verbal011

@@@@@I shall be at Portsmouth the morning after you receive this, and hope to find you ready to set off for MansfieldMy father wishes you to invite Susan to go with you for a few monthsSettle it as you like; say what is proper; I am sure you will feel such an instance of his kindness at such a moment! Do justice to his meaning, however I may confuse itYou may imagine something of my present stateThere is no end of the evil let loose upon usYou will see me early by the mail Never had Fanny more wanted a cordialNever had she felt such a one as this letter containedTo-morrow! to leave Portsmouth tomorrow! She was, she felt she was, in the greatest danger of being exquisitely happy, while so many were miserableThe evil which brought such good to her! She dreaded lest she should learn to be insensible of itTo be going so soon, sent for so kindly, sent for as a comfort, and with leave to take Susan, was altogether such a combination of blessings as set her heart in a glow, and for a time seemed to distance every pain, and make her incapable of suitably sharing the distress even of those whose distress she thought of mostJulia?s elopement could affect her comparatively but little; she was amazed and shocked; but it could not occupy her, could not dwell on her mindShe was obliged to call herself to think of it, and acknowledge it to be terrible and grievous, or it was escaping her, in the midst of all the agitating pressing joyful cares attending this summons to herself There is nothing like employment, active indispensable employment, for relieving sorrowEmployment, even melancholy, may dispel melancholy, and her occupations were hopefulShe had so much to do, that not even the horrible story of MrsRushworth?now fixed to the last point of certainty could affect her as it had done beforeShe had not time to be miserableWithin twenty-four hours she was hoping to be gone; her father and mother must be spoken to, Susan prepared, everything got readyBusiness followed busi389 Jane Austen ness; the day was hardly long enoughThe happiness she was imparting, too, happiness very little alloyed by the black communication which must briefly precede it?the joyful consent of her father and mother to Susan?s going with her?the general satisfaction with which the going of both seemed regarded, and the ecstasy of Susan herself, was all serving to support her spirits The affliction of the Bertrams was little felt in the family Price talked of her poor sister for a few minutes, but how to find anything to hold Susan?s clothes, because Rebecca took away all the boxes and spoilt them, was much more in her thoughts: and as for Susan, now unexpectedly gratified in the first wish of her heart, and knowing nothing personally of those who had sinned, or of those who were sorrowing?if she could help rejoicing from beginning to end, it was as much as ought to be expected from human virtue at fourteen As nothing was really left for the decision of MrsPrice, or the good offices of Rebecca, everything was rationally and duly accomplished, and the girls were ready for the morrow