No More Learning

Bertram, I dare say _you_ have sometimes met with such changes. ”

“I believe I have, but this is hardly fair; I see what you are at. You
are quizzing me and Miss Anderson. ”

“No, indeed. Miss Anderson! I do not know who or what you mean. I am
quite in the dark. But I _will_ quiz you with a great deal of pleasure,
if you will tell me what about. ”

“Ah! you carry it off very well, but I cannot be quite so far imposed
on. You must have had Miss Anderson in your eye, in describing an
altered young lady. You paint too accurately for mistake. It was exactly
so. The Andersons of Baker Street. We were speaking of them the other
day, you know. Edmund, you have heard me mention Charles Anderson.
The circumstance was precisely as this lady has represented it. When
Anderson first introduced me to his family, about two years ago, his
sister was not _out_, and I could not get her to speak to me. I sat
there an hour one morning waiting for Anderson, with only her and a
little girl or two in the room, the governess being sick or run away,
and the mother in and out every moment with letters of business, and I
could hardly get a word or a look from the young lady--nothing like a
civil answer--she screwed up her mouth, and turned from me with such an
air! I did not see her again for a twelvemonth. She was then _out_. I
met her at Mrs. Holford’s, and did not recollect her. She came up to me,
claimed me as an acquaintance, stared me out of countenance; and talked
and laughed till I did not know which way to look. I felt that I must
be the jest of the room at the time, and Miss Crawford, it is plain, has
heard the story. ”

“And a very pretty story it is, and with more truth in it, I dare say,
than does credit to Miss Anderson. It is too common a fault. Mothers
certainly have not yet got quite the right way of managing their
daughters. I do not know where the error lies. I do not pretend to set
people right, but I do see that they are often wrong. ”

“Those who are showing the world what female manners _should_ be,” said
Mr. Bertram gallantly, “are doing a great deal to set them right. ”

“The error is plain enough,” said the less courteous Edmund; “such girls
are ill brought up. They are given wrong notions from the beginning.
They are always acting upon motives of vanity, and there is no more
real modesty in their behaviour _before_ they appear in public than
afterwards. ”

“I do not know,” replied Miss Crawford hesitatingly. “Yes, I cannot
agree with you there. It is certainly the modestest part of the
business. It is much worse to have girls not out give themselves the
same airs and take the same liberties as if they were, which I have seen
done. That is worse than anything--quite disgusting! ”

“Yes, _that_ is very inconvenient indeed,” said Mr. Bertram. “It leads
one astray; one does not know what to do. The close bonnet and demure
air you describe so well (and nothing was ever juster), tell one what
is expected; but I got into a dreadful scrape last year from the want of
them. I went down to Ramsgate for a week with a friend last September,
just after my return from the West Indies. My friend Sneyd--you have
heard me speak of Sneyd, Edmund--his father, and mother, and sisters,
were there, all new to me. When we reached Albion Place they were out;
we went after them, and found them on the pier: Mrs. and the two Miss
Sneyds, with others of their acquaintance. I made my bow in form; and
as Mrs. Sneyd was surrounded by men, attached myself to one of her
daughters, walked by her side all the way home, and made myself as
agreeable as I could; the young lady perfectly easy in her manners, and
as ready to talk as to listen. I had not a suspicion that I could be
doing anything wrong. They looked just the same: both well-dressed, with
veils and parasols like other girls; but I afterwards found that I had
been giving all my attention to the youngest, who was not _out_, and
had most excessively offended the eldest. Miss Augusta ought not to have
been noticed for the next six months; and Miss Sneyd, I believe, has
never forgiven me. ”

“That was bad indeed. Poor Miss Sneyd. Though I have no younger
sister, I feel for her. To be neglected before one’s time must be very
vexatious; but it was entirely the mother’s fault. Miss Augusta should
have been with her governess. Such half-and-half doings never prosper.
But now I must be satisfied about Miss Price. Does she go to balls? Does
she dine out every where, as well as at my sister’s? ”

“No,” replied Edmund; “I do not think she has ever been to a ball. My
mother seldom goes into company herself, and dines nowhere but with Mrs.
Grant, and Fanny stays at home with _her_. ”

