Anne Stott emails:
I agree with the logic of your argument. And I think there is more consistency in JA's portrayal of Crawford's character and actions than Tomalin allows for. She disapproves of his frivolous attitude to Edmund's ordination and perhaps still more of the way he pesters Fanny - the most sympathetic male characters in the novels never force their attentions on women; the least sympathetic believe they're irresistible. Mr Darcy and Robert Martin accept the refusals of their proposals, Mr Collins, Mr Elton and Henry Crawford can't believe they've been turned down.And yet, we are told by JA that if Crawford had persevered, Fanny would have been his reward:
Would he have persevered, and uprightly, Fanny must have been his reward - and a reward very voluntarily bestowed - within a reasonable period from Edmund's marrying Mary.So JA perhaps conceived an alternative novel in which Edmund marries Mary and Fanny, Henry. She might have toyed with another ending - though there isn't a scrap of external evidence to support this. She wrote plot A which of course she was quite entitled to, but she tells the reader she could have written plot B.