re a great deal together."

And without attempting any farther remonstrance, she left Fanny to
her fate, a fate which, had not Fanny's heart been guarded in a way
unsuspected by Miss Crawford, might have been a little harder than she
deserved; for although there doubtless are such unconquerable young
ladies of eighteen (or one should not read about them) as are never
to be persuaded into love against their judgment by all that talent,
manner, attention, and flattery can do, I have no inclination to
believe Fanny one of them, or to think that with so much tenderness
of disposition, and so much taste as belonged to her, she could have
escaped heart-whole from the courtship (though the courtship only of
a fortnight) of such a man as Crawford, in spite of there being some
previous ill opinion of him to be overcome, had not her affection been
engaged elsewhere. With all the security which love of another and
disesteem of him could give to the peace of mind he was attacking,
his continued attentions--continued, but not obtrusive, and adapting
themselves more and more to the gentleness and delicacy of her
character--obliged her very soon to dislike him less than formerly. She
had by no means forgotten the past, and she thought as ill of him as
ever; but she felt his powers: he was entertaining; and his manners were
so improved, so polite, so seriously and blamelessly polite, that it was
impossible not to be civil to him in return.

A very few days were enough to effect this; and at the end of those few
days, circumstances arose which had a tendency rather to forward his
views of pleasing her, inasmuch as they gave her a degree of happiness
which must dispose her to be pleased with everybody. William, her
brother, the so long absent and dearly loved brother, was in England
again. She had a letter from him herself, a few hurried happy lines,
written as the ship came up Channel, and sent into Portsmouth with
the first boat that left the Antwerp at anchor in Spithead; and when
Crawford walked up with the newspaper in his hand, which he had hoped
would bring the first tidings, he found her trembling with joy over this
letter, and listening with a glowing, grateful countenance to the kind
invitation which her uncle was most collectedly dictating in reply.

It was but the day before that Crawford had made himself thoroughly
master of the subject, or had in fact become at all aware of her having
such a brother, or his being in such