“Oh! then the point is clear. Miss Price is not out. ”



CHAPTER VI

Mr. Bertram set off for--------, and Miss Crawford was prepared to
find a great chasm in their society, and to miss him decidedly in the
meetings which were now becoming almost daily between the families;
and on their all dining together at the Park soon after his going, she
retook her chosen place near the bottom of the table, fully expecting to
feel a most melancholy difference in the change of masters. It would
be a very flat business, she was sure. In comparison with his brother,
Edmund would have nothing to say. The soup would be sent round in a most
spiritless manner, wine drank without any smiles or agreeable trifling,
and the venison cut up without supplying one pleasant anecdote of any
former haunch, or a single entertaining story, about “my friend such a
one. ” She must try to find amusement in what was passing at the upper
end of the table, and in observing Mr. Rushworth, who was now making his
appearance at Mansfield for the first time since the Crawfords’ arrival.
He had been visiting a friend in the neighbouring county, and that
friend having recently had his grounds laid out by an improver, Mr.
Rushworth was returned with his head full of the subject, and very eager
to be improving his own place in the same way; and though not saying
much to the purpose, could talk of nothing else. The subject had
been already handled in the drawing-room; it was revived in the
dining-parlour. Miss Bertram’s attention and opinion was evidently his
chief aim; and though her deportment showed rather conscious superiority
than any solicitude to oblige him, the mention of Sotherton Court,
and the ideas attached to it, gave her a feeling of complacency, which
prevented her from being very ungracious.

“I wish you could see Compton,” said he; “it is the most complete thing!
I never saw a place so altered in my life. I told Smith I did not know
where I was. The approach _now_, is one of the finest things in the
country: you see the house in the most surprising manner. I declare,
when I got back to Sotherton yesterday, it looked like a prison--quite a
dismal old prison. ”

“Oh, for shame! ” cried Mrs. Norris. “A prison indeed? Sotherton Court is
the noblest old place in the world. ”

“It wants improvement, ma’am, beyond anything. I never saw a place that
wanted so much improvement in my life; and it is so forlorn that I do
not know what can be done with it. ”

“No wonder that Mr. Rushworth should think so at present,” said Mrs.
Grant to Mrs. Norris, with a smile; “but depend upon it, Sotherton will
have _every_ improvement in time which his heart can desire. ”

“I must try to do something with it,” said Mr. Rushworth, “but I do not
know what. I hope I shall have some good friend to help me. ”

“Your best friend upon such an occasion,” said Miss Bertram calmly,
“would be Mr. Repton, I imagine. ”

“That is what I was thinking of. As he has done so well by Smith, I
think I had better have him at once. His terms are five guineas a day. ”

“Well, and if they were _ten_,” cried Mrs. Norris, “I am sure _you_ need
not regard it. The expense need not be any impediment. If I were you,
I should not think of the expense. I would have everything done in the
best style, and made as nice as possible. Such a place as Sotherton
Court deserves everything that taste and money can do. You have space to
work upon there, and grounds that will well reward you. For my own part,
if I had anything within the fiftieth part of the size of Sotherton, I
should be always planting and improving, for naturally I am excessively
fond of it. It would be too ridiculous for me to attempt anything where
I am now, with my little half acre. It would be quite a burlesque. But
if I had more room, I should take a prodigious delight in improving and
planting. We did a vast deal in that way at the Parsonage: we made it
quite a different place from what it was when we first had it. You young
ones do not remember much about it, perhaps; but if dear Sir Thomas were
here, he could tell you what improvements we made: and a great deal more
would have been done, but for poor Mr. Norris’s sad state of health.
He could hardly ever get out, poor man, to enjoy anything, and _that_
disheartened me from doing several things that Sir Thomas and I used to
talk of. If it had not been for _that_, we should have carried on the
garden wall, and made the plantation to shut out the churchyard, just
as Dr. Grant has done. We were always doing something as it was. It was
only the spring twelvemonth before Mr. Norris’s death that we put in the
apricot against the stable wall, which is now grown such a noble tree,
and getting to such perfection, sir,” addressing herself then to Dr.
Grant.

