Mansfield Park Revisited Read Online Free Page B

Fanny. But there were still occasions when her tongue betrayed her and moved more swiftly than her wiser sense; when impatience brought in a reversion to that earlier, sharper way of speaking; these moments were becoming less and less frequent, for Susan herself could not have been more conscious of their impropriety; at each lapse she would blush inwardly and castigate herself for her loss of control, resolving to be infinitely more careful in future, to let no unbidden word leave her lips. In nine cases out of ten, the cause of these little roughnesses of manner would be an argument with her cousin Tom. Somehow, with neither side particularly intending it, the two cousins contrived to irritate one another. Tom had always, if only half consciously, felt Susan as an intruder at Mansfield, and never troubled himself to try and overcome this sentiment, irrational though it might be; while Susan had strong, though unexpressed objections in regard to Tom’s rather lordly air of patronage towards herself. The authority of her aunt and uncle she was naturally glad to acknowledge, since towards them, for their hospitality and benevolence, she felt a deep gratitude and sense of obligation; any commands of theirs she would make haste to obey; but she felt no obligation laid on her to obey such commands as might emanate from Tom, and had no hesitation in making this plain.
    Quick-witted and intelligent, used to dealing with her lively brothers, Susan was easily a match in argument for her cousin Tom, who had never been more than ordinarily clever and had generally been excelled at school by his younger brother Edmund. When Susan first arrived at Mansfield, Tom, then aged twenty-six, had been slowly recovering from a dangerous fever; greatly reduced and weakened he had, for a short time, been pleased enough to have the companionship of the plain, eager, lively fourteen-year-old girl, who was friendly, ready and willing to play chess with him, read to him, or entertain him in any way he wished. But as his strength returned, so did the urge to dominate; Tom had always been used to command his younger sisters, and his delicate little shrinking cousin Fanny; he was good-natured enough and often gave them presents, but he was accustomed to lord it; he expected a more subservient and complaisant attitude from Susan than she was prepared to yield; indeed she was not prepared to yield to her cousin Tom at all, finding him in all respects except for looks, greatly inferior to his brother.—Recovered from the fever, Tom was certainly a fine young man of pleasing air and appearance, open-faced, fresh-coloured, well-set-up, cheerful and obliging so long as he had his own way, and prepared to enter heartily into other people’s interests so long as they coincided with his own.—But in all deeper and more serious aspects, Susan considered Edmund infinitely superior; Edmund was a reading, judging, thinking person, an original intellect, a nature of just and strong principle. Whereas the nature of Tom was shallower, or at any rate had not yet been stirred to any very profound reflection, even during the time of his serious indisposition.
    In many small ways, without particularly intending to, Susan had contrived to indicate her poor opinion of her elder cousin; and his retaliation was to make plain the fact that he considered her an intruder, from an undesirable, indigent background, of inferior status to the Mansfield family. This attitude he had managed to transmit to his sister Julia, who, though selfishly glad that no part of the care for Lady Bertram devolved on her, yet felt it a grievance that somebody with no right of birth should be enjoying the benefits of Mansfield.
    When she was younger Tom had teased Susan about her plain looks, addressing her as Miss Bones and Mouse-locks, though not in the hearing of his father. During the past six or seven months Tom had been away from home so much that the improvement in his