persuade

Lady Russell: Anne! Who is Admiral Croft? And why does he cause you to be out of countenance so?... Anne.

Anne Elliot: Admiral Croft's wife is... is...

Lady Russell: Mrs. Croft.

Anne Elliot: Indeed. And Mrs. Croft is the sister of Captain... Frederick Wentworth.

Lady Russell: Wentworth? I see. I see.

Anne Elliot: To think that soon he may be walking through this house.

Lady Russell: Anne, you know that your father thought it a most unsuitable match. He would never have countenanced an alliance he deemed so degrading.

Anne Elliot: He was not alone, as I recall.

Lady Russell: My dear, to become engaged at 19, in the middle of a war, to a young naval officer who had no fortune and no expectations. You would indeed have been throwing yourself away. And I should have been failing in my duty as your godmother if I did not counsel against it. You were young, and it was entirely prudent to break off the understanding.

Sir Walter Elliot: Come, come, Anne! We must not be late. You cannot have forgotten we have an invitation from Lady Dalrymple.

Anne Elliot: I regret I am already engaged to spend the evening with an old school-friend.

Elizabeth Elliot: Not that sickly old widow in Westgate-buildings?

Anne Elliot: Mrs Smith. Yes.

Sir Walter Elliot: Smith? Westgate building?

Mrs. Clay: Excuse me.

Sir Walter Elliot: And who, pray, is Mrs Smith? One of the five thousand Smiths that are everywhere to be met with? Upon my word, Miss Anne Elliot, you have the most extraordinary taste. To place such a person ahead of your own family connections among the nobility of England and Ireland. Mrs Smith!

Anne Elliot: Perhaps she is not the only poor widow in Bath with little to live on and no surname of dignity. Good evening.