“The tree thrives well, beyond a doubt, madam,” replied Dr. Grant. “The
soil is good; and I never pass it without regretting that the fruit
should be so little worth the trouble of gathering. ”

“Sir, it is a Moor Park, we bought it as a Moor Park, and it cost
us--that is, it was a present from Sir Thomas, but I saw the bill--and I
know it cost seven shillings, and was charged as a Moor Park. ”

“You were imposed on, ma’am,” replied Dr. Grant: “these potatoes have as
much the flavour of a Moor Park apricot as the fruit from that tree. It
is an insipid fruit at the best; but a good apricot is eatable, which
none from my garden are. ”

“The truth is, ma’am,” said Mrs. Grant, pretending to whisper across
the table to Mrs. Norris, “that Dr. Grant hardly knows what the natural
taste of our apricot is: he is scarcely ever indulged with one, for it
is so valuable a fruit; with a little assistance, and ours is such a
remarkably large, fair sort, that what with early tarts and preserves,
my cook contrives to get them all. ”

Mrs. Norris, who had begun to redden, was appeased; and, for a little
while, other subjects took place of the improvements of Sotherton. Dr.
Grant and Mrs. Norris were seldom good friends; their acquaintance had
begun in dilapidations, and their habits were totally dissimilar.

After a short interruption Mr. Rushworth began again. “Smith’s place
is the admiration of all the country; and it was a mere nothing before
Repton took it in hand. I think I shall have Repton. ”

“Mr. Rushworth,” said Lady Bertram, “if I were you, I would have a
very pretty shrubbery. One likes to get out into a shrubbery in fine
weather. ”

Mr. Rushworth was eager to assure her ladyship of his acquiescence, and
tried to make out something complimentary; but, between his submission
to _her_ taste, and his having always intended the same himself, with
the superadded objects of professing attention to the comfort of ladies
in general, and of insinuating that there was one only whom he was
anxious to please, he grew puzzled, and Edmund was glad to put an end
to his speech by a proposal of wine. Mr. Rushworth, however, though not
usually a great talker, had still more to say on the subject next his
heart. “Smith has not much above a hundred acres altogether in his
grounds, which is little enough, and makes it more surprising that the
place can have been so improved. Now, at Sotherton we have a good seven
hundred, without reckoning the water meadows; so that I think, if so
much could be done at Compton, we need not despair. There have been two
or three fine old trees cut down, that grew too near the house, and
it opens the prospect amazingly, which makes me think that Repton, or
anybody of that sort, would certainly have the avenue at Sotherton down:
the avenue that leads from the west front to the top of the hill,
you know,” turning to Miss Bertram particularly as he spoke. But Miss
Bertram thought it most becoming to reply--

“The avenue! Oh! I do not recollect it. I really know very little of
Sotherton. ”

Fanny, who was sitting on the other side of Edmund, exactly opposite
Miss Crawford, and who had been attentively listening, now looked at
him, and said in a low voice--

“Cut down an avenue! What a pity! Does it not make you think of Cowper?
‘Ye fallen avenues, once more I mourn your fate unmerited. ’”

He smiled as he answered, “I am afraid the avenue stands a bad chance,
Fanny. ”

“I should like to see Sotherton before it is cut down, to see the place
as it is now, in its old state; but I do not suppose I shall. ”

“Have you never been there? No, you never can; and, unluckily, it is out
of distance for a ride. I wish we could contrive it. ”

“Oh! it does not signify. Whenever I do see it, you will tell me how it
has been altered. ”

“I collect,” said Miss Crawford, “that Sotherton is an old place, and a
place of some grandeur. In any particular style of building? ”

“The house was built in Elizabeth’s time, and is a large, regular, brick
building; heavy, but respectable looking, and has many good rooms. It
is ill placed. It stands in one of the lowest spots of the park; in that
respect, unfavourable for improvement. But the woods are fine, and
there is a stream, which, I dare say, might be made a good deal of. Mr.
Rushworth is quite right, I think, in meaning to give it a modern dress,
and I have no doubt that it will be all done extremely well. ”

Miss Crawford listened with submission, and said to herself, “He is a
well-bred man; he makes the best of it. ”

“I do not wish to influence Mr. Rushworth,” he continued; “but, had I
a place to new fashion, I should not put myself into the hands of an
improver. I would rather have an inferior degree of beauty, of my own
choice, and acquired progressively. I would rather abide by my own
blunders than by his. ”

“_You_ would know what you were about, of course; but that would not
suit _me_. I have no eye or ingenuity for such matters, but as they are
before me; and had I a place of my own in the country, I should be most
thankful to any Mr. Repton who would undertake it, and give me as much
beauty as he could for my money; and I should never look at it till it
was complete. ”

“It would be delightful to _me_ to see the progress of it all,” said
Fanny.

