There was one person, however, in the house, whom he could not leave to
learn his sentiments merely through his conduct. He could not help
giving Mrs. Norris a hint of his having hoped that her advice might
have been interposed to prevent what her judgment must certainly have
disapproved. The young people had been very inconsiderate in forming
the plan; they ought to have been capable of a better decision
themselves; but they were young; and, excepting Edmund, he believed, of
unsteady characters; and with greater surprise, therefore, he must
regard her acquiescence in their wrong measures, her countenance of
their unsafe amusements, than that such measures and such amusements
should have been suggested. Mrs. Norris was a little confounded and as
nearly being silenced as ever she had been in her life; for she was
ashamed to confess having never seen any of the impropriety which was
so glaring to Sir Thomas, and would not have admitted that her
influence was insufficient--that she might have talked in vain. Her
only resource was to get out of the subject as fast as possible, and
turn the current of Sir Thomas's ideas into a happier channel. She had
a great deal to insinuate in her own praise as to general attention
to the interest and comfort of his family, much exertion and many
sacrifices to glance at in the form of hurried walks and sudden
removals from her own fireside, and many excellent hints of distrust
and economy to Lady Bertram and Edmund to detail, whereby a most
considerable saving had always arisen, and more than one bad servant
been detected. But her chief strength lay in Sotherton. Her greatest
support and glory was in having formed the connexion with the
Rushworths. There she was impregnable. She took to herself all the
credit of bringing Mr. Rushworth's admiration of Maria to any effect.
"If I had not been active," said she, "and made a point of being
introduced to his mother, and then prevailed on my sister to pay the
first visit, I am as certain as I sit here that nothing would have come
of it; for Mr. Rushworth is the sort of amiable modest young man who
wants a great deal of encouragement, and there were girls enough on the
catch for him if we had been idle. But I left no stone unturned. I
was ready to move heaven and earth to persuade my sister, and at last I
did persuade her. You know the distance to Sotherton; it was in the
middle of winter, and the roads almost impassable, but I did persuade
her."