Music Welcome to Snuescast, the podcast designed to help you fall asleep. Find and connect with us on snuescast.com and on social media at Snuescast. This episode is brought to you by Kellyn Chal. Tonight, we shall read the next part to persuasion, the last novel fully completed by Jane Austen, published in 1817. The story concerns Anne Elliott, a 27-year-old English woman whose family moves in order to lower their expenses and reduce their debt by renting their home to an admiral and his wife. In the last episode, Mr. Shepherd and Lady Russell draw up a plan for Sir Elliott to get out of debt. They decide that he must retrench by seriously cutting back on his expenditures, which the gentleman refuses to do. They then suggest that Sir Elliott move out of his home in order to rent it out. The plan is agreed to by Sir Elliott with his stipulations that it not seem like he is renting it for cost savings but rather as a favor to the renter. It is further agreed to that during this time they will stay in the city of Bath which has a lower of living, who are their limited budget will go farther.

We will start back in with an abbreviated opening to chapter 3,

where Sir Elliot is discussing the matter further with the group.

Let's get cozy. Close your eyes. Relax your body into the softness of your bed. Now, take a few deep breaths. Chapter 3 I must take leave to observe Sir Walter, said Mr. Shepard, one morning at Kellynch Hall, as he laid down the newspaper, that the present juncture is much in our favor. This piece will be turning all our rich naval officers ashore. They will be all wanting a home. not not be a better time, Sir Walter, for having a choice of tenants, very responsible tenants. Many a noble fortune has been made during the war. If a rich admiral were to come in our way, Sir Walter, he would be a very Lucky man, Shepherd. Replied Sir Walter. That's all I have to remark. A prize indeed would Kellyn Chalbe to him. Rather, the greatest prize of all. Let him have taken ever so many before. A Shepherd. Shepard laughed as he knew he must, at this wit, and then added, I presume to observe Sir Walter, that in the way of business, gentlemen of the Navy, are well to deal with. I have had a little knowledge of their methods of doing business, and I am free to confess that they have very liberal notions, and are as likely to make desirable tenets as any set of people one should meet with. Sir Walter nodded, but soon afterwards, rising and pacing the room, he observed sarcastically. There are few among the gentlemen of the Navy, I imagine, who would not be surprised to find themselves in a house of this description. It seemed as if Mr. Shepard, in this anxiety to bespeak Sir Walters' good will towards a naval officer as tenant, had been gifted with foresight. For the very first application for the house was from an admiral craft, with whom he shortly afterwards fell into company in attending the quarter sessions at Taunton, and indeed he had received a hint of the Admiral from a London correspondent. By the report which he hastened over to Kellynch to make, Admiral Croft, who, having acquired a very handsome fortune was wishing to make. Admiral Croft, who having acquired a very handsome fortune, was wishing to settle in his own country and had come down to Tonton in order to look at some advertised places in that immediate neighborhood, which, however, had not suited him. That, accidentally hearing, it was just as he had foretold, Mr. Shepherd observed, Sir Walter's concerns could not be kept a secret. Accidentally hearing of the possibility of Kellynch Hall being to let, and understanding His, Mr. Shepherd's connection with the owner, he had introduced himself to him in order to make particular inquiries, and had, in the course of a pretty long conference, expressed as strong an inclination for the place as a man who knew it only by description could feel. And given Mr. Shepard, in his explicit account of himself, every proof of his being a most responsible, eligible tenant. And who is Admiral Croft with Sir Walter's cold, suspicious inquiry? Mr. Shepard answered for his being of a gentleman's family and mentioned a place. And Anne, after the little paws which followed added, he is a rear admiral of the white. He was in the Trafalgar action and has been in the East Indies since. He was stationed there, I believe, several years. Then I take it for granted, observed Sir Walter, that his face is about as orange as the cuffs and capes of my livery. Mr. Shupperd hastened to assure him that Admiral Croft was a very hail, hearty, well-looking man, a little weather-beaten, to sure, but not much, and quite the gentleman in all his notions and behavior, not likely to make the smallest difficulty about terms, only wanted a comfortable home, and to get into it as soon as possible. New he must pay for his convenience. New what rent a ready furnished house of that consequence might fetch. Should not have been surprised if Sir Walter had asked more, had inquired about the manner, would be glad of the deputation, certainly, but made no great point of it. It's quite the gentleman. Mr. Shepherd was eloquent on the subject, pointing out all the circumstances of the admiral's family, which made him peculiarly desirable as a tenant. He was a married man, and without children, the very state to be wished for. A house was never taken good care of, Mr. Shepherd observed, without a lady. He did not know whether furniture might not be in danger of suffering as much, where there no lady, as where there were many children. A lady, without a family, was the very best preserver of furniture in the world. He had seen Mrs. Croft, too. She was at Taunton with the admiral, and had been present almost all the time they were talking the matter over. And a very will-spoken Gentile shrewd lady, she seemed to be, continued he, asked more questions about the house and terms and taxes than the admiral himself, and seemed more conversant with business. And moreover, Sir Walter, I found she was not quite

unconnected in this country, any more than her husband. That is to say, she is sister to a gentleman who did live amongst us once. She told me so herself. Sister to the gentleman who lived a few years back at Monkford.

