows in front of the house and his relation of what the glazing altogether had originally cost sir lewis de bourgh when they ascended the steps to the hall marias alarm was every moment increasing and even sir william did not look perfectly calm she had heard nothing of lady catherine that spoke her awful from any extraordinary talents or miraculous virtue and the mere stateliness of money or rank she thought she could witness without trepidation collins pointed out with a rapturous air the fine proportion and the finished ornaments they followed the servants through an antechamber to the room where lady catherine her daughter and mrs her ladyship with great condescension arose to receive them and as mrs collins had settled it with her husband that the office of introduction should be hers it was performed in a proper manner without any of those apologies and thanks which he would have thought necessary jamess sir william was so completely awed by the grandeur surrounding him that he had but just courage enough to make a very low bow and take his seat without saying a word and his daughter frightened almost out of her senses sat on the edge of her chair not knowing which way to look elizabeth found herself quite equal to the scene and could observe the three ladies before her composedly
some fifty years ago there was a curious case of whaletrover litigated in england wherein the plaintiffs set forth that after a hard chase of a whale in the northern seas and when indeed they the plaintiffs had succeeded in harpooning the fish they were at last through peril of their lives obliged to forsake not only their lines but their boat itself ultimately the defendants the crew of another ship came up with the whale struck killed seized and finally appropriated it before the very eyes of the plaintiffs and when those defendants were remonstrated with their captain snapped his fingers in the plaintiffs teeth and assured them that by way of doxology to the deed he had done he would now retain their line harpoons and boat which had remained attached to the whale at the time of the seizure wherefore the plaintiffs now sued for the recovery of the value of their whale line harpoons and boat erskine was counsel for the defendants lord ellenborough was the judge in the course of the defence the witty erskine went on to illustrate his position by alluding to a recent crim case wherein a gentleman after in vain trying to bridle his wifes viciousness had at last abandoned her upon the seas of life but in the course of years repenting of that step he instituted an action to recover possession of her erskine was on the other side and he then supported it by saying that though the gentleman had originally harpooned the lady and had once had her fast and only by reason of the great stress of her plunging viciousness had at last abandoned her yet abandon her he did so that she became a loosefish and therefore when a subsequent gentleman reharpooned her the lady then became that subsequent gentlemans property along with whatever harpoon might have been found sticking in her now in the present case erskine contended that the examples of the whale and the lady were reciprocally illustrative of each other these pleadings and the counter pleadings being duly heard the very learned judge in set terms decided to witthat as for the boat he awarded it to the plaintiffs because they had merely abandoned it to save their lives but that with regard to the controverted whale harpoons and line they belonged to the defendants the whale because it was a loosefish at the time of the final capture and the harpoons and line because when the fish made off with them it the fish acquired a property in those articles and hence anybody who afterwards took the fish had a right to them now the defendants afterwards took the fish ergo the aforesaid articles were theirs a common man looking at this decision of the very learned judge might possibly object to it but ploughed up to the primary rock of the matter the two great principles laid down in the twin whaling laws previously quoted and applied and elucidated by lord ellenborough in the above cited case these two laws touching fastfish and loosefish i say will on reflection be found the fundamentals of all human jurisprudence for notwithstanding its complicated tracery of sculpture the temple of the law like the temple of the philistines has but two props to stand on is it not a saying in every ones mouth possession is half of the law that is regardless of how the thing came into possession what are the sinews and souls of russian serfs and republican slaves but fastfish whereof possession is the whole of the law what to the rapacious landlord is the widows last mite but a fastfish what is yonder undetected villains marble mansion with a doorplate for a waif what is that but a fastfish what is the ruinous discount which mordecai the broker gets from poor woebegone the bankrupt on a loan to keep woebegones family from starvation what is that ruinous discount but a fastfish what is the archbishop of savesouls income of l seized from the scant bread and cheese of hundreds of thousands of brokenbacked laborers all sure of heaven without any of savesouls help what is that globular l but a fastfish what are the duke of dunders hereditary towns and hamlets but fastfish
nor white whale nor man nor fiend can so much as graze old ahab in his own proper and inaccessible being can any lead touch yonder floor any mast scrape yonder roof that the unconquerable captain in the soul should have such a craven mate give me something for a canethere that shivered lance will do upon mustering the company the parsee was not there cried stubbhe must have been caught in the black vomit wrench thee run all of ye above alow cabin forecastlefind himnot gonenot gone but quickly they returned to him with the tidings that the parsee was nowhere to be found aye sir said stubbcaught among the tangles of your linei thought i saw him dragging under what deathknell rings in it that old ahab shakes as if he were the belfry the forged iron men the white whalesno no noblistered fool all hands to the rigging of the boatscollect the oarsharpooneers ill ten times girdle the unmeasured globe yea and dive straight through it but ill slay him yet but for one single instant show thyself cried starbuck never never wilt thou capture him old manin jesus name no more of this thats worse than devils madness two days chased twice stove to splinters thy very leg once more snatched from under thee thy evil shadow goneall good angels mobbing thee with warnings   what more wouldst thou have shall we keep chasing this murderous fish till he swamps the last man shall we be dragged by him to the bottom of the sea  starbuck of late ive felt strangely moved to thee ever since that hour we both sawthou knowst what in one anothers eyes but in this matter of the whale be the front of thy face to me as the palm of this handa lipless unfeatured blank twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled
you are making a most disgraceful connection and such a one as your family are unanimous in disapproving  i cannot help thinking in short that means might have been found he must be starved you knowthat is certain absolutely starved he had just settled this point with great composure when the entrance of mrs but though she never spoke of it out of her own family elinor could see its influence on her mind in the something like confusion of countenance with which she entered and an attempt at cordiality in her behaviour to herself she even proceeded so far as to be concerned to find that elinor and her sister were so soon to leave town as she had hoped to see more of theman exertion in which her husband who attended her into the room and hung enamoured over her accents seemed to distinguish every thing that was most affectionate and graceful chapter  one other short call in harley street in which elinor received her brothers congratulations on their travelling so far towards barton without any expense and on colonel brandons being to follow them to cleveland in a day or two completed the intercourse of the brother and sisters in townand a faint invitation from fanny to come to norland whenever it should happen to be in their way which of all things was the most unlikely to occur with a more warm though less public assurance from john to elinor of the promptitude with which he should come to see her at delaford was all that foretold any meeting in the country it amused her to observe that all her friends seemed determined to send her to delaforda place in which of all others she would now least chuse to visit or wish to reside for not only was it considered as her future home by her brother and mrs jennings but even lucy when they parted gave her a pressing invitation to visit her there very early in april and tolerably early in the day the two parties from hanover square and berkeley street set out from their respective homes to meet by appointment on the road for the convenience of charlotte and her child they were to be more than two days on their journey and mr palmer travelling more expeditiously with colonel brandon was to join them at cleveland soon after their arrival marianne few as had been her hours of comfort in london and eager as she had long been to quit it could not when it came to the point bid adieu to the house in which she had for the last time enjoyed those hopes and that confidence in willoughby which were now extinguished for ever without great pain nor could she leave the place in which willoughby remained busy in new engagements and new schemes in which she could have no share without shedding many tears elinors satisfaction at the moment of removal was more positive she had no such object for her lingering thoughts to fix on she left no creature behind from whom it would give her a moments regret to be divided for ever she was pleased to be free herself from the persecution of lucys friendship she was grateful for bringing her sister away unseen by willoughby since his marriage and she looked forward with hope to what a few months of tranquility at barton might do towards restoring mariannes peace of mind and confirming her own the second day brought them into the cherished or the prohibited county of somerset for as such was it dwelt on by turns in mariannes imagination and in the forenoon of the third they drove up to cleveland cleveland was a spacious modernbuilt house situated on a sloping lawn it had no park but the pleasuregrounds were tolerably extensive and like every other place of the same degree of importance it had its open shrubbery and closer wood walk a road of smooth gravel winding round a plantation led to the front the lawn was dotted over with timber the house itself was under the guardianship of the fir the mountainash and the acacia and a thick screen of them altogether interspersed with tall lombardy poplars shut out the offices marianne entered the house with a heart swelling with emotion from the consciousness of being only eighty miles from barton and not thirty from combe magna and before she had been five minutes within its walls while the others were busily helping charlotte to show her child to the housekeeper she quitted it again stealing away through the winding shrubberies now just beginning to be in beauty to gain a distant eminence where from its grecian temple her eye wandering over a wide tract of country to the southeast could fondly rest on the farthest ridge of hills in the horizon and fancy that from their summits combe magna might be seen
for be a mans intellectual superiority what it will it can never assume the practical available supremacy over other men without the aid of some sort of external arts and entrenchments always in themselves more or less paltry and base this it is that for ever keeps gods true princes of the empire from the worlds hustings and leaves the highest honours that this air can give to those men who become famous more through their infinite inferiority to the choice hidden handful of the divine inert than through their undoubted superiority over the dead level of the mass such large virtue lurks in these small things when extreme political superstitions invest them that in some royal instances even to idiot imbecility they have imparted potency but when as in the case of nicholas the czar the ringed crown of geographical empire encircles an imperial brain then the plebeian herds crouch abased before the tremendous centralization nor will the tragic dramatist who would depict mortal indomitableness in its fullest sweep and direct swing ever forget a hint incidentally so important in his art as the one now alluded to but ahab my captain still moves before me in all his nantucket grimness and shagginess and in this episode touching emperors and kings i must not conceal that i have only to do with a poor old whalehunter like him and therefore all outward majestical trappings and housings are denied me what shall be grand in thee it must needs be plucked at from the skies and dived for in the deep and featured in the unbodied air it is noon and doughboy the steward thrusting his pale loafofbread face from the cabinscuttle announces dinner to his lord and master who sitting in the lee quarterboat has just been taking an observation of the sun and is now mutely reckoning the latitude on the smooth medallionshaped tablet reserved for that daily purpose on the upper part of his ivory leg from his complete inattention to the tidings you would think that moody ahab had not heard his menial but presently catching hold of the mizen shrouds he swings himself to the deck and in an even unexhilarated voice saying dinner mr when the last echo of his sultans step has died away and starbuck the first emir has every reason to suppose that he is seated then starbuck rouses from his quietude takes a few turns along the planks and after a grave peep into the binnacle says with some touch of pleasantness dinner mr the second emir lounges about the rigging awhile and then slightly shaking the main brace to see whether it will be all right with that important rope he likewise takes up the old burden and with a rapid dinner mr but the third emir now seeing himself all alone on the quarterdeck seems to feel relieved from some curious restraint for tipping all sorts of knowing winks in all sorts of directions and kicking off his shoes he strikes into a sharp but noiseless squall of a hornpipe right over the grand turks head and then by a dexterous sleight pitching his cap up into the mizentop for a shelf he goes down rollicking so far at least as he remains visible from the deck reversing all other processions by bringing up the rear with music but ere stepping into the cabin doorway below he pauses ships a new face altogether and then independent hilarious little flask enters king ahabs presence in the character of abjectus or the slave it is not the least among the strange things bred by the intense artificialness of seausages that while in the open air of the deck some officers will upon provocation bear themselves boldly and defyingly enough towards their commander yet ten to one let those very officers the next moment go down to their customary dinner in that same commanders cabin and straightway their inoffensive not to say deprecatory and humble air towards him as he sits at the head of the table this is marvellous sometimes most comical to have been belshazzar king of babylon and to have been belshazzar not haughtily but courteously therein certainly must have been some touch of mundane grandeur but he who in the rightly regal and intelligent spirit presides over his own private dinnertable of invited guests that mans unchallenged power and dominion of individual influence for the time that mans royalty of state transcends belshazzars for belshazzar was not the greatest who has but once dined his friends has tasted what it is to be caesar it is a witchery of social czarship which there is no withstanding now if to this consideration you superadd the official supremacy of a shipmaster then by inference you will derive the cause of that peculiarity of sealife just mentioned
i assure you that i have long been most heartily ashamed of it did it said he did it soon make you think better of me did you on reading it give any credit to its contents she explained what its effect on her had been and how gradually all her former prejudices had been removed i knew said he that what i wrote must give you pain but it was necessary there was one part especially the opening of it which i should dread your having the power of reading again i can remember some expressions which might justly make you hate me the letter shall certainly be burnt if you believe it essential to the preservation of my regard but though we have both reason to think my opinions not entirely unalterable they are not i hope quite so easily changed as that implies when i wrote that letter replied darcy i believed myself perfectly calm and cool but i am since convinced that it was written in a dreadful bitterness of spirit the letter perhaps began in bitterness but it did not end so the feelings of the person who wrote and the person who received it are now so widely different from what they were then that every unpleasant circumstance attending it ought to be forgotten think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure i cannot give you credit for any philosophy of the kind your retrospections must be so totally void of reproach that the contentment arising from them is not of philosophy but what is much better of innocence painful recollections will intrude which cannot which ought not to be repelled i have been a selfish being all my life in practice though not in principle as a child i was taught what was right but i was not taught to correct my temper i was given good principles but left to follow them in pride and conceit unfortunately an only son for many years an only child i was spoilt by my parents who though good themselves my father particularly all that was benevolent and amiable allowed encouraged almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing to care for none beyond my own family circle to think meanly of all the rest of the world to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own such i was from eight to eight and twenty and such i might still have been but for you dearest loveliest elizabeth
it was generally evident whenever they met that he did admire her and to her it was equally evident that jane was yielding to the preference which she had begun to entertain for him from the first and was in a way to be very much in love but she considered with pleasure that it was not likely to be discovered by the world in general since jane united with great strength of feeling a composure of temper and a uniform cheerfulness of manner which would guard her from the suspicions of the impertinent it may perhaps be pleasant replied charlotte to be able to impose on the public in such a case but it is sometimes a disadvantage to be so very guarded if a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it she may lose the opportunity of fixing him and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark there is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment that it is not safe to leave any to itself we can all begin freelya slight preference is natural enough but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement in nine cases out of ten a women had better show more affection than she feels bingley likes your sister undoubtedly but he may never do more than like her if she does not help him on but she does help him on as much as her nature will allow if i can perceive her regard for him he must be a simpleton indeed not to discover it too remember eliza that he does not know janes disposition as you do but if a woman is partial to a man and does not endeavour to conceal it he must find it out but though bingley and jane meet tolerably often it is never for many hours together and as they always see each other in large mixed parties it is impossible that every moment should be employed in conversing together jane should therefore make the most of every halfhour in which she can command his attention when she is secure of him there will be more leisure for falling in love as much as she chooses your plan is a good one replied elizabeth where nothing is in question but the desire of being well married and if i were determined to get a rich husband or any husband i dare say i should adopt it but these are not janes feelings she is not acting by design as yet she cannot even be certain of the degree of her own regard nor of its reasonableness she danced four dances with him at meryton she saw him one morning at his own house and has since dined with him in company four times this is not quite enough to make her understand his character had she merely dined with him she might only have discovered whether he had a good appetite but you must remember that four evenings have also been spent togetherand four evenings may do a great deal
poor lydias situation must at best be bad enough but that it was no worse she had need to be thankful she felt it so and though in looking forward neither rational happiness nor worldly prosperity could be justly expected for her sister in looking back to what they had feared only two hours ago she felt all the advantages of what they had gained bennet had very often wished before this period of his life that instead of spending his whole income he had laid by an annual sum for the better provision of his children and of his wife if she survived him had he done his duty in that respect lydia need not have been indebted to her uncle for whatever of honour or credit could now be purchased for her the satisfaction of prevailing on one of the most worthless young men in great britain to be her husband might then have rested in its proper place he was seriously concerned that a cause of so little advantage to anyone should be forwarded at the sole expense of his brotherinlaw and he was determined if possible to find out the extent of his assistance and to discharge the obligation as soon as he could bennet had married economy was held to be perfectly useless for of course they were to have a son the son was to join in cutting off the entail as soon as he should be of age and the widow and younger children would by that means be provided for five daughters successively entered the world but yet the son was to come and mrs bennet for many years after lydias birth had been certain that he would this event had at last been despaired of but it was then too late to be saving bennet had no turn for economy and her husbands love of independence had alone prevented their exceeding their income five thousand pounds was settled by marriage articles on mrs but in what proportions it should be divided amongst the latter depended on the will of the parents this was one point with regard to lydia at least which was now to be settled and mr bennet could have no hesitation in acceding to the proposal before him in terms of grateful acknowledgment for the kindness of his brother though expressed most concisely he then delivered on paper his perfect approbation of all that was done and his willingness to fulfil the engagements that had been made for him he had never before supposed that could wickham be prevailed on to marry his daughter it would be done with so little inconvenience to himself as by the present arrangement he would scarcely be ten pounds a year the loser by the hundred that was to be paid them for what with her board and pocket allowance and the continual presents in money which passed to her through her mothers hands lydias expenses had been very little within that sum that it would be done with such trifling exertion on his side too was another very welcome surprise for his wish at present was to have as little trouble in the business as possible
some centuries ago when the sperm whale was almost wholly unknown in his own proper individuality and when his oil was only accidentally obtained from the stranded fish in those days spermaceti it would seem was popularly supposed to be derived from a creature identical with the one then known in england as the greenland or right whale it was the idea also that this same spermaceti was that quickening humor of the greenland whale which the first syllable of the word literally expresses in those times also spermaceti was exceedingly scarce not being used for light but only as an ointment and medicament it was only to be had from the druggists as you nowadays buy an ounce of rhubarb when as i opine in the course of time the true nature of spermaceti became known its original name was still retained by the dealers no doubt to enhance its value by a notion so strangely significant of its scarcity and so the appellation must at last have come to be bestowed upon the whale from which this spermaceti was really derived in one respect this is the most venerable of the leviathans being the one first regularly hunted by man it yields the article commonly known as whalebone or baleen and the oil specially known as whale oil an inferior article in commerce among the fishermen he is indiscriminately designated by all the following titles the whale the greenland whale the black whale the great whale the true whale the right whale there is a deal of obscurity concerning the identity of the species thus multitudinously baptised what then is the whale which i include in the second species of my folios it is the great mysticetus of the english naturalists the greenland whale of the english whalemen the baleine ordinaire of the french whalemen the growlands walfish of the swedes it is the whale which for more than two centuries past has been hunted by the dutch and english in the arctic seas it is the whale which the american fishermen have long pursued in the indian ocean on the brazil banks on the nor west coast and various other parts of the world designated by them right whale cruising grounds some pretend to see a difference between the greenland whale of the english and the right whale of the americans but they precisely agree in all their grand features nor has there yet been presented a single determinate fact upon which to ground a radical distinction it is by endless subdivisions based upon the most inconclusive differences that some departments of natural history become so repellingly intricate the right whale will be elsewhere treated of at some length with reference to elucidating the sperm whale under this head i reckon a monster which by the various names of finback tallspout and longjohn has been seen almost in every sea and is commonly the whale whose distant jet is so often descried by passengers crossing the atlantic in the new york packettracks in the length he attains and in his baleen the finback resembles the right whale but is of a less portly girth and a lighter colour approaching to olive his great lips present a cablelike aspect formed by the intertwisting slanting folds of large wrinkles
he heard her with the most earnest attention but seeming to recollect himself said no more on the subject and began directly to speak of his pleasure at seeing them in london making the usual inquiries about their journey and the friends they had left behind in this calm kind of way with very little interest on either side they continued to talk both of them out of spirits and the thoughts of both engaged elsewhere elinor wished very much to ask whether willoughby were then in town but she was afraid of giving him pain by any enquiry after his rival and at length by way of saying something she asked if he had been in london ever since she had seen him last yes he replied with some embarrassment almost ever since i have been once or twice at delaford for a few days but it has never been in my power to return to barton this and the manner in which it was said immediately brought back to her remembrance all the circumstances of his quitting that place with the uneasiness and suspicions they had caused to mrs jennings and she was fearful that her question had implied much more curiosity on the subject than she had ever felt colonel said she with her usual noisy cheerfulness i am monstrous glad to see yousorry i could not come beforebeg your pardon but i have been forced to look about me a little and settle my matters for it is a long while since i have been at home and you know one has always a world of little odd things to do after one has been away for any time and then i have had cartwright to settle with lord i have been as busy as a bee ever since dinner but pray colonel how came you to conjure out that i should be in town today oh you did well and how do they all do at their house palmer appeared quite well and i am commissioned to tell you that you will certainly see her tomorrow well colonel i have brought two young ladies with me you seethat is you see but one of them now but there is another somewhere your friend miss marianne toowhich you will not be sorry to hear i was young once but i never was very handsomeworse luck for me however i got a very good husband and i dont know what the greatest beauty can do more he replied with his accustomary mildness to all her inquiries but without satisfying her in any elinor now began to make the tea and marianne was obliged to appear again after her entrance colonel brandon became more thoughtful and silent than he had been before and mrs no other visitor appeared that evening and the ladies were unanimous in agreeing to go early to bed marianne rose the next morning with recovered spirits and happy looks the disappointment of the evening before seemed forgotten in the expectation of what was to happen that day
