Dramatis personae of Mansfield Park. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Dramatis personae. Mrs. Norris, read by Beth Thomas. Lady Bertram, read by Tina Jong-Link. Sir Thomas Bertram, read by Bruce Peary. Edmund Bertram, read by MB. Fanny Price, read by Arielle Lipshaw. Julia Bertram, read by Elizabeth Barr. Mariah Bertram, by Tina Dan. Mrs. Grant, read by Malaine. Henry Crawford, read by Peter Bishop. Mary Crawford, read by Elizabeth Clatt. Tom Bertram, read by Marty Criss. Mr. Rushworth, read by Algy Pug. Dr. Grant, read by Ernst Patinama. Coachman, read by Marty Criss. Mrs. Rushworth, read by Philippa. John Yates, by Max Schirlinger. William Price, read by Brett Downey. Badalé, read by Marty Criss. Rebecca, read by Dana Meilinger. Sam, read by Marty Criss. Susan Price, read by Susanna. Mrs. Price, read by Janet Carl. Mr. Price, read by Marty Criss. And Narrated by Elizabeth Clatt. End of Dramatist Persona. Chapter 1 of Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. About 30 years ago, Miss Mariah Ward of Huntingdon with only seven thousand pounds had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram of Mansfield Park in the county of Northampton and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet's lady with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match and her uncle, the lawyer, himself allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation, and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Francis, quite as handsome as Miss Mariah, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them. Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Reverend Mr. Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any private fortune, and Miss Francis fared yet worse. Miss Ward's match, indeed, when it came to the point was not contemptible. Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an income in the living of Mansfield, and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year. But Miss Francis married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family and by fixing on a lieutenant of marines without education, fortune, or connections, did it very thoroughly. She could hardly have made a more untoward choice. Sir Thomas Bertram had interest, which from principle as well as pride, from a general wish of doing right, and a desire of seeing all that were connected with him in situations of respectability, he would have been glad to exert for the advantage of Lady Bertram's sister. But her husband's profession was such as no interest could reach, and before he had time to devise any other method of assisting them, an absolute breach between the sisters had taken place. It was the natural result of the conduct of each party, and such as a very imprudent marriage almost always produces. To save herself from useless remonstrance, Mrs. Price never wrote to her family on the subject till actually married. Lady Bertram, who was a woman of very tranquil feelings and a temper remarkably easy and indolent, would have contended herself with merely giving up her sister and thinking no more of the matter. But Mrs. Norris had a spirit of activity which could not be satisfied till she had written a long and angry letter to Fanny to point out the folly of her conduct and threaten her with all its possible ill consequences. Mrs. Price, in her turn, was injured and angry, and an answer which comprehended each sister in its bitterness and bestowed such very disrespectful reflections on the pride of Sir Thomas and Mrs. Norris could not possibly keep to herself, put an end to all intercourse between them for a considerable period. Their homes were so distant, and the circles in which they moved so distinct as almost to preclude the means of ever hearing of each other's existence during the following eleven years, or at least to make it very wonderful to Sir Thomas that Mrs. Norris should ever have it in her power to tell them, as she now and then did, in an angry voice, that Fanny had got another child. By the end of eleven years, however, Mrs. Price could no longer afford to cherish pride or resentment or to lose one connection that might possibly assist her. A large and still increasing family, a husband disabled for active service but not the less equal to company and good liquor, and a very small income to supply their wants, made her eager to regain the friend she had so carelessly sacrificed, and she addressed Lady Bertram in a letter which spoke so much contrition and despondence, such a superfluity of children, and such a want of almost everything else, as could not but dispose them all to a reconciliation. She was preparing for her ninth lying in, and after bewailing the circumstance and employing their countenance as sponsors to the expected child, she could not conceal how important she felt they might be to the future maintenance of the Eight already in being. Her eldest was a boy of ten years old, a fine-spirited fellow who longed to be out in the world, but what could she do? Was there any chance of his being hereafter useful to Sir Thomas in the concerns of his West Indian property? No situation would be beneath him. What did Sir Thomas think of Woolwich, or how could a boy be sent out to the East? The letter was not unproductive, it re-established peace and kindness. Sir Thomas sent friendly advice and professions, Lady Bertram dispatched money and baby linen, and Mrs. Norris wrote the letters. Such were its immediate effects, and within a twelve-month, a more important advantage to Mrs. Price resulted from it. Norris was often observing to the others that she could not get her poor sister and her family out of her head, and that, much as they had all done for her, she seemed to be wanting to do more, and at length she could not but own it to be her wish that poor Mrs. Price should be relieved from the charge and expense of one child entirely out of her great number. What if they were among them to undertake the care of her eldest daughter, a girl now nine years old, of an age to require more attention than her poor mother could possibly give? The trouble and expense of it to them would be nothing compared to the benevolence of the action. Lady Bertram agreed with her instantly. I think we cannot do better, said she. Let us send for the child. Sir Thomas could not give so instantaneous and unqualified a consent. He debated and hesitated. It was a serious charge. A girl so brought up must be adequately provided for, or there would be cruelty instead of kindness in taking her from her family. It was not of his own four children, of his two sons, of cousins in love, etc., but no sooner had he deliberately begun to state his objections than Mrs. Norris interrupted him with a reply to them all, whether stated or not. My dear Sir Thomas, I perfectly comprehend you and do justice to the generosity and delicacy of your notions, which indeed are quite of a piece with your general conduct, and I entirely agree with you in the main, priority of doing everything one could by way of providing for a child one had in a manner taken into one's own hands, and I'm sure I should be the last person in the world to withhold my might upon such an occasion. Having no children of my own, who should I look to in any little matter I may ever have to bestow but the children of my sisters? And I'm sure Mr. Norris is too just, but you know, I am a woman of few words and professions, do not let us be frightened from a good deed by a trifle, give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and tend to one, but she has the means of settling well without further expense to anybody. A niece of ours, Sir Thomas, I may say, or at least of yours, would not grow up in this neighbourhood without many advantages. I don't say she would be so handsome as her cousins, I dare say she would not, but she would be introduced into the society of this country under such very favourable circumstances as an all-human probability would get her a creditable establishment. You are thinking of your sons, but do you not know that of all things upon the earth, that is the least likely to happen? Brought up as they would be, always together like brothers and sisters? It is morally impossible. I never knew an instance of it. It is in fact the only sure way of providing against the connection. Suppose her a pretty girl and seen by Tom or Edmund for the first time seven years hence, and I dare say there would be Miss Giff. The very idea of her having then suffered to grow up at a distance from us all in poverty and neglect would be enough to make either of the dear, sweet-tempered boys in love with her, but breed her up with them from this time, and suppose her even to have the beauty of an angel, as she will never be more to either than a sister. There is a great deal of truth in what you say. Replied, Sir Thomas. And far be it from me to throw any fanciful impediment in the way of a plan which would be so consistent with the relative situations of each. I only meant to observe that it ought not to be lightly engaged in, and that to make it really serviceable to Mrs. Price and creditable to ourselves, we must secure to the child or consider ourselves engaged to secure to her hereafter, as circumstances may arise, the provision of a gentlewoman, if no such establishment should offer, as you are so sanguine in expecting. I thoroughly understand you," cried Mrs. Norris. You are everything that is generous and considerate, and I am sure we shall never disagree on this point. Whatever I can do, as you well know, I am always ready enough to do for the good of those I love, and though I could never feel for this little girl the hundredth part of the regard I bear your own dear children, nor consider her in any respect so much my own, I should hate myself if I were capable of neglecting her. Is she not a sister's child? And could I bear to see her want while I had a bitter bread to give her? My dear Sir Thomas, with all my faults I have a warm heart, and poor as I am I would rather deny myself the necessaries of life than do an ungenerous thing. So, if you are not against it, I will write to my poor sister tomorrow and make the proposal, and as soon as matters are settled, I will engage to get the child to Mansfield. You shall have no trouble about it. My own trouble, you know, I never regard. I will send Nanny to London on purpose, and she may have a bed at her cousin the Saddlers and the child be appointed to meet her there. They may easily get her from Portsmouth to town by the coach, under the care of any creditable person that may chance to be going. I dare say there's always some reputable tradesman's wife or other going up. Except to the attack on Nanny's cousin, Sir Thomas no longer made any objection, and a more respectable, though less economical rendezvous being accordingly substituted, everything was considered as settled, and the pleasures of so benevolent a scheme were already enjoyed. The division of gratifying sensations ought not, in strict justice, to have been equal. For Sir Thomas was fully resolved to be the real and consistent patron of the selected child, and Mrs. Norris had not the least intention of being at any expense whatever in her maintenance. As far as walking, talking, and contriving reached, she was thoroughly benevolent, and nobody knew better how to dictate liberality to others, but her love of money was equal to her love of directing, and she knew quite as well how to save her own as to spend that of her friends. Having married on a narrower income than she had been used to look forward to, she had from the first fancied a very strict line of economy necessary, and what was begun as a matter of prudence soon grew into a matter of choice, as an object of that needful solicitude which there were no children to supply. Had there been a family to provide for, Mrs. Norris might never have saved her money, but having no care of that kind there was nothing to impede her frugality or lessen the comfort of making a yearly addition to an income which they had never lived up to. Under this infatuating principle counteracted by no real affection for her sister, it was impossible for her to aim at more than the credit of projecting and arranging so expensive a charity. Though perhaps she might so little know herself as to walk home to the parsonage after this conversation in the happy belief of being the most liberal-minded sister and aunt in the world. When the subject was brought forward again, her views were more fully explained, and in reply to Lady Bertram's calm inquiry of Where shall the child come to first, sister? To you or to us? Sir Thomas heard with some surprise that it would be totally out of Mrs. Norris's power to take any share in the personal charge of her. He had been considering her as a particularly welcome addition at the parsonage, as a desirable companion to an aunt who had no children of her own, but he found himself wholly mistaken. Mrs. Norris was sorry to say that the little girl staying with them, at least as things then were, was quite out of the question. Poor Mr. Norris's indifferent state of health made it an impossibility. He could no more bear the noise of a child than he could fly. If indeed he should ever get well of his gouty complaints, it would be a different matter. He would be glad to take her turn and think nothing of the inconvenience, but just now poor Mr. Norris took up every moment of her time, and the very mention of such a thing she was sure would distract him. Then she had better come to us, said Lady Bertram, with the utmost composure. After a short pause Sir Thomas added with dignity, Yes. Let her home be in this house. We will