Mansfield Park Revisited Read Online Free PDF Page B

walk across the park and call at the Parsonage.
    By this time Mrs. Osborne had arrived, and was installed as lady of the house. Her brother, the Reverend Francis, Susan had already met on the previous Sunday in Edmund’s company: he was a sensible, interesting, gentlemanlike man in his early thirties, rather thin and pale from the illness that had obliged him to return from his missionary duties; he greeted Susan, when she arrived at the Parsonage, with every kind attention, and asked leave to introduce his sister. Mrs. Osborne, some five years older than her brother, was very similar to him in feature: she had the same long, rather serious cast of countenance; that of Mrs. Osborne suggested that she had spent many years with her husband at sea; she was deeply tanned, and her hair, somewhat untidily arranged, had turned prematurely white. She met Susan with unaffected interest, exclaiming, “Ah, my dear, how glad I am to know you! I have heard so much about you from your cousin Edmund. How young and pretty you are to have such a household on your shoulders! But I can see that, though different in appearance from your sister, you share her practical judgment and good sense.”
    Susan laughed, blushed, and disclaimed. “It is all made easy for me there, ma’am; I only pass on my aunt Bertram’s wishes to the housekeeper.”
    In no time she found herself conversing with Mr. Wadham and his sister as with old friends; there was a bewitching charm and informality about their manners which contrasted strongly with the sobriety to be found within the confines of Mansfield, and which greatly raised her spirits, depressed at the six-months’ parting from Fanny and Edmund, besides the prospect of being, during the ensuing period, principally in the company of Tom Bertram and Mrs. Yates. But now—with this delightful company to be found just across the park—she need have no apprehension of loneliness or lack of counsel.
    â€œYou must feel us as shocking intruders in your sister’s house,” Mrs. Osborne said. “I have probably put all her favourite plants in the wrong places. I am a sad, heedless housekeeper. Pray, Miss Price, do not stand upon ceremony; walk about the house as if Mrs. Bertram were here, and, if you see anything out of place, do not hesitate to move it back.”
    â€œNo, ma’am, I have no wish to do so, I assure you; everything looks charmingly; it is a pleasure to see the house in such good hands.”
    Mr. Wadham presently excused himself to be off about his duties in the parish, and Susan soon after rose to take her leave, explaining that she could not be absent from her aunt for too long.
    â€œMay I walk back with you across the park?” inquired Mrs. Osborne. “That would be such a pleasure. I am used to take long walks and rides every day, in Cumberland, you know, where it is so wild that the sight of an unescorted lady causes no remark because there is nobody to see her; one may walk for twenty miles and never encounter a soul. Here it is not so, I am aware, and I have promised Frank to curtail my walks. He, poor fellow, is still weak, and soon knocked up; I cannot expect him to escort me just yet except in the barouche.”
    Susan was happy to have her company and the two ladies crossed the park at a quick pace. The month was April, and Mrs. Osborne exclaimed at how much further advanced the season was here than in the countryside she had left behind.
    â€œThere, you know, Miss Price, winter lasts until mid May; but here, how fresh, how green everything appears. What a charming prospect across these lawns and plantations. You are lucky to live amid such scenes.”
    â€œI am fully aware of that.’ said Susan. “Until I was fourteen, you know, I lived in a city, in Portsmouth. I was accustomed only to crowds, incessant noise, dirt, and confusion. Even after four years my awareness, my gratitude for the alteration in my