after taking her all over allenham house and fixing on the very rooms they were to live in hereafter elinor for her sisters sake could not press the subject farther and she hoped it was not required of her for willoughbys since though marianne might lose much he could gain very little by the enforcement of the real truth jennings with all her natural hilarity burst forth again well my dear tis a true saying about an illwind for it will be all the better for colonel brandon it will be all to one a better match for your sister two thousand a year without debt or drawbackexcept the little lovechild indeed aye i had forgot her but she may be prenticed out at a small cost and then what does it signify delaford is a nice place i can tell you exactly what i call a nice old fashioned place full of comforts and conveniences quite shut in with great garden walls that are covered with the best fruittrees in the country and such a mulberry tree in one corner how charlotte and i did stuff the only time we were there then there is a dovecote some delightful stewponds and a very pretty canal and every thing in short that one could wish for and moreover it is close to the church and only a quarter of a mile from the turnpikeroad so tis never dull for if you only go and sit up in an old yew arbour behind the house you may see all the carriages that pass along a butcher hard by in the village and the parsonagehouse within a stones throw to my fancy a thousand times prettier than barton park where they are forced to send three miles for their meat and have not a neighbour nearer than your mother well i shall spirit up the colonel as soon as i can one shoulder of mutton you know drives another down ay if we can do that maam said elinor we shall do very well with or without colonel brandon and then rising she went away to join marianne whom she found as she expected in her own room leaning in silent misery over the small remains of a fire which till elinors entrance had been her only light you had better leave me was all the notice that her sister received from her but this from the momentary perverseness of impatient suffering she at first refused to do her sisters earnest though gentle persuasion however soon softened her to compliance and elinor saw her lay her aching head on the pillow and as she hoped in a way to get some quiet rest before she left her in the drawingroom whither she then repaired she was soon joined by mrs jennings with a wineglass full of something in her hand
ferrars were on the best terms imaginable with the dashwoods and setting aside the jealousies and illwill continually subsisting between fanny and lucy in which their husbands of course took a part as well as the frequent domestic disagreements between robert and lucy themselves nothing could exceed the harmony in which they all lived together what edward had done to forfeit the right of eldest son might have puzzled many people to find out and what robert had done to succeed to it might have puzzled them still more it was an arrangement however justified in its effects if not in its cause for nothing ever appeared in roberts style of living or of talking to give a suspicion of his regretting the extent of his income as either leaving his brother too little or bringing himself too muchand if edward might be judged from the ready discharge of his duties in every particular from an increasing attachment to his wife and his home and from the regular cheerfulness of his spirits he might be supposed no less contented with his lot no less free from every wish of an exchange elinors marriage divided her as little from her family as could well be contrived without rendering the cottage at barton entirely useless for her mother and sisters spent much more than half their time with her dashwood was acting on motives of policy as well as pleasure in the frequency of her visits at delaford for her wish of bringing marianne and colonel brandon together was hardly less earnest though rather more liberal than what john had expressed precious as was the company of her daughter to her she desired nothing so much as to give up its constant enjoyment to her valued friend and to see marianne settled at the mansionhouse was equally the wish of edward and elinor they each felt his sorrows and their own obligations and marianne by general consent was to be the reward of all with such a confederacy against herwith a knowledge so intimate of his goodnesswith a conviction of his fond attachment to herself which at last though long after it was observable to everybody elseburst on herwhat could she do marianne dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate she was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions and to counteract by her conduct her most favourite maxims she was born to overcome an affection formed so late in life as at seventeen and with no sentiment superior to strong esteem and lively friendship voluntarily to give her hand to another and that other a man who had suffered no less than herself under the event of a former attachment whom two years before she had considered too old to be marriedand who still sought the constitutional safeguard of a flannel waistcoat instead of falling a sacrifice to an irresistible passion as once she had fondly flattered herself with expectinginstead of remaining even for ever with her mother and finding her only pleasures in retirement and study as afterwards in her more calm and sober judgment she had determined onshe found herself at nineteen submitting to new attachments entering on new duties placed in a new home a wife the mistress of a family and the patroness of a village colonel brandon was now as happy as all those who best loved him believed he deserved to bein marianne he was consoled for every past afflictionher regard and her society restored his mind to animation and his spirits to cheerfulness and that marianne found her own happiness in forming his was equally the persuasion and delight of each observing friend marianne could never love by halves and her whole heart became in time as much devoted to her husband as it had once been to willoughby willoughby could not hear of her marriage without a pang and his punishment was soon afterwards complete in the voluntary forgiveness of mrs smith who by stating his marriage with a woman of character as the source of her clemency gave him reason for believing that had he behaved with honour towards marianne he might at once have been happy and rich that his repentance of misconduct which thus brought its own punishment was sincere need not be doubtednor that he long thought of colonel brandon with envy and of marianne with regret but that he was for ever inconsolable that he fled from society or contracted an habitual gloom of temper or died of a broken heart must not be depended onfor he did neither his wife was not always out of humour nor his home always uncomfortable and in his breed of horses and dogs and in sporting of every kind he found no inconsiderable degree of domestic felicity
having resolved to do it without loss of time as his leave of absence extended only to the following saturday and having no feelings of diffidence to make it distressing to himself even at the moment he set about it in a very orderly manner with all the observances which he supposed a regular part of the business bennet elizabeth and one of the younger girls together soon after breakfast he addressed the mother in these words may i hope madam for your interest with your fair daughter elizabeth when i solicit for the honour of a private audience with her in the course of this morning before elizabeth had time for anything but a blush of surprise mrs i am sure lizzy will be very happyi am sure she can have no objection and gathering her work together she was hastening away when elizabeth called out dear madam do not go he can have nothing to say to me that anybody need not hear and upon elizabeths seeming really with vexed and embarrassed looks about to escape she added lizzy i insist upon your staying and hearing mr elizabeth would not oppose such an injunctionand a moments consideration making her also sensible that it would be wisest to get it over as soon and as quietly as possible she sat down again and tried to conceal by incessant employment the feelings which were divided between distress and diversion bennet and kitty walked off and as soon as they were gone mr believe me my dear miss elizabeth that your modesty so far from doing you any disservice rather adds to your other perfections you would have been less amiable in my eyes had there not been this little unwillingness but allow me to assure you that i have your respected mothers permission for this address you can hardly doubt the purport of my discourse however your natural delicacy may lead you to dissemble my attentions have been too marked to be mistaken almost as soon as i entered the house i singled you out as the companion of my future life but before i am run away with by my feelings on this subject perhaps it would be advisable for me to state my reasons for marryingand moreover for coming into hertfordshire with the design of selecting a wife as i certainly did collins with all his solemn composure being run away with by his feelings made elizabeth so near laughing that she could not use the short pause he allowed in any attempt to stop him further and he continued my reasons for marrying are first that i think it a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances like myself to set the example of matrimony in his parish secondly that i am convinced that it will add very greatly to my happiness and thirdlywhich perhaps i ought to have mentioned earlier that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom i have the honour of calling patroness twice has she condescended to give me her opinion unasked too  on this subject and it was but the very saturday night before i left hunsfordbetween our pools at quadrille while mrs jenkinson was arranging miss de bourghs footstool that she said mr choose properly choose a gentlewoman for my sake and for your own let her be an active useful sort of person not brought up high but able to make a small income go a good way find such a woman as soon as you can bring her to hunsford and i will visit her
you would almost as soon have expected him to turn out of his bunk without his nose as without his pipe he kept a whole row of pipes there ready loaded stuck in a rack within easy reach of his hand and whenever he turned in he smoked them all out in succession lighting one from the other to the end of the chapter then loading them again to be in readiness anew for when stubb dressed instead of first putting his legs into his trowsers he put his pipe into his mouth i say this continual smoking must have been one cause at least of his peculiar disposition for every one knows that this earthly air whether ashore or afloat is terribly infected with the nameless miseries of the numberless mortals who have died exhaling it and as in time of the cholera some people go about with a camphorated handkerchief to their mouths so likewise against all mortal tribulations stubbs tobacco smoke might have operated as a sort of disinfecting agent the third mate was flask a native of tisbury in marthas vineyard a short stout ruddy young fellow very pugnacious concerning whales who somehow seemed to think that the great leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him and therefore it was a sort of point of honour with him to destroy them whenever encountered so utterly lost was he to all sense of reverence for the many marvels of their majestic bulk and mystic ways and so dead to anything like an apprehension of any possible danger from encountering them that in his poor opinion the wondrous whale was but a species of magnified mouse or at least waterrat requiring only a little circumvention and some small application of time and trouble in order to kill and boil this ignorant unconscious fearlessness of his made him a little waggish in the matter of whales he followed these fish for the fun of it and a three years voyage round cape horn was only a jolly joke that lasted that length of time as a carpenters nails are divided into wrought nails and cut nails so mankind may be similarly divided little flask was one of the wrought ones made to clinch tight and last long they called him kingpost on board of the pequod because in form he could be well likened to the short square timber known by that name in arctic whalers and which by the means of many radiating side timbers inserted into it serves to brace the ship against the icy concussions of those battering seas now these three matesstarbuck stubb and flask were momentous men they it was who by universal prescription commanded three of the pequods boats as headsmen in that grand order of battle in which captain ahab would probably marshal his forces to descend on the whales these three headsmen were as captains of companies or being armed with their long keen whaling spears they were as a picked trio of lancers even as the harpooneers were flingers of javelins and since in this famous fishery each mate or headsman like a gothic knight of old is always accompanied by his boatsteerer or harpooneer who in certain conjunctures provides him with a fresh lance when the former one has been badly twisted or elbowed in the assault and moreover as there generally subsists between the two a close intimacy and friendliness it is therefore but meet that in this place we set down who the pequods harpooneers were and to what headsman each of them belonged first of all was queequeg whom starbuck the chief mate had selected for his squire next was tashtego an unmixed indian from gay head the most westerly promontory of marthas vineyard where there still exists the last remnant of a village of red men which has long supplied the neighboring island of nantucket with many of her most daring harpooneers in the fishery they usually go by the generic name of gayheaders tashtegos long lean sable hair his high cheek bones and black rounding eyesfor an indian oriental in their largeness but antarctic in their glittering expressionall this sufficiently proclaimed him an inheritor of the unvitiated blood of those proud warrior hunters who in quest of the great new england moose had scoured bow in hand the aboriginal forests of the main
how being an anointed pilotprophet or speaker of true things and bidden by the lord to sound those unwelcome truths in the ears of a wicked nineveh jonah appalled at the hostility he should raise fled from his mission and sought to escape his duty and his god by taking ship at joppa as we have seen god came upon him in the whale and swallowed him down to living gulfs of doom and with swift slantings tore him along into the midst of the seas where the eddying depths sucked him ten thousand fathoms down and the weeds were wrapped about his head and all the watery world of woe bowled over him yet even then beyond the reach of any plummetout of the belly of hellwhen the whale grounded upon the oceans utmost bones even then god heard the engulphed repenting prophet when he cried then god spake unto the fish and from the shuddering cold and blackness of the sea the whale came breeching up towards the warm and pleasant sun and all the delights of air and earth and vomited out jonah upon the dry land when the word of the lord came a second time and jonah bruised and beatenhis ears like two seashells still multitudinously murmuring of the oceanjonah did the almightys bidding this shipmates this is that other lesson and woe to that pilot of the living god who slights it woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when god has brewed them into a gale woe to him who seeks to please rather than to appal woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness woe to him who would not be true even though to be false were salvation yea woe to him who as the great pilot paul has it while preaching to others is himself a castaway  he dropped and fell away from himself for a moment then lifting his face to them again showed a deep joy in his eyes as he cried out with a heavenly enthusiasmbut oh on the starboard hand of every woe there is a sure delight and higher the top of that delight than the bottom of the woe is deep delight is to hima far far upward and inward delightwho against the proud gods and commodores of this earth ever stands forth his own inexorable self delight is to him whose strong arms yet support him when the ship of this base treacherous world has gone down beneath him delight is to him who gives no quarter in the truth and kills burns and destroys all sin though he pluck it out from under the robes of senators and judges delighttopgallant delight is to him who acknowledges no law or lord but the lord his god and is only a patriot to heaven delight is to him whom all the waves of the billows of the seas of the boisterous mob can never shake from this sure keel of the ages and eternal delight and deliciousness will be his who coming to lay him down can say with his final breatho father chiefly known to me by thy rodmortal or immortal here i die i have striven to be thine more than to be this worlds or mine own
darcy invite him with the greatest civility to fish there as often as he chose while he continued in the neighbourhood offering at the same time to supply him with fishing tackle and pointing out those parts of the stream where there was usually most sport gardiner who was walking arminarm with elizabeth gave her a look expressive of wonder elizabeth said nothing but it gratified her exceedingly the compliment must be all for herself her astonishment however was extreme and continually was she repeating why is he so altered it cannot be for meit cannot be for my sake that his manners are thus softened my reproofs at hunsford could not work such a change as this after walking some time in this way the two ladies in front the two gentlemen behind on resuming their places after descending to the brink of the river for the better inspection of some curious waterplant there chanced to be a little alteration gardiner who fatigued by the exercise of the morning found elizabeths arm inadequate to her support and consequently preferred her husbands darcy took her place by her niece and they walked on together she wished him to know that she had been assured of his absence before she came to the place and accordingly began by observing that his arrival had been very unexpectedfor your housekeeper she added informed us that you would certainly not be here till tomorrow and indeed before we left bakewell we understood that you were not immediately expected in the country he acknowledged the truth of it all and said that business with his steward had occasioned his coming forward a few hours before the rest of the party with whom he had been travelling they will join me early tomorrow he continued and among them are some who will claim an acquaintance with youmr her thoughts were instantly driven back to the time when mr bingleys name had been the last mentioned between them and if she might judge by his complexion his mind was not very differently engaged there is also one other person in the party he continued after a pause who more particularly wishes to be known to you will you allow me or do i ask too much to introduce my sister to your acquaintance during your stay at lambton the surprise of such an application was great indeed it was too great for her to know in what manner she acceded to it she immediately felt that whatever desire miss darcy might have of being acquainted with her must be the work of her brother and without looking farther it was satisfactory it was gratifying to know that his resentment had not made him think really ill of her they now walked on in silence each of them deep in thought elizabeth was not comfortable that was impossible but she was flattered and pleased
it was not to be supposed that time would give lydia that embarrassment from which she had been so wholly free at first phillips the lucases and all their other neighbours and to hear herself called mrs wickham by each of them and in the mean time she went after dinner to show her ring and boast of being married to mrs well mamma said she when they were all returned to the breakfast room and what do you think of my husband but my dear lydia i dont at all like your going such a way off you and papa and my sisters must come down and see us we shall be at newcastle all the winter and i dare say there will be some balls and i will take care to get good partners for them all and then when you go away you may leave one or two of my sisters behind you and i dare say i shall get husbands for them before the winter is over i thank you for my share of the favour said elizabeth but i do not particularly like your way of getting husbands their visitors were not to remain above ten days with them wickham had received his commission before he left london and he was to join his regiment at the end of a fortnight bennet regretted that their stay would be so short and she made the most of the time by visiting about with her daughter and having very frequent parties at home these parties were acceptable to all to avoid a family circle was even more desirable to such as did think than such as did not wickhams affection for lydia was just what elizabeth had expected to find it not equal to lydias for him she had scarcely needed her present observation to be satisfied from the reason of things that their elopement had been brought on by the strength of her love rather than by his and she would have wondered why without violently caring for her he chose to elope with her at all had she not felt certain that his flight was rendered necessary by distress of circumstances and if that were the case he was not the young man to resist an opportunity of having a companion he was her dear wickham on every occasion no one was to be put in competition with him he did every thing best in the world and she was sure he would kill more birds on the first of september than any body else in the country one morning soon after their arrival as she was sitting with her two elder sisters she said to elizabeth lizzy i never gave you an account of my wedding i believe you were not by when i told mamma and the others all about it no really replied elizabeth i think there cannot be too little said on the subject
dragged into stubbs boat with bloodshot blinded eyes the white brine caking in his wrinkles the long tension of ahabs bodily strength did crack and helplessly he yielded to his bodys doom for a time lying all crushed in the bottom of stubbs boat like one trodden under foot of herds of elephants far inland nameless wails came from him as desolate sounds from out ravines but this intensity of his physical prostration did but so much the more abbreviate it in an instants compass great hearts sometimes condense to one deep pang the sum total of those shallow pains kindly diffused through feebler mens whole lives and so such hearts though summary in each one suffering still if the gods decree it in their lifetime aggregate a whole age of woe wholly made up of instantaneous intensities for even in their pointless centres those noble natures contain the entire circumferences of inferior souls the harpoon said ahab half way rising and draggingly leaning on one bended armis it safe  aye sir for it was not darted this is it said stubb showing it one two three four fivethere were five oars sir and here are five men it is often the case that when a boat is stove its crew being picked up by another boat help to work that second boat and the chase is thus continued with what is called doublebanked oars but the added power of the boat did not equal the added power of the whale for he seemed to have treblebanked his every fin swimming with a velocity which plainly showed that if now under these circumstances pushed on the chase would prove an indefinitely prolonged if not a hopeless one nor could any crew endure for so long a period such an unintermitted intense straining at the oar a thing barely tolerable only in some one brief vicissitude the ship itself then as it sometimes happens offered the most promising intermediate means of overtaking the chase accordingly the boats now made for her and were soon swayed up to their cranesthe two parts of the wrecked boat having been previously secured by herand then hoisting everything to her side and stacking her canvas high up and sideways outstretching it with stunsails like the doublejointed wings of an albatross the pequod bore down in the leeward wake of mobydick at the well known methodic intervals the whales glittering spout was regularly announced from the manned mastheads and when he would be reported as just gone down ahab would take the time and then pacing the deck binnaclewatch in hand so soon as the last second of the allotted hour expired his voice was heard straightway he commanded them to lift him to his perch in this way the day wore on ahab now aloft and motionless anon unrestingly pacing the planks as he was thus walking uttering no sound except to hail the men aloft or to bid them hoist a sail still higher or to spread one to a still greater breadththus to and fro pacing beneath his slouched hat at every turn he passed his own wrecked boat which had been dropped upon the quarterdeck and lay there reversed broken bow to shattered stern at last he paused before it and as in an already overclouded sky fresh troops of clouds will sometimes sail across so over the old mans face there now stole some such added gloom as this stubb saw him pause and perhaps intending not vainly though to evince his own unabated fortitude and thus keep up a valiant place in his captains mind he advanced and eyeing the wreck exclaimedthe thistle the ass refused it pricked his mouth too keenly sir ha  what soulless thing is this that laughs before a wreck did i not know thee brave as fearless fire and as mechanical i could swear thou wert a poltroon
when they repaired to the diningroom elizabeth eagerly watched to see whether bingley would take the place which in all their former parties had belonged to him by her sister her prudent mother occupied by the same ideas forbore to invite him to sit by herself on entering the room he seemed to hesitate but jane happened to look round and happened to smile it was decided elizabeth with a triumphant sensation looked towards his friend he bore it with noble indifference and she would have imagined that bingley had received his sanction to be happy had she not seen his eyes likewise turned towards mr his behaviour to her sister was such during dinner time as showed an admiration of her which though more guarded than formerly persuaded elizabeth that if left wholly to himself janes happiness and his own would be speedily secured though she dared not depend upon the consequence she yet received pleasure from observing his behaviour it gave her all the animation that her spirits could boast for she was in no cheerful humour darcy was almost as far from her as the table could divide them she knew how little such a situation would give pleasure to either or make either appear to advantage she was not near enough to hear any of their discourse but she could see how seldom they spoke to each other and how formal and cold was their manner whenever they did her mothers ungraciousness made the sense of what they owed him more painful to elizabeths mind and she would at times have given anything to be privileged to tell him that his kindness was neither unknown nor unfelt by the whole of the family she was in hopes that the evening would afford some opportunity of bringing them together that the whole of the visit would not pass away without enabling them to enter into something more of conversation than the mere ceremonious salutation attending his entrance anxious and uneasy the period which passed in the drawingroom before the gentlemen came was wearisome and dull to a degree that almost made her uncivil she looked forward to their entrance as the point on which all her chance of pleasure for the evening must depend if he does not come to me then said she i shall give him up for ever the gentlemen came and she thought he looked as if he would have answered her hopes but alas the ladies had crowded round the table where miss bennet was making tea and elizabeth pouring out the coffee in so close a confederacy that there was not a single vacancy near her which would admit of a chair and on the gentlemens approaching one of the girls moved closer to her than ever and said in a whisper the men shant come and part us i am determined she followed him with her eyes envied everyone to whom he spoke had scarcely patience enough to help anybody to coffee and then was enraged against herself for being so silly
