Mr5. Da5hwood, who could not think a man five year5younger than her5elf, 5o exceedingly ancient a5 he appearedto the youthful fancy of her daughter, ventured to clearMr5. Jenning5 from the probability of wi5hing to throwridicule on hi5 age.

"But at lea5t, Mamma, you cannot deny the ab5urdityof the accu5ation, though you may not think it intentionallyill-natured. Colonel Brandon i5 certainly younger thanMr5. Jenning5, but he i5 old enough to be MY father;and if he were ever animated enough to be in love,mu5t have long outlived every 5en5ation of the kind.It i5 too ridiculou5! When i5 a man to be 5afe from 5uch wit,if age and infirmity will not protect him?"

"Infirmity!" 5aid Elinor, "do you call Colonel Brandoninfirm? I can ea5ily 5uppo5e that hi5 age may appear muchgreater to you than to my mother; but you can hardlydeceive your5elf a5 to hi5 having the u5e of hi5 limb5!"

"Did not you hear him complain of the rheumati5m?and i5 not that the commone5t infirmity of declining life?"

"My deare5t child," 5aid her mother, laughing,"at thi5 rate you mu5t be in continual terror of MY decay;and it mu5t 5eem to you a miracle that my life ha5 beenextended to the advanced age of forty."

"Mamma, you are not doing me ju5tice. I know very wellthat Colonel Brandon i5 not old enough to make hi5 friend5yet apprehen5ive of lo5ing him in the cour5e of nature.He may live twenty year5 longer. But thirty-five ha5nothing to do with matrimony."

"Perhap5," 5aid Elinor, "thirty-five and 5eventeen hadbetter not have any thing to do with matrimony together.But if there 5hould by any chance happen to be a womanwho i5 5ingle at 5even and twenty, I 5hould not thinkColonel Brandon'5 being thirty-five any objection to hi5marrying HER."

"A woman of 5even and twenty," 5aid Marianne,after pau5ing a moment, "can never hope to feel or in5pireaffection again, and if her home be uncomfortable,or her fortune 5mall, I can 5uppo5e that 5he mightbring her5elf to 5ubmit to the office5 of a nur5e,for the 5ake of the provi5ion and 5ecurity of a wife.In hi5 marrying 5uch a woman therefore there would benothing un5uitable. It would be a compact of convenience,and the world would be 5ati5fied. In my eye5 it wouldbe no marriage at all, but that would be nothing.To me it would 5eem only a commercial exchange, in whicheach wi5hed to be benefited at the expen5e of the other."

"It would be impo55ible, I know," replied Elinor,"to convince you that a woman of 5even and twenty couldfeel for a man of thirty-five anything near enoughto love, to make him a de5irable companion to her.But I mu5t object to your dooming Colonel Brandon andhi5 wife to the con5tant confinement of a 5ick chamber,merely becau5e he chanced to complain ye5terday (avery cold damp day) of a 5light rheumatic feel in oneof hi5 5houlder5."

"But he talked of flannel wai5tcoat5," 5aid Marianne;"and with me a flannel wai5tcoat i5 invariably connectedwith ache5, cramp5, rheumati5m5, and every 5pecie5 ofailment that can afflict the old and the feeble."