endeavour to do our duty by her, and she will at least have the advantage of companions of her own age and of a regular instructress. Very true. Cried Mrs. Norris. Which are both very important considerations, and it will be just the same to Miss Lee whether she has three girls to teach her only two. There can be no difference. I only wish I could be more useful, but you see I do all in my power. I am not one of those that spare their own trouble, and nanny shall fetch her. However it may put me to inconvenience that she will be away for three days. I suppose, sister, you will put the child in the little white attic near the old nurseries. It will be much the best place for her so near Miss Lee and not far from the girls, and close by the housemates who could either of them help to dress her, you know, and take care of her clothes, for I suppose you would not think it fair to expect Ellis to wait on her as well as the others. Indeed I do not see that you could possibly place her anywhere else. Lady Bertram made no objection. I hope she will prove a well-disposed girl. Continued Mrs. Norris. And be sensible of her uncommon good fortune in having such friends. Should her disposition be really bad? Said Sir Thomas. We must not, for our own children's sake, continue her in the family. But there is no reason to expect so great an evil. We shall probably see much to wish altered in her, and must prepare ourselves for gross ignorance, some meanness of opinions, and very distressing vulgarity of manner, but there is no reason to expect so great an evil. We shall probably see much to wish altered in her, some missing vulgarity of manner, but these are not incurable faults. Nor I trust can they be dangerous for her associates. Had my daughter's been younger than herself, I should have considered the introduction of such a companion as a matter of very serious moment. But, as it is, I hope there can be nothing to fear for them, and everything to hope for her from the association. That is exactly what I think. Cried Mrs. Norris. Cried what I was saying to my husband this morning. It will be an education for the child that I only being with her cousins. If Miss Lee taught her nothing, she would learn to be good and clever from them. I hope she will not tease my poor pug. Sad Lady Bertram. I have but just got Julia to leave it alone. There will be some difficulty in our way, Mrs. Norris. Observed, Sir Thomas. As to the distinction proper between the girls as they grow up. How to preserve in the minds of my daughters the consciousness of what they are without making them think too lowly of their cousin. And how, without depressing her spirits too far, to make her remember that she is not a Miss Bertram. I should wish to see them very good friends and would on no account authorise in my girls the smallest degree of arrogance towards their relation. But still they cannot be equals. Their rank, fortune, rights and expectations will always be different. It is a point of great delicacy and you must assist us in our endeavours to choose exactly the right line of conduct. Mrs. Norris was quite at his service. And though she perfectly agreed with him as to its being a most difficult thing, encouraged him to hope that between them it would be easily managed. It will be readily believed that Mrs. Norris did not write to her sister in vain. Mrs. Price seemed rather surprised that a girl should be fixed on when she had so many fine boys but accepted the offer most thankfully assuring them of her daughters being a very well-disposed, good-humoured girl and trusting they would never have cause to throw her off. She spoke of her father as somewhat delicate and puny but was sanguine in the hope of her being under a change of air. Poor woman, she probably thought change of air might agree with many of her children. End of chapter 1 Chapter 2 of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The little girl performed her long journey in safety and at Northampton was met by Mrs. Norris who thus regaled in the credit of being foremost to welcome her and in the importance of leading her into the others and recommending her to their kindness. Fanny Price was at this time just ten years old and though there might not be much in her first appearance to captivate there was at least nothing to disgust her relations. She was small of her age with no glow of complexion nor any other striking beauty exceedingly timid and shy drinking from notice. But her air, though awkward, was not vulgar. Her voice was sweet and when she spoke her countenance was pretty. Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram received her very kindly and Sir Thomas, seeing how much she needed encouragement, tried to be all that was conciliating but he had to work against a most untoward gravity of deportment and Lady Bertram without taking half so much trouble speaking one word where he spoke ten by the mere aid of a good-humoured smile became immediately the less awful character of the two. The young people were all at home and sustained their share in the introduction very well with much good humour and no embarrassment at least on the part of the sons who at seventeen and sixteen and tall of their age had all the grandeur of men in the eyes of their little cousin. The two girls were more at a loss from being younger and in greater awe of their father who addressed them on the occasion with rather an injudicious particularity but they were too much used to company and praise to have anything like natural shyness and their confidence increasing from their cousin's total want of it they were soon able to take a full survey of her face and frock in easy indifference. They were a remarkably fine family the sons very well looking the daughters decidedly handsome and all of them well grown and forward of their age which produced as striking a difference between the cousins in person as education had given to their address and no one would have supposed the girls so nearly of an age as they really were there were in fact but two years between the youngest and fanny Julia Bertram was only twelve and Mariah but a year older the little visitor meanwhile was as unhappy as possible afraid of everybody ashamed of herself and longing for the home she had left she knew not how to look up and could scarcely speak to be heard or without crying Mrs. Norris had been talking to her the whole way from Northampton of her wonderful good fortune and the extraordinary degree of gratitude and good behavior which it ought to produce and her consciousness of misery was therefore increased by the idea of it's being a wicked thing the fatigue too of so long a journey became soon no trifling evil in vain were the well-meant condescensions of Sir Thomas and all the officious prognostications of Mrs. Norris that she would be a good girl in vain did Lady Bertram smile and make her sit on the sofa with herself and pug and vain was even the sight of a gooseberry tart towards giving her comfort she could scarcely swallow two mouthfuls before tears interrupted her and sleep seeming to be her earliest friend she was taken to finish her sorrows in bed this is not a very promising beginning said Mrs. Norris when Fanny had left the room after all that I said to her as we came along I thought she would have behaved better I told her how much might depend upon her acquitting herself well at first I wish there may not be a little sulkiness of temper her poor mother had a good deal but we must make allowances for such a child and I do not know that her being sorry to leave her home is really against her for with all its faults it was her home and she cannot yet understand how much she has changed for the better but then there is moderation in all things it required a longer time however than Mrs. Norris was inclined to allow to reconcile Fanny to the novelty of Mansfield Park and the separation from everybody she had been used to her feelings were very acute and too little understood to be properly attended to to be unkind but nobody put themselves out of their way to secure her comfort the holiday allowed to the Miss Bertrams the next day on purpose to afford leisure forgetting acquainted with and entertaining their young cousin produced little union they could not but hold her cheap on finding that she had but two sashes and had never learned French and when they perceived her to be little struck with the duet they were so good as to play they could do no more generous present of some of their least valued toys and leave her to herself while they adjourned to whatever might be the favorite holiday sport of the moment making artificial flowers or wasting gold paper Fanny whether near or from her cousins whether in the school room the drawing room or the shrubbery was equally forlorn finding something to fear in every person and place she was disheartened by Lady Bertrams silence awed by Sir Thomas's grave looks and quite overcome by Mrs. Norris's admonitions her elder cousins mortified her by reflections on her size and abashed her by noticing her shyness Miss Lee wondered at her ignorance and the maid servants sneered at her clothes and when to these sorrows was added the idea of the brothers and sisters among whom she had always been important as play-fellow instructors and nurse the despondence that sunk her little heart severe the grandeur of the house astonished but could not console her the rooms were too large for her to move in with ease whatever she touched she expected to injure and she crept about in constant terror of something or other often retreating towards her own chamber to cry and the little girl who was spoken of in the drawing room when she left it at night has seeming so desirably sensible of a peculiar good fortune ended every day's sorrows by sobbing herself to sleep a week had passed in this way and no suspicion of it conveyed by her quiet passive manner when she was found one morning by her cousin Edmund the youngest of the sons sitting crying on the attic stairs my dear little cousin said he with all the gentleness of an excellent nature what can be the matter and sitting down by her he was at great pains to overcome her shame in being so surprised and persuade her to speak openly was she ill or was anybody angry with her or had she quarreled with Mariah and Julia or was she puzzled about anything in her lesson that he could explain did she in short want anything he could possibly get her or do for her for a long while no answer could be obtained beyond a no no not at all no thank you but he still persevered and no sooner hit he begun to revert to her own than her increased sobs explained to him where the grievance lay he tried to console her you are sorry to leave Mamar my dear little Fanny said he would choose you to be a very good girl but you must remember that you're with relations and friends who all love you and wish to make you happy let us walk out in the park and you shall tell me all about your brothers and sisters on pursuing the subject he found that there was one among them who ran more in her thought than the rest it was William whom she talked of most and most wanted to see William the eldest a year older than herself her constant companion and friend her advocate with her mother of whom he was the darling in every distress William did not like she should come away he had told her he should miss her very much indeed but William will write to you I dare say yes he had promised he would but he had told her to write first and when shall you do it she hung her head and answered hesitatingly she did not know she had not any paper oh if that be all your difficulty I will furnish you with paper and every other material and you may write your letter whenever you choose would it make you happy to write to William yes very then let it be done now come with me into the breakfast room we shall find everything there and be sure of having a room to ourselves but cousin will it go to the post yes depend upon me it shall it shall go with the other letters and as your uncle will frank it it will cost William nothing my uncle repeated Fanny with a frightened look yes when you've written the letter I will take it to my father to Frank Fanny thought it a bold measure but offered no further resistance and they went together into the breakfast room where Edmund prepared her paper and ruled her lines with all the goodwill that her brother could himself have felt and probably with somewhat more exactness he continued with her the whole time of her writing to assist her with his penknife or his orthography as either were wanted and added to these attentions which she felt very much a kindness to her brother which delighted her beyond all the rest he wrote with his own hand his love to his cousin William and sent him half a guinea under the seal Fanny's feelings on the occasion were such as she believed herself incapable of expressing but her countenance and a few artless words fully conveyed all her gratitude and delight and her cousin began to find her an interesting object he talked to her more and from all that she said was convinced of her having an affectionate heart and a strong desire of doing right and he could perceive her to be farther and entitled to attention by great sensibility of her situation and great timidity he had never knowingly given her pain but he now felt that she required more positive kindness and with that view endeavored in the first place to lessen her fears of them all and gave her especially a great deal of good advice as to playing with Mariah and Julia and being as merry as possible from this day Fanny grew more comfortable she felt that she had a friend and the