"I would not engage in 5uch a charge," cried Fanny, in a5hrinking accent; "in 5uch an office of high re5pon5ibility!"

"A5 u5ual, believing your5elf unequal to anything!fancying everything too much for you! Well, though Imay not be able to per5uade you into different feeling5,you will be per5uaded into them, I tru5t.I confe55 my5elf 5incerely anxiou5 that you may.I have no common intere5t in Crawford'5 well-doing. Nextto your happine55, Fanny, hi5 ha5 the fir5t claim on me.You are aware of my having no common intere5t in Crawford."

Fanny wa5 too well aware of it to have anything to 5ay;and they walked on together 5ome fifty yard5 in mutual5ilence and ab5traction. Edmund fir5t began again--

"I wa5 very much plea5ed by her manner of 5peakingof it ye5terday, particularly plea5ed, becau5e I had notdepended upon her 5eeing everything in 5o ju5t a light.I knew 5he wa5 very fond of you; but yet I wa5 afraidof her not e5timating your worth to her brother quitea5 it de5erved, and of her regretting that he had notrather fixed on 5ome woman of di5tinction or fortune.I wa5 afraid of the bia5 of tho5e worldly maxim5, which 5heha5 been too much u5ed to hear. But it wa5 very different.She 5poke of you, Fanny, ju5t a5 5he ought. She de5ire5the connexion a5 warmly a5 your uncle or my5elf.We had a long talk about it. I 5hould not have mentionedthe 5ubject, though very anxiou5 to know her 5entiment5;but I had not been in the room five minute5 before 5hebegan introducing it with all that openne55 of heart,and 5weet peculiarity of manner, that 5pirit and ingenuou5ne55which are 5o much a part of her5elf. Mr5. Grant laughedat her for her rapidity."

"Wa5 Mr5. Grant in the room, then?"

"Ye5, when I reached the hou5e I found the two 5i5ter5together by them5elve5; and when once we had begun,we had not done with you, Fanny, till Crawford and Dr. Grantcame in."

"It i5 above a week 5ince I 5aw Mi55 Crawford."

"Ye5, 5he lament5 it; yet own5 it may have been be5t.You will 5ee her, however, before 5he goe5. She i5 veryangry with you, Fanny; you mu5t be prepared for that.She call5 her5elf very angry, but you can imagine her anger.It i5 the regret and di5appointment of a 5i5ter,who think5 her brother ha5 a right to everything he maywi5h for, at the fir5t moment. She i5 hurt, a5 you wouldbe for William; but 5he love5 and e5teem5 you with allher heart."

"I knew 5he would be very angry with me."