"...in time, as much devoted to her husband as it had once been to Willoughby." page 352
Get to know me » Favourite Relationships [03/05] » Colonel Brandon x Marianne Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility)
" . . . that Marianne found her own happiness in forming [Col. Brandon’s] was equally the persuasion and delight of each observing friend. Marianne could never love by halves; and her whole heart became, in time, as much devoted to her husband as it had once been to Willoughby.” Volume III Chapter 50 Page 352
This was such an unsatisfying ending for Marianne. She ends up married to a man she detested. His complaining about his rheumatic pains really irked her. She even says that he is old enough to be her father.
“But at least, Mama, you cannot deny the absurdity of the accusation, though you may not think it intentionally ill-natured. Colonel Brandon is certainly younger than Mrs. Jennings, but he is old enough to be my father; and if he were ever animated enough to be in love, must have long outlived every sensation of the kind. It is too ridiculous! When is a man to be safe from such wit, if age and infirmity will not protect him?”
“Infirmity!” said Elinor, “do you call Colonel Brandon infirm? I can easily suppose that his age may appear much greater to you than to my mother; but you can hardly deceive yourself as to his having the use of his limbs!”
“Did not you hear him complain of the rheumatism? and is not that the commonest infirmity of declining life?”
“My dearest child,” said her mother, laughing, “at this rate you must be in continual terror of my decay; and it must seem to you a miracle that my life has been extended to the advanced age of forty.”
“Mama, you are not doing me justice. I know very well that Colonel Brandon is not old enough to make his friends yet apprehensive of losing him in the course of nature. He may live twenty years longer. But thirty-five has nothing to do with matrimony.” Volume I Chapter 8 Page 39
I really wish that if Jane Austen wanted to marry Marianne off to Brandon, she would have made him a bit younger and more handsome. Ultimately Brandon offers Marianne protection with his estate and title. She ends up with money and security, and in Regency England, those two things were more than enough to find happiness. In those days, it was very normal for women to marry their cousins, or men twice their age, or both. It's good that Marianne found financial security with a man who loved her.