Austen Said:

there to remain, during the whole of his visit, unless actually sent for;

Mr. Crawford had come and would go without her being obliged to know anything of the matter.

"I am not cold, sir: I never sit here long at this time of year."

"No, sir."

"Oh! no, sir, I cannot, indeed I cannot go down to him. Mr. Crawford ought to know —he must know that: I told him enough yesterday to convince him; he spoke to me on this subject yesterday, and I told him without disguise that it was very disagreeable to me, and quite out of my power to return his good opinion."

"You are mistaken, sir,"

"you are quite mistaken. How could Mr. Crawford say such a thing? I gave him no encouragement yesterday. On the contrary, I told him, I cannot recollect my exact words, but I am sure I told him that I would not listen to him, that it was very unpleasant to me in every respect, and that I begged him never to talk to me in that manner again. I am sure I said as much as that and more; and I should have said still more, if I had been quite certain of his meaning anything seriously; but I did not like to be, I could not bear to be, imputing more than might be intended. I thought it might all pass for nothing with him."

"Yes, sir."

"Yes, sir."

"I— I cannot like him, sir, well enough to marry him."

"Yes,"

she did feel almost ashamed of herself, after such a picture as her uncle had drawn, for not liking Mr. Crawford.

"Oh yes, sir! indeed I do. His attentions were always—what I did not like."

She would rather die than own the truth;

"Yes, sir."

"No, sir."

"But of his principles I have";

Self-willed, obstinate, selfish, and ungrateful. He thought her all this. She had deceived his expectations; she had lost his good opinion. What was to become of her?

"I am very sorry,"

"I am very sorry indeed."

"If it were possible for me to do otherwise"

"but I am so perfectly convinced that I could never make him happy, and that I should be miserable myself."

miserable

The past, present, future, everything was terrible.

Selfish and ungrateful! to have appeared so to him! She was miserable for ever. She had no one to take her part, to counsel, or speak for her. Her only friend was absent. He might have softened his father; but all, perhaps all, would think her selfish and ungrateful. She might have to endure the reproach again and again; she might hear it, or see it, or know it to exist for ever in every connexion about her.

yet, if he really loved her, and were unhappy too! It was all wretchedness together.

To be spared from her aunt Norris's interminable reproaches!

Anything might be bearable rather than such reproaches. Even to see Mr. Crawford would be less overpowering.

to prove to him that she did desire his comfort, and sought to regain his favour;

Not to excite suspicion by her look or manner was now an object worth attaining; and she felt equal to almost anything that might save her from her aunt Norris.

A fire! it seemed too much;

Sir Thomas could have leisure to think of such a trifle again;

"I must be a brute, indeed, if I can be really ungrateful!"

"Heaven defend me from being ungrateful!"

he did not mean there should be any change, and

it was only her own conscience that could fancy any;

all the reason she had to bless the kindness which saved her from the same spirit of reproach, exerted on a more momentous subject.

she had done right:

her judgment had not misled her. For the purity of her intentions she could answer;

her uncle's displeasure was abating, and would abate farther as he considered the matter with more impartiality, and felt, as a good man must feel, how wretched, and how unpardonable, how hopeless, and how wicked it was to marry without affection.

When the meeting with which she was threatened for the morrow was past, she could not but flatter herself that the subject would be finally concluded, and Mr. Crawford once gone from Mansfield,

everything would soon be as if no such subject had existed. She would not, could not believe, that Mr. Crawford's affection for her could distress him long; his mind was not of that sort. London would soon bring its cure. In London he would soon learn to wonder at his infatuation, and be thankful for the right reason in her which had saved him from its evil consequences.

how he could, after such language from her as she felt herself obliged to use, was not to be understood.

she did not love him, could not love him, was sure she never should love him;

such a change was quite impossible;

the subject was most painful to her;

she must entreat him never to mention it again, to allow her to leave him at once, and let it be considered as concluded for ever.

added, that

in her opinion their dispositions were so totally dissimilar as to make mutual affection incompatible; and that they were unfitted for each other by nature, education, and habit.

She must be courteous, and she must be compassionate.