Chapter IV.
Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting
situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being
kindly spoken of.
A week had not passed since Miss Hawkins’s name was first mentioned in
Highbury, before she was, by some means or other, discovered to have
every recommendation of person and mind,—to be handsome, elegant,
highly accomplished, and perfectly amiable; and when Mr. Elton himself
arrived to triumph in his happy prospects, and circulate the fame of her
merits, there was very little more for him to do than to tell her Christian
name, and say whose music she principally played.
Mr. Elton returned, a very happy man. He had gone away rejected and
mortified, disappointed in a very sanguine hope, after a series of what had
appeared to him strong encouragement; and not only losing the right lady,
but finding himself debased to the level of a very wrong one. He had gone
away deeply offended, he came back engaged to another; and to another as
superior, of course, to the first, as under such circumstances what is gained
always is to what is lost. He came back gay and self-satisfied, eager and
busy, caring nothing for Miss Woodhouse, and defying Miss Smith.
The charming Augusta Hawkins, in addition to all the usual advantages of
perfect beauty and merit, was in possession of an independent fortune, of so
many thousands as would always be called ten,—a point of some dignity, as
well as some convenience. The story told well: he had not thrown himself
away—he had gained a woman of 10,000l., or thereabouts, and he had
gained her with such delightful rapidity; the first hour of introduction had
been so very soon followed by distinguishing notice; the history which he
had to give Mrs. Cole of the rise and progress of the affair was so glorious;
the steps so quick, from the accidental rencontre, o to the dinner at Mr.
Green‘s, and the party at Mrs. Brown’s,—smiles and blushes rising in
importance,—with consciousness and agitation richly scattered; the lady
had been so easily impressed,—so sweetly disposed;—had, in short, to use
a most intelligible phrase, been so very ready to have him, that vanity and
prudence were equally contented.
He had caught both substance and shadow, both fortune and affection, and
was just the happy man he ought to be;—talking only of himself and his
own concerns,—expecting to be congratulated, —ready to be laughed at,—
and, with cordial, fearless smiles, now addressing all the young ladies of the
place, to whom, a few weeks ago, he would have been more cautiously
gallant.
The wedding was no distant event, as the parties had only themselves to
please, and nothing but the necessary preparations to wait for; and when he
set out for Bath again, there was a general expectation, which a certain
glance of Mrs. Cole’s did not seem to contradict, that when he next entered
Highbury he would bring his bride.
During his present short stay, Emma had barely seen him; but just enough
to feel that the first meeting was over, and to give her the impression of his
not being improved by the mixture of pique and pretension now spread over
his air. She was, in fact, beginning very much to wonder that she had ever
thought him pleasing at all; and his sight was so inseparably connected with
some very disagreeable feelings, that, except in a moral light, as a penance,
a lesson, a source of profitable humiliation to her own mind, she would
have been thankful to be assured of never seeing him again. She wished him
very well; but he gave her pain; and his welfare twenty miles off would
administer most satisfaction.
The pain of his continued residence in Highbury, however, must certainly
be lessened by his marriage. Many vain solicitudes would be prevented—
many awkwardnesses smoothed by it. A Mrs. Elton would be an excuse for
any change of intercourse; former intimacy
might sink without remark. It would be almost beginning their life of
civility again.
