Sample
from
Mansfield Park
by
Jane Austen
Oxford Progressive English Readers
Grade 4
retold by
David Foulds
Deception
When the Crawfords met the Bertrams, the young people were all pleased with each other from the first.
The two Miss Bertrams were both very good looking. They were the finest young women in that part of the country; and they were too handsome themselves to dislike any other woman for being so. Mary Crawford had a general prettiness in her dark eyes and dark hair. If she had been tall, full-formed and fair, as both the Bertram girls were, they might have felt differently about it.
At first the girls thought Henry Crawford not handsome, but rather too dark, and very plain. They could see, however, that he was a gentleman with very pleasing manners. At their second meeting, they thought him not quite so plain: he was plain, about that they were in complete agreement, but he had so much manly liveliness in his face, and his teeth were so good, and he looked strong and full of good spirits: it was very easy to forget he was plain. At a third meeting, after dining in company with him at the parsonage, he was no longer allowed to be called plain by anybody. He was in fact the most agreeable young man the sisters had ever known. They were, both of them, equally delighted with him. Miss Bertram's engagement to Mr Rushworth, however, made him more the property of Julia. Julia was fully aware of this.
Before Henry Crawford had been at Mansfield a week, Julia was quite ready to be fallen in love with.
More of this story in
Mansfield Park
by
Jane Austen
Oxford Progressive English Readers
Grade 4
ISBN 0 19 586 313 5
This text is copyright Oxford University Press 1995.
If you can read this sample easily, you can enjoy any Oxford Progressive English Reader from Grade 1 through to Grade 4.
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