Murder at Mansfield Park

of breath chasing about the garden looking for him?’
    ‘Your words interest me inexpressibly, Miss Price,’ said Mr Rushworth, with some earnestness. ‘I had no idea, when I first came into the area, but that you were the intended,
indeed the engaged, bride of that very same Mr Norris. A steady respectable sort of fellow, no doubt, but no match for a woman of character and brilliance such as yourself.’
    ‘Mr Tiresome Norris bores me more than I can say,’ said Miss Price with feeling. ‘So dull, so wretchedly dull ! He pays no compliments, he has no wit, and if that were
not bad enough, his taste in dress is deplorable, and he has no refined conversation; all he wants to do indoors is talk about books, and all he ever does outside is ride. A deadly tedious life
mine would be with the oh-so-estimable Mr Norris.’
    Mr Rushworth laughed knowingly. ‘Perhaps Mr Norris has recently found someone who might share these dreary interests of his?’
    Miss Price gave him a look which marked her contempt. ‘She is welcome to him. A woman who has the audacity to attach herself to a man already promised to another, as she has done,
will surely have no scruple in taking up that other’s cast-offs.’
    ‘And you, my dear—my very dear Miss Price,’ said he, leaning still closer, ‘what will you now do? There must surely be countless suitors contending for the
honour of your hand.’
    Miss Price drew away slightly, and began to circle the small glade before the gate. ‘Not so many as you might imagine, sir. But I have no doubt of acquiring them, once it becomes known
that the engagement with Mr Norris is broken off.’
    ‘So if there happened to be another gentleman who professed the most sincere attachment to Miss Price—nay, not merely an attachment but the most ardent, disinterested love—it
might be as well for that gentleman to declare himself without delay?’
    Miss Price looked at him haughtily. ‘It might be as well for that gentleman to begin by demonstrating, beyond question, that all those ardent feelings are for Miss Price, and not
for Miss Bertram .’
    ‘My dear Miss Price,’ he cried, making towards her, ‘how could you even imagine—you are so infinitely her superior. In beauty, in spirit, in—’
    ‘In fortune , sir?’
    He stopped, and looked for a moment exceedingly foolish, but Miss Price turned away, smiling privately to herself, content, for the moment, with so complete a conquest, and not above a wish to
sport with her new-declared lover a little, by way of punishment for his recent neglect.
    ‘What is that knoll, I wonder?’ she said, looking through the gate. ‘Might we not obtain a more comprehensive view of the park from there? Such a survey being, after all, the
principal reason for our visit?’
    ‘Indeed—I am sure,’ said Mr Rushworth, in evident embarrassment. ‘That is, I imagine—’
    ‘Oh, but of course, the gate is locked,’ she said, a moment later, in a tone of some vexation. ‘Why is it that it is only ever the gardeners who can go where they like
in places like this?’
    ‘I did wonder whether I should bring the key,’ he stammered. ‘Indeed, I was on the point of asking the housekeeper whether I might have the key—’
    ‘That may very well be so,’ she said archly, ‘but it does not advance us very far. We cannot get through without it.’
    Mr Rushworth bowed. ‘I will remedy my mistake at once,’ said he in a tone of decision. ‘If Miss Price would do me the infinite honour of awaiting me here, I will return without
delay.’
    Miss Price bowed her complaisance, and Mr Rushworth set off at some speed towards the house.
    Miss Price was on the point of resuming her circuit of the glade, and to judge of her expression, with no very unpleasant sensations, but no sooner was Mr Rushworth out of sight when Miss
Bertram emerged from her hiding place to confront her startled and affrighted cousin.
    ‘So this is your plan, is it?’ said Maria in an angry tone. ‘You mean to discard our gentle, upright, honest cousin for such a—a— fop as Rushworth?’
    ‘As to that ,’ said Miss Price, reddening with astonishment and disdain, ‘even were he the most infamous fop in England, I do not think you would have refused him,
had he made you an offer. But he did not make you an offer, did he?’
    ‘No,’ said Maria bitterly, seizing her cousin by the wrist, ‘because you saw to it that he did not. Can you never allow me anyone or any