‘Am I right?-Yes;this is the East room.My dear Miss Price,I beg your pardon,but I have made my way to you on purpose to entreat your help.’
Fanny,quite surprised,endeavoured to show herself mistress of the room by her civilities,and looked at the bright bars of her empty grate with concern.
‘Thank you-I am quite warm,very warm.Allow me to stay here a little while,and do have the goodness to hear me my third act.I have brought my book,and if you would but rehearse it with me,I should be so obliged!I came here today intending to rehearse it with Edmund-by ourselves-against the evening,but he is not in the way;and if he were,I do not think I could go through it with him,till I have hardened myself a little,for really there is a speech or two-You will be so good,won't you?’
Fanny was most civil in her assurances,though she could not give them in a very steady voice.
‘Have you ever happened to look at the part I mean?’continued Miss Crawford,opening her book.‘Here it is.I did not think much of it at first-but,upon my word-.There,look at that speech,and that,and that.How am I ever to look him in the face and say such things?Could you do it?But then he is your cousin,which makes all the difference.You must rehearse it with me,that I may fancy you him,and get on by degrees.You have a look of his sometimes.’
‘Have I?-I will do my best with the greatest readiness-but I must read the part,for I can say very little of it.’
‘None of it,I suppose.You are to have the book of course.Now for it.We must have two chairs at hand for you to bring forward to the front of the stage.There-very good schoolroom chairs,not made for a theatre,I dare say;much more fitted for little girls to sit and kick their feet against when they are learning a lesson.What would your governess and your uncle say to see them used for such a purpose?Could Sir Thomas look in upon us just now,he would bless himself,for we are rehearsing all over the house.Yates is storming away in the dining-room.I heard him as I came upstairs,and the theatre is engaged of course by those indefatigable rehearsers,Agatha and Frederick.If they are not perfect,I shall be surprised.By the bye,I looked in upon them five minutes ago,and it happened to be exactly at one of the times when they were trying not to embrace,and Mr Rushworth was with me.I thought he began to look a little queer,so I turned it off as well as I could,by whispering to him,“We shall have an excellent Agatha,there is something so maternal in her manner,so completely maternal in her voice and countenance.”Was not that well done of me?He brightened up directly.Now for my soliloquy.’
She began,and Fanny joined in with all the modest feeling which the idea of representing Edmund was so strongly calculated to inspire;but with looks and voice so truly feminine,as to be no very good picture of a man.With such an Anhalt,however,Miss Crawford had courage enough,and they had got through half the scene,when a tap at the door brought a pause,and the entrance of Edmund the next moment,suspended it all.
Surprise,consciousness,and pleasure,appeared in each of the three on this unexpected meeting;and as Edmund was come on the very same business that had brought Miss Crawford,consciousness and pleasure were likely to be more than momentary in them.He too had his book,and was seeking Fanny,to ask her to rehearse with him,and help him prepare for the evening,without knowing Miss Crawford to be in the house;and great was the joy and animation of being thus thrown together-of comparing schemes-and sympathising in praise of Fanny's kind offices.
She could not equal them in their warmth.Her spirits sank under the glow of theirs,and she felt herself becoming too nearly nothing to both,to have any comfort in having been sought by either.They must now rehearse together.Edmund proposed,urged,entreated it-till the lady,not very unwilling at first,could refuse no longer-and Fanny was wanted only to prompt and observe them.She was invested,indeed,with the office of judge and critic,and earnestly desired to exercise it and tell them all their faults;but from doing so every feeling within her shrank,she could not,would not,dared not attempt it;had she been otherwise qualified for criticism,her conscience must have restrained her from venturing at disapprobation.She believed herself to feel too much of it in the aggregate for honesty or safety in particulars.To prompt them must be enough for her;and it was sometimes more than enough;for she could not always pay attention to the book.In watching them she forgot herself;and agitated by the increasing spirit of Edmund's manner,had once closed the page and turned away exactly as he wanted help.It was imputed to very reasonable weariness and she was thanked and pitied;but she deserved their pity,more than she hoped they would ever surmise.At last the scene was over,and Fanny forced herself to add her praise to the compliments each was giving the other;and when again alone and able to recall the whole,she was inclined to believe their performance would,indeed,have such nature and feeling in it,as must ensure their credit,and make it a very suffering exhibition to herself.Whatever might be its effect,however,she must stand the brunt of it again that very day.