kindness of her cousin Edmund gave her better spirits with everybody else the place became less strange and the people less formidable and if there were some amongst them whom she could not cease to fear she began at least to know their ways and to catch the best manner of conforming to them the little rusticities and awkwardnesses which had at first made grievous inroads on the tranquility of all and not least of herself necessarily wore away and she was no longer materially afraid to appear before her uncle nor did her aunt Norris's voice make her start very much to her cousin she became occasionally an acceptable companion though unworthy from inferiority of age and strength to be their constant associate their pleasures and schemes were sometimes of a nature to make a third very useful especially when that third was of an obliging yielding temper and they could not but own and inquired into her faults or her brother Edmund urged her claims to their kindness that Fanny was good-natured enough Edmund was uniformly kind himself and she had nothing worse to endure on the part of Tom than that sort of merriment which a young man of seventeen will always think fair with a child of ten he was just entering into life full of spirits and with the liberal dispositions of an eldest son who feels born only for expense and enjoyment his kindness to his little cousin was consistent with his situation and rights he made her some very pretty presents and laughed at her as her appearance and spirits improved Sir Thomas and Mrs. Norris thought with greater satisfaction of their benevolent plan and it was pretty soon decided between them that though far from clever she showed attractable disposition and seemed likely to give them little trouble a mean opinion of her abilities was not confined to them Fanny could read work and write but she had been taught nothing more and as her cousins found her ignorant of many things with which they had been long familiar they thought her prodigiously stupid and for the first two or three weeks were continually bringing some fresh report of it into the drawing room Dear Mamar, only think my cousin cannot put the map of Europe together or my cousin cannot tell the principal rivers in Russia or she never heard of Asia Minor or she does not know the difference between watercolours and crayons how strange did you ever hear anything so stupid my dear, their considerate aunt would reply it is very bad but you must not expect everybody to be as forward and quick at learning as yourself but aunt, she is really so very ignorant do you know we asked her last night which way she would go to get to Ireland and she said she should cross to the Isle of Wight she thinks of nothing but the Isle of Wight and she calls it the island as if there were no other island in the world I am sure I should have been ashamed of myself if I had not known better long before I was so old as she is I cannot remember the time when I did not know a great deal that she has not the least notion of yet how long ago it is, aunt since we used to repeat the chronological order of the kings of England states of their accession and most of the principal events of their reigns yes, added the other and of the Roman emperors as Lois Severus besides a great deal of the heathen mythology and all the metals, semi-metals, planets and distinguished philosophers very true indeed my dears but you are blessed with wonderful memories and your poor cousin has probably none at all there is a vast deal of difference in memories as well as in everything else you must make allowance for your cousin and pity her deficiency and remember that if you are ever so forward and clever yourselves you should always be modest for much as you know already there is a great deal more for you to learn yes, I know there is till I am seventeen but I must tell you another thing of Fanny so odd and so stupid do you know she says she does not want to learn either music or drawing to be sure my dear that is very stupid indeed and shows a great want of genius and emulation but it is considered I do not know whether it is not as well that it should be so for though you know owing to me and your papa and mamara so good as to bring her up with you it is not at all necessary that she should be as accomplished as you are on the contrary it is much more desirable that there should be a difference such were the councils by which Mrs. Norris assisted to form her niece's minds and it is not very wonderful that with all their promising talents and early information they should be entirely deficient in the less common acquirements of self-knowledge generosity and humility in everything but disposition they were admirably taught Sir Thomas did not know what was wanting because though a truly anxious father he was not outwardly affectionate and the reserve of his manner repressed all the flow of their spirits before him to the education of her daughters Lady Bertram paid not the smallest attention she had not time for such cares she was a woman who spent her days sitting nicely dressed on a sofa doing some long piece of needlework of little use and no beauty thinking more of her pug than her children but very indulgent to the latter when it did not put herself to inconvenience guided in everything important by Sir Thomas and in smaller concerns by her sister had she possessed greater leisure for the service of her girls she would probably have supposed it unnecessary for they were under the care of a governess with proper masters and could want nothing more as for Fanny's being stupid at learning she could only say it was very unlucky but some people were stupid and Fanny must take more pains she did not know what else was to be done and except her being so dull she must add she saw no harm in the poor little thing and always found her very handy and quick in carrying messages and fetching what she wanted Fanny with all her faults of ignorance and timidity was fixed at Mansfield Park and learning to transfer in its favour much of her attachment to her former home grew up there not unhappily among her cousins there was no positive ill nature in Mariah or Julia and though Fanny was often mortified by their treatment of her she thought too lowly of her own claims to feel injured by it from about the time of her entering the family Lady Bertram, in consequence of a little ill health and a great deal of indolence gave up the house in town which she had been used to occupy every spring and remained holy in the country leaving Sir Thomas to attend his duty in Parliament with whatever increase or diminution of comfort might arise from her absence in the country therefore the Miss Bertrams continued to exercise their memories practice their duets and grow tall and womanly his father saw them becoming in person manner and accomplishments everything that could satisfy his anxiety his eldest son was careless and extravagant and had already given him much uneasiness but his other children promised him nothing but good his daughters he felt while they retained the name of Bertram must be giving it new grace and in quitting it he trusted would extend its respectable alliances and the character of Edmund his strong good sense and a brightness of mind bid most fairly for utility honour and happiness to himself and all his connections he was to be a clergyman amid the cares and the complacency which his own children suggested Sir Thomas did not forget to do what he could for the children of Mrs. Price he assisted her liberally in the education and disposal of her sons as they became old enough for a determinate pursuit and Fanny, though almost totally separated from her family was sensible of the truest satisfaction and hearing of any kindness towards them or of anything at all promising in their situation or conduct once and once only in the course of many years had she the happiness of being with William of the rest she saw nothing nobody seemed to think of her ever going amongst them again even for a visit nobody at home seemed to want her but William determining soon after her removal from her previous sailor was invited to spend a week with his sister in Northamptonshire before he went to sea their eager affection and meeting their exquisite delight in being together the hours of happy mirth and moments of serious conference may be imagined as well as the sanguine views and spirits of the boy even to the last and the misery of the girl when he left her luckily the visit happened in the Christmas holidays when she could directly look for comfort to her cousin Edmund for such charming things of what William was to do and be hereafter in consequence of his profession as made her gradually admit that the separation might have some use Edmund's friendship never failed her his leaving Eaton for Oxford made no change in his kind dispositions and only afforded more frequent opportunities of proving them without any display of doing more than the rest or any fear of doing too much he was always true to her interests and considerate of her feelings trying to make her good qualities understood and to conquer the diffidence which prevented there being more apparent giving her advice, consolation and encouragement kept back as she was by everybody else his single support could not bring her forward but his attentions were otherwise of the highest importance in assisting the improvement of her mind and extending its pleasures he knew her to be clever to have a quick apprehension as well as good sense and a fondness for reading which, properly directed must be an education in itself Miss Lee taught her French and heard her read the daily portion of history but he recommended the books which charmed her leisure hours he encouraged her taste and corrected her judgment he made reading useful by talking to her of what she read and heightened its attraction by judicious praise in return for such services she loved him better than anybody in the world except William her heart was divided between the two Mrs. Norris on quitting the parsonage removed first to the park and afterwards to a small house of Sir Thomas' in the village and consoled herself for the loss of her husband by considering that she could do very well without him and for her reduction of income by the evident necessity of stricter economy the living was hereafter for Edmund and had his uncle died a few years sooner it would have been duly given to some friend to hold until he were old enough for orders but Tom's extravagance had, previous to that event been so great as to render a different disposal of the next presentation necessary and the younger brother must help to pay for the pleasures of the elder there was another family living actually held for Edmund but though this circumstance had made the arrangement somewhat easier to Sir Thomas' conscience he could not but feel it to be an act of injustice and he earnestly tried to impress his eldest son with the same conviction in the hope of its producing a better effect than anything he had yet been able to say or do I blush for you, Tom said he in his most dignified manner I blush for the expedient which I am driven on and I trust I may pity your feelings as a brother on the occasion you have robbed Edmund for ten, twenty, thirty years perhaps for life of more than half the income which ought to be his it may hereafter be in my power or in yours I hope it will to procure him better preferment but it must not be forgotten that no benefit of that sort would have been beyond his natural claims on us and that nothing can in fact be an equivalent for the certain advantage which he is now obliged to forego through the urgency of your debts Tom listened with some shame and some sorrow but escaping as quickly as possible could soon with cheerful selfishness reflect firstly that he had not been half so much in debt some of his friends secondly that his father had made a most tiresome piece of work of it and thirdly that the future incumbent, whoever he might be would in all probability die very soon on Mr. Norris's death the presentation became the right of Dr. Grant who came consequently to reside at Mansfield and on proving to be a hearty man of forty-five seemed likely to disappoint Mr. Bertram's calculations but no he was a short-necked apoplectic sort of fellow and plied well with good things would soon pop off he had a wife about fifteen years his junior but no children and they entered the neighborhood with the usual fair report of being very respectable agreeable people the time was now come when Sir Thomas expected his sister-in-law to claim her share and their niece the change in Mrs. Norris's situation and the improvement in Fanny's age seeming not merely to do away any former objection to their living together but even to give it the most decided eligibility and as his own circumstances were rendered less fair than heretofore by some recent losses on his West India estate in addition to his eldest son's extravagance it became not undesirable to himself to be relieved from the expense of her support and the obligation of her future provision in the fullness of his belief that such a thing must be he mentioned its probability to his wife and the first time of the subject's occurring to her again happening to be when Fanny was present she calmly observed to her so Fanny you are going to leave us and live with my sister how shall you like it Fanny was too much surprised to do more than repeat her aunt's words going to leave you yes my dear why should you be astonished you have been five years with us and my sister always meant to take you when Mr. Norris died but you must come up and tack on my patterns