Their own inclinations ascertained, there were no
difficulties behind, no drawback of poverty or parent.
It was a match which Sir Thomas's wishes had even forestalled.
Sick of ambitious and mercenary connexions, prizing more
and more the sterling good of principle and temper,
and chiefly anxious to bind by the strongest securities
all that remained to him of domestic felicity, he had
pondered with genuine satisfaction on the more than
possibility of the two young friends finding their natural
consolation in each other for all that had occurred
of disappointment to either; and the joyful consent
which met Edmund's application, the high sense of having
realised a great acquisition in the promise of Fanny
for a daughter, formed just such a contrast with his
early opinion on the subject when the poor little girl's
coming had been first agitated, as time is for ever
producing between the plans and decisions of mortals,
for their own instruction, and their neighbours' entertainment.
Fanny was indeed the daughter that he wanted. His charitable
kindness had been rearing a prime comfort for himself.
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