Swept off her Feet
Marianne Dashwood sprains an ankle, but help is at hand.
1811
Introduction
Marianne Dashwood - young, impressionable and dangerously romantic - has gone for a walk with her younger sister Margaret, leaving her mother and older sister Elinor at home. On the way back she has slipped and sprained her ankle, but fortunately a young gentleman is there to offer her a helping hand.
abridged
A GENTLEMAN carrying a gun, with two pointers playing round him, was passing up the hill and within a few yards of Marianne, when her accident happened. He put down his gun and ran to her assistance. She had raised herself from the ground, but her foot had been twisted in her fall, and she was scarcely able to stand. The gentleman offered his services; and passing through the garden, the gate of which had been left open by Margaret, he bore her directly into the house.
Elinor and her mother rose up in amazement at their entrance, and while the eyes of both were fixed on him with an evident wonder he apologized for his intrusion by relating its cause. Had he been even old, ugly, and vulgar, the gratitude and kindness of Mrs. Dashwood would have been secured by any act of attention to her child; but the influence of youth, beauty, and elegance, gave an interest to the action which came home to her feelings.*
abridged
Abridged from ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (1811) by Jane Austen (1775-1817).
Compare Jane Eyre’s first encounter with Mr Rochester in Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre’, in A Perfect Combination of Imperfections.