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CHAPTER XIX . Edward remained a week at the cottage ; he was earnestly pressed by Mrs . Dashwood to stay longer ; but , as if he were bent only on self - mortification , he seemed resolved to be gone when his enjoyment among his friends was at the height . His spirits , during the last two or three days , though still very unequal , were greatly improved — he grew more and more partial to the house and environs — never spoke of going away without a sigh — declared his time to be wholly disengaged — even doubted to what place he should go when he left them — but still , go he must . Never had any week passed so quickly — he could hardly believe it to be gone . He said so repeatedly ; other things he said too , which marked the turn of his feelings and gave the lie to his actions . He had no pleasure at Norland ; he detested being in town ; but either to Norland or London , he must go . He valued their kindness beyond any thing , and his greatest happiness was in being with them . Yet , he must leave them at the end of a week , in spite of their wishes and his own , and without any restraint on his time . Elinor placed all that was astonishing in this way of acting to his mother’s account ; and it was happy for her that he had a mother whose character was so imperfectly known to her , as to be the general excuse for every thing strange on the part of her son . Disappointed , however , and vexed as she was , and sometimes displeased with his uncertain behaviour to herself , she was very well disposed on the whole to regard his actions with all the candid allowances and generous qualifications , which had been rather more painfully extorted from her , for Willoughby’s service , by her mother . His want of spirits , of openness , and of consistency , were most usually attributed to his want of independence , and his better knowledge of Mrs . Ferrars’s disposition and designs . The shortness of his visit , the steadiness of his purpose in leaving them , originated in the same fettered inclination , the same inevitable necessity of temporizing with his mother . The old well - established grievance of duty against will , parent against child , was the cause of all . She would have been glad to know when these difficulties were to cease , this opposition was to yield , — when Mrs . Ferrars would be reformed , and her son be at liberty to be happy . But from such vain wishes she was forced to turn for comfort to the renewal of her confidence in Edward’s affection , to the remembrance of every mark of regard in look or word which fell from him while at Barton , and above all to that flattering proof of it which he constantly wore round his finger .
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