The rudeness of the general, however, proved not so very great a disaster to Catherine.  The interest and liking which Henry had first felt for her had gradually grown into a warmer feeling, and, roused to a sense of this by his father’s tyrannical behaviour, he presented himself to Catherine at Fullerton, proposed to her, and was accepted.  It was not long before the general gave his consent.  Getting at last to a right understanding of Mr. Morland’s circumstances—­which, he found, would allow Catherine to have three thousand pounds—­and delighted by the recent marriage of his daughter Eleanor to a viscount, he agreed to the union; and so Henry and Catherine were married within a twelvemonth from the first day of their meeting.

* * * * *

Mansfield Park

And then, between 1812 and 1814.  “Mansfield Park” was written at Chawton Cottage, and published in July of the latter year by the Mr. Egerton who had given to the world its two predecessors.  When the novel reached a second edition, its publication was taken over by John Murray, who was also responsible for bringing out its successor, “Emma.”  As bearing on the introduction of naval officers into the story, in this novel and in “Persuasion,” it must be remembered that Jane Austen’s two youngest brothers, Francis and Charles, both served in the Navy during the French wars, and both rose to the rank of admiral; Jane herself lived at Southampton from 1805 to 1809, and was, therefore, in a position to visit Portsmouth, and to see the sailor’s life ashore.

I.—­Sir Thomas Bertram’s Family Connections

Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet’s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of a handsome house and large income.  She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their acquaintances as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage.  But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.  Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law’s, with scarcely any private fortune; and Miss Frances fared yet worse.

Miss Ward’s match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible, Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend, in the living of Mansfield, an income of very little less than a thousand a year.  But Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on a lieutenant of marines, named Price, without education, fortune, or connections, did it very thoroughly.  To escape remonstrance, she never wrote to her family on the subject till actually married.