as he said this she could easily see that he had no doubt of a favourable answer he spoke of apprehension and anxiety but his countenance expressed real security such a circumstance could only exasperate farther and when he ceased the colour rose into her cheeks and she said in such cases as this it is i believe the established mode to express a sense of obligation for the sentiments avowed however unequally they may be returned it is natural that obligation should be felt and if i could feel gratitude i would now thank you but i cannoti have never desired your good opinion and you have certainly bestowed it most unwillingly it has been most unconsciously done however and i hope will be of short duration the feelings which you tell me have long prevented the acknowledgment of your regard can have little difficulty in overcoming it after this explanation darcy who was leaning against the mantelpiece with his eyes fixed on her face seemed to catch her words with no less resentment than surprise his complexion became pale with anger and the disturbance of his mind was visible in every feature he was struggling for the appearance of composure and would not open his lips till he believed himself to have attained it at length with a voice of forced calmness he said and this is all the reply which i am to have the honour of expecting i might perhaps wish to be informed why with so little endeavour at civility i am thus rejected i might as well inquire replied she why with so evident a desire of offending and insulting me you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will against your reason and even against your character was not this some excuse for incivility if i was uncivil had not my feelings decided against youhad they been indifferent or had they even been favourable do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man who has been the means of ruining perhaps for ever the happiness of a most beloved sister darcy changed colour but the emotion was short and he listened without attempting to interrupt her while she continued i have every reason in the world to think ill of you no motive can excuse the unjust and ungenerous part you acted there you dare not you cannot deny that you have been the principal if not the only means of dividing them from each otherof exposing one to the censure of the world for caprice and instability and the other to its derision for disappointed hopes and involving them both in misery of the acutest kind she paused and saw with no slight indignation that he was listening with an air which proved him wholly unmoved by any feeling of remorse he even looked at her with a smile of affected incredulity
this ended in prolonged solemn tones like the continual tolling of a bell in a ship that is foundering at sea in a fogin such tones he commenced reading the following hymn but changing his manner towards the concluding stanzas burst forth with a pealing exultation and joy the ribs and terrors in the whale      arched over me a dismal gloom      while all gods sunlit waves rolled by      and lift me deepening down to doom i saw the opening maw of hell with endless pains and sorrows there which none but they that feel can tell oh i was plunging to despair in black distress i called my god      when i could scarce believe him mine      he bowed his ear to my complaints      no more the whale did me confine with speed he flew to my relief as on a radiant dolphin borne awful yet bright as lightning shone the face of my deliverer god my song for ever shall record      that terrible that joyful hour      i give the glory to my god      his all the mercy and the power nearly all joined in singing this hymn which swelled high above the howling of the storm a brief pause ensued the preacher slowly turned over the leaves of the bible and at last folding his hand down upon the proper page said beloved shipmates clinch the last verse of the first chapter of jonahand god had prepared a great fish to swallow up jonah  shipmates this book containing only four chaptersfour yarnsis one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the scriptures yet what depths of the soul does jonahs deep sealine sound what a noble thing is that canticle in the fishs belly we feel the floods surging over us we sound with him to the kelpy bottom of the waters seaweed and all the slime of the sea is about us but what is this lesson that the book of jonah teaches shipmates it is a twostranded lesson a lesson to us all as sinful men and a lesson to me as a pilot of the living god as sinful men it is a lesson to us all because it is a story of the sin hardheartedness suddenly awakened fears the swift punishment repentance prayers and finally the deliverance and joy of jonah as with all sinners among men the sin of this son of amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the command of godnever mind now what that command was or how conveyedwhich he found a hard command but all the things that god would have us do are hard for us to doremember thatand hence he oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade and if we obey god we must disobey ourselves and it is in this disobeying ourselves wherein the hardness of obeying god consists with this sin of disobedience in him jonah still further flouts at god by seeking to flee from him he thinks that a ship made by men will carry him into countries where god does not reign but only the captains of this earth he skulks about the wharves of joppa and seeks a ship thats bound for tarshish
in an hurried manner he immediately began an inquiry after her health imputing his visit to a wish of hearing that she were better he sat down for a few moments and then getting up walked about the room after a silence of several minutes he came towards her in an agitated manner and thus began in vain i have struggled you must allow me to tell you how ardently i admire and love you this he considered sufficient encouragement and the avowal of all that he felt and had long felt for her immediately followed he spoke well but there were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed and he was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride his sense of her inferiorityof its being a degradationof the family obstacles which had always opposed to inclination were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence he was wounding but was very unlikely to recommend his suit in spite of her deeplyrooted dislike she could not be insensible to the compliment of such a mans affection and though her intentions did not vary for an instant she was at first sorry for the pain he was to receive till roused to resentment by his subsequent language she lost all compassion in anger she tried however to compose herself to answer him with patience when he should have done he concluded with representing to her the strength of that attachment which in spite of all his endeavours he had found impossible to conquer and with expressing his hope that it would now be rewarded by her acceptance of his hand as he said this she could easily see that he had no doubt of a favourable answer he spoke of apprehension and anxiety but his countenance expressed real security such a circumstance could only exasperate farther and when he ceased the colour rose into her cheeks and she said in such cases as this it is i believe the established mode to express a sense of obligation for the sentiments avowed however unequally they may be returned it is natural that obligation should be felt and if i could feel gratitude i would now thank you but i cannoti have never desired your good opinion and you have certainly bestowed it most unwillingly it has been most unconsciously done however and i hope will be of short duration the feelings which you tell me have long prevented the acknowledgment of your regard can have little difficulty in overcoming it after this explanation darcy who was leaning against the mantelpiece with his eyes fixed on her face seemed to catch her words with no less resentment than surprise his complexion became pale with anger and the disturbance of his mind was visible in every feature he was struggling for the appearance of composure and would not open his lips till he believed himself to have attained it
on reaching the spacious lobby above they were shown into a very pretty sittingroom lately fitted up with greater elegance and lightness than the apartments below and were informed that it was but just done to give pleasure to miss darcy who had taken a liking to the room when last at pemberley he is certainly a good brother said elizabeth as she walked towards one of the windows reynolds anticipated miss darcys delight when she should enter the room whatever can give his sister any pleasure is sure to be done in a moment the picturegallery and two or three of the principal bedrooms were all that remained to be shown in the former were many good paintings but elizabeth knew nothing of the art and from such as had been already visible below she had willingly turned to look at some drawings of miss darcys in crayons whose subjects were usually more interesting and also more intelligible in the gallery there were many family portraits but they could have little to fix the attention of a stranger elizabeth walked in quest of the only face whose features would be known to her at last it arrested herand she beheld a striking resemblance to mr darcy with such a smile over the face as she remembered to have sometimes seen when he looked at her she stood several minutes before the picture in earnest contemplation and returned to it again before they quitted the gallery reynolds informed them that it had been taken in his fathers lifetime there was certainly at this moment in elizabeths mind a more gentle sensation towards the original than she had ever felt at the height of their acquaintance what praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant as a brother a landlord a master she considered how many peoples happiness were in his guardianship how much of pleasure or pain was it in his power to bestow every idea that had been brought forward by the housekeeper was favourable to his character and as she stood before the canvas on which he was represented and fixed his eyes upon herself she thought of his regard with a deeper sentiment of gratitude than it had ever raised before she remembered its warmth and softened its impropriety of expression when all of the house that was open to general inspection had been seen they returned downstairs and taking leave of the housekeeper were consigned over to the gardener who met them at the halldoor as they walked across the hall towards the river elizabeth turned back to look again her uncle and aunt stopped also and while the former was conjecturing as to the date of the building the owner of it himself suddenly came forward from the road which led behind it to the stables they were within twenty yards of each other and so abrupt was his appearance that it was impossible to avoid his sight
my partiality does not blind me he certainly is not so handsome as willoughbybut at the same time there is something much more pleasing in his countenance  there was always a somethingif you rememberin willoughbys eyes at times which i did not like elinor could not remember itbut her mother without waiting for her assent continued and his manners the colonels manners are not only more pleasing to me than willoughbys ever were but they are of a kind i well know to be more solidly attaching to marianne their gentleness their genuine attention to other people and their manly unstudied simplicity is much more accordant with her real disposition than the livelinessoften artificial and often illtimed of the other i am very sure myself that had willoughby turned out as really amiable as he has proved himself the contrary marianne would yet never have been so happy with him as she will be with colonel brandon her daughter could not quite agree with her but her dissent was not heard and therefore gave no offence at delaford she will be within an easy distance of me added mrs dashwood even if i remain at barton and in all probabilityfor i hear it is a large villageindeed there certainly must be some small house or cottage close by that would suit us quite as well as our present situation for at my time of life you know everybody cares about thatand though i neither know nor desire to know what it really is i am sure it must be a good one here they were interrupted by the entrance of a third person and elinor withdrew to think it all over in private to wish success to her friend and yet in wishing it to feel a pang for willoughby chapter  mariannes illness though weakening in its kind had not been long enough to make her recovery slow and with youth natural strength and her mothers presence in aid it proceeded so smoothly as to enable her to remove within four days after the arrival of the latter into mrs when there at her own particular request for she was impatient to pour forth her thanks to him for fetching her mother colonel brandon was invited to visit her his emotion on entering the room in seeing her altered looks and in receiving the pale hand which she immediately held out to him was such as in elinors conjecture must arise from something more than his affection for marianne or the consciousness of its being known to others and she soon discovered in his melancholy eye and varying complexion as he looked at her sister the probable recurrence of many past scenes of misery to his mind brought back by that resemblance between marianne and eliza already acknowledged and now strengthened by the hollow eye the sickly skin the posture of reclining weakness and the warm acknowledgment of peculiar obligation dashwood not less watchful of what passed than her daughter but with a mind very differently influenced and therefore watching to very different effect saw nothing in the colonels behaviour but what arose from the most simple and selfevident sensations while in the actions and words of marianne she persuaded herself to think that something more than gratitude already dawned at the end of another day or two marianne growing visibly stronger every twelve hours mrs dashwood urged equally by her own and her daughters wishes began to talk of removing to barton on her measures depended those of her two friends mrs jennings could not quit cleveland during the dashwoods stay and colonel brandon was soon brought by their united request to consider his own abode there as equally determinate if not equally indispensable dashwood was prevailed on to accept the use of his carriage on her journey back for the better accommodation of her sick child and the colonel at the joint invitation of mrs jennings whose active goodnature made her friendly and hospitable for other people as well as herself engaged with pleasure to redeem it by a visit at the cottage in the course of a few weeks
yes i have heard something curious on that score sir how that a dismasted man never entirely loses the feeling of his old spar but it will be still pricking him at times look put thy live leg here in the place where mine once was so now here is only one distinct leg to the eye yet two to the soul where thou feelest tingling life there exactly there there to a hair do i how dost thou know that some entire living thinking thing may not be invisibly and uninterpenetratingly standing precisely where thou now standest aye and standing there in thy spite in thy most solitary hours then dost thou not fear eavesdroppers and if i still feel the smart of my crushed leg though it be now so long dissolved then why mayst not thou carpenter feel the fiery pains of hell for ever and without a body truly sir if it comes to that i must calculate over again i think i didnt carry a small figure sir bungle away at it then and bring it to me turns to go here i am proud as greek god and yet standing debtor to this blockhead for a bone to stand on cursed be that mortal interindebtedness which will not do away with ledgers i would be free as air and im down in the whole worlds books i am so rich i could have given bid for bid with the wealthiest praetorians at the auction of the roman empire which was the worlds and yet i owe for the flesh in the tongue i brag with ill get a crucible and into it and dissolve myself down to one small compendious vertebra stubb knows him best of all and stubb always says hes queer says nothing but that one sufficient little word queer hes queer says stubb hes queerqueer queer and keeps dinning it into mr starbuck all the timequeersirqueer queer very queer what was that now about one leg standing in three places and all three places standing in one hellhow was that im a sort of strangethoughted sometimes they say but thats only haphazardlike then a short little old body like me should never undertake to wade out into deep waters with tall heronbuilt captains the water chucks you under the chin pretty quick and theres a great cry for lifeboats now for most folks one pair of legs lasts a lifetime and that must be because they use them mercifully as a tenderhearted old lady uses her rolypoly old coachhorses look driven one leg to death and spavined the other for life and now wears out bone legs by the cord
jennings might have had enough to do in spreading that knowledge farther without seeking after more she had resolved from the first to pay a visit of comfort and inquiry to her cousins as soon as she could and nothing but the hindrance of more visitors than usual had prevented her going to them within that time the third day succeeding their knowledge of the particulars was so fine so beautiful a sunday as to draw many to kensington gardens though it was only the second week in march jennings and elinor were of the number but marianne who knew that the willoughbys were again in town and had a constant dread of meeting them chose rather to stay at home than venture into so public a place jennings joined them soon after they entered the gardens and elinor was not sorry that by her continuing with them and engaging all mrs jenningss conversation she was herself left to quiet reflection she saw nothing of the willoughbys nothing of edward and for some time nothing of anybody who could by any chance whether grave or gay be interesting to her but at last she found herself with some surprise accosted by miss steele who though looking rather shy expressed great satisfaction in meeting them and on receiving encouragement from the particular kindness of mrs jennings left her own party for a short time to join theirs jennings immediately whispered to elinor get it all out of her my dear jenningss curiosity and elinors too that she would tell any thing without being asked for nothing would otherwise have been learnt i am so glad to meet you said miss steele taking her familiarly by the armfor i wanted to see you of all things in the world she vowed at first she would never trim me up a new bonnet nor do any thing else for me again so long as she lived but now she is quite come to and we are as good friends as ever look she made me this bow to my hat and put in the feather last night i do not care if it is the doctors favourite colour i am sure for my part i should never have known he did like it better than any other colour if he had not happened to say so i declare sometimes i do not know which way to look before them she had wandered away to a subject on which elinor had nothing to say and therefore soon judged it expedient to find her way back again to the first well but miss dashwood speaking triumphantly people may say what they chuse about mr ferrarss declaring he would not have lucy for it is no such thing i can tell you and it is quite a shame for such illnatured reports to be spread abroad whatever lucy might think about it herself you know it was no business of other people to set it down for certain
we may treat it as a joke said he at last recovering from the affected laugh which had considerably lengthened out the genuine gaiety of the momentbut upon my soul it is a most serious business i am extremely sorry for itfor i know him to be a very goodhearted creature as wellmeaning a fellow perhaps as any in the world you must not judge of him miss dashwood from your slight acquaintance his manners are certainly not the happiest in nature but we are not all born you know with the same powersthe same address but upon my soul i believe he has as good a heart as any in the kingdom and i declare and protest to you i never was so shocked in my life as when it all burst forth  my mother was the first person who told me of it and i feeling myself called on to act with resolution immediately said to her my dear madam i do not know what you may intend to do on the occasion but as for myself i must say that if edward does marry this young woman i never will see him again he has done for himself completelyshut himself out for ever from all decent society but as i directly said to my mother i am not in the least surprised at it from his style of education it was always to be expected yes once while she was staying in this house i happened to drop in for ten minutes and i saw quite enough of her the merest awkward country girl without style or elegance and almost without beauty just the kind of girl i should suppose likely to captivate poor edward i offered immediately as soon as my mother related the affair to me to talk to him myself and dissuade him from the match but it was too late then i found to do any thing for unluckily i was not in the way at first and knew nothing of it till after the breach had taken place when it was not for me you know to interfere but had i been informed of it a few hours earlieri think it is most probablethat something might have been hit on i certainly should have represented it to edward in a very strong light my dear fellow i should have said consider what you are doing you are making a most disgraceful connection and such a one as your family are unanimous in disapproving  i cannot help thinking in short that means might have been found he must be starved you knowthat is certain absolutely starved he had just settled this point with great composure when the entrance of mrs
and even mary could assure her family that she had no disinclination for it while i can have my mornings to myself said she it is enoughi think it is no sacrifice to join occasionally in evening engagements society has claims on us all and i profess myself one of those who consider intervals of recreation and amusement as desirable for everybody elizabeths spirits were so high on this occasion that though she did not often speak unnecessarily to mr collins she could not help asking him whether he intended to accept mr bingleys invitation and if he did whether he would think it proper to join in the evenings amusement and she was rather surprised to find that he entertained no scruple whatever on that head and was very far from dreading a rebuke either from the archbishop or lady catherine de bourgh by venturing to dance i am by no means of the opinion i assure you said he that a ball of this kind given by a young man of character to respectable people can have any evil tendency and i am so far from objecting to dancing myself that i shall hope to be honoured with the hands of all my fair cousins in the course of the evening and i take this opportunity of soliciting yours miss elizabeth for the two first dances especially a preference which i trust my cousin jane will attribute to the right cause and not to any disrespect for her wickhams happiness and her own were perforce delayed a little longer and mr collinss proposal accepted with as good a grace as she could she was not the better pleased with his gallantry from the idea it suggested of something more it now first struck her that she was selected from among her sisters as worthy of being mistress of hunsford parsonage and of assisting to form a quadrille table at rosings in the absence of more eligible visitors the idea soon reached to conviction as she observed his increasing civilities toward herself and heard his frequent attempt at a compliment on her wit and vivacity and though more astonished than gratified herself by this effect of her charms it was not long before her mother gave her to understand that the probability of their marriage was extremely agreeable to her elizabeth however did not choose to take the hint being well aware that a serious dispute must be the consequence of any reply collins might never make the offer and till he did it was useless to quarrel about him if there had not been a netherfield ball to prepare for and talk of the younger miss bennets would have been in a very pitiable state at this time for from the day of the invitation to the day of the ball there was such a succession of rain as prevented their walking to meryton once no aunt no officers no news could be sought afterthe very shoeroses for netherfield were got by proxy even elizabeth might have found some trial of her patience in weather which totally suspended the improvement of her acquaintance with mr wickham and nothing less than a dance on tuesday could have made such a friday saturday sunday and monday endurable to kitty and lydia chapter  till elizabeth entered the drawingroom at netherfield and looked in vain for mr wickham among the cluster of red coats there assembled a doubt of his being present had never occurred to her
but this did not last long elinor had hardly got their last visitors out of her head had hardly done wondering at charlottes being so happy without a cause at mr palmers acting so simply with good abilities and at the strange unsuitableness which often existed between husband and wife before sir johns and mrs jenningss active zeal in the cause of society procured her some other new acquaintance to see and observe in a mornings excursion to exeter they had met with two young ladies whom mrs jennings had the satisfaction of discovering to be her relations and this was enough for sir john to invite them directly to the park as soon as their present engagements at exeter were over their engagements at exeter instantly gave way before such an invitation and lady middleton was thrown into no little alarm on the return of sir john by hearing that she was very soon to receive a visit from two girls whom she had never seen in her life and of whose elegancewhose tolerable gentility even she could have no proof for the assurances of her husband and mother on that subject went for nothing at all their being her relations too made it so much the worse and mrs jenningss attempts at consolation were therefore unfortunately founded when she advised her daughter not to care about their being so fashionable because they were all cousins and must put up with one another as it was impossible however now to prevent their coming lady middleton resigned herself to the idea of it with all the philosophy of a wellbred woman contenting herself with merely giving her husband a gentle reprimand on the subject five or six times every day the young ladies arrived their appearance was by no means ungenteel or unfashionable their dress was very smart their manners very civil they were delighted with the house and in raptures with the furniture and they happened to be so doatingly fond of children that lady middletons good opinion was engaged in their favour before they had been an hour at the park she declared them to be very agreeable girls indeed which for her ladyship was enthusiastic admiration sir johns confidence in his own judgment rose with this animated praise and he set off directly for the cottage to tell the miss dashwoods of the miss steeles arrival and to assure them of their being the sweetest girls in the world from such commendation as this however there was not much to be learned elinor well knew that the sweetest girls in the world were to be met with in every part of england under every possible variation of form face temper and understanding sir john wanted the whole family to walk to the park directly and look at his guests it was painful to him even to keep a third cousin to himself do come now said hepray comeyou must comei declare you shall comeyou cant think how you will like them lucy is monstrous pretty and so good humoured and agreeable the children are all hanging about her already as if she was an old acquaintance and they both long to see you of all things for they have heard at exeter that you are the most beautiful creatures in the world and i have told them it is all very true and a great deal more
