Page:Austen - Mansfield Park, vol. II, 1814.djvu/159

 proceed upon my plan, though by the bye I doubt any body's striking out a better. You may give it a higher character. You may raise it into a place. From being the mere gentleman's residence, it becomes by judicious improvement the residence of a man of education, taste, modern manners, good connections. All this may be stamped on it; and that house receive such an air as to make its owner be set down as the great land-holder of the parish, by every creature travelling the road; especially as there is no real squire's house to dispute the point; a circumstance between ourselves to enhance the value of such a situation in point of privilege and independence beyond all calculation. You think with me I hope—(turning with a softened voice to Fanny)—Have you ever seen the place?"

Fanny gave a quick negative, and tried to hide her interest in the subject by an eager attention to her Rh