Her going roused the rest; and at the same moment the two brothers
stepped forward, feeling the necessity of doing something. A very few
words between them were sufficient. The case admitted no difference of
opinion: they must go to the drawing-room directly. Maria joined them
with the same intent, just then the stoutest of the three; for the very
circumstance which had driven Julia away was to her the sweetest
support. Henry Crawford's retaining her hand at such a moment, a
moment of such peculiar proof and importance, was worth ages of doubt
and anxiety. She hailed it as an earnest of the most serious
determination, and was equal even to encounter her father. They walked
off, utterly heedless of Mr. Rushworth's repeated question of, "Shall I
go too? Had not I better go too? Will not it be right for me to go
too?" but they were no sooner through the door than Henry Crawford
undertook to answer the anxious inquiry, and, encouraging him by all
means to pay his respects to Sir Thomas without delay, sent him after
the others with delighted haste.

Fanny was left with only the Crawfords and Mr. Yates. She had been
quite overlooked by her cousins; and as her own opinion of her claims
on 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 a little breathing-time. Her agitation and alarm exceeded all that
was endured by the rest, by the right of a disposition which not even
innocence could keep from suffering. She was nearly fainting: all her
former habitual dread of her uncle was returning, and with it
compassion for him and for almost every one of the party on the
development before him, with solicitude on Edmund's account
indescribable. She had found a seat, where in excessive trembling 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
most untoward event, and without mercy wishing poor Sir Thomas had been
twice as long on his passage, or were still in Antigua.