Sir Thomas felt as an anxious
father must feel, and was indeed experiencing much of the agitation
which his wife had been apprehensive of for herself, but had fortunately
escapedNorris, most happy to assist in the duties of
the day, by spending it at the Park to support her sister?s spirits, and
drinking the health of MrRushworth in a supernumerary
glass or two, was all joyous delight; for she had made the match;
she had done everything; and no one would have supposed, from
her confident triumph, that she had ever heard of conjugal infelicity
in her life, or could have the smallest insight into the disposition
of the niece who had been brought up under her eye
The plan of the young couple was to proceed, after a few days, to
Brighton, and take a house there for some weeksEvery public place
was new to Maria, and Brighton is almost as gay in winter as in
summerWhen the novelty of amusement there was over, it would
be time for the wider range of London
Julia was to go with them to BrightonSince rivalry between the
sisters had ceased, they had been gradually recovering much of their
former good understanding; and were at least sufficiently friends to
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make each of them exceedingly glad to be with the other at such a
timeSome other companion than MrRushworth was of the first
consequence to his lady; and Julia was quite as eager for novelty and
pleasure as Maria, though she might not have struggled through so
much to obtain them, and could better bear a subordinate situation
Their departure made another material change at Mansfield, a
chasm which required some time to fill upThe family circle became
greatly contracted; and though the Miss Bertrams had latterly
added little to its gaiety, they could not but be missedEven their
mother missed them; and how much more their tenderhearted
cousin, who wandered about the house, and thought of them, and
felt for them, with a degree of affectionate regret which they had
never done much to deserve!
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Mansfield http://www.enluxury.com/categorys_99_Gucci-Tote_1.html" target="_blank Park
CHAPTER XXII
FANNY?S CONSEQUENCE increased on the departure of her cousins
Becoming, as she then did, the only young woman in the drawingroom,
the only occupier of that interesting division of a family in
which she had hitherto held so humble a third, it was impossible for
her not to be more looked at, more thought of and attended to,
than she had ever been before; and ?Where is Fanny?? became no
uncommon question, even without her being wanted for any one?s
convenience
Not only at home did her value increase, but at the Parsonage too
In that house, which she had hardly entered twice a year since Mr
Norris?s death, she became a welcome, an invited guest, and in the
gloom and dirt of a November day, most acceptable to Mary
CrawfordHer visits there, beginning by chance, were continued
by solicitationGrant, really eager to get any change for her
sister, could, by the easiest self-deceit, persuade herself that she was
doing the kindest thing by Fanny, and giving her the most important
opportunities of improvement in pressing her frequent calls
Fanny, having been sent into the village on some errand by her
aunt Norris, was overtaken by a heavy shower close to the Parsonage;
and being descried from one of the windows endeavouring to
find shelter under the branches and lingering leaves of an oak just
beyond their premises, was forced, though not without some modest
reluctance on her part, to come inA civil servant she had withstood;
but when DrGrant himself went out with an umbrella, there
was nothing to be done but to be very much ashamed, and to get
into the house as fast as possible; and to poor Miss Crawford, who
had just been contemplating the dismal rain in a very desponding
state of mind, sighing over the ruin of all her plan of exercise for
that morning, and of every chance of seeing a single creature be179
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yond themselves for the next twenty-four hours, the sound of a
little bustle at the front door, and the sight of Miss Price dripping
with wet http://www.irluxury.com/categorys_32_Deville_2.html" target="_blank in the vestibule, was delightfulThe value of an event on a
wet day in the country was most forcibly brought before herShe
was all alive again directly, and among the most active in being useful
to Fanny, in detecting her to be wetter than she would at first
allow, and providing her with dry clothes; and Fanny, after being
obliged to submit to all this attention, and to being assisted and
waited on by mistresses and maids, being also obliged, on returning
downstairs, to be fixed in their drawing-room for an hour while the
rain continued, the blessing of something fresh to see and think of
was thus extended to Miss Crawford, and might carry on her spirits
to the period of dressing and dinner
The two sisters were so kind to her, and so pleasant, that Fanny
might have enjoyed her visit could she have believed herself not in the
way, and could she have foreseen that the weather would certainly
clear at the end of the hour, and save her from the shame of having
