Fanny was right enough in not expecting to hear from Miss Crawford now
at the rapid rate in which their correspondence had begun; Mary's next
letter was after a decidedly longer interval than the last, but she was
not right in supposing that such an interval would be felt a great
relief to herself. Here was another strange revolution of mind! She
was really glad to receive the letter when it did come. In her present
exile from good society, and distance from everything that had been
wont to interest her, a letter from one belonging to the set where her
heart lived, written with affection, and some degree of elegance, was
thoroughly acceptable.

The usual plea of increasing engagements was
made in excuse for not having written to her earlier; "And now that I
have begun," she continued, "my letter will not be worth your reading,
for there will be no little offering of love at the end, no three or
four lines passionnees from the most devoted H. C. in the world, for
Henry is in Norfolk; business called him to Everingham ten days ago, or
perhaps he only pretended to call, for the sake of being travelling at
the same time that you were. But there he is, and, by the bye, his
absence may sufficiently account for any remissness of his sister's in
writing, for there has been no 'Well, Mary, when do you write to Fanny?
Is not it time for you to write to Fanny?' to spur me on. At last,
after various attempts at meeting, I have seen your cousins, 'dear
Julia and dearest Mrs. Rushworth'; they found me at home yesterday, and
we were glad to see each other again. We seemed very glad to see
each other, and I do really think we were a little. We had a vast deal
to say.