CHAPTER XXVII
A calm bright day followed the forty-eight hours of wind. Breakfast being finished, events followed as usual. Mr Edwards sat for some fifteen minutes, during the last five of which he showed increasing signs of uneasiness. He then discovered that some matter of importance required his attention down the street, and added that he must be off without loss of time. Having neither business nor hobby, he had nothing to do all day, and was always busy in the doing of it till dinner-time. Mrs Edwards had long since given up any attempt to induce him to call at the milliners, or to stop and say a word to the butcher.
After his departure, the course of events might vary. To-day Mrs Edwards decided for the storeroom. Then there arose a slight difficulty. Mary Edwards was anxious to visit a poor family, in whom she was interested, and Mrs Edwards would not hear of Emma’s going to a low part of the town.
It was finally settled that the two girls should walk together as far as the end of Market-hall Street, and that Emma should there await the other’s return and remain in the sunshine. She had viewed two shop windows, and had half-turned to proceed up the street to a third, when she came face to face with Mr Howard. The gentleman spoke first.
“I trust that you are better, Miss Watson. It was only yesterday that I learned of your having been unwell.”
Emma replied that their home was at such a distance as to render it unlikely that he would hear any account of them. Mr Howard looked surprised.
“My sister told me that you were gone to _visit_ your brother at Croydon.”
Emma rejoined:
“No, it was not such a visit as grows by accident or design into something more permanent. It was settled from our going that we make our home with my brother and sister.”
“It is perhaps permissible,” he replied, “to speak of a place of residence as a home, provided there is at the time no other place of abode.”
They paced a short distance in silence. Then Emma spoke again.
“Mr Howard, you appear to have a strange disbelief in our being resident at Croydon.”
Mr Howard replied with hesitation.
“I do not know as to your sisters, but surely your own residence there will be brief. Forgive me if I presume on our former happy acquaintance. I certainly have prepared myself to hear of you shortly as being engaged to Lord Osborne.”
“May I ask, sir, why you should expect to hear anything of the sort?” asked Emma, with a show of gentle indignation, which might have reassured him that his expectations were not to be realized,--but Mr Howard had the idea of misery too firmly fixed to be thus lightly dismissed.
“I know that Lord Osborne intended to make you an offer, and I surmise, nay, I feel assured that he has made it, but your father’s death and your own removal----”
Emma interrupted him.
“Mr Howard, does Lord Osborne’s offer end the whole matter?”
“It would then rest with you to accept or decline.”
“So you say, sir, but so you do not think. You consider Lord Osborne’s offer so tempting, that I must be ready to forego all other advantages.”
Again there was a pause, and then Mr Howard spoke, but with a note of unmistakable elation.
“It is true. I have thought too much of his rank and consequence; but that was not all. He has been my friend as well as my pupil. He is not clever, but it would be possible for a woman, even one endowed as you are with gifts of heart and mind, to have a real regard----”
Emma again interrupted.
“Very well, Mr Howard, shall I send a message to him through you to retract my refusal, and to beg him to renew the offer?”
Mr Howard looked at her. There was no hesitation in his voice or manner now.
“Emma,” he cried, “do you prefer me? I have not dared to hope, but----”
Emma’s reply was satisfactory, more satisfactory than the place in which it was given. Market-hall Street of the town of D---- is not a convenient place for the interchange of lovers’ vows, and Mr Howard proposed that they should walk past the Tomlinson’s house into the country.
Mary Edwards, returning at about the same time, saw nothing of them but their backs, and guessed that Emma had forgotten, not only their meeting, but her very existence. She was well able to fill in the gaps in the story, as she had heard it detailed by the gossips of the town, and returned to her mother to acquaint her with all that she had seen, and the greater part of what she had imagined.
Emma never returned to Croydon. Mrs Edwards insisted that, as the engagement had taken place from her house, so should the wedding. In the month of June, Emma and Mr Howard were married. Edward Howard’s integrity and delicacy of feeling contributed no less than Emma’s strength of mind and character to the success of the union.
The years of happy married life began with a wedding-day of quite uncommon contentment. Emma’s mourning for her father prevented the ceremony from being made a public occasion, and as this suited the taste of all those most concerned, the disappointment of the gossips of D---- gave no one any distress. Sam rode over from Guildford, and made such good use of his opportunities, that a few months later he made the same journey to attend another wedding, that of Mary and himself, and to settle in D---- as Mr Ackroyd’s successor.
Elizabeth came to Emma’s wedding all delighted flutter, and gay violet ribands. Jane, however, was indisposed, and Robert and Margaret stayed at home with her. Margaret would have come, despite Jane’s disapproval, if she had had any hopes of meeting Tom Musgrave, but she knew enough of Emma and of Mrs Edwards to be sure that he would not be of the party.
The Parsonage to which Mr Howard had exchanged was commodious, and Emma’s proposal that Mrs Blake should live with them till she could secure a suitable dwelling in the neighbourhood was accepted. It might reasonably have been expected that some old person would, in dying, make an empty house, or that some younger person would come by a fortune, and quit a suitable one, but nothing of the kind happened. The joint house-keeping proved a success; no such happy events occurred as would have made additional space necessary for the Howards themselves, and Charles, with his brothers and his sister grew up at the new Parsonage.
Emma’s scheme that Elizabeth should come to live with her, though the kindness was warmly felt, could not be carried out. She had a secret to communicate to her beloved sister--no less than that she was after all to become Elizabeth Purvis. Mr Jasper Purvis, after Emma’s departure from Croydon, had transferred his attentions with alacrity and good sense.
All these weddings were overshadowed by the alliance between Sir William Gordon and Miss Osborne, an event of great interest to many, more particularly to those who had the good fortune to have foretold, and the greater number who could only claim to have foreseen.
In the following year Penelope became a mother; the child was said to be remarkably clever. At the time when his ability was manifested by a capacity to read words of more than one syllable Tom Musgrave was yet a bachelor, and it is to be supposed that there was hope for Margaret.
Mrs Jasper Purvis and Mrs Samuel Watson had the most wonderful and beautiful and charming children, and Emma was their beloved Aunt.
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Transcriber’s note
Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Hyphenization has been standardized.
Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following changes:
Page 36: “and see mamma” “and see Mamma” Page 39: “my negligence whereever” “my negligence wherever” Page 101: “inconvenience of bring” “inconvenience of being” Page 171: “Indeed I do, Ma’am” “Indeed I do, ma’am”