Mansfield Park IV

Sir Thomas becomes uneasy about Maria, thinking that she is clearly not in love with Rushworth, and he offers to help her to break her engagment if she wants to. But Maria realises that Henry is not offering to marry her, so she does not want to break teh engagement. Henry has become uneasy about Maria, he does not want to get entangled with her, and makes it clear that he's not going to propose. So Maria marries Rushworth and she and Julia go away from Mansfield. Fanny is still not very happy as she is now half pushed into a friendship with Mary, as they are the only 2 girls left in the Manfield estate now. She tries to like Mary but she does not approve of her. Henry, bored now that Maria is gone, decides to flirt with Fanny and make her take an interest in him. However she cannot overcome her disapproval. Henry continues to pester Fanny, trying to get her to say that the play was fun, and she gets annoyed with him. Then, he decides to propose to her. Mary is quite pleased to see her brother wanting to marry, even though Fanny is poor and has no very grand connextions except for Sir Thomas. But Fanny remembers how Henry flirted with Maria and Julia and does not like him well enough to consider marriage. Sir Thomas is annoyed that his impoverished niece is being offered such a handsome proposal, to a rich man...and decides to send Fanny away for a bit, hoping she will change her mind. She has not been home to her family for 8 years, and he hopes that seeing what life is like in a small house in Portsmouth will sober her and make her re consider. Fanny has longed to see her relatives, since for years the only one she has seen is WIlliam who is in the Navy and occasionally visits Mansfield Park. SHe loves him, but can hardly remember the others.