October 29, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter forty eight. Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.
I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can,
impatient to restore everybody not greatly in fought themselves, to
tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest
my fanny. Indeed, at this very time I have the
satisfaction of knowing must have been happy in spite of everything.
(00:23):
She must have been a happy creature, in spite of
all that she felt or thought she felt for the
distress of those around her, she had sources of delight
that must force their way. She was returned to Mansfield Park.
She was useful, she was beloved, She was safe from
mister Crawford, and when Sir Thomas came back, she had
every proof that could be given, in his then melancholy
(00:44):
state of spirits, of his perfect approbation and increased regard.
And happy as all this must make her, she would
still have been happy without any of it, for Edmond
was no longer the dupe of Miss Crawford. It is
true that Edmund was very far from happy himself. He
was suffering from disappointment and regret, grieving over what was,
(01:05):
and wishing for what could never be. She knew it
was so, and was sorry. But it was with a
sorrow so founded on satisfaction, so tending to ease, and
so much in harmony with every dearest sensation, that there
are few who might not have been glad to exchange
their greatest gaiety for it. Sir Thomas, Poor, Sir Thomas,
(01:26):
a parent and conscious serveras in his own conduct as
a parent, was the longest to suffer. He felt that
he ought not to have allowed the marriage, that his
daughter's sentiments had been sufficiently known to him to render
him culpable in authorizing it, that in so doing he
had sacrificed the right to the expedient, and been governed
by motives of selfishness and worldly wisdom. These were reflections
(01:50):
that required some time to soften. But time will do
almost everything. And though little comfort arose on missus Brushworth's
side for the misery she had occasioned, comfort was to
be found greater than he had supposed in his other children.
Julia's match became a less desperate business than he had
considered it. At first, she was humble and wishing to
(02:11):
be forgiven, and mister Yates desirous of being really received
into the family, was disposed to look up to him
and be guided. He was not very solid, but there
was a hope of his becoming less trifling, of his
being at least tolerably domestic and quiet. And at any rate,
there was comfort in finding his estate rather more and
(02:31):
his debts much less than he had feared, and in
being consulted and treated as the friend best worth attending to.
There was comfort also in tom who gradually regained his
health without regaining the thoughtlessness and selfishness of his previous habits.
He was the better for ever for his illness. He
had suffered, and he had learned to think two advantages
(02:53):
that he had never known before, and the self reproach
arising from the deplorable event in Wimpole Street to which
he felt himself accessory by all the dangerous intimacy of
his unjustifiable theater made an impression on his mind, which,
at the age of six and twenty, with no want
of sense or good companions, was durable in its happy effects.
(03:15):
He became what he ought to be useful to his father,
steady and quiet and not living merely for himself. Here
was comfort, indeed, and quite as soon as Sir Thomas
could place dependence on such sources of good Edmond was
contributing to his father's ease by improvement in the only
point in which he had given him pain before, improvement
(03:36):
in his spirits. After wandering about and sitting under trees
with Fanny all the summer evenings, he had so well
talked his mind into submission as to be very tolerably
cheerful again. These were the circumstances and the hopes which
gradually brought their alleviation to Sir Thomas, deadening his sense
of what was lost, and in part reconciling him to himself,
(03:59):
though or the anguish arising from the conviction of his
own errors in the education of his daughters was never
to be entirely done away. Too late he became aware
how unfavorable to the character of any young people must
be the totally opposite treatment which Maria and Julia had
been always experiencing at home, where the excessive indulgence and
(04:20):
flattery of their aunt had been continually contrasted with his
own severity. He saw how ill he had judged in
expecting to counteract what was wrong in Missus Norris by
its reverse in himself clearly saw that he had but
increased the evil by teaching them to repress their spirits
in his presence, as to make their real disposition unknown
(04:40):
to him, and sending them for all their indulgences to
a person who had been able to attach them only
by the blindness of her affection and the excess of
her praise. Here had been grievous mismanagement, But bad as
it was, he gradually grew to feel that it had
not been the most direful mistake in his plan of education.
Something must have been wanting within or time would have
(05:03):
worn away much of its ill effect. He feared that
principle active principle had been wanting, that they had never
been properly taught to govern their inclinations and tempers by
that sense of duty which can alone suffice. They had
been instructed theoretically in their religion, but never required to
bring it into daily practice. To be distinguished for elegance
(05:25):
and accomplishments, the authorized object of their youth, could have
had no useful influence that way, no moral effect on
the mind. He had meant them to be good, but
his cares had been directed to the understanding and manners,
not the disposition and of the necessity of self denial
and humility he feared they had never heard from any
(05:46):
lips that could profit them. Bitterly did he deplore a
deficiency which now he could scarcely comprehend to have been possible.
Wretchedly did he feel that, with all the cost and
care of an anxious and expensive education, he had brought
up his daughters without their understanding their first duties, or
his being acquainted with their character and temper. The high
(06:08):
spirit and strong passions of Missus Rushworth especially were made
known to him only in their sad result. She was
not to be prevailed on to leave mister Crawford. She
hoped to marry him, and they continued together till she
was obliged to be convinced that such hope was vain,
and till the disappointment and wretchedness arising from the conviction
rendered her tempers so bad and her feelings for him
(06:31):
so like hatred, as to make them for a while
each other's punishment, and then in duce a voluntary separation.
