The next step was to communicate with Portsmouth.Fanny wrote to offer herself;and her mother's answer,though short,was so kind,a few simple lines expressed so natural and motherly a joy in the prospect of seeing her child again,as to confirm all the daughter's views of happiness in being with her-convincing her that she should now find a warm and affectionate friend in the ‘Mamma’who had certainly shown no remarkable fondness for her formerly;but this she could easily suppose to have been her own fault,or her own fancy.She had probably alienated Love by the helplessness and fretfulness of a fearful temper,or been unreasonable in wanting a larger share than anyone among so many could deserve.Now,when she knew better how to be useful and how to forbear,and when her mother could be no longer occupied by the incessant demands of a house full of little children,there would be leisure and inclination for every comfort,and they should soon be what mother and daughter ought to be to each other.
William was almost as happy in the plan as his sister.It would be the greatest pleasure to him to have her there to the last moment before he sailed,and perhaps find her there still when he came in,from his first cruise!And besides,he wanted her so very much to see the Thrush before she went out of harbour (the Thrush was certainly the finest sloop in the service)And there were several improvements in the dockyard,too,which he quite longed to show her.
He did not scruple to add,that her being at home for a while would be a great advantage to everybody.
‘I do not know how it is,’said he,‘but we seem to want some of your nice ways and orderliness at my father's.The house is always in confusion.You will set things going in a better way,I am sure.You will tell my mother how it all ought to be,and you will be so useful to Susan,and you will teach Betsey,and make the boys love and mind you.How right and comfortable it will all be!’
By the time Mrs Price's answer arrived,there remained but a very few days more to be spent at Mansfield;and for part of one of those days the young travellers were in a good deal of alarm on the subject of their journey,for when the mode of it came to be talked of,and Mrs Norris found that all her anxiety to save her brother-in-law's money was vain,and that in spite of her wishes and hints for a less expensive conveyance of Fanny,they were to travel post,when she saw Sir Thomas actually give William notes for the purpose,she was struck with the idea of there being room for a third in the carriage,and suddenly seized with a strong inclination to go with them-to go and see her poor dear sister Price.She proclaimed her thoughts.She must say that she had more than half a mind to go with the young people;it would be such an indulgence to her;she had not seen her poor dear sister Price for more than twenty years;and it would be a help to the young people in their journey to have her older head to manage for them;and she could not help thinking her poor dear sister Price would feel it very unkind of her not to come by such an opportunity.
William and Fanny were horror-struck at the idea.
All the comfort of their comfortable journey would be destroyed at once.With woeful countenances they looked at each other.Their suspense lasted an hour or two.No one interfered to encourage or dissuade.Mrs Norris was left to settle the matter by herself;and it ended to the infinite joy of her nephew and niece,in the recollection that she could not possibly be spared from Mansfield Park at present;that she was a great deal too necessary to Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram for her to be able to answer it to herself to leave them even for a week,and therefore must certainly sacrifice every other pleasure to that of being useful to them.
It had,in fact,occurred to her,that,though taken to Portsmouth for nothing,it would be hardly possible for her to avoid paying her own expenses back again.So,her poor dear sister Price was left to all the disappointment of her missing such an opportunity;and another twenty years'absence,perhaps,begun.
Edmund's plans were affected by this Portsmouth journey,this absence of Fanny's.He too had a sacrifice to make to Mansfield Park,as well as his aunt.He had intended,about this time,to be going to London,but he could not leave his father and mother just when everybody else of most importance to their comfort,was leaving them;and with an effort,felt but not boasted of,he delayed for a week or two longer a journey which he was looking forward to,with the hope of its fixing his happiness for ever.
He told Fanny of it.She knew so much already,that she must know everything.It made the substance of one other confidential discourse about Miss Crawford;and Fanny was the more affected from feeling it to be the last time in which Miss Crawford's name would ever be mentioned between them with any remains of liberty.Once afterwards,she was alluded to by him.Lady Bertram had been telling her niece in the evening to write to her soon and often,and promising to be a good correspondent herself;and Edmund,at a convenient moment,then added in a whisper,‘And I shall write to you,Fanny,when I have anything worth writing about;anything to say,that I think you will like to hear,and that you will not hear so soon from any other quarter.’Had she doubted his meaning while she listened,the glow in his face,when she looked up at him,would have been decisive.
For this letter she must try to arm herself.That a letter from Edmund should be a subject of terror!She began to feel that she had not yet gone through all the changes of opinion and sentiment,which the progress of time and variation of circumstances occasion in this world of changes.The vicissitudes of the human mind had not yet been exhausted by her.
