, and habits wanted no half concealment, no self deception
on the present, no reliance on future improvement. Even in the midst of his late
infatuation, he had acknowledged Fanny's mental superiority. What must be his
sense of it now, therefore? She was of course only too good for him; but as
nobody minds having what is too good for them, he was very steadily earnest in
the pursuit of the blessing, and it was not possible that encouragement from her
should be long wanting. Timid, anxious, doubting as she was, it was still
impossible that such tenderness as hers should not, at times, hold out the
strongest hope of success, though it remained for a later period to tell him the
whole delightful and astonishing truth. His happiness in knowing himself to have
been so long the beloved of such a heart, must have been great enough to warrant
any strength of language in which he could cloathe it to her or to himself; it
must have been a delightful happiness! But there was happiness elsewhere which
no description can reach. Let no one presume to give the feelings of a young
woman on receiving the assurance of that affection of which she has scarcely
allowed herself to entertain a hope.
    Their own inclinations ascertained, there were no difficulties behind, no
drawback of poverty or parent. It was a match which Sir Thomas's wishes had even
forestalled. Sick of ambitious and mercenary connections, prizing more and more
the sterling good of principle and temper, and chiefly anxious to bind by the
strongest securities all that remained to him of domestic felicity, he had
pondered with genuine satisfaction on the more than possibility of the two young
friends finding their mutual consolation in each other for all that had occurred
of disappointment to either; and the joyful consent which met Edmund's
application, the high sense of having realised a great acquisition in the
promise of Fanny for a daughter, formed just such a contrast with his early
opinion on the subject when the poor little girl's coming had been first
agitated, as time is for ever producing between the plans and decisions of
mortals, for their own instruction, and their neighbours' entertainment.
    Fanny was indeed the daughter that he wanted. His charitable kindness had
been rearing a prime comfort for himself. His liberality had a rich repayment,
and the general goodness of his intentions by her, deserved it. He might have
made her childhood happier; but it had been an error of judgment only which had
given him the appearance of harshness, and deprived him of her early love; and
now, on really knowing each