She had lived with him, to be reproached as the
ruin of all his happiness. In Fanny and carried away
no better consolation in leaving him than that she had
divided them. What can exceed the misery of such a
mind in such a situation. Mister Rushworth had no difficulty
(06:55):
in procuring a divorce, and so ended a marriage contracted
under such scin instances as to make any better end.
The effect of good luck not to be reckoned on.
She had despised him and loved another, and he had
been very much aware that it was so. The indignities
of stupidity and the disappointments of selfish passion can excite
(07:16):
little pity. His punishment followed his conduct, as did a
deeper punishment, the deeper guilt of his wife. He was
released from the engagement, to be mortified and unhappy till
some other pretty girl could attract him into matrimony again,
and he might set forward on a second And it
is to be hoped more prosperous trial of the state,
(07:36):
if duped, to be duped at least with good humor
and good luck. While she must withdraw, with infinitely stronger feelings,
to a retirement and reproach which could allow no second
spring of hope or character where she could be placed,
became a subject of most melancholy and momentous consultation. Missus Norris,
(07:56):
whose attachment seemed to augment with the demerits of her niece,
would have had her received at home and countenanced by
them all Sir thomas would not hear of it, and
Missus Norris's anger against Fanny was so much the greater
from considering her residence there as the motive she persisted
in placing his scruples to her account, though Sir Thomas
(08:17):
very solemnly assured her that had there been no young
woman in question, had there been no young person of
either sex belonging to him to be endangered by the
society or hurt by the character of Missus Rushworth, he
would never have offered so great an insult to the
neighborhood as to expect it to notice her as a daughter,
he hoped, a penitent one. She should be protected by
(08:39):
him and secured in every comfort and supported by every
encouragement to do right, which their relative situations admitted. But
farther than that he would not go. Maria had destroyed
her own character, and he would not by a vain
attempt to restore what never could be restored. Be affording
his sanction to vice, or in seeking to lessen it disgrace,
(09:00):
be any wise accessory to introducing such misery in another
man's family as he had known himself. It ended in
Missus Norris's resolving to quit Mansfield and devote herself to
an unfortunate Maria, and in an establishment being formed for
them in another country, remote and private, where shut up
together with little society on one side, no affection on
(09:23):
the other, no judgment. It may be reasonably supposed that
their tempers became their mutual punishment. Missus Norris's removal from
Mansfield was the great supplementary comfort of Sir Thomas's life.
His opinion of her had been sinking from the day
of his return from Antigua. In every transaction together. From
that period, in their daily intercourse, in business or in chat,
(09:46):
she had been regularly losing ground in his esteem, and
convincing him that either time had done her much disservice,
or that he had considerably overrated her sense and wonderfully
born with her manners. Before he had felt her as
an hourly evil, which was so much the worse as
there seemed no chance of its ceasing. But with life.
(10:06):
She seemed a part of himself that must be borne
forever to be relieved from her. Therefore was so great
a felicity that, had she not left bitter remembrances behind her,
there might have been danger of his learning almost to
approve the evil which produced such a good. She was
regretted by no one at Mansfield. She had never been
able to attach, even though she loved best, and since
(10:29):
Missus Rushworth's elopement, her temper had been in a state
of such irritation as to make her everywhere tormenting. Not
even Fanny had tears for Aunt Norris, not even when
she was gone forever. That Julia escaped better than Maria was,
owing in some measure to a favorable difference of disposition
and circumstance, but in a greater to her, having been
(10:51):
less the darling of that very aunt, less flattered, and
less spoilt, her beauty and acquirements had held but a
second place. She had been always used to think herself
a little inferior to Maria. Her temper was naturally the
easiest of the two. Her feelings, though quick, were more controllable,
and education had not given her so very hurtful a
(11:12):
degree of self consequence. She had submitted the best to
the disappointment in Henry Crawford. After the first bitterness of
the conviction of being slighted was over, she had been
tolerably soon in a fair way of not thinking of
him again. And when the acquaintance was renewed in town
and mister Rushworth's house became Crawford's object, she had had
the merit of withdrawing herself from it, and of choosing
(11:35):
that time to pay a visit to her other friends,
in order to secure herself from being again too much attracted.
This had been her motive in going to her cousin's.
Mister Yates's convenience had had nothing to do with it.
She had been allowing his attention some time, but with
very little idea of ever accepting him, and had not
her sister's conduct burst forth as it did, and her
(11:57):
increased dread of her father and of home on that event,
imagining its certain consequence to herself would be greater severity
and restraint, made her hastily resolve on avoiding such immediate
horrors at all risks. It is probable that mister Yates
would never have succeeded she had not eloped with any
worse feelings than those of selfish alarm. It had appeared
(12:18):
to her the only thing to be done. Maria's guilt
had induced Julius folly. Henry Crawford, ruined by early independence
and bad domestic example, indulged in the freaks of a
cold blooded vanity a little too long once it had,
by an opening undesigned and unmerited, led him into the
(12:38):
way of happiness. Could he have been satisfied with the
conquest of one amiable woman's affections? Could he have found
sufficient exaltation in overcoming the reluctance in working himself into
the esteem and tenderness of Fanny Price. There would have
been every probability of success and felicity for him. His
affection had already done something. Her influence over him had
(13:01):
already given him some influence over her. Would he have
deserved more? There can be no doubt that more would
have been obtained, especially when that marriage had taken place,
which would have given him the assistance of her conscience
in subduing her first inclination, and brought them very often together.
