(This conversation will contain spoilers for the current chapters and possibly for future chapters.)

R: Apparently, Edmund does still have hopes of marrying Miss Crawford. I shake my head at him. I think as the readers we can hear the death knell of that relationship. Or the rest of the story is going to be Edmund’s woes because he does end up marrying her.

Miss Crawford continues to show a significant amount of solicitude to Fanny. At first I was grateful for her immediate willingness to help Fanny prepare for the ball, but then she has to go and make Fanny super uncomfortable by saying that the necklace was originally a gift from her brother. I can’t decide whether this was meant to be malicious or mischievous, or a legitimate attempt to, I don’t know, give her blessing for the match if Fanny wishes to allow Henry Crawford’s suite. 

S: I’m also unsure what to think of Miss Crawford’s gift of the gold chain to Fanny. I feel like there’s a bit of manipulation going on with that particular interaction, but I’m not sure. 

Yet again, Sir Thomas has proven just how likeable of a character he is. Not only does he offer to throw a ball for William and Fanny, but he makes sure Mrs. Norris cannot put in her two cents…or pence. 

R: Poor Fanny is so worried about the ball and all the attention she’s likely to receive. Mrs. Norris doesn’t make things any easier the day of. 

I love that Edmund thought of Fanny and got her the chain to wear her brother’s cross with, but still frustrated with how he’s handling things with Miss Crawford. He says that he sees her flaws, but puts her virtues on par with Fanny’s own. He says, ‘I know her disposition to be as sweet and faultless as your own.’ He continues to hold out hope for marriage even as Miss Crawford says that she will never dance with him again because, ‘She never has danced with a clergyman, she says, and she never will.’

S: Chapter 27 made me laugh so much, just as much as it made me roll my eyes. 

I love that Edmund knew exactly what Fanny needed for the present from her brother. It’s no surprise that Fanny has feelings for Edmund even though she tries to deny them. I am, however, disappointed that Edmund also wants her to wear the necklace from Miss Crawford, and that he holds Miss Crawford in such high regard, still intent on marrying her. As you say, he ‘puts her virtues on par with Fanny’s’, and that part was very much a ‘roll-the-eyes’ moment. 

It is so adorable when Fanny is fawning over the unfinished note to her in Edmund’s hand; I laughed aloud. 

It’s also amusing to me that it didn’t occur to her that the ball was for her coming out and that no one seemed to think it important to tell her, although I suppose she thinks so little of herself that it really hadn’t occurred to her. 

I know she wishes that Edmund would give up on Miss Crawford, and I have to agree, so it made me almost as happy as she when they are interrupted in their conversation just before they need to get ready for the ball and that the cross didn’t fit on Miss Crawford’s necklace but did on the one from Edmund. 

R: Oh, my goodness, yes! The bit with Edmund’s note was sweet, and the fact that Fanny had not a clue that the event was actually her coming-out ball was both funny and sad. Mrs. Norris has her so convinced of her unimportance that it never even occurs to Fanny.

Mr. Crawford asks Fanny to dance the first two dances with him, which makes Fanny happy because she wasn’t left to languish, but also makes her nervous because of his attention. Miss Crawford isn’t upset at her own gifted necklace being preempted by Edmund’s; in fact, she seems rather delighted by his gesture. 

Then poor Fanny finds out that it is her duty to open the ball. That is, to lead things off in the first dance, and she is mortified. Fanny doesn’t want all the attention, and it places her above many other ladies of higher rank. 

S: I really love that Fanny’s uncle wants to honour her, albeit a bit late, probably, though perhaps in his mind it was for her own protection from his girls, Mrs. Norris, and society in general because of her quiet nature.

R: Miss Crawford tries to ingratiate herself to the Bertrams by praising Fanny, and I’m just not sure what she’s about. She doesn’t want to marry a clergyman, but she keeps acting as if she’s still interested in Edmund. When she and Edmund dance together, she continues to speak badly about the clergy. Does she think she’ll convince him to not take orders?

S: That’s what I’m thinking. It seems as though she thinks that the more she tells him she hates the church and clergy that Edmund will choose another career, but this, to me, goes to show how little she really understands about how he feels about his faith. 

I also think Miss Crawford’s insistence that Fanny knows something more about Mr. Crawford’s visit to London is weird. She either really doesn’t understand their relationship or is trying to ingratiate herself, as you’ve observed, with at least one person in the family since she knows that Sir Thomas is not a fan of hers. I believe she knows she is not as liked as she could be. 

It makes me so happy that Sir Thomas recognises that Fanny wants to spend as much time with her brother as possible and kindly insists that she go to bed much before the ball, held in her honour, has ended. He really is a good father figure.

As an aside, Lady Bertram is so funny and so very oblivious. I was very happy that we saw very little of her or Mrs Norris in these chapters. 

R: The next chapter has the families, but especially Fanny and Mary Crawford, dealing with the departure of Edmund, William and Henry Crawford. When Edmund doesn’t return when he’d originally promised he would, Miss Crawford tries to get information from Fanny, afraid that he will have found someone else to marry while staying with his friend who has several sisters. Miss Crawford seems like such a mass of contradictions. Despite her feelings about his vocation, she still appears to want to marry him.

S: She really sounds rather foolish fishing for information. I suppose I can’t blame her; it appears she’s realised she actually does like Edmund and is unhappy he’s away. 

I do feel for Fanny. She is caught in the middle and it appears she is unable to speak her mind to anyone or allow herself to acknowledge her feelings toward Edmund. 

I have to say, I really liked the scene with Fanny and her aunt and uncle; it was so quiet and comfortable, very companionable silence they have, even though the mood was sad because it was only the three of them. Although, again, Lady Bertram really is in her own world and Sir Thomas is not, it appears, going to burst her bubble. 

R: Finally, for this section, we get what I think is the rather stunning revelation that Henry Crawford has developed real feelings for Fanny. He’s still horribly rude about her aunts when speaking to his sister, but his original plan of stringing Fanny along as he had with her cousins seems to have fallen to the wayside. 

S: Chapter 30 is rather revealing! I am not surprised that Mr. Crawford ends up wanting to marry Fanny, but apparently Miss Crawford is. I think he might be putting Fanny upon a pedestal much like Edmund is putting Miss Crawford upon one. I don’t know that I agree with him that the Admiral would like Fanny, but perhaps we will find out. 

I’m very interested in seeing how this will all play out! I really don’t want Edmund to end up with Miss Crawford or Fanny to end up with Mr. Crawford; I’d like to see Fanny and Edmund together, because it appears they would compliment each other very well. 

R: I agree! I have no real recollection of the details of the story, so it’s almost like I’m reading it for the first time. The first few chapters were pretty boring to me, but I really feel like the story has picked up and I’m eager to move on.