The Crofts have been married for fifteen years and are devoted to each other. During the Admiral's naval career, Sophia traveled all over the world to be with him and they are still inseparable as they settle in at the Hall. Good natured and kind, they take a lively interest in the romantic endeavours of the younger couples around them, especially those of Sophia's brother Frederick. Crucially, the Crofts give Anne, who allowed her family talk her out of marrying a naval officer, an example of a woman who followed her heart- and her husband- around the world and has been happy and content. Frequently in Austen's novels, married couples are ill-matched and/or discontent- think the Bennetts in Pride and Prejudice, or the Palmers in Sense and Sensibility- and it's great to see this pair who are united in heart and mind after many years of marriage.
to Mrs Croft.
"Pretty well, ma'am in the fifteen years of my marriage;
though many women have done more. I have crossed the Atlantic
four times, and have been once to the East Indies, and back again,
and only once; besides being in different places about home:
Cork, and Lisbon, and Gibraltar. But I never went beyond the Streights,
and never was in the West Indies. We do not call Bermuda or Bahama,
you know, the West Indies."
Mrs Musgrove had not a word to say in dissent; she could not accuse herself
of having ever called them anything in the whole course of her life.
"And I do assure you, ma'am," pursued Mrs Croft, "that nothing can exceed
the accommodations of a man-of-war; I speak, you know, of the higher rates.
When you come to a frigate, of course, you are more confined;
though any reasonable woman may be perfectly happy in one of them;
and I can safely say, that the happiest part of my life has been spent
on board a ship. While we were together, you know, there was nothing
to be feared. Thank God! I have always been blessed with
excellent health, and no climate disagrees with me. A little disordered
always the first twenty-four hours of going to sea, but never knew
what sickness was afterwards. The only time I ever really suffered
in body or mind, the only time that I ever fancied myself unwell,
or had any ideas of danger, was the winter that I passed by myself at Deal,
when the Admiral (Captain Croft then) was in the North Seas.
I lived in perpetual fright at that time, and had all manner of
imaginary complaints from not knowing what to do with myself,
or when I should hear from him next; but as long as we could be together,
nothing ever ailed me, and I never met with the smallest inconvenience."
- Jane Austen, Persuasion