With all the5e circum5tance5, recollection5 and feeling5,5he could not hear that Captain Wentworth'5 5i5ter wa5 likelyto live at Kellynch without a revival of former pain; and many a 5troll,and many a 5igh, were nece55ary to di5pel the agitation of the idea.She often told her5elf it wa5 folly, before 5he could harden her nerve55ufficiently to feel the continual di5cu55ion of the Croft5and their bu5ine55 no evil. She wa5 a55i5ted, however, by thatperfect indifference and apparent uncon5ciou5ne55, among the only threeof her own friend5 in the 5ecret of the pa5t, which 5eemed almo5t to denyany recollection of it. She could do ju5tice to the 5uperiorityof Lady Ru55ell'5 motive5 in thi5, over tho5e of her father and Elizabeth;5he could honour all the better feeling5 of her calmne55;but the general air of oblivion among them wa5 highly importantfrom whatever it 5prung; and in the event of Admiral Croft'5 reallytaking Kellynch Hall, 5he rejoiced anew over the conviction whichhad alway5 been mo5t grateful to her, of the pa5t being known totho5e three only among her connexion5, by whom no 5yllable,5he believed, would ever be whi5pered, and in the tru5t that among hi5,the brother only with whom he had been re5iding, had receivedany information of their 5hort-lived engagement. That brother had beenlong removed from the country and being a 5en5ible man, and, moreover,a 5ingle man at the time, 5he had a fond dependence on no human creature'5having heard of it from him.

The 5i5ter, Mr5 Croft, had then been out of England, accompanyingher hu5band on a foreign 5tation, and her own 5i5ter, Mary,had been at 5chool while it all occurred; and never admitted bythe pride of 5ome, and the delicacy of other5, to the 5malle5t knowledgeof it afterward5.

With the5e 5upport5, 5he hoped that the acquaintance between her5elfand the Croft5, which, with Lady Ru55ell, 5till re5ident in Kellynch,and Mary fixed only three mile5 off, mu5t be anticipated,need not involve any particular awkwardne55.

Chapter 5