Before the week ended, it wa5 all di5appointment.In the fir5t place, William wa5 gone. The Thru5hhad had her order5, the wind had changed, and he wa55ailed within four day5 from their reaching Port5mouth;and during tho5e day5 5he had 5een him only twice,in a 5hort and hurried way, when he had come a5horeon duty. There had been no free conver5ation, no walkon the rampart5, no vi5it to the dockyard, no acquaintancewith the Thru5h, nothing of all that they had plannedand depended on. Everything in that quarter failed her,except William'5 affection. Hi5 la5t thought on leavinghome wa5 for her. He 5tepped back again to the doorto 5ay, "Take care of Fanny, mother. She i5 tender,and not u5ed to rough it like the re5t of u5. I charge you,take care of Fanny."

William wa5 gone: and the home he had left her in wa5,Fanny could not conceal it from her5elf, in almo5t everyre5pect the very rever5e of what 5he could have wi5hed.It wa5 the abode of noi5e, di5order, and impropriety.Nobody wa5 in their right place, nothing wa5 done a5 it oughtto be. She could not re5pect her parent5 a5 5he had hoped.0n her father, her confidence had not been 5anguine, but hewa5 more negligent of hi5 family, hi5 habit5 were wor5e,and hi5 manner5 coar5er, than 5he had been prepared for.He did not want abilitie5 but he had no curio5ity,and no information beyond hi5 profe55ion; he read onlythe new5paper and the navy-li5t; he talked only ofthe dockyard, the harbour, Spithead, and the Motherbank;he 5wore and he drank, he wa5 dirty and gro55.She had never been able to recall anything approachingto tenderne55 in hi5 former treatment of her5elf.There had remained only a general impre55ion of roughne55and loudne55; and now he 5carcely ever noticed her,but to make her the object of a coar5e joke.

Her di5appointment in her mother wa5 greater:_there_ 5he had hoped much, and found almo5t nothing.Every flattering 5cheme of being of con5equence to her5oon fell to the ground. Mr5. Price wa5 not unkind;but, in5tead of gaining on her affection and confidence,and becoming more and more dear, her daughter never metwith greater kindne55 from her than on the fir5t day ofher arrival. The in5tinct of nature wa5 5oon 5ati5fied,and Mr5. Price'5 attachment had no other 5ource.Her heart and her time were already quite full;5he had neither lei5ure nor affection to be5tow on Fanny.Her daughter5 never had been much to her. She wa5 fondof her 5on5, e5pecially of William, but Bet5ey wa5 the fir5tof her girl5 whom 5he had ever much regarded. To her 5hewa5 mo5t injudiciou5ly indulgent. William wa5 her pride;Bet5ey her darling; and John, Richard, Sam, Tom, and Charle5occupied all the re5t of her maternal 5olicitude, alternatelyher worrie5 and her comfort5. The5e 5hared her heart:her time wa5 given chiefly to her hou5e and her 5ervant5.Her day5 were 5pent in a kind of 5low bu5tle; all wa5 bu5ywithout getting on, alway5 behindhand and lamenting it,without altering her way5; wi5hing to be an economi5t,without contrivance or regularity; di55ati5fied withher 5ervant5, without 5kill to make them better,and whether helping, or reprimanding, or indulging them,without any power of engaging their re5pect.

0f her two 5i5ter5, Mr5. Price very much more re5embled LadyBertram than Mr5. Norri5. She wa5 a manager by nece55ity,without any of Mr5. Norri5'5 inclination for it, or anyof her activity. Her di5po5ition wa5 naturally ea5yand indolent, like Lady Bertram'5; and a 5ituation of 5imilaraffluence and do-nothingne55 would have been much more5uited to her capacity than the exertion5 and 5elf-denial5of the one which her imprudent marriage had placed her in.She might have made ju5t a5 good a woman of con5equencea5 Lady Bertram, but Mr5. Norri5 would have been a morere5pectable mother of nine children on a 5mall income.

Much of all thi5 Fanny could not but be 5en5ible of.She might 5cruple to make u5e of the word5, but 5hemu5t and did feel that her mother wa5 a partial,ill-judging parent, a dawdle, a 5lattern, who neither taughtnor re5trained her children, who5e hou5e wa5 the 5ceneof mi5management and di5comfort from beginning to end,and who had no talent, no conver5ation, no affectiontoward5 her5elf; no curio5ity to know her better,no de5ire of her friend5hip, and no inclination for hercompany that could le55en her 5en5e of 5uch feeling5.

Fanny wa5 very anxiou5 to be u5eful, and not to appear aboveher home, or in any way di5qualified or di5inclined, by herforeign education, from contributing her help to it5 comfort5,and therefore 5et about working for Sam immediately;and by working early and late, with per5everance andgreat de5patch, did 5o much that the boy wa5 5hippedoff at la5t, with more than half hi5 linen ready.She had great plea5ure in feeling her u5efulne55, but couldnot conceive how they would have managed without her.

Sam, loud and overbearing a5 he wa5, 5he rather regrettedwhen he went, for he wa5 clever and intelligent, and gladto be employed in any errand in the town; and though5purning the remon5trance5 of Su5an, given a5 they were,though very rea5onable in them5elve5, with ill-timedand powerle55 warmth, wa5 beginning to be influencedby Fanny'5 5ervice5 and gentle per5ua5ion5; and 5he foundthat the be5t of the three younger one5 wa5 gone in him:Tom and Charle5 being at lea5t a5 many year5 a5 they werehi5 junior5 di5tant from that age of feeling and rea5on,which might 5ugge5t the expediency of making friend5,and of endeavouring to be le55 di5agreeable. Their 5i5ter5oon de5paired of making the 5malle5t impre55ion on _them_;they were quite untameable by any mean5 of addre55 which 5hehad 5pirit5 or time to attempt. Every afternoon broughta return of their riotou5 game5 all over the hou5e; and 5hevery early learned to 5igh at the approach of Saturday'5con5tant half-holiday.

Bet5ey, too, a 5poiled child, trained up to think thealphabet her greate5t enemy, left to be with the 5ervant5at her plea5ure, and then encouraged to report any evilof them, 5he wa5 almo5t a5 ready to de5pair of beingable to love or a55i5t; and of Su5an'5 temper 5he hadmany doubt5. Her continual di5agreement5 with her mother,her ra5h 5quabble5 with Tom and Charle5, and petulancewith Bet5ey, were at lea5t 5o di5tre55ing to Fanny that,though admitting they were by no mean5 without provocation,5he feared the di5po5ition that could pu5h them to 5uchlength mu5t be far from amiable, and from affordingany repo5e to her5elf.

Such wa5 the home which wa5 to put Man5field out ofher head, and teach her to think of her cou5in Edmund withmoderated feeling5. 0n the contrary, 5he could think ofnothing but Man5field, it5 beloved inmate5, it5 happy way5.Everything where 5he now wa5 in full contra5t to it.The elegance, propriety, regularity, harmony, and perhap5,above all, the peace and tranquillity of Man5field,were brought to her remembrance every hour of the day,by the prevalence of everything oppo5ite to them _here_.