Would he have persevered and uprightly? Fanny must have been
(13:23):
his reward, and a reward very voluntarily bestowed within a
reasonable period from Edmund's marrying Mary. Had he done as
he intended and as he knew he ought by going
down to Evringham after his return from Portsmouth, he might
have been deciding his own happy destiny. But he was
pressed to stay for Missus Fraser's party. His staying was
(13:44):
made of flattering consequence, and he was to meet Missus Rushworth. Fair.
Curiosity and vanity were both engaged, and the temptation of
immediate pleasure was too strong for a mind unused to
make any sacrifice to write. He resolved to defer his
Norfolk journey, resolved that writing should answer the purpose of it,
or that its purpose was unimportant, and staid. He saw
(14:07):
Missus Rushworth, was received by her with a coldness which
ought to have been repulsive and have established apparent indifference
between them forever. But he was mortified. He could not
bear to be thrown off by the woman whose smiles
had been so wholly at his command. He must exert
himself to subdue so proud a display of resentment. It
was anger on Fanny's account. He must get the better
(14:29):
of it and make Missus Rushworth Mariah Bertram again in
her treatment of himself. In this spirit, he began the attack,
and by animated perseverance had soon re established the sort
of familiar intercourse of gallantry, of flirtation which bounded his views.
But in triumphing over the discretion, which, though beginning in anger,
(14:50):
might have saved them both, he had put himself in
the power of feelings on her side, more strong than
he had supposed. She loved him, there was no withdrawal,
owing attentions. Avowedly dear to her, He was entangled by
his own vanity, with as little excuse of love as possible,
and without the smallest inconstancy of mind towards her cousin.
(15:11):
To keep Fanny and the Bertrams from a knowledge of
what was passing became his first object. Secrecy could not
have been more desirable for Missus Rushworth's credit than he
felt it for his own. When he returned from Richmond,
he would have been glad to see Missus Rushworth no more.
All that followed was the result of her imprudence, and
he went off with her at last because he could
(15:33):
not help it, regretting Fanny even at the moment, but
regretting her infinitely more, when all the bustle of the
intrigue was over, and a very few months had taught him,
by the force of contrast, to place as yet higher
value on the sweetness of her temper, the purity of
her mind, and the excellence of her principles, that punishment,
(15:53):
the public punishment of disgrace, should, in a just measure,
attend his share of the offense. Is we know not
one of the barriers which society gives to virtue in
this world, the penalty is less equal than could be wished.
But without presuming to look forward to a juster appointment hereafter,
we may fairly consider a man of sense like Henry
(16:14):
Crawford to be providing for himself no small portion of
vexation and regret, vexation that must rise sometimes to self
reproach and regret to wretchedness. In having so requited hospitality,
so injured family peace, so forfeited his best, most estimable
and endeared acquaintance, and so lost the woman whom he
(16:36):
had rationally as well as passionately loved. After what had
passed to wound and alienate the two families, the continuance
of the Bertrams and Grants in such close neighborhood would
have been most distressing. But the absence of the latter
for some months purposely lengthened, ended very fortunately in the
necessity or at least the practicability of a permanent removal.
(16:59):
Doctor Grant, through an interest on which he had almost
ceased to form hopes, succeeded to a stall in Westminster, which,
as affording an occasion for leaving Mansfield, an excuse for
residence in London, and an increase of income to answer
the expenses of the change, was highly acceptable to those
who went and those who stayed. Missus Grant, with a
(17:20):
temper to love and be loved, must have gone with
some regret from the scenes and people she had been
used to, But the same happiness of disposition must in
any place and any society, secure her a great deal
to enjoy, and she had again a home to offer Mary.
And Mary had had enough of her own friends, enough
of vanity, ambition, love and disappointment in the course of
(17:43):
the last half year, to be in need of the
true kindness of her sister's heart and the rational tranquility
of her ways. They lived together, and when doctor Grant
had brought on apoplexy and death by three great institutionary
dinners in one week, they still lived together. For Mary,
though perfectly resolved against ever attaching herself to a younger brother, again,
(18:05):
was long in finding among the dashing representatives or idle
heir apparents who were at the command of her beauty
and her twenty thousand pounds, any one who could satisfy
the better taste she had acquired at Mansfield, whose character
and manners could authorize a hope of the domestic happiness
she had there learnt to estimate or put Edmund Bertram
(18:26):
sufficiently out of her head. Edmond had greatly the advantage
of her in this respect. He had not to wait
and wish with vacant affections for an object worthy to
succeed her in them. Scarcely had he done regretting Mary
Crawford and observing to Fanny how impossible it was that
he should ever meet with such another woman. Before it
began to strike him whether a very different kind of
(18:49):
woman might not do just as well or a great
deal better, whether Fanny herself were not growing as dear,
as important to him in all her smiles and all
her ways, as Mary Crawford had ever been, and whether
it might not be a possible and hopeful undertaking to
persuade her that her warm and sisterly regard for him
would be foundation enough for wedded love. I purposely abstain
(19:13):
from dates on this occasion, that every one may be
at liberty to fix their own, aware that the cure
of unconquerable passions and the transfer of unchanging attachments must
vary much as to time, in different people. I only
entreat everybody to believe that exactly at the time when
it was quite natural that it should be so, and
not a week earlier did Edmond cease to care about
(19:35):
Miss Crawford and become as anxious to marry Fanny as
Fanny herself could desire. With such a regard for her, indeed,
as his had long been, a regard founded on the
most endearing claims of innocence and helplessness, and completed by
every recommendation of growing worth. What could be more natural
than the change, loving guiding protecting her as he had
(19:58):
been doing ever since her being tenured years old, her
mind in so great a degree formed by his care
and her comfort depending on his kindness, an object to
him of such close and peculiar interest, dearer by all
his own importance with her than any one else at Mansfield.