“Ay, you have been brought up to it. It was no part of my education; and
the only dose I ever had, being administered by not the first favourite
in the world, has made me consider improvements _in_ _hand_ as the
greatest of nuisances. Three years ago the Admiral, my honoured uncle,
bought a cottage at Twickenham for us all to spend our summers in;
and my aunt and I went down to it quite in raptures; but it being
excessively pretty, it was soon found necessary to be improved, and for
three months we were all dirt and confusion, without a gravel walk to
step on, or a bench fit for use. I would have everything as complete
as possible in the country, shrubberies and flower-gardens, and rustic
seats innumerable: but it must all be done without my care. Henry is
different; he loves to be doing. ”

Edmund was sorry to hear Miss Crawford, whom he was much disposed to
admire, speak so freely of her uncle. It did not suit his sense of
propriety, and he was silenced, till induced by further smiles and
liveliness to put the matter by for the present.

“Mr. Bertram,” said she, “I have tidings of my harp at last. I am
assured that it is safe at Northampton; and there it has probably been
these ten days, in spite of the solemn assurances we have so often
received to the contrary. ” Edmund expressed his pleasure and surprise.
“The truth is, that our inquiries were too direct; we sent a servant,
we went ourselves: this will not do seventy miles from London; but this
morning we heard of it in the right way. It was seen by some farmer, and
he told the miller, and the miller told the butcher, and the butcher’s
son-in-law left word at the shop.
”

“I am very glad that you have heard of it, by whatever means, and hope
there will be no further delay. ”

“I am to have it to-morrow; but how do you think it is to be conveyed?
Not by a wagon or cart: oh no! nothing of that kind could be hired in
the village. I might as well have asked for porters and a handbarrow. ”

“You would find it difficult, I dare say, just now, in the middle of a
very late hay harvest, to hire a horse and cart? ”

“I was astonished to find what a piece of work was made of it! To want
a horse and cart in the country seemed impossible, so I told my maid to
speak for one directly; and as I cannot look out of my dressing-closet
without seeing one farmyard, nor walk in the shrubbery without passing
another, I thought it would be only ask and have, and was rather grieved
that I could not give the advantage to all. Guess my surprise, when
I found that I had been asking the most unreasonable, most impossible
thing in the world; had offended all the farmers, all the labourers,
all the hay in the parish! As for Dr. Grant’s bailiff, I believe I had
better keep out of _his_ way; and my brother-in-law himself, who is all
kindness in general, looked rather black upon me when he found what I
had been at. ”

“You could not be expected to have thought on the subject before; but
when you _do_ think of it, you must see the importance of getting in
the grass. The hire of a cart at any time might not be so easy as you
suppose: our farmers are not in the habit of letting them out; but, in
harvest, it must be quite out of their power to spare a horse. ”

“I shall understand all your ways in time; but, coming down with the
true London maxim, that everything is to be got with money, I was a
little embarrassed at first by the sturdy independence of your country
customs. However, I am to have my harp fetched to-morrow. Henry, who is
good-nature itself, has offered to fetch it in his barouche. Will it not
be honourably conveyed? ”

Edmund spoke of the harp as his favourite instrument, and hoped to be
soon allowed to hear her. Fanny had never heard the harp at all, and
wished for it very much.

