Susan’s feelings, as she returned to her aunt, were such that she strove in vain to entirely repress them. So that was the scandalous Mary Crawford—sister to the yet more scandalous Henry, who had seduced her married cousin Maria into an elopement, all while professing his love for her sister Fanny?
It had not, of course, been easy for Susan, who had then been barely more than a child, to discover the true facts of the matter. Fanny had been most adamant that maids should not be encouraged to gossip—and naturally, within the family, the dreadful story was not to be alluded to in even the most oblique way. Maria’s name was never mentioned at Mansfield Park; to speak of the author of her disgrace would be unthinkable. Susan had, at last, to seek a tête-à-tête with her sister and demand to k
