Then Mr Wharton whistled.'To be sure he does put his name into every line of the letter.No; it wouldn't annoy me.I don't see why he shouldn't marry his second cousin if he likes.Only if he is engaged to her, I think it odd that he shouldn't write and tell us.'
'I'm sure she is not engaged to him as yet.She wouldn't write all in that way if she were engaged.Everybody would be told at once, and Sir Alured would never be able to keep it a secret.
Why should there be a secret? But I'm sure that she is very fond of him.Mary would never write about any man in that way unless she were beginning to be attached to him.
About ten days after this there came two letters from Wharton Hall to Manchester Square, the shortest of which shall be given first.It ran as follows:
MY DEAR FATHER, I have proposed to my cousin Mary, and she has accepted me.Everybody here seems to like the idea.I hope it will not displease you.Of course you and Emily will come down.I will tell you when the day is fixed.
Your affectionate Son, EVERETT WHARTON
This the old man read as he sat at breakfast with his daughter opposite to him, while Emily was reading a very much longer letter from the same house.'So it's going to be just as you guessed,' he said.
'I was quite sure of it, papa.Is that from Everett? Is he very happy?'
'Upon my word, I can't say whether he's happy or not.If he had got a new horse he would have written at much greater length about it.It seems, however, to be quite fixed.'
'Oh yes.This is from Mary.She is happy at any rate.Isuppose men never say so much about these things as women.'
'May I see Mary's letter?'
'I don't think it would be quite fair, papa.It's only a girl's rhapsody about the man she loves,--very nice and womanly, but not intended for anyone but me.It does not seem that they mean to wait very long.'
'Why should they wait? Is any day fixed?'
'Mary says that Everett talks about the middle of May.Of course you will go down.'
'We must both go.'
'You will at any rate.Don't promise for me just at present.It must make Sir Alured very happy.It is almost the same as finding himself at last with a son of his own.I suppose they will live at Wharton altogether now,--unless Everett gets into Parliament.'
But the reader may see the young lady's letter, though her future father-in-law was not permitted to do so, and will perceive that there was a paragraph at the close of it which perhaps was more conducive to Emily's secrecy than her feelings as to the sacred obligations of female correspondence.
Monday, Wharton.
DEAREST EMILY, I wonder whether you will be much surprised at the news Ihave to tell you.You cannot be more so that I am at having to write it.It has all been so very sudden that I almost feel ashamed of myself.Everett has proposed to me, and I have accepted him.There;--now you know it all.Though you never can know how very dearly I love him and how thoroughly I admire him, I do think that he is everything that a man ought to be, and that I am the most fortunate young woman in the world.Only isn't it odd that I should always have to live my life in the same house, and never change my name,--just like a man, or an old maid? But I don't mind that because I do love him so dearly and because he is so good.He has written to Mr Wharton.I know.I was sitting by him and his letter didn't take him a minute.But he says that long letters about such things only give trouble.I hope you won't think my letter troublesome.He is not sitting by me now, but has gone over to Longbarns to help settle about the hounds.John is going to have them after all.Iwish it hadn't happened just at this time because all the gentlemen do think so much about it.Of course Everett is one of the committee.
Papa and mamma are both very, very glad of it.Of course it is nice for them, as it will keep Everett and me here.
If I had married anybody else,--though I am sure I never should,--she would have been very lonely.And of course papa likes to think that Everett is already one of us.Ihope they will never quarrel about politics, but as Everett says, the world does change as it goes on, and young men and old men never will think quite the same about things.Everett told papa the other day that if he could be put back a century he would be a Radical.Then there were ever so many words.But Everett always laughs, and at last papa comes round.
I can't tell you, my dear, what a fuss we are in already about it all.Everett wants our marriage early in May, so that we may have two months in Switzerland before London is what he calls turned loose.And papa says that there is no use in delaying, because he gets older every day.Of course that is true of everybody.So that we are all in flutter about getting things.Mamma did talk of going up to town, but I believe they have things quite as good at Hereford.Sarah, when she was married, had all her things from London, but they say that there has been a great change since that.I am sure I think that you may get anything you want at Muddocks and Cramble's.
But mamma says I am to have my veil from Howell and James's.
Of course you and Mr Wharton will come.I shan't think it any marriage without.Papa and mama talk of it as quite of course.You know how fond papa is of the bishop.I think he will marry us.I own I should like to be married by a bishop.It would make it so sweet and so solemn.Mr Higgenbottom could of course assist;--but he is such an odd old man, with his snuff and his spectacles always tumbling off, that I shouldn't like to have no one else.I have often thought that if it were only for marrying people we ought to have a nicer rector at Wharton.
Almost all the tenants have been to wish me joy.They are very fond of Everett already, and now they feel that there will never be any very great change.I do think it is the very best thing that could be done, even if it were not that I am so thoroughly in love with him.Ididn't think I should ever be able to own that I was in love with a man; but now I feel quite proud of it.Idon't mind telling you because he is your brother, and Ithink that you will be glad of it.