Bless me.

What was his name?

A- Sister to the gentleman who lived a few years back at Monkford. Bless me. What was his name? At this moment I cannot recollect his name, though I have heard it so lately. Penelope, my dear. Can you help me to the name of the gentleman who lived at Monkford? Mrs. Croft's brother. But Mrs. Clay was talking so eagerly with Miss Elliott that she did not hear the appeal. I have no conception whom you can mean, Shepherd. I remember no gentleman resident at Monkford since the time of old Governor Trent.

Oh, bless me, oh very odd, I shall forget my own name soon, I suppose. A name that I am so very well acquainted with. New the gentleman so well by sight. Seen him a hundred times. to consult me I remember, about a trespass of one of his neighbors. Farmers man breaking into his orchard, wall torn down, apples stolen, caught in the fact. And afterwards, contrary to my judgment, submitted to an amicable compromise. Very odd indeed. After waiting another moment, you mean Mr. Wentworth, I suppose, said Anne. Mr. Shepherd was all gratitude. Wentworth was the very name. Mr. Wentworth was the very man. He had the curacy of monkfurt, you know, Sir Walter, some time back, for two or three years. Came there about the year, about, yes, I think it was about then. You remember him, I'm sure. Wentworth? Oh, Mr. Wentworth, the curate of Monkford. You misled me by the term gentlemen. I thought you were speaking of some man of property. Mr. Wentworth was nobody. I remember that. Quite unconnected. Nothing to do with the Straford family. One wonders how the names of many of our nobility became so common. As Mr. Shepard perceived that this connection of the Crofts did them no service with Sir Walter, he mentioned it no more. Returning with all his zeal to dwell on the circumstances more indisputably in their favor. Their age and number and fortune. The high idea they had formed of Kellynch Hall and extreme solicitude for the advantage of renting it, making it appear as if they ranked nothing beyond the happiness of being the tenants of Sir Walter Elliott. An extraordinary taste, certainly, could they have been supposed in the secret of Sir Walter's estimate of the do's of a tenant. It succeeded, however, and those Sir Walter must ever look with an evil eye on anyone intending to inhabit that house, and think them infinitely too well off in being permitted to rent it on the highest terms. He was talked into allowing Mr. Shepherd to proceed in the treaty, and authorizing him to wait on Admiral Croft, who still remained at Taunton, and fix a day for the house being seen. Sir Walter was not very wise, but still he had experience enough of the world to feel that a more unobjectionable tenant in all essentials than Admiral Croft bid fair to be could hardly offer. So far went his understanding, and his vanity supplied a little additional soothing in the admiral's situation in life, which was just high enough and not too high. I have let my house to Admiral Croft would sound extremely well, very much better than to any mere Mr. A Mr. save perhaps some half dozen in the nation always needs a note of explanation. And Admiral speaks his own consequence. And at the same time, can never make a baronet look small. In all their dealings and intercourse, Sir Walter Elliott must ever have the precedence. Nothing could be done without a reference to Elizabeth, but her inclination was growing so strong for a removal that she was happy to have it fixed and expedited by a tenet at hand, and not a word to suspend decision was uttered by her. Mr. Shepherd was completely empowered to act, and no sooner had such an end been reached than Anne, who had been a most attentive listener to the whole, left the room to seek the comfort of cool air for her flushed cheeks. And as she walked along a favorite grove, said, with a gentle sigh, a few months more, and he, perhaps, may be walking here.APTER IV He was not Mr. Wentworth, the former curate of Monkford. However suspicious appearances may be, but a captain Frederick Wentworth, his brother, who, being made commander in consequence of the action of St. Domingo and not immediately employed, had come into Somerset Shire in the summer of 1806, and having no parent living found a home for half a year at atkford. He was, at that time, a remarkably fine young man with a great deal of intelligence, spirit, and brilliancy, and Anne, an extremely pretty girl with gentleness, modesty, taste, and feeling. Half the sum of attraction on either side might have been enough for he had nothing to do and she had hardly anybody to love. But the encounter of such lavish recommendations could not fail. They were gradually acquainted, and when acquainted, rapidly and deeply in love, it would be difficult to say which had seen highest perfection in the other, or which had been the happiest. She, in receiving his declarations and proposal, or he, in having them accepted. A short period of exquisite Felicity followed, and but a short Troubles soon arose. Sir Walter, on being applied to, without actually withholding his consent, or saying it should never be, gave it all the negative of great astonishment, great coldness, great silence, and a professed resolution of doing nothing for his daughter. He thought it a very degrading alliance, and Lady Russell, though with more tempered and pardonable pride, received it as a most unfortunate one. Anne Elliott, with all her claims of birth, beauty and mind, to throw herself away at 19, involve herself at 19 in an engagement with a young man who had nothing but himself to recommend him, and no hopes of attaining affluence, but in the chances of a most uncertain profession, and no connections to secure even his farther rise in the profession would be, indeed, a throwing away, which he grieved to think of, an Elliott, so young, known to so few, to be snatched off by a stranger without alliance or fortune, or rather sunk by him into a state of most wearing, anxious, youth-killing dependence, it must not be. If by any fair interference of friendship, any representations from one who had almost a mother's love and mother's rights, it would be prevented. Captain Wentworth had no fortune. He had been lucky in his profession, but spending freely, what had come freely, had realized nothing. But he was confident that he should soon be rich, full of life and art, he knew that he should soon have a ship, and soon be on a station that would lead to everything he wanted. He had always been lucky. He knew he should be so still. Such confidence, powerful and its own warmth, and bewitching in the wit which often expressed it, must have been enough for Anne. but Lady Russell saw it very differently. His sanguine temper and fearlessness of mind operated very differently on her. She saw in it, but in aggravation of the evil. It only added a dangerous character to himself. He was brilliant. He was headstrong. Lady Russell had little taste for wit, and if anything approaching to imprudence, a horror. She deprecated the connection in every light. Such opposition, as these feelings produced, was more than Anne could combat. Young and gentle as she was, it might yet have been possible to withstand her father's ill-will, though unsoftened by one kind word or look on the part of her sister. But Lady Russell, whom she had always loved and relied on, could not, with such steadiness of opinion and such tenderness of manner, be continually advising her in vain. She was persuaded to believe the engagement a wrong thing, in discrete, improper, hardly capable of success, and not deserving it. But it was not a merely selfish caution under which she acted in putting an end to it. Had she not imagined herself consulting his good even more than her own, she could hardly have given

