befy2018

@@@@@I must hide it another time, Betsey Poor Mary little thought it would be such a bone of contention when she gave it me to keep, only two hours before she diedPoor little soul! she could but just speak to be heard, and she said so prettily, ?Let sister Susan have my knife, mama, when I am dead and buried Poor little dear! she was so fond of it, Fanny, that she would have it lay by her in bed, all through her illnessIt was the gift of her good godmother, old MrsAdmiral Maxwell, only six weeks before she was taken for deathPoor little sweet creature! Well, she was taken away from evil to comeMy own Betsey? (fondling her), ?you have not the luck of such a good godmotherAunt Norris lives too far off to think of such little people as you Fanny had indeed nothing to convey from aunt Norris, but a message to say she hoped that her god-daughter was a good girl, and learnt her bookThere had been at one moment a slight murmur in the drawing-room at Mansfield Park about sending her a prayer-book; but no second sound had been heard of such a purposeNorris, however, had gone home and taken down two old prayer-books of her husband with that idea; but, upon examination, the ardour of generosity went offOne was found to have too small a print for a child?s eyes, and the other to be too cumbersome for her to carry about 337 Jane Austen Fanny, fatigued and fatigued again, was thankful to accept the first invitation of going to bed; and before Betsey had finished her cry at being allowed to sit up only one hour extraordinary in honour of sister, she was off, leaving all below in confusion and noise again; the boys begging for toasted cheese, her father calling out for his rum and water, and Rebecca never where she ought to be There was nothing to raise her spirits in the confined and scantily furnished chamber that she was to share with SusanThe smallness of the rooms above and below, indeed, and the narrowness of the passage and staircase, struck her beyond her imaginationShe soon learned to think with respect of her own little attic at Mansfield Park, in that house reckoned too small for anybody?s comfort 338 Mansfield Park CHAPTER XXXIX COULD SIR THOMAS have seen all his niece?s feelings, when she wrote her first letter to her aunt, he would not have despaired; for though a good night?s rest, a pleasant morning, the hope of soon seeing William again, and the comparatively quiet state of the house, from Tom and Charles being gone to school, Sam on some project of his own, and her father on his usual lounges, enabled her to express herself cheerfully on the subject of home, there were still, to her own perfect consciousness, many drawbacks suppressedCould he have seen only half that she felt before the end of a week, he would have thought Mr Crawford sure of her, and been delighted with his own sagacity Before the week ended, it was all disappointmentIn the first place, William was goneThe Thrush had had her orders, the wind had changed, and he was sailed within four days from their reaching Portsmouth; and during those days she had seen him only twice, in a short and hurried way, when he had come ashore on dutyThere had been no free conversation, no walk on the ramparts, no visit to the dockyard, no acquaintance with the Thrush, nothing of all that they had planned and depended onEverything in that quarter failed her, except William?s affect