Of the lady individually, Emma thought very little. She was good enough
for Mr. Elton, no doubt; accomplished enough for Highbury—handsome
enough—to look plain, probably, by Harriet’s side. As to connection, there
Emma was perfectly easy; persuaded, that after all his own vaunted claims
and disdain of Harriet, he had done nothing. On that article, truth seemed
attainable. What she was, must be uncertain; but who she was, might be
found out; and setting aside the 10,000l., it did not appear that she was at all
Harriet’s superior. She brought no name, no blood, no alliance. Miss
Hawkins was the youngest of the two daughters of a Bristol—merchant, of
course, he must be called; but, as the whole of the profits of his mercantile
life appeared so very moderate, it was unfair to guess the dignity of his line
of trade had been very moderate also. Part of every winter she had been
used to spend in Bath; but Bristol was her home, the very heart of Bristol;
for though the father and mother had died some years ago, an uncle
remained—in the law line:—nothing more distinctly honourable was
hazarded of him, than that he was in the law line; and with him the daughter
had lived. Emma guessed him to be the drudge of some attorney, and too
stupid to rise. And all the grandeur of the connection seemed dependent on
the elder sister, who was very well married, to a gentleman in a great way,
near Bristol, who kept two carriages! That was the wind-up of the history;
that was the glory of Miss Hawkins.
Could she but have given Harriet her feelings about it all! She had talked
her into love; but, alas! she was not so easily to be talked out of it. The
charm of an object to occupy the many vacancies of Harriet’s mind was not
to be talked away. He might be superseded by another; he certainly would,
indeed; nothing could be clearer; even a Robert Martin would have been
sufficient; but nothing else, she feared, would cure her. Harriet was one of
those, who, having once begun, would be always in love. And now, poor
girl, she was considerably worse from this reappearance of Mr. Elton—she
was always having a glimpse of him somewhere or other. Emma saw him
only once; but two or three times every day Harriet was sure just to meet
with him, or just to miss him, just to hear his voice, or see his shoulder, just
to have something occur to preserve him in her fancy, in all the favouring
warmth of surprise and conjecture. She was, moreover, perpetually hearing
about him; for, excepting when at Hartfield, she was always among those
who saw no fault in Mr. Elton, and found nothing so interesting as the
discussion of his concerns; and every report, therefore, every guess,—all
that had already occurred, all that might occur in the arrangement of his
affairs, comprehending income, servants, and furniture,—was continually in
agitation around her. Her regard was receiving strength by invariable praise
of him, and her regrets kept alive, and feelings irritated by ceaseless
repetitions of Miss Hawkins’s happiness, and continual observation of how
much he seemed attached! —his air as he walked by the house—the very
sitting of his hat, being all in proof of how much he was in love!
Had it been allowable entertainment, had there been no pain to her friend,
or reproach to herself, in the waverings of Harriet’s mind, Emma would
have been amused by its variations. Sometimes Mr. Elton predominated,
sometimes the Martins; and each was occasionally useful as a check to the
other. Mr. Elton’s engagement had been the cure of the agitation of meeting
Mr. Martin. The unhappiness produced by the knowledge of that
engagement had been a little put aside by Elizabeth Martin’s calling at Mrs.
Goddard’s a few days afterwards. Harriet had not been at home; but a note
had been prepared and left for her, written in the very style to touch,—a
small mixture of reproach with a great deal of kindness; and till Mr. Elton
himself appeared, she had been much occupied by it, continually pondering
over what could be done in return, and wishing to do more than she dared to
confess. But Mr. Elton, in person, had driven away all such cares. While he
staid, the Martins were forgotten; and on the very morning of his setting off
for Bath again, Emma, to dissipate some of the distress it occasioned,
judged it best for her to return Elizabeth Martin’s visit.
How that visit was to be acknowledged, what would be necessary, and
what might be safest, had been a point of some doubtful consideration.
Absolute neglect of the mother and sisters, when invited to come, would be
ingratitude. It must not be; and yet the danger of a renewal of the
acquaintance!
After much thinking, she could determine on nothing better than Harriet’s
returning the visit; but in a way that, if they had understanding, should
convince them that it was to be only a formal acquaintance. She meant to
take her in the carriage, leave her at the Abbey-Mill, while she drove a little
farther, and call for her again so soon as to allow no time for insidious
applications or dangerous recurrences to the past, and give the most decided
proof of what degree of intimacy was chosen for the future.
She could think of nothing better; and though there was something in it
which her own heart could not approve—something of ingratitude, merely
glossed over—it must be done, or what would become of Harriet?
