her liberally in the education and disposal of her sons
as they became old enough for a determinate pursuit;
and Fanny, though almost totally separated from her family,
was sensible of the truest satisfaction in hearing of any
kindness towards them, or of anything at all promising
in their situation or conduct. Once, and once only,
in the course of many years, had she the happiness
of being with William. Of the rest she saw nothing:
nobody seemed to think of her ever going amongst them again,
even for a visit, nobody at home seemed to want her;
but William determining, soon after her removal,
to be a sailor, was invited to spend a week with his
sister in Northamptonshire before he went to sea.
Their eager affection in meeting, their exquisite
delight in being together, their hours of happy mirth,
and moments of serious conference, may be imagined;
as well as the sanguine views and spirits of the boy even
to the last, and the misery of the girl when he left her.
Luckily the visit happened in the Christmas holidays,
when she could directly look for comfort to her cousin Edmund;
and he told her such charming things of what William was
to do, and be hereafter, in consequence of his profession,
as made her gradually admit that the separation might
have some use. Edmund's friendship never failed her:
his leaving Eton for Oxford made no change in his kind
dispositions, and only afforded more frequent opportunities
of proving them. Without any display of doing more than
the rest, or any fear of doing too much, he was always
true to her interests, and considerate of her feelings,
trying to make her good qualities understood, and to conquer