Austen Said:

her brother's folly in being drawn on by a woman whom he had never cared for, to do what must lose him the woman he adored; but still more the folly of poor Maria, in sacrificing such a situation, plunging into such difficulties, under the idea of being really loved by a man who had long ago made his indifference clear.

The want of common discretion, of caution: his going down to Richmond for the whole time of her being at Twickenham; her putting herself in the power of a servant;

"And what,"

"what could you say?"

the loss of such a —.

'He has thrown away,'

'such a woman as he will never see again. She would have fixed him; she would have made him happy for ever.'

'Why would not she have him? It is all her fault. Simple girl! I shall never forgive her. Had she accepted him as she ought, they might now have been on the point of marriage, and Henry would have been too happy and too busy to want any other object. He would have taken no pains to be on terms with Mrs. Rushworth again. It would have all ended in a regular standing flirtation, in yearly meetings at Sotherton and Everingham.'

"Cruel!"

"quite cruel. At such a moment to give way to gaiety, to speak with lightness, and to you! Absolute cruelty."

"Did you?"

what remained now to be done was to bring about a marriage between them.

'A pretty good lecture, upon my word. Was it part of your last sermon? At this rate you will soon reform everybody at Mansfield and Thornton Lacey; and when I hear of you next, it may be as a celebrated preacher in some great society of Methodists, or as a missionary into foreign parts.'

'Mr. Bertram,'

'Mr. Bertram,'