 so useful to have any thing of
a model! - We have cast almost every part.«
    »But what do you do for women?« said Edmund gravely, and looking at Maria.
    Maria blushed in spite of herself as she answered, »I take the part which
Lady Ravenshaw was to have done, and (with a bolder eye) Miss Crawford is to be
Amelia.«
    »I should not have thought it the sort of play to be so easily filled up,
with us,« replied Edmund, turning away to the fire where sat his mother, aunt,
and Fanny, and seating himself with a look of great vexation.
    Mr. Rushworth followed him to say, »I come in three times, and have two and
forty speeches. That's something, is not it? - But I do not much like the idea
of being so fine. - I shall hardly know myself in a blue dress, and a pink satin
cloak.«
    Edmund could not answer him. - In a few minutes Mr. Bertram was called out
of the room to satisfy some doubts of the carpenter, and being accompanied by
Mr. Yates, and followed soon afterwards by Mr. Rushworth, Edmund almost
immediately took the opportunity of saying, »I cannot before Mr. Yates speak
what I feel as to this play, without reflecting on his friends at Ecclesford -
but I must now, my dear Maria, tell you, that I think it exceedingly unfit for
private representation, and that I hope you will give it up. - I cannot but
suppose you will when you have read it carefully over. - Read only the first Act
aloud, to either your mother or aunt, and see how you can approve it. - It will
not be necessary to send you to your father's judgment, I am convinced.«
    »We see things very differently,« cried Maria - »I am perfectly acquainted
with the play, I assure you - and with a very few omissions, and so forth, which
will be made, of course, I can see nothing objectionable in it; and I am not the
only young woman you find, who thinks it very fit for private representation.«
    »I am sorry for it,« was his answer - »But in this matter it is you who are
to lead. You must set the example. - If others have blundered, it is your place
to put them right, and shew them what true delicacy is. - In all points of
decorum, your conduct must be law to the rest of
