Murder at Mansfield Park Read Free Page B

Mary had not been three hours in the house before Mrs Grant told her what she had planned, concluding with, ‘And as we are invited to the Park this evening, you will see him for yourself.’
    ‘And what of your poor brother?’ asked Henry with a smile. ‘Are there no Miss Bertrams to whom I can make myself agreeable? No rich ward of Sir Thomas’s I can entertain? I ask only that they have at least twenty thousand pounds. I cannot exert myself for any thing less.’
    ‘If that is your standard,’ replied Mrs Grant, ‘then Mansfield has only one young woman worthy of the name. Fanny Price is Sir Thomas’s niece, and has at least twice that sum, and will inherit her grandfather’s Cumberland property, and some vast estates in the West Indies, I believe. And she is generally thought to be by far the handsomest of the young ladies—quite the belle of the neighbourhood. But I am sorry for your sake, my dear brother, that she is already engaged. Or at least, so I believe, for no announcement has actually been made, but Mrs Norris told me in confidence, that Fanny is to marry her son Edmund. He has a very large property from his father, though you would scarcely believe it from the way his mother carries on. Such assiduous economy and frugality I have never known, and certainly not from a person so admirably provided for as Mrs Norris must be. I believe she must positively enjoy all her ingenious contrivances, and take pleasure in saving half a crown here and there, since there cannot possibly be any other explanation.’
    Mary heaved a small sigh at this, and thought of the considerable retrenchment she had been forced to make in her own expenditure of late. Mrs Grant, meanwhile, had returned to the young ladies of the Park.
    ‘You will be obliged to content yourself with Miss Bertram, Henry. She is a pretty young lady, if not so handsome as Miss Price, and has a nice height and size, and sweet dark eyes. But I warn you that you may encounter some competition in that quarter. A Mr Rushworth has but lately arrived in the neighbourhood, and I believe we may even see him at the Park this evening. He is the younger son of a lord, with an estate of four or five thousand a year, they say, and very likely more.’
    Henry could not help half a smile, but he said nothing.
    The dinner hour approaching, the ladies separated for their toilette. Although Mary had laughed heartily at her sister’s picture of herself as the future mistress of Mansfield Park, she found herself meditating upon it in the calmness of her own room, and she dressed with more than usual care. The loss of her home, with all its attendant indignity, had been a painful proof that matrimony was the only honourable provision for a well-educated young woman of such little fortune as hers. Marriage, therefore, must be her object, and she must resign herself to marrying as well as she could, even if that meant submitting to an alliance with a man of talents far inferior to her own.
    As the weather was fine and the paths dry, they elected to walk to their engagement across the park. If she could not share her brother’s professional interest in the disposition of the grounds, Mary yet saw much to be pleased with: lawns and plantations of the freshest green, and nearer the house, trees and shrubberies, and a long lime walk. From the entrance hall, they were shewn into the drawing-room, where everyone was assembled. They soon discovered, however, that the family had been frustrated in their hopes of Mr Rushworth; he had sent Sir Thomas a very proper letter of excuse, but regretted that he was required directly in town. The immediate disappointment of the party was rendered even more acute by the fair reports Mr Bertram brought with him from Sotherton. In the course of the afternoon Mr Bertram had perfected his acquaintance with their new neighbour, and was returned with his head full of his recently acquired friend. The topic had evidently been already handled in the