Mansfield Park

Their Homes Were So Distant, And The Circles In Which They Moved So Distinct, As Almost To Preclude The Means Of Ever Hearing Of Each Other's Existence During The Eleven Following Years, Or, At Least, To Make It Very Wonderful To Sir Thomas That Mrs. Norris Should Ever Have It In Her Power To Tell Them, As She Now And Then Did, In An Angry Voice, That Fanny Had Got Another Child. By The End Of Eleven Years, However, Mrs. Price Could No Longer Afford To Cherish Pride Or Resentment, Or To Lose One Connexion That Might Possibly Assist Her. A Large And Still Increasing Family, An Husband Disabled For Active Service, But Not The Less Equal To Company And Good Liquor, And A Very Small Income To Supply Their Wants, Made Her Eager To Regain The Friends She Had So Carelessly Sacrificed; And She Addressed Lady Bertram In A Letter Which Spoke So Much Contrition And Despondence, Such A Superfluity Of Children, And Such A Want Of Almost Everything Else, As Could Not But Dispose Them All To A Reconciliation. She Was Preparing For Her Ninth Lying-in; And After Bewailing The Circumstance, And Imploring Their Countenance As Sponsors To The Expected Child, She Could Not Conceal How Important She Felt They Might Be To The Future Maintenance Of The Eight Already In Being. Her Eldest Was A Boy Of Ten Years Old, A Fine Spirited Fellow, Who Longed To Be Out In The World; But What Could She Do? Was There Any Chance Of His Being Hereafter Useful To Sir Thomas In The Concerns Of His West Indian Property? No Situation Would Be Beneath Him; Or What Did Sir Thomas Think Of Woolwich? Or How Could A Boy Be Sent Out To The East?