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1Edmund's first object the next morning was to see his father alone, and give him a fair statement of the whole acting
2scheme, defending his own share in it as far only as he could then, in a soberer moment, feel his motives to deserve,
3and acknowledging, with perfect ingenuousness, that his concession had been attended with such partial good as to make
4his judgment in it very doubtful. He was anxious, while vindicating himself, to say nothing unkind of the others: but
5there was only one amongst them whose conduct he could mention without some necessity of defence or palliation. "We have
6all been more or less to blame," said he, "every one of us, excepting Fanny. Fanny is the only one who has judged
7rightly throughout; who has been consistent. Her feelings have been steadily against it from first to last. She never
8ceased to think of what was due to you. You will find Fanny everything you could wish." Sir Thomas saw all the
9impropriety of such a scheme among such a party, and at such a time, as strongly as his son had ever supposed he must;
10he felt it too much, indeed, for many words; and having shaken hands with Edmund, meant to try to lose the disagreeable
11impression, and forget how much he had been forgotten himself as soon as he could, after the house had been cleared of
12every object enforcing the remembrance, and restored to its proper state. He did not enter into any remonstrance with
13his other children: he was more willing to believe they felt their error than to run the risk of investigation. The
14reproof of an immediate conclusion of everything, the sweep of every preparation, would be sufficient. There was one
15person, however, in the house, whom he could not leave to learn his sentiments merely through his conduct. He could not
16help giving Mrs. Norris a hint of his having hoped that her advice might have been interposed to prevent what her
17judgment must certainly have disapproved. The young people had been very inconsiderate in forming the plan; they ought
18to have been capable of a better decision themselves; but they were young; and, excepting Edmund, he believed, of
19unsteady characters; and with greater surprise, therefore, he must regard her acquiescence in their wrong measures, her
20countenance of their unsafe amusements, than that such measures and such amusements should have been suggested. Mrs.
21Norris was a little confounded and as nearly being silenced as ever she had been in her life; for she was ashamed to
22confess having never seen any of the impropriety which was so glaring to Sir Thomas, and would not have admitted that
23her influence was insufficient--that she might have talked in vain. Her only resource was to get out of the subject as
24fast as possible, and turn the current of Sir Thomas's ideas into a happier channel. She had a great deal to insinuate
25in her own praise as to general attention to the interest and comfort of his family, much exertion and many sacrifices
26to glance at in the form of hurried walks and sudden removals from her own fireside, and many excellent hints of
27distrust and economy to Lady Bertram and Edmund to detail, whereby a most considerable saving had always arisen, and
28more than one bad servant been detected. But her chief strength lay in Sotherton. Her greatest support and glory was in
29having formed the connexion with the Rushworths. There she was impregnable. She took to herself all the credit of
30bringing Mr. Rushworth's admiration of Maria to any effect. "If I had not been active," said she, "and made a point of
31being introduced to his mother, and then prevailed on my sister to pay the first visit, I am as certain as I sit here
32that nothing would have come of it; for Mr. Rushworth is the sort of amiable modest young man who wants a great deal of
33encouragement, and there were girls enough on the catch for him if we had been idle. But I left no stone unturned. I was
34ready to move heaven and earth to persuade my sister, and at last I did persuade her. You know the distance to
35Sotherton; it was in the middle of winter, and the roads almost impassable, but I did persuade her." "I know how great,
36how justly great, your influence is with Lady Bertram and her children, and am the more concerned that it should not
37have been--" "My dear Sir Thomas, if you had seen the state of the roads that day! I thought we should never have got
38through them, though we had the four horses of course; and poor old coachman would attend us, out of his great love and
39kindness, though he was hardly able to sit the box on account of the rheumatism which I had been doctoring him for ever
40since Michaelmas. I cured him at last; but he was very bad all the winter--and this was such a day, I could not help
41going to him up in his room before we set off to advise him not to venture: he was putting on his wig; so I said,
42'Coachman, you had much better not go; your Lady and I shall be very safe; you know how steady Stephen is, and Charles
43has been upon the leaders so often now, that I am sure there is no fear.' But, however, I soon found it would not do; he
44was bent upon going, and as I hate to be worrying and officious, I said no more; but my heart quite ached for him at
45every jolt, and when we got into the rough lanes about Stoke, where, what with frost and snow upon beds of stones, it
46was worse than anything you can imagine, I was quite in an agony about him. And then the poor horses too! To see them
47straining away! You know how I always feel for the horses. And when we got to the bottom of Sandcroft Hill, what do you
48think I did? You will laugh at me; but I got out and walked up. I did indeed. It might not be saving them much, but it
49was something, and I could not bear to sit at my ease and be dragged up at the expense of those noble animals. I caught
50a dreadful cold, but that I did not regard. My object was accomplished in the visit." "I hope we shall always think the
51acquaintance worth any trouble that might be taken to establish it. There is nothing very striking in Mr. Rushworth's
52manners, but I was pleased last night with what appeared to be his opinion on one subject: his decided preference of a
53quiet family party to the bustle and confusion of acting. He seemed to feel exactly as one could wish." "Yes, indeed,
54and the more you know of him the better you will like him. He is not a shining character, but he has a thousand good
55qualities; and is so disposed to look up to you, that I am quite laughed at about it, for everybody considers it as my
56doing. 'Upon my word, Mrs. Norris,' said Mrs. Grant the other day, 'if Mr. Rushworth were a son of your own, he could
57not hold Sir Thomas in greater respect.'" Sir Thomas gave up the point, foiled by her evasions, disarmed by her
58flattery; and was obliged to rest satisfied with the conviction that where the present pleasure of those she loved was
59at stake, her kindness did sometimes overpower her judgment. It was a busy morning with him. Conversation with any of
60them occupied but a small part of it. He had to reinstate himself in all the wonted concerns of his Mansfield life: to
61see his steward and his bailiff; to examine and compute, and, in the intervals of business, to walk into his stables and
62his gardens, and nearest plantations; but active and methodical, he had not only done all this before he resumed his
63seat as master of the house at dinner, he had also set the carpenter to work in pulling down what had been so lately put
64up in the billiard-room, and given the scene-painter his dismissal long enough to justify the pleasing belief of his
65being then at least as far off as Northampton. The scene-painter was gone, having spoilt only the floor of one room,
66ruined all the coachman's sponges, and made five of the under-servants idle and dissatisfied; and Sir Thomas was in
67hopes that another day or two would suffice to wipe away every outward memento of what had been, even to the destruction
68of every unbound copy of Lovers' Vows in the house, for he was burning all that met his eye.
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