What was there now to add but that he should
learn to prefer soft light eyes to sparkling dark ones,
(20:21):
and being always with her, and always talking confidentially, and
his feelings exactly in that favorable state which a recent
disappointment gives. Though soft light eyes could not be very
long in obtaining the pre eminence, having once set out
and felt that he had done so on this road
to happiness, there was nothing on the side of prudence
(20:43):
to stop him or make his progress slow. No doubts
of her deserving, no fears from opposition of taste, no
need of drawing new hopes of happiness from dissimilarity of temper,
her mind, disposition, opinions and habits wanted. No half concealment,
no soul deception on the present, no reliance on future improvement.
(21:04):
Even in the midst of his late infatuation, he had
acknowledged Fanny's mental superiority what must be his sense of
it now? Therefore she was of course only too good
for him. But as nobody minds having what is too
good for them, he was very steadily earnest in the
pursuit of the blessing, and it was not possible that
encouragement from her should be long, wanting, timid, anxious, doubting
(21:28):
as she was. It was still impossible that such tenderness
as hers should not at times hold out the strongest
hope of success. Though it remained for a later period
to tell him the whole, delightful and astonishing truth, his
happiness in knowing himself to have been so long the
beloved of such a heart must have been great enough
to warrant any strength of language in which he could
(21:51):
clothe it to her or to himself. It must have
been a delightful happiness. But there was happiness elsewhere which
no description can reach. Let no one presume to give
the feelings of a young woman, on receiving the assurance
of that affection of which she has scarcely allowed herself
to entertain a hope their own inclinations ascertained. There were
(22:12):
no difficulties behind, no drawback of poverty or parent It
was a match which Sir Thomas's wishes had even forestalled.
Sick of ambitious and mercenary connections, prizing more and more
the sterling good of principle and temper, and chiefly anxious
to bind by the strongest securities all that remained to
him of domestic felicity. He had pondered with genuine satisfaction
(22:36):
on the more than possibility of the two young friends
finding their natural consolation in each other, for all that
had occurred of disappointment to either, and the joyful consent
which met Edmund's application. The high sense of having realized
a great acquisition in the promise of Fanny for a daughter,
formed just such a contrast with his early opinion on
(22:56):
the subject, when the poor little girl's coming had been
first agitated. As time is forever producing between the plans
and decisions of mortals for their own instruction and their
neighbor's entertainment. Fanny was indeed the daughter that he wanted.
His charitable kindness had been rearing a prime comfort for himself,
His liberality had a rich repayment, and the general goodness
(23:20):
of his intentions. By her deserved it. He might have
made her childhood happier, But it had been an error
of judgment only which had given him the appearance of
harshness and deprived him of her early love, and now
on really knowing each other, their mutual attachment became very strong.
After settling her at Thornton Lacey, with every kind attention
(23:41):
to her comfort. The object of almost every day was
to see her there or to get her away from it.
Selfishly dear as she had been to Lady Bertram, she
could not be parted with willingly by her. No happiness
of son or niece could make her wish the marriage,
but it was possible to part with her because Susan
remained to supply her place. Susan became the stationary niece,
(24:04):
delighted to be so, and equally well adapted for it
by a readiness of mind and an inclination for usefulness,
as Fanny had been, by sweetness of temper and strong
feelings of gratitude. Susan could never be spared, first as
a comfort to Fanny, then as an auxiliary, and last
as her substitute. She was established at Mansfield with every
(24:24):
appearance of equal permanency. Her more fearless disposition and happier
nerves made everything easy to her there, with quickness in
understanding the tempers of those she had to deal with,
and no natural timidity to restrain any consequent wishes. She
was soon welcome and useful to all, and after Fanny's removal,
succeeded so naturally to her influence over the hourly comfort
(24:47):
of her aunt, as gradually to become perhaps the most
beloved of the two. In her usefulness, in Fanny's excellence,
in William's continued good conduct and rising fame, and in
the general world doing and success of the other members
of the family, all assisting to advance each other, and
doing credit to his countenance and aid. Sir Thomas saw
(25:08):
repeated and forever repeated reason to rejoice in what he
had done for them all, and acknowledged the advantages of
early hardship and discipline, and the consciousness of being born
to struggle and endure with so much true merit and
true love, and no want of fortune or friends. The
happiness of the married cousins must appear as secure as
(25:28):
earthly happiness can be, equally formed for domestic life and
attached to country pleasures. Their home was the home of
affection and comfort, and to complete the picture of good
the acquisition of Mansfield Living by the death of doctor Grant,
occurred just after they had been married long enough to
begin to want an increase of income and feel their
(25:49):
distance from the paternal abode and inconvenience. On that event,
they removed to Mansfield and the parsonage there which under
each of its two former owners, Fanny had never been
able to approach, but with some painful sensation of restraint
or alarm, soon grew as dear to her heart and
as thoroughly perfect in her eyes as everything else within
(26:09):
the view and patronage of Mansfield Park had long been.