him up. The belief of being prudent and self denying, principally for his advantage, was her chief consolation under the misery of a partying, a final partying. And every Every consolation was required for she had to encounter all the additional pain of opinions on his side, totally unconvinced and unbending, and of his feeling himself ill used by so forced of relinquishment. He had left the country in consequence. A few months had seen the beginning and the end of their acquaintance, but not with a few months ended and share of suffering from it. Her attachment and regrets had, for a long time, clouded every enjoyment of youth, and an early loss of bloom and spirits had been their lasting effect. More than seven years were gone since this little history of sorrowful interest had reached its close, and time had softened down much, perhaps nearly all of peculiar attachment to him, but she had been too dependent on time alone. No aid had been given in change of place, except in one visit to Bath soon after the rupture, or in any novelty, or enlargement of society. No one had ever come within the Kellynch circle who could bear a comparison with Frederick Wentworth as he stood in her memory. No second, Tatchman, the only thoroughly natural, happy and sufficient cure at her memory. No second attachment, the only thoroughly natural, happy, and sufficient cure at her time of life had been possible to the nice tone of her mind, the festitiousness of her taste in the small limits of the society around them. She had been solicited, when about two and twenty, to change her name, by the young man, who not long afterwards found a more willing mind in her younger sister. And Lady Russell had lamented her refusal. For Charles Musgrove was the eldest son of a man whose landed property and general importance were second in that country only to Sir Walters. End of good character and appearance and however Lady Russell might have asked yet for something more while Anne was 19. She would have rejoiced to see her at 22 so respectively removed from the partialities and injustice of her father's house and settled so permanently near herself. in this case and had left nothing for advice to do, and though Lady Russell, as satisfied as ever with her own discretion, never wished the past undone. She began now to have the anxiety which borders on hopelessness for Anne's being tempted by some man of talents and independence to enter a state for which she held her to be peculiarly fitted by her warm affections and domestic habits. They knew not each other's opinion,

either its constancy or its change

on the one leading point of Anne's conduct.

For the subject was never alluded to.

But Anne, at seven and 20,

thought very differently from what she had been made to think at 19. She did not blame Lady Russell. She did not blame herself for having been guided by her. But she felt that were any young person in similar circumstances to apply to her for counsel,

they would never receive any of such certain immediate

wretchedness, such uncertain future good.

She was first waited that under every disadvantage

of disapprobation at home and every anxiety

attending his profession, all their probable fears, delays, and disappointments. She should yet have been a happier woman in maintaining the engagement than she had been in the sacrifice of it. And this, she fully believed, had the usual share, had even more than the usual share of all such solicitudes and suspense been there. Without reference to the actual results of their case, which, as it happened, would have bestowed earlier prosperity than could be reasonably calculated on. All his sanguine expectations, all his confidence had been justified. His genius and ardour had seemed to foresee and to command his prosperous path. He had, very soon after their engagement ceased, got employed, and all that he had told her would follow, had taken place. He had distinguished himself and early gained the other step in rank, and must now, by successive captures, have made a handsome fortune. She had only navy lists and newspapers for her authority, but she could not doubt his being rich, and in favor of his constancy, she had no reason to believe him married. how eloquent could Anne Elliott have been? How eloquent at least were her wishes on the side of early, warm attachment and a cheerful confidence in futurity against the over-anxious caution which seems to insult exertion and distrust providence. She had been forced into prudence in her youth. She learned romance as she grew older, the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.