Mansfield Park Revisited Read Online Free PDF Page A

cousin’s figure and countenance had come to him as a considerable surprise on his return. In that regard he could no longer find fault, but this could almost be felt as an additional annoyance, along with what he chose to consider her unjustified self-assurance.
    â€œFanny gave you the news about my sister Maria?” he now demanded.
    â€œIf you recall, brother,” said Edmund hastily, “Fanny was with us when Frank Wadham gave us the information. Fanny has been acquainted with the whole matter from the start.”
    â€œTrue. She was there. I had forgot.”
    The news in question being that their disgraced sister Maria had recently seen fit to quit her secluded country abode and remove herself to London. The cause of this, and means whereby it had been achieved, were the death of the widowed Aunt Norris, sister to Lady Bertram, with whom Maria had for some years resided. About six months previously Mrs. Norris had succumbed to an affection of the lungs and, dying, had bequeathed her entire fortune to her beloved niece. Since Mrs. Norris’ disposition had been a particularly thrifty and frugal one, the fortune in question proved to be of quite ample size, some eight and a half thousand pounds. Thus endowed and freed at the same time from her watch-dog and chaperon, Maria had no hesitation in disposing of her small country house and finding herself lodgings in Upper Seymour Street, not far from a set of unsteady and pleasure-loving friends from former times, the Aylmers. In London, it was greatly to be apprehended, since the former Mrs. Rushworth could not be received in polite circles, and did not choose to remain in solitude, she could only of necessity mix in a highly questionable part of society, and must be a source of mortification and anxiety to her sundered family, who might justifiably wonder what scrape she would fall into next. The best to be hoped was that she might scramble into matrimony with some elderly man, not too nice in his judgments, and vain enough to set store by the connection with one who was still an acknowledged beauty, though of blemished character.
    This news had been brought to Mansfield by the Reverend Francis Wadham, Edmund’s friend who was to take over his parochial duties during his absence in the West Indies.
    Mr. Wadham was not personally acquainted with the former Miss Bertram, but his widowed sister Mrs. Osborne had been a neighbour of the two ladies in their Cumberland seclusion, and a kind and attentive neighbour, furthermore, who had done all in her power to render assistance and give comfort during the last wretched weeks of Mrs. Norris’s life. After that lady’s death, also, Mrs. Osborne had endeavoured to continue in her friendly offices to the bereaved niece, and had advised her most fervently and earnestly against the move to town; but all such counsel fell on deaf ears; Maria had only been waiting for this opportunity. Another three or four weeks saw her and all her belongings transferred from Keswick to Upper Seymour Street.—Of this Mr. Wadham had been able to inform Edmund and Fanny Bertram when he came to Mansfield Parsonage.
    Who would be the proper person to inform Lady Bertram of her daughter’s action, was the next question to be discussed among the three cousins.
    â€œWadham’s sister herself, the Mrs. Osborne in question, is coming soon to keep house for him while he is at the Parsonage.” said Edmund. “She is a most excellent person: intelligent, gentle, unaffected, and sensible. She is the widow of an admiral, Admiral Giles Osborne. I think Mrs. Osborne will make a valuable older friend for Susan while Fanny is overseas; and perhaps, as she has been poor Maria’s neighbour, and has seen her lately, she may be thought the best person to impart this agitating news to my mother.”
    Tom, however, was wholly opposed to this suggestion. What! a complete stranger! a woman whom none of the family had met, or