DrGrant?s carriage and horses out to take her home, with which she
was threatenedAs to anxiety for any alarm that her absence in such
weather might occasion at home, she had nothing to suffer on that
score; for as her being out was known only to her two aunts, she was
perfectly aware that none would be felt, and that in whatever cottage
aunt Norris might chuse to establish her during the rain, her being in
such cottage would be indubitable to aunt Bertram
It was beginning to look brighter, when Fanny, observing a harp
in the room, asked some questions about it, which soon led to an
acknowledgment of her wishing very much to hear it, and a confession,
which could hardly be believed, of her having never yet heard
it since its being in MansfieldTo Fanny herself it appeared a very
simple and natural circumstanceShe had scarcely ever been at the
Parsonage since the instrument?s arrival, there had been no reason
that she should; but Miss Crawford, calling to mind an early expressed
wish on the subject, was concerned at http://www.culuxury.com/category_27_Chanel-Watches_1.html" target="_blank her own neglect; and
?Shall I play to you now?? and ?What will you have?? were questions
immediately following with the readiest good-humour
She played accordingly; happy to have a new listener, and a listener
who seemed so much obliged, so full of wonder at the perfor180
Mansfield Park
mance, and who shewed herself not wanting in tasteShe played till
Fanny?s eyes, straying to the window on the weather?s being evidently
fair, spoke what she felt must be done
?Another quarter of an hour,? said Miss Crawford, ?and we shall
see how it will beDo not run away the first moment of its holding
upThose clouds look alarming
?But they are passed over,? said Fanny?I have been watching
themThis weather is all from the south
?South or north, I know a black cloud when I see it; and you
must not set forward while it is so threateningAnd besides, I want
to play something more to you?a very pretty piece?and your
cousin Edmund?s prime favouriteYou must stay and hear your
cousin?s favourite
Fanny felt that she must; and though she had not waited for that
sentence to be thinking of Edmund, such a memento made her
particularly awake to his idea, and she fancied him sitting in that
room again and again, perhaps in the very spot where she sat now,
listening with constant delight to the favourite air, played, as it appeared
to her, with superior tone and expression; and though pleased
with it herself, and glad to like whatever was liked by him, she was
more sincerely impatient to go away at the conclusion of it than she
had been before; and on this being evident, she was so kindly asked
to call again, to take them in her walk whenever she could, to come
and hear more of the harp, that she felt it necessary to be done, if no
objection arose at home
Such was the origin of the sort of intimacy which took place between
them within the first fortnight after the Miss Bertrams? going
away?an intimacy resulting principally from Miss Crawford?s desire
of something new, and which had little reality http://www.muluxury.com/category_10_Mulberry_1.html" target="_blank in Fanny?s feelings
Fanny went to her every two or three days: it seemed a kind of
fascination: she could not be easy without going, and yet it was
without loving her, without ever thinking like her, without any sense
of obligation for being sought after now when nobody else was to
be had; and deriving no higher pleasure from her conversation than
occasional amusement, and that often at the expense of her judgment,
when it was raised by pleasantry on people or subjects which
she wished to be respectedShe went, however, and they sauntered
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about together many an half-hour in MrsGrant?s shrubbery, the
weather being unusually mild for the time of year, and venturing
sometimes even to sit down on one of the benches now comparatively
unsheltered, remaining there perhaps till, in the midst of some
tender ejaculation of Fanny?s on the sweets of so protracted an autumn,
they were forced, by the sudden swell of a cold gust shaking
down the last few yellow leaves about them, to jump up and walk
for warmth
?This is pretty, very pretty,? said Fanny, looking around her as
they were thus sitting together one day; ?every time I come into this
shrubbery I am more struck with its growth and beautyThree years
ago, this was nothing but a rough hedgerow along the upper side of
the field, never thought of as anything, or capable of becoming anything;
and now it is converted into a walk, and it would be difficult
to say whether most valuable as a convenience or an ornament; and
perhaps, in another three years, we may be forgetting?almost forgetting
what it was beforeHow wonderful, how very wonderful
the operations of time, and the changes of the human mind!? And
following the latter train of thought, she soon afterwards added: ?If
any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than
the rest, I do think it is memoryThere seems something more
speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities
of memory, than in any other of our dolce