Page:Austen - Sense and Sensibility, vol. III, 1811.djvu/159

This page has been validated.

( 151 )

with an expressive smile, and a voice perfectly calm, “yes, I am very drunk.—A pint of porter with my cold beef at Marlborough was enough to over-set me.”

“At Marlborough!”—cried Elinor, more and more at a loss to understand what he would be at.

“Yes—I left London this morning at eight o’clock, and the only ten minutes I have spent out of my chaise since that time, procured me a noon-chine at Marlborough.”

The steadiness of his manner, and the intelligence of his eye as he spoke, convincing Elinor, that whatever other unpardonable folly might bring him to Cleveland, he was not brought there by intoxication, she said, after a moment’s recollection,

“Mr. Willoughby, you ought to feel, and I certainly do—that after what has passed—your coming here

H 4
in