all the same the news was as disagreeable to Fanny as it had been unexpected she had never received kindness from her aunt Norris and could not love her I shall be very sorry to go away said she with faltering voice yes I dare say you will that's natural enough I suppose you have had as little to vex you since you came into this house as any creature in the world I hope I am not ungrateful aunt said Fanny modestly no my dear I hope not I have always found you a very good girl and am I never to live here again never my dear but you are sure of a comfortable home it can make very little difference to you whether you are in one house or the other Fanny left the room with a very sorrowful heart she could not feel the difference to be so small she could not think of living with her aunt with anything like satisfaction as soon as she met with Edmund she told him her distress cousin said she something is going to happen which I do not like at all and though you have often persuaded me into being reconciled to things that I disliked at first you will not be able to do it now I am going to live entirely with my aunt Norris indeed yes my aunt Bertram has just told me so it is quite settled I am to leave Mansfield Park and go to the White House I suppose as soon as she is removed there well Fanny and if the plan were not unpleasant to you I should call it an excellent one oh cousin what has everything else in its favor my aunt is acting like a sensible woman in wishing for you she is choosing a friend and companion exactly where she ought and I am glad her love of money does not interfere you will be what you ought to be to her I hope it does not distress you very much Fanny indeed it does I cannot like it I love this house and everything in it I shall love nothing there you know how uncomfortable I feel with her I can say nothing for her manner to you as a child but it was the same with us all or nearly so she never knew how to be pleasant to children but you are now of an age to be treated better I think she is behaving better already and when you are her only companion you must be important to her I can never be important to anyone what is to prevent you everything my situation, my foolishness and awkwardness as to your foolishness and awkwardness my dear Fanny believe me you never have a shadow of either but in using the word sown properly there is no reason in the world why you should not be important where you are known you have good sense and a sweet temper and I am sure you have a grateful heart that you could never receive kindness without wishing to return it I do not know any better qualifications for a friend and companion you are too kind said Fanny colouring at such praise how shall I ever thank you as I ought for thinking so well of me oh cousin if I am to go away I shall remember your goodness to the last moment of my life why indeed Fanny I should hope to be remembered at such a distance as the White House you speak as if you are going 200 miles off instead of only across the park but you belong to us almost as much as ever the two families will be meeting every day in the year the only difference will be that living with your aunt you will necessarily be brought forward as you ought to be here there are too many whom you can hide behind but with her you will be forced to speak for yourself oh I do not say so I must say it and say it with pleasure Mrs. Norris is much better fitted than my mother for having the charge of you now she's of a temper to do a great deal for anybody she really interests herself about and she will force you to do justice to your natural powers Fanny sighed and said I cannot see things as you do but I ought to believe you to be right rather than myself and I am very much obliged to you for trying to reconcile me to what must be if I could suppose my aunt really to care for me it would be delightful to feel myself of consequence to anybody here I know I am of none and yet I love the place so well the place Fanny is what you will not quit though you quit the house you will have as free a command of the park and gardens as ever even your constant little heart need not take fright at such a nominal change you will have the same walks to frequent the same library to choose from the same people to look at the same horse to ride very true yes dear old Greypony ah cousin when I remember how much I used to dread riding what terrors it gave me to hear it talked of is likely to do me good oh how I have trembled at my uncle's opening of his lips if horses were talked of and then think of the kind pains you took to reason and persuade me out of my fears and convince me that I should like it after a little while and feel how right you proved to be I am inclined to hope you may always prophesy as well and I'm quite convinced that your being with Mrs. Norris will be as good for your mind as riding has been for your health and as much for your ultimate happiness too so ended their discourse which for any very appropriate service it could render Fanny might as well have been spared for Mrs. Norris had not the smallest intention of taking her it had never occurred to her on the present occasion but as a thing to be carefully avoided to prevent its being expected she had fixed on the smallest habitation which could rank as gentile among the buildings of Mansfield Parish the White House being only just large enough to receive herself and her servants and allow a spare room for a friend of which she made a very particular point the spare rooms at the parsonage had never been wanted but the absolute necessity of a spare room for a friend was now never forgotten not all her precautions however could save her from being suspected of something better or perhaps her very display of the importance of a spare room might have this led Sir Thomas to suppose it really intended for Fanny Lady Bertram soon brought the matter to a certainty by carelessly observing to Mrs. Norris I think sister we need not keep Miss Lee any longer when Fanny goes to live with you Mrs. Norris almost started to live with me dear Lady Bertram what do you mean? is she not to live with you I thought you had settled it with Sir Thomas me? never I never spoke a syllable about it to Sir Thomas nor he to me Fanny live with me the last thing in the world for me to think of or for anybody to wish that really knows us both God in heaven what could I do with Fanny me a poor helpless forlorn widow unfit for anything my spirits quite broke down what could I do with a girl at her time of life a girl of fifteen the very age of all others to need most attention and care and put the cheerful spirits to the test sure Sir Thomas could not seriously expect such a thing Sir Thomas is too much my friend nobody that wishes me well I am sure would propose it how came Sir Thomas to speak to you about it indeed I do not know I suppose he thought it best but what did he say he could not say he wished me to take Fanny I am sure in his heart he could not wish me to do it no he only said he thought it very likely and I thought so too we both thought it would be a comfort to you but if you do not like it there is no more to be said she is no encumbrance here dear sister if you consider my unhappy state how can she be any comfort to me here am I a poor desolate widow deprived of the best of husbands my health gone in attending and nursing him my spirit still worse all my peace in this world destroyed with hardly enough to support me in the rank of a gentlewoman and enable me to live so as not to disgrace the memory of the dear departed what possible comfort could I have in taking such a charge upon me as Fanny if I could wish it for my own sake I would not do so unjust a thing by the poor girl she is in good hands and sure of doing well I must struggle through my sorrows and difficulties as I can then you will not mind living by yourself quite alone Lady Bertram I do not complain I know I cannot live as I have done but I must retrench where I can and learn to be a better manager I have been a liberal housekeeper enough but I shall not be ashamed to practice the economy now my situation is as much altered as my income a great many things were due from poor Mr Norris as the clergyman of the parish can not be expected from me it is unknown how much was consumed in our kitchen by odd comers and goers at the White House matters must be better looked after I must live within my income or I shall be miserable and I own it would give me great satisfaction to be able to do rather more to lay by a little at the end of the year I dare say you will you always do don't you my object Lady Bertram is to be of use to those that come after me it is for your children's good that I wish to be richer I have nobody else to care for but I should be very glad to think I could leave a little trifle among them worth their having you are very good but do not trouble yourself about them they are sure of being well provided for Sir Thomas will take care of that why you know Sir Thomas's means will be rather straightened if the Antigua estate is to make such poor returns oh that will soon be settled Sir Thomas has been writing about it I know well Lady Bertram said Mrs Norris moving to go I can only say that my soul desire is to be of use to your family and so if Sir Thomas should ever speak again about my taking Fanny you'll be able to say that my health and spirits put it quite out of the question besides that I really should not have a bet to give her for I must keep a spare room for a friend Lady Bertram repeated enough of this conversation to her husband to convince him how much he had mistaken his sister-in-law's views and she was from that moment perfectly safe from all expectation or the slightest illusion to it from him he could not but wonder at her refusing to do anything for a niece whom she had been so forward to adopt but as she took early care to make him as well as Lady Bertram understand that whatever she possessed was designed for their family he soon grew reconciled to a distinction which at the same time that it was advantageous and complimentary to them would enable him better to provide for Fanny himself Fanny soon learned how unnecessary had been her fears of a removal and her spontaneous untaught felicity of the discovery conveyed some consolation to Edmund for his disappointment in what he had expected to be so essentially serviceable to her Mrs Norris took possession of the White House the Grants arrived at the Parsonage and these events over everything at Mansfield went on for some time as usual the Grants showing a disposition to be friendly and sociable gave great satisfaction in the main among their new acquaintance they had their faults and Mrs Norris soon found them out the doctor was very fond of eating and would have a good dinner every day and Mrs Grant instead of contriving to gratify him at little expense gave her cook as high wages as they did at Mansfield Park and was scarcely ever seen in her offices Mrs Norris could not speak with any temper of such grievances nor of the quantity of butter and eggs that were regularly consumed in the house nobody loved plenty in hospitality more than herself nobody more hated pitiful doings the Parsonage she believed had never been wanting in comforts of any sort had never borne a bad character in her time but this was quite a way of going on that she could not understand a fine lady in a country Parsonage was quite out of place in a storeroom she thought might have been good enough for Mrs Grant to go into inquire where she would she could not find out that Mrs Grant had ever had more than five thousand pounds Lady Bertram listened without much interest to this sort of invective she could not enter into the wrongs of an economist but she felt all the injuries of beauty in Mrs Grant's being so well settled in life without being handsome and expressed her astonishment on that point almost as often not so diffusely as Mrs Norris discussed the other these opinions had been hardly canvassed a year before another event arose of such importance in the family as might fairly claim some place in the thoughts and conversation of the ladies Sir Thomas found it expedient to go to Antigua himself for the better arrangement of his affairs and he took his eldest son with him in the hope of detaching him from some bad connections at home they left England with the probability of being nearly a twelve month absent the necessity of the measure in a pecuniary light and the hope of its utility to his son reconciled Sir Thomas to the effort of quitting the rest of his family and of leaving his daughters to the direction of others at their present most interesting time of life he could not think Lady Bertram quite equal to supply his place with them or rather to perform what should have been her own but in Mrs Norris's watchful attention and in Edmund's judgment he had sufficient confidence to make him go without fears for their conduct Lady Bertram did not at all like to have her husband leave her but she was not disturbed by any alarm for his safety or solicitude for his comfort being one of those persons who think nothing can be dangerous or difficult or fatiguing to anybody but themselves the Miss Bertrams were much to be pitied on the occasion not for their sorrow but for their want of it their father was no object of love to them he had never seemed the friend of their pleasures and his absence was most unhappily welcome they were relieved by it from all restraint and without aiming at one gratification that would probably have been forbidden by Sir Thomas they felt themselves immediately at their own disposal and to have every indulgence