Chapter 16 is a happy affair.
"Mr. and Mrs. Morland's surprise on being applied to by Mr. Tilney, for their consent to his marrying their daughter, was, for a few minutes considerable; it having never entered their heads to suspect an attachment on either side; but as nothing, after all, could be more natural than Catherine's being beloved, they soon learnt to consider it with only the happy agitation of gratified pride, and, as far as they alone were concerned, had not a single objection to start" (Austen 210).
Eleanor married first. Then, a year after they had met, Mr. Henry Tilney and Miss Catherine Morland were married, "the bells rang and every body smiled" (Austen 212).
The books ends with: "To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of twenty-six and eighteen, is to do pretty well; and professing myself moreover convinced, that the General's unjust interference, so far from being really injurious to their felicity, was perhaps rather conducive to it, by improving their knowledge of each other, and adding strength to their attachment, I leave it to be settled by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience" (Austen 213).
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