📝 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 / 65
1"But why should Mrs. Grant ask Fanny?" said Lady Bertram. "How came she to think of asking Fanny? Fanny never dines
2there, you know, in this sort of way. I cannot spare her, and I am sure she does not want to go. Fanny, you do not want
3to go, do you?" "If you put such a question to her," cried Edmund, preventing his cousin's speaking, "Fanny will
4immediately say No; but I am sure, my dear mother, she would like to go; and I can see no reason why she should not." "I
5cannot imagine why Mrs. Grant should think of asking her? She never did before. She used to ask your sisters now and
6then, but she never asked Fanny." "If you cannot do without me, ma'am--" said Fanny, in a self-denying tone. "But my
7mother will have my father with her all the evening." "To be sure, so I shall." "Suppose you take my father's opinion,
8ma'am." "That's well thought of. So I will, Edmund. I will ask Sir Thomas, as soon as he comes in, whether I can do
9without her." "As you please, ma'am, on that head; but I meant my father's opinion as to the propriety of the
10invitation's being accepted or not; and I think he will consider it a right thing by Mrs. Grant, as well as by Fanny,
11that being the first invitation it should be accepted." "I do not know. We will ask him. But he will be very much
12surprised that Mrs. Grant should ask Fanny at all." There was nothing more to be said, or that could be said to any
13purpose, till Sir Thomas were present; but the subject involving, as it did, her own evening's comfort for the morrow,
14was so much uppermost in Lady Bertram's mind, that half an hour afterwards, on his looking in for a minute in his way
15from his plantation to his dressing-room, she called him back again, when he had almost closed the door, with "Sir
16Thomas, stop a moment--I have something to say to you." Her tone of calm languor, for she never took the trouble of
17raising her voice, was always heard and attended to; and Sir Thomas came back. Her story began; and Fanny immediately
18slipped out of the room; for to hear herself the subject of any discussion with her uncle was more than her nerves could
19bear. She was anxious, she knew--more anxious perhaps than she ought to be--for what was it after all whether she went
20or staid? but if her uncle were to be a great while considering and deciding, and with very grave looks, and those grave
21looks directed to her, and at last decide against her, she might not be able to appear properly submissive and
22indifferent. Her cause, meanwhile, went on well. It began, on Lady Bertram's part, with--"I have something to tell you
23that will surprise you. Mrs. Grant has asked Fanny to dinner." "Well," said Sir Thomas, as if waiting more to accomplish
24the surprise. "Edmund wants her to go. But how can I spare her?" "She will be late," said Sir Thomas, taking out his
25watch; "but what is your difficulty?" Edmund found himself obliged to speak and fill up the blanks in his mother's
26story. He told the whole; and she had only to add, "So strange! for Mrs. Grant never used to ask her." "But is it not
27very natural," observed Edmund, "that Mrs. Grant should wish to procure so agreeable a visitor for her sister?" "Nothing
28can be more natural," said Sir Thomas, after a short deliberation; "nor, were there no sister in the case, could
29anything, in my opinion, be more natural. Mrs. Grant's shewing civility to Miss Price, to Lady Bertram's niece, could
30never want explanation. The only surprise I can feel is, that this should be the first time of its being paid. Fanny was
31perfectly right in giving only a conditional answer. She appears to feel as she ought. But as I conclude that she must
32wish to go, since all young people like to be together, I can see no reason why she should be denied the indulgence."
33"But can I do without her, Sir Thomas?" "Indeed I think you may." "She always makes tea, you know, when my sister is not
34here." "Your sister, perhaps, may be prevailed on to spend the day with us, and I shall certainly be at home." "Very
35well, then, Fanny may go, Edmund." The good news soon followed her. Edmund knocked at her door in his way to his own.
36"Well, Fanny, it is all happily settled, and without the smallest hesitation on your uncle's side. He had but one
37opinion. You are to go." "Thank you, I am so glad," was Fanny's instinctive reply; though when she had turned from him
38and shut the door, she could not help feeling, "And yet why should I be glad? for am I not certain of seeing or hearing
39something there to pain me?" In spite of this conviction, however, she was glad. Simple as such an engagement might
40appear in other eyes, it had novelty and importance in hers, for excepting the day at Sotherton, she had scarcely ever
41dined out before; and though now going only half a mile, and only to three people, still it was dining out, and all the
42little interests of preparation were enjoyments in themselves. She had neither sympathy nor assistance from those who
43ought to have entered into her feelings and directed her taste; for Lady Bertram never thought of being useful to
44anybody, and Mrs. Norris, when she came on the morrow, in consequence of an early call and invitation from Sir Thomas,
45was in a very ill humour, and seemed intent only on lessening her niece's pleasure, both present and future, as much as
46possible. "Upon my word, Fanny, you are in high luck to meet with such attention and indulgence! You ought to be very
47much obliged to Mrs. Grant for thinking of you, and to your aunt for letting you go, and you ought to look upon it as
48something extraordinary; for I hope you are aware that there is no real occasion for your going into company in this
49sort of way, or ever dining out at all; and it is what you must not depend upon ever being repeated. Nor must you be
50fancying that the invitation is meant as any particular compliment to you; the compliment is intended to your uncle and
51aunt and me. Mrs. Grant thinks it a civility due to us to take a little notice of you, or else it would never have come
52into her head, and you may be very certain that, if your cousin Julia had been at home, you would not have been asked at
53all." Mrs. Norris had now so ingeniously done away all Mrs. Grant's part of the favour, that Fanny, who found herself
54expected to speak, could only say that she was very much obliged to her aunt Bertram for sparing her, and that she was
55endeavouring to put her aunt's evening work in such a state as to prevent her being missed. "Oh! depend upon it, your
56aunt can do very well without you, or you would not be allowed to go. I shall be here, so you may be quite easy about
57your aunt. And I hope you will have a very agreeable day, and find it all mighty delightful. But I must observe that
58five is the very awkwardest of all possible numbers to sit down to table; and I cannot but be surprised that such an
59elegant lady as Mrs. Grant should not contrive better! And round their enormous great wide table, too, which fills up
60the room so dreadfully! Had the doctor been contented to take my dining-table when I came away, as anybody in their
61senses would have done, instead of having that absurd new one of his own, which is wider, literally wider than the
62dinner-table here, how infinitely better it would have been! and how much more he would have been respected! for people
63are never respected when they step out of their proper sphere. Remember that, Fanny. Five--only five to be sitting round
64that table. However, you will have dinner enough on it for ten, I dare say." Mrs. Norris fetched breath, and went on
65again.
🎉 全部完成！共 65 行