This was the principle on which Anne wanted her father to be proceeding,
his friends to be urging him. She considered it as an act
of indispensable duty to clear away the claims of creditors with
all the expedition which the most comprehensive retrenchments
could secure, and saw no dignity in anything short of it.
She wanted it to be prescribed, and felt as a duty. She rated
Lady Russell's influence highly; and as to the severe degree
of self-denial which her own conscience prompted, she believed
there might be little more difficulty in persuading them to a complete,
than to half a reformation. Her knowledge of her father
and Elizabeth inclined her to think that the sacrifice of one pair
of horses would be hardly less painful than of both, and so on,
through the whole list of Lady Russell's too gentle reductions.

How Anne's more rigid requisitions might have been taken
is of little consequence. Lady Russell's had no success at all:
could not be put up with, were not to be borne. "What! every comfort
of life knocked off! Journeys, London, servants, horses, table--
contractions and restrictions every where! To live no longer
with the decencies even of a private gentleman! No, he would sooner
quit Kellynch Hall at once, than remain in it on such disgraceful terms."

"Quit Kellynch Hall." The hint was immediately taken up by Mr Shepherd,
whose interest was involved in the reality of Sir Walter's retrenching,
and who was perfectly persuaded that nothing would be done without
a change of abode. "Since the idea had been started in the very quarter
which ought to dictate, he had no scruple," he said, "in confessing
his judgement to be entirely on that side. It did not appear to him
that Sir Walter could materially alter his style of living in a house
which had such a character of hospitality and ancient dignity to support.