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her.
"You are sorry to leave Mamma, my dear little Fanny," said he, "which shows you to be a very good
girl; but you must remember that you are with relations and friends, who all love you, and wish to make
you happy. Let us walk out in the park, and you shall tell me all about your brothers and sisters."
On pursuing the subject, he found that dear as all these brothers and sisters generally were, there was
one among them who ran more in her thoughts than the rest. It was William whom she talked of most and
wanted most to see. William, the eldest, a year older than herself, her constant companion and friend; her
advocate with her mother (of whom he was the darling) in every distress. "William did not like she should
come away he had told her he should miss her very much indeed." "But William will write to you, I dare
say." "Yes, he had promised he would, but he had told her to write first." "And when shall you do it?"
She hung her head and answered hesitatingly, "she did not know; she had not any paper."
"If that be all your difficulty, I will furnish you with paper and every other material, and you may write
your letter whenever you choose. Would it make you happy to write to William?"
"Yes, very."
"Then let it be done now. Come with me into the breakfast-room, we shall find everything there, and be
sure of having the room to ourselves."
"But, cousin will it go to the post?"
"Yes, depend upon me it shall; it shall go with the other letters; and as your uncle will frank it, it will cost
William nothing."
"My uncle!" repeated Fanny with a frightened look.
"Yes, when you have written the letter, I will take it to my father to frank."
Fanny thought it a bold measure, but offered no farther resistance; and they went together into the
breakfast-room, where Edmund prepared her paper, and ruled her lines with all the good will that her
brother could himself have felt, and probably with somewhat more exactness. He continued with her the
whole time of her writing, to assist her with his penknife or his orthography, as either were wanted; and
added to these attentions, which she felt very much, a kindness to her brother, which delighted her
beyond all the rest. He wrote with his own hand his love to his cousin William, and sent him half a guinea
under the seal. Fanny's feelings on the occasion were such as she believed herself incapable of
expressing; but her countenance and a few artless words fully conveyed all their gratitude and delight, and
her cousin began to find her an interesting object. He talked to her more, and from all that she said, was
convinced of her having an affectionate heart, and a strong desire of doing right; and he could perceive
her to be farther entitled to attention, by great sensibility of her situation, and great timidity. He had never
knowingly given her pain, but he now felt that she required more positive kindness, and with that view
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endeavored, in the first place, to lessen her fears of them all, and gave her especially a great deal of good
advice as to playing with Maria and Julia, and being as merry as possible.
From this day Fanny grew more comfortable. She felt that she had a friend, and the kindness of her
cousin Edmund gave her better spirits with everybody else. The place became less strange, and the
people less formidable; and if there were some amongst them whom she could not cease to fear, she
began at least to know their ways, and to catch the best manner of conforming to them. The little
rusticities and awkwardnesses which had at first made grievous inroads on the tranquillity of all, and not
least of herself, necessarily wore away, and she was no longer materially afraid to appear before her
uncle, nor did her aunt Norris's voice make her start very much. To her cousins she became occasionally
an acceptable companion. Though unworthy, from inferiority of age and strength, to be their constant
associate, their pleasures and schemes were sometimes of a nature to make a third very useful, especially
when that third was of an obliging, yielding temper; and they could not but own, when their aunt inquired
into her faults, or their brother Edmund urged her claims to their kindness, that "Fanny was good-natured
enough."
Edmund was uniformly kind himself, and she had nothing worse to endure on the part of Tom, than that
sort of merriment which a young man of seventeen will always think fair with a child of ten. He was just
entering into life, full of spirits, and with all the liberal dispositions of an eldest son, who feels born only for
expense and enjoyment. His kindness to his little cousin was consistent with his situation and rights; he
made her some very pretty presents, and laughed at her.
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