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By Root 689 0

heard voices and feet approaching and a few moments later Mr Rushworth and Miss Price issued from the same path, and came to a stop before the iron gate. They had clearly been engaged in a most earnest conversation; Miss Price looked all flutter and happiness, and the faces of both were very close together. Neither was sensible of Miss Bertram’s being there, nor of Julia sitting motionless on the bench only a short distance away. It struck the latter all of a sudden as being more like a play than any thing she had seen in the theatre at Mansfield Park, and though she knew she ought to draw their attention to her presence, some thing constrained her, and she remained fixed in her seat. The first words she heard were from her cousin, and were to this effect.

‘My dear Mr Rushworth, I have not the slightest interest in attempting to find Mr Norris. Why, we have but this moment escaped from his horrible mother. No—I have had quite enough of that family for one morning. After all, what is Mr Norris to me that I should get myself hot and out of breath chasing about the garden looking for him?’

‘Your words interest me inexpressibly, Miss Price,’ said Mr Rushworth, with some earnestness. ‘I had no idea, when I first came into the area, but that you were the intended, indeed the engaged, bride of that very same Mr Norris. A steady respectable sort of fellow, no doubt, but no match for a woman of character and brilliance such as yourself.’

‘Mr Tiresome Norris bores me more than I can say,’ said Miss Price with feeling. ‘So dull, so wretchedly dull! He pays no compliments, he has no wit, and if that were not bad enough, his taste in dress is deplorable, and he has no refined conversation; all he wants to do indoors is talk about books, and all he ever does outside is ride. A deadly tedious life mine would be with the oh-so-estimable Mr Norris.’

Mr Rushworth laughed knowingly. ‘Perhaps Mr Norris has recently found someone who might share these dreary interests of his?’

Miss Price gave him a look which marked her contempt. ‘She is welcome to him. A woman who has the audacity to attach herself to a man already promised to another, as she has done, will surely have no scruple in taking up that other’s cast-offs.’

‘And you, my dear—my very dear Miss Price,’ said he, leaning still closer, ‘what will you now do? There must surely be countless suitors contending for the honour of your hand.’

Miss Price drew away slightly, and began to circle the small glade before the gate. ‘Not so many as you might imagine, sir. But I have no doubt of acquiring them, once it becomes known that the engagement with Mr Norris is broken off.’

‘So if there happened to be another gentleman who professed the most sincere attachment to Miss Price—nay, not merely an attachment but the most ardent, disinterested love—it might be as well for that gentleman to declare himself without delay?’

Miss Price looked at him haughtily. ‘It might be as well for that gentleman to begin by demonstrating, beyond question, that all those ardent feelings are for Miss Price, and not for Miss Bertram.’

‘My dear Miss Price,’ he cried, making towards her,‘how could you even imagine—you are so infinitely her superior. In beauty, in spirit, in—’

‘In fortune, sir?’

He stopped, and looked for a moment exceedingly foolish, but Miss Price turned away, smiling privately to herself, content, for the moment, with so complete a conquest, and not above a wish to sport with her new-declared lover a little, by way of punishment for his recent neglect.

‘What is that knoll, I wonder?’ she said, looking through the gate. ‘Might we not obtain a more comprehensive view of the park from there? Such a survey being, after all, the principal reason for our visit?’

‘Indeed—I am sure,’ said Mr Rushworth, in evident embarrassment. ‘That is, I imagine—’

‘Oh, but of course, the gate is locked,’ she said, a moment later, in a tone of some vexation. ‘Why is it that it is only ever the gardeners who can go where they like in places like this?’

‘I did wonder whether I should bring the key,’ he stammered.