Henry Crawford - Henry With Maria

Henry With Maria

Henry returns to London where he meets the now married Maria and persuades her to elope with him, bringing shame and disgrace on her and irrevocably destroying any good impression he had made with Fanny during his courtship. At the end of the book, the narrator speculates that if Henry had been more patient, Fanny would most likely have accepted him, for Fanny's lover, her cousin Edmund Bertram, would have married Mary if she had not attempted to justify her brother's scandalous affair with Maria.