Persuasion [with Biographical Introduction]

by Jane Austen

Haha

the right which he seemed to have to interest her,

his early prepossession. It was altogether very extraordinary; flattering, but painful.

be the conclusion of the present suspense good or bad, her affection would be his for ever.

Their union, she believed, could not divide her more from other men, than their final separation.

Death? Question

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her friend

Mrs. Smith, who had already heard, through the short cut of a laundress and a waiter, rather more of the general success and produce of the evening than Anne could relate,

Haha simile

There is a sort of domestic enjoyment to be known even in a crowd, and this you had.

Anne, conscious while she spoke

Your countenance perfectly informs me that you were in company last night with the person whom you think the most agreeable in the world,

I have a great idea that you do not design to be cruel, when the right moment occurs.

Colonel Wallis;

Let him know me to be a friend of yours, and then he will think little of the trouble required,

which it is very natural for him now, with so many affairs and engagements of his own, to avoid and get rid of as he can;

very natural, perhaps. Ninety-nine out of a hundred w...

Your peace will not be shipwrecked as mine has been.

But I have not known him long; and he is not a man, I think, to be known intimately soon.

he is nothing to me?

he is nothing...

it is not Mr. Elliot that—"

Mrs. Smith would hardly have believed so soon in Mr. Elliot's failure, but from the perception of there being a somebody else.

you may depend upon it that all your acquaintance have disposed of you in the same way.

Mrs. Rooke; Nurse Rooke;

Mrs. Wallis

the whole history."

"And—were you much acquainted?" "Intimately."

I have a great curiosity to know what Mr. Elliot was as a very young man. Was he at all such as he appears now?"

Even the smooth surface of family-union seems worth preserving, though there may be nothing durable beneath.

Is she right qbout this? Question

I think you ought to be made acquainted with Mr. Elliot's real character.

Mr. Elliot is a man without heart or conscience; a designing, wary, cold-blooded being, who thinks only of himself;

Ouch. Brutal.

he can neglect and desert without the smallest compunction.

Oh! he is black at heart, hollow and black!"

Haha hat do you call the outburst just above? Question

He was the intimate friend of my dear husband,

At nineteen, you know, one does not think very seriously;

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"I know it all, I know it all,"

I

I

I was the friend to whom he confided his h...

"Mr. Elliot," replied Mrs. Smith, "at that period of his life, had one object in view: to make his fortune, and by a rather quicker process than the law.

my first and principal acquaintance on marrying should be your cousin; and that, through him, I should be continually hearing of your father and sister.

I used to boast of my own Anne Elliot, and vouch for your being a very different creature from—" She checked herself just in time.

Haha to avoid criticizing Elizabeth

What wild imaginations one forms where dear self is concerned!

I was very young, and associated only with the young, and we were a thoughtless, gay set, without any strict rules of conduct. We lived for enjoyment. I

'To do the best for himself,' passed as a duty."