As they walked on, Eleanor explained her friendship with this Miss Morland, Henry’s attachment to her, and all that had thwarted Henry’s engagement.
“And now Henry is banished from Northanger,” she said in a tone of regret, “and I cannot so much as correspond with Catherine.”
Philip wanted to put an arm around her shoulder, but thought better of such a tempting action and only said, “Your father has the worst temper of any man I have ever known. I feel for Henry, I truly do, but I feel more for you. I know you are lonely at Northanger, and you suffer a thousand small indignities when your father is there. It shall be so much worse for you now that you will not even have Henry’s company.”
“Yes, yes, it will.” Eleanor stopped walking and looked at him with sad eyes. “Philip... you know better than anyone what it is like for me at Northanger, and I have come to a decision.” He watched Eleanor cast down her eyes, and timidity took the place of the tender looks she had just given him. “Since he is beyond reason, I cannot defy him the way Henry has—I have no power, you know...” She settled her shoulders and met his eye. “I am going to try to secure Lord Dryden if I can, in order to be free from my father.”
A dreadful feeling overtook him, and his whole being started. She was going to find a husband to gain freedom from Northanger, and she had chosen Dryden, a man she had seen but a handful of times in the past ten years. He took a few steps from her, shaking his head in confusion.
Eleanor intends to marry another man.
“I know that I have shocked you—”
“Shocked me?” he cried, spinning to face her. “You annihilate me! You injure me in the tenderest point, you know that you do.”
“Not on purpose! And I don’t love Dryden. You need not be distressed on that point.”
“You distress me past measure. What has happened to your self-respect? You will sacrifice every better feeling—marry with no affection at all—for the slim advantage of escaping from Northanger?”
Eleanor gave him a coldly determined look. “Not aslimadvantage,” she retorted. “Not slim at all. I am constantly oppressed, disparaged”—her voice broke—“or I am almost entirely alone. No friend will visit me, and I may go nowhere without the general. Even Alice won’t come to Northanger. Aside from Henry, the only people I see are the general’s friends, all stern, well-connected people like the marquess.”
“And your only option is to marry the first single man who appears before you? Or, I should say, the firstwealthyone?”
She cast open her hands. “What can I do, Philip? Society has designed women for dependence, and consequently submission. If I had a more reasonable father, a more patient one, I might have some recourse, some hope, but I have no authority at all over my own life. I have no money of my own, and no one to turn to who could—”
“No one?” he cried. He came nearer. He was only a few inches taller than her, and he stared into her eyes, saying in a low, slow voice, “Not one single person, Eleanor?”
“I do not dare go against the expressed desire of my only living parent.” Tears formed in her eyes, and she angrily dashed them away. “You and I have already discussed this. My father would only let me make my own choice so long as it was to a rank and fortune that he deemed suitable.”
Philip had always known that they could never marry, and had even understood in some vague way that they would both likely settle for another, but to have it actually happen was a cruel blow. He stormed away, furious that she would sell herself to the highest bidder like a commodity on the Exchange.
“Philip,” she called after him, “I dare not align myself with someone whom he explicitly will not approve of!”
“That won’t happen if your intention is to marry any man who has money enough for General Tilney,” he called over his shoulder. She sounded distressed, but he still let his feet carry him toward the gate.
He heard her marching after him. “Would you throw away every sense of gentlemanly honour that you hold dear to carry me off to Scotland and marry me there? Have everyone assume that we had to marry in haste? And then come back to Gloucestershire to be spurned by my father, and by his influence have all of our friends hate us and our reputations ruined, your good name taken from you?” Philip stopped walking away, but refused to turn.
Eleanor was crying, he was certain, but he still refused to look at her
For a man with no fortune, but with noble connexions and rich friends, his honour and status as a gentleman were what he held dear.My honour, and Eleanor’s happiness.
She sighed wearily as she calmed herself. “Who amongst any of our acquaintance has ever stood up to him—”
“Apparently Henry Tilney has,” he said bitterly, still not looking at Eleanor.
“And been successful?” Her voice grew quieter. “Who has ever won their point, who has ever reasoned him out of an opinion, who has ever suffered his wrath and temper to emerge the winner?”
Philip resisted the urge to cover his face with his hands. He turned round, but kept his eyes on the ground. “Did you ever try to tell General Tilney...” He could not bring himself to say “your affections and wishes.” Besides, he knew the answer even as he asked the question.
“Is it so easy for you to tell me to defy him, when you know very well what kind of fury I would face?” she asked in a strained voice. “He would never let me see you again, he would make certain I had no money, and he would forbid any friend or relation from helping me.” He finally looked at her to see Eleanor wiping her eyes with her handkerchief. “Philip, please, please understand that I have been suffering daily for nine years, ever since my mother died.”
His sentiments and sensations were in opposition to each other, and had been for years. Friendship with Eleanor and his own sense of honour, and the respect due to her, and even to her dreadful father, all forbade him to think of marrying her when he knew that General Tilney would never approve. Although they had never spoken openly of their feelings, he knew Eleanor felt the same. The only time they had faltered was a night in January at Northanger.
“I know you cannot overcome your father’s tyranny from within the Abbey,” he said, taking her hands from her eyes and clasping them. If he drew her into his arms, it would make his heart hurt more. “But you cannot expect me to rejoice in seeing you wed another man.”
“I am not rejoicing either, you know. Not at all. I... I simply cannot bear it anymore.”
Philip nodded, and with a sigh let go of her hands. “You will secure some man with enough money to satisfy the general?”
