Music Welcome to snoozecast, the podcast designed to help you fall asleep. Find us at snoozecast.com and if you enjoy our show, please share us with a friend. This episode is brought to you by Purification and perfume. Tonight we shall read the next part to persuasion, the last novel fully completed by Jane Austen and published in 1817. The story concerns Anne Elliott, an English woman whose family moves in order to lower their expenses. In the last episode Anne visits her old school friend Mrs. Smith in Westgate buildings. Though Mrs. Smith lives in poverty and poor health, she is cheerful, resourceful, and glad for Anne's company. As their conversation turns to acquaintances, Mrs. Smith seems unusually hesitant when Mr. Elliott's name arises. At first she holds back, saying little. But upon realizing how closely Anne is now connected to Mr. Elliot, she finally decides it has her duty as a friend to speak. We will pick up at this point in their conversation. Let's get cozy. Close your eyes. Relax your body into the softness of your Now take a few deep breaths. They were both silent. Mrs. Smith very thoughtful. At last I beg your pardon, my dear Miss Elliott. She cried. In her natural tone of cordiality. I beg your pardon for the short answers I have been giving you. But I have been uncertain what I ought to do. I have been doubting and considering as to what I ought to tell you, there were many things to be taken into the account. One hates to be a fissious, to be giving bad impressions, making mischief. Even the smooth surface of family union seems worth preserving, though there may be nothing durable beneath. However, I have determined. I think I am right. I think you ought to be made acquainted with Mr. Elliott's real character. Though I fully believe that, at present, you have not the smallest intention of accepting him, there is no saying what may happen.

You might, sometime or other, be differently affected towards him. Hear the truth, therefore, now, while you are unprejudiced. Mr. Elliott is a man without heart or conscience, a designing, wary, cold-blooded being who thinks only of himself, whom for his own interest or ease would be guilty of any cruelty or any treachery that could be perpetrated without risk of his general character. He has no feeling for others. Those whom he has been the chief cause of leading into ruin, he can neglect and desert without the smallest compunction. He is totally beyond the reach of any sentiment of justice or compassion. Oh, he is black at heart, hollow and black. Anne's astonished air and exclamation of wonder made her pause. And in a calmer manner, she added, �My expressions startle you. You must allow for an injured angry woman, but I will try to command myself. I will not abuse him. I will only tell you what I have found him. Fact shall speak. He was the intimate friend of my dear husband, who trusted and loved him and thought him as good as himself. The intimacy had been formed before our marriage. I found them most intimate friends, and I, too, became excessively pleased with Mr. Elliott and entertained the highest opinion of him. At 19, you know, one does not think very seriously, but Mr. Elliott appeared to me quite as good as others, and much more agreeable than most others, and we were almost always together. We were principally in town, living in very good style. He was then the inferior in circumstances. He was then the poor one. My Charles, who had the finest, most generous spirit in the world, would have divided his last farthing with him, and I know that his purse was open to him. I know that he often assisted him. This must have been about that very period of Mr. Elliott's life," said Anne, which has always excited my particular curiosity. I know it all, cried Mrs. Smith. He had been introduced to Sir Walter and your sister before

I was acquainted with him, but I heard him speak of them forever. I know he was invited and encouraged, and I know he did not choose to go. I can satisfy you, perhaps, on points which you would little expect.

And as to his marriage,

I knew all about it at the time. I was privy to all the fours and againsts. I was the friend to whom he confided his hopes and plans. And though I did not know his wife previously, her inferior situation in society, indeed, rendered that impossible. Yet I knew her all her life afterwards. Or at least till within the last two years of her life, and can answer any question you may wish to put. Nay Anne. "'I have no particular inquiry to make about her. "'I've always understood they were not a happy couple. "'But I should like to know why, at that time of his life, he should slight my father's acquaintance as he did. My father was certainly disposed to take very kind and proper

notice of him. Why did Mr. Elliott draw back? Mr. Elliott 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. He was determined to make it by marriage. He was determined, at least, not to mar it by an imprudent marriage. And I know it was his belief whether justly or not, of course, I cannot decide that your father and sister in their civilities and invitations were designing a match between the heir and the young lady. And it was impossible that such a match should be answered by his ideas of wealth and independence. That was his motive for drawing back. I can assure you. He told me the whole story. He had no concealments with me. It was curious that having just left you behind me in Bath, my first and principal acquaintance on marrying, and that through him I should be continually hearing of your father and sister. He described one mis-eliat, and I thought very affectionately of the other. Perhaps, cried Anne, struck by a sudden idea.