End of Chapter forty eight
Chapter forty eight. Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.
I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can,
impatient to restore everybody not greatly in fought themselves, to
tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest
my fanny. Indeed, at this very time I have the
satisfaction of knowing must have been happy in spite of everything.
(00:23):
She must have been a happy creature, in spite of
all that she felt or thought she felt for the
distress of those around her, she had sources of delight
that must force their way. She was returned to Mansfield Park.
She was useful, she was beloved, She was safe from
mister Crawford, and when Sir Thomas came back, she had
every proof that could be given, in his then melancholy
(00:44):
state of spirits, of his perfect approbation and increased regard.
And happy as all this must make her, she would
still have been happy without any of it, for Edmond
was no longer the dupe of Miss Crawford. It is
true that Edmund was very far from happy himself. He
was suffering from disappointment and regret, grieving over what was,
(01:05):
and wishing for what could never be. She knew it
was so, and was sorry. But it was with a
sorrow so founded on satisfaction, so tending to ease, and
so much in harmony with every dearest sensation, that there
are few who might not have been glad to exchange
their greatest gaiety for it. Sir Thomas, Poor, Sir Thomas,
(01:26):
a parent and conscious serveras in his own conduct as
a parent, was the longest to suffer. He felt that
he ought not to have allowed the marriage, that his
daughter's sentiments had been sufficiently known to him to render
him culpable in authorizing it, that in so doing he
had sacrificed the right to the expedient, and been governed
by motives of selfishness and worldly wisdom. These were reflections
(01:50):
that required some time to soften. But time will do
almost everything. And though little comfort arose on missus Brushworth's
side for the misery she had occasioned, comfort was to
be found greater than he had supposed in his other children.
Julia's match became a less desperate business than he had
considered it. At first, she was humble and wishing to
(02:11):
be forgiven, and mister Yates desirous of being really received
into the family, was disposed to look up to him
and be guided. He was not very solid, but there
was a hope of his becoming less trifling, of his
being at least tolerably domestic and quiet. And at any rate,
there was comfort in finding his estate rather more and
(02:31):
his debts much less than he had feared, and in
being consulted and treated as the friend best worth attending to.
There was comfort also in tom who gradually regained his
health without regaining the thoughtlessness and selfishness of his previous habits.
He was the better for ever for his illness. He
had suffered, and he had learned to think two advantages
(02:53):
that he had never known before, and the self reproach
arising from the deplorable event in Wimpole Street to which
he felt himself accessory by all the dangerous intimacy of
his unjustifiable theater made an impression on his mind, which,
at the age of six and twenty, with no want
of sense or good companions, was durable in its happy effects.
(03:15):
He became what he ought to be useful to his father,
steady and quiet and not living merely for himself. Here
was comfort, indeed, and quite as soon as Sir Thomas
could place dependence on such sources of good Edmond was
contributing to his father's ease by improvement in the only
point in which he had given him pain before, improvement
(03:36):
in his spirits. After wandering about and sitting under trees
with Fanny all the summer evenings, he had so well
talked his mind into submission as to be very tolerably
cheerful again. These were the circumstances and the hopes which
gradually brought their alleviation to Sir Thomas, deadening his sense
of what was lost, and in part reconciling him to himself,
(03:59):
though or the anguish arising from the conviction of his
own errors in the education of his daughters was never
to be entirely done away. Too late he became aware
how unfavorable to the character of any young people must
be the totally opposite treatment which Maria and Julia had
been always experiencing at home, where the excessive indulgence and
(04:20):
flattery of their aunt had been continually contrasted with his
own severity. He saw how ill he had judged in
expecting to counteract what was wrong in Missus Norris by
its reverse in himself clearly saw that he had but
increased the evil by teaching them to repress their spirits
in his presence, as to make their real disposition unknown
(04:40):
to him, and sending them for all their indulgences to
a person who had been able to attach them only
by the blindness of her affection and the excess of
her praise. Here had been grievous mismanagement, But bad as
it was, he gradually grew to feel that it had
not been the most direful mistake in his plan of education.
Something must have been wanting within or time would have
(05:03):
worn away much of its ill effect. He feared that
principle active principle had been wanting, that they had never
been properly taught to govern their inclinations and tempers by
that sense of duty which can alone suffice. They had
been instructed theoretically in their religion, but never required to
bring it into daily practice. To be distinguished for elegance
(05:25):
and accomplishments, the authorized object of their youth, could have
had no useful influence that way, no moral effect on
the mind. He had meant them to be good, but
his cares had been directed to the understanding and manners,
not the disposition and of the necessity of self denial
and humility he feared they had never heard from any
(05:46):
lips that could profit them. Bitterly did he deplore a
deficiency which now he could scarcely comprehend to have been possible.
Wretchedly did he feel that, with all the cost and
care of an anxious and expensive education, he had brought
up his daughters without their understanding their first duties, or
his being acquainted with their character and temper. The high
(06:08):
spirit and strong passions of Missus Rushworth especially were made
known to him only in their sad result. She was
not to be prevailed on to leave mister Crawford. She
hoped to marry him, and they continued together till she
was obliged to be convinced that such hope was vain,
and till the disappointment and wretchedness arising from the conviction
rendered her tempers so bad and her feelings for him
(06:31):
so like hatred, as to make them for a while
each other's punishment, and then in duce a voluntary separation.