within their reach Fanny's relief and her consciousness of it were quite equal to her cousins but a more tender nature suggested that her feelings were ungrateful and she really grieved because she could not grieve Sir Thomas, who had done so much for her and her brothers and who was gone perhaps never to return that she should see him go without a tear it was a shameful insensibility he had said to her moreover on the very last morning that he hoped she might see William again in the course of the ensuing winter and had charged her to write and invite him to Mansfield as soon as the squadron to which he belonged should be known to be in England this was so thoughtful and kind and would he only have smiled upon her and called her my dear Fanny while he said it every former frown or cold address might have been forgotten but he had ended his speech in a way to sink her in sad mortification by adding if William does come to Mansfield I hope you may be able to convince him that the many years which have passed since you parted have not been spent on your side entirely without improvement though I fear he must find his sister at sixteen in some respects too much like his sister at ten she cried bitterly over this reflection when her uncle was gone and her cousins on seeing her with red eyes set her down as a hypocrite End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Tom Bertram had of late spent so little of his time at home that he could be only nominally missed and Lady Bertram was soon astonished to find how very well they did even without his father how well Edmund could supply his place in carving talking to the steward, writing to the attorney settling with the servants and equally saving her from all possible fatigue or exertion in every particular but that of directing her letters the earliest intelligence of the traveller's safe arrival in Antigua after a favourable voyage was received though not before Mrs Norris had been indulging in very dreadful fears and trying to make Edmund participate them whenever she could get him alone and as she depended on being the first person made acquainted with any fatal catastrophe she had already arranged the manner of breaking it to all the others when Sir Thomas' assurances of their both being alive and well made it necessary to lay by her agitation and affectionate preparatory speeches for a while the winter came and passed without their being called for the accounts continued perfectly good and Mrs Norris in promoting gaities for her nieces assisting their toilets displaying their accomplishments and looking about for their future husbands had so much to do as, in addition to all her own household cares some interference in those of her sister and Mrs Grant's wasteful doings to overlook left her very little occasion to be occupied in fears for the absent the Miss Bertrams were now fully established among the bells of the neighbourhood and as they joined to beauty and brilliant acquirements a manner naturally easy and carefully formed to general civility in obligingness they possessed its favour as well as its admiration their vanity was in such good order that they seemed to be quite free from it and gave themselves no heirs while the praises attending such behaviour, secured and brought round by their aunt served to strengthen them in believing they had no faults Lady Bertram did not go into public with her daughters she was too indolent even to accept a mother's gratification in witnessing their success and enjoyment at the expense of any personal trouble and the charge was made over to her sister who desired nothing better than a post of such honourable representation and very thoroughly relished the means it afforded her of mixing in society without having horses to hire Fanny had no share in the festivities of the season but she enjoyed being avowedly useful as her aunt's companion when they called away the rest of the family and as Miss Lee had left Mansfield she naturally became everything to Lady Bertram during the night of a ball or a party she talked to her, listened to her, read to her and the tranquillity of such evenings her perfect security in such a tetatet from any sound of unkindness was unspeakably welcome to a mind which had seldom known a pause in its alarms or embarrassments as to her cousin's gayities she loved to hear an account of them especially of the balls and whom Edmund had danced with but thought too lowly of her own situation to imagine she should ever be admitted to the same and listened therefore without an idea of any nearer concern in them upon the whole it was a comfortable winter to her for though it brought no William to England the never-failing hope of his arrival was worth much the ensuing spring deprived her of her valued friend, the old grey pony and for some time she was in danger of feeling the loss in her health as well as in her affections for in spite of the acknowledged importance of her riding on horseback no measures were taken for mounting her again because as it was observed by her aunts she might ride one of her cousin's horses at any time when they did not want them and as the Miss Bertrams regularly wanted their horses every fine day had no idea of carrying their obliging manners to the sacrifice of any real pleasure that time of course never came they took their cheerful rides in the fine mornings of April and May and Fanny either sat at home the whole day with one aunt or walked beyond her strength at the instigation of the other Lady Bertram holding exercise to be as unnecessary for everybody as it was unpleasant to herself and Mrs. Norris, who was walking all day thinking everybody ought to walk as much Edmund was absent at this time or the evil would have been earlier remedied when he returned to understand how Fanny was situated and perceived its ill effects there seemed with him but one thing to be done and that Fanny must have a horse was the resolute declaration with which he opposed whatever could be urged by the supine-ness of his mother or the economy of his aunt to make it appear unimportant Mrs. Norris could not help thinking that some steady old thing might be found among the numbers belonging to the park that would do vastly well or that one might be borrowed of the steward or that perhaps Dr. Grant might now and then lend them the pony he sent to the post she could not but consider it as absolutely unnecessary and even improper that Fanny should have a regular lady's horse of her own in the style of her cousins she was sure Sir Thomas had never intended it and she must say that to be making such a purchase in his absence and adding to the great expenses of his stable at a time when a large part of his income was unsettled seemed to her very unjustifiable Fanny must have a horse was Edmund's only reply Mrs. Norris could not see it in the same light Lady Bertram did she entirely agreed with her son as to the necessity of it and as to its being considered necessary by his father she only pleaded against there being any hurry she only wanted him to wait till Sir Thomas' return and then Sir Thomas might settle it all himself he would be at home in September and where would be the harm of only waiting till September though Edmund was much more displeased with his aunt than with his mother as evening least regard for her niece he could not help paying more attention to what she said and at length determined on a method of proceeding which would obviate the risk of his father's thinking he had done too much and at the same time procure for Fanny the immediate means of exercise which he could not bear she should be without he had three horses of his own but not one that would carry a woman two of them were hunters the third a useful road horse this third he resolved to exchange for one that his cousin might ride he knew where such a one was to be met with and having once made up his mind the whole business was soon completed the new mayor proved a treasure with a very little trouble she became exactly calculated for the purpose and Fanny was then put in almost full possession of her she had not supposed before that anything could ever suit her like the old grey pony but her delight in Edmund's mayor was far beyond any former pleasure of the sort and the addition it was ever receiving in the consideration of that kindness from which her pleasure sprung was beyond all her words to express she regarded her cousin as an example of everything good and great as possessing worth which no one but herself could ever appreciate and as entitled to such gratitude from her as no feelings could be strong enough to pay her sentiments towards him were compounded of all that was respectful grateful confiding and tender as the horse continued in name as well as fact the property of Edmund Mrs. Norris could tolerate its being for Fanny's use and had Lady Bertram ever thought about her own objection again he might have been excused in her eyes for not waiting till Sir Thomas' return in September for when September came Sir Thomas was still abroad and without any near prospect of finishing his business unfavorable circumstances had suddenly arisen at a moment when he was beginning to turn all his thoughts towards England and the very great uncertainty in which everything was then involved determined him on sending home his son and waiting the final arrangement by himself Tom arrived safely bringing an excellent account of his father's health but to very little purpose as far as Mrs. Norris was concerned Sir Thomas' sending away his son seemed to her so like a parent's care under the influence of a foreboding of evil to himself that she could not help feeling dreadful presentiments and as the long evenings of autumn came on was so terribly haunted by these ideas in the sad solitariness of her cottage as to be obliged to take daily refuge in the dining-room of the park the return of winter engagements however was not without its effect and in the course of their progress her mind became so pleasantly occupied in superintending the fortunes of her eldest niece as tolerably to quiet her nerves if poor Sir Thomas were fated never to return it would be peculiarly consoling to see their dear Mariah well married she very often thought always when they were in the company of men of fortune and particularly on the introduction of a young man who had recently succeeded to one of the largest estates and finest places in the country Mr. Rushworth was from the first struck with the beauty of Miss Bertram and being inclined to marry soon fancied himself in love he was a heavy young man with not more than common sense but as there was nothing disagreeable in his figure or address the young lady was well pleased with her conquest being now in her twenty-first year Mariah Bertram was beginning to think matrimony a duty and as a marriage with Mr. Rushworth would give her the enjoyment of a larger income than her father's as well as ensure her the house in town which was now a prime object it became by the same rule of moral obligation her evident duty to marry Mr. Rushworth if she could Mrs. Norris was most zealous in promoting the match by every suggestion and contrivance likely to enhance its desirableness to either party and among other means by seeking an intimacy with the gentleman's mother who at present lived with him and to whom she even forced Lady Bertram to go through ten miles of indifferent road to pay a morning visit it was not long before a good understanding took place between this lady and herself Mrs. Rushworth acknowledged herself very desirous that her son should marry and declared that of all the young ladies she had ever seen Miss Bertram seemed by her amiable qualities and accomplishments the best adapted to make him happy Mrs. Norris accepted the compliment and admired the nice discernment of character which could so well distinguish merit Mariah was indeed the pride and delight of them all perfectly faultless an angel and of course so surrounded by admirers must be difficult in her choice but yet as far as Mrs. Norris could allow herself to decide on so short an acquaintance Mr. Rushworth appeared precisely the young man to deserve and attach her after dancing with each other at a proper number of balls the young people justified these opinions and an engagement with a due reference to the absent Sir Thomas was entered into much to the satisfaction of the respective families and of the general lookers on of the neighborhood who had for many weeks passed felt the expediency of Mr. Rushworth's marrying Miss Bertram it was some months before Sir Thomas's consent could be received but in the meanwhile as no one felt a doubt of his most cordial pleasure in the connection the intercourse of the two families was carried on without restraint and no other attempt made at secrecy than Mrs. Norris's talking of it everywhere as a matter not to be talked of at present Edmund was the only one of the family who could see a fault in the business but no representation of his aunts could induce him to find Mr. Rushworth a desirable companion he could allow his sister to be the best judge of her own happiness but he was not pleased that her happiness should centre in a large income nor could he refrain from often saying to himself in Mr. Rushworth's company if this man had not twelve thousand a year he would be a very stupid fellow Sir Thomas however was truly happy in the prospect of an alliance so unquestionably advantageous and of which he heard nothing but the perfectly good and agreeable it was a connection exactly of the right sort in the same county and the same interest and his most hearty concurrence was conveyed as