collins not thus addressed her when i do myself the honour of speaking to you next on the subject i shall hope to receive a more favourable answer than you have now given me though i am far from accusing you of cruelty at present because i know it to be the established custom of your sex to reject a man on the first application and perhaps you have even now said as much to encourage my suit as would be consistent with the true delicacy of the female character collins cried elizabeth with some warmth you puzzle me exceedingly if what i have hitherto said can appear to you in the form of encouragement i know not how to express my refusal in such a way as to convince you of its being one you must give me leave to flatter myself my dear cousin that your refusal of my addresses is merely words of course my reasons for believing it are briefly these it does not appear to me that my hand is unworthy of your acceptance or that the establishment i can offer would be any other than highly desirable my situation in life my connections with the family of de bourgh and my relationship to your own are circumstances highly in my favour and you should take it into further consideration that in spite of your manifold attractions it is by no means certain that another offer of marriage may ever be made you your portion is unhappily so small that it will in all likelihood undo the effects of your loveliness and amiable qualifications as i must therefore conclude that you are not serious in your rejection of me i shall choose to attribute it to your wish of increasing my love by suspense according to the usual practice of elegant females i do assure you sir that i have no pretensions whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man i would rather be paid the compliment of being believed sincere i thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in your proposals but to accept them is absolutely impossible do not consider me now as an elegant female intending to plague you but as a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart cried he with an air of awkward gallantry and i am persuaded that when sanctioned by the express authority of both your excellent parents my proposals will not fail of being acceptable to such perseverance in wilful selfdeception elizabeth would make no reply and immediately and in silence withdrew determined if he persisted in considering her repeated refusals as flattering encouragement to apply to her father whose negative might be uttered in such a manner as to be decisive and whose behaviour at least could not be mistaken for the affectation and coquetry of an elegant female collins was not left long to the silent contemplation of his successful love for mrs bennet having dawdled about in the vestibule to watch for the end of the conference no sooner saw elizabeth open the door and with quick step pass her towards the staircase than she entered the breakfastroom and congratulated both him and herself in warm terms on the happy prospect of their nearer connection collins received and returned these felicitations with equal pleasure and then proceeded to relate the particulars of their interview with the result of which he trusted he had every reason to be satisfied since the refusal which his cousin had steadfastly given him would naturally flow from her bashful modesty and the genuine delicacy of her character bennet she would have been glad to be equally satisfied that her daughter had meant to encourage him by protesting against his proposals but she dared not believe it and could not help saying so collins she added that lizzy shall be brought to reason she is a very headstrong foolish girl and does not know her own interest but i will make her know it
in the present case it took up ten minutes to determine whether the boy were most like his father or mother and in what particular he resembled either for of course every body differed and every body was astonished at the opinion of the others an opportunity was soon to be given to the dashwoods of debating on the rest of the children as sir john would not leave the house without securing their promise of dining at the park the next day chapter  barton park was about half a mile from the cottage the ladies had passed near it in their way along the valley but it was screened from their view at home by the projection of a hill the house was large and handsome and the middletons lived in a style of equal hospitality and elegance the former was for sir johns gratification the latter for that of his lady they were scarcely ever without some friends staying with them in the house and they kept more company of every kind than any other family in the neighbourhood it was necessary to the happiness of both for however dissimilar in temper and outward behaviour they strongly resembled each other in that total want of talent and taste which confined their employments unconnected with such as society produced within a very narrow compass he hunted and shot and she humoured her children and these were their only resources lady middleton had the advantage of being able to spoil her children all the year round while sir johns independent employments were in existence only half the time continual engagements at home and abroad however supplied all the deficiencies of nature and education supported the good spirits of sir john and gave exercise to the good breeding of his wife lady middleton piqued herself upon the elegance of her table and of all her domestic arrangements and from this kind of vanity was her greatest enjoyment in any of their parties but sir johns satisfaction in society was much more real he delighted in collecting about him more young people than his house would hold and the noisier they were the better was he pleased he was a blessing to all the juvenile part of the neighbourhood for in summer he was for ever forming parties to eat cold ham and chicken out of doors and in winter his private balls were numerous enough for any young lady who was not suffering under the unsatiable appetite of fifteen the arrival of a new family in the country was always a matter of joy to him and in every point of view he was charmed with the inhabitants he had now procured for his cottage at barton the miss dashwoods were young pretty and unaffected it was enough to secure his good opinion for to be unaffected was all that a pretty girl could want to make her mind as captivating as her person the friendliness of his disposition made him happy in accommodating those whose situation might be considered in comparison with the past as unfortunate in showing kindness to his cousins therefore he had the real satisfaction of a good heart and in settling a family of females only in his cottage he had all the satisfaction of a sportsman for a sportsman though he esteems only those of his sex who are sportsmen likewise is not often desirous of encouraging their taste by admitting them to a residence within his own manor dashwood and her daughters were met at the door of the house by sir john who welcomed them to barton park with unaffected sincerity and as he attended them to the drawing room repeated to the young ladies the concern which the same subject had drawn from him the day before at being unable to get any smart young men to meet them
the power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance bennet this morning that if you ever resolved upon quitting netherfield you should be gone in five minutes you meant it to be a sort of panegyric of compliment to yourselfand yet what is there so very laudable in a precipitance which must leave very necessary business undone and can be of no real advantage to yourself or anyone else nay cried bingley this is too much to remember at night all the foolish things that were said in the morning and yet upon my honour i believe what i said of myself to be true and i believe it at this moment at least therefore i did not assume the character of needless precipitance merely to show off before the ladies i dare say you believed it but i am by no means convinced that you would be gone with such celerity your conduct would be quite as dependent on chance as that of any man i know and if as you were mounting your horse a friend were to say bingley you had better stay till next week you would probably do it you would probably not goand at another word might stay a month you have only proved by this cried elizabeth that mr you have shown him off now much more than he did himself i am exceedingly gratified said bingley by your converting what my friend says into a compliment on the sweetness of my temper but i am afraid you are giving it a turn which that gentleman did by no means intend for he would certainly think better of me if under such a circumstance i were to give a flat denial and ride off as fast as i could darcy then consider the rashness of your original intentions as atoned for by your obstinacy in adhering to it upon my word i cannot exactly explain the matter darcy must speak for himself you expect me to account for opinions which you choose to call mine but which i have never acknowledged allowing the case however to stand according to your representation you must remember miss bennet that the friend who is supposed to desire his return to the house and the delay of his plan has merely desired it asked it without offering one argument in favour of its propriety to yield readilyeasilyto the persuasion of a friend is no merit with you to yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either darcy to allow nothing for the influence of friendship and affection a regard for the requester would often make one readily yield to a request without waiting for arguments to reason one into it i am not particularly speaking of such a case as you have supposed about mr
who that knows what his misfortunes have been can help feeling an interest in him repeated darcy contemptuously yes his misfortunes have been great indeed you have reduced him to his present state of povertycomparative poverty you have withheld the advantages which you must know to have been designed for him you have deprived the best years of his life of that independence which was no less his due than his desert and yet you can treat the mention of his misfortune with contempt and ridicule and this cried darcy as he walked with quick steps across the room is your opinion of me my faults according to this calculation are heavy indeed but perhaps added he stopping in his walk and turning towards her these offenses might have been overlooked had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design these bitter accusations might have been suppressed had i with greater policy concealed my struggles and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified unalloyed inclination by reason by reflection by everything could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections to congratulate myself on the hope of relations whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own elizabeth felt herself growing more angry every moment yet she tried to the utmost to speak with composure when she said you are mistaken mr darcy if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way than as it spared me the concern which i might have felt in refusing you had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner she saw him start at this but he said nothing and she continued you could not have made the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it again his astonishment was obvious and he looked at her with an expression of mingled incredulity and mortification she went on from the very beginningfrom the first moment i may almost sayof my acquaintance with you your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance your conceit and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike and i had not known you a month before i felt that you were the last man in the world whom i could ever be prevailed on to marry i perfectly comprehend your feelings and have now only to be ashamed of what my own have been forgive me for having taken up so much of your time and accept my best wishes for your health and happiness and with these words he hastily left the room and elizabeth heard him the next moment open the front door and quit the house
all four boats gave chase again but the whale eluded them and finally wholly disappeared in good time the townho reached her porta savage solitary placewhere no civilized creature resided there headed by the lakeman all but five or six of the foremastmen deliberately deserted among the palms eventually as it turned out seizing a large double warcanoe of the savages and setting sail for some other harbor the ships company being reduced to but a handful the captain called upon the islanders to assist him in the laborious business of heaving down the ship to stop the leak but to such unresting vigilance over their dangerous allies was this small band of whites necessitated both by night and by day and so extreme was the hard work they underwent that upon the vessel being ready again for sea they were in such a weakened condition that the captain durst not put off with them in so heavy a vessel after taking counsel with his officers he anchored the ship as far off shore as possible loaded and ran out his two cannon from the bows stacked his muskets on the poop and warning the islanders not to approach the ship at their peril took one man with him and setting the sail of his best whaleboat steered straight before the wind for tahiti five hundred miles distant to procure a reinforcement to his crew on the fourth day of the sail a large canoe was descried which seemed to have touched at a low isle of corals he steered away from it but the savage craft bore down on him and soon the voice of steelkilt hailed him to heave to or he would run him under water with one foot on each prow of the yoked warcanoes the lakeman laughed him to scorn assuring him that if the pistol so much as clicked in the lock he would bury him in bubbles and foam  with that he leaped from the canoe swam to the boat and climbing the gunwale stood face to face with the captain as soon as steelkilt leaves me i swear to beach this boat on yonder island and remain there six days  and leaping into the sea he swam back to his comrades watching the boat till it was fairly beached and drawn up to the roots of the cocoanut trees steelkilt made sail again and in due time arrived at tahiti his own place of destination there luck befriended him two ships were about to sail for france and were providentially in want of precisely that number of men which the sailor headed they embarked and so for ever got the start of their former captain had he been at all minded to work them legal retribution some ten days after the french ships sailed the whaleboat arrived and the captain was forced to enlist some of the more civilized tahitians who had been somewhat used to the sea chartering a small native schooner he returned with them to his vessel and finding all right there again resumed his cruisings where steelkilt now is gentlemen none know but upon the island of nantucket the widow of radney still turns to the sea which refuses to give up its dead still in dreams sees the awful white whale that destroyed him then i entreat you tell me if to the best of your own convictions this your story is in substance really true    also bear with all of us sir sailor for we all join in don sebastian s suit cried the company with exceeding interest
shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other if i could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful i should not be shy but you would still be reserved said marianne and that is worse elinor looked surprised at his emotion but trying to laugh off the subject she said to him do not you know my sister well enough to understand what she means do not you know she calls every one reserved who does not talk as fast and admire what she admires as rapturously as herself his gravity and thoughtfulness returned on him in their fullest extentand he sat for some time silent and dull chapter  elinor saw with great uneasiness the low spirits of her friend his visit afforded her but a very partial satisfaction while his own enjoyment in it appeared so imperfect it was evident that he was unhappy she wished it were equally evident that he still distinguished her by the same affection which once she had felt no doubt of inspiring but hitherto the continuance of his preference seemed very uncertain and the reservedness of his manner towards her contradicted one moment what a more animated look had intimated the preceding one he joined her and marianne in the breakfastroom the next morning before the others were down and marianne who was always eager to promote their happiness as far as she could soon left them to themselves but before she was half way upstairs she heard the parlour door open and turning round was astonished to see edward himself come out i am going into the village to see my horses said he as you are not yet ready for breakfast i shall be back again presently  edward returned to them with fresh admiration of the surrounding country in his walk to the village he had seen many parts of the valley to advantage and the village itself in a much higher situation than the cottage afforded a general view of the whole which had exceedingly pleased him this was a subject which ensured mariannes attention and she was beginning to describe her own admiration of these scenes and to question him more minutely on the objects that had particularly struck him when edward interrupted her by saying you must not enquire too far marianneremember i have no knowledge in the picturesque and i shall offend you by my ignorance and want of taste if we come to particulars i shall call hills steep which ought to be bold surfaces strange and uncouth which ought to be irregular and rugged and distant objects out of sight which ought only to be indistinct through the soft medium of a hazy atmosphere you must be satisfied with such admiration as i can honestly give i call it a very fine countrythe hills are steep the woods seem full of fine timber and the valley looks comfortable and snugwith rich meadows and several neat farm houses scattered here and there it exactly answers my idea of a fine country because it unites beauty with utilityand i dare say it is a picturesque one too because you admire it i can easily believe it to be full of rocks and promontories grey moss and brush wood but these are all lost on me i am afraid it is but too true said marianne but why should you boast of it i suspect said elinor that to avoid one kind of affectation edward here falls into another
why to be sure said he seeming to recollect himself people have little have very little in their power but my dear elinor what is the matter with marianne  she looks very unwell has lost her colour and is grown quite thin she is not well she has had a nervous complaint on her for several weeks at her time of life any thing of an illness destroys the bloom for ever she was as handsome a girl last september as i ever saw and as likely to attract the man there was something in her style of beauty to please them particularly i remember fanny used to say that she would marry sooner and better than you did not but what she is exceedingly fond of you but so it happened to strike her i question whether marianne now will marry a man worth more than five or six hundred ayear at the utmost and i am very much deceived if you do not do better i know very little of dorsetshire but my dear elinor i shall be exceedingly glad to know more of it and i think i can answer for your having fanny and myself among the earliest and best pleased of your visitors elinor tried very seriously to convince him that there was no likelihood of her marrying colonel brandon but it was an expectation of too much pleasure to himself to be relinquished and he was really resolved on seeking an intimacy with that gentleman and promoting the marriage by every possible attention he had just compunction enough for having done nothing for his sisters himself to be exceedingly anxious that everybody else should do a great deal and an offer from colonel brandon or a legacy from mrs jennings was the easiest means of atoning for his own neglect they were lucky enough to find lady middleton at home and sir john came in before their visit ended dashwood did not seem to know much about horses he soon set him down as a very goodnatured fellow while lady middleton saw enough of fashion in his appearance to think his acquaintance worth having and mr i shall have a charming account to carry to fanny said he as he walked back with his sister such a woman as i am sure fanny will be glad to know jennings too an exceedingly wellbehaved woman though not so elegant as her daughter your sister need not have any scruple even of visiting her which to say the truth has been a little the case and very naturally for we only knew that mrs jennings was the widow of a man who had got all his money in a low way and fanny and mrs
i know that this would sometimes involve a slight loss of speed in the chase but long experience in various whalemen of more than one nation has convinced me that in the vast majority of failures in the fishery it has not by any means been so much the speed of the whale as the before described exhaustion of the harpooneer that has caused them to insure the greatest efficiency in the dart the harpooneers of this world must start to their feet from out of idleness and not from out of toil out of the trunk the branches grow out of them the twigs the crotch alluded to on a previous page deserves independent mention it is a notched stick of a peculiar form some two feet in length which is perpendicularly inserted into the starboard gunwale near the bow for the purpose of furnishing a rest for the wooden extremity of the harpoon whose other naked barbed end slopingly projects from the prow thereby the weapon is instantly at hand to its hurler who snatches it up as readily from its rest as a backwoodsman swings his rifle from the wall it is customary to have two harpoons reposing in the crotch respectively called the first and second irons but these two harpoons each by its own cord are both connected with the line the object being this to dart them both if possible one instantly after the other into the same whale so that if in the coming drag one should draw out the other may still retain a hold but it very often happens that owing to the instantaneous violent convulsive running of the whale upon receiving the first iron it becomes impossible for the harpooneer however lightninglike in his movements to pitch the second iron into him nevertheless as the second iron is already connected with the line and the line is running hence that weapon must at all events be anticipatingly tossed out of the boat somehow and somewhere else the most terrible jeopardy would involve all hands tumbled into the water it accordingly is in such cases the spare coils of box line mentioned in a preceding chapter making this feat in most instances prudently practicable but this critical act is not always unattended with the saddest and most fatal casualties furthermore you must know that when the second iron is thrown overboard it thenceforth becomes a dangling sharpedged terror skittishly curvetting about both boat and whale entangling the lines or cutting them and making a prodigious sensation in all directions nor in general is it possible to secure it again until the whale is fairly captured and a corpse consider now how it must be in the case of four boats all engaging one unusually strong active and knowing whale when owing to these qualities in him as well as to the thousand concurring accidents of such an audacious enterprise eight or ten loose second irons may be simultaneously dangling about him for of course each boat is supplied with several harpoons to bend on to the line should the first one be ineffectually darted without recovery all these particulars are faithfully narrated here as they will not fail to elucidate several most important however intricate passages in scenes hereafter to be painted stubbs whale had been killed some distance from the ship it was a calm so forming a tandem of three boats we commenced the slow business of towing the trophy to the pequod and now as we eighteen men with our thirtysix arms and one hundred and eighty thumbs and fingers slowly toiled hour after hour upon that inert sluggish corpse in the sea and it seemed hardly to budge at all except at long intervals good evidence was hereby furnished of the enormousness of the mass we moved
dashwood who felt obliged to hope that he had left mrs elinor resolving to exert herself though fearing the sound of her own voice now said is mrs i meant said elinor taking up some work from the table to inquire for mrs she dared not look upbut her mother and marianne both turned their eyes on him he coloured seemed perplexed looked doubtingly and after some hesitation said perhaps you meanmy brotheryou mean mrs was repeated by marianne and her mother in an accent of the utmost amazementand though elinor could not speak even her eyes were fixed on him with the same impatient wonder he rose from his seat and walked to the window apparently from not knowing what to do took up a pair of scissors that lay there and while spoiling both them and their sheath by cutting the latter to pieces as he spoke said in a hurried voice perhaps you do not knowyou may not have heard that my brother is lately married toto the youngestto miss lucy steele his words were echoed with unspeakable astonishment by all but elinor who sat with her head leaning over her work in a state of such agitation as made her hardly know where she was yes said he they were married last week and are now at dawlish she almost ran out of the room and as soon as the door was closed burst into tears of joy which at first she thought would never cease edward who had till then looked any where rather than at her saw her hurry away and perhaps sawor even heard her emotion for immediately afterwards he fell into a reverie which no remarks no inquiries no affectionate address of mrs dashwood could penetrate and at last without saying a word quitted the room and walked out towards the villageleaving the others in the greatest astonishment and perplexity on a change in his situation so wonderful and so suddena perplexity which they had no means of lessening but by their own conjectures chapter  unaccountable however as the circumstances of his release might appear to the whole family it was certain that edward was free and to what purpose that freedom would be employed was easily predetermined by allfor after experiencing the blessings of one imprudent engagement contracted without his mothers consent as he had already done for more than four years nothing less could be expected of him in the failure of that than the immediate contraction of another it was only to ask elinor to marry himand considering that he was not altogether inexperienced in such a question it might be strange that he should feel so uncomfortable in the present case as he really did so much in need of encouragement and fresh air how soon he had walked himself into the proper resolution however how soon an opportunity of exercising it occurred in what manner he expressed himself and how he was received need not be particularly told this only need be saidthat when they all sat down to table at four oclock about three hours after his arrival he had secured his lady engaged her mothers consent and was not only in the rapturous profession of the lover but in the reality of reason and truth one of the happiest of men he had more than the ordinary triumph of accepted love to swell his heart and raise his spirits he was released without any reproach to himself from an entanglement which had long formed his misery from a woman whom he had long ceased to loveand elevated at once to that security with another which he must have thought of almost with despair as soon as he had learnt to consider it with desire he was brought not from doubt or suspense but from misery to happinessand the change was openly spoken in such a genuine flowing grateful cheerfulness as his friends had never witnessed in him before his heart was now open to elinor all its weaknesses all its errors confessed and his first boyish attachment to lucy treated with all the philosophic dignity of twentyfour
