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1As Fanny could not doubt that her answer was conveying a real disappointment, she was rather in expectation, from her
2knowledge of Miss Crawford's temper, of being urged again; and though no second letter arrived for the space of a week,
3she had still the same feeling when it did come. On receiving it, she could instantly decide on its containing little
4writing, and was persuaded of its having the air of a letter of haste and business. Its object was unquestionable; and
5two moments were enough to start the probability of its being merely to give her notice that they should be in
6Portsmouth that very day, and to throw her into all the agitation of doubting what she ought to do in such a case. If
7two moments, however, can surround with difficulties, a third can disperse them; and before she had opened the letter,
8the possibility of Mr. and Miss Crawford's having applied to her uncle and obtained his permission was giving her ease.
9This was the letter-- "A most scandalous, ill-natured rumour has just reached me, and I write, dear Fanny, to warn you
10against giving the least credit to it, should it spread into the country. Depend upon it, there is some mistake, and
11that a day or two will clear it up; at any rate, that Henry is blameless, and in spite of a moment's etourderie, thinks
12of nobody but you. Say not a word of it; hear nothing, surmise nothing, whisper nothing till I write again. I am sure it
13will be all hushed up, and nothing proved but Rushworth's folly. If they are gone, I would lay my life they are only
14gone to Mansfield Park, and Julia with them. But why would not you let us come for you? I wish you may not repent
15it.--Yours, etc." Fanny stood aghast. As no scandalous, ill-natured rumour had reached her, it was impossible for her to
16understand much of this strange letter. She could only perceive that it must relate to Wimpole Street and Mr. Crawford,
17and only conjecture that something very imprudent had just occurred in that quarter to draw the notice of the world, and
18to excite her jealousy, in Miss Crawford's apprehension, if she heard it. Miss Crawford need not be alarmed for her. She
19was only sorry for the parties concerned and for Mansfield, if the report should spread so far; but she hoped it might
20not. If the Rushworths were gone themselves to Mansfield, as was to be inferred from what Miss Crawford said, it was not
21likely that anything unpleasant should have preceded them, or at least should make any impression. As to Mr. Crawford,
22she hoped it might give him a knowledge of his own disposition, convince him that he was not capable of being steadily
23attached to any one woman in the world, and shame him from persisting any longer in addressing herself. It was very
24strange! She had begun to think he really loved her, and to fancy his affection for her something more than common; and
25his sister still said that he cared for nobody else. Yet there must have been some marked display of attentions to her
26cousin, there must have been some strong indiscretion, since her correspondent was not of a sort to regard a slight one.
27Very uncomfortable she was, and must continue, till she heard from Miss Crawford again. It was impossible to banish the
28letter from her thoughts, and she could not relieve herself by speaking of it to any human being. Miss Crawford need not
29have urged secrecy with so much warmth; she might have trusted to her sense of what was due to her cousin. The next day
30came and brought no second letter. Fanny was disappointed. She could still think of little else all the morning; but,
31when her father came back in the afternoon with the daily newspaper as usual, she was so far from expecting any
32elucidation through such a channel that the subject was for a moment out of her head. She was deep in other musing. The
33remembrance of her first evening in that room, of her father and his newspaper, came across her. No candle was now
34wanted. The sun was yet an hour and half above the horizon. She felt that she had, indeed, been three months there; and
35the sun's rays falling strongly into the parlour, instead of cheering, made her still more melancholy, for sunshine
36appeared to her a totally different thing in a town and in the country. Here, its power was only a glare: a stifling,
37sickly glare, serving but to bring forward stains and dirt that might otherwise have slept. There was neither health nor
38gaiety in sunshine in a town. She sat in a blaze of oppressive heat, in a cloud of moving dust, and her eyes could only
39wander from the walls, marked by her father's head, to the table cut and notched by her brothers, where stood the
40tea-board never thoroughly cleaned, the cups and saucers wiped in streaks, the milk a mixture of motes floating in thin
41blue, and the bread and butter growing every minute more greasy than even Rebecca's hands had first produced it. Her
42father read his newspaper, and her mother lamented over the ragged carpet as usual, while the tea was in preparation,
43and wished Rebecca would mend it; and Fanny was first roused by his calling out to her, after humphing and considering
44over a particular paragraph: "What's the name of your great cousins in town, Fan?" A moment's recollection enabled her
45to say, "Rushworth, sir." "And don't they live in Wimpole Street?" "Yes, sir." "Then, there's the devil to pay among
46them, that's all! There" (holding out the paper to her); "much good may such fine relations do you. I don't know what
47Sir Thomas may think of such matters; he may be too much of the courtier and fine gentleman to like his daughter the
48less. But, by G--! if she belonged to me, I'd give her the rope's end as long as I could stand over her. A little
49flogging for man and woman too would be the best way of preventing such things." Fanny read to herself that "it was with
50infinite concern the newspaper had to announce to the world a matrimonial fracas in the family of Mr. R. of Wimpole
51Street; the beautiful Mrs. R., whose name had not long been enrolled in the lists of Hymen, and who had promised to
52become so brilliant a leader in the fashionable world, having quitted her husband's roof in company with the well-known
53and captivating Mr. C., the intimate friend and associate of Mr. R., and it was not known even to the editor of the
54newspaper whither they were gone." "It is a mistake, sir," said Fanny instantly; "it must be a mistake, it cannot be
55true; it must mean some other people." She spoke from the instinctive wish of delaying shame; she spoke with a
56resolution which sprung from despair, for she spoke what she did not, could not believe herself. It had been the shock
57of conviction as she read. The truth rushed on her; and how she could have spoken at all, how she could even have
58breathed, was afterwards matter of wonder to herself. Mr. Price cared too little about the report to make her much
59answer. "It might be all a lie," he acknowledged; "but so many fine ladies were going to the devil nowadays that way,
60that there was no answering for anybody." "Indeed, I hope it is not true," said Mrs. Price plaintively; "it would be so
61very shocking! If I have spoken once to Rebecca about that carpet, I am sure I have spoke at least a dozen times; have
62not I, Betsey? And it would not be ten minutes' work."
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