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1Mr. Crawford smiled his acquiescence, and stepping forward to Maria, said, in a voice which she only could hear, "I do
2not like to see Miss Bertram so near the altar." Starting, the lady instinctively moved a step or two, but recovering
3herself in a moment, affected to laugh, and asked him, in a tone not much louder, "If he would give her away?" "I am
4afraid I should do it very awkwardly," was his reply, with a look of meaning. Julia, joining them at the moment, carried
5on the joke. "Upon my word, it is really a pity that it should not take place directly, if we had but a proper licence,
6for here we are altogether, and nothing in the world could be more snug and pleasant." And she talked and laughed about
7it with so little caution as to catch the comprehension of Mr. Rushworth and his mother, and expose her sister to the
8whispered gallantries of her lover, while Mrs. Rushworth spoke with proper smiles and dignity of its being a most happy
9event to her whenever it took place. "If Edmund were but in orders!" cried Julia, and running to where he stood with
10Miss Crawford and Fanny: "My dear Edmund, if you were but in orders now, you might perform the ceremony directly. How
11unlucky that you are not ordained; Mr. Rushworth and Maria are quite ready." Miss Crawford's countenance, as Julia
12spoke, might have amused a disinterested observer. She looked almost aghast under the new idea she was receiving. Fanny
13pitied her. "How distressed she will be at what she said just now," passed across her mind. "Ordained!" said Miss
14Crawford; "what, are you to be a clergyman?" "Yes; I shall take orders soon after my father's return--probably at
15Christmas." Miss Crawford, rallying her spirits, and recovering her complexion, replied only, "If I had known this
16before, I would have spoken of the cloth with more respect," and turned the subject. The chapel was soon afterwards left
17to the silence and stillness which reigned in it, with few interruptions, throughout the year. Miss Bertram, displeased
18with her sister, led the way, and all seemed to feel that they had been there long enough. The lower part of the house
19had been now entirely shewn, and Mrs. Rushworth, never weary in the cause, would have proceeded towards the principal
20staircase, and taken them through all the rooms above, if her son had not interposed with a doubt of there being time
21enough. "For if," said he, with the sort of self-evident proposition which many a clearer head does not always avoid,
22"we are too long going over the house, we shall not have time for what is to be done out of doors. It is past two, and
23we are to dine at five." Mrs. Rushworth submitted; and the question of surveying the grounds, with the who and the how,
24was likely to be more fully agitated, and Mrs. Norris was beginning to arrange by what junction of carriages and horses
25most could be done, when the young people, meeting with an outward door, temptingly open on a flight of steps which led
26immediately to turf and shrubs, and all the sweets of pleasure-grounds, as by one impulse, one wish for air and liberty,
27all walked out. "Suppose we turn down here for the present," said Mrs. Rushworth, civilly taking the hint and following
28them. "Here are the greatest number of our plants, and here are the curious pheasants." "Query," said Mr. Crawford,
29looking round him, "whether we may not find something to employ us here before we go farther? I see walls of great
30promise. Mr. Rushworth, shall we summon a council on this lawn?" "James," said Mrs. Rushworth to her son, "I believe the
31wilderness will be new to all the party. The Miss Bertrams have never seen the wilderness yet." No objection was made,
32but for some time there seemed no inclination to move in any plan, or to any distance. All were attracted at first by
33the plants or the pheasants, and all dispersed about in happy independence. Mr. Crawford was the first to move forward
34to examine the capabilities of that end of the house. The lawn, bounded on each side by a high wall, contained beyond
35the first planted area a bowling-green, and beyond the bowling-green a long terrace walk, backed by iron palisades, and
36commanding a view over them into the tops of the trees of the wilderness immediately adjoining. It was a good spot for
37fault-finding. Mr. Crawford was soon followed by Miss Bertram and Mr. Rushworth; and when, after a little time, the
38others began to form into parties, these three were found in busy consultation on the terrace by Edmund, Miss Crawford,
39and Fanny, who seemed as naturally to unite, and who, after a short participation of their regrets and difficulties,
40left them and walked on. The remaining three, Mrs. Rushworth, Mrs. Norris, and Julia, were still far behind; for Julia,
41whose happy star no longer prevailed, was obliged to keep by the side of Mrs. Rushworth, and restrain her impatient feet
42to that lady's slow pace, while her aunt, having fallen in with the housekeeper, who was come out to feed the pheasants,
43was lingering behind in gossip with her. Poor Julia, the only one out of the nine not tolerably satisfied with their
44lot, was now in a state of complete penance, and as different from the Julia of the barouche-box as could well be
45imagined. The politeness which she had been brought up to practise as a duty made it impossible for her to escape; while
46the want of that higher species of self-command, that just consideration of others, that knowledge of her own heart,
47that principle of right, which had not formed any essential part of her education, made her miserable under it. "This is
48insufferably hot," said Miss Crawford, when they had taken one turn on the terrace, and were drawing a second time to
49the door in the middle which opened to the wilderness. "Shall any of us object to being comfortable? Here is a nice
50little wood, if one can but get into it. What happiness if the door should not be locked! but of course it is; for in
51these great places the gardeners are the only people who can go where they like." The door, however, proved not to be
52locked, and they were all agreed in turning joyfully through it, and leaving the unmitigated glare of day behind. A
53considerable flight of steps landed them in the wilderness, which was a planted wood of about two acres, and though
54chiefly of larch and laurel, and beech cut down, and though laid out with too much regularity, was darkness and shade,
55and natural beauty, compared with the bowling-green and the terrace. They all felt the refreshment of it, and for some
56time could only walk and admire. At length, after a short pause, Miss Crawford began with, "So you are to be a
57clergyman, Mr. Bertram. This is rather a surprise to me." "Why should it surprise you? You must suppose me designed for
58some profession, and might perceive that I am neither a lawyer, nor a soldier, nor a sailor." "Very true; but, in short,
59it had not occurred to me. And you know there is generally an uncle or a grandfather to leave a fortune to the second
60son." "A very praiseworthy practice," said Edmund, "but not quite universal. I am one of the exceptions, and being one,
61must do something for myself." "But why are you to be a clergyman? I thought that was always the lot of the youngest,
62where there were many to chuse before him." "Do you think the church itself never chosen, then?" "Never is a black word.
63But yes, in the never of conversation, which means not very often, I do think it. For what is to be done in the church?
64Men love to distinguish themselves, and in either of the other lines distinction may be gained, but not in the church. A
65clergyman is nothing." "The nothing of conversation has its gradations, I hope, as well as the never. A clergyman cannot
66be high in state or fashion. He must not head mobs, or set the ton in dress. But I cannot call that situation nothing
67which has the charge of all that is of the first importance to mankind, individually or collectively considered,
68temporally and eternally, which has the guardianship of religion and morals, and consequently of the manners which
69result from their influence. No one here can call the office nothing. If the man who holds it is so, it is by the
70neglect of his duty, by foregoing its just importance, and stepping out of his place to appear what he ought not to
71appear."
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