Henry unexpectedly visits Fanny in Portsmouth. He is polite and charming to Mrs. Price, who is on her best behavior. Fanny agrees to a walk, and Susan accompanies them. Fanny is mortified when they bump into her drunken father. However, Mr. Price is uncharacteristically well-mannered and offers to show Henry around the dockyard.

Henry explains that he has been in Norfolk checking on the welfare of his estate’s tenants—many of whom he had never met before. Fanny approves but is embarrassed when Henry declares he hopes to have a wife to guide him in these matters. Henry hints that Edmund and Mary may soon be married and admits he came to Portsmouth specifically to see Fanny. While Fanny is not entirely won over, she privately notes that Henry’s character has improved. She is secretly relieved when he politely declines a dinner invitation from her father, horrified at the idea of Henry observing her family’s table manners.

Henry returns the next day to go to church with the Price family. Afterward, he walks arm-in-arm with Fanny and Susan. Henry notices that Fanny looks frail and suggests that she is missing the clean air of the countryside.