If he will adopt these regulations, in seven years he will be clear; and I hope we may be able to convince him and Elizabeth, that Kellynch Hall has a respectability in itself which cannot be affected by these reductions; and that the true dignity of Sir Walter Elliot will be very far from lessened in the eyes of sensible people, by acting like a man of principle.

What will he be doing, in fact, but what very many of our first families have done, or ought to do?
There will be nothing singular in his case; and it is singularity which often makes the worst part of our suffering, as it always does of our conduct.

I have great hope of prevailing.

We must be serious and decided; for after all, the person who has contracted debts must pay them; and though a great deal is due to the feelings of the gentleman, and the head of a house, like your father, there is still more due to the character of an honest man." This was the principle on which Anne wanted her father to be proceeding, his friends to be urging him.

She considered it as an act of indispensable duty to clear away the claims of creditors with all the expedition which the most comprehensive retrenchments could secure, and saw no dignity in anything short of it.