“I shall be most happy to play to you both,” said Miss Crawford; “at
least as long as you can like to listen: probably much longer, for
I dearly love music myself, and where the natural taste is equal the
player must always be best off, for she is gratified in more ways than
one. Now, Mr. Bertram, if you write to your brother, I entreat you to
tell him that my harp is come: he heard so much of my misery about it.
And you may say, if you please, that I shall prepare my most plaintive
airs against his return, in compassion to his feelings, as I know his
horse will lose. ”

“If I write, I will say whatever you wish me; but I do not, at present,
foresee any occasion for writing. ”

“No, I dare say, nor if he were to be gone a twelvemonth, would you ever
write to him, nor he to you, if it could be helped. The occasion would
never be foreseen. What strange creatures brothers are! You would not
write to each other but upon the most urgent necessity in the world; and
when obliged to take up the pen to say that such a horse is ill, or such
a relation dead, it is done in the fewest possible words. You have but
one style among you. I know it perfectly. Henry, who is in every other
respect exactly what a brother should be, who loves me, consults me,
confides in me, and will talk to me by the hour together, has never
yet turned the page in a letter; and very often it is nothing more
than--‘Dear Mary, I am just arrived. Bath seems full, and everything
as usual. Yours sincerely. ’ That is the true manly style; that is a
complete brother’s letter. ”

“When they are at a distance from all their family,” said Fanny,
colouring for William’s sake, “they can write long letters. ”

“Miss Price has a brother at sea,” said Edmund, “whose excellence as a
correspondent makes her think you too severe upon us. ”

“At sea, has she? In the king’s service, of course? ”

Fanny would rather have had Edmund tell the story, but his determined
silence obliged her to relate her brother’s situation: her voice was
animated in speaking of his profession, and the foreign stations he had
been on; but she could not mention the number of years that he had been
absent without tears in her eyes. Miss Crawford civilly wished him an
early promotion.

“Do you know anything of my cousin’s captain? ” said Edmund; “Captain
Marshall? You have a large acquaintance in the navy, I conclude? ”

“Among admirals, large enough; but,” with an air of grandeur, “we know
very little of the inferior ranks. Post-captains may be very good sort
of men, but they do not belong to _us_. Of various admirals I could tell
you a great deal: of them and their flags, and the gradation of their
pay, and their bickerings and jealousies. But, in general, I can assure
you that they are all passed over, and all very ill used. Certainly, my
home at my uncle’s brought me acquainted with a circle of admirals. Of
_Rears_ and _Vices_ I saw enough. Now do not be suspecting me of a pun,
I entreat. ”

Edmund again felt grave, and only replied, “It is a noble profession. ”

“Yes, the profession is well enough under two circumstances: if it make
the fortune, and there be discretion in spending it; but, in short, it
is not a favourite profession of mine. It has never worn an amiable form
to _me_. ”

Edmund reverted to the harp, and was again very happy in the prospect of
hearing her play.

The subject of improving grounds, meanwhile, was still under
consideration among the others; and Mrs. Grant could not help addressing
her brother, though it was calling his attention from Miss Julia
Bertram.

“My dear Henry, have _you_ nothing to say? You have been an improver
yourself, and from what I hear of Everingham, it may vie with any place
in England. Its natural beauties, I am sure, are great. Everingham,
as it _used_ to be, was perfect in my estimation: such a happy fall of
ground, and such timber! What would I not give to see it again? ”

“Nothing could be so gratifying to me as to hear your opinion of it,”
was his answer; “but I fear there would be some disappointment: you
would not find it equal to your present ideas. In extent, it is a mere
nothing; you would be surprised at its insignificance; and, as for
improvement, there was very little for me to do--too little: I should
like to have been busy much longer. ”

“You are fond of the sort of thing? ” said Julia.

“Excessively; but what with the natural advantages of the ground, which
pointed out, even to a very young eye, what little remained to be done,
and my own consequent resolutions, I had not been of age three
months before Everingham was all that it is now. My plan was laid
at Westminster, a little altered, perhaps, at Cambridge, and at
one-and-twenty executed. I am inclined to envy Mr. Rushworth for having
so much happiness yet before him. I have been a devourer of my own. ”

“Those who see quickly, will resolve quickly, and act quickly,”
said Julia. “_You_ can never want employment. Instead of envying Mr.
Rushworth, you should assist him with your opinion. ”

Mrs. Grant, hearing the latter part of this speech, enforced it warmly,
persuaded that no judgment could be equal to her brother’s; and as
Miss Bertram caught at the idea likewise, and gave it her full support,
declaring that, in her opinion, it was infinitely better to consult
with friends and disinterested advisers, than immediately to throw the
business into the hands of a professional man, Mr. Rushworth was very
ready to request the favour of Mr. Crawford’s assistance; and Mr.
Crawford, after properly depreciating his own abilities, was quite at
his service in any way that could be useful. Mr. Rushworth then began to
propose Mr. Crawford’s doing him the honour of coming over to Sotherton,
and taking a bed there; when Mrs. Norris, as if reading in her two
nieces’ minds their little approbation of a plan which was to take Mr.
Crawford away, interposed with an amendment.

