 surely I was not to be teaching myself to like him only because he was
taking, what seemed, very idle notice of me. In my situation, it would have been
the extreme of vanity to be forming expectations on Mr. Crawford. I am sure his
sisters, rating him as they do, must have thought it so, supposing he had meant
nothing. How then was I to be - to be in love with him the moment he said he was
with me? How was I to have an attachment at his service, as soon as it was asked
for? His sisters should consider me as well as him. The higher his deserts, the
more improper for me ever to have thought of him. And, and - we think very
differently of the nature of women, if they can imagine a woman so very soon
capable of returning an affection as this seems to imply.«
    »My dear, dear Fanny, now I have the truth. I know this to be the truth; and
most worthy of you are such feelings. I had attributed them to you before. I
thought I could understand you. You have now given exactly the explanation which
I ventured to make for you to your friend and Mrs. Grant, and they were both
better satisfied, though your warm-hearted friend was still run away with a
little, by the enthusiasm of her fondness for Henry. I told them, that you were
of all human creatures the one, over whom habit had most power, and novelty
least: and that the very circumstance of the novelty of Crawford's addresses was
against him. Their being so new and so recent was all in their disfavour; that
you could tolerate nothing that you were not used to; and a great deal more to
the same purpose, to give them a knowledge of your character. Miss Crawford made
us laugh by her plans of encouragement for her brother. She meant to urge him to
persevere in the hope of being loved in time, and of having his addresses most
kindly received at the end of about ten years' happy marriage.«
    Fanny could with difficulty give the smile that was here asked for. Her
feelings were all in revolt. She feared she had been doing wrong, saying too
much, overacting the caution which she had been fancying necessary, in guarding
against one evil, laying herself open to another, and to have Miss Crawford's
liveliness repeated to her at such a moment, and on such a subject, was a bitter
aggravation.
    Edmund saw weariness and distress in her face, and immediately resolved