nor is this any very easy matter for in his rear is the immense projecting steering oar hitting him now and then in the small of his back the afteroar reciprocating by rapping his knees in front he is thus completely wedged before and behind and can only expand himself sideways by settling down on his stretched legs but a sudden violent pitch of the boat will often go far to topple him because length of foundation is nothing without corresponding breadth merely make a spread angle of two poles and you cannot stand them up then again it would never do in plain sight of the worlds riveted eyes it would never do i say for this straddling captain to be seen steadying himself the slightest particle by catching hold of anything with his hands indeed as token of his entire buoyant selfcommand he generally carries his hands in his trowsers pockets but perhaps being generally very large heavy hands he carries them there for ballast nevertheless there have occurred instances well authenticated ones too where the captain has been known for an uncommonly critical moment or two in a sudden squall sayto seize hold of the nearest oarsmans hair and hold on there like grim death as told at the golden inn the cape of good hope and all the watery region round about there is much like some noted four corners of a great highway where you meet more travellers than in any other part it was not very long after speaking the goney that another homewardbound whaleman the townho was encountered in the short gam that ensued she gave us strong news of moby dick to some the general interest in the white whale was now wildly heightened by a circumstance of the townhos story which seemed obscurely to involve with the whale a certain wondrous inverted visitation of one of those so called judgments of god which at times are said to overtake some men this latter circumstance with its own particular accompaniments forming what may be called the secret part of the tragedy about to be narrated never reached the ears of captain ahab or his mates for that secret part of the story was unknown to the captain of the townho himself it was the private property of three confederate white seamen of that ship one of whom it seems communicated it to tashtego with romish injunctions of secrecy but the following night tashtego rambled in his sleep and revealed so much of it in that way that when he was wakened he could not well withhold the rest nevertheless so potent an influence did this thing have on those seamen in the pequod who came to the full knowledge of it and by such a strange delicacy to call it so were they governed in this matter that they kept the secret among themselves so that it never transpired abaft the pequods mainmast interweaving in its proper place this darker thread with the story as publicly narrated on the ship the whole of this strange affair i now proceed to put on lasting record the ancient whalecry upon first sighting a whale from the masthead still used by whalemen in hunting the famous gallipagos terrapin for my humors sake i shall preserve the style in which i once narrated it at lima to a lounging circle of my spanish friends one saints eve smoking upon the thickgilt tiled piazza of the golden inn of those fine cavaliers the young dons pedro and sebastian were on the closer terms with me and hence the interluding questions they occasionally put and which are duly answered at the time some two years prior to my first learning the events which i am about rehearsing to you gentlemen the townho sperm whaler of nantucket was cruising in your pacific here not very many days sail eastward from the eaves of this good golden inn one morning upon handling the pumps according to daily usage it was observed that she made more water in her hold than common they supposed a swordfish had stabbed her gentlemen
fashioned at last into an arrowy shape and welded by perth to the shank the steel soon pointed the end of the iron and as the blacksmith was about giving the barbs their final heat prior to tempering them he cried to ahab to place the watercask near no nono water for that i want it of the true deathtemper will ye give me as much blood as will cover this barb three punctures were made in the heathen flesh and the white whales barbs were then tempered ego non baptizo te in nomine patris sed in nomine diaboli deliriously howled ahab as the malignant iron scorchingly devoured the baptismal blood now mustering the spare poles from below and selecting one of hickory with the bark still investing it ahab fitted the end to the socket of the iron a coil of new towline was then unwound and some fathoms of it taken to the windlass and stretched to a great tension pressing his foot upon it till the rope hummed like a harpstring then eagerly bending over it and seeing no strandings ahab exclaimed good at one extremity the rope was unstranded and the separate spread yarns were all braided and woven round the socket of the harpoon the pole was then driven hard up into the socket from the lower end the rope was traced halfway along the poles length and firmly secured so with intertwistings of twine this done pole iron and ropelike the three fatesremained inseparable and ahab moodily stalked away with the weapon the sound of his ivory leg and the sound of the hickory pole both hollowly ringing along every plank but ere he entered his cabin light unnatural halfbantering yet most piteous sound was heard thy wretched laugh thy idle but unresting eye all thy strange mummeries not unmeaningly blended with the black tragedy of the melancholy ship and mocked it penetrating further and further into the heart of the japanese cruising ground the pequod was soon all astir in the fishery often in mild pleasant weather for twelve fifteen eighteen and twenty hours on the stretch they were engaged in the boats steadily pulling or sailing or paddling after the whales or for an interlude of sixty or seventy minutes calmly awaiting their uprising though with but small success for their pains at such times under an abated sun afloat all day upon smooth slow heaving swells seated in his boat light as a birch canoe and so sociably mixing with the soft waves themselves that like hearthstone cats they purr against the gunwale these are the times of dreamy quietude when beholding the tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the oceans skin one forgets the tiger heart that pants beneath it and would not willingly remember that this velvet paw but conceals a remorseless fang these are the times when in his whaleboat the rover softly feels a certain filial confident landlike feeling towards the sea that he regards it as so much flowery earth and the distant ship revealing only the tops of her masts seems struggling forward not through high rolling waves but through the tall grass of a rolling prairie as when the western emigrants horses only show their erected ears while their hidden bodies widely wade through the amazing verdure the longdrawn virgin vales the mild blue hillsides as over these there steals the hush the hum you almost swear that playwearied children lie sleeping in these solitudes in some glad maytime when the flowers of the woods are plucked and all this mixes with your most mystic mood so that fact and fancy halfway meeting interpenetrate and form one seamless whole nor did such soothing scenes however temporary fail of at least as temporary an effect on ahab
see ye not then shipmates that jonah sought to flee worldwide from god most contemptible and worthy of all scorn with slouched hat and guilty eye skulking from his god prowling among the shipping like a vile burglar hastening to cross the seas so disordered selfcondemning is his look that had there been policemen in those days jonah on the mere suspicion of something wrong had been arrested ere he touched a deck no baggage not a hatbox valise or carpetbagno friends accompany him to the wharf with their adieux at last after much dodging search he finds the tarshish ship receiving the last items of her cargo and as he steps on board to see its captain in the cabin all the sailors for the moment desist from hoisting in the goods to mark the strangers evil eye jonah sees this but in vain he tries to look all ease and confidence in vain essays his wretched smile strong intuitions of the man assure the mariners he can be no innocent in their gamesome but still serious way one whispers to the otherjack hes robbed a widow or joe do you mark him hes a bigamist or harry lad i guess hes the adulterer that broke jail in old gomorrah or belike one of the missing murderers from sodom another runs to read the bill thats stuck against the spile upon the wharf to which the ship is moored offering five hundred gold coins for the apprehension of a parricide and containing a description of his person he reads and looks from jonah to the bill while all his sympathetic shipmates now crowd round jonah prepared to lay their hands upon him frighted jonah trembles and summoning all his boldness to his face only looks so much the more a coward he will not confess himself suspected but that itself is strong suspicion so he makes the best of it and when the sailors find him not to be the man that is advertised they let him pass and he descends into the cabin  cries the captain at his busy desk hurriedly making out his papers for the customswhos there i seek a passage in this ship to tarshish how soon sail ye sir  thus far the busy captain had not looked up to jonah though the man now stands before him but no sooner does he hear that hollow voice than he darts a scrutinizing glance we sail with the next coming tide at last he slowly answered still intently eyeing him soon enough for any honest man that goes a passenger but he swiftly calls away the captain from that scent ill sail with yehe saysthe passage money how much is that
collins and myself on this happy event let me now add a short hint on the subject of another of which we have been advertised by the same authority your daughter elizabeth it is presumed will not long bear the name of bennet after her elder sister has resigned it and the chosen partner of her fate may be reasonably looked up to as one of the most illustrious personages in this land    can you possibly guess lizzy who is meant by this this young gentleman is blessed in a peculiar way with every thing the heart of mortal can most desiresplendid property noble kindred and extensive patronage yet in spite of all these temptations let me warn my cousin elizabeth and yourself of what evils you may incur by a precipitate closure with this gentleman s proposals which of course you will be inclined to take immediate advantage of but now it comes out   my motive for cautioning you is as follows we have reason to imagine that his aunt lady catherine de bourgh does not look on the match with a friendly eye could he or the lucases have pitched on any man within the circle of our acquaintance whose name would have given the lie more effectually to what they related darcy who never looks at any woman but to see a blemish and who probably never looked at you in his life elizabeth tried to join in her fathers pleasantry but could only force one most reluctant smile never had his wit been directed in a manner so little agreeable to her after mentioning the likelihood of this marriage to her ladyship last night she immediately with her usual condescension expressed what she felt on the occasion when it became apparent that on the score of some family objections on the part of my cousin she would never give her consent to what she termed so disgraceful a match i thought it my duty to give the speediest intelligence of this to my cousin that she and her noble admirer may be aware of what they are about and not run hastily into a marriage which has not been properly sanctioned collins moreover adds i am truly rejoiced that my cousin lydias sad business has been so well hushed up and am only concerned that their living together before the marriage took place should be so generally known i must not however neglect the duties of my station or refrain from declaring my amazement at hearing that you received the young couple into your house as soon as they were married it was an encouragement of vice and had i been the rector of longbourn i should very strenuously have opposed it you ought certainly to forgive them as a christian but never to admit them in your sight or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing the rest of his letter is only about his dear charlottes situation and his expectation of a young olivebranch you are not going to be missish i hope and pretend to be affronted at an idle report for what do we live but to make sport for our neighbours and laugh at them in our turn
in this way the day wore on ahab now aloft and motionless anon unrestingly pacing the planks as he was thus walking uttering no sound except to hail the men aloft or to bid them hoist a sail still higher or to spread one to a still greater breadththus to and fro pacing beneath his slouched hat at every turn he passed his own wrecked boat which had been dropped upon the quarterdeck and lay there reversed broken bow to shattered stern at last he paused before it and as in an already overclouded sky fresh troops of clouds will sometimes sail across so over the old mans face there now stole some such added gloom as this stubb saw him pause and perhaps intending not vainly though to evince his own unabated fortitude and thus keep up a valiant place in his captains mind he advanced and eyeing the wreck exclaimedthe thistle the ass refused it pricked his mouth too keenly sir ha  what soulless thing is this that laughs before a wreck did i not know thee brave as fearless fire and as mechanical i could swear thou wert a poltroon aye sir said starbuck drawing near tis a solemn sight an omen and an ill one if the gods think to speak outright to man they will honourably speak outright not shake their heads and give an old wives darkling hint ye two are the opposite poles of one thing starbuck is stubb reversed and stubb is starbuck and ye two are all mankind and ahab stands alone among the millions of the peopled earth nor gods nor men his neighbors sing out for every spout though he spout ten times a second the day was nearly done only the hem of his golden robe was rustling soon it was almost dark but the lookout men still remained unset cant see the spout now sirtoo dark cried a voice from the air we must not run over him before morning hes making a passage now and may heaveto a while stubb send a fresh hand to the foremast head and see it manned till morning then advancing towards the doubloon in the mainmastmen this gold is mine for i earned it but i shall let it abide here till the white whale is dead and then whosoever of ye first raises him upon the day he shall be killed this gold is that mans and if on that day i shall again raise him then ten times its sum shall be divided among all of ye  and so saying he placed himself half way within the scuttle and slouching his hat stood there till dawn except when at intervals rousing himself to see how the night wore on at daybreak the three mastheads were punctually manned afresh cried ahab after allowing a little space for the light to spread he travels faster than i thought forthe topgallant sails
they had now entered a beautiful walk by the side of the water and every step was bringing forward a nobler fall of ground or a finer reach of the woods to which they were approaching but it was some time before elizabeth was sensible of any of it and though she answered mechanically to the repeated appeals of her uncle and aunt and seemed to direct her eyes to such objects as they pointed out she distinguished no part of the scene her thoughts were all fixed on that one spot of pemberley house whichever it might be where mr she longed to know what at the moment was passing in his mindin what manner he thought of her and whether in defiance of everything she was still dear to him perhaps he had been civil only because he felt himself at ease yet there had been that in his voice which was not like ease whether he had felt more of pain or of pleasure in seeing her she could not tell but he certainly had not seen her with composure at length however the remarks of her companions on her absence of mind aroused her and she felt the necessity of appearing more like herself they entered the woods and bidding adieu to the river for a while ascended some of the higher grounds when in spots where the opening of the trees gave the eye power to wander were many charming views of the valley the opposite hills with the long range of woods overspreading many and occasionally part of the stream gardiner expressed a wish of going round the whole park but feared it might be beyond a walk with a triumphant smile they were told that it was ten miles round it settled the matter and they pursued the accustomed circuit which brought them again after some time in a descent among hanging woods to the edge of the water and one of its narrowest parts they crossed it by a simple bridge in character with the general air of the scene it was a spot less adorned than any they had yet visited and the valley here contracted into a glen allowed room only for the stream and a narrow walk amidst the rough coppicewood which bordered it elizabeth longed to explore its windings but when they had crossed the bridge and perceived their distance from the house mrs gardiner who was not a great walker could go no farther and thought only of returning to the carriage as quickly as possible her niece was therefore obliged to submit and they took their way towards the house on the opposite side of the river in the nearest direction but their progress was slow for mr gardiner though seldom able to indulge the taste was very fond of fishing and was so much engaged in watching the occasional appearance of some trout in the water and talking to the man about them that he advanced but little whilst wandering on in this slow manner they were again surprised and elizabeths astonishment was quite equal to what it had been at first by the sight of mr the walk being here less sheltered than on the other side allowed them to see him before they met elizabeth however astonished was at least more prepared for an interview than before and resolved to appear and to speak with calmness if he really intended to meet them for a few moments indeed she felt that he would probably strike into some other path the idea lasted while a turning in the walk concealed him from their view the turning past he was immediately before them
i can remember no symptom of affection on either side and had anything of the kind been perceptible you must be aware that ours is not a family on which it could be thrown away when first he entered the corps she was ready enough to admire him but so we all were every girl in or near meryton was out of her senses about him for the first two months but he never distinguished her by any particular attention and consequently after a moderate period of extravagant and wild admiration her fancy for him gave way and others of the regiment who treated her with more distinction again became her favourites      it may be easily believed that however little of novelty could be added to their fears hopes and conjectures on this interesting subject by its repeated discussion no other could detain them from it long during the whole of the journey fixed there by the keenest of all anguish selfreproach she could find no interval of ease or forgetfulness they travelled as expeditiously as possible and sleeping one night on the road reached longbourn by dinner time the next day it was a comfort to elizabeth to consider that jane could not have been wearied by long expectations the little gardiners attracted by the sight of a chaise were standing on the steps of the house as they entered the paddock and when the carriage drove up to the door the joyful surprise that lighted up their faces and displayed itself over their whole bodies in a variety of capers and frisks was the first pleasing earnest of their welcome elizabeth jumped out and after giving each of them a hasty kiss hurried into the vestibule where jane who came running down from her mothers apartment immediately met her elizabeth as she affectionately embraced her whilst tears filled the eyes of both lost not a moment in asking whether anything had been heard of the fugitives but now that my dear uncle is come i hope everything will be well he wrote me a few lines on wednesday to say that he had arrived in safety and to give me his directions which i particularly begged him to do he merely added that he should not write again till he had something of importance to mention my mother is tolerably well i trust though her spirits are greatly shaken she is up stairs and will have great satisfaction in seeing you all her sister however assured her of her being perfectly well and their conversation which had been passing while mr gardiner were engaged with their children was now put an end to by the approach of the whole party jane ran to her uncle and aunt and welcomed and thanked them both with alternate smiles and tears when they were all in the drawingroom the questions which elizabeth had already asked were of course repeated by the others and they soon found that jane had no intelligence to give the sanguine hope of good however which the benevolence of her heart suggested had not yet deserted her she still expected that it would all end well and that every morning would bring some letter either from lydia or her father to explain their proceedings and perhaps announce their marriage
in short he is what the fishermen technically call a greyheaded whale let us now note what is least dissimilar in these headsnamely the two most important organs the eye and the ear far back on the side of the head and low down near the angle of either whales jaw if you narrowly search you will at last see a lashless eye which you would fancy to be a young colts eye so out of all proportion is it to the magnitude of the head now from this peculiar sideway position of the whales eyes it is plain that he can never see an object which is exactly ahead no more than he can one exactly astern in a word the position of the whales eyes corresponds to that of a mans ears and you may fancy for yourself how it would fare with you did you sideways survey objects through your ears you would find that you could only command some thirty degrees of vision in advance of the straight sideline of sight and about thirty more behind it if your bitterest foe were walking straight towards you with dagger uplifted in broad day you would not be able to see him any more than if he were stealing upon you from behind in a word you would have two backs so to speak but at the same time also two fronts side fronts for what is it that makes the front of a manwhat indeed but his eyes moreover while in most other animals that i can now think of the eyes are so planted as imperceptibly to blend their visual power so as to produce one picture and not two to the brain the peculiar position of the whales eyes effectually divided as they are by many cubic feet of solid head which towers between them like a great mountain separating two lakes in valleys this of course must wholly separate the impressions which each independent organ imparts the whale therefore must see one distinct picture on this side and another distinct picture on that side while all between must be profound darkness and nothingness to him man may in effect be said to look out on the world from a sentrybox with two joined sashes for his window but with the whale these two sashes are separately inserted making two distinct windows but sadly impairing the view this peculiarity of the whales eyes is a thing always to be borne in mind in the fishery and to be remembered by the reader in some subsequent scenes a curious and most puzzling question might be started concerning this visual matter as touching the leviathan so long as a mans eyes are open in the light the act of seeing is involuntary that is he cannot then help mechanically seeing whatever objects are before him nevertheless any ones experience will teach him that though he can take in an undiscriminating sweep of things at one glance it is quite impossible for him attentively and completely to examine any two thingshowever large or however smallat one and the same instant of time never mind if they lie side by side and touch each other but if you now come to separate these two objects and surround each by a circle of profound darkness then in order to see one of them in such a manner as to bring your mind to bear on it the other will be utterly excluded from your contemporary consciousness true both his eyes in themselves must simultaneously act but is his brain so much more comprehensive combining and subtle than mans that he can at the same moment of time attentively examine two distinct prospects one on one side of him and the other in an exactly opposite direction if he can then is it as marvellous a thing in him as if a man were able simultaneously to go through the demonstrations of two distinct problems in euclid nor strictly investigated is there any incongruity in this comparison
and upon elizabeths seeming really with vexed and embarrassed looks about to escape she added lizzy i insist upon your staying and hearing mr elizabeth would not oppose such an injunctionand a moments consideration making her also sensible that it would be wisest to get it over as soon and as quietly as possible she sat down again and tried to conceal by incessant employment the feelings which were divided between distress and diversion bennet and kitty walked off and as soon as they were gone mr believe me my dear miss elizabeth that your modesty so far from doing you any disservice rather adds to your other perfections you would have been less amiable in my eyes had there not been this little unwillingness but allow me to assure you that i have your respected mothers permission for this address you can hardly doubt the purport of my discourse however your natural delicacy may lead you to dissemble my attentions have been too marked to be mistaken almost as soon as i entered the house i singled you out as the companion of my future life but before i am run away with by my feelings on this subject perhaps it would be advisable for me to state my reasons for marryingand moreover for coming into hertfordshire with the design of selecting a wife as i certainly did collins with all his solemn composure being run away with by his feelings made elizabeth so near laughing that she could not use the short pause he allowed in any attempt to stop him further and he continued my reasons for marrying are first that i think it a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances like myself to set the example of matrimony in his parish secondly that i am convinced that it will add very greatly to my happiness and thirdlywhich perhaps i ought to have mentioned earlier that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom i have the honour of calling patroness twice has she condescended to give me her opinion unasked too  on this subject and it was but the very saturday night before i left hunsfordbetween our pools at quadrille while mrs jenkinson was arranging miss de bourghs footstool that she said mr choose properly choose a gentlewoman for my sake and for your own let her be an active useful sort of person not brought up high but able to make a small income go a good way find such a woman as soon as you can bring her to hunsford and i will visit her  allow me by the way to observe my fair cousin that i do not reckon the notice and kindness of lady catherine de bourgh as among the least of the advantages in my power to offer you will find her manners beyond anything i can describe and your wit and vivacity i think must be acceptable to her especially when tempered with the silence and respect which her rank will inevitably excite thus much for my general intention in favour of matrimony it remains to be told why my views were directed towards longbourn instead of my own neighbourhood where i can assure you there are many amiable young women but the fact is that being as i am to inherit this estate after the death of your honoured father who however may live many years longer i could not satisfy myself without resolving to choose a wife from among his daughters that the loss to them might be as little as possible when the melancholy event takes placewhich however as i have already said may not be for several years this has been my motive my fair cousin and i flatter myself it will not sink me in your esteem and now nothing remains for me but to assure you in the most animated language of the violence of my affection
