Mansfield Park "The Crawfords' redemption"

Chapter 3

Who can describe the suprise of Fanny three days later, when she received a letter from a gentleman, but not the expected and dreaded letter from her cousin, but a totally unexpected letter from Mr Crawford that offered no embarrassments, but only pleasure?

It was a full two pages long, in a neat and flowing hand, and totally proper in its address and tone, directed to Miss Price, and dated the day before yesterday. This meant Mr Crawford had only overnighted in London, and gone straight to Everingham to settle his dispute with his steward.

As modest as Fanny was, she could not but feel the compliment in both the fact that he had indeed done what was right instead of staying in London to amuse himself with his sister, and that he had taken the trouble of writing a long letter to the woman he professed to love passionately, so soon after having arrived at Everingham himself.

There were no embarrassing allusions to his love for her, or to her future residence at his estate, just a faithful account of his actions, and a statement of the reason for his writing. He told her he had done it for her amusement, to give her some news from her acquintance, and of course to give her the satisfaction of having induced him to take up his duties as he knew he should have done much earlier in life. He also complimented William for setting the example of writing long letters, for he said he found it quite entertaining to do, and would try to practice the art more often, to his sister as well.

Mentioning William was always good for a thrill of goodwill with tender-hearted Fanny, of couse, and Mr Crawford's letter did give her half an hour of amusement reading it, and another hour of satisfaction during the rest of the day, from contemplating how properly and gently it was written. It was not all business, though, for the last two paragraphs contained a beautiful description of a valley belonging to his estate, as seen from the top of the hill upon which the house stood, in the soft light of a spring evening, with the trees budding, and the grass turning a lush green once more, and the smoke curling from the cottages beside the winding stream. It was really well-done, and it reminded her of the few good moments she had spent with Mr Crawford, always associated with either the beauty of nature, or literature. These paragraphs combined them.

Of course Fanny did realise that having inspired Mr Crawford to write a long letter, it obligated her to return the favor, and though her common sense protested against that as inciting his preference even more, her righteousness would not let her escape the duty. Writing a return cost her more hours than the half hour that reading the original had taken her, and it afforded less pleasure for she was afraid to write something that could be interpreted in the wrong way.

But she found it was a stimulating way to spend her time, her mind was engaged with other subjects than her cousin's imminent engagement, and writing kindly but without any encouragement of Mr Crawford's professed affection for her, was forcing her to think every sentence through very carefully. She rather enjoyed it.

And to top off the letter she included a description of her favorite view in Portsmouth, in her best prose, of which she was rather proud when she was done. It took her two days to finish the letter, and with a bit of embarrassment she wrote his name and the address of his estate in Norfolk on the envelope and walked to the post-office with Susan to mail it.

He would probably be in London already when it arrived, she didn't think he was ever at his estate longer than a few days in a row, but she had written the letter out of propriety, and though she had been well-entertained writing it, she did not mind the idea that he would not yet see it for weeks, in fact, she very much preferred he would.

But here she underestimated the anxious expectations that his trust in her excellent principles inspired in Mr Crawford. He knew she would feel obliged to return his favor, and though of course he could have left instructions to forward any private letters to his London address, the Admiral's town-house, he felt it wiser to stay at Everingham a little longer, for he knew from Edmund that his eldest sister Mrs Rushworth was giving a party which he would be pressed by Mary to attend if he were in town.