Page:Austen - Mansfield Park, vol. III, 1814.djvu/80

 side of the table was a trifle, for she might always be considered as only half awake, and Edmund's advertisements were still of the first utility.

"Well," said Crawford, after a course of rapid questions and reluctant answers—I am happier than I was, because I now understand more clearly your opinion of me,me. [sic] You think me unsteady—easily swayed by the whim of the moment—easily tempted—easily put aside. With such an opinion, no wonder that——But we shall see.—It is not by protestations that I shall endeavour to convince you I am wronged, it is not by telling you that my affections are steady. My conduct shall speak for me—absence, distance, time shall speak for me.—They shall prove, that as far as you can be deserved by any body, I do deserve you.—You are infinitely my superior in merit; all that I know.—You have qualities which I had not before supposed to exist in such a degree in any human creature. You have