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1The horror of a mind like Fanny's, as it received the conviction of such guilt, and began to take in some part of the
2misery that must ensue, can hardly be described. At first, it was a sort of stupefaction; but every moment was
3quickening her perception of the horrible evil. She could not doubt, she dared not indulge a hope, of the paragraph
4being false. Miss Crawford's letter, which she had read so often as to make every line her own, was in frightful
5conformity with it. Her eager defence of her brother, her hope of its being hushed up, her evident agitation, were all
6of a piece with something very bad; and if there was a woman of character in existence, who could treat as a trifle this
7sin of the first magnitude, who would try to gloss it over, and desire to have it unpunished, she could believe Miss
8Crawford to be the woman! Now she could see her own mistake as to who were gone, or said to be gone. It was not Mr. and
9Mrs. Rushworth; it was Mrs. Rushworth and Mr. Crawford. Fanny seemed to herself never to have been shocked before. There
10was no possibility of rest. The evening passed without a pause of misery, the night was totally sleepless. She passed
11only from feelings of sickness to shudderings of horror; and from hot fits of fever to cold. The event was so shocking,
12that there were moments even when her heart revolted from it as impossible: when she thought it could not be. A woman
13married only six months ago; a man professing himself devoted, even engaged to another; that other her near relation;
14the whole family, both families connected as they were by tie upon tie; all friends, all intimate together! It was too
15horrible a confusion of guilt, too gross a complication of evil, for human nature, not in a state of utter barbarism, to
16be capable of! yet her judgment told her it was so. His unsettled affections, wavering with his vanity, Maria's decided
17attachment, and no sufficient principle on either side, gave it possibility: Miss Crawford's letter stampt it a fact.
18What would be the consequence? Whom would it not injure? Whose views might it not affect? Whose peace would it not cut
19up for ever? Miss Crawford, herself, Edmund; but it was dangerous, perhaps, to tread such ground. She confined herself,
20or tried to confine herself, to the simple, indubitable family misery which must envelop all, if it were indeed a matter
21of certified guilt and public exposure. The mother's sufferings, the father's; there she paused. Julia's, Tom's,
22Edmund's; there a yet longer pause. They were the two on whom it would fall most horribly. Sir Thomas's parental
23solicitude and high sense of honour and decorum, Edmund's upright principles, unsuspicious temper, and genuine strength
24of feeling, made her think it scarcely possible for them to support life and reason under such disgrace; and it appeared
25to her that, as far as this world alone was concerned, the greatest blessing to every one of kindred with Mrs. Rushworth
26would be instant annihilation. Nothing happened the next day, or the next, to weaken her terrors. Two posts came in, and
27brought no refutation, public or private. There was no second letter to explain away the first from Miss Crawford; there
28was no intelligence from Mansfield, though it was now full time for her to hear again from her aunt. This was an evil
29omen. She had, indeed, scarcely the shadow of a hope to soothe her mind, and was reduced to so low and wan and trembling
30a condition, as no mother, not unkind, except Mrs. Price could have overlooked, when the third day did bring the
31sickening knock, and a letter was again put into her hands. It bore the London postmark, and came from Edmund. "Dear
32Fanny,--You know our present wretchedness. May God support you under your share! We have been here two days, but there
33is nothing to be done. They cannot be traced. You may not have heard of the last blow--Julia's elopement; she is gone to
34Scotland with Yates. She left London a few hours before we entered it. At any other time this would have been felt
35dreadfully. Now it seems nothing; yet it is an heavy aggravation. My father is not overpowered. More cannot be hoped. He
36is still able to think and act; and I write, by his desire, to propose your returning home. He is anxious to get you
37there for my mother's sake. I shall be at Portsmouth the morning after you receive this, and hope to find you ready to
38set off for Mansfield. My father wishes you to invite Susan to go with you for a few months. Settle it as you like; say
39what is proper; I am sure you will feel such an instance of his kindness at such a moment! Do justice to his meaning,
40however I may confuse it. You may imagine something of my present state. There is no end of the evil let loose upon us.
41You will see me early by the mail.--Yours, etc." Never had Fanny more wanted a cordial. Never had she felt such a one as
42this letter contained. To-morrow! to leave Portsmouth to-morrow! She was, she felt she was, in the greatest danger of
43being exquisitely happy, while so many were miserable. The evil which brought such good to her! She dreaded lest she
44should learn to be insensible of it. To be going so soon, sent for so kindly, sent for as a comfort, and with leave to
45take Susan, was altogether such a combination of blessings as set her heart in a glow, and for a time seemed to distance
46every pain, and make her incapable of suitably sharing the distress even of those whose distress she thought of most.
47Julia's elopement could affect her comparatively but little; she was amazed and shocked; but it could not occupy her,
48could not dwell on her mind. She was obliged to call herself to think of it, and acknowledge it to be terrible and
49grievous, or it was escaping her, in the midst of all the agitating pressing joyful cares attending this summons to
50herself. There is nothing like employment, active indispensable employment, for relieving sorrow. Employment, even
51melancholy, may dispel melancholy, and her occupations were hopeful. She had so much to do, that not even the horrible
52story of Mrs. Rushworth (now fixed to the last point of certainty), could affect her as it had done before. She had not
53time to be miserable. Within twenty-four hours she was hoping to be gone; her father and mother must be spoken to, Susan
54prepared, everything got ready. Business followed business; the day was hardly long enough. The happiness she was
55imparting, too, happiness very little alloyed by the black communication which must briefly precede it--the joyful
56consent of her father and mother to Susan's going with her--the general satisfaction with which the going of both seemed
57regarded, and the ecstasy of Susan herself, was all serving to support her spirits. The affliction of the Bertrams was
58little felt in the family. Mrs. Price talked of her poor sister for a few minutes, but how to find anything to hold
59Susan's clothes, because Rebecca took away all the boxes and spoilt them, was much more in her thoughts: and as for
60Susan, now unexpectedly gratified in the first wish of her heart, and knowing nothing personally of those who had
61sinned, or of those who were sorrowing--if she could help rejoicing from beginning to end, it was as much as ought to be
62expected from human virtue at fourteen. As nothing was really left for the decision of Mrs. Price, or the good offices
63of Rebecca, everything was rationally and duly accomplished, and the girls were ready for the morrow. The advantage of
64much sleep to prepare them for their journey was impossible. The cousin who was travelling towards them could hardly
65have less than visited their agitated spirits--one all happiness, the other all varying and indescribable perturbation.
66By eight in the morning Edmund was in the house. The girls heard his entrance from above, and Fanny went down. The idea
67of immediately seeing him, with the knowledge of what he must be suffering, brought back all her own first feelings. He
68so near her, and in misery. She was ready to sink as she entered the parlour. He was alone, and met her instantly; and
69she found herself pressed to his heart with only these words, just articulate, "My Fanny, my only sister; my only
70comfort now!" She could say nothing; nor for some minutes could he say more.
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