You some... affectionately of the other. Perhaps, cried Anne, struck by a sudden idea, you sometimes spoke of me to Mr. Elliott. To be sure I did, very often, I used to boast of my own Anne Elliott and vouch for your being a very different creature from. She checked herself just in time. This accounts for something which Mr. Elliott said last night. Cried Anne, this explains it. I found he had been used to hear of me. I could not comprehend And. What wild imaginations one forms where dear self is concerned? How sure to be mistaken! But I beg your pardon, I have interrupted you. Mr. Elliot married then completely for money? The circumstances probably, which first opened your eyes to his character. Mrs. Smith has atated a little here. Oh, those things are too common. When one lives in the world, a man or woman's marrying for money is too common to strike one as it ought. 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 think differently Now, Time and sickness and sorrow have given me other notions. But at that period I must own. I saw nothing reprehensible in what Mr. Elliott was doing. To do the best for himself, past as a duty. But was not she a very low woman? Yes, which I objected to, but he would not regard. Money, money was all that he wanted. Her grandfather had been a butcher, her father was a grazier, but that was all nothing. She was a fine woman, had had a decent education, was brought forward by some cousins, thrown by chance into Mr. Eliot's company, and fell in love with him. And not a difficulty or a scruple was there on his side with respect to her birth. All his caution was spent in being secured of the real amount of her fortune before he committed himself. Depend upon it, whatever esteem Mr. Elliott may have for his own situation in life now, as a young man he had not the smallest value for it. His chance for the Kellentch estate was something, but all the honor of the family he held as cheap as dirt. I have often heard him declare that if baronetssees were saleable, anybody should have his for fifty pounds, arms and motto, name and livery included. But I will not pretend to repeat half that I used to hear him say on that subject. It would not be fair. Yet you ought to have proof for what is all this but assertion and you shall have proof. Indeed, my dear Mrs. Smith, I want none," cried Anne. You have asserted nothing contradictory to what Mr. Elliot appeared to be some years ago. This is all in confirmation, rather, of what we used to hear and believe. I am more curious to know why he should be so different now. Well, for my satisfaction, if you will have the goodness to ring for Mary, stay. I am sure you will have the still greater goodness of going yourself into my bedroom and bringing me the small in-lead box which you will find on the upper shelf of the closet. Anne, seeing her friend to be earnestly bent on it, did as she was desired. The box was brought in place before her, and Mrs. Smith, sighing over it as she unlocked it, said. This is full of papers belonging to him, to my husband, a small portion only of what I had to look over when I lost him.

The letter I am looking for was one written by Mr. Elliott to him before our marriage and happened to be saved. Why? One can hardly imagine. But he was careless and imithetical, like other men about those things. And when I came to examine his papers, I found it with others still more trivial. From different people scattered here and there, while many letters and memorandums of real importance had been destroyed. it is. I would not burn it because being even then very little satisfied with Mr. Elliott, I was determined to preserve every document of former intimacy. I have now another motive for being glad that I can produce it. This was the letter directed to Charles Smith, Esquire, Tundbridge, Wells, and dated from London as far back as July 1803. Dear Smith, I have received yours. Your kindness almost overpowers me. I wish nature had made such hearts as yours more common, but I have lived three and twenty years in the world and have seen none like it. At present, believe me, I have no need of your services, being in cash again. Give me joy. I have got rid of Sir Walter and Miss. They are gone back to Kellynch and almost made me swear to visit them this summer. But my first visit to Kellynch will be with a surveyor to tell me how to bring it with best advantage to the hammer. The baronette, nevertheless, is not unlikely to marry again. He is quite full enough. If he does, however, they will leave me in peace, which may be a decent equivalent for the reversion, his worse than last year. I wish I had any name but Elliot. I am sick of it. The name of Walter I can drop. Thank God. And I desire you will never insult me with my second W again, meaning for the rest of my life to to be only yours truly. William Elliott. Such a letter could not be read without putting an in a glow. And Mrs. Smith observing the high color in her face said, The language I know is highly disrespectful. Though I have forgot the exact terms. I have a perfect impression of the general meaning, but it shows you the man. Mark his professions to my poor husband. Can anything be stronger? Anne could not immediately get over the shock and mortification of finding such words applied to her father. She was obliged to recollect that her seeing the letter was a violation of the laws of honor, that no one ought to be judged or to be known by such testimonies, that no private correspondence could bear the eye of others. Before she could recover, call Ness enough to return the letter, which she had been meditating over and say, Thank you. This is full proof undoubtedly, proof of everything you were saying. But why be acquainted with us now? I can explain this too. Cried Mrs. Smith smiling. Can you really? Yes. I've shown you Mr. Elliott as he was a dozen years ago and I will show him as he is now. I cannot produce written proof again, but I can give as authentic oral testimony as you can desire of what he is now wanting and what he is now doing. He is no hypocrite now. He truly wants to marry you.

