Half an hour followed that would have been at least languid under any
other circumstances, but Fanny's happiness still prevailed. It was but
to think of her conversation with Edmund, and what was the restlessness
of Mrs. Norris? What were the yawns of Lady Bertram?

The gentlemen joined them; and soon after began the sweet expectation
of a carriage, when a general spirit of ease and enjoyment seemed
diffused, and they all stood about and talked and laughed, and every
moment had its pleasure and its hope. Fanny felt that there must be a
struggle in Edmund's cheerfulness, but it was delightful to see the
effort so successfully made.

When the carriages were really heard, when the guests began really to
assemble, her own gaiety of heart was much subdued: the sight of so
many strangers threw her back into herself; and besides the gravity and
formality of the first great circle, which the manners of neither Sir
Thomas nor Lady Bertram were of a kind to do away, she found herself
occasionally called on to endure something worse. She was introduced
here and there by her uncle, and forced to be spoken to, and to
curtsey, and speak again. This was a hard duty, and she was never
summoned to it without looking at William, as he walked about at his
ease in the background of the scene, and longing to be with him.

The entrance of the Grants and Crawfords was a favourable epoch. The
stiffness of the meeting soon gave way before their popular manners and
more diffused intimacies: little groups were formed, and everybody
grew comfortable. Fanny felt the advantage; and, drawing back from the
toils of civility, would have been again most happy, could she have
kept her eyes from wandering between Edmund and Mary Crawford. She
looked all loveliness--and what might not be the end of it? Her own
musings were brought to an end on perceiving Mr. Crawford before her,
and her thoughts were put into another channel by his engaging her
almost instantly for the first two dances. Her happiness on this
occasion was very much a la mortal, finely chequered. To be
secure of a partner at first was a most essential good--for the moment
of beginning was now growing seriously near; and she so little
understood her own claims as to think that if Mr. Crawford had not
asked her, she must have been the last to be sought after, and should
have received a partner only through a series of inquiry, and bustle,
and interference, which would have been terrible; but at the same time
there was a pointedness in his manner of asking her which she did not
like, and she saw his eye glancing for a moment at her necklace, with a
smile--she thought there was a smile--which made her blush and feel
wretched. And though there was no second glance to disturb her, though
his object seemed then to be only quietly agreeable, she could not get
the better of her embarrassment, heightened as it was by the idea of
his perceiving it, and had no composure till he turned away to some one
else. Then she could gradually rise up to the genuine satisfaction of
having a partner, a voluntary partner, secured against the dancing
began.