“There can be no doubt of Mr. Crawford’s willingness; but why should not
more of us go? Why should not we make a little party? Here are many that
would be interested in your improvements, my dear Mr. Rushworth, and
that would like to hear Mr. Crawford’s opinion on the spot, and that
might be of some small use to you with _their_ opinions; and, for my
own part, I have been long wishing to wait upon your good mother again;
nothing but having no horses of my own could have made me so remiss; but
now I could go and sit a few hours with Mrs. Rushworth, while the rest
of you walked about and settled things, and then we could all return
to a late dinner here, or dine at Sotherton, just as might be most
agreeable to your mother, and have a pleasant drive home by moonlight.
I dare say Mr. Crawford would take my two nieces and me in his barouche,
and Edmund can go on horseback, you know, sister, and Fanny will stay at
home with you. ”

Lady Bertram made no objection; and every one concerned in the going
was forward in expressing their ready concurrence, excepting Edmund, who
heard it all and said nothing.



CHAPTER VII

“Well, Fanny, and how do you like Miss Crawford _now_? ” said Edmund the
next day, after thinking some time on the subject himself. “How did you
like her yesterday? ”

“Very well--very much. I like to hear her talk. She entertains me; and
she is so extremely pretty, that I have great pleasure in looking at
her. ”

“It is her countenance that is so attractive. She has a wonderful play
of feature! But was there nothing in her conversation that struck you,
Fanny, as not quite right? ”

“Oh yes! she ought not to have spoken of her uncle as she did. I was
quite astonished. An uncle with whom she has been living so many years,
and who, whatever his faults may be, is so very fond of her brother,
treating him, they say, quite like a son. I could not have believed it! ”

“I thought you would be struck. It was very wrong; very indecorous. ”

“And very ungrateful, I think. ”

“Ungrateful is a strong word. I do not know that her uncle has any claim
to her _gratitude_; his wife certainly had; and it is the warmth of her
respect for her aunt’s memory which misleads her here. She is awkwardly
circumstanced. With such warm feelings and lively spirits it must be
difficult to do justice to her affection for Mrs. Crawford, without
throwing a shade on the Admiral. I do not pretend to know which was most
to blame in their disagreements, though the Admiral’s present conduct
might incline one to the side of his wife; but it is natural and amiable
that Miss Crawford should acquit her aunt entirely. I do not censure her
_opinions_; but there certainly _is_ impropriety in making them public. ”

“Do not you think,” said Fanny, after a little consideration, “that this
impropriety is a reflection itself upon Mrs. Crawford, as her niece has
been entirely brought up by her? She cannot have given her right notions
of what was due to the Admiral. ”

“That is a fair remark. Yes, we must suppose the faults of the niece
to have been those of the aunt; and it makes one more sensible of the
disadvantages she has been under. But I think her present home must
do her good. Mrs. Grant’s manners are just what they ought to be. She
speaks of her brother with a very pleasing affection. ”

“Yes, except as to his writing her such short letters. She made me
almost laugh; but I cannot rate so very highly the love or good-nature
of a brother who will not give himself the trouble of writing anything
worth reading to his sisters, when they are separated. I am sure William
would never have used _me_ so, under any circumstances. And what right
had she to suppose that _you_ would not write long letters when you were
absent? ”

“The right of a lively mind, Fanny, seizing whatever may contribute
to its own amusement or that of others; perfectly allowable, when
untinctured by ill-humour or roughness; and there is not a shadow of
either in the countenance or manner of Miss Crawford: nothing sharp, or
loud, or coarse. She is perfectly feminine, except in the instances we
have been speaking of. There she cannot be justified. I am glad you saw
it all as I did. ”

