wards, and in a voice of authority, said, "Have you any
reason, child, to think ill of Mr. Crawford's temper?"

"No, sir."

She longed to add, "But of his principles I have"; but her heart sunk
under the appalling prospect of discussion, explanation, and probably
non-conviction. Her ill opinion of him was founded chiefly on
observations, which, for her cousins' sake, she could scarcely dare
mention to their father. Maria and Julia, and especially Maria, were so
closely implicated in Mr. Crawford's misconduct, that she could not give
his character, such as she believed it, without betraying them. She had
hoped that, to a man like her uncle, so discerning, so honourable, so
good, the simple acknowledgment of settled _dislike_ on her side would
have been sufficient. To her infinite grief she found it was not.

Sir Thomas came towards the table where she sat in trembling
wretchedness, and with a good deal of cold sternness, said, "It is of no
use, I perceive, to talk to you. We had better put an end to this most
mortifying conference. Mr. Crawford must not be kept longer waiting. I
will, therefore, only add, as thinking it my duty to mark my opinion of
your conduct, that you have disappointed every expectation I had formed,
and proved yourself of a character the very reverse of what I had
supposed. For I _had_, Fanny, as I think my behaviour must have shewn,
formed a very favourable opinion of you from the period of my return to
England. I had thought you peculiarly free from wilfulness of temper,
self-conceit, and every tendency to that independence of spirit which
prevails so much in modern days, even in young women, and which in young
women is offensive and disgusting beyond all common offence. But you
have now shewn me that you can be wilful and perverse; that you can and
will decide for yourself, without any consideration or deference for
those who have surely some right to guide you, without even asking their
advice. You have shewn yourself very, very different from anything that
I had imagined. The advantage or disadvantage of your family, of your
parents, your brothers and sisters, never seems to have had a moment's
share in your thoughts on this occasion. How _they_ might be benefited,
how _they_ must rejoice in such an establishment for you, is nothing to
_you_. You think only of yourself, and because you do not feel for Mr.
Crawford exactly what a young heated fancy imagines to be necessary for
happiness, you r