She had lived with him, to be reproached as the
ruin of all his happiness. In Fanny and carried away
no better consolation in leaving him than that she had
divided them. What can exceed the misery of such a
mind in such a situation. Mister Rushworth had no difficulty
(06:55):
in procuring a divorce, and so ended a marriage contracted
under such scin instances as to make any better end.
The effect of good luck not to be reckoned on.
She had despised him and loved another, and he had
been very much aware that it was so. The indignities
of stupidity and the disappointments of selfish passion can excite
(07:16):
little pity. His punishment followed his conduct, as did a
deeper punishment, the deeper guilt of his wife. He was
released from the engagement, to be mortified and unhappy till
some other pretty girl could attract him into matrimony again,
and he might set forward on a second And it
is to be hoped more prosperous trial of the state,
(07:36):
if duped, to be duped at least with good humor
and good luck. While she must withdraw, with infinitely stronger feelings,
to a retirement and reproach which could allow no second
spring of hope or character where she could be placed,
became a subject of most melancholy and momentous consultation. Missus Norris,
(07:56):
whose attachment seemed to augment with the demerits of her niece,
would have had her received at home and countenanced by
them all Sir thomas would not hear of it, and
Missus Norris's anger against Fanny was so much the greater
from considering her residence there as the motive she persisted
in placing his scruples to her account, though Sir Thomas
(08:17):
very solemnly assured her that had there been no young
woman in question, had there been no young person of
either sex belonging to him to be endangered by the
society or hurt by the character of Missus Rushworth, he
would never have offered so great an insult to the
neighborhood as to expect it to notice her as a daughter,
he hoped, a penitent one. She should be protected by
(08:39):
him and secured in every comfort and supported by every
encouragement to do right, which their relative situations admitted. But
farther than that he would not go. Maria had destroyed
her own character, and he would not by a vain
attempt to restore what never could be restored. Be affording
his sanction to vice, or in seeking to lessen it disgrace,
(09:00):
be any wise accessory to introducing such misery in another
man's family as he had known himself. It ended in
Missus Norris's resolving to quit Mansfield and devote herself to
an unfortunate Maria, and in an establishment being formed for
them in another country, remote and private, where shut up
together with little society on one side, no affection on
(09:23):
the other, no judgment. It may be reasonably supposed that
their tempers became their mutual punishment. Missus Norris's removal from
Mansfield was the great supplementary comfort of Sir Thomas's life.
His opinion of her had been sinking from the day
of his return from Antigua. In every transaction together. From
that period, in their daily intercourse, in business or in chat,
(09:46):
she had been regularly losing ground in his esteem, and
convincing him that either time had done her much disservice,
or that he had considerably overrated her sense and wonderfully
born with her manners. Before he had felt her as
an hourly evil, which was so much the worse as
there seemed no chance of its ceasing. But with life.
(10:06):
She seemed a part of himself that must be borne
forever to be relieved from her. Therefore was so great
a felicity that, had she not left bitter remembrances behind her,
there might have been danger of his learning almost to
approve the evil which produced such a good. She was
regretted by no one at Mansfield. She had never been
able to attach, even though she loved best, and since
(10:29):
Missus Rushworth's elopement, her temper had been in a state
of such irritation as to make her everywhere tormenting. Not
even Fanny had tears for Aunt Norris, not even when
she was gone forever. That Julia escaped better than Maria was,
owing in some measure to a favorable difference of disposition
and circumstance, but in a greater to her, having been
(10:51):
less the darling of that very aunt, less flattered, and
less spoilt, her beauty and acquirements had held but a
second place. She had been always used to think herself
a little inferior to Maria. Her temper was naturally the
easiest of the two. Her feelings, though quick, were more controllable,
and education had not given her so very hurtful a
(11:12):
degree of self consequence. She had submitted the best to
the disappointment in Henry Crawford. After the first bitterness of
the conviction of being slighted was over, she had been
tolerably soon in a fair way of not thinking of
him again. And when the acquaintance was renewed in town
and mister Rushworth's house became Crawford's object, she had had
the merit of withdrawing herself from it, and of choosing
(11:35):
that time to pay a visit to her other friends,
in order to secure herself from being again too much attracted.
This had been her motive in going to her cousin's.
Mister Yates's convenience had had nothing to do with it.
She had been allowing his attention some time, but with
very little idea of ever accepting him, and had not
her sister's conduct burst forth as it did, and her
(11:57):
increased dread of her father and of home on that event,
imagining its certain consequence to herself would be greater severity
and restraint, made her hastily resolve on avoiding such immediate
horrors at all risks. It is probable that mister Yates
would never have succeeded she had not eloped with any
worse feelings than those of selfish alarm. It had appeared
(12:18):
to her the only thing to be done. Maria's guilt
had induced Julius folly. Henry Crawford, ruined by early independence
and bad domestic example, indulged in the freaks of a
cold blooded vanity a little too long once it had,
by an opening undesigned and unmerited, led him into the
(12:38):
way of happiness. Could he have been satisfied with the
conquest of one amiable woman's affections? Could he have found
sufficient exaltation in overcoming the reluctance in working himself into
the esteem and tenderness of Fanny Price. There would have
been every probability of success and felicity for him. His
affection had already done something. Her influence over him had
(13:01):
already given him some influence over her. Would he have
deserved more? There can be no doubt that more would
have been obtained, especially when that marriage had taken place,
which would have given him the assistance of her conscience
in subduing her first inclination, and brought them very often together.
