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her from her family. He thought of his own four children,
of his two sons, of cousins in love, etc.;--but no sooner
had he deliberately begun to state his objections,
than Mrs. Norris interrupted him with a reply to them all,
whether stated or not.

"My dear Sir Thomas, I perfectly comprehend you, and do
justice to the generosity and delicacy of your notions,
which indeed are quite of a piece with your general conduct;
and I entirely agree with you in the main as to the propriety
of doing everything one could by way of providing for a
child one had in a manner taken into one's own hands;
and I am sure I should be the last person in the world to
withhold my mite upon such an occasion. Having no children
of my own, who should I look to in any little matter I
may ever have to bestow, but the children of my sisters?--
and I am sure Mr. Norris is too just--but you know I am
a woman of few words and professions. Do not let us
be frightened from a good deed by a trifle. Give a girl
an education, and introduce her properly into the world,
and ten to one but she has the means of settling well,
without farther expense to anybody. A niece of ours,
Sir Thomas, I may say, or at least of _yours_, would not
grow up in this neighbourhood without many advantages.
I don't say she would be so handsome as her cousins.
I dare say she would not; but she would be introduced into
the society of this country under such very favourable
circumstances as, in all human probability, would get her
a creditable establishment. You are thinking of your sons--
but do not you know that, of all things upon earth,
_that_ is the least likely to happen, brought up as they
would be, always together like brothers and sisters?
It is morally impossible. I never knew an instance of it.
It is, in fact, the only sure way of providing against
the connexion. Suppose her a pretty girl, and seen by Tom
or Edmund for the first time seven years hence, and I dare
say there would be mischief. The very idea of her having
been suffered to grow up at a distance from us all in poverty
and neglect, would be enough to make either of the dear,
sweet-tempered boys in love with her. But breed her up
with them from this time, and suppose her even to have the
beauty of an angel, and she will never be more to either than
a sister."

"There is a great deal of truth in what you say,"
replied Sir Thomas, "and far be it from me to throw any
fanciful impediment in the way of a plan which would be
so consistent with the relative situations of each. I only
meant to observe that it ought not to be lightly engaged in,
and that to make it really serviceable to Mrs. Price,
and creditable to ourselves, we must secure to the child,
or consider ourselves engaged to secure to her hereafter,
as circumstances may arise, the provision of a gentlewoman,
if no such establishment should offer as you are so sanguine
in expecting."

"I thoroughly understand you," cried Mrs. Norris,
"you are everything that is generous and considerate,

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