Chapter 6 of 27 · 2'10"
Dinner at Barton Park turns into a guessing game. Mrs. Jennings teases Marianne about a secret admirer, Sir John proposes the absent Colonel Brandon as "the most eligible bachelor in the county," and the table tries to force out the name. Marianne gives one clue only: "his name begins with an F."
Mrs. Jennings Proposes Brandon
The Table Guesses the Man's Name
At dinner at Barton Park, Mrs. Jennings and Sir John tease Marianne about the man she may be in love with, and joke that Colonel Brandon is the best match in the county. When the table presses her for a name, Marianne offers only that it begins with F, and everyone starts guessing.
The scene is a comedy of manners with a small sting in it. The Dashwood sisters are new to Barton Park, and the Middletons make a sport of their private lives. Mrs. Jennings means no real harm, but she tells Marianne plainly that 'we none of us have any secrets here,' and the table treats her heart like an open puzzle to be solved. The guessing game with the letter F keeps the tone light, but it also shows how little privacy a young woman without fortune can expect. Marianne answers with wit — comparing her questioner to a pointer dog — while the quiet sister in the room is left to watch. What looks like friendly teasing is also the neighborhood measuring the sisters' eligibility.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“Colonel Brandon is the most eligible bachelor in the county.”
One sentence prices a man's whole worth on the marriage market without ever naming money.
Neutral
“You're in lonely country now. We none of us have any secrets here.”
It welcomes her with loneliness and then promises there will be no privacy at all.
Informal
“You know perfectly well there is no such person.”
It refuses to play along, exposing the game with a calm, final certainty.
Neutral
“If we do, we do not keep them long.”
A short, wry confession that in a small place nothing stays hidden for long.
Informal
“- Yes, indeed. - He's bound to do for one of you.”
Matchmaking dressed up as fate: he is bound to end up with one of you.
Informal
Up next · 07on what groundsThe scene: Mrs. Jennings Tells Brandon's StoryShe treats the sisters' romances as her own entertainment. She tells Marianne that no one at Barton Park keeps secrets, and presses her for a name.
Colonel Brandon. She calls him the most eligible bachelor in the county and says he is bound to do for one of the sisters.
Only that his name begins with an F. The table then runs through names like Foster, Forrest, and Foggarty.
It means a single man who is considered a suitable match, usually because of his fortune and position. Mrs. Jennings applies it to Colonel Brandon.
Marianne asks to play the pianoforte, Sir John agrees readily, and he says he cannot remember when they last had a songbird there.
