📝 您未登录，登录后完成练习可保存成绩、查看最佳记录。
总字符
0
正确字符
0
错误字符
0
错误率
0.00%
耗时(秒)
0
速度 WPM
0
0 / 70
1About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate
2Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet's
3lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the
4greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of
5any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their acquaintance as
6thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with
7almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women
8to deserve them. Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr.
9Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any private fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse. Miss Ward's
10match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible: Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an
11income in the living of Mansfield; and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less
12than a thousand a year. But Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on a
13lieutenant of marines, without education, fortune, or connexions, did it very thoroughly. She could hardly have made a
14more untoward choice. Sir Thomas Bertram had interest, which, from principle as well as pride--from a general wish of
15doing right, and a desire of seeing all that were connected with him in situations of respectability, he would have been
16glad to exert for the advantage of Lady Bertram's sister; but her husband's profession was such as no interest could
17reach; and before he had time to devise any other method of assisting them, an absolute breach between the sisters had
18taken place. It was the natural result of the conduct of each party, and such as a very imprudent marriage almost always
19produces. To save herself from useless remonstrance, Mrs. Price never wrote to her family on the subject till actually
20married. Lady Bertram, who was a woman of very tranquil feelings, and a temper remarkably easy and indolent, would have
21contented herself with merely giving up her sister, and thinking no more of the matter; but Mrs. Norris had a spirit of
22activity, which could not be satisfied till she had written a long and angry letter to Fanny, to point out the folly of
23her conduct, and threaten her with all its possible ill consequences. Mrs. Price, in her turn, was injured and angry;
24and an answer, which comprehended each sister in its bitterness, and bestowed such very disrespectful reflections on the
25pride of Sir Thomas as Mrs. Norris could not possibly keep to herself, put an end to all intercourse between them for a
26considerable period. Their homes were so distant, and the circles in which they moved so distinct, as almost to preclude
27the means of ever hearing of each other's existence during the eleven following years, or, at least, to make it very
28wonderful to Sir Thomas that Mrs. Norris should ever have it in her power to tell them, as she now and then did, in an
29angry voice, that Fanny had got another child. By the end of eleven years, however, Mrs. Price could no longer afford to
30cherish pride or resentment, or to lose one connexion that might possibly assist her. A large and still increasing
31family, an husband disabled for active service, but not the less equal to company and good liquor, and a very small
32income to supply their wants, made her eager to regain the friends she had so carelessly sacrificed; and she addressed
33Lady Bertram in a letter which spoke so much contrition and despondence, such a superfluity of children, and such a want
34of almost everything else, as could not but dispose them all to a reconciliation. She was preparing for her ninth
35lying-in; and after bewailing the circumstance, and imploring their countenance as sponsors to the expected child, she
36could not conceal how important she felt they might be to the future maintenance of the eight already in being. Her
37eldest was a boy of ten years old, a fine spirited fellow, who longed to be out in the world; but what could she do? Was
38there any chance of his being hereafter useful to Sir Thomas in the concerns of his West Indian property? No situation
39would be beneath him; or what did Sir Thomas think of Woolwich? or how could a boy be sent out to the East? The letter
40was not unproductive. It re-established peace and kindness. Sir Thomas sent friendly advice and professions, Lady
41Bertram dispatched money and baby-linen, and Mrs. Norris wrote the letters. Such were its immediate effects, and within
42a twelvemonth a more important advantage to Mrs. Price resulted from it. Mrs. Norris was often observing to the others
43that she could not get her poor sister and her family out of her head, and that, much as they had all done for her, she
44seemed to be wanting to do more; and at length she could not but own it to be her wish that poor Mrs. Price should be
45relieved from the charge and expense of one child entirely out of her great number. "What if they were among them to
46undertake the care of her eldest daughter, a girl now nine years old, of an age to require more attention than her poor
47mother could possibly give? The trouble and expense of it to them would be nothing, compared with the benevolence of the
48action." Lady Bertram agreed with her instantly. "I think we cannot do better," said she; "let us send for the child."
49Sir Thomas could not give so instantaneous and unqualified a consent. He debated and hesitated;--it was a serious
50charge;--a girl so brought up must be adequately provided for, or there would be cruelty instead of kindness in taking
51her from her family. He thought of his own four children, of his two sons, of cousins in love, etc.;--but no sooner had
52he deliberately begun to state his objections, than Mrs. Norris interrupted him with a reply to them all, whether stated
53or not. "My dear Sir Thomas, I perfectly comprehend you, and do justice to the generosity and delicacy of your notions,
54which indeed are quite of a piece with your general conduct; and I entirely agree with you in the main as to the
55propriety of doing everything one could by way of providing for a child one had in a manner taken into one's own hands;
56and I am sure I should be the last person in the world to withhold my mite upon such an occasion. Having no children of
57my 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
58sure 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
59good deed by a trifle. Give a girl an education, and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has
60the means of settling well, without farther expense to anybody. A niece of ours, Sir Thomas, I may say, or at least of
61yours, would not grow up in this neighbourhood without many advantages. I don't say she would be so handsome as her
62cousins. I dare say she would not; but she would be introduced into the society of this country under such very
63favourable circumstances as, in all human probability, would get her a creditable establishment. You are thinking of
64your sons--but do not you know that, of all things upon earth, that is the least likely to happen, brought up as they
65would be, always together like brothers and sisters? It is morally impossible. I never knew an instance of it. It is, in
66fact, the only sure way of providing against the connexion. Suppose her a pretty girl, and seen by Tom or Edmund for the
67first time seven years hence, and I dare say there would be mischief. The very idea of her having been suffered to grow
68up at a distance from us all in poverty and neglect, would be enough to make either of the dear, sweet-tempered boys in
69love with her. But breed her up with them from this time, and suppose her even to have the beauty of an angel, and she
70will never be more to either than a sister."
🎉 全部完成！共 70 行