People: Elinor and Marianne
Text: Elinor and Marianne continued to discuss the situation. The letter from Willoughby was gone over again and again. Each time, the sisters attempted to see the Willoughby that they had known back home in its contents. It appeared to be written by a stranger and not a man who had so passionately given his time and attention to Marianne for weeks.
Elinor walked from the fire to the window and from the window to the fire. She paid attention to neither. The sisters wondered if there was any way to justify the actions and attitudes of the writer of the letter.
“It is too much! Oh! Willoughby, Willoughby, could this be yours?! Cruel, cruel-nothing can acquit you. Elinor, nothing can. Whatever he might have heard against me-ought he not to have suspended his belief? Ought he not to have told me of it, to have given me the power of clearing myself? ‘The lock of hair (repeating it from the letter) which you so obligingly bestowed on me.’ That is unpardonable. Willoughby, where was your heart, when you wrote those words? Oh! Barbarously insolent! Elinor, can he be justified?”
“No, Marianne, in no possible way.”
“And yet this woman-who knows what her art may have been! Whom did I ever hear him talk of as young and attractive among his female acquaintance? Oh! No one, no one-he talked only of myself.”
Another pause ensued; Marianne was greatly agitated, and it ended thus.
“Elinor, I must go home. I must go and comfort mama. Cannot we be gone tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow, Marianne! It would be impossible to go tomorrow. We owe Mrs. Jennings much more than civility; and civility of the commonest kind must prevent such a hasty removal as that.”
Emotion: heartache
Insight: Psalm 55:12,13,14,22 speak of a similar offense, “For it is not an enemy who taunts me-then I could bear it-But it was you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We took sweet counsel together…cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you…”
So often when we are wounded at the hand of a friend, hurt by someone we are close to, we seek some explanation. We want to give the benefit of the doubt. Both Elinor and Marianne peruse the letter several times trying to find a way to justify the attitude and behavior of Willoughby. But the conclusion is that no justification can be found.
This man in Psalm fifty-five was also hurt by someone he loved and trusted, someone that he had experienced sweet fellowship with. The psalmist is just as surprised by his wound as Marianne is of hers. Marianne who had given Willoughby her passionate soul found that same soul crushed by an uncaring man. But the psalmist has a solution: “Cast your burden on the LORD.” By taking what we don’t understand to the One Who understands everything, we can find solace and healing. Life is harsh. But may we hone the practice of casting our burdens on the One Who is strong enough to heal us.
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