Having formed her mind and gained her affections, he had a good chance
of her thinking like him; though at this period, and on this subject,
there began now to be some danger of dissimilarity, for he was in a line
of admiration of Miss Crawford, which might lead him where Fanny
could not follow. Miss Crawford’s attractions did not lessen. The harp
arrived, and rather added to her beauty, wit, and good-humour; for she
played with the greatest obligingness, with an expression and taste
which were peculiarly becoming, and there was something clever to be
said at the close of every air. Edmund was at the Parsonage every day,
to be indulged with his favourite instrument: one morning secured an
invitation for the next; for the lady could not be unwilling to have a
listener, and every thing was soon in a fair train.

A young woman, pretty, lively, with a harp as elegant as herself, and
both placed near a window, cut down to the ground, and opening on a
little lawn, surrounded by shrubs in the rich foliage of summer, was
enough to catch any man’s heart. The season, the scene, the air, were
all favourable to tenderness and sentiment. Mrs. Grant and her tambour
frame were not without their use: it was all in harmony; and as
everything will turn to account when love is once set going, even the
sandwich tray, and Dr. Grant doing the honours of it, were worth looking
at. Without studying the business, however, or knowing what he was
about, Edmund was beginning, at the end of a week of such intercourse,
to be a good deal in love; and to the credit of the lady it may be added
that, without his being a man of the world or an elder brother, without
any of the arts of flattery or the gaieties of small talk, he began to
be agreeable to her. She felt it to be so, though she had not foreseen,
and could hardly understand it; for he was not pleasant by any common
rule: he talked no nonsense; he paid no compliments; his opinions
were unbending, his attentions tranquil and simple. There was a charm,
perhaps, in his sincerity, his steadiness, his integrity, which Miss
Crawford might be equal to feel, though not equal to discuss with
herself. She did not think very much about it, however: he pleased her
for the present; she liked to have him near her; it was enough.

Fanny could not wonder that Edmund was at the Parsonage every morning;
she would gladly have been there too, might she have gone in uninvited
and unnoticed, to hear the harp; neither could she wonder that, when the
evening stroll was over, and the two families parted again, he should
think it right to attend Mrs. Grant and her sister to their home, while
Mr. Crawford was devoted to the ladies of the Park; but she thought it
a very bad exchange; and if Edmund were not there to mix the wine and
water for her, would rather go without it than not. She was a little
surprised that he could spend so many hours with Miss Crawford, and
not see more of the sort of fault which he had already observed, and of
which _she_ was almost always reminded by a something of the same nature
whenever she was in her company; but so it was. Edmund was fond of
speaking to her of Miss Crawford, but he seemed to think it enough that
the Admiral had since been spared; and she scrupled to point out her own
remarks to him, lest it should appear like ill-nature. The first actual
pain which Miss Crawford occasioned her was the consequence of an
inclination to learn to ride, which the former caught, soon after her
being settled at Mansfield, from the example of the young ladies at the
Park, and which, when Edmund’s acquaintance with her increased, led to
his encouraging the wish, and the offer of his own quiet mare for the
purpose of her first attempts, as the best fitted for a beginner that
either stable could furnish. No pain, no injury, however, was designed
by him to his cousin in this offer: _she_ was not to lose a day’s
exercise by it. The mare was only to be taken down to the Parsonage half
an hour before her ride were to begin; and Fanny, on its being first
proposed, so far from feeling slighted, was almost over-powered with
gratitude that he should be asking her leave for it.

Miss Crawford made her first essay with great credit to herself, and no
inconvenience to Fanny. Edmund, who had taken down the mare and presided
at the whole, returned with it in excellent time, before either Fanny or
the steady old coachman, who always attended her when she rode without
her cousins, were ready to set forward. The second day’s trial was not
so guiltless. Miss Crawford’s enjoyment of riding was such that she did
not know how to leave off. Active and fearless, and though rather small,
strongly made, she seemed formed for a horsewoman; and to the pure
genuine pleasure of the exercise, something was probably added in
Edmund’s attendance and instructions, and something more in the
conviction of very much surpassing her sex in general by her early
progress, to make her unwilling to dismount. Fanny was ready and
waiting, and Mrs. Norris was beginning to scold her for not being gone,
and still no horse was announced, no Edmund appeared. To avoid her aunt,
and look for him, she went out.

