Independent of his two cousins’ enjoyment in it, the evening was to Edmund of no higher value than any other meeting of the two families. In every meeting there was a hope of receiving further confirmation of Miss Crawford’s attachment; but the whirl of a ballroom, perhaps, was not particularly favourable to the expression of serious feelings. To engage her early for the two first dances was all the preparation for the ball which he could enter into.

Thursday was the day of the ball; and on Wednesday morning Fanny, still unable to satisfy herself as to what she ought to wear, determined to seek the counsel of the more enlightened, and apply to Mrs. Grant and her sister and their acknowledged taste. Edmund and William were gone to Northampton, Mr. Crawford likewise out, so she walked down to the Parsonage with hope of obtaining a private discussion. Indeed, the privacy of such a discussion was a most important part of it to Fanny.

She met Miss Crawford within a few yards of the Parsonage. Still holding to their unspoken truce, she explained her business at once, and inquired if she would be so kind as to give her opinion. Miss Crawford appeared gratified by the application, and after a moment’s thought, urged Fanny’s returning with her in a more cordial manner than usual, and promising with a charming wicked smile, to attempt nothing untoward. The vampire proposed their going up into her room, where they might have a comfortable coze, without disturbing Dr. and Mrs. Grant. It suited Fanny; and with honest gratitude on her side for such unexpected amiability, they proceeded indoors, and upstairs, and were soon deep in the interesting subject.

Miss Crawford, pleased with the appeal, forgot the vampiric temptation of sanguinity and instead gave her all her best judgment and fashion taste. The dress being settled in all its grander parts—“But what shall you have by way of necklace?” said Miss Crawford with hardly a trace of sarcasm. “Shall not you wear your brother’s cross?”

And as she spoke she was undoing a small parcel, which Fanny had observed in her hand when they met. Fanny acknowledged her wishes and doubts on this point: she did not know how either to wear the cross, or to refrain from wearing it.

“Pray, my dear, do not be detained from your holy object by consideration of my own kind,” said Miss Crawford with a smile.

“I am not,” said Fanny. “What concerns me are the feelings of my dear brother, William.”

She was answered by having a small trinket-box placed before her, and being requested to chuse from among several gold chains and necklaces.