He had suffered, and he had learned to think: two... He had suffered, and he had learned to think: two advantages
that he had never known before; and the self-reproach arising
from the deplorable event in Wimpole Street, to which he felt himself
accessory by all the dangerous intimacy of his unjustifiable theatre,
made an impression on his mind which, at the age of six-andtwenty,
with no want of sense or good companions, was durable in
its happy effectsHe became what he ought to be: useful to his
father, steady and quiet, and not living merely for himself
Here was comfort indeed! and quite as soon as Sir Thomas could
place dependence on such sources of good, Edmund was contributing
to his father’s ease by improvement in the only point in which
he had given him pain before—improvement in his spiritsAfter
wandering about and sitting under trees with Fanny all the summer
evenings, he had so well talked his mind into submission as to be
very tolerably cheerful again
These were the circumstances and the hopes which gradually
brought their alleviation to Sir Thomas, deadening his sense of what
was lost, and in part reconciling him to himself; though the anguish
arising from the conviction of his own errors in the education of his
daughters was never to be entirely done away
Too late he became aware how unfavourable to the character of
any young people must be the totally opposite treatment which Maria
and Julia had been always experiencing at home, where the exces405
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sive indulgence and flattery of their aunt had been continually contrasted
with his own severityHe saw how ill he had judged, in
expecting to counteract what was wrong in MrsNorris by its reverse
in himself; clearly saw that he had but increased the evil
chanel handbags on sale by
teaching them to repress their spirits in his presence so as to make
their real disposition unknown to him, and sending them for all
their indulgences to a person who had been able to attach them
only by the blindness of her affection, and the excess of her praise
Here had been grievous mismanagement; but, bad as it was, he
gradually grew to feel that it had not been the most direful mistake
in his plan of educationSomething must have been wanting within,
or time would have worn away much of its ill effectHe feared that
principle, active principle, had been wanting; that they had never
been properly taught to govern their inclinations and tempers by
that sense of duty which can alone sufficeThey had been instructed
theoretically in their religion, but never required to bring it into
daily practiceTo be distinguished for elegance and accomplishments,
the authorised object of their youth, could have had no useful influence
that way, no moral effect on the mindHe had meant them to
be good, but his cares had been directed to the understanding and
manners, not the disposition; and of the necessity of self-denial and
humility, he feared they had never heard from any lips that could
profit them
Bitterly did he deplore a deficiency which now he could scarcely
comprehend to have been possibleWretchedly did he feel, that
with all the cost and care of an anxious and expensive education, he
had brought up his daughters without their understanding their
first duties, or his being acquainted with their character and temper
The high spirit and strong passions of MrsRushworth, especially,
were made known to him only in their sad resultShe was not to be
prevailed on to leave MrShe
omega seamaster watch hoped to marry him, and
they continued together till she was obliged to be convinced that such
hope was vain, and till the disappointment and wretchedness arising
from the conviction rendered her temper so bad, and her feelings for
him so like hatred, as to make them for a while each other’s punishment,
and then induce a voluntary separation
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She had lived with him to be reproached as the ruin of all his
happiness in Fanny, and carried away no better consolation in leaving
him than that she had divided themWhat can exceed the misery
of such a mind in such a situation?
MrRushworth had no difficulty in procuring a divorce; and so
ended a marriage contracted under such circumstances as to make
any better end the effect of good luck not to be reckoned onShe
had despised him, and loved another; and he had been very much
aware that it was soThe indignities of stupidity, and the disappointments
of selfish passion, can excite little pityHis punishment
followed his conduct, as did a deeper punishment the deeper guilt
of his wifeHe was released from the engagement to be mortified
and unhappy, till some other pretty girl could attract him into matrimony
again, and he might set forward on a second, and, it is to be
hoped, more prosperous trial of the state: if duped, to be duped at
least with good humour and good luck; while she must withdraw
with infinitely stronger feelings to a retirement and reproach which
could allow no second spring of hope or character
Where she could be placed became a subject of most melancholy
and momentous consultationNorris, whose attachment seemed
to augment with the demerits of her niece, would have had her received
at home and
chanel bags to buy countenanced by them allSir Thomas would not
hear of it; and MrsNorris’s anger against Fanny was so much the
greater, from considering her residence there as the motiveShe persisted
in placing his scruples to her account, though Sir Thomas very
solemnly assured her that, had there been no young woman in question,
had there been no young person of either sex belonging to him,
to be endangered by the society or hurt by the character of Mrs
Rushworth, he would never have offered so great an insult to the
neighbourhood as to expect it to notice herAs a daughter, he hoped
a penitent one, she should be protected by him, and secured in every
comfort, and supported by every encouragement to do right, which
their relative situations admitted; but farther than that he could not
goMaria had destroyed her own character, and he would not, by a
vain attempt to restore what never could be restored, by affording his
sanction to vice, or in seeking to lessen its disgrace, be anywise accessory
to introducing such misery in another man’s family as he had
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known himselfNorris’s resolving to quit Mansfield and devote
herself to her unfortunate Maria, and in an establishment being
formed for them in another country, remote and private, where,
shut up together with little society, on one side no affection, on the
other no judgment, it may be reasonably supposed that their tempers
became their mutual punishmentNorris’s removal from Mansfield was the great supplementary
comfort of Sir Thomas’s lifeHis opinion of her had been sinking
from the day of his return from Antigua: in every transaction
together from that period, in their daily intercourse, in business, or
in chat, she had been
chanel necklace regularly losing ground in his esteem, and
convincing him that either time had done her much disservice, or
that he had considerably over-rated her sense, and wonderfully borne
with her manners beforeHe had felt her as an hourly evil, which
was so much the worse, as there seemed no chance of its ceasing but
with life; she seemed a part of himself that must be borne for ever
To be relieved from her, therefore, was so great a felicity that, had
she not left bitter remembrances behind her, there might have been
danger of his learning almost to approve the evil which produced
such a good
She was regretted by no one at MansfieldShe had never been
able to attach even those she loved best; and since MrsRushworth’s
elopement, her temper had been in a state of such irritation as to
make her everywhere tormentingNot even Fanny had tears for
aunt Norris, not even when she was gone for ever
That Julia escaped better than Maria was owing, in some measure,
to a favourable difference of disposition and circumstance, but
in a greater to her having been less the darling of that very aunt, less
flattered and less spoiltHer beauty and acquirements had held but
a second placeShe had been always used to think herself a little
inferior to MariaHer temper was naturally the easiest of the two;
her feelings, though quick, were more controllable, and education
had not given her so very hurtful a degree of self-consequence
She had submitted the best to the disappointment in Henry
CrawfordAfter the first bitterness of the conviction of being slighted
was over, she had been tolerably soon in a fair way of not thinking
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of him again; and when the acquaintance was renewed in town,
chanel classic bags and