‘You can have no reason I imagine madam,’said he,addressing his mother,‘for wishing Fanny not to be of the party,but as it relates to yourself,to your own comfort.If you could do without her,you would not wish to keep her at home?’
‘To be sure not,but I cannot do without her.’
‘You can,if I stay at home with you,as I mean to do.’
There was a general cry out at this.‘Yes,’he continued,‘there is no necessity for my going,and I mean to stay at home.Fanny has a great desire to see Sotherton.I know she wishes it very much.She has not often a gratification of the kind,and I am sure ma'am you would be glad to give her the pleasure now?’
‘Oh!yes,very glad,if your aunt sees no objection.’
Mrs Norris was very ready with the only objection which could remain,their having positively assured Mrs Rushworth,that Fanny could not go,and the very strange appearance there would consequently be in taking her,which seemed to her a difficulty quite impossible to be got over.It must have the strangest appearance!It would be something so very unceremonious,so bordering on disrespect for Mrs Rushworth,whose own manners were such a pattern of good-breeding 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 hearing,that she need not distress herself on Mrs Rushworth's account,because he had taken the opportunity as he walked with her through the hall,of mentioning Miss Price as one who would probably be of the party,and had directly received a very sufficient invitation for his cousin,Mrs Norris was too much vexed to submit with a very good grace,and would only say,‘Very well,very well,just as you choose,settle it your own way,I am sure I do not care about it.’
‘It seems very odd,’said Maria,‘that you should be staying at home instead of Fanny.’
‘I am sure she ought to be very much obliged to you,’added Julia,hastily leaving the room as she spoke,from a consciousness that she ought to offer to stay at home herself.
‘Fanny will feel quite as grateful as the occasion requires,’was Edmund's only reply,and the subject dropped.
Fanny's gratitude when she heard the plan,was in fact much greater than her pleasure.She felt Edmund's kindness with all,and more than all,the sensibility which he,unsuspicious of her fond attachment,could be aware of;but that he should forego any enjoyment on her account gave her pain,and her own satisfaction in seeing Sotherton would be nothing without him.
The next meeting of the two Mansfield families produced another alteration in the plan,and one that was admitted with general approbation.Mrs Grant offered herself as companion for the day to Lady 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 an arrangement which restored him to his share of the party;and Mrs Norris thought it an excellent plan,and had it at her tongue's end,and was on the point of proposing it when Mrs Grant spoke.
Wednesday was fine,and soon after breakfast the barouche arrived,Mr Crawford driving his sister;and as everybody was ready,there was nothing to be done but for Mrs Grant to alight and the others to take their places.The place of all places,the 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 most appearance of obliging the others,to secure it,the matter was settled by Mrs Grant's saying,as she stepped from the carriage,‘As there are five of you,it will be better that one should sit with Henry,and as you were saying lately,that you wished you could drive,Julia,I think this will be a good opportunity for you to take a lesson.’
Happy Julia!Unhappy Maria!The former was on the barouche box in a moment,the latter took her seat within,in gloom and mortification;and the carriage drove off amid the good wishes of the two remaining ladies,and the barking of Pug in his mistress's arms.
Their road was through a pleasant country;and Fanny,whose rides had never been extensive,was soon beyond her knowledge,and was very happy in observing all that was new,and admiring all that was pretty.She was not often invited to join in the conversation of the others,nor did she desire it.Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions;and in observing the appearance of the country,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 delicacy of taste,of mind,of feeling;she saw nature,inanimate nature,with little observation;her attention was all for men and women,her talents for the light and lively.In looking back after Edmund,however,when there was any stretch of road behind them,or when he gained on them in ascending a considerable hill,they were united,and a ‘there he is’broke at the same moment from them both,more than once.
