] Especially after the he assured the girls of Fanny's warm feelings towards them: "'I wish with all my heart,' says poor Fanny in her affectionate way, 'that we had asked your sisters instead of them.'"

As if we need further proof of Fanny's greatness of mind, we have John's consideration of her when Edward gets a living:

"You will not mention the matter to Fanny, however; for though I have broke it to her, and she bears it vastly well, -- she will not like to hear it much talked of."

Elinor had some difficulty here to refrain from observing, that she thought Fanny might have borne with composure, an acquisition of wealth to her brother, by which neither she nor her child could be possibly impoverished.