Love Hot

Love Hot : Part 3

be said.”

“And have you never known the pleasure and triumph of a lucky guess?—I

pity you.—I thought you cleverer—for, depend upon it a lucky guess is never

merely luck. There is always some talent in it. And as to my poor word 'success,'

which you quarrel with, I do not know that I am so entirely without any claim to

it. You have drawn two pretty pictures; but I think there may be a third—a

something between the do-nothing and the do-all. If I had not promoted Mr.

Weston's visits here, and given many little encouragements, and smoothed many

little matters, it might not have come to any thing after all. I think you must

know Hartfield enough to comprehend that.”

“A straightforward, open-hearted man like Weston, and a rational, unaffected

woman like Miss Taylor, may be safely left to manage their own concerns. You

are more likely to have done harm to yourself, than good to them, by

interference.”

“Emma never thinks of herself, if she can do good to others,” rejoined Mr.

Woodhouse, understanding but in part. “But, my dear, pray do not make any

more matches; they are silly things, and break up one's family circle grievously.”

“Only one more, papa; only for Mr. Elton. Poor Mr. Elton! You like Mr. Elton,

papa,—I must look about for a wife for him. There is nobody in Highbury who

deserves him—and he has been here a whole year, and has fitted up his house so

comfortably, that it would be a shame to have him single any longer—and I

thought when he was joining their hands to-day, he looked so very much as if he

would like to have the same kind office done for him! I think very well of Mr.

Elton, and this is the only way I have of doing him a service.”

“Mr. Elton is a very pretty young man, to be sure, and a very good young man,

and I have a great regard for him. But if you want to shew him any attention, my

dear, ask him to come and dine with us some day. That will be a much better

thing. I dare say Mr. Knightley will be so kind as to meet him.”

“With a great deal of pleasure, sir, at any time,” said Mr. Knightley, laughing,

“and I agree with you entirely, that it will be a much better thing. Invite him to

dinner, Emma, and help him to the best of the fish and the chicken, but leave him

to chuse his own wife. Depend upon it, a man of six or seven-and-twenty can

take care of himself.”

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CHAPTER II

Mr. Weston was a native of Highbury, and born of a respectable family, which

for the last two or three generations had been rising into gentility and property.

He had received a good education, but, on succeeding early in life to a small

independence, had become indisposed for any of the more homely pursuits in

which his brothers were engaged, and had satisfied an active, cheerful mind and

social temper by entering into the militia of his county, then embodied.

Captain Weston was a general favourite; and when the chances of his military

life had introduced him to Miss Churchill, of a great Yorkshire family, and Miss

Churchill fell in love with him, nobody was surprized, except her brother and his

wife, who had never seen him, and who were full of pride and importance,

which the connexion would offend.

Miss Churchill, however, being of age, and with the full command of her

fortune—though her fortune bore no proportion to the family-estate—was not to

be dissuaded from the marriage, and it took place, to the infinite mortification of

Mr. and Mrs. Churchill, who threw her off with due decorum. It was an

unsuitable connexion, and did not produce much happiness. Mrs. Weston ought

to have found more in it, for she had a husband whose warm heart and sweet

temper made him think every thing due to her in return for the great goodness of

being in love with him; but though she had one sort of spirit, she had not the

best. She had resolution enough to pursue her own will in spite of her brother,

but not enough to refrain from unreasonable regrets at that brother's

unreasonable anger, nor from missing the luxuries of her former home. They

lived beyond their income, but still it was nothing in comparison of Enscombe:

she did not cease to love her husband, but she wanted at once to be the wife of

Captain Weston, and Miss Churchill of Enscombe.

Captain Weston, who had been considered, especially by the Churchills, as

making such an amazing match, was proved to have much the worst of the

bargain; for when his wife died, after a three years' marriage, he was rather a

poorer man than at first, and with a child to maintain. From the expense of the

child, however, he was soon relieved. The boy had, with the additional softening

claim of a lingering illness of his mother's, been the means of a sort of

reconciliation; and Mr. and Mrs. Churchill, having no children of their own, nor

any other young creature of equal kindred to care for, offered to take the whole

charge of the little Frank soon after her decease. Some scruples and some

reluctance the widower-father may be supposed to have felt; but as they were

overcome by other considerations, the child was given up to the care and the

wealth of the Churchills, and he had only his own comfort to seek, and his own

situation to improve as he could.