His present attentions to your family are very sincere, quite from the heart. I will give you my authority. His friend, Colonel Wallace. Colonel Wallace? You are acquainted with him? No. It does not come to me in quite so direct to line as that. It takes a bend or two, but nothing of consequence. The stream is as good as at first. The little rubbish it collects in the turnings is easily moved away. Mr. Elliott talks unreservedly to Colonel Wallace of his views on you, which said, Colonel Wallace, imagine to be in himself a sensible, careful, discerning sort of character, but Colonel Wallace has a very pretty silly wife, to whom he tells things which he had better not, and he repeats it all to her. She in the overflowing spirits of her recovery repeats it all to her. She, in the overflowing spirits of her recovery, repeats it all to her nurse, and the nurse knowing Maya acquaintance with you, very naturally brings it all to me. On Monday evening, my good friend Mrs. Rook let me thus much into the secrets of Marlboro buildings. When I talked of a whole history, therefore, you see, I was not romancing so much as you supposed. My dear Mrs. Smith, your authority is deficient. will not do. Mr. Elliot's having any views on me will not in the least account for the efforts he made towards a reconciliation with my father. That was all prior to my coming to bath. I found them on the most friendly terms when I arrived. I know you did. I know it all perfectly, but indeed Mrs. Smith,

we must not expect to get real information in such a line, facts or opinions which are to pass through the hands of so many, to be misconceived by folly in one and ignorance in another, can hardly have much truth left. Only give me a hearing. You will soon be able to judge of the general credit due by listening to some particular which you can yourself immediately contradict or confirm. Nobody supposes that you were his first inducement. He had seen you indeed before he came to Bath and admired you, but without knowing it to be you. So says my historian at least. Is this true? Did he see you last summer or autumn? Somewhere down in the west to use her own words without knowing it to be you? He certainly did. So far it is very true, at line. I happen to be at line. Well, continued Mrs. Smith triumphantly, grant my friend the credit due to the establishment of the first point asserted. He saw you then at Lyme, and liked you so well as to be exceedingly pleased to meet with you again in Camden Place as Miss Anne Elliott. And from that moment I have no doubt how to double motive in his visits there. But there was another, and an earlier, which I will now explain. If there is anything in my story which you know to be either false or improbable, stop me. My account states that your sister's friend, the lady now staying with you, whom I have heard you mention, came to bath with Miss Elliott and Sir Walter as long ago as September, in short, when they first came themselves, and has been staying there ever since, that she is a clever, insinuating handsome woman, poor and plausible, and altogether such in situation in manner as to give a general idea among Sir Walter's acquaintance of her meaning to be Lady Elliott, and as general a surprise that Miss Elliott should be apparently blind to the danger. Here Mrs. Smith paused a moment, but Anne had not a word to say, and she continued. This was the light in which it appeared to those who knew the family, long before you returned to it. And Colonel Wallace had his eye upon your father enough to be sensible of it, though we did not then visit in Camdenplace, but his regard for Mr. Elliot gave him an interest in watching all that was going on there. And when Mr. Elliot came to Bath for a day or two, as he happened to do a little before Christmas. Colonel Wallace made him acquainted with the appearance of things, and the reports beginning to prevail. Now you are to understand that time had worked a very material change in Mr. Eliot's opinion as to the value of a baronetsy. Upon all points of blood and connection, he is a completely altered man. Having long had as much money as he could spend, nothing to wish for on the side of avarice or indulgence. He has been gradually learning to pin his happiness upon the consequence he is heir to. I thought it coming on before our acquaintance ceased, but it is now a confirmed feeling. He cannot bear the idea of not being Sir William. may guess, therefore, that the news he heard from his friend could not be very agreeable. And you may guess what it produced, the resolution of coming back to Bath as soon as possible. And of fixing himself here for a time, with the view of renewing his former acquaintance, and recovering such a footing in the family as might give him the means of ascertaining the degree of his danger, and of circumventing the lady if he found it material. This was agreed upon between the two friends as the only thing to be done. And Colonel Wallace was to assist in every way that he could. He was to be introduced, and Mrs. Wallace to be introduced, and everybody was to be introduced. Mr. Elliott came back accordingly, and on application was forgiven as you know and readmitted into the family. And there it was his constant object and his only object till your arrival added another motive to watch Sir Walter and Mrs. Clay. He omitted no opportunity of being with them through himself in their way, called at all hours, but I need not be particular on this subject. You can imagine what an artful man would do, and with this guide, perhaps, may recollect what you have seen him do. Yes, said Anne, you tell me nothing which does not accord with what I have known, or could imagine. There's always something offensive in the details of cunning. The maneuvers of selfishness and duplicity must ever be revolting. But I have heard nothing which really surprises me. I know those who would be shocked by such a representation of Mr. Elliott. Who would have difficulty in believing it? But I never been satisfied. I have always wanted some other motive for his conduct than appeared. I should like to know his present opinion as to the probability of the event he has been in dreadow whether he considers the danger to be Elacinate or not. Yn yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n y