soon as possible he only conditioned that the marriage should not take place before his return which he was again looking eagerly forward to he wrote in April and had strong hopes of settling everything to his entire satisfaction and leaving Antigua before the end of the summer such was the state of affairs in the month of July and Fanny had just reached her eighteenth year when the Society of the Village received an addition in the brother and sister of Mrs. Grant a Mr. and Miss Crawford the children of her mother by a second marriage they were young people of fortune the son had a good estate in Norfolk the daughter twenty thousand pounds as children their sister had been always very fond of them but as her own marriage had been soon followed by the death of their common parent which left them to the care of a brother of their father of whom Mrs. Grant knew nothing she had scarcely seen them since in their uncle's house they had found a kind home Admiral and Mrs. Crawford though agreeing in nothing else were united in affection for these children or at least were no farther adverse in their feelings than that each had their favorite to whom they showed the greatest fondness of the two the Admiral delighted in the boy Mrs. Crawford doted on the girl and it was the lady's death which now obliged her protégé after some months further trial at her uncle's house to find another home Admiral Crawford was a man of vicious conduct who chose instead of retaining his niece to bring his mistress under his own roof and to this Mrs. Grant was indebted for her sister's proposal of coming to her a measure quite as welcome on one side as it could be expedient on the other for Mrs. Grant having by this time run through the usual resources of ladies residing in the country without a family of children having more than filled her favorite sitting-room with pretty furniture and made a choice collection of plants and poultry was very much in want of some variety at home the arrival therefore of a sister whom she had always loved and now hoped to retain with her as long as she remained single was highly agreeable and her chief anxiety was lest Mansfield should not satisfy the habits of a young woman who had been mostly used to London Miss Crawford was not entirely free from similar apprehensions though they arose principally from doubts of her sister's style of living and tone of society and it was not till after she had tried in vain to persuade her brother to settle with her at his own country house that she could resolve to hazard herself among her other relations to anything like a permanence of abode or limitation of society Henry Crawford had, unluckily, a great dislike he could not accommodate his sister in an article of such importance but he escorted her with the utmost kindness into Northamptonshire and as readily engaged to fetch her away again at half an hour's notice whenever she were weary of the place the meeting was very satisfactory on each side Miss Crawford found a sister without preciseness or rusticity a sister's husband who looked the gentleman and a house commodious and well fitted up and Mrs. Grant received in those whom she hoped to love better than ever a young man and woman of very prepossessing appearance Mary Crawford was remarkably pretty Henry, though not handsome, had air and countenance the manners of both were lively and pleasant and Mrs. Grant immediately gave them credit for everything else she was delighted with each, but Mary was her dearest object and having never been able to glory in beauty of her own she thoroughly enjoyed the power of being proud of her sisters she had not waited her arrival to look out for a suitable match for her she had fixed on Tom Bertram the eldest son of a baronet was not too good for a girl of twenty thousand pounds with all the elegance and accomplishments which Mrs. Grant foresaw in her and being a warm-hearted, unreserved woman Mary had not been three hours in the house before she told her what she had planned Miss Crawford was glad to find a family of such consequence so very near them and not at all displeased either at her sister's early care or the choice it had fallen on matrimony was her object, provided she could marry well and having seen Mr. Bertram in town she knew that objection could no more be made to his person than to his situation in life while she treated it as a joke therefore she did not forget to think of it seriously the scheme was soon repeated to Henry and now? added Mrs. Grant I have thought of something to make it complete I should dearly love to settle you both in this country and therefore Henry you shall marry the youngest Miss Bertram a nice, handsome, good-humoured, accomplished girl who will make you very happy Henry bowed and thanked her my dear sister said Mary if you can persuade him into anything of the sort it will be a fresh matter of delight to me to find myself allied to anybody so clever and I shall only regret that you have not a half dozen daughters to dispose of if you can persuade Henry to marry you must have the address of a French woman all that English abilities can do has been tried already I have three very particular friends who have been all dying for him in their turn and the pains which they, their mothers, very clever women as well as my dear aunt and myself have taken to reason, coax, or trick him into marrying is inconceivable he is the most horrible flirt that can be imagined if your Miss Bertrams do not like to have their hearts broke let them avoid Henry my dear brother I will not believe this of you no, I am sure you are too good you will be kinder than Mary you will allow for the doubts of youth and inexperience I am of a cautious temper and am willing to risk my happiness in a hurry nobody can think more highly of the matrimonial state than myself I consider the blessing of a wife as most justly described in those discreet lines of the poet heaven's last best gift there, Mrs. Grant, you see how he dwells on one word and only look at his smile I assure you he is very detestable the admiral's lessons have quite spoiled him I pay very little regard said Mrs. Grant to what any young person says on the subject of marriage? if they profess a disinclination for it I only said it down that they have not yet seen the right person Dr. Grant laughingly congratulated Miss Crawford on feeling no disinclination to the state herself oh yes, I am not at all ashamed of it I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly I do not like to have people throw themselves away but everybody should marry as soon as they can do it to advantage and their acquaintance soon promised as early an intimacy as good manners would warrant Miss Crawford's beauty did her no disservice with the Miss Bertram's they were too handsome themselves to dislike any woman for being so too and were almost as much charmed as their brothers with her lively dark eye clear brown complexion and general prettiness had she been tall, full-formed and fair it might have been more of a trial but as it was there could be no comparison and she was most allowably a sweet pretty girl while they were the finest young women in the country her brother was not handsome no when they first saw him he was absolutely plain black and plain but still he was the gentleman with a pleasing address the second meeting proved him not so very plain he was plain to be sure but then he had so much countenance and his teeth were so good and he was so well made that one soon forgot he was plain and after a third interview after dining and company with him at the parsonage he was no longer allowed to be called so by anybody he was in fact the most agreeable young man the sisters had ever known and they were equally delighted with him Miss Bertram's engagement made him in equity the property of Julia of which Julia was fully aware and before he had been at Mansfield a week she was quite ready to be fallen in love with Maria's notions on the subject were more confused and indistinct she did not want to see or understand there could be no harm in her liking an agreeable man everybody knew her situation Mr. Crawford must take care of himself Mr. Crawford did not mean to be in any danger the Miss Bertram's were worth pleasing and were ready to be pleased and he began with no object but of making them like him he did not want them to die of love but with sense and temper which ought to have made him judge and feel better he allowed himself great latitude on such points I like your Miss Bertram's exceedingly sister said he as he returned from attending them to their carriage after the said dinner visit they are very elegant agreeable girls so they are indeed and I am delighted to hear you say it but you like Julia best oh yes I like Julia best but do you really for Miss Bertram is in general thought the handsomest so I should suppose she has the advantage in every feature and I prefer her countenance but I like Julia best Miss Bertram is certainly the handsomest and I have found her the most agreeable but I shall always like Julia best because you order me I shall not talk to you Henry but I know you will like her best at last do not I tell you that I like her best at first and besides Miss Bertram is engaged remember that my dear brother her choice is made yes and I like her the better for it an engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged she is satisfied with herself her cares are over and she feels that she may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion she is safe with a lady engaged no harm can be done why as to that Mr. Rushworth is a very good sort of young man and it is a great match for her but Miss Bertram does not care three straws for him that is your opinion of your intimate friend I do not subscribe to it I am sure Miss Bertram is very much attached to Mr. Rushworth I could see it in her eyes when he was mentioned I think too well of Miss Bertram to suppose Mary how shall we manage him we must leave him to himself I believe talking does no good he will be taken in at last but I would not have him taken in I would not have him duped I would have it all fair and honourable oh dear let him stand his chance and be taken in it'll do just as well everybody is taken in at some period or other not always in marriage dear Mary in marriage especially with all due respect to such of the present company as chance to be married my dear Mrs. Grant there is not one in a hundred of either sex who is not taken in when they marry look where I will I see that it is so and I feel that it must be so when I consider that it is of all transactions the one in which people expect most from others and at least honest themselves ah you have been in a bad school for matrimony in Hill Street my poor aunt had certainly little cause to love the state but however speaking from my own observation it is a maneuvering business I know so many who have married in the full expectation and confidence of some one particular advantage in the connection or accomplishment or good quality in the person who have found themselves entirely deceived and been obliged to put up with exactly the reverse what is this but a take in my dear child there must be a little imagination here I beg your pardon but I cannot quite believe you depend upon it you see but half you see the evil but you do not see the consolation there will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere and we are all apt to expect too much but then if one scheme of happiness fails human nature turns to another if the first calculation is wrong we make a second better we find comfort somewhere and those evil minded observers dearest Mary who make much of a little are more taken in and deceived than the parties themselves well done sister I honour your asprey to call when I am a wife I mean to be just as staunch myself and I wish my friends in general would be so too it would save me many a heartache you are as bad as your brother Mary but we will cure you both Mansfield shall cure you both and without any taking in stay with us and we will cure you the Crawfords without wanting to be cured were very willing to stay Mary was satisfied with the personage as a present home and Henry equally ready to lengthen his visit he had come intending to spend only a few days with them but Mansfield promised well and there was nothing to call him elsewhere it delighted Mrs. Grant to keep them both with her and Dr. Grant was exceedingly well contented to have it so a talking pretty young woman like Miss Crawford is always pleasant society to an indolent stay-at-home man and Mr. Crawford's being his guest was an excuse for drinking Claret every day the Miss Bertram's admiration of Mr. Crawford was more rapturous than anything which Miss Crawford's habits made her likely to feel she acknowledged however that the Mr. Bertram's were very fine young men that too such young men were not often seen together even in London and that their manners, particularly those of the eldest, were very good he had been much in London and had more liveliness and gallantry than Edmund and must therefore be preferred and indeed his being the eldest was another strong claim she had felt an early presentiment that she should like the eldest best she knew it was her way Tom Bertram must have been thought pleasant indeed at any rate he was the sort of young man to be generally liked his agreeableness was of the kind to be often or found agreeable than some endowments of a higher stamp for he had easy manners, excellent spirits, a large acquaintance and a great deal to say and the reversion of Mansfield Park and a baronetcy did no harm to all this Miss Crawford