2011, ISBN: 2940012074805

CHAPTER IAbout thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seventhousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, ofMansfield Park, in the county of North… Mehr…

CHAPTER IAbout thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seventhousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, ofMansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raisedto the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequencesof an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on thegreatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed herto be at least three CHAPTER IAbout thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seventhousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, ofMansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raisedto the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequencesof an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on thegreatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed herto be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of theiracquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome asMiss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equaladvantage. But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune inthe world as there are pretty women to deserve them. Miss Ward, at theend of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached tothe Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely anyprivate fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse. Miss Ward's match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible: Sir Thomasbeing happily able to give his friend an income in the living ofMansfield; and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugalfelicity with very little less than a thousand a year. But Miss Francesmarried, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing ona lieutenant of marines, without education, fortune, or connexions, didit very thoroughly. She could hardly have made a more untoward choice. Sir Thomas Bertram had interest, which, from principle as well aspride-from a general wish of doing right, and a desire of seeing allthat were connected with him in situations of respectability, he wouldhave been glad to exert for the advantage of Lady Bertram's sister; buther husband's profession was such as no EBooks, Books, MANSFIELD-PARK~~Jane-Austen, 999999999, MANSFIELD PARK, Jane Austen, 0012074802, SAP, 2/1/2011 12:00:00 AM, , , , SAP<