Would he have persevered and uprightly? Fanny must have been
(13:23):
his reward, and a reward very voluntarily bestowed within a
reasonable period from Edmund's marrying Mary. Had he done as
he intended and as he knew he ought by going
down to Evringham after his return from Portsmouth, he might
have been deciding his own happy destiny. But he was
pressed to stay for Missus Fraser's party. His staying was
(13:44):
made of flattering consequence, and he was to meet Missus Rushworth. Fair.
Curiosity and vanity were both engaged, and the temptation of
immediate pleasure was too strong for a mind unused to
make any sacrifice to write. He resolved to defer his
Norfolk journey, resolved that writing should answer the purpose of it,
or that its purpose was unimportant, and staid. He saw
(14:07):
Missus Rushworth, was received by her with a coldness which
ought to have been repulsive and have established apparent indifference
between them forever. But he was mortified. He could not
bear to be thrown off by the woman whose smiles
had been so wholly at his command. He must exert
himself to subdue so proud a display of resentment. It
was anger on Fanny's account. He must get the better
(14:29):
of it and make Missus Rushworth Mariah Bertram again in
her treatment of himself. In this spirit, he began the attack,
and by animated perseverance had soon re established the sort
of familiar intercourse of gallantry, of flirtation which bounded his views.
But in triumphing over the discretion, which, though beginning in anger,
(14:50):
might have saved them both, he had put himself in
the power of feelings on her side, more strong than
he had supposed. She loved him, there was no withdrawal,
owing attentions. Avowedly dear to her, He was entangled by
his own vanity, with as little excuse of love as possible,
and without the smallest inconstancy of mind towards her cousin.
(15:11):
To keep Fanny and the Bertrams from a knowledge of
what was passing became his first object. Secrecy could not
have been more desirable for Missus Rushworth's credit than he
felt it for his own. When he returned from Richmond,
he would have been glad to see Missus Rushworth no more.
All that followed was the result of her imprudence, and
he went off with her at last because he could
(15:33):
not help it, regretting Fanny even at the moment, but
regretting her infinitely more, when all the bustle of the
intrigue was over, and a very few months had taught him,
by the force of contrast, to place as yet higher
value on the sweetness of her temper, the purity of
her mind, and the excellence of her principles, that punishment,
(15:53):
the public punishment of disgrace, should, in a just measure,
attend his share of the offense. Is we know not
one of the barriers which society gives to virtue in
this world, the penalty is less equal than could be wished.
But without presuming to look forward to a juster appointment hereafter,
we may fairly consider a man of sense like Henry
(16:14):
Crawford to be providing for himself no small portion of
vexation and regret, vexation that must rise sometimes to self
reproach and regret to wretchedness. In having so requited hospitality,
so injured family peace, so forfeited his best, most estimable
and endeared acquaintance, and so lost the woman whom he
(16:36):
had rationally as well as passionately loved. After what had
passed to wound and alienate the two families, the continuance
of the Bertrams and Grants in such close neighborhood would
have been most distressing. But the absence of the latter
for some months purposely lengthened, ended very fortunately in the
necessity or at least the practicability of a permanent removal.
(16:59):
Doctor Grant, through an interest on which he had almost
ceased to form hopes, succeeded to a stall in Westminster, which,
as affording an occasion for leaving Mansfield, an excuse for
residence in London, and an increase of income to answer
the expenses of the change, was highly acceptable to those
who went and those who stayed. Missus Grant, with a
(17:20):
temper to love and be loved, must have gone with
some regret from the scenes and people she had been
used to, But the same happiness of disposition must in
any place and any society, secure her a great deal
to enjoy, and she had again a home to offer Mary.
And Mary had had enough of her own friends, enough
of vanity, ambition, love and disappointment in the course of
(17:43):
the last half year, to be in need of the
true kindness of her sister's heart and the rational tranquility
of her ways. They lived together, and when doctor Grant
had brought on apoplexy and death by three great institutionary
dinners in one week, they still lived together. For Mary,
though perfectly resolved against ever attaching herself to a younger brother, again,
(18:05):
was long in finding among the dashing representatives or idle
heir apparents who were at the command of her beauty
and her twenty thousand pounds, any one who could satisfy
the better taste she had acquired at Mansfield, whose character
and manners could authorize a hope of the domestic happiness
she had there learnt to estimate or put Edmund Bertram
(18:26):
sufficiently out of her head. Edmond had greatly the advantage
of her in this respect. He had not to wait
and wish with vacant affections for an object worthy to
succeed her in them. Scarcely had he done regretting Mary
Crawford and observing to Fanny how impossible it was that
he should ever meet with such another woman. Before it
began to strike him whether a very different kind of
(18:49):
woman might not do just as well or a great
deal better, whether Fanny herself were not growing as dear,
as important to him in all her smiles and all
her ways, as Mary Crawford had ever been, and whether
it might not be a possible and hopeful undertaking to
persuade her that her warm and sisterly regard for him
would be foundation enough for wedded love. I purposely abstain
(19:13):
from dates on this occasion, that every one may be
at liberty to fix their own, aware that the cure
of unconquerable passions and the transfer of unchanging attachments must
vary much as to time, in different people. I only
entreat everybody to believe that exactly at the time when
it was quite natural that it should be so, and
not a week earlier did Edmond cease to care about
(19:35):
Miss Crawford and become as anxious to marry Fanny as
Fanny herself could desire. With such a regard for her, indeed,
as his had long been, a regard founded on the
most endearing claims of innocence and helplessness, and completed by
every recommendation of growing worth. What could be more natural
than the change, loving guiding protecting her as he had
(19:58):
been doing ever since her being tenured years old, her
mind in so great a degree formed by his care
and her comfort depending on his kindness, an object to
him of such close and peculiar interest, dearer by all
his own importance with her than any one else at Mansfield.