The houses, though scarcely half a mile apart, were not within sight of
each other; but, by walking fifty yards from the hall door, she could
look down the park, and command a view of the Parsonage and all its
demesnes, gently rising beyond the village road; and in Dr. Grant’s
meadow she immediately saw the group--Edmund and Miss Crawford both on
horse-back, riding side by side, Dr. and Mrs. Grant, and Mr. Crawford,
with two or three grooms, standing about and looking on. A happy party
it appeared to her, all interested in one object: cheerful beyond a
doubt, for the sound of merriment ascended even to her. It was a sound
which did not make _her_ cheerful; she wondered that Edmund should
forget her, and felt a pang. She could not turn her eyes from the
meadow; she could not help watching all that passed. At first Miss
Crawford and her companion made the circuit of the field, which was not
small, at a foot’s pace; then, at _her_ apparent suggestion, they rose
into a canter; and to Fanny’s timid nature it was most astonishing to
see how well she sat. After a few minutes they stopped entirely. Edmund
was close to her; he was speaking to her; he was evidently directing her
management of the bridle; he had hold of her hand; she saw it, or the
imagination supplied what the eye could not reach. She must not wonder
at all this; what could be more natural than that Edmund should be
making himself useful, and proving his good-nature by any one? She could
not but think, indeed, that Mr. Crawford might as well have saved him
the trouble; that it would have been particularly proper and becoming
in a brother to have done it himself; but Mr. Crawford, with all his
boasted good-nature, and all his coachmanship, probably knew nothing
of the matter, and had no active kindness in comparison of Edmund. She
began to think it rather hard upon the mare to have such double duty; if
she were forgotten, the poor mare should be remembered.

Her feelings for one and the other were soon a little tranquillised
by seeing the party in the meadow disperse, and Miss Crawford still on
horseback, but attended by Edmund on foot, pass through a gate into the
lane, and so into the park, and make towards the spot where she stood.
She began then to be afraid of appearing rude and impatient; and walked
to meet them with a great anxiety to avoid the suspicion.

“My dear Miss Price,” said Miss Crawford, as soon as she was at all
within hearing, “I am come to make my own apologies for keeping you
waiting; but I have nothing in the world to say for myself--I knew it
was very late, and that I was behaving extremely ill; and therefore, if
you please, you must forgive me. Selfishness must always be forgiven,
you know, because there is no hope of a cure. ”

Fanny’s answer was extremely civil, and Edmund added his conviction that
she could be in no hurry. “For there is more than time enough for my
cousin to ride twice as far as she ever goes,” said he, “and you have
been promoting her comfort by preventing her from setting off half an
hour sooner: clouds are now coming up, and she will not suffer from the
heat as she would have done then. I wish _you_ may not be fatigued by so
much exercise. I wish you had saved yourself this walk home. ”

“No part of it fatigues me but getting off this horse, I assure you,”
said she, as she sprang down with his help; “I am very strong. Nothing
ever fatigues me but doing what I do not like. Miss Price, I give way to
you with a very bad grace; but I sincerely hope you will have a pleasant
ride, and that I may have nothing but good to hear of this dear,
delightful, beautiful animal. ”

The old coachman, who had been waiting about with his own horse, now
joining them, Fanny was lifted on hers, and they set off across another
part of the park; her feelings of discomfort not lightened by seeing, as
she looked back, that the others were walking down the hill together to
the village; nor did her attendant do her much good by his comments on
Miss Crawford’s great cleverness as a horse-woman, which he had been
watching with an interest almost equal to her own.

“It is a pleasure to see a lady with such a good heart for riding! ”
said he. “I never see one sit a horse better. She did not seem to have
a thought of fear. Very different from you, miss, when you first began,
six years ago come next Easter. Lord bless you! how you did tremble when
Sir Thomas first had you put on! ”

In the drawing-room Miss Crawford was also celebrated. Her merit in
being gifted by Nature with strength and courage was fully appreciated
by the Miss Bertrams; her delight in riding was like their own; her
early excellence in it was like their own, and they had great pleasure
in praising it.