She found him, however, perfectly the gentleman in his behaviour to all his visitors, and only occasionally rude to his wife and her mother; she found him very capable of being a pleasant companion, and only prevented from being so always, by too great an aptitude to fancy himself as much superior to people in general, as he must feel himself to be to Mrs. Jennings and Charlotte. For the rest of his character and habits, they were marked, as far as Elinor could perceive, with no traits at all unusual in his sex and time of life. * He was nice in his eating, uncertain in his hours; * fond of his child, though affecting to slight it; * and idled away the mornings at billiards, which ought to have been devoted to business. She liked him, however, upon the whole, much better than she had expected, and in her heart was not sorry that she could like him no more; not sorry to be driven by the observation of his Epicurism, his selfishness, and his conceit, to rest with complacency on the remembrance of Edward’s generous temper, simple taste,
De Edward, o al menos de algunas de sus cosas, recibió noticias ahora por medio del coronel Brandon, quien había estado últimamente en Dorsetshire; y este, tratándola a la vez como a la amiga desinteresada del señor Ferrars y como a la benévola confidente de sus propios asuntos, le habló mucho de la rectoría de Delaford, le describió sus deficiencias y le contó lo que él mismo se proponía hacer para subsanarlas. Su comportamiento con ella en esto, así como en cualquier otro aspecto, su evidente satisfacción al reencontrarse con ella tras una ausencia de solo diez días, su disposición para conversar con ella y su deferencia hacia su opinión, bien podrían haber justificado la convicción que tenía la señora Jennings de su afecto, y habrían sido suficientes, tal vez, si Elinor no hubiese seguido creyendo, como desde el principio, que Marianne era su verdadera favorita, para hacer que ella misma lo sospechara.