Edmund had great things to hear on his return. Many surprises were
awaiting him. The first that occurred was not least in interest: the
appearance of Henry Crawford and his sister walking together through
the village as he rode into it. He had concluded--he had meant them to
be far distant. His absence had been extended beyond a fortnight
purposely to avoid Miss Crawford. He was returning to Mansfield with
spirits ready to feed on melancholy remembrances, and tender
associations, when her own fair self was before him, leaning on her
brother's arm, and he found himself receiving a welcome, unquestionably
friendly, from the woman whom, two moments before, he had been thinking
of as seventy miles off, and as farther, much farther, from him in
inclination than any distance could express.

Her reception of him was of a sort which he could not have hoped for,
had he expected to see her. Coming as he did from such a purport
fulfilled as had taken him away, he would have expected anything rather
than a look of satisfaction, and words of simple, pleasant meaning. It
was enough to set his heart in a glow, and to bring him home in the
properest state for feeling the full value of the other joyful
surprises at hand.

William's promotion, with all its particulars, he was soon master of;
and with such a secret provision of comfort within his own breast to
help the joy, he found in it a source of most gratifying sensation and
unvarying cheerfulness all dinner-time.