Persuasion Final Part

Louisa is badly shaken by her fall and is nursed by Mrs Harville.. Anne has to go back to Bath but is relieved that the girl is recovering slowly from her injury. In Bath she visits Mrs Smith and the invalid lady tells her that she herself knew WIlliam Elliot in her younger days. Anne is horrified when Mrs Smith tells her that Elliot behaved very badly towards her and her late husband. He got Mr Smith into debt, then later when she herself was ill and in financial trouble, he refused to help her try and sort out her problems. She tells Anne that she hoped that he might have reformed now that he is older and that he seems to genuinely care for Anne herself. Anne is disappointed by her friend not telling her this earlier but accepts that as a helpless invalid, she is not always able to control her own life. She assures Mrs Smith that she has never cared for William and would not marry him. She meets Charles Musgrove and his family who are staying at an inn, in Bath, buying clothes for Henrietta's wedding. Charles tells her that Louisa is now engaged to James Benwick, that he became friends with her while she was recovering from her injuries and she is now a quieter, gentler girl and Benwick, now recovering from the loss of his fiancee, has fallen in love with her. Wentworth, in the room with the family, writes her a letter telling her that he loves her and never loved Louisa, and they become engaged. They walk through Bath happily. However Elizabeth finds that her friend Mrs Clay has been seeing William Elliott on the sly, and having an affair with him. He and she run off together, and Elizabeth realises that the woman she took as a friend, and the man whom she half hoped to marry, have betrayed her and left her alone. Mrs Clay is sly and ambitious, and she had been hoping to marry Sir Walter, but he did not seem to want to marry her. William however will be the baronet when Sir Walter dies and he has a comfortable fortune and she hopes that from being his mistress she can persuade him to marry her.