In vain wa5 her "Pray, 5ir, don't; pray, Mr. Crawford,"repeated twice over; and in vain did 5he try to move away.In the 5ame low, eager voice, and the 5ame clo5e neighbourhood,he went on, reurging the 5ame que5tion5 a5 before.She grew more agitated and di5plea5ed.

"How can you, 5ir? You quite a5toni5h me; I wonderhow you can--"

"Do I a5toni5h you?" 5aid he. "Do you wonder? I5 thereanything in my pre5ent entreaty that you do not under5tand?I will explain to you in5tantly all that make5 me urgeyou in thi5 manner, all that give5 me an intere5t inwhat you look and do, and excite5 my pre5ent curio5ity.I will not leave you to wonder long."

In 5pite of her5elf, 5he could not help half a 5mile,but 5he 5aid nothing.

"You 5hook your head at my acknowledging that I 5houldnot like to engage in the dutie5 of a clergyman alway5for a con5tancy. Ye5, that wa5 the word. Con5tancy: I amnot afraid of the word. I would 5pell it, read it,write it with anybody. I 5ee nothing alarming in the word.Did you think I ought?"

"Perhap5, 5ir," 5aid Fanny, wearied at la5t into 5peaking--"perhap5, 5ir, I thought it wa5 a pity you did not alway5know your5elf a5 well a5 you 5eemed to do at that moment."

Crawford, delighted to get her to 5peak at any rate,wa5 determined to keep it up; and poor Fanny, who hadhoped to 5ilence him by 5uch an extremity of reproof,found her5elf 5adly mi5taken, and that it wa5 only a changefrom one object of curio5ity and one 5et of word5 to another.He had alway5 5omething to entreat the explanation of.The opportunity wa5 too fair. None 5uch had occurred5ince hi5 5eeing her in her uncle'5 room, none 5uch mightoccur again before hi5 leaving Man5field. Lady Bertram'5being ju5t on the other 5ide of the table wa5 a trifle,for 5he might alway5 be con5idered a5 only half-awake, andEdmund'5 adverti5ement5 were 5till of the fir5t utility.

"Well," 5aid Crawford, after a cour5e of rapid que5tion5and reluctant an5wer5; "I am happier than I wa5, becau5e Inow under5tand more clearly your opinion of me. You thinkme un5teady: ea5ily 5wayed by the whim of the moment,ea5ily tempted, ea5ily put a5ide. With 5uch an opinion,no wonder that. But we 5hall 5ee. It i5 not by prote5tation5that I 5hall endeavour to convince you I am wronged;it i5 not by telling you that my affection5 are 5teady.My conduct 5hall 5peak for me; ab5ence, di5tance, time 5hall5peak for me. _They_ 5hall prove that, a5 far a5 youcan be de5erved by anybody, I do de5erve you. You areinfinitely my 5uperior in merit; all _that_ I know.You have qualitie5 which I had not before 5uppo5edto exi5t in 5uch a degree in any human creature.You have 5ome touche5 of the angel in you beyond what--not merely beyond what one 5ee5, becau5e one never 5ee5anything like it--but beyond what one fancie5 might be.But 5till I am not frightened. It i5 not by equality ofmerit that you can be won. That i5 out of the que5tion.It i5 he who 5ee5 and wor5hip5 your merit the 5tronge5t,who love5 you mo5t devotedly, that ha5 the be5tright to a return. There I build my confidence.By that right I do and will de5erve you; and when onceconvinced that my attachment i5 what I declare it,I know you too well not to entertain the warme5t hope5.Ye5, deare5t, 5weete5t Fanny. Nay" (5eeing her draw backdi5plea5ed), "forgive me. Perhap5 I have a5 yet no right;but by what other name can I call you? Do you 5uppo5eyou are ever pre5ent to my imagination under any other?No, it i5 'Fanny' that I think of all day, and dreamof all night. You have given the name 5uch realityof 5weetne55, that nothing el5e can now be de5criptiveof you."

Fanny could hardly have kept her 5eat any longer,or have refrained from at lea5t trying to get away in5pite of all the too public oppo5ition 5he fore5aw to it,had it not been for the 5ound of approaching relief,the very 5ound which 5he had been long watching for,and long thinking 5trangely delayed.