charge and expense of
her eldest daughter, Fanny, a girl of ten; and Sir Thomas, after
debating the question, assented. The division of gratifying sensations
in the consideration of so benevolent a scheme ought not, in strict
justice, to have been equal; for, while Sir Thomas was fully resolved to
be the real and consistent patron of the selected child, Mrs. Norris had
not the least intention of being at any expense whatever in her
maintenance. As far as walking, talking and contriving reached, she was
thoroughly benevolent, and nobody knows better how to dictate liberality
to others; but her love of money was equal to her love of directing, and
she knew quite as well how to save her own as to spend that of her
friends.

Fanny Price proved to be small for her age, with no glow of complexion
or any other striking beauty; exceedingly timid and shy, and shrinking
from notice; but her air, though awkward, was not vulgar, her voice was
sweet, and when she spoke her countenance was pretty. Sir Thomas and
Lady Bertram received her very kindly; and Sir Thomas, seeing how much
she needed encouragement, tried to be all that was conciliating. But he
had to work against a most untoward gravity of deportment; and Lady
Bertram, without taking half so much trouble, by the mere aid of a
good-humoured smile, became immediately the less awful character of the
two.

The young people were all at home, and sustained their share in the
introduction very well, with much good humour and little embarrassment.
They were a remarkably fine family; the sons, Tom and Edmund, boys of
seventeen and sixteen, very well looking; the daughters, Maria, aged
thirteen, and Julia, twelve, decidedly handsome.

But it took a long time to reconcile Fanny to the novelty of Mansfield
Park, and to the separation from everybody she had been used to. Nobody
meant to be unkind, but nobody put himself out of the way to secure her
comfort. She was disheartened by Lady Bertram's silence, awed by Sir
Thomas's grave looks, and quite overcome by Mrs. Norris's admonitions.
Her elder cousins mortified her by reflections on her size, and abashed
her by noticing her shyness; Miss Lee, the governess, wondered at her
ignorance; and the maidservants sneered at her clothes. It was not till
Edmund found her crying one morning on the attic stairs, and comforted
her, that things began to mend for her. He was ever afterwards her true
friend, and next to her dear brother William, fir