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Crawford; and when Sir Thomas came back she had every proof
that could be given in his then melancholy state of spirits, of his
perfect approbation and increased regard; and happy as all this must
make her, she would still have been happy without any of it, for
Edmund was no longer the dupe of Miss Crawford
It is true that Edmund was very far from happy himselfHe was
suffering from disappointment and regret, grieving over what was,
and wishing for what could never beShe knew it was so, and was
sorry; but it was with a sorrow so founded on satisfaction, so tending
to ease, and so much in harmony with every dearest sensation,
that there are few who might not have been glad to exchange their
greatest gaiety for it
Sir Thomas, poor Sir Thomas, a parent, and conscious of errors in
his own conduct as a parent, was the longest to sufferHe felt that
he ought not to have allowed the marriage; that his daughter?s sentiments
had been sufficiently known to him to render him culpable
in authorising it; that in so doing he had sacrificed the right to the
expedient, and been governed by motives of selfishness and worldly
wisdomThese were reflections that required some time to soften;
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but time will do almost everything; and though little comfort arose
on MrsRushworth?s side for the misery she had occasioned, comfort
was to be found greater than he had supposed in his other children
Julia?s match became a less desperate business than he had
considered it at firstShe was humble, and wishing to be forgiven;
and MrYates, desirous of being really received into the family, was
disposed to look up to him and be guidedHe was not very solid;
but there was a hope of his becoming less trifling, of his being at
least tolerably domestic and quiet; and at any rate, there was comfort
in finding his estate rather more, and his debts much less, than
he had feared, and in being consulted and treated as the friend best
worth attending toThere was comfort also in Tom, who gradually
regained his health, without regaining the thoughtlessness and selfishness
of his previous habitsHe was the better for ever for his
illnessHe had suffered, and he had learned to think: two advantages
that he had never known before; and the self-reproach arising
from the deplorable event in Wimpole Street, to which he felt himself
accessory by all the dangerous intimacy of his unjustifiable theatre,
made an impression on his mind which, at the age of six-andtwenty,
with no want of sense or good companions, was durable in
its happy effectsHe became what he ought to be: useful to his
father, steady and quiet, and not living merely for himself
Here was comfort indeed! and quite as soon as Sir Thomas could
place dependence on such sources of good, Edmund was contributing
to his father?s ease by improvement in the only point in which
he had given him pain before?improvement in his spiritsAfter
wandering about and sitting under trees with Fanny all the summer
evenings, he had so well talked his mind into submission as to be
very tolerably cheerful again
These were the circumstances and the hopes which gradually
brought their alleviation to Sir Thomas, deadening his sense of what
was lost, and in part reconciling him to himself; though the anguish
arising from the conviction of his own errors in the education of his
daughters was never to be entirely done away
Too late he became aware how unfavourable to the character of
any young people must be the totally opposite treatment which Maria
and Julia had been always experiencing at home, where the exces405
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sive indulgence and flattery of their aunt had been continually contrasted
with his own severityHe saw how ill he had judged, in
expecting to counteract what was wrong in MrsNorris by its reverse
in himself; clearly saw that he had but increased the evil by
teaching them to repress their spirits in his presence so as to make
their real disposition unknown to him, and sending them for all
their indulgences to a person who had been able to attach them
only by the blindness of her affection, and the excess of her praise
Here had been grievous mismanagement; but, bad as it was, he
gradually grew to feel that it had not been the most direful mistake
in his plan of educationSomething must have been wanting within,
or time would have worn away much of its ill effectHe feared that
principle, active principle, had been wanting; that they had never
been properly taught to govern their inclinations and tempers by
that sense of duty which can alone suf
