conscientious as you are,) keep away, when you have the means of
returning. I have not time or patience to give half Henry's messages; be
satisfied, that the spirit of each and every one is unalterable affection.«
    Fanny's disgust at the greater part of this letter, with her extreme
reluctance to bring the writer of it and her cousin Edmund together, would have
made her (as she felt), incapable of judging impartially whether the concluding
offer might be accepted or not. To herself, individually, it was most tempting.
To be finding herself, perhaps, within three days, transported to Mansfield, was
an image of the greatest felicity - but it would have been a material drawback,
to be owing such felicity to persons in whose feelings and conduct, at the
present moment, she saw so much to condemn; the sister's feelings - the
brother's conduct - her cold-hearted ambition - his thoughtless vanity. To have
him still the acquaintance, the flirt, perhaps, of Mrs. Rushworth! - She was
mortified. She had thought better of him. Happily, however, she was not left to
weigh and decide between opposite inclinations and doubtful notions of right;
there was no occasion to determine, whether she ought to keep Edmund and Mary
asunder or not. She had a rule to apply to, which settled every thing. Her awe
of her uncle, and her dread of taking a liberty with him, made it instantly
plain to her, what she had to do. She must absolutely decline the proposal. If
he wanted, he would send for her; and even to offer an early return, was a
presumption which hardly any thing would have seemed to justify. She thanked
Miss Crawford, but gave a decided negative. - »Her uncle, she understood, meant
to fetch her; and as her cousin's illness had continued so many weeks without
her being thought at all necessary, she must suppose her return would be
unwelcome at present, and that she should be felt an incumbrance.«
    Her representation of her cousin's state at this time, was exactly according
to her own belief of it, and such as she supposed would convey to the sanguine
mind of her correspondent, the hope of every thing she was wishing for. Edmund
would be forgiven for being a clergyman, it seemed, under certain conditions of
wealth; and this, she suspected, was all the conquest of prejudice, which he was
so ready to congratulate himself upon. She had only learnt to think nothing of
consequence but
