Mansfield Park - Chapter 12

Sir Thomas was to return in November, and his eldest ¹ son had duties to call him earlier home. The approach of September brought tidings of Mr. Bertram, first in a letter to the gamekeeper and then in a letter to Edmund; and by the end of August he arrived himself, to be gay, agreeable, and gallant ² again as occasion served, or Miss Crawford demanded; to tell of races and Weymouth, and parties and friends, to which she might have listened six weeks before with some interest, and altogether to give her the fullest conviction, by the power of actual comparison, of her preferring his younger brother., ,It was very vexatious, and she was heartily ³ sorry for it; but so it was; and so far from now meaning to marry the elder, she did not even want to attract him beyond what the simplest claims of conscious beauty required: his lengthened ⁴ absence from Mansfield, without anything but pleasure in view, and his own will to consult, made it perfectly ⁵ clear that he did not care about her; and his indifference ⁶ was so much more than equalled by her own, that were he now to step forth ⁷ the owner of Mansfield Park, the Sir Thomas complete, which he was to be in time, she did not believe she could accept him., ,The season and duties which brought Mr. Bertram back to Mansfield took Mr. Crawford into Norfolk. Everingham could not do without him in the beginning of September. He went for a fortnight--a fortnight of such dullness to the Miss Bertrams as ought to have put them both on their guard, and made even Julia admit, in her jealousy ⁸ of her sister, the absolute necessity of distrusting his attentions, and wishing him not to return; and a fortnight of sufficient leisure, in the intervals ⁹ of shooting and sleeping, to have convinced the gentleman that he ought to keep longer away, had he been more in the habit of examining his own motives ¹⁰, and of reflecting to what the indulgence of his idle vanity was tending; but, thoughtless and selfish from prosperity and bad example, he would not look beyond the present moment. The sisters, handsome, clever, and encouraging, were an amusement to his sated mind; and finding nothing in Norfolk to equal the social pleasures of Mansfield, he gladly returned to it at the time appointed, and was welcomed thither ¹¹ quite as gladly by those whom he came to trifle with further., , ,Fanny was the only one of the party who found anything to dislike; but since the day at Sotherton, she could never see Mr. Crawford with either sister without observation, and seldom without wonder or censure ¹⁹; and had her confidence in her own judgment ²⁰ been equal to her exercise of it in every other respect, had she been sure that she was seeing clearly, and judging candidly ²¹, she would probably have made some important communications to her usual confidant. As it was, however, she only hazarded a hint, and the hint was lost. "I am rather surprised," said she, "that Mr. Crawford should come back again so soon, after being here so long before, full seven weeks; for I had understood he was so very fond of change and moving about, that I thought something would certainly occur, when he was once gone, to take him elsewhere. He is used to much gayer places than Mansfield.", ,"It is to his credit," was Edmund's answer; "and I dare say it gives his sister pleasure. She does not like his unsettled habits.", ,The castle and the land are entailed on the eldest son.城堡和土地限定由长子继承 。,Huang Jiguang's gallant deed is known by all men. 黄继光的英勇事迹尽人皆知。