Amanda Grange: Edmund Bertram's Diary

After dinner, I told Mama the happy news. There was a moment of alarm when she first heard it, for she said, ‘What! Take Fanny from me? Oh, no, I cannot do without Fanny.’

‘But she must go with Edmund to Thornton Lacey when they are married,’ said my father.

‘But what will I do without her?’ asked Mama.

‘You must ask Susan to stay,’ said my father.

Susan’s face was glowing. She, too, had found it hard to live at Portsmouth, where there was no order or discipline, and delighted in being at Mansfield Park.

‘Oh, yes, Sir Thomas, you are such a comfort to me, you always know what to do,’ said Mama.

‘Susan, my dear, you will stay with us, will you not? For I do not know what I would do without you.’

Susan said she would be delighted to stay, and by her attentions to Mama after dinner, made herself so indispensable that it seemed as though she had always been with us.

Sunday 31 December

How much has changed since last year’s end. Maria has left her husband and is now living in retirement with Aunt Norris, whilst Rushworth is suing her for divorce; Julia has married, and after an unpromising start, seems to be happy with Yates; Tom has been seriously ill and recovered, and no longer lives only for pleasure but is taking an interest in the estate; Dr Grant has died, so that I have acquired the Mansfield living; and Fanny and I are married. We are the same, Fanny and I. As I watch her tending the flowers in her garden, or comforting one of our parishioners, or dancing at a ball, or sitting opposite me at dinner, I bless the day she came to Mansfield Park.