Mr Elliot and Mrs Clay leave Bath
The departure of Mr Elliot and Mrs Clay from Bath forms the final unraveling of the novel's secondary plot, exposing the full extent of Mr Elliot's duplicity and Mrs Clay's ambition. Their simultaneous exit, each having pursued a separate but intersecting scheme, resolves the threat to Sir Walter's domestic peace and removes the last obstacles to Anne Elliot's union with Captain Wentworth.
Background and Motives
Mr William Walter Elliot, the heir presumptive to the Kellynch baronetcy, had returned to Bath with a calculated purpose. Having long ago spurned Sir Walter's family—refusing an introduction to Elizabeth, marrying a woman of inferior birth for her fortune, and speaking contemptuously of the Elliot name—he now sought reconciliation. His motive, as revealed by Mrs Smith, was not affection but self-interest: he had learned that Mrs Clay, a clever and insinuating widow, was angling to become the next Lady Elliot. If Sir Walter remarried and produced a son, Mr Elliot would lose the inheritance. To prevent this, he ingratiated himself with Sir Walter and Elizabeth, presenting himself as a reformed and dutiful relation, while secretly working to undermine Mrs Clay's influence. His attentions to Anne, which Lady Russell mistook for genuine attachment, were merely a secondary tactic to secure his position within the family.
Mrs Clay, meanwhile, had her own designs. A woman of acute mind and pleasing manners, she had made herself indispensable to Elizabeth and had gained Sir Walter's favour. Her freckles and projecting tooth, which Sir Walter openly derided, did not prevent her from cultivating his good opinion. She had stayed in Camden Place since September, and Sir Walter had grown so accustomed to her presence that he pressed her to remain even after Anne's arrival. Her ambition was to become Lady Elliot, a goal that Mr Elliot's return directly threatened.
The Double Game and Its Exposure
Mr Elliot played a double game with considerable skill. He presented himself to Sir Walter and Elizabeth as a devoted cousin, apologizing for his past neglect and praising the family's dignity. To Anne, he hinted at a deeper interest, speaking of her with mysterious admiration and suggesting that he had long known her by report. But his true object was to watch Mrs Clay and prevent her from securing Sir Walter. He called at all hours, threw himself in their way, and cultivated the friendship of Colonel Wallis, whose wife's nurse, Mrs Rooke, passed information to Mrs Smith. Through this chain, Anne learned that Mr Elliot had been warned by Colonel Wallis of Mrs Clay's designs and had returned to Bath specifically to counteract them.
The crisis came when Anne, having heard from Mrs Smith the full truth of Mr Elliot's character—his cold-blooded treatment of his first wife, his betrayal of his friend Charles Smith, and his ruthless pursuit of self-interest—saw him in conference with Mrs Clay near the Pump Room. Though he had claimed to be leaving Bath for the day, he was seen deep in conversation with her, a meeting that Anne rightly suspected involved some mutual understanding. The revelation of Mr Elliot's hypocrisy, combined with his jealousy of Captain Wentworth, drove him to abandon his scheme.
The Departure and Its Consequences
Mr Elliot left Bath soon after Anne's engagement to Captain Wentworth became known. His plan to keep Sir Walter single by the watchfulness a son-in-law's rights would have given was deranged. Discomfited and disappointed, he could still act for his own interest and enjoyment. Mrs Clay followed shortly afterward, and the next news of her placed her under Mr Elliot's protection in London. It was evident how double a game he had been playing: he had saved himself from being cut out by one artful woman by taking her for himself. Mrs Clay's affections had overpowered her interest; she sacrificed the possibility of scheming longer for Sir Walter for the young man's sake. Whether his cunning or hers would finally carry the day—whether, after preventing her from being the wife of Sir Walter, he might be wheedled and caressed into making her the wife of Sir William—remained a doubtful point.
Sir Walter and Elizabeth were shocked and mortified by the loss of their companion and the discovery of her deception. They had their great cousins, Lady Dalrymple and Miss Carteret, to resort to for comfort, but they must long feel that to flatter and follow others without being flattered and followed in turn is but a state of half enjoyment. For Anne, the departure removed the last source of unease. Mr Elliot's attentions had been a torment to Captain Wentworth, who had been jealous of him from their first meeting in Milsom Street. With Mr Elliot gone, and Mrs Clay's influence ended, the path was clear for Anne's happiness. The event thus serves as the final clearing of the stage, allowing the novel's central romance to reach its resolution without further interference from the machinations of selfishness and duplicity.