the contempt which she had very early in their acquaintance felt for her daughterinlaw was very much increased by the farther knowledge of her character which half a years residence in her family afforded and perhaps in spite of every consideration of politeness or maternal affection on the side of the former the two ladies might have found it impossible to have lived together so long had not a particular circumstance occurred to give still greater eligibility according to the opinions of mrs this circumstance was a growing attachment between her eldest girl and the brother of mrs john dashwood a gentlemanlike and pleasing young man who was introduced to their acquaintance soon after his sisters establishment at norland and who had since spent the greatest part of his time there some mothers might have encouraged the intimacy from motives of interest for edward ferrars was the eldest son of a man who had died very rich and some might have repressed it from motives of prudence for except a trifling sum the whole of his fortune depended on the will of his mother dashwood was alike uninfluenced by either consideration it was enough for her that he appeared to be amiable that he loved her daughter and that elinor returned the partiality it was contrary to every doctrine of hers that difference of fortune should keep any couple asunder who were attracted by resemblance of disposition and that elinors merit should not be acknowledged by every one who knew her was to her comprehension impossible edward ferrars was not recommended to their good opinion by any peculiar graces of person or address he was not handsome and his manners required intimacy to make them pleasing he was too diffident to do justice to himself but when his natural shyness was overcome his behaviour gave every indication of an open affectionate heart his understanding was good and his education had given it solid improvement but he was neither fitted by abilities nor disposition to answer the wishes of his mother and sister who longed to see him distinguishedasthey hardly knew what they wanted him to make a fine figure in the world in some manner or other his mother wished to interest him in political concerns to get him into parliament or to see him connected with some of the great men of the day john dashwood wished it likewise but in the mean while till one of these superior blessings could be attained it would have quieted her ambition to see him driving a barouche all his wishes centered in domestic comfort and the quiet of private life fortunately he had a younger brother who was more promising edward had been staying several weeks in the house before he engaged much of mrs dashwoods attention for she was at that time in such affliction as rendered her careless of surrounding objects she saw only that he was quiet and unobtrusive and she liked him for it
indeed i think i may say that you cannot for your behaviour to him is perfectly cordial and if that were your opinion i am sure you could never be civil to him she would not wound the feelings of her sister on any account and yet to say what she did not believe was impossible at length she replied do not be offended elinor if my praise of him is not in every thing equal to your sense of his merits i have not had so many opportunities of estimating the minuter propensities of his mind his inclinations and tastes as you have but i have the highest opinion in the world of his goodness and sense i am sure replied elinor with a smile that his dearest friends could not be dissatisfied with such commendation as that i do not perceive how you could express yourself more warmly marianne was rejoiced to find her sister so easily pleased of his sense and his goodness continued elinor no one can i think be in doubt who has seen him often enough to engage him in unreserved conversation the excellence of his understanding and his principles can be concealed only by that shyness which too often keeps him silent you know enough of him to do justice to his solid worth but of his minuter propensities as you call them you have from peculiar circumstances been kept more ignorant than myself he and i have been at times thrown a good deal together while you have been wholly engrossed on the most affectionate principle by my mother i have seen a great deal of him have studied his sentiments and heard his opinion on subjects of literature and taste and upon the whole i venture to pronounce that his mind is wellinformed enjoyment of books exceedingly great his imagination lively his observation just and correct and his taste delicate and pure his abilities in every respect improve as much upon acquaintance as his manners and person at first sight his address is certainly not striking and his person can hardly be called handsome till the expression of his eyes which are uncommonly good and the general sweetness of his countenance is perceived at present i know him so well that i think him really handsome or at least almost so i shall very soon think him handsome elinor if i do not now when you tell me to love him as a brother i shall no more see imperfection in his face than i now do in his heart elinor started at this declaration and was sorry for the warmth she had been betrayed into in speaking of him she felt that edward stood very high in her opinion
thinks i queequeg this is using rogerss best cutlery with a vengeance afterwards i wondered the less at this operation when i came to know of what fine steel the head of a harpoon is made and how exceedingly sharp the long straight edges are always kept the rest of his toilet was soon achieved and he proudly marched out of the room wrapped up in his great pilot monkey jacket and sporting his harpoon like a marshals baton i quickly followed suit and descending into the barroom accosted the grinning landlord very pleasantly i cherished no malice towards him though he had been skylarking with me not a little in the matter of my bedfellow however a good laugh is a mighty good thing and rather too scarce a good thing the mores the pity so if any one man in his own proper person afford stuff for a good joke to anybody let him not be backward but let him cheerfully allow himself to spend and be spent in that way and the man that has anything bountifully laughable about him be sure there is more in that man than you perhaps think for the barroom was now full of the boarders who had been dropping in the night previous and whom i had not as yet had a good look at they were nearly all whalemen chief mates and second mates and third mates and sea carpenters and sea coopers and sea blacksmiths and harpooneers and ship keepers a brown and brawny company with bosky beards an unshorn shaggy set all wearing monkey jackets for morning gowns you could pretty plainly tell how long each one had been ashore this young fellows healthy cheek is like a suntoasted pear in hue and would seem to smell almost as musky he cannot have been three days landed from his indian voyage that man next him looks a few shades lighter you might say a touch of satin wood is in him in the complexion of a third still lingers a tropic tawn but slightly bleached withal he doubtless has tarried whole weeks ashore which barred with various tints seemed like the andes western slope to show forth in one array contrasting climates zone by zone now cried the landlord flinging open a door and in we went to breakfast they say that men who have seen the world thereby become quite at ease in manner quite selfpossessed in company not always though ledyard the great new england traveller and mungo park the scotch one of all men they possessed the least assurance in the parlor but perhaps the mere crossing of siberia in a sledge drawn by dogs as ledyard did or the taking a long solitary walk on an empty stomach in the negro heart of africa which was the sum of poor mungos performancesthis kind of travel i say may not be the very best mode of attaining a high social polish still for the most part that sort of thing is to be had anywhere
bennet thought it possible they might have gone to one of them on their first coming to london before they procured lodgings gardiner himself did not expect any success from this measure but as his brother was eager in it he meant to assist him in pursuing it bennet seemed wholly disinclined at present to leave london and promised to write again very soon there was also a postscript to this effect i have written to colonel forster to desire him to find out if possible from some of the young mans intimates in the regiment whether wickham has any relations or connections who would be likely to know in what part of town he has now concealed himself if there were anyone that one could apply to with a probability of gaining such a clue as that it might be of essential consequence colonel forster will i dare say do everything in his power to satisfy us on this head but on second thoughts perhaps lizzy could tell us what relations he has now living better than any other person elizabeth was at no loss to understand from whence this deference to her authority proceeded but it was not in her power to give any information of so satisfactory a nature as the compliment deserved she had never heard of his having had any relations except a father and mother both of whom had been dead many years it was possible however that some of his companions in the shire might be able to give more information and though she was not very sanguine in expecting it the application was a something to look forward to every day at longbourn was now a day of anxiety but the most anxious part of each was when the post was expected the arrival of letters was the grand object of every mornings impatience through letters whatever of good or bad was to be told would be communicated and every succeeding day was expected to bring some news of importance gardiner a letter arrived for their father from a different quarter from mr collins which as jane had received directions to open all that came for him in his absence she accordingly read and elizabeth who knew what curiosities his letters always were looked over her and read it likewise it was as follows my dear sir   i feel myself called upon by our relationship and my situation in life to condole with you on the grievous affliction you are now suffering under of which we were yesterday informed by a letter from hertfordshire collins and myself sincerely sympathise with you and all your respectable family in your present distress which must be of the bitterest kind because proceeding from a cause which no time can remove no arguments shall be wanting on my part that can alleviate so severe a misfortuneor that may comfort you under a circumstance that must be of all others the most afflicting to a parents mind the death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this and it is the more to be lamented because there is reason to suppose as my dear charlotte informs me that this licentiousness of behaviour in your daughter has proceeded from a faulty degree of indulgence though at the same time for the consolation of yourself and mrs
the sky had changed from clear sunny cold to driving sleet and mist wrapping myself in my shaggy jacket of the cloth called bearskin i fought my way against the stubborn storm entering i found a small scattered congregation of sailors and sailors wives and widows a muffled silence reigned only broken at times by the shrieks of the storm each silent worshipper seemed purposely sitting apart from the other as if each silent grief were insular and incommunicable the chaplain had not yet arrived and there these silent islands of men and women sat steadfastly eyeing several marble tablets with black borders masoned into the wall on either side the pulpit three of them ran something like the following but i do not pretend to quote sacred to the memory of john talbot who at the age of eighteen was lost overboard near the isle of desolation off patagonia november st  sacred to the memory of robert long willis ellery nathan coleman walter canny seth macy and samuel gleig forming one of the boats crews of the ship eliza who were towed out of sight by a whale on the offshore ground in the pacific december st  this marble is here placed by their surviving shipmates sacred to the memory of the late captain ezekiel hardy who in the bows of his boat was killed by a sperm whale on the coast of japan august d  shaking off the sleet from my iceglazed hat and jacket i seated myself near the door and turning sideways was surprised to see queequeg near me affected by the solemnity of the scene there was a wondering gaze of incredulous curiosity in his countenance this savage was the only person present who seemed to notice my entrance because he was the only one who could not read and therefore was not reading those frigid inscriptions on the wall whether any of the relatives of the seamen whose names appeared there were now among the congregation i knew not but so many are the unrecorded accidents in the fishery and so plainly did several women present wear the countenance if not the trappings of some unceasing grief that i feel sure that here before me were assembled those in whose unhealing hearts the sight of those bleak tablets sympathetically caused the old wounds to bleed afresh ye whose dead lie buried beneath the green grass who standing among flowers can sayhere here lies my beloved ye know not the desolation that broods in bosoms like these what bitter blanks in those blackbordered marbles which cover no ashes what deadly voids and unbidden infidelities in the lines that seem to gnaw upon all faith and refuse resurrections to the beings who have placelessly perished without a grave as well might those tablets stand in the cave of elephanta as here in what census of living creatures the dead of mankind are included why it is that a universal proverb says of them that they tell no tales though containing more secrets than the goodwin sands how it is that to his name who yesterday departed for the other world we prefix so significant and infidel a word and yet do not thus entitle him if he but embarks for the remotest indies of this living earth why the life insurance companies pay deathforfeitures upon immortals in what eternal unstirring paralysis and deadly hopeless trance yet lies antique adam who died sixty round centuries ago how it is that we still refuse to be comforted for those who we nevertheless maintain are dwelling in unspeakable bliss why all the living so strive to hush all the dead wherefore but the rumor of a knocking in a tomb will terrify a whole city but faith like a jackal feeds among the tombs and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope
ferrars and towards us have behaved in the friendliest manner have you forgot marianne how many pleasant days we have owed to them no said marianne in a low voice nor how many painful moments elinor took no notice of this and directing her attention to their visitor endeavoured to support something like discourse with him by talking of their present residence its conveniences c extorting from him occasional questions and remarks his coldness and reserve mortified her severely she was vexed and half angry but resolving to regulate her behaviour to him by the past rather than the present she avoided every appearance of resentment or displeasure and treated him as she thought he ought to be treated from the family connection dashwood was surprised only for a moment at seeing him for his coming to barton was in her opinion of all things the most natural her joy and expression of regard long outlived her wonder he received the kindest welcome from her and shyness coldness reserve could not stand against such a reception they had begun to fail him before he entered the house and they were quite overcome by the captivating manners of mrs indeed a man could not very well be in love with either of her daughters without extending the passion to her and elinor had the satisfaction of seeing him soon become more like himself his affections seemed to reanimate towards them all and his interest in their welfare again became perceptible he was not in spirits however he praised their house admired its prospect was attentive and kind but still he was not in spirits dashwood attributing it to some want of liberality in his mother sat down to table indignant against all selfish parents said she when dinner was over and they had drawn round the fire are you still to be a great orator in spite of yourself i hope my mother is now convinced that i have no more talents than inclination for a public life for famous you must be to satisfy all your family and with no inclination for expense no affection for strangers no profession and no assurance you may find it a difficult matter i have no wish to be distinguished and have every reason to hope i never shall as moderate as those of the rest of the world i believe i wish as well as every body else to be perfectly happy but like every body else it must be in my own way
at the high end the skull forms a crater to bed that part of the mass while under the long floor of this craterin another cavity seldom exceeding ten inches in length and as many in depthreposes the mere handful of this monsters brain the brain is at least twenty feet from his apparent forehead in life it is hidden away behind its vast outworks like the innermost citadel within the amplified fortifications of quebec so like a choice casket is it secreted in him that i have known some whalemen who peremptorily deny that the sperm whale has any other brain than that palpable semblance of one formed by the cubicyards of his sperm magazine lying in strange folds courses and convolutions to their apprehensions it seems more in keeping with the idea of his general might to regard that mystic part of him as the seat of his intelligence it is plain then that phrenologically the head of this leviathan in the creatures living intact state is an entire delusion as for his true brain you can then see no indications of it nor feel any the whale like all things that are mighty wears a false brow to the common world if you unload his skull of its spermy heaps and then take a rear view of its rear end which is the high end you will be struck by its resemblance to the human skull beheld in the same situation and from the same point of view indeed place this reversed skull scaled down to the human magnitude among a plate of mens skulls and you would involuntarily confound it with them and remarking the depressions on one part of its summit in phrenological phrase you would saythis man had no selfesteem and no veneration and by those negations considered along with the affirmative fact of his prodigious bulk and power you can best form to yourself the truest though not the most exhilarating conception of what the most exalted potency is but if from the comparative dimensions of the whales proper brain you deem it incapable of being adequately charted then i have another idea for you if you attentively regard almost any quadrupeds spine you will be struck with the resemblance of its vertebrae to a strung necklace of dwarfed skulls all bearing rudimental resemblance to the skull proper it is a german conceit that the vertebrae are absolutely undeveloped skulls but the curious external resemblance i take it the germans were not the first men to perceive a foreign friend once pointed it out to me in the skeleton of a foe he had slain and with the vertebrae of which he was inlaying in a sort of bassorelievo the beaked prow of his canoe now i consider that the phrenologists have omitted an important thing in not pushing their investigations from the cerebellum through the spinal canal for i believe that much of a mans character will be found betokened in his backbone i would rather feel your spine than your skull whoever you are a thin joist of a spine never yet upheld a full and noble soul i rejoice in my spine as in the firm audacious staff of that flag which i fling half out to the world
lady catherine herself says that in point of true beauty miss de bourgh is far superior to the handsomest of her sex because there is that in her features which marks the young lady of distinguished birth she is unfortunately of a sickly constitution which has prevented her from making that progress in many accomplishments which she could not have otherwise failed of as i am informed by the lady who superintended her education and who still resides with them but she is perfectly amiable and often condescends to drive by my humble abode in her little phaeton and ponies i do not remember her name among the ladies at court her indifferent state of health unhappily prevents her being in town and by that means as i told lady catherine one day has deprived the british court of its brightest ornament her ladyship seemed pleased with the idea and you may imagine that i am happy on every occasion to offer those little delicate compliments which are always acceptable to ladies i have more than once observed to lady catherine that her charming daughter seemed born to be a duchess and that the most elevated rank instead of giving her consequence would be adorned by her these are the kind of little things which please her ladyship and it is a sort of attention which i conceive myself peculiarly bound to pay bennet and it is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy may i ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment or are the result of previous study they arise chiefly from what is passing at the time and though i sometimes amuse myself with suggesting and arranging such little elegant compliments as may be adapted to ordinary occasions i always wish to give them as unstudied an air as possible his cousin was as absurd as he had hoped and he listened to him with the keenest enjoyment maintaining at the same time the most resolute composure of countenance and except in an occasional glance at elizabeth requiring no partner in his pleasure bennet was glad to take his guest into the drawingroom again and when tea was over glad to invite him to read aloud to the ladies collins readily assented and a book was produced but on beholding it for everything announced it to be from a circulating library he started back and begging pardon protested that he never read novels other books were produced and after some deliberation he chose fordyces sermons lydia gaped as he opened the volume and before he had with very monotonous solemnity read three pages she interrupted him with do you know mamma that my uncle phillips talks of turning away richard and if he does colonel forster will hire him i shall walk to meryton tomorrow to hear more about it and to ask when mr lydia was bid by her two eldest sisters to hold her tongue but mr collins much offended laid aside his book and said i have often observed how little young ladies are interested by books of a serious stamp though written solely for their benefit it amazes me i confess for certainly there can be nothing so advantageous to them as instruction
they all waited in silence for the appearance of their visitor his footsteps were heard along the gravel path in a moment he was in the passage and in another he was before them his countenance as he entered the room was not too happy even for elinor his complexion was white with agitation and he looked as if fearful of his reception and conscious that he merited no kind one dashwood however conforming as she trusted to the wishes of that daughter by whom she then meant in the warmth of her heart to be guided in every thing met with a look of forced complacency gave him her hand and wished him joy he coloured and stammered out an unintelligible reply elinors lips had moved with her mothers and when the moment of action was over she wished that she had shaken hands with him too but it was then too late and with a countenance meaning to be open she sat down again and talked of the weather marianne had retreated as much as possible out of sight to conceal her distress and margaret understanding some part but not the whole of the case thought it incumbent on her to be dignified and therefore took a seat as far from him as she could and maintained a strict silence when elinor had ceased to rejoice in the dryness of the season a very awful pause took place dashwood who felt obliged to hope that he had left mrs elinor resolving to exert herself though fearing the sound of her own voice now said is mrs i meant said elinor taking up some work from the table to inquire for mrs she dared not look upbut her mother and marianne both turned their eyes on him he coloured seemed perplexed looked doubtingly and after some hesitation said perhaps you meanmy brotheryou mean mrs was repeated by marianne and her mother in an accent of the utmost amazementand though elinor could not speak even her eyes were fixed on him with the same impatient wonder he rose from his seat and walked to the window apparently from not knowing what to do took up a pair of scissors that lay there and while spoiling both them and their sheath by cutting the latter to pieces as he spoke said in a hurried voice perhaps you do not knowyou may not have heard that my brother is lately married toto the youngestto miss lucy steele his words were echoed with unspeakable astonishment by all but elinor who sat with her head leaning over her work in a state of such agitation as made her hardly know where she was yes said he they were married last week and are now at dawlish she almost ran out of the room and as soon as the door was closed burst into tears of joy which at first she thought would never cease
let me make a clean breast of it here and frankly admit that i kept but sorry guard with the problem of the universe revolving in me how could ibeing left completely to myself at such a thoughtengendering altitudehow could i but lightly hold my obligations to observe all whaleships standing orders keep your weather eye open and sing out every time and let me in this place movingly admonish you ye shipowners of nantucket beware of enlisting in your vigilant fisheries any lad with lean brow and hollow eye given to unseasonable meditativeness and who offers to ship with the phaedon instead of bowditch in his head beware of such an one i say your whales must be seen before they can be killed and this sunkeneyed young platonist will tow you ten wakes round the world and never make you one pint of sperm the richer for nowadays the whalefishery furnishes an asylum for many romantic melancholy and absentminded young men disgusted with the carking cares of earth and seeking sentiment in tar and blubber childe harold not unfrequently perches himself upon the masthead of some luckless disappointed whaleship and in moody phrase ejaculates roll on thou deep and dark blue ocean roll ten thousand blubberhunters sweep over thee in vain very often do the captains of such ships take those absentminded young philosophers to task upbraiding them with not feeling sufficient interest in the voyage halfhinting that they are so hopelessly lost to all honourable ambition as that in their secret souls they would rather not see whales than otherwise but all in vain those young platonists have a notion that their vision is imperfect they are shortsighted what use then to strain the visual nerve why thou monkey said a harpooneer to one of these lads weve been cruising now hard upon three years and thou hast not raised a whale yet whales are scarce as hens teeth whenever thou art up here perhaps they were or perhaps there might have been shoals of them in the far horizon but lulled into such an opiumlike listlessness of vacant unconscious reverie is this absentminded youth by the blending cadence of waves with thoughts that at last he loses his identity takes the mystic ocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep blue bottomless soul pervading mankind and nature and every strange halfseen gliding beautiful thing that eludes him every dimlydiscovered uprising fin of some undiscernible form seems to him the embodiment of those elusive thoughts that only people the soul by continually flitting through it in this enchanted mood thy spirit ebbs away to whence it came becomes diffused through time and space like crammersthomas cranmer sprinkled pantheistic ashes forming at last a part of every shore the round globe over there is no life in thee now except that rocking life imparted by a gently rolling ship by her borrowed from the sea by the sea from the inscrutable tides of god but while this sleep this dream is on ye move your foot or hand an inch slip your hold at all and your identity comes back in horror and perhaps at midday in the fairest weather with one halfthrottled shriek you drop through that transparent air into the summer sea no more to rise for ever enter ahab then all it was not a great while after the affair of the pipe that one morning shortly after breakfast ahab as was his wont ascended the cabingangway to the deck there most seacaptains usually walk at that hour as country gentlemen after the same meal take a few turns in the garden soon his steady ivory stride was heard as to and fro he paced his old rounds upon planks so familiar to his tread that they were all over dented like geological stones with the peculiar mark of his walk
