Mr William Walter Elliot and Sir Walter Elliot's reconciliation

The reconciliation between Mr William Walter Elliot and Sir Walter Elliot, after years of estrangement, was not a genuine family rapprochement but a calculated maneuver driven by Mr Elliot's self-interest. Having long disdained the family honours he was heir to, he now sought to secure his position as the future baronet and to prevent Sir Walter from making a degrading second marriage to Mrs Clay. The process of this reconciliation, its underlying motives, and its eventual collapse form a significant subplot in the novel, revealing the depths of Mr Elliot's duplicity and contrasting sharply with the honest affections of Captain Frederick Wentworth.

Background and Estrangement

Mr Elliot, the heir presumptive to the Kellynch baronetcy, had a long history of neglect and disrespect towards Sir Walter's family. As a very young man studying law, he had been introduced to Elizabeth Elliot, then in her first bloom, and was encouraged by both Sir Walter and Elizabeth. He was invited to Kellynch Hall and expected, but he never came. The following spring he was again seen in town, found equally agreeable, and again encouraged, but he did not come. The next tidings were that he had married a rich woman of inferior birth, purchasing independence rather than pushing his fortune in the line marked out for the heir of the house of Elliot. Sir Walter resented this, feeling he ought to have been consulted, especially after taking the young man so publicly by the hand. Mr Elliot made no apology and showed himself unsolicitous of being longer noticed by the family. All acquaintance between them ceased. The estrangement was deepened when, through the intervention of kind friends, the Elliots learned that Mr Elliot had spoken most disrespectfully of them all, most slightingly and contemptuously of the very blood he belonged to and the honours which were hereafter to be his own. This could not be pardoned. For many years, Sir Walter and Elizabeth considered the connection closed, and Mr Elliot's name was a source of irritation in Camden Place.

The Reconciliation in Bath

The reconciliation was initiated by Mr Elliot upon his arrival in Bath, where Sir Walter and his family had recently settled. He had passed through Bath in November on his way to London, but had not been able to avail himself of the intelligence of Sir Walter's being settled there. However, a fortnight later, his first object on arriving in Bath was to leave his card in Camden Place. He followed this up with assiduous endeavours to meet the family, and when they did meet, he displayed great openness of conduct, a readiness to apologize for the past, and a solicitude to be received as a relation again. Their former good understanding was completely re-established. He explained away all the appearance of neglect on his own side, claiming it had originated in misapprehension entirely. He had never had an idea of throwing himself off; he had feared that he was thrown off, but knew not why, and delicacy had kept him silent. Upon the hint of having spoken disrespectfully or carelessly of the family and the family honours, he was quite indignant, boasting of ever being an Elliot and claiming his feelings as to connection were only too strict to suit the unfeudal tone of the present day. The circumstances of his marriage were also found to admit of much extenuation, as his friend Colonel Wallis explained that his wife, though not of family, was well educated, accomplished, rich, and excessively in love with him, and that she had sought him. Sir Walter seemed to admit this as a complete apology, and Elizabeth allowed it to be a great extenuation. Mr Elliot called repeatedly, dined with them once, and placed his whole happiness in being on intimate terms in Camden Place.

The True Motives Revealed

Anne Elliot, however, was never fully satisfied with the reconciliation. She sensed there was something more than immediately appeared in Mr Elliot's wishing, after an interval of so many years, to be well received by them. In a worldly view, he had nothing to gain by being on terms with Sir Walter, as he was already probably the richer of the two, and the Kellynch estate would as surely be his hereafter as the title. She could only offer one solution: it was, perhaps, for Elizabeth's sake. The truth, however, was far more calculating. Mrs Smith, an old friend of Anne's who had known Mr Elliot intimately, revealed his true character. She explained that time had worked a very material change in Mr Elliot's opinions as to the value of a baronetcy. Having long had as much money as he could spend, he had been gradually learning to pin his happiness upon the consequence he was heir to. He could not bear the idea of not being Sir William. When his friend Colonel Wallis informed him that Mrs Clay, a clever, insinuating woman staying with Sir Walter, was generally believed to be aiming to become Lady Elliot, Mr Elliot resolved to return to Bath and fix himself there. His constant object was to watch Sir Walter and Mrs Clay, to circumvent the lady if he found it material. He omitted no opportunity of being with them, throwing himself in their way and calling at all hours. His attentions to Anne, which began after he saw her at Lyme, were a secondary motive, but his primary goal was to prevent Sir Walter from marrying Mrs Clay and thus endangering his own inheritance.

Collapse and Aftermath

The reconciliation was ultimately shattered by the revelation of Mr Elliot's true character and by Anne's engagement to Captain Wentworth. Anne, having learned from Mrs Smith of Mr Elliot's cold-blooded, designing nature, and having seen a letter he had written years earlier in which he spoke contemptuously of Sir Walter and the family name, could no longer tolerate his presence. The news of Anne's engagement burst on Mr Elliot most unexpectedly, deranging his best plan of domestic happiness and his best hope of keeping Sir Walter single by the watchfulness which a son-in-law's rights would have given. Though discomfited and disappointed, he could still do something for his own interest and enjoyment. He soon quitted Bath, and on Mrs Clay's quitting it soon afterwards, and being next heard of as established under his protection in London, it was evident how double a game he had been playing, and how determined he was to save himself from being cut out by one artful woman, at least. Mrs Clay's affections had overpowered her interest, and she had sacrificed, for the young man's sake, the possibility of scheming longer for Sir Walter. It remains a doubtful point whether his cunning or hers may finally carry the day, whether, after preventing her from being the wife of Sir Walter, he may not be wheedled and caressed at last into making her the wife of Sir William. Sir Walter and Elizabeth were shocked and mortified by the loss of their companion and the discovery of their deception in her.