
have flirted as she did last night with Mr. Yates; and though he and Maria are
very good friends, I think she likes Sotherton too well to be inconstant.«
    »I would not give much for Mr. Rushworth's chance, if Henry stept in before
the articles were signed.«
    »If you have such a suspicion, something must be done, and as soon as the
play is all over, we will talk to him seriously, and make him know his own mind;
and if he means nothing, we will send him off, though he is Henry, for a time.«
    Julia did suffer, however, though Mrs. Grant discerned it not, and though it
escaped the notice of many of her own family likewise. She had loved, she did
love still, and she had all the suffering which a warm temper and a high spirit
were likely to endure under the disappointment of a dear, though irrational
hope, with a strong sense of ill-usage. Her heart was sore and angry, and she
was capable only of angry consolations. The sister with whom she was used to be
on easy terms, was now become her greatest enemy; they were alienated from each
other, and Julia was not superior to the hope of some distressing end to the
attentions which were still carrying on there, some punishment to Maria for
conduct so shameful towards herself, as well as towards Mr. Rushworth. With no
material fault of temper, or difference of opinion, to prevent their being very
good friends while their interests were the same, the sisters, under such a
trial as this, had not affection or principle enough to make them merciful or
just, to give them honour or compassion. Maria felt her triumph, and pursued her
purpose careless of Julia; and Julia could never see Maria distinguished by
Henry Crawford, without trusting that it would create jealousy, and bring a
public disturbance at last.
    Fanny saw and pitied much of this in Julia; but there was no outward
fellowship between them. Julia made no communication, and Fanny took no
liberties. They were two solitary sufferers, or connected only by Fanny's
consciousness.
    The inattention of the two brothers and the aunt to Julia's discomposure,
and their blindness to its true cause, must be imputed to the fulness of their
own minds. They were totally pre-occupied. Tom was engrossed by the concerns of
his theatre, and saw nothing that did not immediately relate to it. Edmund,
between his theatrical and his real part, between Miss Crawford's claims and his
own
