Page:Austen - Mansfield Park, vol. I, 1814.djvu/299

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"But what do you do for women?" said Edmund gravely, and looking at Maria.

"Maria blushed in spite of herself as she answered, "I take the part which Lady Ravenshaw was to have done, and (with a bolder eye) Miss Crawford is to be Amelia."

"I should not have thought it the sort of play to be so easily filled up, with us," replied Edmund, turning away to the fire where sat his Mother, Aunt, and Fanny, and seating himself with a look of great vexation.

Mr. Rushworth followed him to say "I come in three times, and have two and forty speeches. That's something, is not it?—But I do not much like the idea of being so fine.—I shall hardly know myself in a blue dress, and a pink satin cloak."

Edmund could not answer him.—In a few minutes Mr. Bertram was called out of the room to satisfy some doubts of the carpenter, and being accompa-

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