Lady Gresham continued to invite the family to dine as she seemed to feel that Jane would soon realize that Mr. Wisley was the appropriate choice for her. Jane bit back many a remark as she knew they would make little difference. Tom was out of her reach and while Mr. Wisley was a kind man, he was not who she wished for.

The meal was an ordeal of propriety until a messenger arrived with a letter from the Dominicans that changed everything in a moment. Cassandra's Robert has died of yellow fever, she's not certain how they made it home through the rain. All she could hear was Cassandra's sobs and all the pain behind them.

The next few days blurred together as she did what she could to comfort Cassandra and all that she wrote was full of pain and hard choices. Mr. Wisley and Tom kept rising in her thoughts before being bound on the page, she was not ready to make that decision yet.

Jane found herself moving through the ball with far less joy than she wished as her thoughts seemed to circle ever around what it means to be sensible.

Mister Wisley was a fair dancer but he did nothing to make her enjoy her time on the floor, but she would give him the dances that he asked for.

She knew that it would be sensible and profitable to accept his offer of marriage but Jane was not sure if she truly could.

So she moved around the floor, not truly hearing or seeing simply walking the steps and wondering if perhaps Mister Lefroy had decided he had no wish to attend the ball.

The encounter with Mister Lefroy, Tom, in the woods was still on Jane's mind as she was reading so when she heard herself discussed by her parents in the next room it was hard not to listen in.

Her father of course used such lovely language, "Her heart is stirred."

While her mother would look for an easier answer, "Its a summer squall. Mister Lefroy will soon be gone and Mister Wisley will be waiting, I hope."

Jane flushed as she listened, she hadn't realized that her thoughts were so clear to others though she almost laughed at her father's answer, "The man's a booby."

"He'll grow out of that and she could fix him with very little trouble. You could persuade her."

Her father's next words struck Jane more than she expected, "To sacrifice her happiness?"

Was Tom her happiness, even she wasn't sure, "Jane should not have the man who offers the best price, but the man she wants."

She had never heard her father speak so on her behalf and Jane smiled again as her mother spoke, "Oh, Mister Austen. Must we have this conversation day in and day out? We'll end up in the gutter if we carry on like this."

As always her mother did strike to the heart of things and the fact that more money never went amiss. Jane smiled thoughtfully as she quietly left her seat and walked outside.