Previous - Next

by the side of the ha-ha--and perhaps turn a little way
in some other direction, if it seemed likely to assist them,
and be back in a few minutes. Fanny said she was rested,
and would have moved too, but this was not suffered.
Edmund urged her remaining where she was with an
earnestness which she could not resist, and she was left
on the bench to think with pleasure of her cousin's care,
but with great regret that she was not stronger.
She watched them till they had turned the corner,
and listened till all sound of them had ceased.



CHAPTER X

A quarter of an hour, twenty minutes, passed away,
and Fanny was still thinking of Edmund, Miss Crawford,
and herself, without interruption from any one. She began
to be surprised at being left so long, and to listen
with an anxious desire of hearing their steps and their
voices again. She listened, and at length she heard;
she heard voices and feet approaching; but she had just
satisfied herself that it was not those she wanted,
when Miss Bertram, Mr. Rushworth, and Mr. Crawford issued
from the same path which she had trod herself, and were
before her.

"Miss Price all alone" and "My dear Fanny, how comes this?"
were the first salutations. She told her story.
"Poor dear Fanny," cried her cousin, "how ill you have been
used by them! You had better have staid with us."

Then seating herself with a gentleman on each side,
she resumed the conversation which had engaged them before,
and discussed the possibility of improvements with
much animation. Nothing was fixed on; but Henry Crawford
was full of ideas and projects, and, generally speaking,
whatever he proposed was immediately approved, first by her,
and then by Mr. Rushworth, whose principal business
seemed to be to hear the others, and who scarcely risked
an original thought of his own beyond a wish that they
had seen his friend Smith's place.

After some minutes spent in this way, Miss Bertram,
observing the iron gate, expressed a wish of passing
through it into the park, that their views and their
plans might be more comprehensive. It was the very thing
of all others to be wished, it was the best, it was
the only way of proceeding with any advantage, in Henry
Crawford's opinion; and he directly saw a knoll not half
a mile off, which would give them exactly the requisite
command of the house. Go therefore they must to that knoll,
and through that gate; but the gate was locked.
Mr. Rushworth wished he had brought the key; he had been
very near thinking whether he should not bring the key;
he was determined he would never come without the key again;
but still this did not remove the present evil. They could
not get through; and as Miss Bertram's inclination for so
doing did by no means lessen, it ended in Mr. Rushworth's
declaring outright that he would go and fetch the key.
He set off accordingly.

"It is undoubtedly the best thing we can do now, as we
are so far from the house already," said Mr. Crawford,
when he was gone.

Previous - Next