@@@@@Crawford had been sitting by her long
@@@@@Crawford
had been sitting by her long enough, or he might mean to recommend
her as a wife by shewing her persuadableness
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Jane Austen
CHAPTER XXIX
THE BALL WAS OVER, and the breakfast was soon over too; the last kiss
was given, and William was goneCrawford had, as he foretold,
been very punctual, and short and pleasant had been the meal
After seeing William to the last moment, Fanny walked back to
the breakfast-room with a very saddened heart to grieve over the
melancholy change; and there her uncle kindly left her to cry in
peace, conceiving, perhaps, that the deserted chair of each young
man might exercise her tender enthusiasm, and that the remaining
cold pork bones and mustard in William’s plate might but divide
her feelings with the broken egg-shells in MrShe sat
and cried con amore as her uncle intended, but it was con amore
fraternal and no otherWilliam was gone, and she now felt as if she
had wasted half his visit in idle cares and selfish solicitudes unconnected
with him
Fanny’s disposition was such that she could never even think of
her aunt Norris in the meagreness and cheerlessness of her own
small house, without reproaching herself for some little want of attention
to her when they had been last together; much less could
her feelings acquit her of having done and said and thought everything
by William that was due to him for a whole fortnight
It was a heavy, melancholy daySoon after the second breakfast,
Edmund bade them good-bye for a week, and mounted his horse
for Peterborough, and then all were goneNothing remained of last
night but remembrances, which she had nobody to share inShe
talked to her aunt Bertram—she must talk to somebody of the ball;
but her aunt had seen so little of what had passed, and had so little
curiosity, that it was heavy workLady Bertram was not certain of
anybody’s dress or anybody’s place at supper but her own“She could
not recollect what it was that she had heard about one of the Miss
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Mansfield Park
Maddoxes, or what it was that Lady Prescott had noticed in Fanny:
she was not sure whether Colonel Harrison had been talking of Mr
Crawford or of William when he said he was the finest young man
in the room—somebody had whispered something to her; she had
forgot to ask Sir Thomas what it could be And these were her
longest speeches and clearest communications: the rest was only a
languid “Yes, yes; very well; did you? did he? I did not see that; I
should not know one from the otherIt was only
better than MrsNorris’s sharp answers would have been; but she
being gone home with all the supernumerary jellies to nurse a sick
maid, there was peace and good-humour in their little party, though
it could not boast much beside
The evening was heavy like the day“I cannot think what is the
matter with me,” said Lady Bertram, when the tea-things were removed
“I feel quite stupidIt must be sitting up so late last night
Fanny, you must do something to keep me awake
Fetch the cards; I feel so very stupid
The cards were brought, and Fanny played at cribbage with her
aunt till bedtime; and as Sir Thomas was reading to himself, no
sounds were heard in the room for the next two hours beyond the
reckonings of the game—”And that makes thirty-one; four in hand
and eight in cribYou are to deal, ma’am; shall I deal for you?”
Fanny thought and thought again of the difference which twentyfour
hours had made in that room, and all that part of the hou