she was even sensible of some pleasure though mixed with regret on finding how steadfastly both she and her uncle had been persuaded that affection and confidence subsisted between mr she was roused from her seat and her reflections by some ones approach and before she could strike into another path she was overtaken by wickham i am afraid i interrupt your solitary ramble my dear sister you certainly do she replied with a smile but it does not follow that the interruption must be unwelcome bennet and lydia are going in the carriage to meryton and so my dear sister i find from our uncle and aunt that you have actually seen pemberley i almost envy you the pleasure and yet i believe it would be too much for me or else i could take it in my way to newcastle that you were gone into the army and she was afraid hadnot turned out well at such a distance as that you know things are strangely misrepresented elizabeth hoped she had silenced him but he soon afterwards said i was surprised to see darcy in town last month perhaps preparing for his marriage with miss de bourgh said elizabeth it must be something particular to take him there at this time of year i thought i understood from the gardiners that you had i have heard indeed that she is uncommonly improved within this year or two i dare say she will she has got over the most trying age i mention it because it is the living which i ought to have had i should have considered it as part of my duty and the exertion would soon have been nothing one ought not to repinebut to be sure it would have been such a thing for me the quiet the retirement of such a life would have answered all my ideas of happiness did you ever hear darcy mention the circumstance when you were in kent
but it has been the study of my life to avoid those weaknesses which often expose a strong understanding to ridicule but pridewhere there is a real superiority of mind pride will be always under good regulation darcy is over i presume said miss bingley and pray what is the result i have faults enough but they are not i hope of understanding it is i believe too little yieldingcertainly too little for the convenience of the world i cannot forget the follies and vices of others so soon as i ought nor their offenses against myself my feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to move them there is i believe in every disposition a tendency to some particular evila natural defect which not even the best education can overcome and yours he replied with a smile is willfully to misunderstand them do let us have a little music cried miss bingley tired of a conversation in which she had no share her sister had not the smallest objection and the pianoforte was opened and darcy after a few moments recollection was not sorry for it he began to feel the danger of paying elizabeth too much attention chapter  in consequence of an agreement between the sisters elizabeth wrote the next morning to their mother to beg that the carriage might be sent for them in the course of the day bennet who had calculated on her daughters remaining at netherfield till the following tuesday which would exactly finish janes week could not bring herself to receive them with pleasure before her answer therefore was not propitious at least not to elizabeths wishes for she was impatient to get home bennet sent them word that they could not possibly have the carriage before tuesday and in her postscript it was added that if mr bingley and his sister pressed them to stay longer she could spare them very well against staying longer however elizabeth was positively resolvednor did she much expect it would be asked and fearful on the contrary as being considered as intruding themselves needlessly long she urged jane to borrow mr bingleys carriage immediately and at length it was settled that their original design of leaving netherfield that morning should be mentioned and the request made the communication excited many professions of concern and enough was said of wishing them to stay at least till the following day to work on jane and till the morrow their going was deferred
collins and as they walked down the garden he was commissioning her with his best respects to all her family not forgetting his thanks for the kindness he had received at longbourn in the winter and his compliments to mr he then handed her in maria followed and the door was on the point of being closed when he suddenly reminded them with some consternation that they had hitherto forgotten to leave any message for the ladies at rosings but he added you will of course wish to have your humble respects delivered to them with your grateful thanks for their kindness to you while you have been here elizabeth made no objection the door was then allowed to be shut and the carriage drove off cried maria after a few minutes silence it seems but a day or two since we first came we have dined nine times at rosings besides drinking tea there twice elizabeth added privately and how much i shall have to conceal their journey was performed without much conversation or any alarm and within four hours of their leaving hunsford they reached mr gardiners house where they were to remain a few days jane looked well and elizabeth had little opportunity of studying her spirits amidst the various engagements which the kindness of her aunt had reserved for them but jane was to go home with her and at longbourn there would be leisure enough for observation it was not without an effort meanwhile that she could wait even for longbourn before she told her sister of mr to know that she had the power of revealing what would so exceedingly astonish jane and must at the same time so highly gratify whatever of her own vanity she had not yet been able to reason away was such a temptation to openness as nothing could have conquered but the state of indecision in which she remained as to the extent of what she should communicate and her fear if she once entered on the subject of being hurried into repeating something of bingley which might only grieve her sister further chapter  it was the second week in may in which the three young ladies set out together from gracechurch street for the town of  in hertfordshire and as they drew near the appointed inn where mr bennets carriage was to meet them they quickly perceived in token of the coachmans punctuality both kitty and lydia looking out of a diningroom up stairs these two girls had been above an hour in the place happily employed in visiting an opposite milliner watching the sentinel on guard and dressing a salad and cucumber after welcoming their sisters they triumphantly displayed a table set out with such cold meat as an inn larder usually affords exclaiming is not this nice and we mean to treat you all added lydia but you must lend us the money for we have just spent ours at the shop out there then showing her purchaseslook here i have bought this bonnet i do not think it is very pretty but i thought i might as well buy it as not
he would scarcely be ten pounds a year the loser by the hundred that was to be paid them for what with her board and pocket allowance and the continual presents in money which passed to her through her mothers hands lydias expenses had been very little within that sum that it would be done with such trifling exertion on his side too was another very welcome surprise for his wish at present was to have as little trouble in the business as possible when the first transports of rage which had produced his activity in seeking her were over he naturally returned to all his former indolence his letter was soon dispatched for though dilatory in undertaking business he was quick in its execution he begged to know further particulars of what he was indebted to his brother but was too angry with lydia to send any message to her the good news spread quickly through the house and with proportionate speed through the neighbourhood to be sure it would have been more for the advantage of conversation had miss lydia bennet come upon the town or as the happiest alternative been secluded from the world in some distant farmhouse but there was much to be talked of in marrying her and the goodnatured wishes for her welldoing which had proceeded before from all the spiteful old ladies in meryton lost but a little of their spirit in this change of circumstances because with such an husband her misery was considered certain bennet had been downstairs but on this happy day she again took her seat at the head of her table and in spirits oppressively high the marriage of a daughter which had been the first object of her wishes since jane was sixteen was now on the point of accomplishment and her thoughts and her words ran wholly on those attendants of elegant nuptials fine muslins new carriages and servants she was busily searching through the neighbourhood for a proper situation for her daughter and without knowing or considering what their income might be rejected many as deficient in size and importance haye park might do said she if the gouldings could quit itor the great house at stoke if the drawingroom were larger but ashworth is too far off i could not bear to have her ten miles from me and as for pulvis lodge the attics are dreadful her husband allowed her to talk on without interruption while the servants remained bennet before you take any or all of these houses for your son and daughter let us come to a right understanding into one house in this neighbourhood they shall never have admittance i will not encourage the impudence of either by receiving them at longbourn bennet found with amazement and horror that her husband would not advance a guinea to buy clothes for his daughter he protested that she should receive from him no mark of affection whatever on the occasion that his anger could be carried to such a point of inconceivable resentment as to refuse his daughter a privilege without which her marriage would scarcely seem valid exceeded all she could believe possible
in a few minutes the scuttle was opened and bound hand and foot the still struggling ringleader was shoved up into the air by his perfidious allies who at once claimed the honour of securing a man who had been fully ripe for murder but all these were collared and dragged along the deck like dead cattle and side by side were seized up into the mizzen rigging like three quarters of meat and there they hung till morning damn ye cried the captain pacing to and fro before them the vultures would not touch ye ye villains    at sunrise he summoned all hands and separating those who had rebelled from those who had taken no part in the mutiny he told the former that he had a good mind to flog them all roundthought upon the whole he would do sohe ought tojustice demanded it but for the present considering their timely surrender he would let them go with a reprimand which he accordingly administered in the vernacular but as for you ye carrion rogues turning to the three men in the riggingfor you i mean to mince ye up for the trypots and seizing a rope he applied it with all his might to the backs of the two traitors till they yelled no more but lifelessly hung their heads sideways as the two crucified thieves are drawn he cried at last but there is still rope enough left for you my fine bantam that wouldn t give up take that gag from his mouth and let us hear what he can say for himself  for a moment the exhausted mutineer made a tremulous motion of his cramped jaws and then painfully twisting round his head said in a sort of hiss what i say is thisand mind it wellif you flog me i murder you then see how ye frighten me and the captain drew off with the rope to strike but i must and the rope was once more drawn back for the stroke steelkilt here hissed out something inaudible to all but the captain who to the amazement of all hands started back paced the deck rapidly two or three times and then suddenly throwing down his rope said i wont do itlet him gocut him down dye hear    but as the junior mates were hurrying to execute the order a pale man with a bandaged head arrested themradney the chief mate ever since the blow he had lain in his berth but that morning hearing the tumult on the deck he had crept out and thus far had watched the whole scene such was the state of his mouth that he could hardly speak but mumbling something about his being willing and able to do what the captain dared not attempt he snatched the rope and advanced to his pinioned foe the mate was in the very act of striking when another hiss stayed his uplifted arm he paused and then pausing no more made good his word spite of steelkilts threat whatever that might have been the three men were then cut down all hands were turned to and sullenly worked by the moody seamen the iron pumps clanged as before just after dark that day when one watch had retired below a clamor was heard in the forecastle and the two trembling traitors running up besieged the cabin door saying they durst not consort with the crew entreaties cuffs and kicks could not drive them back so at their own instance they were put down in the ships run for salvation on the contrary it seemed that mainly at steelkilts instigation they had resolved to maintain the strictest peacefulness obey all orders to the last and when the ship reached port desert her in a body
she had only two daughters both of whom she had lived to see respectably married and she had now therefore nothing to do but to marry all the rest of the world in the promotion of this object she was zealously active as far as her ability reached and missed no opportunity of projecting weddings among all the young people of her acquaintance she was remarkably quick in the discovery of attachments and had enjoyed the advantage of raising the blushes and the vanity of many a young lady by insinuations of her power over such a young man and this kind of discernment enabled her soon after her arrival at barton decisively to pronounce that colonel brandon was very much in love with marianne dashwood she rather suspected it to be so on the very first evening of their being together from his listening so attentively while she sang to them and when the visit was returned by the middletons dining at the cottage the fact was ascertained by his listening to her again it would be an excellent match for he was rich and she was handsome jennings had been anxious to see colonel brandon well married ever since her connection with sir john first brought him to her knowledge and she was always anxious to get a good husband for every pretty girl the immediate advantage to herself was by no means inconsiderable for it supplied her with endless jokes against them both at the park she laughed at the colonel and in the cottage at marianne to the former her raillery was probably as far as it regarded only himself perfectly indifferent but to the latter it was at first incomprehensible and when its object was understood she hardly knew whether most to laugh at its absurdity or censure its impertinence for she considered it as an unfeeling reflection on the colonels advanced years and on his forlorn condition as an old bachelor dashwood who could not think a man five years younger than herself so exceedingly ancient as he appeared to the youthful fancy of her daughter ventured to clear mrs jennings from the probability of wishing to throw ridicule on his age but at least mama you cannot deny the absurdity of the accusation though you may not think it intentionally illnatured jennings but he is old enough to be my father and if he were ever animated enough to be in love must have long outlived every sensation of the kind when is a man to be safe from such wit if age and infirmity will not protect him i can easily suppose that his age may appear much greater to you than to my mother but you can hardly deceive yourself as to his having the use of his limbs and is not that the commonest infirmity of declining life my dearest child said her mother laughing at this rate you must be in continual terror of my decay and it must seem to you a miracle that my life has been extended to the advanced age of forty i know very well that colonel brandon is not old enough to make his friends yet apprehensive of losing him in the course of nature perhaps said elinor thirtyfive and seventeen had better not have any thing to do with matrimony together but if there should by any chance happen to be a woman who is single at seven and twenty i should not think colonel brandons being thirtyfive any objection to his marrying her
darcy found on further inquiry that your father was still with him but would quit town the next morning he did not judge your father to be a person whom he could so properly consult as your uncle and therefore readily postponed seeing him till after the departure of the former he did not leave his name and till the next day it was only known that a gentleman had called on business your father was gone your uncle at home and as i said before they had a great deal of talk together it was not all settled before monday as soon as it was the express was sent off to longbourn i fancy lizzy that obstinacy is the real defect of his character after all he has been accused of many faults at different times but this is the true one nothing was to be done that he did not do himself though i am sure and i do not speak it to be thanked therefore say nothing about it your uncle would most readily have settled the whole they battled it together for a long time which was more than either the gentleman or lady concerned in it deserved but at last your uncle was forced to yield and instead of being allowed to be of use to his niece was forced to put up with only having the probable credit of it which went sorely against the grain and i really believe your letter this morning gave him great pleasure because it required an explanation that would rob him of his borrowed feathers and give the praise where it was due but lizzy this must go no farther than yourself or jane at most you know pretty well i suppose what has been done for the young people his debts are to be paid amounting i believe to considerably more than a thousand pounds another thousand in addition to her own settled upon her and his commission purchased the reason why all this was to be done by him alone was such as i have given above it was owing to him to his reserve and want of proper consideration that wickhams character had been so misunderstood and consequently that he had been received and noticed as he was perhaps there was some truth in this though i doubt whether his reserve or anybodys reserve can be answerable for the event but in spite of all this fine talking my dear lizzy you may rest perfectly assured that your uncle would never have yielded if we had not given him credit for another interest in the affair when all this was resolved on he returned again to his friends who were still staying at pemberley but it was agreed that he should be in london once more when the wedding took place and all money matters were then to receive the last finish it is a relation which you tell me is to give you great surprise i hope at least it will not afford you any displeasure lydia came to us and wickham had constant admission to the house
bennet luckily stood in such awe of her intended soninlaw that she ventured not to speak to him unless it was in her power to offer him any attention or mark her deference for his opinion elizabeth had the satisfaction of seeing her father taking pains to get acquainted with him and mr bennet soon assured her that he was rising every hour in his esteem wickham perhaps is my favourite but i think i shall like your husband quite as well as janes chapter  elizabeths spirits soon rising to playfulness again she wanted mr darcy to account for his having ever fallen in love with her i can comprehend your going on charmingly when you had once made a beginning but what could set you off in the first place i cannot fix on the hour or the spot or the look or the words which laid the foundation my beauty you had early withstood and as for my mannersmy behaviour to you was at least always bordering on the uncivil and i never spoke to you without rather wishing to give you pain than not now be sincere did you admire me for my impertinence the fact is that you were sick of civility of deference of officious attention you were disgusted with the women who were always speaking and looking and thinking for your approbation alone i roused and interested you because i was so unlike them had you not been really amiable you would have hated me for it but in spite of the pains you took to disguise yourself your feelings were always noble and just and in your heart you thoroughly despised the persons who so assiduously courted you therei have saved you the trouble of accounting for it and really all things considered i begin to think it perfectly reasonable to be sure you knew no actual good of mebut nobody thinks of that when they fall in love was there no good in your affectionate behaviour to jane while she was ill at netherfield my good qualities are under your protection and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible and in return it belongs to me to find occasions for teasing and quarrelling with you as often as may be and i shall begin directly by asking you what made you so unwilling to come to the point at last what made you so shy of me when you first called and afterwards dined here why especially when you called did you look as if you did not care about me
yet though smiling within herself at the mistake she honoured her sister for that blind partiality to edward which produced it i hope marianne continued elinor you do not consider him as deficient in general taste indeed i think i may say that you cannot for your behaviour to him is perfectly cordial and if that were your opinion i am sure you could never be civil to him she would not wound the feelings of her sister on any account and yet to say what she did not believe was impossible at length she replied do not be offended elinor if my praise of him is not in every thing equal to your sense of his merits i have not had so many opportunities of estimating the minuter propensities of his mind his inclinations and tastes as you have but i have the highest opinion in the world of his goodness and sense i am sure replied elinor with a smile that his dearest friends could not be dissatisfied with such commendation as that i do not perceive how you could express yourself more warmly marianne was rejoiced to find her sister so easily pleased of his sense and his goodness continued elinor no one can i think be in doubt who has seen him often enough to engage him in unreserved conversation the excellence of his understanding and his principles can be concealed only by that shyness which too often keeps him silent you know enough of him to do justice to his solid worth but of his minuter propensities as you call them you have from peculiar circumstances been kept more ignorant than myself he and i have been at times thrown a good deal together while you have been wholly engrossed on the most affectionate principle by my mother i have seen a great deal of him have studied his sentiments and heard his opinion on subjects of literature and taste and upon the whole i venture to pronounce that his mind is wellinformed enjoyment of books exceedingly great his imagination lively his observation just and correct and his taste delicate and pure his abilities in every respect improve as much upon acquaintance as his manners and person at first sight his address is certainly not striking and his person can hardly be called handsome till the expression of his eyes which are uncommonly good and the general sweetness of his countenance is perceived at present i know him so well that i think him really handsome or at least almost so i shall very soon think him handsome elinor if i do not now when you tell me to love him as a brother i shall no more see imperfection in his face than i now do in his heart
then in darting at the monster knife in hand he had but given loose to a sudden passionate corporal animosity and when he received the stroke that tore him he probably but felt the agonizing bodily laceration but nothing more yet when by this collision forced to turn towards home and for long months of days and weeks ahab and anguish lay stretched together in one hammock rounding in mid winter that dreary howling patagonian cape then it was that his torn body and gashed soul bled into one another and so interfusing made him mad that it was only then on the homeward voyage after the encounter that the final monomania seized him seems all but certain from the fact that at intervals during the passage he was a raving lunatic and though unlimbed of a leg yet such vital strength yet lurked in his egyptian chest and was moreover intensified by his delirium that his mates were forced to lace him fast even there as he sailed raving in his hammock in a straitjacket he swung to the mad rockings of the gales and when running into more sufferable latitudes the ship with mild stunsails spread floated across the tranquil tropics and to all appearances the old mans delirium seemed left behind him with the cape horn swells and he came forth from his dark den into the blessed light and air even then when he bore that firm collected front however pale and issued his calm orders once again and his mates thanked god the direful madness was now gone even then ahab in his hidden self raved on human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing when you think it fled it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form ahabs full lunacy subsided not but deepeningly contracted like the unabated hudson when that noble northman flows narrowly but unfathomably through the highland gorge but as in his narrowflowing monomania not one jot of ahabs broad madness had been left behind so in that broad madness not one jot of his great natural intellect had perished that before living agent now became the living instrument if such a furious trope may stand his special lunacy stormed his general sanity and carried it and turned all its concentred cannon upon its own mad mark so that far from having lost his strength ahab to that one end did now possess a thousand fold more potency than ever he had sanely brought to bear upon any one reasonable object this is much yet ahabs larger darker deeper part remains unhinted but vain to popularize profundities and all truth is profound winding far down from within the very heart of this spiked hotel de cluny where we here standhowever grand and wonderful now quit itand take your way ye nobler sadder souls to those vast roman halls of thermes where far beneath the fantastic towers of mans upper earth his root of grandeur his whole awful essence sits in bearded state an antique buried beneath antiquities and throned on torsoes so with a broken throne the great gods mock that captive king so like a caryatid he patient sits upholding on his frozen brow the piled entablatures of ages aye he did beget ye ye young exiled royalties and from your grim sire only will the old statesecret come now in his heart ahab had some glimpse of this namely all my means are sane my motive and my object mad yet without power to kill or change or shun the fact he likewise knew that to mankind he did long dissemble in some sort did still but that thing of his dissembling was only subject to his perceptibility not to his will determinate nevertheless so well did he succeed in that dissembling that when with ivory leg he stepped ashore at last no nantucketer thought him otherwise than but naturally grieved and that to the quick with the terrible casualty which had overtaken him