A complete change of life became desirable. He quitted the militia and

engaged in trade, having brothers already established in a good way in London,

which afforded him a favourable opening. It was a concern which brought just

employment enough. He had still a small house in Highbury, where most of his

leisure days were spent; and between useful occupation and the pleasures of

society, the next eighteen or twenty years of his life passed cheerfully away. He

had, by that time, realised an easy competence—enough to secure the purchase

of a little estate adjoining Highbury, which he had always longed for—enough to

marry a woman as portionless even as Miss Taylor, and to live according to the

wishes of his own friendly and social disposition.

It was now some time since Miss Taylor had begun to influence his schemes;

but as it was not the tyrannic influence of youth on youth, it had not shaken his

determination of never settling till he could purchase Randalls, and the sale of

Randalls was long looked forward to; but he had gone steadily on, with these

objects in view, till they were accomplished. He had made his fortune, bought

his house, and obtained his wife; and was beginning a new period of existence,

with every probability of greater happiness than in any yet passed through. He

had never been an unhappy man; his own temper had secured him from that,

even in his first marriage; but his second must shew him how delightful a well-

judging and truly amiable woman could be, and must give him the pleasantest

proof of its being a great deal better to choose than to be chosen, to excite

gratitude than to feel it.

He had only himself to please in his choice: his fortune was his own; for as to

Frank, it was more than being tacitly brought up as his uncle's heir, it had

become so avowed an adoption as to have him assume the name of Churchill on

coming of age. It was most unlikely, therefore, that he should ever want his

father's assistance. His father had no apprehension of it. The aunt was a

capricious woman, and governed her husband entirely; but it was not in Mr.

Weston's nature to imagine that any caprice could be strong enough to affect one

so dear, and, as he believed, so deservedly dear. He saw his son every year in

London, and was proud of him; and his fond report of him as a very fine young

man had made Highbury feel a sort of pride in him too. He was looked on as

sufficiently belonging to the place to make his merits and prospects a kind of

common concern.

Mr. Frank Churchill was one of the boasts of Highbury, and a lively curiosity

to see him prevailed, though the compliment was so little returned that he had

never been there in his life. His coming to visit his father had been often talked

of but never achieved.

Now, upon his father's marriage, it was very generally proposed, as a most

proper attention, that the visit should take place. There was not a dissentient

voice on the subject, either when Mrs. Perry drank tea with Mrs. and Miss Bates,

or when Mrs. and Miss Bates returned the visit. Now was the time for Mr. Frank

Churchill to come among them; and the hope strengthened when it was

understood that he had written to his new mother on the occasion. For a few

days, every morning visit in Highbury included some mention of the handsome

letter Mrs. Weston had received. “I suppose you have heard of the handsome

letter Mr. Frank Churchill has written to Mrs. Weston? I understand it was a very

handsome letter, indeed. Mr. Woodhouse told me of it. Mr. Woodhouse saw the

letter, and he says he never saw such a handsome letter in his life.”

It was, indeed, a highly prized letter. Mrs. Weston had, of course, formed a

very favourable idea of the young man; and such a pleasing attention was an

irresistible proof of his great good sense, and a most welcome addition to every

source and every expression of congratulation which her marriage had already

secured. She felt herself a most fortunate woman; and she had lived long enough

to know how fortunate she might well be thought, where the only regret was for

a partial separation from friends whose friendship for her had never cooled, and

who could ill bear to part with her.

She knew that at times she must be missed; and could not think, without pain,

of Emma's losing a single pleasure, or suffering an hour's ennui, from the want

of her companionableness: but dear Emma was of no feeble character; she was

more equal to her situation than most girls would have been, and had sense, and

energy, and spirits that might be hoped would bear her well and happily through

its little difficulties and privations. And then there was such comfort in the very

easy distance of Randalls from Hartfield, so convenient for even solitary female

walking, and in Mr. Weston's disposition and circumstances, which would make

the approaching season no hindrance to their spending half the evenings in the

week together.

Her situation was altogether the subject of hours of gratitude to Mrs. Weston,

and of moments only of regret; and her satisfaction—her more than satisfaction

—her cheerful enjoyment, was so just and so apparent, that Emma, well as she

knew her father, was sometimes taken by surprize at his being still able to pity....