Jane Austen's happy endings - The final proposal scenes of six Austen couples

Ten men went to bed. Very good. It's a man on a white horse. Go and tell Mama that Mr Tilney is here. Mr Tilney? Now! Go on, boys. In you go, quickly. I am so ashamed of what I said, what I thought. No, no, no. It's I who should apologise. There's nothing you have said or thought that could justify the way you have been treated. But you were angry with me, and rightly so. I was angry with you, but that is long past. Your imagination may be overactive, but your instinct was true. Our mother did suffer grievously, and at the hands of our father. Do you remember I spoke to you of a kind of vampirism? Yes. Perhaps it was stupid to express it so, but we did watch him drain the life out of her, with his coldness and his cruelty. He married her for her money, you see. She thought it was for love. It was a long time until she knew his heart was cold. No vampires, no blood. The worst crimes are the crimes of the heart. It was stupid and wicked of me to think such things as I did. Cathy, Mama says will you bring Mr Tilney to the drawing room? Mrs Moreland, after what has happened, I have little right to expect a welcome at Fullerton. You had no part in what happened, Mr Tilney. And Catherine is as you see her. No harm done. Any friends of our children are welcome here. Shall we agree to say no more about it? Very good. Are Mr and Mrs Allen now at Fullerton? They are, sir. I should like to pay my respects. Perhaps Miss Moreland might show me the way. But you can see my house from the window. Hush, Lucy. I'm sure Catherine will be happy to show you Mr Tilney. He thought I was rich. It was Thorpe who misled him at first, Thorpe who hoped to marry you himself. He thought you were Mr Allen's heiress and he exaggerated Mr Allen's wealth to my father. You were only guilty of not being as rich as you were supposed to be. For that, he turned you out of the house. I thought you were so angry with me you told him what you knew. Which would have justified any discourtesy. No. The discourtesy was all his. I've broken with my father, Catherine. I may never speak to him again. What did he say to you? Let me instead tell you what I said to him. I told him that I felt myself bound to you. By honour, by affection, and by a love so strong that nothing he could do could deter me from... From what? Before I go on, I should tell you there's a pretty good chance he'll disinherit me. I fear I may never be a rich man, Catherine. Please, go on with what you were going to say. Will you marry me, Catherine? Yes. Yes, I will. The perfect happiness of the respective ages of 26 and 18 is to do pretty well. Catherine and Henry were married. And in due course, the joys of wedding gave way to the blessings of a christening. The bells rang and everyone smiled. No one more so than Eleanor, whose beloved's unexpected accession to title and fortune finally allowed them to marry. I leave it to be settled whether the tendency of this story be to recommend parental tyranny or reward filial disobedience. Here is Colonel Brandon, Marianne. I do not think it is the Colonel. It must be. He said he would arrive today. You must play your new song to him, Marianne. Come. We must be calm. Mr. Ferrars for you, ma'am. Edward. What a pleasure to see you. Mrs. Dashwood, Miss Marianne, Margaret, Miss Dashwood. I trust I find you all well. Thank you, Edward. We are all very well. We have been enjoying very fine weather. I'm glad to hear it. The roads were very... May I wish you great joy, Edward. I hope you have left Mrs. Ferrars well. Tolerably, thank you. Is Mrs. Ferrars of the new parish? No, no. No, my mother is in town. I meant to inquire after Mrs. Edward Ferrars. But then you have not heard. I think you mean my brother. You mean Mrs. Robert Ferrars. Mrs. Robert Ferrars? Yes. I received a letter from Miss Steele, Mrs. Ferrars, I should say, communicating to me the transfer of her affections to my brother Robert. It seems they were much thrown together in London and in view of the change in my circumstances I felt it only right that she be released from our engagement. At any rate, they were married last week and are now in Plymouth. Then you are not married. Eleanor, I met Lucy when I was very young. Had I had an active profession, I should never have felt such an idol, a foolish inclination. My behavior at Norland was very wrong, but I convinced myself that you felt any friendship for me and that it was my heart alone that I was risking. I've come here with no expectations, only to profess now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be yours. He's sitting next to her. Margaret, come down. Will you stop that? What else? What else, Marianne? Tell us. Margaret. Wait. He's kneeling down. Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, ma'am. Good day to you. Mr. Bingley. This is a fine day. Shall we perhaps all walk toward Meryton? Lizzie, do you mind if I just run down the lane here to call on Mariah Lucas? No, not at all. Mr. Darcy, I can go no longer without thanking you for your kindness to my poor sister. Ever since I have known of it, I have been most anxious to tell you how grateful I am for my family and for myself. You must not blame my aunt for telling me Lydia betrayed it first, and then I could at rest till I knew everything. I know what trouble and what mortification it must have cost you. Please let me say this. Please allow me to thank you on behalf of all my family, since they don't know to whom they are indebted. If you will thank me, let it be for yourself alone. Your family owes me nothing. As much as I respect them, I believe I thought only of you. You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever. Oh, my feelings. My feelings are. A shame to remember what I said then. My feelings are so different. They are quite the opposite. Lady Catherine told me of her meeting with you. I may say that her disclosure had quite the opposite effect to the one she intended. It taught me to hope as I had scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before. I knew that had you absolutely decided against me, you would have acknowledged it openly. Yes, you know enough of my frankness to believe me capable of that. After abusing you so abominably to your face, I could have no scruple in abusing you to all your relation. What did you say of me that I did not deserve? My behavior to you at the time was unpardonable. I can hardly think of it without abhorrence. You're a proof I shall never forget. Had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner, you know not how those words have tortured me. Not the smallest idea there for being taken in such a way. I can easily believe it. You thought me devoid of every proper feeling. I'm sure you did. In turn of your countenance, I shall never forget that you said that I could not have addressed you in any possible way that would induce you to accept me. Do not repeat what I said then. I have been a selfish being all my life. As a child I was given good principles, but was left to follow them in pride and conceit. And such I might still have been, but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth. And, as you may have guessed, at exactly the time when it was quite natural that it should be so, and not a moment sooner, Edmund came to speak the whole delightful and astonishing truth. Fanny, I must confess something. Hmm? I've loved you all my life. I know, Edmund. No, Fanny. As a man loves a woman. As a hero loves a heroine. As I've never loved anyone in my entire life. I'm so anxious to do what is right, that I forgot to do what is right. But if you choose me, after all my blundering and blindness, I'll be a happiness which no description could reach. I did not expect to see you so soon. I rode back this morning. You must have had a wet ride. Yes. I have some news for you. Miss Fairfax and Frank Churchill. I've heard it. I had a letter from Mr Weston and came back directly. You were probably less surprised than anyone. You had your suspicions. I wish I had attended to them. But I seem to have been doomed to blindness. My dearest Emma, time will heal the wound. I cannot tell you what I feel. Abominable scoundrel. He will soon be gone. They will soon be in Yorkshire. I feel sorry for her. She deserves a better fate. You are very kind, but you are mistaken. I have never really been attached to Mr Churchill. I'm sorry if I gave that impression, as I am sure I did. I have very little to say for my own conduct. My vanity was flattered and I allowed his attentions. He never wished to make me fall in love with him. It was a blind to conceal his real situation. He has imposed on me, but he has not injured me. You know, he is a most fortunate man. Everything turns out for his good. He meets a young woman at a watering place, gains her affections, she consents to an engagement. He treats her abominably, she bears it like a saint. His aunt is in the way, his aunt dies. He has used everybody ill and they are all delighted to forgive him. He is a most fortunate man indeed. You speak as if you envied him. I do envy him, Emma. In one respect I envy him very much. You don't wish to know what that is? You are determined, I see, to have no curiosity. I must tell you what you will not ask, though I may wish it unsaid the next moment. Oh, then don't speak it. Take a little time, don't commit yourself. I stopped you ungraciously just then. Yes, I will hear you. If you wish to tell me you are contemplating something, yes, you may speak to me as a friend. As a friend? Emma, that I fear... No, I have gone too far for concealment. Tell me then, have I no chance of ever succeeding? My dearest Emma, for dearest you will always be, tell me at once. Say no if it is to be said. I can't make speeches, Emma. If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more, but you know what I am. You hear nothing but truth from me. I've blamed you, I've lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it. Well, bear