Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

VOLUME ONE

Chapter 1

"About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with

only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate

Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the country of

Northampton, and to be thereby raised in the rank of a

baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an

handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed

on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer,

himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds

short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be

benefited by elevation, and such of their acquaintance as

thought Miss Ward and Miss Francis quite as handsome as

Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with

almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many

men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty

women to deserve them."