Volume I: Chapter II

by Jane Austen

　　Mr. Weston was a native of Highbury, and born of a respectable family,which for the last two or three generations had been rising intogentility and property. He had received a good education, but,on succeeding early in life to a small independence, had becomeindisposed for any of the more homely pursuits in which his brotherswere engaged, and had satisfied an active, cheerful mind and socialtemper by entering into the militia of his county, then embodied.

　　Captain Weston was a general favourite; and when the chancesof his military life had introduced him to Miss Churchill,of a great Yorkshire family, and Miss Churchill fell in lovewith 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 commandof her fortune--though her fortune bore no proportion to thefamily-estate--was not to be dissuaded from the marriage, and ittook 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 foundmore in it, for she had a husband whose warm heart and sweet tempermade him think every thing due to her in return for the great goodnessof being in love with him; but though she had one sort of spirit,she had not the best. She had resolution enough to pursueher own will in spite of her brother, but not enough to refrainfrom unreasonable regrets at that brother's unreasonable anger,nor from missing the luxuries of her former home. They lived beyondtheir income, but still it was nothing in comparison of Enscombe:she did not cease to love her husband, but she wanted at onceto 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 worstof 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 lingeringillness 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 totake the whole charge of the little Frank soon after her decease.Some scruples and some reluctance the widower-father may be supposedto 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 toimprove as he could.

　　A complete change of life became desirable. He quitted the militiaand engaged in trade, having brothers already established in agood way in London, which afforded him a favourable opening.It was a concern which brought just employment enough. He had stilla 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 securethe purchase of a little estate adjoining Highbury, which he hadalways longed for--enough to marry a woman as portionless evenas Miss Taylor, and to live according to the wishes of his ownfriendly and social disposition.

　　It was now some time since Miss Taylor had begun to influencehis schemes; but as it was not the tyrannic influence of youthon youth, it had not shaken his determination of never settlingtill he could purchase Randalls, and the sale of Randalls was longlooked forward to; but he had gone steadily on, with these objectsin view, till they were accomplished. He had made his fortune,bought his house, and obtained his wife; and was beginning a newperiod of existence, with every probability of greater happinessthan 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 trulyamiable woman could be, and must give him the pleasantest proofof 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 washis own; for as to Frank, it was more than being tacitly broughtup as his uncle's heir, it had become so avowed an adoptionas to have him assume the name of Churchill on coming of age.It was most unlikely, therefore, that he should ever want hisfather'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 capricecould 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 fineyoung man had made Highbury feel a sort of pride in him too.He was looked on as sufficiently belonging to the place to make hismerits and prospects a kind of common concern.

　　Mr. Frank Churchill was one of the boasts of Highbury, and a livelycuriosity to see him prevailed, though the compliment was so littlereturned that he had never been there in his life. His comingto 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 whenMrs. Perry drank tea with Mrs. and Miss Bates, or when Mrs. andMiss Bates returned the visit. Now was the time for Mr. FrankChurchill to come among them; and the hope strengthened when it wasunderstood that he had written to his new mother on the occasion.For a few days, every morning visit in Highbury included some mentionof the handsome letter Mrs. Weston had received. "I suppose youhave heard of the handsome letter Mr. Frank Churchill has writtento Mrs. Weston? I understand it was a very handsome letter, indeed.Mr. Woodhouse told me of it. Mr. Woodhouse saw the letter, and hesays 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 pleasingattention was an irresistible proof of his great good sense,and a most welcome addition to every source and every expressionof congratulation which her marriage had already secured. She feltherself a most fortunate woman; and she had lived long enoughto know how fortunate she might well be thought, where the onlyregret was for a partial separation from friends whose friendshipfor 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 sufferingan hour's ennui, from the want of her companionableness: but dearEmma was of no feeble character; she was more equal to her situationthan most girls would have been, and had sense, and energy,and spirits that might be hoped would bear her well and happilythrough its little difficulties and privations. And then there wassuch comfort in the very easy distance of Randalls from Hartfield,so convenient for even solitary female walking, and in Mr. Weston'sdisposition and circumstances, which would make the approachingseason no hindrance to their spending half the evenings in theweek together.

　　Her situation was altogether the subject of hours of gratitudeto Mrs. Weston, and of moments only of regret; and hersatisfaction---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`poor Miss Taylor,' when they left her at Randalls in the centreof every domestic comfort, or saw her go away in the eveningattended by her pleasant husband to a carriage of her own.But never did she go without Mr. Woodhouse's giving a gentle sigh,and saying, "Ah, poor Miss Taylor! She would be very glad to stay."

　　There was no recovering Miss Taylor--nor much likelihood ofceasing to pity her; but a few weeks brought some alleviationto Mr. Woodhouse. The compliments of his neighbours were over;he was no longer teased by being wished joy of so sorrowful an event;and the wedding-cake, which had been a great distress to him,was all eat up. His own stomach could bear nothing rich, and hecould never believe other people to be different from himself.What was unwholesome to him he regarded as unfit for any body;and he had, therefore, earnestly tried to dissuade them from havingany wedding-cake at all, and when that proved vain, as earnestlytried to prevent any body's eating it. He had been at the painsof consulting Mr. Perry, the apothecary, on the subject. Mr. Perrywas an intelligent, gentlemanlike man, whose frequent visits were oneof the comforts of Mr. Woodhouse's life; and upon being applied to,he could not but acknowledge (though it seemed rather against thebias of inclination) that wedding-cake might certainly disagreewith many--perhaps with most people, unless taken moderately.With such an opinion, in confirmation of his own, Mr. Woodhouse hopedto influence every visitor of the newly married pair; but still thecake was eaten; and there was no rest for his benevolent nerves tillit was all gone.

　　There was a strange rumour in Highbury of all the little Perrysbeing seen with a slice of Mrs. Weston's wedding-cake in theirhands: but Mr. Woodhouse would never believe it.