with the truth I tell you now. My manners may not have much to recommend them, but you understand me. Yes, you understand my feelings, and you will return them if you can. I can. I do return them. I do love you. I believe I always have, though I didn't know it until yesterday, I think. Then you do consent? I do. I do. This is so strange. I held you in my arms when you were three weeks old. Do you like me as well now as you did then? And my brother, Hayter, they return. Good morning, Mrs Musgrave. Good morning, Mrs Crowley. Oh, they are all gone shopping, Anne. But Henrietta has given me strict instructions to keep you here till they return. Please come and sit with us. Thank you. So, ma'am, all things considered, as Henry Hayter was wild about it, and my daughter pretty near as bad as we thought, let them marry it once and make the best of it. At any rate, said I to Papa, it would be better than a long engagement. I so abominate for young people as a long engagement. Do you know who this is? Oh, it's Captain Benwick. Yes. It was not done for Louisa Musgrave. This was drawn at the Cape for my poor sister. And now I have the charge of getting it set for another. It's too much for me, I confess. So he undertakes it. He's writing instructions to the fraymakers now. Poor Phoebe. She would not have forgotten him so soon. Not in her nature. It would not be in the nature of any woman who truly loved. Do you claim that for your sex? We do not forget you as soon as you forget us. We cannot help ourselves. We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us. You always have business of some sort or other to take you back into the world. I won't allow it to be any more man's nature than women's to be inconstant, or to forget those they love or have loved. I believe the reverse. I believe in... Have you finished your letter? Not quite. A few lines. Let me just observe that all histories are against you. All stories, prose and verse. I don't think I ever opened a book in my life which did not have something to say on women's fickleness. But they were all written by men. I suppose so. If I could only make you understand what a man suffers when he takes a last look at his wife and children and watches the boat that he has sent them off in as long as it's in sight, and then turns away and says, God knows whether we'll ever meet again. If I could only show you the glow of his soul when he does see them once more. When, coming back after a 12-month, perhaps, and obliged to put into another port, he calculates how soon he can get them there, pretending to deceive himself and saying they cannot be here till such a day, but all the while hoping for them 12 hours sooner. And seeing them arrive at last as if heaven had given them wings. I believe you capable of everything great and good so long as, if I may, so long as the woman you love lives, and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex, and it's not a very enviable one, you need not covet it, is that of loving longest when all hope is gone. Dear Frederick, you and I must part company, I believe. One moment, Sophie. But we shall all have the pleasure of meeting again this evening at your party. Harville. Thank you so much. If you're ready, I'm at your service. Good morning, Miss Elliot. Good morning, Henry. Good morning. Now where on earth have Henrietta and Mary got themselves to? Forgive me, Mrs Musgrove. I left my umbrella. Ma. Yes, Captain Wentworth. I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. I may have been weak and resentful, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I have not waited even these ten days, but I have read your feelings. I must go. I'm certain of my fate. I shall return and follow your party as soon as possible. A word, a look will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never. Anne, is something the matter? Look at you. I feel a little faint, Mrs Musgrove. I will go home, if I may. What do you mean, my dear? Go home directly and take care of yourself so you may be fit for this evening. Yes. Charles, go and call a chair. No, no, no, I assure you, Mrs Musgrove, I am well able to walk. Good morning. Charles, I want you to assure Captain Wentworth and Captain Harville that we hope to see them both tonight. It was understood. I'm sure it was understood. I do not think it was understood. They must come. Do you hear? You will see them again this morning. Do promise me you will mention it. You will mention it yourself. Frederick, which way are you going? I hardly know. Are you going near Camden Place? Because if you are, I shall have no scruple in asking you to take Anne's arm to her father's door. She's rather done for this morning, and I do see him eager to be at the gunsmith. He promised me the sight of a capital gun he's just about to send off. Would you like that double barrel of mine which he won't shop with? I shall have time to do it, Charles. I thank you. I tried to forget you. I thought I had. Veloci! L'Africa Nera!