
                                  Jane Austen

                                 Mansfield Park

                                    Volume I

                                   Chapter I

About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand
pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in
the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet's
lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large
income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle,
the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of
any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation;
and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as
handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost
equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the
world, as there are pretty women to deserve them. Miss Ward, at the end of half
a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris, a
friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any private fortune, and Miss
Frances fared yet worse. Miss Ward's match, indeed, when it came to the point,
was not contemptible, Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an income
in the living of Mansfield, and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of
conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year. But Miss Frances
married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on a
Lieutenant of Marines, without education, fortune, or connections, did it very
thoroughly. She could hardly have made a more untoward choice. Sir Thomas
Bertram had interest, which, from principle as well as pride, from a general
wish of doing right, and a desire of seeing all that were connected with him in
situations of respectability, he would have been glad to exert for the advantage
of Lady Bertram's sister; but her husband's profession was such as no interest
could reach; and before he had time to devise any other method of assisting
them, an absolute breach between the sisters had taken place. It was the natural
result of the conduct of each party, and such as a very imprudent marriage
almost always produces. To save herself from useless remonstrance, Mrs. Price
never wrote to her family on the subject till actually married. Lady Bertram,
who was a woman of very tranquil feelings, and a temper remarkably easy and
indolent, would have contented herself with merely giving up her sister
