ABSTRACT
In Mansfield Park Jane Austen describes the final interview between a young lady of the smart London set and the earnest young clergyman to whom she has become attracted. The occasion is the news of a scandalous affair involving her own brother and the clergyman’s sister. The young clergyman expresses his disapprobation of their moral conduct. Mary’s reaction is:
A pretty good lecture, upon my word! At this rate, you will soon reform everybody at Mansfield and Thornton Lacey, and when I hear of you next it may be as a celebrated preacher in some great society of Methodists, or as a missionary into foreign parts.1