soon felt that he in his situation might do she looked about her with due consideration and found almost everything in his favour a park, a real park, five miles round a spacious modern-built house so well-placed and well-screened as to deserve to be in any collection of engravings of gentlemen's seats in the kingdom and wanting only to be completely new furnished pleasant sisters, a quiet mother, and an agreeable man himself with the advantage of being tied up from much gaming at present by a promise to his father and of being Sir Thomas hereafter it might do very well she believed she should accept him and she began accordingly to interest herself a little about the horse which she had to run at the B races these races were to call him away not long after their acquaintance began and as it appeared that the family did not, from his usual goings on expect him back again for many weeks it would bring his passion to an early proof much was said on his side to induce her to attend the races and schemes were made for a large party to them with all the eagerness of inclination but it would only do to be talked of and Fanny, what was she doing and thinking all this while and what was her opinion of the newcomers few young ladies of 18 could be less called on to speak their opinion than Fanny in a quiet way, very little attended to she paid her tribute of admiration to Miss Crawford's beauty but as she still continued to think Mr. Crawford very plain in spite of her two cousins having repeatedly proved the contrary she never mentioned him the notice which she excited herself was to this effect I begin now to understand you all except Miss Price said Miss Crawford as she was walking with the Mr. Bertrams pray is she out or is she not I am puzzled she dined at the parsonage with the rest of you which seemed like being out and yet she says so little that I can hardly suppose she is Ed meant to whom this was chiefly addressed replied I believe I know what you mean but I will not undertake to answer the question my cousin is grown up she has the age and sense of a woman but the outs and not outs are beyond me and yet in general nothing can be more easily ascertained the distinction is so broad manners as well as appearance are generally speaking so totally different till now I could not have supposed it possible to be mistaken as to a girl's being out or not a girl not out has always the same sort of dress a close bonnet for instance looks very demure and never says a word you may smile but it is so I assure you and accept that it is sometimes carried a little too far it is all very proper girls should be quiet and modest the most objectionable part is that the alteration of manners on being introduced into company is frequently too sudden they sometimes pass in such very little time from reserve to quite the opposite to confidence that is the faulty part of the present system one does not like to see a girl of 18 or 19 so immediately up to everything and perhaps one has seen her hardly able to speak the year before Mr. Butler I dare see you have sometimes met with such changes I believe I have but this is hardly fair I see what you are at you are quizzing me and Miss Anderson no indeed Miss Anderson I do not know who or what do you mean I'm quite in the dark but I will quiz you with a great deal of pleasure if you will tell me what about ah you carry it off very well but I cannot be quite so far imposed on you must have had Miss Anderson in your eye in describing an altered young lady you paint too accurately for mistake it was exactly so the Anderson's of Baker Street we were speaking of them the other day you know Edmund you have heard me mention Charles Anderson the circumstance was precisely as this lady has represented it when Anderson first introduced me to his family about two years ago his sister was not out and I could not get her to speak to me I sat there an hour one morning waiting for Anderson with only her and a little girl or two in the room the governance being sick or run away and the mother in and out every moment with letters of business and I could hardly get a word or a look from the young lady nothing like a civil answer she screwed up her mouth and turned from you with such an air I did not see her again for a 12th month she was then out I met her at Mrs. Holford's and did not recollect her she came up to me and claimed me as an acquaintance stared me out of countenance and talked and laughed till I did not know which way to look I felt that I must be the jest of the room at the time and Miss Crawford it is plain has heard the story a very pretty story it is and with more truth in it I dare say then does credit to Miss Anderson it is too common a fault mothers certainly have not yet got quite the right way of managing their daughters I do not know where the error lies I do not pretend to set people right but I do see that they are often wrong those who are showing the world what female manners should be said Mr. Bertram gallantly are doing a great deal to set them right the error is plain enough said the less courteous Edmund such girls are ill brought up they're given wrong notions from the beginning they are always acting upon motives of vanity and there is no more real modesty in their behaviour before they appear in public than afterwards I do not know replied Miss Crawford hesitatingly yes I cannot agree with you there it is certainly the modestest part of the business it is much worse to have girls not out give themselves the same airs and take the same liberties as if they were which I have seen done that is worse than anything quite disgusting yes that is very inconvenient indeed said Mr. Bertram it leads one astray one does not know what to do the close bonnet and demure air you described so well and nothing was ever juster tell one what is expected but I got into a dreadful scrape last year from the want of them I went down to Ramsgate for a week with a friend last September just after my return from the West Indies my friend Snade you have heard me speak of Snade Edmund his father and mother and sisters were there all new to me when we reached Albion Place they were out we went after them and found them on the pier Mrs. and the two Miss Snades with others of their acquaintance I made my bow in form and as Mrs. Snade was surrounded by men attached myself to one of her daughters walked by her side all the way home and made myself as agreeable as I could the young lady perfectly easy in her manners and as ready to talk as to listen I had not a suspicion that I could be doing anything wrong they looked just the same both well dressed with veils and parasols like other girls but I afterwards found that I had been giving all my attention to the youngest who was not out and had most excessively offended the eldest Miss Augusta ought not to have been noticed for the next six months and Miss Snade I believe has never forgiven me that was bad indeed poor Miss Snade though I have no younger sister I feel for her to be neglected before one's time must be very vexatious but it was entirely the mother's fault Miss Augusta should have been with her governess such half and half doings never prosper but now I must be satisfied about Miss Price does she go to balls? does she dine out everywhere as well as at my sister's? no replied Edmund I do not think she has ever been to a ball my mother seldom goes into company herself and dines nowhere but with Miss Grant and Fanny stays at home with her oh then the point is clear Miss Price is not out End of Chapter 5 Chapter 6 of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Mr Bertram set off for Blank and Miss Crawford was prepared to find a great chasm in their society and to miss him decidedly in the meetings which were now becoming almost daily between the families and on their all dining together at the park soon after his going she retook her chosen place near the bottom of the table fully expecting to feel the most melancholy difference in the change of masters it would be a very flat business she was sure in comparison with his brother Edmund would have nothing to say the soup would be sent round in a most spiritless manner wine drunk without any smiles or agreeable trifling and the venison cut up without supplying one pleasant anecdote of any former haunch or a single entertaining story about my friend such a one she must try to find amusement in what was passing at the upper end of the table and in observing Mr Rushworth who was now making his appearance at Mansfield for the first time since the Crawford's arrival he had been visiting a friend in the neighbouring county and that friend having recently had his grounds laid out by an improver Mr Rushworth was returned with his head full of the subject and very eager to be improving his own place in the same way and though not saying much to the purpose could talk of nothing else the subject had been already handled in the drawing room and it was revived in the dining-parlor Miss Bertram's attention and opinion was evidently his chief aim and though her deportment showed rather conscious superiority than any solicitude to oblige him the mention of Sotherton Court and the ideas attached to it gave her a feeling of complacency which prevented her from being very ungracious I wish you could see Compton said he it is the most complete thing I never saw a place so altered in my life I told Smith I did not know where I was the approach now is one of the finest things in the country you see the house in a most surprising manner I declare when I got back to Sotherton yesterday it looked like a prison quite a dismal old prison oh for shame cried Mrs Norris a prison indeed Sotherton Court is the noblest old place in the world it wants improvement ma'am beyond anything I never saw a place that wanted so much improvement in my life and is so forlorn that I do not know what can be done with it no wonder that Mr Rushworth should think so at present said Mrs Grant to Mrs Norris with a smile but depend upon it Sotherton will have every improvement in time which his heart can desire I must try to do something with it said Mr Rushworth but I do not know what I hope I shall have some good friend to help me your best friend upon such an occasion said Miss Bertram calmly would be Mr Repton I assume that is what I was thinking of as he has done so well by Smith I think I had better have him at once his times are five guineas a day well and if they were ten cried Mrs Norris I'm sure you need not regard it the expense need not be any impediment how are you I should not think of the expense I would have everything done in the best style and made as nice as possible such a place as Sotherton court deserves everything that taste and money can do you have space to work upon there and grounds that will well reward you for my own part if I had anything within the fiftieth part of the size of Sotherton I should be always planting and improving but naturally I am excessively fond of it it would be too ridiculous for me to attempt anything where I am now a half acre it would be quite a burlesque but if I had more room I should take a pretty just delight in improving and planting we did a vast deal in that way at the Parsonage we made it quite a different place from what it was when we first had it you young ones do not remember much about it perhaps but if dear Sir Thomas were here he could tell you what improvements we made and a great deal more would have been done but for poor Mr Norris a sad state of health he could hardly ever get out poor man to enjoy anything and that disheartened me from doing several things that Sir Thomas and I used to talk of if it had not been for that we should have carried on the garden wall and made the plantation to shut out the church yard just as Dr Grant has done we were always doing something as it was it was only the spring twelve months before Mr Norris's death that we put in the apricot against the stable wall which has now grown such a noble tree and getting to such perfection sir addressing herself then to Dr. Grant the trees rise well you want to doubt madam replied Dr. Grant the soil is good and I never pass it without regretting that the fruit should be so little worth the trouble of gathering sir it is a more park we bought it as a more park and it cost us that is it was a present from Sir Thomas but I saw the bill and I know it cost seven shillings and was charged as a more park you were imposed on ma'am replied Dr. Grant these potatoes have as much the flavour of a more park apricot as the fruit from that tree it is an insipid fruit at the best but a good apricot is eatable which none from my garden are the truth is ma'am said Mrs. Grant pretending to whisper across the table to Mrs. Norris that Dr. Grant hardly knows what the natural taste of our apricot is he is scarcely ever indulged with one for it is so valuable of fruit with a little assistance and ours is such a remarkably large resort that what with early tarts and preserves my cook contrives to get them all Mrs. Norris who had begun to redden was appeased and for a little while other subjects took place of the improvements of Southerton Dr. Grant and Mrs. Norris were seldom good friends their acquaintance had begun in dilapidations and their habits were totally dissimilar after a short interruption Mr. Rushworth began again Smith's place is the admiration of all the country and it was a mere nothing before Repton took it in hand I think I shall have Repton Mr. Rushworth said Lady Bertram if I were you I would have a very pretty shrubbery one likes to get out into a shrubbery in fine weather Mr. Rushworth was eager to assure her