{"product_id":"2940012074805","title":"MANSFIELD PARK","description":"CHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAbout thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven\u003cbr\u003ethousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of\u003cbr\u003eMansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised\u003cbr\u003eto the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences\u003cbr\u003eof an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the\u003cbr\u003egreatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her\u003cbr\u003eto be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it.\u003cbr\u003eShe had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their\u003cbr\u003eacquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as\u003cbr\u003eMiss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal\u003cbr\u003eadvantage. But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in\u003cbr\u003ethe world as there are pretty women to deserve them. Miss Ward, at the\u003cbr\u003eend of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to\u003cbr\u003ethe Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any\u003cbr\u003eprivate fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse. Miss Ward's match,\u003cbr\u003eindeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible: Sir Thomas\u003cbr\u003ebeing happily able to give his friend an income in the living of\u003cbr\u003eMansfield; and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal\u003cbr\u003efelicity with very little less than a thousand a year. But Miss Frances\u003cbr\u003emarried, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on\u003cbr\u003ea lieutenant of marines, without education, fortune, or connexions, did\u003cbr\u003eit very thoroughly. She could hardly have made a more untoward choice.\u003cbr\u003eSir Thomas Bertram had interest, which, from principle as well as\u003cbr\u003epride--from a general wish of doing right, and a desire of seeing all\u003cbr\u003ethat were connected with him in situations of respectability, he would\u003cbr\u003ehave been glad to exert for the advantage of Lady Bertram's sister; but\u003cbr\u003eher husband's profession was such as no interest could reach; and before\u003cbr\u003ehe had time to devise any other method of assisting them, an absolute\u003cbr\u003ebreach between the sisters had taken place. It was the natural result of\u003cbr\u003ethe conduct of each party, and such as a very imprudent marriage almost\u003cbr\u003ealways produces. To save herself from useless remonstrance, Mrs. Price\u003cbr\u003enever wrote to her family on the subject till actually married. Lady\u003cbr\u003eBertram, who was a woman of very tranquil feelings, and a temper\u003cbr\u003eremarkably easy and indolent, would have contented herself with merely\u003cbr\u003egiving up her sister, and thinking no more of the matter; but Mrs.\u003cbr\u003eNorris had a spirit of activity, which could not be satisfied till she\u003cbr\u003ehad written a long and angry letter to Fanny, to point out the folly of\u003cbr\u003eher conduct, and threaten her with all its possible ill consequences.\u003cbr\u003eMrs. Price, in her turn, was injured and angry; and an answer, which\u003cbr\u003ecomprehended each sister in its bitterness, and bestowed such very\u003cbr\u003edisrespectful reflections on the pride of Sir Thomas as Mrs. Norris\u003cbr\u003ecould not possibly keep to herself, put an end to all intercourse\u003cbr\u003ebetween them for a considerable period.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheir homes were so distant, and the circles in which they moved so\u003cbr\u003edistinct, as almost to preclude the means of ever hearing of each\u003cbr\u003eother's existence during the eleven following years, or, at least, to\u003cbr\u003emake it very wonderful to Sir Thomas that Mrs. Norris should ever have\u003cbr\u003eit in her power to tell them, as she now and then did, in an angry\u003cbr\u003evoice, that Fanny had got another child. By the end of eleven years,\u003cbr\u003ehowever, Mrs. Price could no longer afford to cherish pride or\u003cbr\u003eresentment, or to lose one connexion that might possibly assist her.\u003cbr\u003eA large and still increasing family, an husband disabled for active\u003cbr\u003eservice, but not the less equal to company and good liquor, and a very\u003cbr\u003esmall income to supply their wants, made her eager to regain the friends\u003cbr\u003eshe had so carelessly sacrificed; and she addressed Lady Bertram in\u003cbr\u003ea letter which spoke so much contrition and despondence, such a\u003cbr\u003esuperfluity of children, and such a want of almost everything else, as\u003cbr\u003ecould not but dispose them all to a reconciliation. She was preparing\u003cbr\u003efor her ninth lying-in; and after bewailing the circumstance, and\u003cbr\u003eimploring their countenance as sponsors to the expected child, she\u003cbr\u003ecould not conceal how important she felt they might be to the future\u003cbr\u003emaintenance of the eight already in being. Her eldest was a boy of ten\u003cbr\u003eyears old, a fine spirited fellow, who longed to be out in the world;\u003cbr\u003ebut what could she do? Was there any chance of his being hereafter\u003cbr\u003euseful to Sir Thomas in the concerns of his West Indian property?\u003cbr\u003eNo situation would be beneath him; or what did Sir Thomas think of\u003cbr\u003eWoolwich? or how could a boy be sent out to the East?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe letter was not unproductive. It re-established peace and kindness.\u003cbr\u003eSir Thomas sent","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47081041002736,"sku":"2940012074805","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012074805_p0.jpg?v=1763552376","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012074805","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}