Tonight, we shall read the next part to “Persuasion”, the last novel fully completed by Jane Austen, and published in 1817. The story concerns Anne Elliot, an Englishwoman whose family moves in order to lower their expenses and reduce their debt, by renting their home to an Admiral and his wife. 

In the last episode, we find Anne obliged to go on what should be a very awkward walk through the countryside with her sister Mary, their cousins Henrietta and Louisa, her brother-in-law Charles, and Captain Wentworth. We observe the degree to which Captain Wentworth prizes conviction and loyalty in a woman in reaction to how Anne had allowed herself to be persuaded against him eight years earlier. Their long walk seems random but when they reach the grounds of the cousin’s relation’s The Hayter’s home, Henrietta and Charles go in to visit while the rest of the party stay out in the woods to enjoy the fresh air. Anne rests quietly while the others go walking around. She accidentally ends up privy to a conversation between Louisa and Captain Wentworth where Louisa gives the captain an example of her sister being indecisive towards her old lover Charles Hayter, and the captain uses this as an example of what he most abhors. We will pick up in this private conversation. 

— read by 'V' —

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