Mansfield Park

lth and pleasure, would be soon made good. While she was gone Mr. Rushworth arrived, escorting his mother, who came to be civil and to shew her civility especially, in urging the

ipulation, and though Mrs. Norris would willingly have answered for his being so, they would neither authorise the liberty nor run the risk; and at last, on a hint from Miss Bertram, Mr.

It was hardly possible, indeed, that anything else should be talked of, for Mrs. Norris was in high spirits about it; and Mrs. Rushworth, a well-meaning, civil, prosing, pompous woman, who thought nothing of consequence, but as it related to her own and her son's concern

and accept of our two dear girls and myself without her. Sotherton is the only place that could give her a wish to go so far, but it cannot be, indeed. She will have a companion in Fanny Price

r ladyship's company would be a great drawback, and she should have been extremely happy to have seen the you

y, she will have opportunities in plenty of seeing Sotherton. She has time enough before her

annot do wi

er coming into the neighbourhood, civilly declined it on her own account, she was glad to secure any pleasure for her sister; and Mary, properly pressed and persuaded, was not long in accepting her share of the civility. Mr. Rushwor

e party were desirable or not, or whether her brother's barouche would not be full without her. The Miss Bertrams laughed at t

Why is no use to be made of my mother's chaise? I could not, when the scheme was first mentioned the

aise in this weather, when we may have seats in a b

ford depends upon taking us. After what pass

rselves, coachman is not very fond of the roads between this and Sotherton: he always complains bitterly of the narrow lanes scratc

the truth is, that Wilcox is a stupid old fellow, and does not know how to drive. I

nothing unpleasant," said Edmund

ught the favourite seat. There can be no comparison as to one's view of

Fanny's going with you; there can be

is no idea of her going with us. She stays with her

wishing Fanny not to be of the party, but as it relates to yourself, to your ow

, but I cannot

y at home with you

to stay at home. Fanny has a great desire to see Sotherton. I know she wishes it very much. She has not

d, if your aunt s

and attention, that she really did not feel equal to it. Mrs. Norris had no affection for Fanny, and no wish of procuring her pleasure at any time; but her opposition to Edmund now, arose more from partiality for her own scheme, because it was her own, than from anything else. She felt that she had arranged everything extremely well, and that any alteration must be for the worse. When Edmund, therefore, told her in reply, as he did when she would give him the heari

ia, "that you should be stayi

d Julia, hastily leaving the room as she spoke, from a con

s the occasion requires," was Edmund

l, and more than all, the sensibility which he, unsuspicious of her fond attachment, could be aware of; but that he should f

Bertram in lieu of her son, and Dr. Grant was to join them at dinner. Lady Bertram was very well pleased to have it so, and the young ladies were in spirits again. Even Edmund was very thankful for

envied seat, the post of honour, was unappropriated. To whose happy lot was it to fall? While each of the Miss Bertrams were meditating how best, and with the most appearance of obliging the others, to secure it, the matter was settled by Mrs. Grant's s

took her seat within, in gloom and mortification; and the carriage drove off amid the

try, the bearings of the roads, the difference of soil, the state of the harvest, the cottages, the cattle, the children, she found entertainment that could only have been heightened by having Edmund to speak to of what she felt. That was the only point of resemblance between her and the lady who sat by her: in everything but a value for Edmund, Miss Crawford was very unlike her. She had none of Fanny's delica

of irritation, which her own sense of propriety could but just smooth over. When Julia looked back, it was with a countenance of delight, and whenever she spoke to them, it was in the highest spirits: "her view of the country was charming, she wished they could all see it," etc.; but her only offer of exchange was

er had considerable effect. Mr. Rushworth's consequence was hers. She could not tell Miss Crawford that "those woods belonged to Sotherton," she could not carelessly observe that "she believed that it was now all Mr. Rushworth's property

o close to the great house as often happens in old places. The annoyance of the bells must be terrible. There is the parsonage: a tidy-looking house, and I understand the clergyman and his wife are very decent people. Those are almshouses, built by some of the family. To the right is the steward's house; he is a very respectable

mething to say in admiration, and might be heard with complacency. Her eye was eagerly taking in everything within her reach; and after being at some pains to get a view of the house, and observing that "it was a sort of b

scends for half a mile to the extremity of the grounds. You may see some

Mr. Rushworth had asked her opinion; and her spirits were in as happy a flutter as vanity and p