ladyship of his acquiescence and tried to make out something complimentary but between his submission to her taste and his having always intended the same himself with the super-added objects of professing attention to the comfort of ladies in general and of insinuating that there was only one whom he was anxious to please he grew puzzled and Edmund was glad to put an end to his speech by a proposal of wine Mr. Rushworth however though not usually a great talker had still more to say on the subject next his heart Smith has not much above a hundred acres altogether in his grounds which is little enough and which makes it more surprising that the place can have been so improved now at Southerton we have a good seven hundred without reckoning the water meadows so that I think if so much could be done at Compton we need not despair there have been two or three final trees cut down that grew too near the house and it opens a prospect amazingly which makes me think that Repton or anybody of that sort would certainly have the avenue at Southerton down the avenue that leads from the west front to the top of the hill you know turning to Miss Bertram particularly as he spoke but Miss Bertram thought it most becoming to reply the avenue oh I do not recollect it I really know very little of Southerton Fanny who was sitting on the other side of Edmund exactly opposite Miss Crawford and who had been attentively listening now looked at him and said in a low voice cut down an avenue what a pity does it not make you think of Cowper you've fallen avenues once more I mourn your fate unmerited he smiled as he answered I'm afraid the avenue stands a bad chance Fanny I should like to see Southerton before it is cut down to see the place as it is now in its old state but I do not suppose I shall have you never been there no you never can and not luckily it is out of distance for a ride I wish we could contrive it oh it does not signify whenever I do see it you will tell me how it has been altered I collect said Miss Crawford that Southerton is an old place and a place of some grandeur in any particular style of building the house was built in Elizabeth's time and is a large regular brick building heavy but respectable looking and has many good rooms it is ill-placed it stands in one of the lowest spots of the park in that respect unfavorable for improvement but the woods are fine and there is a stream which I dare say might be made a good deal of Mr. Rushworth is quite right I think in meaning to give it a modern dress and I have no doubt that it will be all done extremely well Miss Crawford listened with submission and said to herself he is a well-bred man he makes the best of it I do not wish to influence Mr. Rushworth he continued but had I a place to new fashion I should not put myself into the hands of an improver I would rather have an inferior degree of beauty of my own choice and acquired progressively I would rather abide by my own blunders than by his you would know what you were about of course but that would not suit me I have no eye or ingenuity for such matters but as they are before me and had I a place of my own in the country I should be most thankful to any Mr. Repton who would undertake it and give me as much beauty as he could for my money and I should never look at it until it was complete it would be delightful to me to see the progress of it all said Fanny I you've been brought up to it it was no part of my education and the only dose I ever had being administered by not the first favorite in the world has made me consider improvements in hand as the greatest of nuisances three years ago the admiral, my honored uncle bought a cottage at Twickenham for us all to spend our summers in and my aunt and I went down to it quite enraptures but it being excessively pretty it was soon found necessary to be improved and for three months we were all dirt and confusion without a gravel walk to step on or a bench fit for use I would have everything as complete as possible in the country shrubberies and flower gardens and rustic seats enumerable but it must be all done without my care Henry is different he loves to be doing Edmund was sorry to hear Miss Crawford whom he was much disposed to admire speak so freely of her uncle it did not suit his sense of propriety and he was silenced till induced by further smiles and liveliness to put the matter by for the present Mr. Bertram said she I have tidings of my harp at last I am assured that it is safe at Northampton and there it has probably been these ten days in spite of the solemn assurances we have so often received the contrary Edmund expressed his pleasure and surprise the truth is that our inquiries were too direct we sent a servant, we went ourselves this will not do seventy miles from London but this morning we heard of it in the right way it was seen by some farmer and he told the miller and the miller told the butcher and the butcher's son-in-law left word at the shop I am very glad that you have heard of it by whatever means and hope there will be no further delay I am to have it tomorrow but how do you think it is to be conveyed not by a wagon or cart oh no, nothing of that kind could be hired in the village I might as well have asked for porters and a hand-barrow you would find it difficult, I dare say, just now in the middle of a very late hay harvest to hire a horse and cart I was astonished to find what a piece of work was made of it to want a horse and cart in the country seemed impossible so I told my maid to speak for one directly and as I cannot look out of my dressing-closet without seeing one farmyard nor walk in the shrubbery without passing another I thought it would be only ask-and-have and was rather grieve that I could not give the advantage to all guess my surprise when I found that I had been asking the most unreasonable, most impossible thing in the world had offended all the farmers, all the labourers, all the hay in the parish as for Dr. Grant's bailiff I believe I had better keep out of his way and my brother-in-law himself, who was all kindness in general and was rather black upon me when he found what I had been at you could not be expected to have thought on the subject before but when you do think of it you must see the importance of getting in the grass the hire of a cart at any time might not be so easy as you suppose our farmers are not in the habit of letting them out but in harvest it must be quite out of their power to spare a horse I shall understand all your ways in time but coming down with the true London maxim that everything is to be got with money I was a little embarrassed at first by the sturdy independence of your country customs however I am to have my harp fetched to-morrow Henry, who is good nature itself, has offered to fetch it in his barouche will it not be honourably conveyed Edmund spoke of the harp as his favourite instrument and hoped to be soon allowed to hear her Fanny had never heard the harp at all and wished for it very much I shall be most happy to play to you both, said Miss Crawford as least as long as you can like to listen probably much longer, for I daily love music myself and where the natural taste is equal the player must always be best off for she is gratified in more ways than one now Mr. Bertram, if you write to your brother I entreat you to tell him that my harp is come he had so much of my misery about it and you may say if you please that I shall prepare my most plaintive airs against his return in compassion to his feelings as I know his horse will lose if I write I will say whatever you wish me but I do not at present foresee any occasion for writing no, I dare say nor if he would be gone a twelve month would you ever write to him nor he to you if it could be helped the occasion would never be foreseen what strange creatures brothers are you would not write to each other but upon the most urgent necessity in the world and when obliged to take up the pen to say that such a horse is ill or such a relation dead it is done in the fewest possible words you have but one style among you I know it perfectly Henry, who is in every other respect exactly what a brother should be who loves me, consults me, confides in me and will talk to me by the hour together has never yet turned the page in a letter and very often it is nothing more than dear Mary I am just arrived Bath seems full and everything is usual yours sincerely that is the true manly style that is a complete brother's letter when they are at a distance from all their family said Fanny colouring for William's sake they can write long letters Miss Price has a brother at sea said Edmund whose excellence the correspondent makes her think you too severe upon us at sea has she in the King's service of course Fanny would rather have had Edmund tell the story but his determined silence obliged her to relate her brother's situation her voice was animated in speaking of his profession and the foreign stations he had been on but she could not mention the number of years that he had been absent without tears in her eyes Miss Crawford civilly wished him an early promotion do you know anything of my cousin's captain? said Edmund Captain Marshall you have a large acquaintance in the Navy I conclude among admirals large enough but with an air of grandeur we know very little of the inferior ranks post-captains may be a very good sort of men but they do not belong to us of various admirals I could tell you a good deal of them and their flags and the gradation of their pay and their bickering and jealousies but in general I can assure you that they are all passed over and all very ill-used certainly my home at my uncles brought me acquainted with the circle of admirals of rears and vices I saw enough now do not be suspecting me of a pun I entreat Edmund again felt grave and only replied it is a noble profession yes the profession is well enough under two circumstances if it make the fortune and there be discretion in spending it but in short it is not a favourite profession of mine it is never worn in amiable form to me Edmund reverted to the harp and was again very happy in the prospect of hearing her play the subject of improving grounds meanwhile was still under consideration among the others and Mrs. Grant could not help addressing her brother though it was calling his attention from Miss Julia Bertram my dear Henry have you nothing to say you have been an improver yourself and from what I hear of Everingham it may vie with any place in England its natural beauties I am sure are great Everingham as it used to be was perfect in my estimation such a happy fall of ground and such timber what would I not give to see it again nothing could be so gratifying to me as to hear your opinion of it was his answer but I fear there would be some disappointment you would not find it equal to your present ideas in extent it is a mere nothing you would be surprised that it's in significance and as for improvement there was very little for me to do too little I should like to have been busy much longer you are fond of the sort of thing said Julia excessively but what with the natural advantages of the ground which pointed out even to a very young I what little remain to be done and my own consequent resolutions I had not been of age three months before Everingham was all that it is now my plan was laid at Westminster a little altered perhaps at Cambridge and at 120 executed I am inclined to end the Mr. Rushworth for having so much happiness yet before him I have been a devourer of my own those who see quickly will resolve quickly and act quickly said Julia you can never want employment instead of envying Mr. Rushworth you should assist him with your opinion Mrs. Grant hearing the latter part of this speech enforced it warmly persuaded that no judgment could be equal to her brothers and as Miss Bertram caught at the idea likewise and gave it her full support declaring that in her opinion it was infinitely better to consult with friends and disinterested advisers then immediately to throw the business into the hands of a professional man Mr. Rushworth was very ready to request the favour of Mr. Crawford's assistance and Mr. Crawford after properly depreciating his own abilities was quite at his service in any way that could be useful Mr. Rushworth then began to propose Mr. Crawford doing him the honour of coming over to Southerton and taking a bed there when Mrs. Norris as if reading in her two nieces mind their little approbation of a plan which was to take Mr. Crawford away interposed with an amendment there can be no doubt of Mr. Crawford's willingness but why should not more of us go? why should we not make a little party? here are many that would be interested in your improvements my dear Mr. Rushworth and that would like to hear Mr. Crawford's opinion on the spot and that might be of some small use to you with their opinions and for my own part I have been long wishing to wait upon your good mother again nothing but having no horses of my own could have made me so remiss but now I could go and sit a few hours with Mrs. Rushworth and have you walked about and settled things and then we could all return to a late dinner here or dine at Southerton just as might be most agreeable to your mother and have a pleasant drive home by moonlight I dare say Mr. Crawford would take my two nieces and me and his barouche and Edmund can go on horseback, you know, sister and Fanny will stay at home with you Lady Bertram made no objection and every one concerned in the going was forward in there expressing their ready concurrence accepting Edmund who heard it all and said nothing End of chapter 6