Fanny was left with only the Craw fords and Mr Yates. She had
beenquite overlooked by her cousins; and as her own opinion of her
claimson Sir Thomas''s affection was much too humble to give her any
idea of classing herself with his children, she was glad to remain
behind and gain alittle breathing time. Her agitation and alarm
exceeded all that was enduredby the rest, by the right of a
disposition which not even innocence could keep from suffering. She
was nearly fainting: all her former habitual dreadof her uncle was
retuming, and with it compassion for him and for almostevery one of
the party on the development before him——with solicitude onEdmund''s
account indescribable. She had found a seat, where in
excessivetrembling she was enduring all these fearful thoughts,
while the other three, no longer under any restraint, were giving
vent to their feelings of vexation, lamenting over such an
unlooked-for premature arrival as a mostunto ward event, and
without mercy wishing poor Sir Thomas had beentwice as long on his
passage, or were still in Antigua.