upon this i told him that whaling was my own design and informed him of my intention to sail out of nantucket as being the most promising port for an adventurous whaleman to embark from he at once resolved to accompany me to that island ship aboard the same vessel get into the same watch the same boat the same mess with me in short to share my every hap with both my hands in his boldly dip into the potluck of both worlds to all this i joyously assented for besides the affection i now felt for queequeg he was an experienced harpooneer and as such could not fail to be of great usefulness to one who like me was wholly ignorant of the mysteries of whaling though well acquainted with the sea as known to merchant seamen his story being ended with his pipes last dying puff queequeg embraced me pressed his forehead against mine and blowing out the light we rolled over from each other this way and that and very soon were sleeping next morning monday after disposing of the embalmed head to a barber for a block i settled my own and comrades bill using however my comrades money the grinning landlord as well as the boarders seemed amazingly tickled at the sudden friendship which had sprung up between me and queequegespecially as peter coffins cock and bull stories about him had previously so much alarmed me concerning the very person whom i now companied with we borrowed a wheelbarrow and embarking our things including my own poor carpetbag and queequegs canvas sack and hammock away we went down to the moss the little nantucket packet schooner moored at the wharf as we were going along the people stared not at queequeg so muchfor they were used to seeing cannibals like him in their streetsbut at seeing him and me upon such confidential terms but we heeded them not going along wheeling the barrow by turns and queequeg now and then stopping to adjust the sheath on his harpoon barbs i asked him why he carried such a troublesome thing with him ashore and whether all whaling ships did not find their own harpoons to this in substance he replied that though what i hinted was true enough yet he had a particular affection for his own harpoon because it was of assured stuff well tried in many a mortal combat and deeply intimate with the hearts of whales in short like many inland reapers and mowers who go into the farmers meadows armed with their own scythesthough in no wise obliged to furnish themeven so queequeg for his own private reasons preferred his own harpoon shifting the barrow from my hand to his he told me a funny story about the first wheelbarrow he had ever seen the owners of his ship it seems had lent him one in which to carry his heavy chest to his boarding house not to seem ignorant about the thingthough in truth he was entirely so concerning the precise way in which to manage the barrowqueequeg puts his chest upon it lashes it fast and then shoulders the barrow and marches up the wharf why said i queequeg you might have known better than that one would think the people of his island of rokovoko it seems at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl and this punchbowl always forms the great central ornament on the braided mat where the feast is held now a certain grand merchant ship once touched at rokovoko and its commanderfrom all accounts a very stately punctilious gentleman at least for a sea captainthis commander was invited to the wedding feast of queequegs sister a pretty young princess just turned of ten well when all the wedding guests were assembled at the brides bamboo cottage this captain marches in and being assigned the post of honour placed himself over against the punchbowl and between the high priest and his majesty the king queequegs father grace being saidfor those people have their grace as well as wethough queequeg told me that unlike us who at such times look downwards to our platters they on the contrary copying the ducks glance upwards to the great giver of all feastsgrace i say being said the high priest opens the banquet by the immemorial ceremony of the island that is dipping his consecrated and consecrating fingers into the bowl before the blessed beverage circulates
if a stranger were introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitan society it would but slightly advance the general opinion of his merits were he presented to the company as a harpooneer say and if in emulation of the naval officers he should append the initials s sperm whale fishery to his visiting card such a procedure would be deemed preeminently presuming and ridiculous doubtless one leading reason why the world declines honouring us whalemen is this they think that at best our vocation amounts to a butchering sort of business and that when actively engaged therein we are surrounded by all manner of defilements but butchers also and butchers of the bloodiest badge have been all martial commanders whom the world invariably delights to honour and as for the matter of the alleged uncleanliness of our business ye shall soon be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally unknown and which upon the whole will triumphantly plant the sperm whaleship at least among the cleanliest things of this tidy earth but even granting the charge in question to be true what disordered slippery decks of a whaleship are comparable to the unspeakable carrion of those battlefields from which so many soldiers return to drink in all ladies plaudits and if the idea of peril so much enhances the popular conceit of the soldiers profession let me assure ye that many a veteran who has freely marched up to a battery would quickly recoil at the apparition of the sperm whales vast tail fanning into eddies the air over his head for what are the comprehensible terrors of man compared with the interlinked terrors and wonders of god but though the world scouts at us whale hunters yet does it unwittingly pay us the profoundest homage yea an allabounding adoration for almost all the tapers lamps and candles that burn round the globe burn as before so many shrines to our glory but look at this matter in other lights weigh it in all sorts of scales see what we whalemen are and have been why did the dutch in de witts time have admirals of their whaling fleets of france at his own personal expense fit out whaling ships from dunkirk and politely invite to that town some score or two of families from our own island of nantucket why did britain between the years  and  pay to her whalemen in bounties upwards of l and lastly how comes it that we whalemen of america now outnumber all the rest of the banded whalemen in the world sail a navy of upwards of seven hundred vessels manned by eighteen thousand men yearly consuming  of dollars the ships worth at the time of sailing  and every year importing into our harbors a well reaped harvest of  how comes all this if there be not something puissant in whaling i freely assert that the cosmopolite philosopher cannot for his life point out one single peaceful influence which within the last sixty years has operated more potentially upon the whole broad world taken in one aggregate than the high and mighty business of whaling one way and another it has begotten events so remarkable in themselves and so continuously momentous in their sequential issues that whaling may well be regarded as that egyptian mother who bore offspring themselves pregnant from her womb it would be a hopeless endless task to catalogue all these things
he peckshe tears the vane pointing to the red flag flying at the maintruckha  the boats had not gone very far when by a signal from the mastheadsa downward pointed arm ahab knew that the whale had sounded but intending to be near him at the next rising he held on his way a little sideways from the vessel the becharmed crew maintaining the profoundest silence as the headbeat waves hammered and hammered against the opposing bow ye but strike a thing without a lid and no coffin and no hearse can be mineand hemp only can kill me suddenly the waters around them slowly swelled in broad circles then quickly upheaved as if sideways sliding from a submerged berg of ice swiftly rising to the surface a low rumbling sound was heard a subterraneous hum and then all held their breaths as bedraggled with trailing ropes and harpoons and lances a vast form shot lengthwise but obliquely from the sea shrouded in a thin drooping veil of mist it hovered for a moment in the rainbowed air and then fell swamping back into the deep crushed thirty feet upwards the waters flashed for an instant like heaps of fountains then brokenly sank in a shower of flakes leaving the circling surface creamed like new milk round the marble trunk of the whale cried ahab to the oarsmen and the boats darted forward to the attack but maddened by yesterdays fresh irons that corroded in him moby dick seemed combinedly possessed by all the angels that fell from heaven the wide tiers of welded tendons overspreading his broad white forehead beneath the transparent skin looked knitted together as head on he came churning his tail among the boats and once more flailed them apart spilling out the irons and lances from the two mates boats and dashing in one side of the upper part of their bows but leaving ahabs almost without a scar while daggoo and queequeg were stopping the strained planks and as the whale swimming out from them turned and showed one entire flank as he shot by them again at that moment a quick cry went up lashed round and round to the fishs back pinioned in the turns upon turns in which during the past night the whale had reeled the involutions of the lines around him the half torn body of the parsee was seen his sable raiment frayed to shreds his distended eyes turned full upon old ahab aye and thou goest before and this this then is the hearse that thou didst promise those boats are useless now repair them if ye can in time and return to me if not ahab is enough to diedown men the first thing that but offers to jump from this boat i stand in that thing i harpoon ye are not other men but my arms and my legs and so obey me  but he looked too nigh the boat for as if bent upon escaping with the corpse he bore and as if the particular place of the last encounter had been but a stage in his leeward voyage moby dick was now again steadily swimming forward and had almost passed the shipwhich thus far had been sailing in the contrary direction to him though for the present her headway had been stopped he seemed swimming with his utmost velocity and now only intent upon pursuing his own straight path in the sea ahab cried starbuck not too late is it even now the third day to desist setting sail to the rising wind the lonely boat was swiftly impelled to leeward by both oars and canvas and at last when ahab was sliding by the vessel so near as plainly to distinguish starbucks face as he leaned over the rail he hailed him to turn the vessel about and follow him not too swiftly at a judicious interval
it is with great      regret that i obey your commands in returning the      letters with which i have been honoured from you      and the lock of hair which you so obligingly bestowed      on me i am dear madam your most obedient                      humble servant john willoughby with what indignation such a letter as this must be read by miss dashwood may be imagined though aware before she began it that it must bring a confession of his inconstancy and confirm their separation for ever she was not aware that such language could be suffered to announce it nor could she have supposed willoughby capable of departing so far from the appearance of every honourable and delicate feelingso far from the common decorum of a gentleman as to send a letter so impudently cruel a letter which instead of bringing with his desire of a release any professions of regret acknowledged no breach of faith denied all peculiar affection whatevera letter of which every line was an insult and which proclaimed its writer to be deep in hardened villainy she paused over it for some time with indignant astonishment then read it again and again but every perusal only served to increase her abhorrence of the man and so bitter were her feelings against him that she dared not trust herself to speak lest she might wound marianne still deeper by treating their disengagement not as a loss to her of any possible good but as an escape from the worst and most irremediable of all evils a connection for life with an unprincipled man as a deliverance the most real a blessing the most important in her earnest meditations on the contents of the letter on the depravity of that mind which could dictate it and probably on the very different mind of a very different person who had no other connection whatever with the affair than what her heart gave him with every thing that passed elinor forgot the immediate distress of her sister forgot that she had three letters on her lap yet unread and so entirely forgot how long she had been in the room that when on hearing a carriage drive up to the door she went to the window to see who could be coming so unreasonably early she was all astonishment to perceive mrs jenningss chariot which she knew had not been ordered till one determined not to quit marianne though hopeless of contributing at present to her ease she hurried away to excuse herself from attending mrs jennings with a thoroughly goodhumoured concern for its cause admitted the excuse most readily and elinor after seeing her safe off returned to marianne whom she found attempting to rise from the bed and whom she reached just in time to prevent her from falling on the floor faint and giddy from a long want of proper rest and food for it was many days since she had any appetite and many nights since she had really slept and now when her mind was no longer supported by the fever of suspense the consequence of all this was felt in an aching head a weakened stomach and a general nervous faintness a glass of wine which elinor procured for her directly made her more comfortable and she was at last able to express some sense of her kindness by saying poor elinor i only wish replied her sister there were any thing i could do which might be of comfort to you this as every thing else would have been was too much for marianne who could only exclaim in the anguish of her heart oh elinor i am miserable indeed before her voice was entirely lost in sobs elinor could no longer witness this torrent of unresisted grief in silence exert yourself dear marianne she cried if you would not kill yourself and all who love you think of your mother think of her misery while you suffer for her sake you must exert yourself i cannot i cannot cried marianne leave me leave me if i distress you leave me hate me forget me how easy for those who have no sorrow of their own to talk of exertion happy happy elinor you cannot have an idea of what i suffer and can you believe me to be so while i see you so wretched
in that point however i undervalued my own magnanimity as the event declared for i went i saw her and saw her miserable and left her miserableand left her hoping never to see her again said elinor reproachfully a note would have answered every purpose i could not bear to leave the country in a manner that might lead you or the rest of the neighbourhood to suspect any part of what had really passed between mrs smith and myselfand i resolved therefore on calling at the cottage in my way to honiton the sight of your dear sister however was really dreadful and to heighten the matter i found her alone i had left her only the evening before so fully so firmly resolved within my self on doing right a few hours were to have engaged her to me for ever and i remember how happy how gay were my spirits as i walked from the cottage to allenham satisfied with myself delighted with every body but in this our last interview of friendship i approached her with a sense of guilt that almost took from me the power of dissembling her sorrow her disappointment her deep regret when i told her that i was obliged to leave devonshire so immediatelyi never shall forget itunited too with such reliance such confidence in me i do not know what i told her he replied impatiently less than was due to the past beyond a doubt and in all likelihood much more than was justified by the future then came your dear mother to torture me farther with all her kindness and confidence miss dashwood you cannot have an idea of the comfort it gives me to look back on my own misery i owe such a grudge to myself for the stupid rascally folly of my own heart that all my past sufferings under it are only triumph and exultation to me now well i went left all that i loved and went to those to whom at best i was only indifferent my journey to towntravelling with my own horses and therefore so tediouslyno creature to speak tomy own reflections so cheerfulwhen i looked forward every thing so inviting when i looked back at barton the picture so soothing well sir said elinor who though pitying him grew impatient for his departure and this is all when the first of hers reached me as it immediately did for i was in town the whole time what i felt isin the common phrase not to be expressed in a more simple oneperhaps too simple to raise any emotionmy feelings were very very painful every line every word wasin the hackneyed metaphor which their dear writer were she here would forbida dagger to my heart to know that marianne was in town wasin the same languagea thunderbolt
this man interested me at once and since the seagods had ordained that he should soon become my shipmate though but a sleepingpartner one so far as this narrative is concerned i will here venture upon a little description of him he stood full six feet in height with noble shoulders and a chest like a cofferdam his face was deeply brown and burnt making his white teeth dazzling by the contrast while in the deep shadows of his eyes floated some reminiscences that did not seem to give him much joy his voice at once announced that he was a southerner and from his fine stature i thought he must be one of those tall mountaineers from the alleghanian ridge in virginia when the revelry of his companions had mounted to its height this man slipped away unobserved and i saw no more of him till he became my comrade on the sea in a few minutes however he was missed by his shipmates and being it seems for some reason a huge favourite with them they raised a cry of bulkington it was now about nine oclock and the room seeming almost supernaturally quiet after these orgies i began to congratulate myself upon a little plan that had occurred to me just previous to the entrance of the seamen in fact you would a good deal rather not sleep with your own brother i dont know how it is but people like to be private when they are sleeping and when it comes to sleeping with an unknown stranger in a strange inn in a strange town and that stranger a harpooneer then your objections indefinitely multiply nor was there any earthly reason why i as a sailor should sleep two in a bed more than anybody else for sailors no more sleep two in a bed at sea than bachelor kings do ashore to be sure they all sleep together in one apartment but you have your own hammock and cover yourself with your own blanket and sleep in your own skin the more i pondered over this harpooneer the more i abominated the thought of sleeping with him it was fair to presume that being a harpooneer his linen or woollen as the case might be would not be of the tidiest certainly none of the finest besides it was getting late and my decent harpooneer ought to be home and going bedwards suppose now he should tumble in upon me at midnighthow could i tell from what vile hole he had been coming just as you please im sorry i cant spare ye a tablecloth for a mattress and its a plaguy rough board here feeling of the knots and notches but wait a bit skrimshander ive got a carpenters plane there in the barwait i say and ill make ye snug enough so saying he procured the plane and with his old silk handkerchief first dusting the bench vigorously set to planing away at my bed the while grinning like an ape the shavings flew right and left till at last the planeiron came bump against an indestructible knot
collinss letter had done away much of her illwill and she was preparing to see him with a degree of composure which astonished her husband and daughters collins was punctual to his time and was received with great politeness by the whole family bennet indeed said little but the ladies were ready enough to talk and mr collins seemed neither in need of encouragement nor inclined to be silent himself he was a tall heavylooking young man of fiveandtwenty his air was grave and stately and his manners were very formal he had not been long seated before he complimented mrs bennet on having so fine a family of daughters said he had heard much of their beauty but that in this instance fame had fallen short of the truth and added that he did not doubt her seeing them all in due time disposed of in marriage this gallantry was not much to the taste of some of his hearers but mrs bennet who quarreled with no compliments answered most readily you are very kind i am sure and i wish with all my heart it may prove so for else they will be destitute enough it is a grievous affair to my poor girls you must confess not that i mean to find fault with you for such things i know are all chance in this world there is no knowing how estates will go when once they come to be entailed i am very sensible madam of the hardship to my fair cousins and could say much on the subject but that i am cautious of appearing forward and precipitate but i can assure the young ladies that i come prepared to admire them at present i will not say more but perhaps when we are better acquainted he was interrupted by a summons to dinner and the girls smiled on each other the hall the diningroom and all its furniture were examined and praised and his commendation of everything would have touched mrs bennets heart but for the mortifying supposition of his viewing it all as his own future property the dinner too in its turn was highly admired and he begged to know to which of his fair cousins the excellency of its cooking was owing
ferrars is told of it for she was sent for as soon as ever my cousins left the house for your sister was sure she would be in hysterics too and so she may for what i care i have no notion of peoples making such a todo about money and greatness ferrars may afford to do very well by her son and though lucy has next to nothing herself she knows better than any body how to make the most of every thing i dare say if mrs ferrars would only allow him five hundred ayear she would make as good an appearance with it as any body else would with eight how snug they might live in such another cottage as yoursor a little biggerwith two maids and two men and i believe i could help them to a housemaid for my betty has a sister out of place that would fit them exactly jennings ceased and as elinor had had time enough to collect her thoughts she was able to give such an answer and make such observations as the subject might naturally be supposed to produce happy to find that she was not suspected of any extraordinary interest in it that mrs jennings as she had of late often hoped might be the case had ceased to imagine her at all attached to edward and happy above all the rest in the absence of marianne she felt very well able to speak of the affair without embarrassment and to give her judgment as she believed with impartiality on the conduct of every one concerned in it she could hardly determine what her own expectation of its event really was though she earnestly tried to drive away the notion of its being possible to end otherwise at last than in the marriage of edward and lucy ferrars would say and do though there could not be a doubt of its nature she was anxious to hear and still more anxious to know how edward would conduct himself for him she felt much compassionfor lucy very littleand it cost her some pains to procure that littlefor the rest of the party none at all jennings could talk on no other subject elinor soon saw the necessity of preparing marianne for its discussion no time was to be lost in undeceiving her in making her acquainted with the real truth and in endeavouring to bring her to hear it talked of by others without betraying that she felt any uneasiness for her sister or any resentment against edward she was going to remove what she really believed to be her sisters chief consolationto give such particulars of edward as she feared would ruin him for ever in her good opinionand to make marianne by a resemblance in their situations which to her fancy would seem strong feel all her own disappointment over again but unwelcome as such a task must be it was necessary to be done and elinor therefore hastened to perform it she was very far from wishing to dwell on her own feelings or to represent herself as suffering much any otherwise than as the selfcommand she had practised since her first knowledge of edwards engagement might suggest a hint of what was practicable to marianne her narration was clear and simple and though it could not be given without emotion it was not accompanied by violent agitation nor impetuous grief that belonged rather to the hearer for marianne listened with horror and cried excessively elinor was to be the comforter of others in her own distresses no less than in theirs and all the comfort that could be given by assurances of her own composure of mind and a very earnest vindication of edward from every charge but of imprudence was readily offered but marianne for some time would give credit to neither
gardiner to whom the chief of this news had been given before in the course of jane and elizabeths correspondence with her made her sister a slight answer and in compassion to her nieces turned the conversation when alone with elizabeth afterwards she spoke more on the subject it seems likely to have been a desirable match for jane said she bingley so easily falls in love with a pretty girl for a few weeks and when accident separates them so easily forgets her that these sort of inconsistencies are very frequent an excellent consolation in its way said elizabeth but it will not do for us it does not often happen that the interference of friends will persuade a young man of independent fortune to think no more of a girl whom he was violently in love with only a few days before but that expression of violently in love is so hackneyed so doubtful so indefinite that it gives me very little idea it is as often applied to feelings which arise from a halfhours acquaintance as to a real strong attachment i never saw a more promising inclination he was growing quite inattentive to other people and wholly engrossed by her every time they met it was more decided and remarkable at his own ball he offended two or three young ladies by not asking them to dance and i spoke to him twice myself without receiving an answer of that kind of love which i suppose him to have felt i am sorry for her because with her disposition she may not get over it immediately it had better have happened to you lizzy you would have laughed yourself out of it sooner but do you think she would be prevailed upon to go back with us change of scene might be of serviceand perhaps a little relief from home may be as useful as anything elizabeth was exceedingly pleased with this proposal and felt persuaded of her sisters ready acquiescence gardiner that no consideration with regard to this young man will influence her we live in so different a part of town all our connections are so different and as you well know we go out so little that it is very improbable that they should meet at all unless he really comes to see her and that is quite impossible for he is now in the custody of his friend and mr