What was there now to add but that he should
learn to prefer soft light eyes to sparkling dark ones,
(20:21):
and being always with her, and always talking confidentially, and
his feelings exactly in that favorable state which a recent
disappointment gives. Though soft light eyes could not be very
long in obtaining the pre eminence, having once set out
and felt that he had done so on this road
to happiness, there was nothing on the side of prudence
(20:43):
to stop him or make his progress slow. No doubts
of her deserving, no fears from opposition of taste, no
need of drawing new hopes of happiness from dissimilarity of temper,
her mind, disposition, opinions and habits wanted. No half concealment,
no soul deception on the present, no reliance on future improvement.
(21:04):
Even in the midst of his late infatuation, he had
acknowledged Fanny's mental superiority what must be his sense of
it now? Therefore she was of course only too good
for him. But as nobody minds having what is too
good for them, he was very steadily earnest in the
pursuit of the blessing, and it was not possible that
encouragement from her should be long, wanting, timid, anxious, doubting
(21:28):
as she was. It was still impossible that such tenderness
as hers should not at times hold out the strongest
hope of success. Though it remained for a later period
to tell him the whole, delightful and astonishing truth, his
happiness in knowing himself to have been so long the
beloved of such a heart must have been great enough
to warrant any strength of language in which he could
(21:51):
clothe it to her or to himself. It must have
been a delightful happiness. But there was happiness elsewhere which
no description can reach. Let no one presume to give
the feelings of a young woman, on receiving the assurance
of that affection of which she has scarcely allowed herself
to entertain a hope their own inclinations ascertained. There were
(22:12):
no difficulties behind, no drawback of poverty or parent It
was a match which Sir Thomas's wishes had even forestalled.
Sick of ambitious and mercenary connections, prizing more and more
the sterling good of principle and temper, and chiefly anxious
to bind by the strongest securities all that remained to
him of domestic felicity. He had pondered with genuine satisfaction
(22:36):
on the more than possibility of the two young friends
finding their natural consolation in each other, for all that
had occurred of disappointment to either, and the joyful consent
which met Edmund's application. The high sense of having realized
a great acquisition in the promise of Fanny for a daughter,
formed just such a contrast with his early opinion on
(22:56):
the subject, when the poor little girl's coming had been
first agitated. As time is forever producing between the plans
and decisions of mortals for their own instruction and their
neighbor's entertainment. Fanny was indeed the daughter that he wanted.
His charitable kindness had been rearing a prime comfort for himself,
His liberality had a rich repayment, and the general goodness
(23:20):
of his intentions. By her deserved it. He might have
made her childhood happier, But it had been an error
of judgment only which had given him the appearance of
harshness and deprived him of her early love, and now
on really knowing each other, their mutual attachment became very strong.
After settling her at Thornton Lacey, with every kind attention
(23:41):
to her comfort. The object of almost every day was
to see her there or to get her away from it.
Selfishly dear as she had been to Lady Bertram, she
could not be parted with willingly by her. No happiness
of son or niece could make her wish the marriage,
but it was possible to part with her because Susan
remained to supply her place. Susan became the stationary niece,
(24:04):
delighted to be so, and equally well adapted for it
by a readiness of mind and an inclination for usefulness,
as Fanny had been, by sweetness of temper and strong
feelings of gratitude. Susan could never be spared, first as
a comfort to Fanny, then as an auxiliary, and last
as her substitute. She was established at Mansfield with every
(24:24):
appearance of equal permanency. Her more fearless disposition and happier
nerves made everything easy to her there, with quickness in
understanding the tempers of those she had to deal with,
and no natural timidity to restrain any consequent wishes. She
was soon welcome and useful to all, and after Fanny's removal,
succeeded so naturally to her influence over the hourly comfort
(24:47):
of her aunt, as gradually to become perhaps the most
beloved of the two. In her usefulness, in Fanny's excellence,
in William's continued good conduct and rising fame, and in
the general world doing and success of the other members
of the family, all assisting to advance each other, and
doing credit to his countenance and aid. Sir Thomas saw
(25:08):
repeated and forever repeated reason to rejoice in what he
had done for them all, and acknowledged the advantages of
early hardship and discipline, and the consciousness of being born
to struggle and endure with so much true merit and
true love, and no want of fortune or friends. The
happiness of the married cousins must appear as secure as
(25:28):
earthly happiness can be, equally formed for domestic life and
attached to country pleasures. Their home was the home of
affection and comfort, and to complete the picture of good
the acquisition of Mansfield Living by the death of doctor Grant,
occurred just after they had been married long enough to
begin to want an increase of income and feel their
(25:49):
distance from the paternal abode and inconvenience. On that event,
they removed to Mansfield and the parsonage there which under
each of its two former owners, Fanny had never been
able to approach, but with some painful sensation of restraint
or alarm, soon grew as dear to her heart and
as thoroughly perfect in her eyes as everything else within
(26:09):
the view and patronage of Mansfield Park had long been.
End of Chapter forty eight
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