Lady Bertram’s being just on the other side of...
Lady Bertram’s being just on the other
side of the table was a trifle, for she might always be considered as
only half-awake, and Edmund’s advertisements were still of the first
utility
“Well,” said Crawford, after a course of rapid questions and reluctant
answers; “I am happier than I was, because I now understand
more clearly your opinion of meYou think me unsteady: easily
swayed by the whim of the moment, easily tempted, easily put aside
With such an opinion, no wonder thatIt is not by
protestations that I shall endeavour to convince you I am wronged;
it is not by telling you that my affections are steadyMy conduct
shall speak for me; absence, distance, time shall speak for meThey
shall prove that, as far as you can be deserved by anybody, I do
deserve youYou are infinitely my superior in merit; all that I know
You have qualities which I had not before supposed to exist in such
a degree in any human creatureYou have some touches of the angel
in you beyond what—not merely beyond what one sees, because
one never sees anything like it—but beyond what one fancies chanel jewelry might
beBut still I am not frightenedIt is not by equality of merit that
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you can be wonThat is out of the questionIt is he who sees and
worships your merit the strongest, who loves you most devotedly,
that has the best right to a returnThere I build my confidenceBy
that right I do and will deserve you; and when once convinced that
my attachment is what I declare it, I know you too well not to
entertain the warmest hopesYes, dearest, sweetest FannyNay” (seeing
her draw back displeased), “forgive mePerhaps I have as yet no
right; but by what other name can I call you? Do you suppose you
are ever present to my imagination under any other? No, it is ‘Fanny’
that I think of all day, and dream of all nightYou have given the
name such reality of sweetness, that nothing else can now be descriptive
of you
Fanny could hardly have kept her seat any longer, or have refrained
from at least trying to get away in spite of all the too public
opposition she foresaw to it, had it not been for the sound of approaching
relief, the very sound which she had been new chanel bags long watching
for, and long thinking strangely delayed
The solemn procession, headed by Baddeley, of tea-board, urn,
and cake-bearers, made its appearance, and delivered her from a
grievous imprisonment of body and mindCrawford was obliged
to moveShe was at liberty, she was busy, she was protected
Edmund was not sorry to be admitted again among the number
of those who might speak and hearBut though the conference had
seemed full long to him, and though on looking at Fanny he saw
rather a flush of vexation, he inclined to hope that so much could
not have been said and listened to without some profit to the speaker
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Jane Austen
CHAPTER XXXV
EDMUND HAD DETERMINED that it belonged entirely to Fanny to chuse
whether her situation with regard to Crawford should be mentioned
between them or not; and that if she did not lead the way, it should
never be touched on by him; but after a day or two of mutual reserve,
he was induced by his father to change his mind, and try
what his influence might do for his friend
A day, and a very early day, was actually fixed for the balenciaga motorcycle handbag Crawfords’
departure; and Sir Thomas thought it might be as well to make one
more effort for the young man before he left Mansfield, that all his
professions and vows of unshaken attachment might have as much
hope to sustain them as possible
Sir Thomas was most cordially anxious for the perfection of Mr
Crawford’s character in that pointHe wished him to be a model of
constancy; and fancied the best means of effecting it would be by not
trying him too long
Edmund was not unwilling to be persuaded to engage in the business;
he wanted to know Fanny’s feelingsShe had been used to
consult him in every difficulty, and he loved her too well to bear to
be denied her confidence now; he hoped to be of service to her, he
thought he must be of service to her; whom else had she to open her
heart to? If she did not need counsel, she must need the comfort of
communicationFanny estranged from him, silent and reserved,
was an unnatural state of things; a state which he must break through,
and which he could easily learn to think she was wanting him to
break through
“I will speak to chanel jumbo flap her, sir: I will take the first opportunity of speaking
to her alone,” was the result of such thoughts as these; and upon
Sir Thomas’s information of her being at that very time walking
alone in the shrubbery, he instantly joined her
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“I am come to walk with you, Fanny,” said he“Shall I?” Drawing
her arm within his“It is a long while since we have had a comfortable
walk together
She assented to it all rather by look than wordHer spirits were
low
“But, Fanny,” he presently added, “in order to have a comfortable
walk, something more is necessary than merely pacing this gravel
togetherI know you have something on your
mindI know what you are thinking ofYou cannot suppose me
uninformedAm I to hear of it from everybody but Fanny herself?”
Fanny, at once agitated and dejected, replied, “If you hear of it
from everybody, cousin, there can be nothing for me to tell
“Not of facts, perhaps; but of feelings, FannyNo one but you can
tell me themI do not mean to press you, howeverIf it is not what
you wish yourself, I have doneI had thought it might be a chanel cambon bag rel